Friday, October 31, 2025

Stuffing in the Kitchen

Guess what?  Thanksgiving is coming up.  Susan e-mailed to note Love & Lemons' recipe for stuffing:


Ingredients:

1 small loaf (1 pound) day-old crusty sourdough bread, not sandwich bread

½ cup salted butter, plus 1 tablespoon melted butter for topping

2 leeks, halved, thinly sliced, and rinsed well (2 cups)

4 celery stalks, diced (1¾ cups)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

¾ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped fresh sage

Heaping ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

    1½ to 2 cups vegetable broth

    2 large eggs, beaten


Instructions


    Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease an 8x11 or 9x13-inch baking dish.

    Tear the bread into 1-inch pieces* and place in a very large bowl.

    Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks, celery, garlic, salt, and pepper, and sauté for 5 minutes, turning the heat to low halfway through. Pour the leek mixture over the bread and sprinkle with the sage, parsley, rosemary, and thyme. Use your hands to toss until coated. Pour 1½ cups of the broth evenly over the stuffing and toss to coat. Add the eggs and toss again. The bread should feel pretty wet. If it’s still a bit dry, mix in the remaining ½ cup of broth. The amount you use will depend on how dense and dry your bread was.


Some basics.


Do not wait until the day of Thanksgiving to try out a new recipe.  Susan's e-mailed in plenty of time.  It's a stuffing recipe.  If you're wanting to do stuffing from scratch and like the recipe, do a trial run.

The worst thing you can do is make a stressful day more stressful.  And if you're cooking you probably already have some stress.  We all want what we cook to turn out well and have everyone like it.  

I loved Nora Ephron's writing.  Loved her directing too but I go back to her days as a media columnist.  Heartburn was her only novel, I believe.  It was very funny.  I've read it many times.  She included recipes in the novel.  I love lima beans and I love pears so the recipe for a casserole was made for me.  But it did not turn out right.  It was only years -- decades -- later in one of her essay collections that I came across her explaining the recipe was wrong.  That's why I never got it right.

So my point is that you can follow a recipe exactly and still end up with a problem.  That's why you need to try it out before.  

Let me also note as I try to every year, the get together is the thing.  Serve sandwiches, serve popcorn.  Great food is excellent but great food is not why we gather.  We gather to touch base and to remember one another.  You can have pizza -- if you're hosting -- and that's perfectly fine.  


Do not ruin it for yourself by trying to cook every side and every meat you can think of.  

News?  Yelena Mandenberg and Somaiyah Hafeez  (The Mirror) reports:


Data reveals that the majority of beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are children - many residing in states and regions that voted for Trump.

As Democrats and Republicans turn SNAP beneficiaries into a battleground for insurance and budget disputes, data indicates that approximately 39 percent of all American children live in households that utilize the federally funded EBT cards.

States with high SNAP usage rates also tend to have high poverty rates, a correlation that is to be expected. New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, and West Virginia top the list in terms of the number of families, families with children, senior citizens, and adults with disabilities using food stamps (relative to their population).


This is C.I.'s "The Snapshot" for Thursday:


Thursday, October 30, 2025.  Politics, politics, the candidate who needs to drop out (and take the liars who are pimping him with him), a dubious attack on Zohran, the need to understand that constituents consume information in a multitude of ways, Chump's shutdown continues and continues to harm the country, a look at some of the many attacks ICE is carrying out as they break the law, and much more.


Let's start with campaign politics.  Specifically the trash that is Graham Platner -- a liar, a racist, a homophobe, a denier of rape, a sexist, a mercenary who worked for Blackwater and so much more -- we noted him yesterday but there's still more to cover..  


He' got an army of whores on his side.  Including Krystal and Kyle.

When you want to know what Democrat to back, do you go to Krystal and Kyle?  I mean, in the summer of 2024, who were they endorsing?  O, that's right . . . Democratic Party candidate Jill Stein.


What's that?  She was the Green Party candidate.  Then Joe dropped out and they walked away from Jill.  But if Joe hadn't dropped out, these good' Democrats (Socialists, not Democrats) were going to vote for Jill Stein.  

Kyle has a tendency to lie off his YOUTUBE channel, he's pick some criticism online and he'll shoot these e-mails out to everyone he knows denying the criticism and calling the person a liar.  So you can click here to see the endorsement.   Or you can click here.

Kyle is a DSA-er, not a Democrat.  His Justice Democrats were all Socialists with DSA.  They couldn't run as socialsits because they were cowards.  Rashida Tlaib, to her credit, stopped her double life when she endorsed Zohran early on this year (endorsed him for NYC mayor). I don't like tricksters.  I don't like people who lie to you and try to manipulate you to get you to vote the way they want you to.


That's all Kyle and Krystal have ever been.  When they were pimping Marianne Williamson for the 2024 presidential nominee, they got all bent out of shape when people started pointing out that she wasn't just an author and guest on their show, she had also just attended their wedding.  It was like when Chris Hedges tried to pose as 'just a journalist' when he wrote about Cornel West 'getting' the People's Party's presidential nomination -- and he left out the part about the deal was negotiated by him (Hedges) and he was supposed to be the running mate until the last minute when Chris' wife said no.  You didn't get that in the pieces Chris wrote, nor in all the YOUTUBE echo chamber programs he went on -- programs like Krystal and Kyle's.  Poor Cornel.  He wasn't ready for that run to put it mildly.  And the reason we covered Chris' lies to readers and viewers, his attempts to manipulate them, was because they hadn't clued Cornel in.  Cornel went on a live program and started answering questions and answering with the truth.  Yeah, it was new, but Chris came to him and told him that he could be the People's Party's presidential nominee and he said he'd be Cornel's running mate and that was their plan but then Chris' wife . . .


We covered it here and we covered it at THIRD.  You didn't see THE NATION cover it, did you?  Or Krystal and Kyle.  Or anyone in the Circle Jerk.  That's because it wasn't news to them.  They'd known about it from the start and they'd chosen to ignore it so they manipulate you.  


And they lie like that all the time.  


Good for Rashida for coming out.  You can't run AOC for president if you all hide in a political closet.  AOC is a Socialist and Kyle and Krystal may be able to team with Sam Seder and others to lie but that's not going to hold in the real world.  And not during a real national campaign.


DSA is a joke.  It's become a bigger joke as years have gone by.  I've never had respect for it because 'the plan' was always that they'd take over the Democratic Party from within.  Why did you have to lie to do that?  


SEP?  They're Socialists.  They don't lie about being Socialists.  They run a candidate for president every four years without hiding or insisting that the candidate isn't a Socialist.  They've never done -- as Kyle did with TYT's Cenk -- come up with a group of Socialists and dub that group "Justice Democrats" in order to fool voters.


Jacob Crosse (WSWS -- the SEP's publication) has a great article on this nonsense that went up last night:


Since it was revealed earlier this month that Graham Platner, the Bernie Sanders-endorsed Democratic candidate for Maine’s Senate seat, had a Totenkopf skull and crossbones Nazi tattoo on his chest for nearly two decades while serving as a soldier/mercenary for US imperialism, the pseudo-left and self-proclaimed “progressive” Democrats have lined up in defense of the far-right candidate.

This campaign is being led by Jacobin magazine and joined by figures such as Krystal Ball of Breaking Points. They have pointed to Platner’s posting history on Reddit to claim that his comments, which Platner deleted but had written under the handle “P-Hustle,” show a man with “progressive” and “anti-fascist” views rather than a “secret Nazi.”

Last week Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic published two articles in defense of Platner. 

[. . .]

Likewise in an editorial segment on her program Breaking Points, Ball, a supporter of Sanders and the 2022 John Fetterman Senate campaign in Pennsylvania, said the revelation that Platner had a Nazi tattoo made her “more ride or die for him than ever.” She added that “we actually have access to his edgiest sh*t posts and none of them are far right.”

In fact, what Platner actually wrote under his “P-Hustle” handle, combined with his record in service of US imperialism, completely refutes these claims. Far from revealing a “progressive” outlook, his posts express open admiration for the most reactionary and murderous episodes in the history of American imperialism.


Sorry if I look askance at someone who posts about how he would have glady taken part in the Native American genocide in this country.   Or someone who bragged about violating orders in order to shoot up Ramadi?  I'm sorry, no.  No and never.  This site started as another way to try to end the Iraq War.  We don't now pretend that terrorizing Iraqis -- which is what he did in Ramadi when he shot off mortar rounds that he wasn't supposed to -- is suddenly okay. 

Back to the article:


Platner’s entire public persona—a “working-class veteran” turned “oyster farmer”—is a political fabrication. As a teenager he attended two private schools, including the $75,000-a-year Hotchkiss School, an elite Connecticut prep school whose alumni included CIA Director Porter Goss, Jonathan Bush (President George H.W. Bush’s brother and investment banker), William Clay Ford Sr. and Jr., Robert Lehman of Lehman Brothers Inc., Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and Clinton adviser Strobe Talbott. His grandfather, Warren Platner, was a world-renowned architect and designer as his New York Times obituary notes, and Platner’s father, Bronson Platner, is a prominent Maine attorney.

Far from an economic conscript forced to sign up for the US military out of desperation, Platner belongs to the upper strata of the American bourgeoisie—a layer whose sons move effortlessly between elite schools, the military and corporate or political office. His “populism” is as phony as his claims to have been unaware that he had a Nazi tattoo on his chest for over 18 years.

[. . .]


Bernie Sanders, Platner’s most prominent backer, went even further. Asked about the Nazi tattoo in an interview with Axios last week, Sanders downplayed the issue entirely, “Between you and me there might be one or two more important issues.”


This from the man who supported apartheid.  This from the man who all but the White faux left knows has a long history of racism and, in the midst of one presidential campaign, had to pay off an employee and get her to sign an NDA when she filed a complaint about the racist work environment he had created.


And that's really what it comes down to.  The DSA is pimping racism.  They know Platner's history but they think racism is the answer.  They always do this -- it's what Liza Featherstone was doing in the piece we called out Monday.  


Tressie McMillan Cottom covers this reality very well at THE NEW YORK TIMES:


I cannot swear to know the minds of men like Murphy and Sanders. But, were I a betting person, I’d wager someone else’s riches that they know racism and xenophobia are inextricably linked to America’s inchoate understanding of class politics. They know that “working class” has become a powerful political totem of its own — a discursive sleight of hand used to separate out white voters’ concerns as more legitimate, more materially grounded, more important than other voters’ concerns.

These senators are demonstrating a willful blindness that has become endemic in the Democratic Party. Their rhetoric — and the conventional wisdom that flows from it — suggests that we cannot talk about economic solutions without abandoning our commitment to the Black, Latino, gay, transgender and female poor that are the lifeblood of the Democratic Party’s base. The conceit at the heart of that belief is that poor white people are too racist, and too uniquely ignorant of their racism, to vote in their best interests. Therefore, Democrats have to accept a little racism to win the working class.

It is an old argument. History will tell you that negotiating with racism or fascism or authoritarianism never ends well.


Exactly.  We're going to have to stop there because we have so much more to cover.  I'll work Zohran in later on but let's move to a different topic.  Back when Chump was spacing out during campaign speeches ahead of the election, some swore that he would only deport the worst of the worst.  Those with criminal records, they insisted.  But he now uses his gestapo force to not only attack non-criminals but also to attack non-immigrants. 



Shocking video shows a chaotic scene on a quiet Chicago street as Border Patrol agents in tactical gear drag a 67-year-old man from his car while children in Halloween costumes look on in horror.

According to his running club, the man, who is a U.S. citizen, was returning from a team run when agents pulled him out of his vehicle, tackled him to the ground and kneeled on top of him, allegedly breaking six ribs and causing internal bleeding.
The incident unfolded Saturday in the city’s Old Irving Park neighborhood, where residents say the agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade amid an immigration enforcement operation.

In a statement shared on Instagram, the Chicago-based DWRunning club identified the victim as one of their athletes, although it did not name him.

“One of our athletes was on his way home from a team long run yesterday and as he turned onto his block, found that Border Control had the road blocked,” the club wrote.

“The agents threatened to break his window if he didn’t move his car. Before he could act, they pulled him out of his car, knelt on his back, and subdued him, though he never resisted. They broke six of his ribs and caused internal bleeding.”


White House creep and erectile dysfunction spokesperson Stephen Miller insists that ICE can do this.  The law, of course, says otherwise and always has.  Need another example of the gestapo in action?  Maria Villarroel (THE MIRROR) reports:


A Houston teenager said a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent choked him, beat him, and yelled racial slurs at him when he was on his way to school. He is a U.S. citizen.

The incident occurred on Thursday, Oct. 23, when Arnoldo Bazan, 16, was being driven to school by his father, Arnulfo Bazan.
As they were on their way, an unmarked vehicle pulled over their car, Bazan recalled during a press conference. When they stopped, officers who were dressed in plainclothes and wore no insignias approached their car, but did not identify themselves as law enforcement.

“Their vests, they didn’t say ‘police’ (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), nothing. And that’s when me and my dad got scared because they started hitting our window, tried to open the door,” the younger Bazan said. “Me and my dad went to fight-or-flight mode, and we just backed away.”

The dad drove away in fear, but they were chased by the agents and rammed into their car several times. Eventually, the two stopped their car and tried to flee the situation, but were instead tackled and choked by the agents in a restaurant supply store.
“I saw they started choking him, kicking him, punching him,” Barzan said. “It’s when I reacted, I just ran to my dad, and (another agent) grabbed my shirt. I didn’t hit nobody. I didn’t do nothing to nobody. I was just standing there recording on my phone. And they took my phone. Then that’s when they tackled me. I said I was underage, the dude started choking me more.”

In America, I believe those of us alive in the 90s and after are all familiar with car chases.  The most famous, of course, being the Bronco car chase.  Help me out on this, when did the police begin ramming OJ's Bronco?  Oh, that's right, never.  Because you're not supposed to do that.  Stephen Miller makes excuses and lies and, yes, encourages people to break the law.  ICE is public lice.  They have given themselves a bad name.  They are poorly trained and they are poorly supervised.  Instead of upping the standards, they're actually lowering them. Law professor John Pfaff writes at MSNBC:


 And while the low quality of ICE recruits is making it harder for them to hit their target, it also means that the ones they do hire are likely to be less qualified, and thus more likely to do even more harm when deployed. But it is clear that Trump and his immigration consigliere, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, hope to build up ICE as a way to strike out at Democratic cities, and the ongoing struggles to hire more people suggest that goal may prove elusive.

They do not follow the law.  They threaten.  They bully.  They attack.  There are rules in place on how police officers and others can interact with the public.  ICE doesn't believe they're bound by those rules.  Yelena Mandenberg (THE MIRROR) notes:


A shocking video shows an Immigration and Customs Agent wearing an American Flag mask break in a woman's car window to arrest her in Addison, Illinois.

Several people were taken into custody during the incident. A statement from ICE says two people taken into custody are being processed to face immigration proceedings. Community members say several people were arrested, and some unnecessarily.
The incident took place near the 300 block of West Lake Street, and left the community shaken. “Me, as a U.S. citizen, even us are afraid of these guys,” said a local business leader who asked to remain anonymous. “We feel this is something that is not right, not legal," he said to WGNTV.


There's so much wrong there.  Stephen Miller, can you step up and explain one thing, who okayed the outfit of the ICE agent.  Donald Chump has done an illegal executive order on flag burning that won't stand up in court; however, an ICE agent isn't a private citizen.  I know Miller is an uneducated idiot so let's him out:


Using the American flag as a mask is a violation of the U.S. Flag Code's guidelines for respecting the flag. However, violating the Flag Code is not illegal for private citizens and carries no penalties, as the Supreme Court has ruled that laws prohibiting desecration are unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment. 


The ICE agent violated the Flag Code guidelines in public and on the clock.  That should result in firing by a president who thinks he can make it illegal to burn the flag.  And look at the wear and tear and dirt on the flag that is worn by the ICE agent.  It's a desecration of the flag of the United States of America.  Study up on that, Stephen Miller.


There was an incident in Pasadena, Texas Monday.  We're going to ignore Homeland Security and Liar Trish because they are serial liars and what people present say happened contradicts the false assertions (yes, they can be presumed to be false assertions -- you lie on legal paperwork and in court and after awhile you're seen as a liar).  Ahmed Humble (HOUSTON CHRONICLE) reports:

Family members and neighbors, however, described a chaotic scene. 

KHOU 11 spoke with Margarita Barron, who said her husband, brother and neighbor were taken into custody. The three men, she explained, left for work around 5 a.m. and were followed by immigration agents after stopping at a nearby gas station. When they realized they were being trailed, they returned home near the corner of West Houston Avenue and Dade Street. 

"They told us (to) get out of the house," she told KHOU 11 in Spanish. "They were going to tear-gas the house. We have babies inside." 
A neighbor, Gaby Gonzalez, also told the CBS affiliate she was inside her home at the time when she claimed ICE agents cut her power and tried breaking into her home through a window, the roof and underneath. She claims they never presented a warrant and only wanted the three men inside and threatened to use tear gas if they didn't surrender. After about seven hours, they turned themselves in to the authorities. 

Pasadena District C Councilman Emmanuel Guerrero, in a statement to Chron, said he understands ICE has its responsibilities but strongly disagreed with the methods used by officers. 

Stephen Miller, can we hear you defend that?  Explain how warrants aren't needed and that ICE can cut power to a house and break into a home via a window, the roof or underneath?  What country do you think you're in right now, Stephen Miller, because this is not America.


Let's move  back  over to politics.  Zohran Mamdani is in the news.  He's the Democratic Party nominee for Mayor of NYC.  A few e-mails asked what I thought of the "issue" (their term) with his father.  Jerry Dunleavy (JUST THE NEWS) reports:


Zohran Mamdani's father Mahmood - a prominent leftist in his own right - penned a book in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 where he argued that there was a "moral equivalence" between the United States and al-Qaeda, compared the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center, blamed the U.S. for 9/11 and al-Qaeda, and much more.
Mahmood Mamdani is a longtime tenured Columbia University professor, where the school says he "specializes in the study of colonialism, anti-colonialism, and decolonization." Raised in Uganda and of Indian descent, the likely future mayor's father also previously taught at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania, Makerere University in Uganda, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The leftwing academic wrote a 2004 book - Good Muslim, Bad Muslim - which may help explain his son's views on terrorism.


Ten e-mailing about that are supporting Andrew Cuomo who lost the Democratic Party nomination and is running as an independent. They're hoping that reading that will make me endorse Andrew.  I don't endorse in elections I can't vote in.  As for what I think of the "issue" (forty-three more people e-mailed about it without expressing who they would vote for or if they could vote in the election)?  

What's the problem?  Are people really that stupid?  What's the problem?

Poli sci major.  We would have consumed Mahmood Mamdani's book quickly and then spent several classes debating its points.  Some of us would agree with it, some of us wouldn't.  Some of us would split the difference.  (If this was undergrad and not grad school, I'm sure some of the ones attacking it the most would be the ones who hadn't read the book.)  College is about brain power.  He's taking a stand and he's making an argument.  It's not hate speech.  It's a simple political argument being made.  There's nothing wrong with it.

In terms of Zohran responding?  He can respond however he thinks best.  Were I him, I'd probably say something along the lines of, "My father's written many books.  Not sure I remember everything in that one but I'm proud of my father and I think it's pretty sad when a campaign tries to make someone insult their own father.  Proud of him."

Because that is what's going on.  Zohran didn't take the course.  He may or may not have read the book.  But if Cuomo's tactic is to try to shame Zohran into slamming his own father, that's pretty sad and pretty low.

I'll add that I find it interesting that right-wing outlets (like JUST THE NEWS) are working to try to take down Zohran to elect Cuomo. That's the sort of thing that should honestly make Andrew drop out.  Chris is a joke but Andrew did pay attention to what his father taught him and there's no way in the world Mario would have approved of this sort of collusion.   


Meanwhile, support for Convicted Felon Chump continues to decline.  Marni Rose McFall (NEWSWEEK) reports:


President Donald Trump’s support among young people has hit a new low, according to a poll.

The survey, conducted by YouGov/The Economist between October 24 and 27, shows that Trump has a net approval rating of around -50 points among voters under the age of 30.
Young Americans have long leaned left and voted for the Democrats. But the 2024 presidential election saw a major shift, with a much higher proportion of Gen Z voters backing Trump.

According to AP VoteCast, voters aged between 18 to 29 supported Kamala Harris over Trump by 51 percent to 47 percent in 2024. This margin was significantly narrower than in 2020, when former President Joe Biden carried the same age group by 61 percent to Trump’s 36 percent.



 

 


Let's turn to the Epstein files -- thought we may get lost in politics.  US House Rep Robert Garcia has been a leader on calling for the release of the Epstein Files and he is the Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee.  Matt Brown (AP) notes:

 


Garcia has sought to use his position as the committee’s ranking Democrat to weave his party’s disparate stances on Trump, affordability, corruption and democracy into a single message. Oversight Democrats have also sought information on the treatment of U.S. citizens by the Department of Homeland Security, gifts and payments to administration officials and the administration's response to natural disasters.

“I continue to think this is the most corrupt administration in American history, and we have a huge responsibility to investigate that corruption and to also try to make government work better for working people,” Garcia said.

Garcia has also been a critic of House Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to delay the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva, a Democratic congresswoman-elect from Arizona. Johnson says Grijalva can't be sworn in until the government shutdown ends and legislative work resumes in the House. But Garcia and other Democrats say Johnson's real aim is to delay a vote on legislation that would broaden the subpoena for the Epstein files.

As Democrats revamp their media strategy, Garcia has encouraged Oversight Democrats to engage in new digital media to boost the party’s message. He's also been meeting with government reform groups to craft legislation around transparency that they hope to put in front of voters next year.

“I think on oversight we have a responsibility to gather the information and then to put it out to the court of public opinion, especially in front of Trump’s voters,” he said.


And he's right and he's wrong.  And I said in a previous snapshot that after the shutdown was over I'd talk about how Chuck Schumer screwed up.  These snapshots are dictated and that was actually just a private remark that I didn't realize was going in the snapshot until I heard about it after it was up. We need to reach all voters with messaging.  And one problem that some people highlight is that Democrats in office -- especially those of a certain age -- do not grasp the changing environment.  Younger voters are different and they get information differently.  That's true and Garcia and others are so right to work on that.

But the country is not just young voters.  It is also older voters.  I think at the start of the Chump government shut down, Chuck should have done a lot more.  I would've liked to have seen him speaking to MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, for example.  But he didn't and he's someone who needs to be skilled on the changing environment.  That's work that needs to be done.  And I'll cut him some slack there.

Where I won't and why I think he needs to leave leadership? 

He understands 'the world wide web' [www.] and he damn well knows that you're online office (website) is now more important than your physical office.  Once upon a time, people actually visited physical offices to get press releases and updates.  They really don't do that now.  Older voters, however, still go to the online offices. 

Chump's shut down started September 30th.  Chuck is the Senate Minority Leader.  Where was Chuck.  He issued a press release on September 19th.  And then his office didn't issue anything until October 14th (after I had been yelling about this offline along with many others).  He needed to have something out and should have been up September 30th when the shutdown started.  

That's not leadership.  I can cut him some slack for not grasping the importance of YOUTUBERS and podcasters.  He clearly needs someone to walk him through that.  But when he's not even doing what he knows needs to be done?  

Forget voters, there are reporters for periodicals whose work consists almost entirely of pull quoting from press releases.  And he provided nothing to them either.

He failed.  It was his job to lead on messaging.  

Democratic Party leadership needs to lead on messaging and that does mean podcasts, that does mean going on the awful FOX "NEWS" if you -- like Pete Buttigieg -- are good at that, that does mean doing YOUTUBE programs and it does mean continuing to do press releases at your online offices.  And some of the younger ones don't grasp that so young and old and in between Democrats in Congress should be working together to craft an information delivery system that covers all the bases -- and if you're not part of that, you shouldn't be part of leadership.

And we're failing, Democratic voters, if we think everyone needs to be Jasmine Crockett or AOC -- ready to tackle the new media and do it so wonderfully.  We need people who know the workings of the two chambers, we need people who are idea people, we need people who are thinkers (maybe not the best speakers) because everyone can contribute if they're willing to.  And, sorry to stay on this, when Chuck waits 15 days to do a press release on the shutdown, and then waits nine more days before doing another one?  And then hasn't done one since?  What the hell kind of leadership is that?  He's the Minority Leader and that's supposed to pass for leadership?  Senator Patty Murray is a workhorse.  She keeps her head down and focuses on the work and is one of the MVPs the Democrats have in the Senate. 29.  Since the shutdown started, Chuck's released two press releases on the shutdown.  Patty's released 29.  And unlike Chuck, she's also issued press releases on ICE, on Gaza, on authoritarian movement in this country, on everything imaginable. 

Chuck and his office can only issue two press releases during that same period of time?  It's time for Chuck to step down from leadership.  He lacks the energy for the job.

The shutdown?  Chump caused it and Republicans control both houses of Congress.  Why are the Democrats?  They're fighting for the American people.  They're fighting for affordable healthcare.  The Republicans (except for Marjorie Taylor Greene) aren't all concerned about the American people having affordable healthcare.  Tami Luhby (CNN) reports:


Premiums for Affordable Care Act coverage will skyrocket 26%, on average, next year, according to a KFF analysis released Tuesday evening, just days before open enrollment starts on November 1.

The price hike is one of the largest jumps since Obamacare plans debuted more than a decade ago — and it doesn’t factor in the expiration of the enhanced premium subsidies.
Premiums for Affordable Care Act coverage will skyrocket 26%, on average, next year, according to a KFF analysis released Tuesday evening, just days before open enrollment starts on November 1.

The price hike is one of the largest jumps since Obamacare plans debuted more than a decade ago — and it doesn’t factor in the expiration of the enhanced premium subsidies.


 

 
Instead of attempting to end his shutdown, Chump is focused on his Epstein Ballroom.

 

 

November 1st, people will be without food assistance.  Healthcare is going to go through the roof and instead of working with Democrats to address these issues that directly impact We The People, Chump's busying on his ballroom.

The economy is in the toilet but Chump's focus is his ballroom.


 

 
 

 

 

We're going to wind down with a press release from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office and -- please note -- Chuck Schumer hasn't issued his own press release (again, he and his office lack energy, it's time to leave leadership):

 Video of Press Conference (Youtube)

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) hosted a press conference alongside health care creators in the U.S. Capitol to sound the alarm on the government shutdown and health care affordability crisis.

In a first-of-its-kind format, the senators invited content creators who are also health care professionals to share their stories at the press conference. The creators include Dr. Anita Patel, Dr. Fran Haydanek, Dr. Heather Irobunda, and Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, PA.

“While Donald Trump builds a fancy new ballroom for himself and his donors, Americans across the country are getting notices in the mail telling them their health care premiums are going up by thousands of dollars a year,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren. “Democrats are fighting back because we believe that health care isn’t just for rich people. No one should go bankrupt because they got sick.”

“Every mother deserves to walk into a delivery room without fear of losing everything—her home, her health insurance coverage, or her life—just because she dared to have a baby in America. We need to extend the subsidies that make care affordable,” said Dr. Fran Haydanek, a health care content creator and board-certified OBGYN. “I became an OBGYN to deliver healthy babies. I never imagined I'd have to stand here pleading for my patients’ ability to afford the care that keeps them alive.”

“I have intubated teenagers in diabetic comas because they were rationing insulin their family couldn’t afford. I have battled uncontrolled seizures in the ICU, which can cause permanent brain damage, because parents had to choose between their child’s seizure medications and paying their rent,” said Dr. Anita Patel, a health care content creator and Board-certified pediatric critical care physician. “When health care costs become unbearable, lifesaving EpiPens do not get refilled, a child’s sinus infection turns into meningitis, and ruptured appendicitis leads to septic shock from delayed care.”

“A lot of times, my patients can't come to their prenatal appointments because they can't afford the $2.90 to take the bus or the train. Let's not make it harder for them,” said Dr. Heather Irobunda, a health care content creator and board-certified OBGYN. “These folks are my neighbors. They're my friends. They're our friends, and they're valued members of our communities.”

“Health care is not a bargaining chip. It's not a luxury. It's the foundation of all of our lives. And it's time for every lawmaker to start acting like it,” said Nikki Sapiro Vinckier, a health care content creator and OBGYN Physician Assistant. “Caring about people shouldn't be radical. It should be part of their job.”

It doesn't matter if you don't have Medicaid, if you don't have Affordable Care Act, it's going to affect all of us, because hospitals, which depend on Medicaid funding, which depend on insured patients having coverage, are going to go down as well, because they're already running on negative margins, said Dr. Karen Tang, a health care content creator and board-certified OBGYN.

Senator Warren has led the charge collaborating and working with influencers in the Senate. Senator Warren was the first member of the Senate to host a creator briefing on Capitol Hill and has hosted more than half a dozen virtual creator briefings. She was also the first member of Congress to invite a content creator—not a celebrity—to testify before Congress.

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