Project 2025's Big Bogus Bill is Hiding SNAP cuts until after November.
But AZ jumped the gun:
At least 437,000 people in Arizona lost SNAP benefits between July 2025 and June 2026, a 48% drop in participation.
The GOP is going to starve the poor to increase Musk's wealth and prosecute Netanyahu's war, as Dotard DT and the Fop Bessant monetize their flip-flopping Iran War threats and peace talks.
Buy low. Sell high.
#VOTE out the scum #Drain ALL Trump, Witkoff, and Jared bank accounts
I am fortunate enough to be able to make ends meet so far. But I have cut down my spending and I constantly worry about healthcare for myself and my children and grandchildren. I've had enough of that. Medicare for all. Please.
Thank you . This is a true view of what Americans want . Of course not talking about those oligarchs that have learned to game the system to their own end, they just want MORE. More money , more power, more protection by the Supreme Court.
They not only do not want to pay taxes, they consider paying taxes as an insult to their grandiosity.
Trump loves to slur anyone who wants reasonable fairness from government( unless they’re wealthy).
This perpetuates this bias and creates great resentment towards people that cannot afford to live in this country , because of oligarchy. It’s interesting that the people that have the most of everything, resent the people that have little . Some of the wealthiest are the cruelest and most hateful people. Look at Trump .
One thing some capitalist Americans seem to view as a moral dilemma is taxing the rich (billionaires and even multimillionaires) for a greater percentage of their income than non-billionaires. After all, they are providing the most jobs for the rest of us, right? While that is generally true, it ignores that billionaires also benefit far more from government infrastructure than the proletariat (you and I) do. But the super-rich also benefit super-more from government services.
Big corporations benefit from a secure banking system with enforced rules and structures. They benefit from laws that guarantee copyrights and patents to compensate for losses due to development costs. They benefit from federal grants that discover things than can be turned into useful products they can sell for obscene profits. They benefit from a Navy which ensures the safe passage of their products to foreign nations. Their 18-wheeler trucks produce far more wear and tear on our interstates and city roads than cars do. They benefit far more from power grids and wiring that brings far more electricity to factories than is needed for worker residences. The FAA ensures materials can be shipped faster and more safely via jets. Et cetera.
One more thing: the super-rich have paid to rig our laws so that they can deduct (hide) much of their income from the IRS. Thus, as Senators Warren and Sanders have pointed out, taxing wealth is a way to get a bigger and fairer share of their income to pay for all that stuff.
Thom, You've accurately captured why so many Americans feel frustrated with the direction of our country. Whether people agree with your conclusions or not, it's clear that millions believe the economic system is no longer working for ordinary families.
I'd like to suggest that beneath every issue you've raised lies an even more fundamental one.
None of us—progressive, conservative, independent, or somewhere in between—can peacefully resolve our differences unless we have elections that everyone can trust.
I've spent the past 22 years working on election transparency. During that time, I've learned something that concerns me deeply.
Our greatest vulnerability isn't necessarily who wins an election.
It's whether the public has the ability to independently verify that the reported outcome accurately reflects the ballots that were cast using two public records. Ballot images and Cast Vote Record database .
Today, in much of America, that independent verification simply doesn't exist.
In many jurisdictions, ballot images are not publicly available. Cast Vote Records (CVRs) are often inaccessible or difficult to audit independently. Post-election audits frequently examine only a tiny portion of the ballots, and in many states the audit sample is selected before the election results are publicly committed by precinct or batch. That limits what those audits can actually demonstrate.
When verification is limited, confidence suffers—regardless of which party wins.
The solution is not to ask people to "just trust the system."
The solution is to build systems that earn trust.
Fortunately, we already know how.
Modern elections can be transparent, trackable, and publicly verifiable while fully protecting ballot secrecy. Citizens should be able to verify election outcomes independently—not because they're looking for fraud, but because verification is how trust is built.
If Americans cannot verify elections for themselves, every policy debate eventually becomes a debate about whether the election itself was legitimate.
That serves no one.
My hope is that election transparency becomes an issue that belongs to neither the left nor the right, but to everyone who believes in self-government.
I've recently written a series called The Cassandra Series, which explores why public confidence has eroded and proposes practical, nonpartisan ways to restore it through transparent, publicly verifiable elections.
Democracy doesn't require us to agree on healthcare, taxes, immigration, or economic policy.
It does require that we share confidence in the process by which we choose our representatives.
Everything else depends on that.
—John Brakey
Executive Director, AUDIT USA
The Cassandra Series Part 11: Breaking Apollo’s Curse By Restoring Trust Through Transparent, Publicly Verifiable U.S. Elections
Repugnicans are resurrecting the communism/socialism card because they know that whether or not voters will be persuaded, the entrenched corporate Democratic establishment most assuredly will, and will cower, acquiesce, and placate accordingly. (If you don’t believe me, ask Chuck Schumer, or James Clyburn, or James Carville, or Jonathan Chait, or Neera Tanden, or…). Abdul El-Sayed’s most impressive victory was over AIPAC and the subversive Democrat dinosaurs dedicated to avoiding real progress (and honesty) at all costs. Jennifer Rubin, a recovering Republican, offers a spot-on four point plan for addressing the Repugnicans in her “Contrarian” Substack post today. Do check it out.
Well, here comes the vast worldwide Muslim conspiracy to destroy America from within. First you elect a Muslim mayor, then a Muslim candidate for the US Senate, then the next thing you know there will be herds of camels coming down Main Street, and parents will have to tell their children what America was like when we were free. Communism/ Camelism, what's the diff?
Would not you call, someone who argued for a gold standard, and who was a strong advocate of free trade a libertarian?
Well that was Karl Marx. He may have argued the labor theory of value, but his standard of value was gold.
Free trade, because he penned many articles against Britain's Corn Laws, import tariffs and he chastised editors in the pre civil war south, for slavery. Not because of humanitarian concerns,he wasn't an abolitionist.
He argued that slaves should be freed and hired backack at market wages, as that would make cotton cheaper.
His partner, Frederick Engels had inherited a textile mill, and was forced to buy the cheaper but inferior Egyptian cotton because cotton from America was too expensive.. Owning slaves wasn't cheap, first there is the capital outlay, then the slave owner is responsible for feeding, clothing, housing and entertaining the slaves, and then there were the pesky slave patrols (the real basis of the 2nd amendment), and support of preachers who would preach Jesus and his commandment of "slaves obey your masters", actually it was Paul
Commands for slaves or servants to obey their masters appear in several New Testament letters, most notably in Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, and 1 Peter 2:18..
A 1st Cousin 5 times removed, bought a slave for $300 and that is over $9.800 in todays money, that is quite a capital investment, not one that one would trash.
Freed slaves faced a conundrum, Elated to be free, they also faced starvation and homelessness, thus many of them stayed on the plantation, working for their former masters.
A few, a very few, made the most of their freedom, acquiring enough capital to become land owners or parlaying the skills that they acquired as slaves, into a business opportunity, like smithing, nanny or domestic servants.
There is no record of the deaths that resulted from freeing the slaves. Sherman's march to the sea, acquired a train of thousands of slaves, straining the resources of Sherman and his army. People have to eat, and Sherman was self providing from foraging the country side.
No value judgement on my part, just stating facts. As Mr Spck would say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
A question to fellow baby boomers who are on waiting lists to move into retirement communities: who will buy your home? Boomers are using their homes as an asset to sell when they move into those retirement communities. First there are fewer people in the following generations - we had fewer children - who either have huge debts to obtain the education we told them they needed, or are struggling to make ends meet by working 2-3 low paying jobs, if they can find any work at all. Your home is losing value while you wait to move. All the while the Trump Administration is going through your tax dollars that benefit the morbidly rich and cutting any funding to help those of us who are not morbidly rich.
Think of the money that goes to Elon Musk - $19 billion in 16 years for Space X and the 11 agencies that he and his Doge Bros went into destroying federal documents who had 34 open investigations into Musk and his businesses. Where better could we have spent that money?
Think of the annual budget item of $4 billion to Israel. And then $61 billion this cycle for weapons/bombs to attack Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Where else could we have spent that money?
Think of the money organizations and the morbidly rich such as AIPAC have spent on our elections. I can think of better uses for all that money.
Like making food available to all of us. When Trump and company cut SNAP benefits and funding for food banks, it is a double whammy as the people starve, farmers have no place to sell their crops.
Like paying off college loan debt so that they are free to innovate and create.
Like making solar panels available to all home owners to lower their electric bills.
Great report!! But I would like more discussion on the propaganda of the right perpetrating the red scare of Stalinist communism. They have been terrorizing peoples minds since the 1950’s as though anything providing support for the people such as social security and Medicare are one step away from Stalin sitting in the White House. This is pure propaganda to keep the people under control by the upper classes.
Also . . .
Project 2025's Big Bogus Bill is Hiding SNAP cuts until after November.
But AZ jumped the gun:
At least 437,000 people in Arizona lost SNAP benefits between July 2025 and June 2026, a 48% drop in participation.
The GOP is going to starve the poor to increase Musk's wealth and prosecute Netanyahu's war, as Dotard DT and the Fop Bessant monetize their flip-flopping Iran War threats and peace talks.
Buy low. Sell high.
#VOTE out the scum #Drain ALL Trump, Witkoff, and Jared bank accounts
I am fortunate enough to be able to make ends meet so far. But I have cut down my spending and I constantly worry about healthcare for myself and my children and grandchildren. I've had enough of that. Medicare for all. Please.
It's a campaign issue again, along with the data center moratorium.
Thank you Thom! Excellent post this morning!!
Thank you . This is a true view of what Americans want . Of course not talking about those oligarchs that have learned to game the system to their own end, they just want MORE. More money , more power, more protection by the Supreme Court.
They not only do not want to pay taxes, they consider paying taxes as an insult to their grandiosity.
Trump loves to slur anyone who wants reasonable fairness from government( unless they’re wealthy).
This perpetuates this bias and creates great resentment towards people that cannot afford to live in this country , because of oligarchy. It’s interesting that the people that have the most of everything, resent the people that have little . Some of the wealthiest are the cruelest and most hateful people. Look at Trump .
One thing some capitalist Americans seem to view as a moral dilemma is taxing the rich (billionaires and even multimillionaires) for a greater percentage of their income than non-billionaires. After all, they are providing the most jobs for the rest of us, right? While that is generally true, it ignores that billionaires also benefit far more from government infrastructure than the proletariat (you and I) do. But the super-rich also benefit super-more from government services.
Big corporations benefit from a secure banking system with enforced rules and structures. They benefit from laws that guarantee copyrights and patents to compensate for losses due to development costs. They benefit from federal grants that discover things than can be turned into useful products they can sell for obscene profits. They benefit from a Navy which ensures the safe passage of their products to foreign nations. Their 18-wheeler trucks produce far more wear and tear on our interstates and city roads than cars do. They benefit far more from power grids and wiring that brings far more electricity to factories than is needed for worker residences. The FAA ensures materials can be shipped faster and more safely via jets. Et cetera.
One more thing: the super-rich have paid to rig our laws so that they can deduct (hide) much of their income from the IRS. Thus, as Senators Warren and Sanders have pointed out, taxing wealth is a way to get a bigger and fairer share of their income to pay for all that stuff.
All important points
Thom, You've accurately captured why so many Americans feel frustrated with the direction of our country. Whether people agree with your conclusions or not, it's clear that millions believe the economic system is no longer working for ordinary families.
I'd like to suggest that beneath every issue you've raised lies an even more fundamental one.
None of us—progressive, conservative, independent, or somewhere in between—can peacefully resolve our differences unless we have elections that everyone can trust.
I've spent the past 22 years working on election transparency. During that time, I've learned something that concerns me deeply.
Our greatest vulnerability isn't necessarily who wins an election.
It's whether the public has the ability to independently verify that the reported outcome accurately reflects the ballots that were cast using two public records. Ballot images and Cast Vote Record database .
Today, in much of America, that independent verification simply doesn't exist.
In many jurisdictions, ballot images are not publicly available. Cast Vote Records (CVRs) are often inaccessible or difficult to audit independently. Post-election audits frequently examine only a tiny portion of the ballots, and in many states the audit sample is selected before the election results are publicly committed by precinct or batch. That limits what those audits can actually demonstrate.
When verification is limited, confidence suffers—regardless of which party wins.
The solution is not to ask people to "just trust the system."
The solution is to build systems that earn trust.
Fortunately, we already know how.
Modern elections can be transparent, trackable, and publicly verifiable while fully protecting ballot secrecy. Citizens should be able to verify election outcomes independently—not because they're looking for fraud, but because verification is how trust is built.
If Americans cannot verify elections for themselves, every policy debate eventually becomes a debate about whether the election itself was legitimate.
That serves no one.
My hope is that election transparency becomes an issue that belongs to neither the left nor the right, but to everyone who believes in self-government.
I've recently written a series called The Cassandra Series, which explores why public confidence has eroded and proposes practical, nonpartisan ways to restore it through transparent, publicly verifiable elections.
Democracy doesn't require us to agree on healthcare, taxes, immigration, or economic policy.
It does require that we share confidence in the process by which we choose our representatives.
Everything else depends on that.
—John Brakey
Executive Director, AUDIT USA
The Cassandra Series Part 11: Breaking Apollo’s Curse By Restoring Trust Through Transparent, Publicly Verifiable U.S. Elections
https://johnrbrakey.substack.com/p/the-cassandra-series-breaking-apollos
Repugnicans are resurrecting the communism/socialism card because they know that whether or not voters will be persuaded, the entrenched corporate Democratic establishment most assuredly will, and will cower, acquiesce, and placate accordingly. (If you don’t believe me, ask Chuck Schumer, or James Clyburn, or James Carville, or Jonathan Chait, or Neera Tanden, or…). Abdul El-Sayed’s most impressive victory was over AIPAC and the subversive Democrat dinosaurs dedicated to avoiding real progress (and honesty) at all costs. Jennifer Rubin, a recovering Republican, offers a spot-on four point plan for addressing the Repugnicans in her “Contrarian” Substack post today. Do check it out.
Well, here comes the vast worldwide Muslim conspiracy to destroy America from within. First you elect a Muslim mayor, then a Muslim candidate for the US Senate, then the next thing you know there will be herds of camels coming down Main Street, and parents will have to tell their children what America was like when we were free. Communism/ Camelism, what's the diff?
Would not you call, someone who argued for a gold standard, and who was a strong advocate of free trade a libertarian?
Well that was Karl Marx. He may have argued the labor theory of value, but his standard of value was gold.
Free trade, because he penned many articles against Britain's Corn Laws, import tariffs and he chastised editors in the pre civil war south, for slavery. Not because of humanitarian concerns,he wasn't an abolitionist.
He argued that slaves should be freed and hired backack at market wages, as that would make cotton cheaper.
His partner, Frederick Engels had inherited a textile mill, and was forced to buy the cheaper but inferior Egyptian cotton because cotton from America was too expensive.. Owning slaves wasn't cheap, first there is the capital outlay, then the slave owner is responsible for feeding, clothing, housing and entertaining the slaves, and then there were the pesky slave patrols (the real basis of the 2nd amendment), and support of preachers who would preach Jesus and his commandment of "slaves obey your masters", actually it was Paul
Commands for slaves or servants to obey their masters appear in several New Testament letters, most notably in Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:22, and 1 Peter 2:18..
Slavery was horrific, but they had room and board. They had value, so their owners didn't want them to die or become disabled.
Today's wage slaves have to figure out how to provide food and shelter. If they become sick or disabled, they hire another.
A 1st Cousin 5 times removed, bought a slave for $300 and that is over $9.800 in todays money, that is quite a capital investment, not one that one would trash.
Freed slaves faced a conundrum, Elated to be free, they also faced starvation and homelessness, thus many of them stayed on the plantation, working for their former masters.
A few, a very few, made the most of their freedom, acquiring enough capital to become land owners or parlaying the skills that they acquired as slaves, into a business opportunity, like smithing, nanny or domestic servants.
There is no record of the deaths that resulted from freeing the slaves. Sherman's march to the sea, acquired a train of thousands of slaves, straining the resources of Sherman and his army. People have to eat, and Sherman was self providing from foraging the country side.
No value judgement on my part, just stating facts. As Mr Spck would say, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
I am sure you have heard that there is enough for everyone; distribution is the problem.
Yep, but am puzzled as to what that has to do with my comment, not being hostile, but am honestly puzzled.
A question to fellow baby boomers who are on waiting lists to move into retirement communities: who will buy your home? Boomers are using their homes as an asset to sell when they move into those retirement communities. First there are fewer people in the following generations - we had fewer children - who either have huge debts to obtain the education we told them they needed, or are struggling to make ends meet by working 2-3 low paying jobs, if they can find any work at all. Your home is losing value while you wait to move. All the while the Trump Administration is going through your tax dollars that benefit the morbidly rich and cutting any funding to help those of us who are not morbidly rich.
Think of the money that goes to Elon Musk - $19 billion in 16 years for Space X and the 11 agencies that he and his Doge Bros went into destroying federal documents who had 34 open investigations into Musk and his businesses. Where better could we have spent that money?
Think of the annual budget item of $4 billion to Israel. And then $61 billion this cycle for weapons/bombs to attack Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Where else could we have spent that money?
Think of the money organizations and the morbidly rich such as AIPAC have spent on our elections. I can think of better uses for all that money.
Like making food available to all of us. When Trump and company cut SNAP benefits and funding for food banks, it is a double whammy as the people starve, farmers have no place to sell their crops.
Like paying off college loan debt so that they are free to innovate and create.
Like making solar panels available to all home owners to lower their electric bills.
How would you spend that money?
What is your schedule on Sirius Xm radio?
Seriously! We just want what we had before Reagan and the “me first” movement made hoarding a national pastime.
Spot on.
Thank you.
You give/bring hope.
With truth comes hope.
Great report!! But I would like more discussion on the propaganda of the right perpetrating the red scare of Stalinist communism. They have been terrorizing peoples minds since the 1950’s as though anything providing support for the people such as social security and Medicare are one step away from Stalin sitting in the White House. This is pure propaganda to keep the people under control by the upper classes.