Food stamp/SNAP benefits to the hungry were disrupted and cut off due to the month-long federal government shutdown. Among the factoids that were revealed during the coverage of this appalling story was the fact that 1/8 of Americans receive food stamps. How on earth can the United States claim to be a functioning nation when at least 1/8 of its population lives in food insecurity and grinding poverty?
Some people might still be afraid of sharks because of a certain movie that came out 50 years ago, but these days, the real reason not to go into the water is Donald J. Trump. The president is blowing up random ships and boats—including fishermen—all over the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean for no discernible reason whatsoever other than to possibly put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
President Trump has launched numerous airstrikes against boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing dozens of Venezuelans and Colombians, at least some of whom appear to be fishermen. He doesn’t provide evidence that they are drug dealers, legal arguments asserting his right to target drug smugglers, or even identify their origins. This is the divine right of kings. Will we care when he uses it against us?
The Democratic Party is in crisis, in large part because it has lost the working class without replacing it with another equally large or larger group of voters. Many within the party want to win them back, but they’re completely unwilling to promote policies that would appeal to them. Instead, they think they just need better messaging.
Many Americans, especially on the Right, are extremely proud of their nationality and citizenship. But this country and its government do so many awful things so often that such pride requires a lot of cognitive dissonance.
Democrats say and think they’ll stop ICE from abusing alleged illegal immigrants if and when they return to power. If history repeats itself, however, there is no reason to believe that. After all, Obama told Bush’s torturers they would never be held accountable.
If impersonating a law enforcement officer breaks the law, how can people pretend to be ICE officers without presenting ID or exposing their faces so we know who they are and where they work?
In the past, only paranoid schizophrenics believed the government was out to get them. Now, it seems nearly everyone does, and it’s largely true.
The Trump administration is distorting reality to an extreme degree. ICE officers, who are brutalizing and terrorizing Americans as well as undocumented workers, are being treated with leniency by the White House, as though their lives were in serious danger. To paraphrase the TV show Breaking Bad, they are the danger.
The war in Gaza may be over, but the repercussions for the state of Israel have just begun. Reporters from the Western world, including the United States, will flood into the occupied territory. They will witness and report conditions so horrific and war crimes so egregious that the reputation of the Jewish state may never recover.
