It’s unfortunate that health care will fall by the wayside. As retirees, my hub and I, must decide on a plan by 12/15. We know the cost will be more than double for the same plan we had this year. It’s sickening that the decision making elected officials are distracted - again. 😞.
Thank you for a terrific article. You write for the people with compassion.
Epstein has been one of the stories I have for the most part simply refused to write about. It just is not a serious story.
It was proven long ago that Epstein was a sexual predator, a pedophile, and engaged in sex trafficking.
Nothing that has been leaked by either Democrats or Republicans lately has come anywhere close to being evidence of any criminality whatsoever.
Yes, Larry Summers is a sleaze for looking to Epstein for advice on how to get a young woman he was "mentoring" into bed, but there's no law against sleaze.
Hakeem Jeffries is revealed yet again to be the dumbest Democrat in Congress for hitting Epstein up for campaign cash, but there's no law against being dumb.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jeffrey Epstein is going to end up the 21st century equivalent of the ritual Satanic abuse hysteria of the 1980s--lots of narrative, lots of ragebaiting, no substance.
There are issues Congress MUST take up more or less immediately. There are issues Congress should not ignore. Obamacare and SNAP are of course the issues in the foreground because of the shutdown squabble, but Congress has real issues it needs to address. That it would waste even a day on Jeffrey Epstein is yet another example of Congress being derelict in its duty.
When the midterm elections roll around, I intend to put out as much encouragement as I can for people to vote out every incumbent member of Congress. Send the whole sorry lot packing. Do it again in 2028, and again in 2030. People need to view any current member of Congress as unqualified to be there, and keep voting that way, voting out incumbents, until Congress gets it through their collective concrete craniums that the nation's business needs to be taken seriously for a change.
Congress avoids hard work in favor of trivia. Especially lurid, spectacular trivia. Why do hard work that may have controversial outcome, when you can tackle mind numbing drivel?
Not only is the SNAP fraud taking assistance way from those in genuine need, but it is a contributing factor to food price inflation, which effectively takes food out of everyone's mouth.
I know this isn’t directly related but…I know people who have submitted paperwork and it’s hung up 5-18y..they do side jobs because they have dignity and want to work not receive SNAP. we are a country founded by immigrants and the problem is there is no clear simple path to citizenship or immigration. The problem is NOT immigrants, the majority of whom have a tremendous work ethic and care for their families and communities.
The current SNAP fustercluck is an accumulation of perverse incentives.
Fundamentally, people are being rewarded for NOT being productive.
And we also need to draw a clear distinction between those who come to this country legally and strive to better their lives and be contributing members of their community, and those who come here illegally.
When people rail against illegal aliens and call for their deportation, by definition they are not speaking about legal immigrants who have played by the rules. When people rail against illegal aliens ultimately they are defending legal immigrants, who have been pushed aside by the lunacies of the Biden and previously the Obama administrations.
And the generational SNAP recipients in the poor parts of town and city are dependent on SNAP to live because if they got a job the paycheck won’t cover rent, childcare, insurance, transportation and food. It’s frustrating for them because the income limits to receive benefits prevent them from getting a job and trying to get ahead…vulnerable and dealing with gangs etc. it’s miserable
One reason President Trump's willingness to use federal agents and the National Guard to crack down on crime in urban areas is a good idea is that eradicating crime and gang violence is an essential step towards revitalizing communities and developing them economically.
While much can probably be done to smooth the transition away from SNAP dependence, the best way to break that cycle of dependency is to focus on building up local communities with local businesses providing local jobs. More opportunity will always translate into higher wages and less need for SNAP and other forms of assistance.
I think what is most telling to me is all the focus on supposed compromised politicians when the most likely people to be involved in Epstein’s salacious mess were in the financial sector. Why don’t I see any stores about investment bankers being investigated?
Because there are no investment bankers named Donald Trump.
The Democrats are flinging anything they can against The Donald in desperate hope that something finally sticks.
They prefer doing that to developing policies or fleshing out their platform for the 2026 mid-term elections.
The real scandal about this whole Jeffrey Epstein mess is that members of Congress would rather prattle on about this rather than doing any actual work on any actual legislation or policy issues.
It’s unfortunate that health care will fall by the wayside. As retirees, my hub and I, must decide on a plan by 12/15. We know the cost will be more than double for the same plan we had this year. It’s sickening that the decision making elected officials are distracted - again. 😞.
Thank you for a terrific article. You write for the people with compassion.
Thanks.
Epstein has been one of the stories I have for the most part simply refused to write about. It just is not a serious story.
It was proven long ago that Epstein was a sexual predator, a pedophile, and engaged in sex trafficking.
Nothing that has been leaked by either Democrats or Republicans lately has come anywhere close to being evidence of any criminality whatsoever.
Yes, Larry Summers is a sleaze for looking to Epstein for advice on how to get a young woman he was "mentoring" into bed, but there's no law against sleaze.
Hakeem Jeffries is revealed yet again to be the dumbest Democrat in Congress for hitting Epstein up for campaign cash, but there's no law against being dumb.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Jeffrey Epstein is going to end up the 21st century equivalent of the ritual Satanic abuse hysteria of the 1980s--lots of narrative, lots of ragebaiting, no substance.
There are issues Congress MUST take up more or less immediately. There are issues Congress should not ignore. Obamacare and SNAP are of course the issues in the foreground because of the shutdown squabble, but Congress has real issues it needs to address. That it would waste even a day on Jeffrey Epstein is yet another example of Congress being derelict in its duty.
When the midterm elections roll around, I intend to put out as much encouragement as I can for people to vote out every incumbent member of Congress. Send the whole sorry lot packing. Do it again in 2028, and again in 2030. People need to view any current member of Congress as unqualified to be there, and keep voting that way, voting out incumbents, until Congress gets it through their collective concrete craniums that the nation's business needs to be taken seriously for a change.
We The People deserve better than this Congress.
Congress avoids hard work in favor of trivia. Especially lurid, spectacular trivia. Why do hard work that may have controversial outcome, when you can tackle mind numbing drivel?
The real question is why do we keep reelecting the same indolent incompetent imbeciles to Congress in the first place.
We need to rotate out the village idiots.
Too many sheeple buy in to the propaganda they spew.
The SNAP fraud is so frustrating as I know many truly need this...
Not only is the SNAP fraud taking assistance way from those in genuine need, but it is a contributing factor to food price inflation, which effectively takes food out of everyone's mouth.
I know this isn’t directly related but…I know people who have submitted paperwork and it’s hung up 5-18y..they do side jobs because they have dignity and want to work not receive SNAP. we are a country founded by immigrants and the problem is there is no clear simple path to citizenship or immigration. The problem is NOT immigrants, the majority of whom have a tremendous work ethic and care for their families and communities.
The current SNAP fustercluck is an accumulation of perverse incentives.
Fundamentally, people are being rewarded for NOT being productive.
And we also need to draw a clear distinction between those who come to this country legally and strive to better their lives and be contributing members of their community, and those who come here illegally.
When people rail against illegal aliens and call for their deportation, by definition they are not speaking about legal immigrants who have played by the rules. When people rail against illegal aliens ultimately they are defending legal immigrants, who have been pushed aside by the lunacies of the Biden and previously the Obama administrations.
And the generational SNAP recipients in the poor parts of town and city are dependent on SNAP to live because if they got a job the paycheck won’t cover rent, childcare, insurance, transportation and food. It’s frustrating for them because the income limits to receive benefits prevent them from getting a job and trying to get ahead…vulnerable and dealing with gangs etc. it’s miserable
One reason President Trump's willingness to use federal agents and the National Guard to crack down on crime in urban areas is a good idea is that eradicating crime and gang violence is an essential step towards revitalizing communities and developing them economically.
While much can probably be done to smooth the transition away from SNAP dependence, the best way to break that cycle of dependency is to focus on building up local communities with local businesses providing local jobs. More opportunity will always translate into higher wages and less need for SNAP and other forms of assistance.
I think what is most telling to me is all the focus on supposed compromised politicians when the most likely people to be involved in Epstein’s salacious mess were in the financial sector. Why don’t I see any stores about investment bankers being investigated?
Because there are no investment bankers named Donald Trump.
The Democrats are flinging anything they can against The Donald in desperate hope that something finally sticks.
They prefer doing that to developing policies or fleshing out their platform for the 2026 mid-term elections.
The real scandal about this whole Jeffrey Epstein mess is that members of Congress would rather prattle on about this rather than doing any actual work on any actual legislation or policy issues.
“…their propaganda cannon was fired.”
That’s it in a nutshell, Peter. Thanks!