River Walking Russ

Widowed Christian Grandpa of 3 . Pondering life itself and laughing at our modern society. Nuggets fan, NC State Wolfpack fan and Vikings fan.

[Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi]

I lived in a socialist country and took Scientific Communism at a Soviet university. I worked in the Pravda building, for years. But I’m sure you know better

[Charles Phillip Capece @KingCapece]

I’m from Memphis.

Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza refused to serve uninformed Tennessee National Guard members who were just trying to eat. Their owner turned them away.

That’s unacceptable.

I stand with the National Guard 👊

Businesses that disrespect the men and women protecting our city don’t deserve our support.

#BoycottTamboli

[Mike Bales 🫡🇺🇸 @MikeBales]

After seeing this shared across social media for the past several months, my own words continue to hit home with me every single time.

[Matt RE @realmatt_re]

I just left Costco and I feel like an idiot...

The people in front of me bought $1,200 in top shelf alcohol, cases of redbull, and steaks.

They split it up and paid for the steaks and redbull with EBT, and then pulled out a giant wad of $100 bills to pay for the alcohol in cash.

WTF am I doing with my life??? I haven't bought steak in years - I haven't bought alcohol in decades. Too expensive. On the rare occasion we eat out, I buy the cheapest thing on the menu.

Yet these people can just casually drop thousands of dollars of my tax money on things I can't even afford?? Just to drive home to a taxpayer funded house nicer than I live in.

We are completely destroyed as a society.

[Dave Rubin @RubinReport]

Not one Democrat in office will comment on this and mainstream media will ignore.

Now flip the races and we’d have multiple cities on fire.

Get it yet?

[American❤️Cutie @RealCutieUSA]

Funny..Gov says people “aren’t working” if they’re not stealing half your paycheck..But truth is..They don’t work half the time..They sleep til noon..That’s why they want more sun at the end of the day..And they don’t even work at home..They’ve got maids and nannies for that..

[Jungleball2 @JungleBall_2]

SOUTH CAROLINA LOBBYISTS SPENT $13.5 MILLION TO INFLUENCE THE LEGISLATURE SPENDING, PAY TO PLAY, TAXPAYERS ARE GETTING PORKED, held hostage by the House’s addiction to earmarks.
House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister (R-Greenville) led the charge with roughly $20.6 million in personal earmark requests. The chamber he helps run loaded up a $315 million wish list of pet projects while the Senate tried to deliver real relief to seniors. The result? The state started the new fiscal year with no budget, operating on a continuing resolution, while Bannister and company protect their pork.
Look at what’s on the table:
➡️$10 million to resurface the Socastee swing bridge, ➡️nearly $8.3 million more for Myrtle Beach downtown infrastructure,
➡️millions for fire stations,
➡️a Medal of Honor leadership center,
➡️theater restorations,
➡️stormwater projects, and
➡️a parade of other local goodies that legislators can campaign on.
These aren’t agency-vetted priorities. They are member-directed spending, classic pork, tacked onto the budget late and defended with the usual “we know our districts better than Columbia” excuse.
Meanwhile, the people writing the checks are not subtle. Lobbyists spent at least $13.5 million just on salaries to influence this legislature.
➡️The Municipal Association of South Carolina dropped $278,000, the single biggest spender.
➡️The City of North Myrtle Beach alone spent nearly $182,000.
➡️Governments as a category poured in $1.17 million. These are the same local governments that then magically appear as the primary beneficiaries of the earmarks.
It is not a conspiracy theory. It is the documented pattern, municipalities hire lobbyists, the lobbyists work the Statehouse, and the projects show up as “community investments” that House members refuse to cut.
The Senate’s alternative is straightforward and superior:
➡️expand the Homestead Exemption so seniors (65 and older, plus the blind and permanently disabled) get meaningful property tax relief, raising the exemption from $50,000 toward $150,000. That costs roughly $248 million and puts money back in the pockets of people on fixed incomes who are being hammered by rising property values.
Instead of funding another round of legislator vanity projects and nonprofit favoritism, the state could deliver broad-based tax relief.
💩Bruce Bannister and the House have chosen the opposite path, protect the pay to play, protect the earmarks, delay the budget, and leave seniors waiting.
This is not governing. It is a protection racket for local projects greased by lobbyist cash and defended by the members who request them.
💥If the House forces a project-by-project vote, every sponsor should have to stand next to the list of contributions and lobbying expenditures tied to that municipality or recipient. Until then, the public is right to call it what it looks like, pay-to-play dressed up as “helping communities.”
Cut the earmarks. Fund the Homestead expansion. Give the tax relief to the people who earned it instead of the politicians and lobbyists who treat the surplus as their personal campaign fund.

[Jungleball2 @JungleBall_2]

South Carolina’s “booming” economy is a CRUEL JOKE ON ITS OWN PEOPLE.
WalletHub’s latest 2026 ranking of States with the
💩Most People in Financial Distress puts South Carolina at No. 5 worst in the entire nation (score 49.22).
The top 10 most distressed states:
1. Kansas
2. Louisiana
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. South Carolina
6. Wyoming
7. Georgia
8. California
9. North Carolina
10. Kentucky
💩SC ranks a catastrophic 2nd for the share of people with accounts in forbearance or deferred payments and
💩4th for the average number of distressed accounts.
Credit scores drag, “loans” searches skyrocket, and 41% of households (over 910,000) are either in poverty or ALICE, Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, households that earn above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) but not enough to afford basic necessities in their local area, working but unable to afford the basics of housing, childcare, food, transportation, and healthcare.
Meanwhile, Governor Henry McMaster (in office since 2017) and the long-entrenched Republican supermajority (trifecta for years, full supermajority in both chambers) keep popping champagne for “record” capital investment.
In 2025 alone they crowed about $9.12 billion in new projects and 8,100 jobs. Over the McMaster years the totals run into the tens of billions. Ribbon cuttings, corporate press releases, GDP growth, all the metrics that look great on a campaign flyer.
Who actually benefits? Corporations and the political class that serves them. Take the Scout Motors (Volkswagen-backed) deal, a record $1.3 billion in state incentives, site prep, roads, wetlands mitigation, training centers, and more, already $150 million over budget, with taxpayers on the hook. That’s just one example of the corporate welfare machine run by McMaster, Commerce Secretary Harry M. Lightsey III, Senate President Thomas Alexander, and House Speaker G. Murrell Smith Jr.
Billions funneled to lure factories while South Carolinians drown in credit-card delinquencies (13.4%), auto-loan stress, predatory high-APR installment loans (rates up to 850% still filed), skyrocketing insurance, and housing costs that crush wages.
The living wage for a single adult is already over $22/hour. Minimum wage remains the federal $7.25. Median household income lags. Full Medicaid expansion? Still rejected, SC remains one of the holdout states leaving working adults in the coverage gap. Predatory lending reform? Stalled for years while 400,000+ residents have been trapped in debt cycles. Housing supply, education outcomes, financial literacy, real wage growth, consumer protections—all secondary to the next megadeal announcement.
This is the predictable result of decades of one-party Republican control that treats economic development as a corporate recruitment contest rather than a strategy to raise the living standards of actual residents.
Growth happens, on paper, for the balance sheets of multinationals and the photo ops of politicians. Residents get higher debt, lower credit, ALICE budgets that don’t add up, and the privilege of watching their tax dollars underwrite someone else’s factory while their own kitchen tables are underwater.
McMaster and the legislature can keep celebrating “pro-business” success. The WalletHub data, the ALICE reports, the delinquency rates, and the search trends for “loans” tell a different story, the state is growing around its people, not with them. That isn’t accidental. It’s policy. And it’s failing the people who actually live in South Carolina.

[Sassafrass84 @Sassafrass_84]

Who is he trying to fool? He says right wing is terrorizing Amy Coney Barrett.

We don’t terrorize or intimidate Supreme Court justices. Last time I checked it was left wing saying to get up in their faces. To show up at their homes. Remember Brett Kavanaugh?

We don’t burn, riot, or loot. We also don’t assassinate our political opponents.

The left does.

Your lies and propaganda doesn’t work here. A meme doesn’t make it true.

Toodles.

[River Walking Russ @wiggins_russ]

@farmingandJesus pretty .....only on the outside.

[River Walking Russ @wiggins_russ]

@ChrisMartzWX As with all good communists.....Climate Change restrictions for thee not me......

[Shane Pruitt @shane_pruitt78]

If you're going to quote John 8 (woman caught in adultery:

"Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you..."

Make sure you quote all of it:
"go, and from now on sin no more."

[Trevor Sheatz @TrevorSheatz]

It terrifies me how the Bible states homosexuality is sinful in both the Old and New Testaments multiple times, yet many still have the audacity to say that God doesn't mind homosexuality.

Sin is blinding. Only in Christ can the blinds be lifted.

[𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚖𝚙 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚜 @ZELLKLUMPEN]

Democrats when a mother murders her unborn child.

[Yisrael official 🕎 @YisraelOfficial]

🤮🤮🤮

[River Walking Russ @wiggins_russ]

@marycatedelvey always remember to spay and neuter your pets folks.....

[River Walking Russ @wiggins_russ]

@samtripoli Guess what Kareem, you were a great player on the Lakers....but when Magic and Bird arrived....."Face of the League"......Memory is a funny thing.....