Clay Jones & Open Windows

Do Trump supporters have regrets? by Ann Telnaes

Not as many as there should be Read on Substack

(photo: J.L. Mertins/ Library of Congress)

Trump has always played to Americans’ fears and prejudices.

===============================================

Totally Obliterated by Clay Jones

Stinky Pete rises again Read on Substack

I’ve had this idea for a few days, but I wasn’t sure about it. Then Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unfairly exploded on a reporter for merely doing her job, so I decided he deserves this. Fuck Pete Hegseth (but not literally).

Stinky Pete attacked a reporter, from Fox News of all places, for doing her job. Her crime was asking Pete a question.

Jennifer Griffin of Fox News asked about whether there was any certainty that highly enriched uranium was stored at the mountain bunker bombed by the US, given that satellite photos showed more than a dozen trucks were seen there two days in advance.

Pete replied, “Of course, we’re watching every single aspect,” Hegseth said. “But, Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.”

How did Griffin misrepresent anything that Trump has said with that question? The question was based on the fact that satellite photos showed trucks at the site days before the bombing,” and while Trump was publicly mulling over whether or not to bomb it. In fact, it’s a very important question and there’s nothing wrong with it, even to the point that it shouldn’t piss anyone off, even a goose-stepping drunky fascist who can’t keep his dick in his pants. But, I guess the question does challenge the talking points and propaganda the regime has put out. This question was apparently worse than the time Sean Spicer was asked about crowd sizes. How dare you!!!!

After the bombing, Trump said Iran’s nuclear program was “totally obliterated.” As it turns out, not so much unless “totally” doesn’t mean totally anymore. Maybe they could say it was slightly obliterated. This is like the time when the military killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Trump said he “died like a dog,” while telling other huge lies about the operation.

An early intelligence assessment leaked to media outlets on Tuesday suggested that the strikes only set Iran’s enrichment program back by a few months and did not destroy its core components.

Any challenge to the narrative that the sites weren’t “totally oblitereated” pisses TACO off nearly as much as being called TACO.

The preliminary analysis was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, and reportedly found that the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings. Basically, Trump bombed the fuck out of their doors.

One of the idiot trolls at GoComics claimed the media was following Iran’s talking points, but no…we’re following US intelligence on this. By the way, US intelligence, or any other intelligence, doesn’t include Donald Trump. This is not the first time Trump has had issues with American intelligence. He once sided with Putin over US intelligence.

I don’t know which makes the regime angrier, the analysis or the leak. It sure pissed off White House SpokesBarbie Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt rejected the intelligence report and accused CNN, which first revealed it, of “fake news.” She later sent a tweet. (snip-MORE, tweet’s on the page)

“Polylepis Specialist”

I Did A Thing Again

just for fun.

Cartoon One Oh Eight Three by Josh Lieb

Lav Read on Substack

Frankenstein’s Monster sits on a toilet, reading The New Yorker. Caption: GREAT MONSTERS GOING TO THE BATHROOM. THIS WEEK: FRANKENSTEIN! FIRST IN A SERIES.

Monsters have to go to the bathroom too, right? But you never see it in the movies.

Here’s Ali Redford with a delightful quick turnaround on one oh eight two:

She went with the old school 1950’s style Golden Arches; I like it! Thanks, Ali.

Back next week you will come, as will I, I think. Read my books. Draw my comics. I’ll post them here.

Who’da thunk it …

Texas Man Born to U.S. Soldier on U.S. Army Base Abroad Deported

How is this possible in the land of the free and the home of the brave?  Is this a democracy anymore?  Have we become a thug nation of lawlessness?  Hugs


https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2025-06-04/texas-man-born-to-u-s-soldier-on-u-s-army-base-abroad-deported/

He has no citizenship to any country, despite SCOTUS case

Jermaine Thomas, who says he was deported to Jamaica without a passport though he’s never been to the country (Provided by Jermaine Thomas)

Ten years ago, Jermaine Thomas was at the center of a case brought before the U.S. Supreme Court: Should a baby born to a U.S. citizen father deployed to a U.S. Army base in Germany have U.S. citizenship?

Last week, Thomas was escorted onto a plane with his wrists and ankles shackled, he says. He arrived in Jamaica, a country he’d never been to, a stateless man.

“I’m looking out the window on the plane,” Thomas told the Chronicle, “and I’m hoping the plane crashes and I die.”

Thomas has no citizenship, according to court documents. He is not a citizen of Germany (where he was born in 1986) or of the United States (where his father served in the military for nearly two decades) or of his father’s birth country of Jamaica (a place he’d never been).

Thomas doesn’t remember Germany. He says he thinks his first memory is in Washington state, but he moved around so much in his military family that it was hard to keep track.

He spent most of his life in Texas, much of it homeless and in and out of jail, he says. His parents divorced when he was too little to remember. His mother, a nurse, remarried to another man in the Army. They moved a lot, and as she and the stepfather had their own kids, Thomas says he struggled in the new family setup.

So at about about 11 years old, he went to stay with his biological father in Florida. By then, his dad was retired from an 18-year career in the U.S. military, he says. His dad died from kidney failure not long after, in 2010.

“If you’re in the U.S. Army, and the Army deploys you somewhere, and you’ve gotta have your child over there, and your child makes a mistake after you pass away, and you put your life on the line for this country, are you going to be okay with them just kicking your child out of the country?” Jermaine says, phoning the Chronicle from a hotel in Kingston, Jamaica. “It was just Memorial Day. Y’all are disrespecting his service and his legacy.”

From Killeen to Kingston

Thomas says it all began with an eviction in Killeen, Texas, which is about an hour north of Austin. Thomas didn’t know where he’d go next, so to get things out of the apartment quickly, he says he moved all of the stuff into the front yard.

While he was gathering things up in the yard, he was joined by his rottweiler, Miss Sassy Pants, whose leash he had tied to a pole.

Then Killeen police showed up. Thomas says they asked for his ID without telling him what he was in trouble for. He says he responded: I haven’t committed a crime and I don’t want to talk to you. They told him that they’d gotten a call about a dog being tied up. Next, they asked if he had the dog’s immunization records or chip number. He said they checked her chip and didn’t see Sassy’s name, so they told Thomas they’d be taking her to the pound.

The dog was loaded into a truck, and Thomas says at this point, he was arrested. Killeen police confirmed that he was arrested for suspected trespassing with no other charges. That’s a misdemeanor in Texas. He went to the Bell County Jail, where he says a court-appointed lawyer told him he could be sitting in a cell for eight months if he wanted to take the case to trial.

After about 30 days in jail, which resulted in losing his job as a janitor, Thomas says he signed paperwork to be released with conditions. But instead of being released, he was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Waco. He was there only a few hours before being transferred again to an ICE detention camp in Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston.

He says he spent two and half months incarcerated in Conroe, and it seemed like no one knew the status of his case. According to Thomas, a deportation officer told him repeatedly that he had a very unique case, and that it was out of their hands in Texas, and now in the hands of “Washington, D.C.”

“You keep explaining to me that I’m being detained in suspended custody, in detention, but if I don’t have a release day and I don’t get to see a judge, that’s pretty much a life sentence,” Thomas says.

Feeling frustrated with his indefinite imprisonment, Thomas says he called the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Inspector General to file a report about what he thought was unlawful detention.

His case only got more confusing after that, he says. After a guard told him he would soon be released, Thomas was allowed a mesh bag to put his property in. He says all he had was some paperwork from his citizenship case and a phone. The phone didn’t have service – naturally, as he hadn’t been able to pay his phone bill since being incarcerated.

Officers brought Thomas to a room full of Spanish speakers. Thomas says he found one man who spoke “broken English” who said they were all being deported to Nicaragua. “So I get to banging on the door, and I’m like: Hey, why am I in here with them?”

Jermaine Thomas in Kingston (Provided by Jermaine Thomas)

Thomas says he decided then that if officers asked him to put his hands behind his back, he just wouldn’t. “I thought, I’m not gonna do it,” he says. “I’m gonna refuse to do it: Respectfully, I don’t mean to be a problem or anything like that, but you’re not gonna just kidnap me and traffic me across the lands and international lines and deport me like I’ve been seeing y’all do on the news.”

The Back of the Airbus

At least they sent him to Jamaica, says Thomas’ new friend and fellow deportee Tanya Campbell. It may be a country he’s never stepped foot in, and it may be he’s only there because of his “appearance,” as she puts it, but at least the language is English. Campbell, who actually grew up in Jamaica, was imprisoned for manslaughter more than a decade ago in New York. Upon her release from prison a few weeks ago, ICE picked her up. On May 29, she says she was one of roughly 100 people brought to a plane on a tarmac in Miami, bound for Kingston.

At the airport, as she exited a van and was being shackled, she noticed a man surrounded by between eight and 10 officers. That’s how she describes first seeing Jermaine. He was the last to board the plane, “And it was like a walk of shame,” she says. He was seated at the back with officers on either side. She assumed he was a fugitive.

Thomas says he sat in the 31st row. Landing was “bizarre, too real,” he says. “It was like a stampede. Everybody just got up and got off the plane.”

Thomas waited in the last row.He says an ICE officer got on the plane and said: “I don’t have records for more than half of these people. There’s something wrong.”

ICE and DHS did not respond to our questions.

Thomas says he doesn’t know what to do in Jamaica. He finds people difficult to understand, plus many speak Patois, and he doesn’t. He doesn’t know how to get a job. He doesn’t know if it’s the Jamaican or U.S. government paying for his hotel room, and for how long that will last. He’s not sure if it’s even legal for him to be there.

Editor’s Note Friday, June 6, 4:44pm: This story has been updated to correct the year of Thomas’ father’s death. The Chronicle regrets the error.

Ohio’s GOP-backed budget keeps anti-LGBTQ provisions, Governor’s Merit Scholarship changes

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/06/26/ohios-gop-backed-budget-keeps-anti-lgbtq-provisions-governors-merit-scholarship-changes/

By:  – June 26, 2025 4:25 am

The final version of Ohio’s two-year state operating budget retains anti-LGBTQ provisions, requires Governor’s Merit Scholarship recipients pledge to remain in Ohio after graduation, and ties state funding to compliance with a new higher education law.

The budget now heads to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk for his signature, which he must sign by June 30. He can line-item veto provisions in the budget.

Anti-LGBTQ provisions

A handful of anti-LGBTQ+ provisions are sprinkled throughout the budget, including a provision that would only recognize two sexes — male and female.

“Do we really have to make a law that says that men are men and women are women?” state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, asked. “Do we really have to define that? We shouldn’t have to, but apparently we do.”

The budget would require public libraries to put books related to sexual orientation or gender identity in an area of the library that is out of sight for minors.

“If moms and dads want their kids to be indoctrinated within that, that’s up to the moms and dads, but we’re not going to put it in children’s faces in the children’s sections of the libraries,” Click said.

Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, called out the library provision.

“If you are one of the 20% of young people who identify as LGBTQ, you’re not going to be a hero in that story,” he said. “We have to have more books that show you as a leader, as a champion, as a hero.”

The budget would also ban Pride flags from being flown at public buildings and prohibit giving funds to youth homeless shelters that house transgender youth, even if they also serve youth who are not transgender.

“We are not hanging out the welcome mat for people from the LGBTQ community,” said Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood. “We should be a place where folks can just be who they are authentically and live and let live.”

Higher education provisions

The Governor’s Merit Scholarship awards the top 5% of each high school graduating class a $5,000 scholarship each year to attend an Ohio college or university.

Under the final version of the budget, scholarship recipients must sign a statement of commitment to live in Ohio for three years immediately after graduation starting in fiscal year 2027.

“If we want our young people to stay in Ohio, to start their careers in Ohio, to start a family in Ohio, we need to put our money where our mouth is, and we are doing that in this budget,” said Ohio House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville.

The Senate’s version of the budget would have required scholarship recipients sign a promissory note, but the final version of the budget instead requires students to sign a statement of commitment to live in Ohio for the first three years after graduating college.

“It was deemed (the promissory note) was a little bit heavy-handed and so we tried to roll that back,” Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon said.

The budget allocates $47 million for fiscal year 2026 and $70 million in fiscal year 2027 for the Governor’s Merit Scholarship.

The Governor’s Merit Scholarship was enacted through the last state budget two years ago and 76% of the state’s 6,250 eligible students from the class of 2024 accepted the scholarship. Eighty-seven percent of Ohio students accepted the scholarship in its second year and 11 rural counties had a 100% acceptance rate.

The budget ties a portion of the State Share of Instruction to compliance with Senate Bill 1, a new higher education law banning diversity efforts, creates post-tenure reviews and an American civic literacy course, among other things.

The law affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges and each university must submit a report showing compliance to the House and Senate higher education committees by March 1, according to the budget.

Housing provisions

The budget kept housing provisions the Senate added to the budget — $90 for the Residential Development Revolving Loan Program and $10 million for the Residential Economic Development District.

The Residential Development Revolving Loan Program supports new, single-family residential homes in rural areas of the state.

“If we want to grow our population, we have to have places for folks to live,” Stewart said. “This is going to be directed to small counties. We can’t be growing housing just in the three C’s, we need to be growing housing all across Ohio.”

Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky

IWW & So Much Republican Crime in Peace & Justice History for 6/27

June 27, 1905
The IWW (Industral Workers of the World) was founded in Chicago.
June 27, 1954
The first atomic power plant opened at Obninsk, Russia, near Moscow, and could generate up to 5 megawatts. The plant was ordered by Josef Stalin and—being graphite-moderated and water-cooled—could be switched to plutonium production in case it was needed.
The facility was shut down in 2002.
June 27, 1954
Military action directed and funded by the CIA (Operation PBSUCCESS) forced the resignation of the Guatemalan President, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.
Winner of the country’s first election under universal suffrage, and having taken office in the country’s first peaceful transition of governments, he was accused by the U.S. of Communist influence. Following the coup d’etat, hundreds of Guatemalans were rounded up and killed.

Jacobo Arbenz Guzman
Between 1954 and 1990, human rights groups estimate, the security forces of successive military regimes murdered more than 100,000 civilians, including genocide against Guatemalan native peoples.
More about Arbenz 
The CIA’s own documents on the action 
June 27, 1973
President Nixon’s former White House counsel, John W. Dean, III, told the Senate Watergate Committee about Nixon’s “enemies list.”He released a 1971 memo, written by presidential advisor (now Rev.) Charles Colson, proposing the use of “available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”

John Dean
Twenty persons were to be subjected to IRS audits, litigation, prosecution, or denial of federal grants, and an additional list contained 200 names of other individuals and organizations considered enemies of the administration.
The complete Enemies List and memos from Colson 
The president’s misuse of government agencies and powers, in pursuing those he saw as his political enemies, was the basis for one of the articles of impeachment that forced Nixon from office.
June 27, 1978
Seven citizens of the Soviet Union sought refuge in the American Embassy in Moscow as escape from government oppression of religious minorities. The Pentecostal Christians, known as the Siberian Seven, from two families, the Vashchenkos and Chmykhalovs, spent months in the basement of the embassy awaiting permission for all family members to emigrate to the U.S.
One of their sons was already in prison for defying the military draft, and another was about to reach conscription age. Recently released from prison, Baptist Pyotr Vins was twice assaulted by police after trying to arrange his family’s emigration. His father Georgi, national leader of dissident Baptists, though due for release from a labor camp, faced five additional years of Siberian “exile.” The leader of a breakaway Seventh-day Adventist group was sentenced to five years of hard labor at age 83.
June 27, 1980
President Jimmy Carter signed a measure that required approximately
4 million U.S. men age 18 to 25 to register for the military draft, and all 18-year-old males thereafter. If there were to be a crisis, registered men would be inducted as determined by age and a random lottery.
June 27, 1986
The International Court of Justice (“World Court”) decided that the United States violated international law as well as its bilateral Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Amity with Nicaragua through its use of force against the Central American country. This included a trade embargo, the mining of harbors and bombing of airfields, as well as furnishing financial, military and logistical support to the so-called Contra insurgents. The Contras’ goal was to overthrow Nicaragua’s popular left-wing government. The Court also ruled that the U.S. should compensate the country financially.The Reagan administration had originally contested the standing of the Court to rule on such an issue, and it had walked out of Court after losing the ruling on jurisdiction, despite its treaty obligation to appear. The Court’s judgment to act had been decided 11-3 on almost all counts, those voting for the U.S. position being an American, a British and a Japanese judge.
THE WORLD COURT IN ACTION by Howard N. Meyer 
More about the Court’s decision 

“10 years after winning marriage equality, Jim Obergefell wants to aim higher”

Jun 26, 2025 Kate Sosin

This story was originally reported by Kate Sosin of The 19th. Meet Kate and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.

It happened just a few weeks ago: Jim Obergefell was moving things in his office when he came across the ashes of his late husband, John Arthur, now 12 years gone. Arthur had last wishes for his ashes. Obergefell had yet to fulfill them.

“And it struck me that, oh, I am actually now mentally, emotionally ready to take care of John’s ashes,” Obergefell told The 19th. “It was the first time that I had that feeling so clearly and so strongly.” 

Obergefell, 58, is ready to move on. Not exactly from the love of his life or the history-making Supreme Court decision that came after Arthur died. But certainly from the insecurities straight America was grappling with a decade ago about same-sex unions. 

Obergefell is that Obergefell: the named plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit that extended marriage equality to every state in the nation in 2015. Ten years later, he celebrates that win and the many ways it rewrote his life. And in a time when LGBTQ+ rights are again under assault, he is looking to the future — of the queer rights movement and also his own. 

A journey to the Supreme Court

Obergefell’s journey to the Supreme Court was hardly destined. It began 12 years ago, on June 26, 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that prohibited the government from recognizing same-sex marriages. 

Obergefell and Arthur had been together for 21 years at the time. The two had discussed getting married before. But they wanted it to be legal, and their home state of Ohio didn’t offer same-sex marriages. 

Arthur was gravely ill with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, and he barely left his home hospice bed. 

After the ruling, Obergefell leaned over to Arthur, hugged, then kissed him.

“Let’s get married,” he said. 

Arthur agreed. 

The logistics were not easy. Arthur was in no shape to travel, and the couple could not wed in Ohio. Obergefell researched and found that Maryland would let him get a marriage license even with only one of them present. But both would need to arrive in the state for the ceremony. 

When friends and family learned about their predicament, they pooled together money to charter a medical jet for Arthur. The two flew to Baltimore. Over the course of 45 minutes, they exchanged vows on the tarmac before flying home. 

“In the days that followed, we said the word ‘husband’ hundreds of times a day,” Obergefell said on the Decidedly Podcast in 2023. 

But just five days later, their joy was muted when civil rights attorney Al Gerhardstein informed them that because of Ohio’s ban on same-sex marriage, Arthur would be listed as single in death.

Arthur and Obergefell were angry. The couple sued the state of Ohio in federal district court and won. Three months later, Arthur died.

The following year, Obergefell, still in mourning, lost on appeal. But he refused to believe he might lose altogether. 

“I just kept going,” Obergefell said. “It was the right thing to do.”

On June 26, 2015, he won. For the country, the win was immensely practical. Many told Obergefell it gave them so much hope it saved their lives. For Obergefell, it meant a legacy for the man he loved. 

“I made promises to John to love, honor and protect him, and I was going to keep doing that,” he said. 

Jim walks down steps laughing beside a rainbow flag and a sign that says love wins".
In the decade since Jim Obergefell won his Supreme Court case that made same-sex marriage federally legal, hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples have married in the U.S. (Eric Gay/AP Photo)

Changing history

It’s difficult to overstate the impact of Obergefell’s case on the nation or the world. Since the 2015 ruling, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimates, 591,000 queer couples have wed, generating an estimated $5.9 billion in wedding spending for state and local economies. 

It has also radically transformed Obergefell’s life. Introverted and unassuming, he has spent the last decade campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights. He helms Equality Vines, a wine company that donates its proceeds to advancing civil rights causes. 

It’s a position that makes him deeply proud if not a little fatigued. 

“I’m not tired of talking about it,” he said of the 10-year anniversary of the ruling. “I’m just physically tired from all of the interviews and the photographers and the speaking gigs and the events. Yes, I’m exhausted.” 

For 12 years, Obergefell has kept Arthur alive through retelling their story countless times in courtrooms and for the media. That exercise, of telling and retelling, helped Obergefell process his profound loss. 

But he has never recoupled. It wasn’t that Arthur didn’t want him to. In fact, Arthur told him regularly that he wanted him to find love again. He asked his friends and family to tell Obergefell that he wanted him to find love after he was gone.

“I know it was sincere, because he told me that he had other people tell me that,” Obergefell said. 

It isn’t about the pressure he feels as the face of marriage equality, he said, though part of him wonders what it would be like to date after making history. 

“I don’t know how to date,” he confessed. “I’m clueless when people flirt with me, and as much as I hate it, and I don’t go into any conversation or anything like this, but you know, there’s that part of me that sometimes wonders, you know, are they interested in me as a person, or are they interested in me as Jim Obergefell, named plaintiff?”

Obergefell’s name has become synonymous with marriage equality in the United States, an issue that has not always united the LGBTQ+ community. Some queer activists have argued that same-sex marriage was a misguided goal for the movement as queer youth continue to face high rates of homelessness and transgender people grapple with police violence and incarceration, among other issues.

More work to do

Obergefell, too, is worried that the needs of the community’s most vulnerable have gone unmet. He has watched horror-struck over the last five years as state legislatures have moved to restrict transgender rights.

“We need to fight for every marginalized community, because the queer community includes every marginalized community, and equality for one is pointless without equality for all,” he said. “I didn’t go to the Supreme Court just so White, cisgender, gay men like me could get married.”

Despite all of the setbacks in LGBTQ+ rights, and even threats to Obergefell’s game-changing victory, he is hopeful — and feels stronger than ever. People assume his case was difficult for him. It was, but the path was also obvious, to him and to Arthur. They loved each other. 

“If we weren’t willing to fight for each other and for what was right, then what’s the point?”

Struggling to get by on programs on the chopping block

I could have written large parts of this myself.   It is scary to be in our position and at the mercy of those who have so much money they will never understand our needs or it seems even care.  Most of congress are multimillionaires.  They see their jobs not to look out for people like me, but to gain ever more wealth and power for themselves.  Which leads to the billionaire bailout bill the republicans are pushing to pass right now.  Hugs


Opinion: Struggling to get by on programs on the chopping block

The author asserts cuts to programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance will make it difficult for her to afford basic necessities The program provides month payments to people who have a disability that stops or limits their ability to work. (Dreamstime/TNS)

The author asserts cuts to programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance will make it difficult for her to afford basic necessities The program provides month payments to people who have a disability that stops or limits their ability to work. (Dreamstime/TNS)

Being a care provider in a nursing home is backbreaking work. It includes heavy lifting and spending all day on your feet, helping patients eat, dress and use the bathroom while keeping track of dozens of patients who all have different needs, medicines and preferences. It’s never easy, but during my career I held myself to the standard of providing the care I would want someone to give to one of my family members.

I was a certified nursing assistant and medication aid in nursing homes before retiring due to health problems. I loved my job. It provided me with more than a paycheck; it gave my life meaning. It felt good to be someone people could depend on, especially in times of need. I loved being the first face my patients would see in the morning and the last at night. It was physically and emotionally draining at times, but always worth it. I’ve learned that anything in life worth having is a struggle to obtain. I miss working every day.

Now, my main source of income is Social Security Disability Insurance. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to cover my rent or help take care of my daughters, grandchildren or father. My monthly disability check, which I put toward rent, laundry, bills and other necessities, goes fast. The only way I am able to cover the rest of my expenses each month is through programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program and Medicaid.

I’m prediabetic, so I have to be mindful about what I eat. SNAP is the only way I am able to afford healthy food. Lately, the price of everything in the grocery store has gone up. I shop carefully, but some weeks I have to forego buying meat to save money. My SNAP benefits have gone down significantly in recent months, which has already made it harder for me to afford the food I need. Across Pennsylvania, over 2 million people receive SNAP benefits. That’s thousands of families in our state, just like me, who depend on this program to put food in the mouths of their children.

I’ve received Medicaid on and off for over 20 years. It has helped me pay for important surgeries including a vision surgery, cystoscopy and a hysterectomy. Medicaid helps me cover copays and deductibles and access mental health services. Losing Medicaid would mean sacrificing health care and having to pay my medical costs out of my own pocket, which I cannot afford.

Every winter, LIHEAP benefits help me keep my home warm. It keeps my heating bill manageable so that I don’t have to use the stove to generate heat. Without LIHEAP, I would need to make tough decisions about which bills to pay, whether that’s rent, electricity or gas. It would be a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul. My monthly budget is extremely fragile and the possibility of losing LIHEAP, which provides me about $200 each winter, is enough to put my whole financial situation at risk. When I hear that politicians in Washington want to make billions of dollars worth of cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, LIHEAP and other programs, it makes me incredibly anxious. Without these programs, I wouldn’t be able to stock my fridge, go to the doctor or heat my home.

I spent decades caring for patients in need and did it with pride. No one ever expects to be disabled and suddenly have to stop working. You never know what could happen and never think it could happen to you until it does. I didn’t think I would ever need back the tax dollars I put into the system. But God had a different plan for me. These programs are so important for me and millions of Americans.

But the programs are also part of what makes America a great and a caring nation. They ensure that any American — our neighbor, our family member, or a co-worker — who gets sick can live with dignity in the richest nation on earth. It seems like Republicans in Congress have no interest in supporting everyday people. They just want to make the rich richer.

By voting in favor of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, my Congressional representative, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, voted to turn his back on constituents like me. With these cuts, people will suffer and end up on the streets. People like me, who are already doing everything we can to make it work, will struggle even more.

I am calling on Sens. Fetterman and McCormick to chart a different path and put an end to these proposed cuts. Lives are on the line. It’s time for our leaders to show that they care and that they are willing to stand up against billionaires. On behalf of the millions of Pennsylvanians who rely on these SNAP, Medicaid and LIHEAP, I urge you to protect these programs and our ability to provide for our families.

This is a contributed opinion column. Pamela Berman is a Bethlehem resident and former certified nursing assistant. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.

Political cartoons / memes / and news articles I want to share. 6-27-2025

 

#benjamin slyngstad from Saywhat Politics

 

#donald trump from Saywhat Politics

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Bowlby's Bric-a-brac

Image from Liberals Are Cool

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Image from Robert Reich

 

Image from Assigned Male

#lgbtq from FEMESTELLA

AMERICA WILL NOT BE DESTROYED BY UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS, SAME SEX MARRIAGE, MUSLIMS, OR ABORTION. BUT RATHER BY UNREASONABLE FEARS, •UNCONTROLLABLE HATRED, DIVISIVE POLITICS, UNETHICAL POLITICIANS, DELIBERATE MISINFORMATION AND GULLIBLE POPULATION.

 

Image from RECORD GUY

 

#gavin newsom from Liberals Are Cool

 

Image from Depsidase

It Starts With Heartless Cruelty to Animals First  Then Humans Are Next

 

Jeff Koterba patreon.com/jeffreykoterba

Bob Englehart PoliticalCartoons.com

Image from Bowlby's Bric-a-brac

 

 

#zohran mamdani from Liberals Are Cool

#zohran mamdani from Liberals Are Cool

 

Tom Stiglich Creators Syndicate

R.J. Matson CQ Roll Call

Harley Schwadron CagleCartoons.com

Image from Liberals Are Cool

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Image from Depsidase

#goddammit america from Big D's Tumblr

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pic.twitter.com/WUuEpA7ULU

— Fernando Oliver, Esq. (@Fernand46357857) June 22, 2025

#June 14th from Social Justice In America

#sleepy don from Rejecting Republicans

 

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

 

 

 

 

Jeff Koterba patreon.com/jeffreykoterba

Harley Schwadron CagleCartoons.com

Rick McKee CagleCartoons.com

John Cole The Scranton Times-Tribune

Image from Liberals Are Cool

 

Dave Whamond PoliticalCartoons.com

 

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

Image from Liberals Are Cool

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#Mitch McConnell from Rejecting Republicans

#Rick Scott from Social Justice In America

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Image from They Told Me I Couldn’t. So I Did.

Image from Depsidase

Image from I defy categorization!

 

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