Cutting SNAP benefits

The “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed in July 2025, made it harder to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which you may know as SNAP.  This has meant that over one million children have lost food assistance.  And the ballroom construction continues.  

Now Vance is pushing for another change in the assistance program.  Money would be diverted from working single mothers to provide more assistance for married families, one of whom does not work.  We all know that single moms are generally bad people, right?  Let’s punish them.  And their kids.

See Jessica Grose, “The White House’s Miserly Family Plans,” New York Times, (Sept. 12, 2026), p. A21. 

Firemen save Trump on 9/11

I did not realize that Trump was brought to safety on 9/11 by two strong firemen.  I don’t know why he did not tell us this before; it certainly seems almost providential.

When I heard about this I was moved to write a poem.  I titled it

“Trump is saved”

The sky was blue,

The planes flew 

Into the walls.

The frantic calls

Came to nine-one-one.

This was no fun.

But give a shout.

Trump made it out.

Fetterman

Never really trusted him.  That whole thing about tattooing the dates of people killed in Braddock while he was mayor struck me as some kind of public performance.  He garnered publicity trying to revive his town of Braddock, but that wasn’t so impressive.  Braddock is tiny.  Weissport has more people than Braddock.

You can tell a great deal about a politician by the way he treats his staff, and from the earliest days of his Senate career, word was that he treated his staff like crap, and he evidently hasn’t improved.  I never could abide “pro-labor” types who acted like overseers to their own employees.

The whole hoodie business annoyed me from day one.  I have never been known for my clothing style, but if I were in the U.S. Senate, I would dress the part.  The hoodie thing was simply a way to draw attention, just like the tattoos.

I hate the way he treats his wife, an immigrant.  He should be a champion for immigrants.  He is not.  She ought to divorce his ass.

Finally, he is not very bright.  It is obvious from many of his comments, from his failure to do what his doctors advised, and his statements on current issues, including his stand on Israel and his sucking up to the worst President in U.S. history.

For thirty-two years I lived in a state that had adopted three Progressive reforms–the initiative, the referendum, and the recall.  I know there were some problems with the initiative, and I don’t remember the referendum being used, but I really miss that recall.  Pennsylvania doesn’t have the recall.  We are stuck with this clown for over two more years.

Old people and technology

As many readers know, I don’t own a cell phone.  I like the freedom that brings.  I suppose at some point I’ll get a flip phone, especially if I drive across the country again, but right now I’m happy without it.  I also don’t carry a credit card, although I do have one in case I ever need to fly somewhere.  

Today I read a message from my friend Bill.  I want to share it; it sums up how I and some of my friends feel in today’s world:

A society that forces a ninety-year-old to use a smartphone in order to access basic rights is not a modern society; it is a society that has decided to cast aside its own elders.

By 2026 everything has become an app, a code, a portal.  Yet the very people who built this country with their own hands now find themselves illiterate in their own homes.  If booking a medical appointment or paying a bill requires the help of a son or granddaughter–assuming there is one–then the system has failed.

This is not innovation.  It is exclusion.

Technology should serve people, not determine who is still entitled to dignity.

When we leave behind those who came before us, we are not evolving.  We are merely becoming more comfortable–and more selfish.

The world is going to hell in a bushel basket

A far-right political party won the most votes in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt.  Why beat around the bush–a neo-Nazi party won the state election.

In Britain the racist party Reform UK is polling very well.  In Spain the far right Vox Party is doing well.  In France Marine LePen is riding high.  And in Serbia thousands of Serbs gathered to mourn the death of the war criminal and Bosnian Serb general known as the Butcher of Bosnia, responsible for thousands of deaths and convicted of genocide.

The American President is reinstalling racist statues that glorify the Confederacy and doing his best to rig the upcoming election.

Where do you even flee to in these times?

Rachel Cusk's new novel

Rachael Cusk has a new book out.  It’s entitled Life of M.  I will now give you advice.  Don’t buy it.  Don’t read it.  If you find a copy, burn it.  

I tried to read one of her books entitled The Outline.  Notice the word “tried.”  It was beyond boring.  The correct word is enervating.  Remember old telephone directories.  They had a better plot.  Did you ever try to read one of those “terms and conditions.”  Way more interesting.

Charlie Kirk and Dolly Parton

Do you want to know how far we have declined as a country?  The flag was  flown at half-mast for Charlie Kirk but not for Dolly Parton.  That tells you all you need to know.