The military is supposed to be nonpartisan – to protect and stand for all Americans. To those soldiers standing behind Trump booing and laughing at Trump’s cruelty – and their commanding officers that went along with the spectacle – you disgraced the uniform, and you should all be ashamed.
What is changing is that despite decades of anti-immigrant rhetoric, I believed the line would be drawn at turning these services into weapons. That the government would not use school records, Medicaid applications, or tax forms to target the families that feed our nation.
There is no way that the charitable food bank network — as big and robust as it is — can make up for these devastating cuts. SNAP is, by far, the most efficient and cost-effective way to make sure that people in our communities have enough to eat. What’s more, grocers in poor and working-class neighborhoods like mine, as well as rural communities, rely on SNAP dollars to stay open.
We depend on Duke for electricity. They need to deliver that. But Duke also shouldn’t put shareholder profits over careful stewardship of the natural resources that we all depend on.
This isn’t politics as usual. This is dangerous. Over the past few months, I’ve watched headlines roll in with a knot in my stomach. Cuts to vital veterans’ services. Mass layoffs of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ staff. Unelected power brokers unraveling programs that took decades to build, with no accountability to the American people. President Donald Trump, backed by the likes of Elon Musk, has allowed his political allies to gut federal agencies, including those that directly serve veterans and their families.