Life in America, 2026
A friend who lives in subsidized, rent-controlled housing tells me that crippled elderly residents in her building who had been receiving $200/month in food stamp benefits (SNAP) have now seen their monthly benefits cut down to $24/month. How would anyone buy groceries to last an entire month—what could you buy?—with $24?
On the other hand, there is plenty of money in Washington to be spent on erasing dignity and history and replacing it with glaring white and gold and monuments to vanity. The travesty of the new decor in the Oval Office wasn’t enough, even with the expensive fiasco of the reflecting pool “renovation” and subsequent damage, which was preceded by the outright destruction of the East Wing of the White House. Now it is the turn of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, its grey granite to be painted white. Whatever we are told it is going to cost, we can be pretty sure the eventual price will be a multiple of the first number announced. The gift plane from Qatar? That “free” plane? How much are we taxpayers now on the hook for?
And now a certain member of the Cabinet wants how much more money to pursue a war that we were told was “won” after the first week? Ninety billion more, not ninety million more. He must need a few bucks to test soldiers' testosterone levels, too, since that's one of his big priorities. I mean, gender-affirming care like that costs money, too.
But elderly, disabled people living in poverty—why should our taxes to go helping fellow Americans in need, when so many wealthy individuals and corporations have not yet reached the trillionaire level? If the poor were deserving, they wouldn’t be poor, would they? It’s all a matter of priorities and values, isn’t it? Each of us shows our priorities and values by which politicians and policies we support.
Want more? How about this? There is plenty of money for tracking down law-abiding, tax-paying immigrants and slapping them into tax-sucking private prisons. But not enough money, the Department of Homeland Security thinks. They want a lot more.
And the ARCH???!!! There is no way I can add anything to that without profanity, so I’ll stop.
Oh, wait! I forgot data centers! You think you can keep them out of your community? You think local control means anything to the current administration? Read this.
And How About Those Tariffs?
There are emails I don’t read but delete as soon as I see the subject heading. One such group are the messages offering me tens of thousands of dollars to use in my business. No, not loans, just “quick cash!” I’m lucky but also hard-working, and neither desperate nor stupid.
It turns out (I heard this ghastly story on NPR while in my car, the only time I listen to radio news) that there is a whole new “industry” offering quick cash to small business owners who don’t have time to wait for approval on a bank loan or don’t qualify for a bank loan because they have no track record. I put “industry” in scare quotes because predatory financial schemes like this are exactly that: predatory rather than industrious. The people create nothing for others but poverty, and such mob-like operations should be seen as outright criminal, but at present they are within the letter of the law.
I repeat: The money offered is not technically considered a loan—for whatever bizarre, legal labyrinthine rationalization that provided that loophole—and so there is no limit to the interest that can be charged or how often payments are demanded.
Not technically loans, they are called Merchant Cash Advances, and they function for businesses similar to the way “payday” loans function for individuals. You need money now! Today! You don’t have it! You’re desperate! Here it is, yours for the taking!
How does this relate to tariffs?
Many small businesses import products or parts from overseas, and tariffs on these goods must be paid at the port of entry before the goods are released to the business owner, so what can you do if you have orders to fill and need to get your hands on the products to deliver orders to your customers? In one instance, three cash advances totaling $950,000 somehow turned into a debt of $1.2 million. Read the full story for yourself. It’s the nightmare behind today’s tariffs, the horror story no one wants to admit being sucked into.
Now, the $64,000 Question (though with inflation, the dollar amount needs to be multiplied):
Which of the above is the worst story?
