Day: August 10, 2026

Indefensible Position

Donny and his Merry Band of Morons has done a great job in making sure the country goes hungry while the Tech Bros fiddle.

About 1.5 million children will go hungry thanx to Donny and the Boyz….

At least 1.5 million children have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits since US President Donald Trump signed the Republican budget package into law last summer, enacting the largest cuts to federal food aid in the nation’s history.

The new estimate of food aid loss among children comes from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), which said Tuesday that SNAP participation was down by over 4.5 million people overall between July 2025 and April 2026. Refuting the Trump administration’s narrative, the liberal think tank emphasized that the unemployment rate nationwide has been roughly flat since last July, meaning it is “very unlikely that reduced need is driving the decline in SNAP participation.”

Arizona has seen the most staggering decline in SNAP participation. It has fallen 48% overall and 49% among children in the state since enactment of the Trump-GOP budget law, which instituted new work-reporting requirements for some recipients and punishments for states with elevated payment error rates. Under Republican law, states will for the first time have to pay a portion of SNAP benefit costs, which previously were fully covered by the federal government.

“Grotesque and indefensible,” policy analyst Michael Linden wrote in response to the new data, noting that the Republican budget law slashed taxes for wealthy households while decimating SNAP.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/children-lose-snap-benefits

This is not something to be proud of and yet the GOP and the Dems just keep plugging away at the entitlements.

What to do?

Seems every time Donny opens that useless mouth food prices go up….what to do?

What’s for dinner? Lately, at Apral Jack’s house, it’s whatever is on sale. Jack scouts an app for deals at her local supermarket before she buys groceries. When she reaches the store, she grabs the weekly circular to look for coupons she might have missed. If the shelf prices look too high, she scratches items off her list or tries to find lower prices someplace else, the AP reports. “The apples went up here, the ones I eat, so now I’m not going to get them here. I’ll go to Market Basket, where I can get them cheaper,” Jack, 50, said as she pushed a cart into a Stop & Shop near her home in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Couponing, comparison shopping, and cutting back on favorite foods are new habits for millions of Americans as they absorb the biggest jump in grocery prices in a half-century. Buying food to eat at home has gotten 33% more expensive in US cities since the beginning of 2019, according to government figures. In the 7½ years before that, prices rose 6.4%. The historic increase happened for numerous reasons, per the AP:

  • The coronavirus pandemic snarled supply chains and raised labor and transportation costs.
  • Droughts, hurricanes and diseases like bird flu drove down production.
  • Tariffs raised prices on foreign products like coffee, tomatoes and chocolate.
  • Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine disrupted oil and fertilizer supplies.

With a fresh conflict in the Middle East accelerating food price inflation again this year, the cost of filling American refrigerators, freezers, and pantries has become a frustration for Americans and made affordability a central issue in the fall midterm elections. And consumers are developing their own ways to deal with the prices, a market researcher said. The AP’s full report, which includes some of those strategies, can be found here.

The key is to get creative and watch for deals.  Of course this only for some not those that think we should just roll with the punches and it is no big deal…..yes they are out there.

We are stuck in this cycle of price increases for the foreseeable future.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Remembering USS Liberty

Every year I post on the dastardly attack by Israel on the US Naval ship, USS Liberty…..I would like to now post on one of the survivors of that attack that is died.

On Friday, July 31, 2026, Lieutenant Commander James M. Ennes, Jr., US Navy, ret., slipped his cable and unfurled his sails. With the Great Pilot at the helm, he set a course to his final home port.

LCDR Ennes, then Lieutenant Ennes, was serving aboard the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) when, on June 8, 1967, Israeli forces began a combined aerial and naval assault, lasting over an hour, that killed 34 Americans and wounded more than 170 others. LCDR Ennes was seriously wounded in the attack. The official record indicates that Navy medical staff expected him to remain on medical leave for seven months as he recovered from multiple shrapnel wounds and multiple fractures of his left femur. LCDR Ennes did recover sufficiently to serve in the Navy as a cryptologic officer until his retirement in 1978.

On the day of the attack, the Liberty was repeatedly reconnoitered by Israeli military aircraft over the span of several daylight hours and positively identified as an American ship flying the American flag. The Liberty never approached closer than thirty-eight nautical miles to the Israeli coast. Nevertheless while steaming in clear weather and calm seas in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea northwest of the Egyptian city of al-ʿArīsh, the Liberty came under repeated aerial attack by Israeli forces at approximately 2 PM, local time, followed by an assault by Israeli motor torpedo boats.

https://original.antiwar.com/michelle_kinnucan/2026/08/09/remembering-lcdr-james-ennes-of-the-uss-liberty-1933-2026/

As long as I breathe I will post on the murderous actions of Israel against Americans (that many seem to have forgotten)….not me.

May LCDR Ennes rest in peace….

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”

BiBi Rejects Plan

Go figure!

There is a plan for Gaza that could stop most of the killing but as if right on cue BiBi reject the plan….yes I wrote about the plan when it was announced….

Is This Another Donny Bullsh*t Deal?

I said then the BiBi would crush any and all attempts top stop Israel’s killing spree….

And now fast forward to this week….

Israel has slammed the door on a Trump-backed roadmap for peace in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said his government is “ruling out” the 15-point proposal, which envisioned Hamas surrendering its arms in stages to a new Palestinian authority while Israel gradually pulled out of the parts of Gaza it still occupies, reports the New York Times. Israel instead wants Hamas to fully disarm before it pulls out, but Hamas says it won’t disarm until Israeli forces are gone

“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, per the BBC. His public dismissal marks an unusual break with President Trump, who touted the deal with his “Board of Peace” and Hamas as a major advance late last month. The prime minister, heading into a challenging reelection bid, has pledged “absolute victory” over Hamas since its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli communities. A US-brokered ceasefire in October 2023 paused the fighting but left key questions—above all who ultimately rules Gaza—unresolved.

Of course BiBi had to make it sound like he was open to improvement….

But even with the BoP adopting his talking points, Netanyahu has still rejected the deal. “They (the US) have ideas, some of which are acceptable to ​us and some of which are unacceptable to us,” he said on Sunday.

Following Netanyahu’s comments, a US official told Israel’s Channel 12 that the US wasn’t concerned, framing his public position as purely political since elections are coming up in Israel. “We understand his political needs [in this election period]. We have no problem with that, as long as he continues to do what we ask — especially as regards reining in the strikes in Gaza,” the US official said.

And then there is Hamas….

Hamas has maintained it won’t go through with the plan unless Israel lives up to its commitments, which include ending its attacks in Gaza and withdrawing back to the original yellow line created after the ceasefire deal was signed more than nine months ago. At the time, Israel was left with 53% of Gaza under its control, but it has increased to about 70% as the IDF has been conducting ground incursions.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters that Hamas was still committed to the plan and called on the US to pressure Israel. “We expect the mediators and the US guarantor to press Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons, while continuing to jeopardize the region’s security and stability,” he said.

There is the sticking point….Israel will always find something that they will threaten Israel’s security so they do not have to stop what they are doing in Gaza….and they are trying to rid Gaza of all Palestinians so that Israel can expand even further.

I Read, I Write, You KNow

“lego ergo scribo”