Sunday, August 02, 2026

Senators Have Thoughts

You and what military, Sen. Leghorn? Certainly not the one run by Trump and Hegseth. You know, the guy who just announced another ceasefire, after announcing a major escalation, which he almost immediately cancelled. So, the fund would just be for Trump?

Follow up: given the way Trump has reappropriated funds authorized by Congress for other purposes (national parks entry fees), misappropriated other funds (the “ballroom,” the reflecting pool), and flat refused to spend others (DOE), what’s to keep Trump from simply pocketing the slush fund if he gets it? The threat of impeachment?

Don’t make me laugh.😹 
The nation grows anxious when it’s so clear the President is disconnected from reality. We have a constitutional institution meant to correct for precisely that situation. Why won’t it, Senator? Actually, the immediate issue of the moment is the price of gasoline, inflation, and economic growth (there isn’t any).  I know Israel is the topic du jour among online cognoscenti. But I doubt it’s top of mind among voters who don’t spend their days obsessing over D.C. gossip. (I can’t vote for or against Fetterman. I don’t give a wet snap how often he’s on Fox News), and who don’t know who Netenyahu is. Or much care.

But do know the Trump economy is beating them like they were a rented mule. These people:
"You do not know what you're doing to people who are struggling to live," Oklahoman Trinity Goodman said in comments directed at Trump. "You got money in the bank. You don't know how it feels to struggle. Live in my shoes for one day. You wouldn't be able to handle it."

Goodman told Kristof that she had less than $4 in her checking account and a cent in her savings account to keep it open, calling it her full assets. She said that her food stamps can't go toward buying toilet paper or feminine hygiene products.

She survives by selling her blood plasma twice a week, she said.

"I've never been to a barber or any of those places," Goodman said. "Never. I don't have that luxury."

Kristof noted Trump's cuts to benefits, including to Medicaid, food stamps, and early childhood education, adding the push to cut benefits for struggling Americans is "hard to square with the expense of the Iran war, as well as subsidies for private planes and tax cuts for the wealthiest."

The columnist said he was stunned by trip through America and the pressure caused by inflation and social benefit cuts.

"I talked to so many people who are losing food stamps and other benefits and increasingly desperate — and resentful, understandably, of elites who seem indifferent to their struggles," Kristoff said.

Latoya Foster, 31, a single mother raising six children in Arkansas, told Kristoff she was among those to lose food stamps before she broke down and wept.

“I hit rock bottom daily,” she told Kristoff. “The more I work, the harder stuff gets.”
No mention of “But American support for Israel is my biggest concern!,” there. So many voices claiming they know what the central Democratic message should be. Might I suggest this one?

IDEAS DON’T MATTER. THINGS DON’T MATTER. PEOPLE MATTER.
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