(that one "win" was in Pennsylvania, when he got a favorable ruling in a case involving a handful of ballots)
As of today, he's 0-fer-9 in court with his bullshit demands over voter rolls.
Jun 23, 2026
Amanda's Tuesday
In 2020, Trump went 1-fer-62 in court with his bullshit claims of a rigged election.
Jun 22, 2026
Winning
I drive a CR-V that turned 20 years old this last February.
I didn't know it when I bought it, of course, but that thing is in the sweet spot of a real golden age of car manufacturing. Kinda like 1955 thru about 1969 for the Big 3 American car makers.
And I'm the little old lady who only drives it to church once a week (not really - I drive to the grocery store once a week), so with a little luck, it'll last me for a good while longer.
800 bucks for an alternator? A fucking alternator!?!
A Small Revelation
Antonio Gramsci - 1916
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters. --Antonio Gramsci
Today I Learned:
Antonio Gramsci's theory centers on cultural hegemony, which explains how ruling classes maintain power in capitalist societies not just through force or coercion, but by shaping cultural norms and ideologies so that their dominance is accepted as "common sense" by the oppressed.
Sound familiar?
And again - I'm a capitalist because god is a capitalist.
The real problems begin when the capitalists start to believe they're the be-all and end-all, and if they don't like the way the universe works, they'll just pay somebody to change the laws of physics or some-goddamned-thing.
And here we are again, having to mount another effort to rescue Capitalism from the Capitalists before they fuck it up to the point where people take to the pitchforks and torches - so now I have to accord due respect for a fuckin' commie.
You got any idea how that grates on my soul?
The Kids Are Not Alright
Elect Republicans and watch the children suffer.
More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program
The three members of the House Agriculture Committee who defended last year’s bill before its passage — Rose, Thompson and Johnson — did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about their statements now that many children no longer receive SNAP benefits.
Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins about her recent comments that it was “good news” that millions of people no longer receive SNAP. If more than 700,000 children have been dropped in the 12 states that report those figures, “that number’s going to be into the millions” when other states are included, he said.
Rollins responded, “The 700,000 number of children is not correct,” contending that most people who were kicked off SNAP were “fraudulent.”
“That is not a nonpartisan group that gave you that number,” she said. (ProPublica independently verified the figures reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)
McGovern said he has talked to people who have lost food assistance. “These are people who actually need and rely on this food assistance to provide basic nutrition for their families,” he said.
Pressure to lower error rates “creates a temptation for the states to bump off working families,” said Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University. Working families may have more volatile incomes, making it harder for state agencies to assess benefits accurately.
“When they say we want to preserve SNAP for those with the greatest need, they’re sort of acknowledging that they want the scale of the SNAP program to be smaller,” he said.
Mariana Chilton, an expert in child hunger at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said a smaller program won’t save money in the long run. Research shows that children who receive SNAP benefits are healthier, have better academic outcomes, use hospitals less often and have better mental health as teenagers.
She called the situation a “public health crisis” in the making. “When children are not healthy, this affects children today and it affects them throughout their lifetimes,” she said, likening hunger during early childhood to a brain injury.
As Arizona’s SNAP participation drops, nonprofits are feeling the effects. St. Mary’s Food Bank, the largest in the state, has seen a 15% increase in need this year, which translates into 300,000 more visits from people in search of food, said Milt Liu, the chief executive officer.
“It’s important for everyone to realize that policies have implications for people on the edge, and we’re seeing that in our line every day,” he said.
On a recent morning, Ana Alvarez waited in a line of vehicles at a St. Mary’s food bank in Phoenix. Alvarez, a single mother of five who works at a restaurant, started coming to St. Mary’s after she lost her SNAP benefits in September.
She reapplied for SNAP with the Arizona Department of Economic Security in December, but the application is still pending. The department did not respond to questions about its backlog.
She clips coupons and has cut out trips to the zoo and restaurants with her children. The slow season at the restaurant where she works is about to hit. And as summer temperatures rise, Alvarez wonders how she will afford her electric bill, her rent and her car payment.
At least once a week she contacts the agency about her application. The last time she called, a worker told her what others have in the past: She will have to keep waiting.
More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program
Republican backers of Trump’s signature domestic policy bill repeatedly claimed that revisions to the food benefits program wouldn’t affect the most vulnerable. But reports from a dozen states show children are losing access.
As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, wouldn’t affect vulnerable people.
SNAP reforms would “restore integrity” to the program and ensure it works for the “most vulnerable among us, including children,” said Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican and chair of the House Agriculture Committee.
Passing the bill would be a “historic accomplishment” that will ensure “those in need can continue to receive the assistance they need,” said Rep. John Rose, a Republican from Tennessee.
And Rep. Dusty Johnson, a South Dakota Republican, said the bill would focus resources on the “neediest” Americans. “If you are a pregnant woman, your benefits are unaffected. If you have young children at home, your benefits are unaffected by this bill. If you are disabled, your benefits are unaffected by this bill.”
But nearly a year after the measure was signed into law, the number of children receiving food assistance has plummeted by at least 776,000, according to a ProPublica analysis. At least 12 states break down program participation by age, and of the 1,670,011 people who are no longer receiving benefits in those states, 776,134, or 46%, were children.
Another analysis reached the same conclusion: Just last month, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found there were 700,000 fewer children receiving food assistance.
Arizona has seen the nation’s largest percentage decline in SNAP participants; 205,223 children are no longer receiving the benefit since July 2025, a 55% drop. Louisiana had the second largest percent decline among children, 22%.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, hasn’t detailed the impact on children aided by the program, but initial figures show that compared to February 2025, 4.3 million fewer people received SNAP nationwide in February 2026, leaving 37.8 million participants.
Although children weren’t the intended targets of the legislation’s changes, they’re increasingly “collateral damage,” said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
If states are trying to comply with the law’s changes to SNAP, they’re likely not focusing on making the program accessible, Bergh said. Other experts said that people may be pushed off the program because of increased paperwork requirements to remain eligible.
States are required to impose work requirements for most adult recipients, while preparing for two major cost shifts. In October, states will begin covering 75% of the program’s administrative costs. States have been paying 50% of those costs.
In addition, states will have to pay a larger share of SNAP benefits starting in October 2027, based on their error rate. Error rates reflect overpayments or underpayments of SNAP benefits. While sometimes characterized as fraud, such errors are usually the fault of the state agency or the SNAP recipient, according to USDA, which describes them as “largely unintentional.”
If a state agency is facing staffing shortages and struggling to comply with new regulations, it will be harder for low-income families to access the benefits, Bergh said. “Families are falling through the cracks.”
In Massachusetts, for example, the share of SNAP applicants who called an assistance line and couldn’t reach a worker rose from 61% in November to nearly 81% in March, according to the Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers SNAP in the state. The state agency did not respond to a request for comment.
A USDA spokesperson did not address ProPublica’s questions about the number of children who have lost access to SNAP. “There is no shortage of resources for the most vulnerable among us, including children,” the spokesperson said.
As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, wouldn’t affect vulnerable people.
SNAP reforms would “restore integrity” to the program and ensure it works for the “most vulnerable among us, including children,” said Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican and chair of the House Agriculture Committee.
Passing the bill would be a “historic accomplishment” that will ensure “those in need can continue to receive the assistance they need,” said Rep. John Rose, a Republican from Tennessee.
And Rep. Dusty Johnson, a South Dakota Republican, said the bill would focus resources on the “neediest” Americans. “If you are a pregnant woman, your benefits are unaffected. If you have young children at home, your benefits are unaffected by this bill. If you are disabled, your benefits are unaffected by this bill.”
But nearly a year after the measure was signed into law, the number of children receiving food assistance has plummeted by at least 776,000, according to a ProPublica analysis. At least 12 states break down program participation by age, and of the 1,670,011 people who are no longer receiving benefits in those states, 776,134, or 46%, were children.
Another analysis reached the same conclusion: Just last month, the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found there were 700,000 fewer children receiving food assistance.
Arizona has seen the nation’s largest percentage decline in SNAP participants; 205,223 children are no longer receiving the benefit since July 2025, a 55% drop. Louisiana had the second largest percent decline among children, 22%.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, hasn’t detailed the impact on children aided by the program, but initial figures show that compared to February 2025, 4.3 million fewer people received SNAP nationwide in February 2026, leaving 37.8 million participants.
Although children weren’t the intended targets of the legislation’s changes, they’re increasingly “collateral damage,” said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
If states are trying to comply with the law’s changes to SNAP, they’re likely not focusing on making the program accessible, Bergh said. Other experts said that people may be pushed off the program because of increased paperwork requirements to remain eligible.
States are required to impose work requirements for most adult recipients, while preparing for two major cost shifts. In October, states will begin covering 75% of the program’s administrative costs. States have been paying 50% of those costs.
In addition, states will have to pay a larger share of SNAP benefits starting in October 2027, based on their error rate. Error rates reflect overpayments or underpayments of SNAP benefits. While sometimes characterized as fraud, such errors are usually the fault of the state agency or the SNAP recipient, according to USDA, which describes them as “largely unintentional.”
If a state agency is facing staffing shortages and struggling to comply with new regulations, it will be harder for low-income families to access the benefits, Bergh said. “Families are falling through the cracks.”
In Massachusetts, for example, the share of SNAP applicants who called an assistance line and couldn’t reach a worker rose from 61% in November to nearly 81% in March, according to the Department of Transitional Assistance, which administers SNAP in the state. The state agency did not respond to a request for comment.
A USDA spokesperson did not address ProPublica’s questions about the number of children who have lost access to SNAP. “There is no shortage of resources for the most vulnerable among us, including children,” the spokesperson said.
Have you lost your benefits? Are you working with those who have? Help ProPublica do more reporting. We need your help understanding what shifting policies actually mean for communities across the country. If your SNAP or Medicaid benefits have been cut or if you work to help people navigate public assistance programs, you can email us at safetynet@propublica.org to share your experience.
The three members of the House Agriculture Committee who defended last year’s bill before its passage — Rose, Thompson and Johnson — did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about their statements now that many children no longer receive SNAP benefits.
Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins about her recent comments that it was “good news” that millions of people no longer receive SNAP. If more than 700,000 children have been dropped in the 12 states that report those figures, “that number’s going to be into the millions” when other states are included, he said.
Rollins responded, “The 700,000 number of children is not correct,” contending that most people who were kicked off SNAP were “fraudulent.”
“That is not a nonpartisan group that gave you that number,” she said. (ProPublica independently verified the figures reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)
McGovern said he has talked to people who have lost food assistance. “These are people who actually need and rely on this food assistance to provide basic nutrition for their families,” he said.
Pressure to lower error rates “creates a temptation for the states to bump off working families,” said Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University. Working families may have more volatile incomes, making it harder for state agencies to assess benefits accurately.
“When they say we want to preserve SNAP for those with the greatest need, they’re sort of acknowledging that they want the scale of the SNAP program to be smaller,” he said.
Mariana Chilton, an expert in child hunger at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said a smaller program won’t save money in the long run. Research shows that children who receive SNAP benefits are healthier, have better academic outcomes, use hospitals less often and have better mental health as teenagers.
She called the situation a “public health crisis” in the making. “When children are not healthy, this affects children today and it affects them throughout their lifetimes,” she said, likening hunger during early childhood to a brain injury.
As Arizona’s SNAP participation drops, nonprofits are feeling the effects. St. Mary’s Food Bank, the largest in the state, has seen a 15% increase in need this year, which translates into 300,000 more visits from people in search of food, said Milt Liu, the chief executive officer.
“It’s important for everyone to realize that policies have implications for people on the edge, and we’re seeing that in our line every day,” he said.
On a recent morning, Ana Alvarez waited in a line of vehicles at a St. Mary’s food bank in Phoenix. Alvarez, a single mother of five who works at a restaurant, started coming to St. Mary’s after she lost her SNAP benefits in September.
She reapplied for SNAP with the Arizona Department of Economic Security in December, but the application is still pending. The department did not respond to questions about its backlog.
She clips coupons and has cut out trips to the zoo and restaurants with her children. The slow season at the restaurant where she works is about to hit. And as summer temperatures rise, Alvarez wonders how she will afford her electric bill, her rent and her car payment.
At least once a week she contacts the agency about her application. The last time she called, a worker told her what others have in the past: She will have to keep waiting.
Hawk
For some people, getting paid is the only thing worth considering.
Hawk makes the accurate assessment.
The Big Argument
Too much has been made about "messaging failures" of the Dems, the Lefties, and the Progressives. Like we're not giving the people in the big squishy middle enough to attract them over to our side.
It's bullshit.
The door on the left leads into a room that's kinda boring. It has some decent, sturdy mid-century furnishings, and a couple of shelves filled with books and stuff - but the ceiling fan makes a funny noise, and some of the lamps are missing bulbs.
The door on the right goes to a room where all the furniture is infested with fleas and bed bugs, the wall paint is outgassing toxic fumes, the floor is covered in broken glass and rusty razor blades, and you can't drink the water.
You know what Trump is like - you know that the room he's offering is a fucking nightmare.
Why the fuck do you need me to sell you on the other room?
It Works
...when we let it work
Five hundred African spurred tortoises were released into a degraded area of the Sahara desert, where their digging helped create channels for rainwater to enter the soil, resulting in scattered green growth within five years.
A conservation story is giving people a rare dose of hope about the Sahara. Five hundred tortoises were released into a severely degraded part of the desert, and within five years, satellite imagery showed green patches in areas that had been mostly sand.
The story centers on African spurred tortoises, a native species also known as Centrochelys sulcata, the Indian Defence Review reported. In 2021, researchers placed 500 of them in a degraded area on the Sahara's southern fringe, where baked, crusted soil had prevented rain from soaking in, leaving seeds with almost no chance to sprout.
"The tortoises did not plant anything," IDR said. "They dug."
These large reptiles burrow deep underground to escape brutal daytime heat and cold desert nights. Their digging breaks up the hard surface crust, creating channels for rainwater to enter the soil instead of running off the surface.
That small physical change appears to have set off a chain reaction. The shift helped moisture remain underground, gave dormant seeds a chance to sprout, and later appeared from space as scattered green growth near the tortoises' activity.
In a region where land degradation threatens food security, grazing, and rural livelihoods, healthier soil can make a real difference for nearby communities.
The tortoises are what ecologists call "ecosystem engineers," species that physically alter their surroundings in ways that help other life. Once burrows loosen the soil, insects and microorganisms move in, plants begin to take hold, and birds and small animals can follow.
Conservation and climate resilience often go hand in hand. Protecting native wildlife can help landscapes retain water, reduce erosion, and recover naturally, much like other nature-based solutions in rewilding projects and low-tech land restoration efforts in dry regions.
Researchers and conservation groups are excited, but also cautious. A 2017 ecological review described the African spurred tortoise as a species with "great ecosystem engineering potential," while IUCN reports have shown high survival rates for some reintroduced groups in Senegal, according to IDR.
Despite the encouraging results, experts stress that this is "neither a magic bullet nor a universal solution." Rainfall, grazing pressure, and ongoing land management still matter. The same tortoise that helps damaged land is also endangered, with habitat loss, climate stress, hunting, and the pet trade driving declines across its range.
New Channel
Gotta be very careful not to pick the Dems who're just trying to get us back to some kind of "Post-Trump Normal".
We have to push for some foundational change to the way we've been doing things.
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