Noise Rock Dad

Studs Terkel: Luminary for the little man 10 years since the death of Studs Terkel.

Remembering Studs Terkel, who died 17 years ago today.

www.everygoddamnday.com/2018/11/stud...

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS ET AL., Plaintiffs, V. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ET AL., Defendants. * * * * * * * * * * * Civil Action No. 1:25-cv-13165-IT MEMORANDUM AND ORDER October 31, 2025 TALWANI, D.J. Pending before the court is Plaintiffs' Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order [Doc. No. 3] seeking to enjoin, on an emergency basis, Defendants' November 1, 2025 suspension of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("SNAP"). For the reasons stated below, Plaintiffs have standing to bring this action and are likely to succeed on their claim that Defendants' suspension of SNAP benefits is unlawful. Where that suspension of benefits rested on an erroneous construction of the relevant statutory provisions, the court will allow Defendants to consider whether they will authorize at least reduced SNAP benefits for November, and report back to the court no later than Monday, November 3, 2025.

A. Likelihood of Success on the Merits Plaintiffs have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claim under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A), (C), that Defendants' suspension of SNAP benefits is contrary to law. At core, Defendants' conclusion that USDA is statutorily prohibited from funding SNAP because Congress has not enacted new appropriations for the current fiscal year is erroneous. To the contrary, Defendants are statutorily mandated to use the previously appropriated SNAP contingency reserve when necessary and also have discretion to use other previously appropriated funds as detailed below.

As both parties acknowledge, Congress has not yet appropriated any new funds for SNAP benefits for Fiscal Year 2026, which began on October 1, 2025. Pls.' Mem. 6 [Doc. No. 4]; Defs.' Opp'n 7 [Doc. No. 18]. But Congress took steps to protect against the deprivation of SNAP assistance. In the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub. L. No. 118-42, § 6, 138 Stat. 25, 93-94, Congress separately appropriated $6 billion to the SNAP program "to remain available through September 30, 2026" and "be placed in reserve for use only in such amounts and at such times as may become necessary to carry out program operations." See also Pub. L. No. 119-4, § 1101(a), 139 Stat. 9, 10 (2025). As Plaintiffs point out, given the mandatory nature of SNAP benefits under 7 U.S.C. § 2014(a) and the appropriation of these funds to be available 10 Case 1:25-cv-13165-IT Document 26 Filed 10/31/25 Page 11 of 15 through this current fiscal year, the government is obligated to use this contingent reserve account to fund SNAP "as may become necessary to carry out program operations." 138 Stat. at 93-94; Pls.' Mem. 11 [Doc. No. 4].

Defendants argue out that a "suspension" is permitted under USDA's regulations, and that USDA "has consistently interpreted its authority to allow for the suspension or cancellation of benefits when necessary." Defs. Opp'n 6 [Doc. No. 18). The regulation at issue, 7 C.F.R. $ 271.7(a), sets forth procedures to be followed if monthly SNAP allowances "must be reduced, suspended, or cancelled to comply with section 18 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008" (emphasis added). But that the regulation allows for a suspension when there are no funds does not mean that Defendants may choose a suspension over a reduction while funds do remain. If the regulation did authorize such discretion, it would be inconsistent with the statutory mandate that benefits "shall" be paid unless funding is no longer available.

BREAKING: Federal judge rules that the Trump administration likely illegally suspended SNAP benefits, ruling that at least reduced distribution is required to go forward under law using the $6 billion reserve fund.

Judge gives the Trump admin until Monday to respond as to whether it will act.

Federal judge orders Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits out of contingency fund The ruling came one day before funding for SNAP, more commonly known as food stamps, was set to lapse.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Unironically probs part of why Trump like Russia doing imperialism things, because it means the US can do it here

Code Pink voice: Listen the fact is that the Caribbean is part of the U.S. sphere of influence and has been for over a century. Maduro needs to negotiate with Trump to find a solution that respects valid American security concerns .

Mearsheimer voice: What we have to accept is that all great powers seek regional hegemony. By attempting to challenge that hegemony in the Americas, Venezuela and its allies have provoked a war

megan thee stallion is a professional cosplayer and music is basically a side quest to fund her true passion. change my mind.

no one does this many hours of makeup and prosthetics unless they're a big old nerd.

Halloween in Chicago ❤️👻🎃💀

"Dear Sir, Your good name has been bought to my attention as a trustworthy man and a believer in God. I am the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, ruler of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. My mother left me forty-five million pounds and the city of York but I am unable ..."

It's Halloween after the kid went to bed. Know what that means? Time to throw on Deftones' self titled and contemplate the meaning of spookiness

A common theme of Trump II is an utterly cowardly class of elites while everyday regular people have risen to the occasion

this gets even funnier if you map it onto the "viewpoint diversity" discourse in higher ed

Usha, you are in trouble, girl!

Wrong

mark....if you need help.....please reach out to chatgpt and ask it what to do when you're depressed

New York Times headline reads: Trump Hotel Workers Campaign for a Union, Over the Boss's Objections

New York Times headline reads: Trump Moves to Strip More Federal Workers of Union Protections.

But his assertion that diversity weakens unions ignores two things. First, labor unions have a long history of multiethnic coalitions. Second, it was the capitalists and political elites who tried to *exploit* ethnic divisions to maintain power. There is only one person here trying to stop unions:

Kat Abugazeh’s campaign has crossed a threshold where the risk she’s taking is significant enough and the actions admirable enough I sorta am past caring if it’s a publicity stunt/brand building exercise or not, it’s still brave and worthy of respect.

So this story is super duper interesting for a whole ton of reasons, but one big one is its a very rare glimpse into the private valuation of high-end exploits held by major defense contractors

bsky.app/profile/lega...

how it feels to do physical activity after the age of 35

Meta employee count up 3% QoQ, 8% YoY in Q3 2025 to 78,450 from 75,945 in Q2

investor.atmeta.com/investor-new...

WOW! The Washington Post obtained the rest of the body cam footage showing that the drunk-driving ICE agent promised to check if the arresting officer's partner was Haitian. "I’m going to run some checks when I get back." He added that he would have him deported if "not legit."

a running theory i have is that only right-wingers can really capitalize on MMT primarily because left-wingers will get hit by the electorate for not being credible enough

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and let me know if you have any questions! 🤗

Accommodation The government shutdown and economic malaise are taking a toll on hotel and travel demand. Administrative and support services It feels impossible to predict what the hiring and employment market will be in six months. This year has been the most challenging in 15 years of search and staffing. Candidates have failed background checks. Employers have delayed hiring, candidates have accepted counter offers, others have continued interviewing after accepting a new role. These events used to be uncommon and rare. Now they're happening on a regular basis. Revenue swings month to month are drastic. We are trying to budget and forecast, but it is impossible, and I'm on the edge of laying off an employee now. Business has felt recessionary for over a year—no wonder we knew the jobs numbers were off and kept saying there was no way they were as good as reported, and we were correct. These are very tough times for small and midsized businesses. The level of uncertainty has increased in the face of higher interest rates and borrowing costs. Layoffs in the energy sector are just now being felt, and the federal shutdown will have a compounding impact. The government shutdown [is an issue impacting our business]. Most of our customers are federal agencies. If there is a shutdown, our business suffers. Ambulatory health care services We are seeing major price escalation resistance. There are numerous factors affecting our outlook and current performance. A general downturn in the economy and economic outlook coupled with increased layoffs and significant increases in prices for day-to-day commodities have reduced demand for those seeking our pediatric urgent care services. Healthcare fatigue is also a factor post-COVID. Couple that with the frankly baseless guidance that the Department of Health and Human Services is providing, there is also a lot of confusion among potential patients of ours of sound medical judgement. With continued angst over secured overnight fin…

Educational services Uncertainty about visa approval rates and H1-B visa fees will have a potentially significant negative impact. Personal and laundry services I am concerned about the government shutdown. Pipeline transportation Lower oil prices impact producer activity and uncertainty. Professional, scientific and technical services We're seeing significant uncertainty among our oil and gas service company clients. Commodity prices are down, and there is no real cause to anticipate an upturn in drilling activities. The residential market has continued its decline due to the uncertainty of the economy. Homebuilders are having a difficult time selling homes, even with the incentives they are offering, and existing homes are just sitting. The commercial market is a little better but is being held up by energy and data center transactions. We need a major adjustment in the pricing of homes or a significant reduction in the interest rate to get this market moving again. Interest rates are still too high. Reduction in regulations is improving optimism. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act will open new opportunities. We have seen an upturn in work flowing from clients in October in consulting engineering. All of our customers are scaling back on technology spending. I feel like our clients are more apprehensive. We are writing a lot of proposals, but they are just sitting. Projects are still being planned, but the execution is being delayed. I work globally with international companies, so uncertainty is inherently high, and it will likely increase in the coming months. Four new governments in Latin America will be decided within the next six months, and such political transitions always contribute to greater economic and business uncertainty. Commodity prices adversely affecting upstream oil and gas companies coupled with potential increased costs from renewed China tariffs creates an uncertain or negative outlook. We are …

Publishing industries (except internet) There is significant inflation in regular goods prices. We continue to be concerned about compounding effects of tariffs, government shutdown, reduced federal spending, wavering consumer confidence and the levels of credit card usage and delinquency (which we expect to increase), as well as the generally antibusiness policies being championed by Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration. Real estate The sentiment we see from apartment residents, owners, vendors, employees and others is neither optimism nor excessive worry. Folks are getting by OK, reallocating spending to compensate for high food prices, and they seem resigned to their fate. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to terrify immigrants, and they are keeping their heads down. Few people are moving, changing jobs or expecting more. The economy feels like it's in the doldrums, and all the outrageous politics just feels like noise. Our company is doing well enough to throw a couple of big events and make improvements to properties we own. Being conservative, focusing on fundamentals and conserving cash have paid off for us. Others see us doing well, so more prospects are coming our way. We are always hopeful things are going to move forward and upward. Our goal is to survive the next six months. Rental and leasing services I don't know that any geopolitical or political conditions have changed our business outlook. The fourth quarter is typically when we do 27 percent to 29 percent of our volume. The first two quarters of the year are typically slow due to weather and manufacturers trying to manage their budgets. Tax-incentive buying pulls purchases ahead into fourth quarter 2025. Repair and maintenance We are a naturally seasonal business. Our outlook for the future is bright. Securities, commodity contracts and other financial investments and related activities Uncertainty remains uncertain. I wish we would get clarity on tariffs. We have bee…

Specialty trade contractors Volatility—including interest rates, stock market fluctuations, geopolitical issues and the government shutdown—is creating poor confidence. Support activities for transportation With the current administration taking meaningful action to address foreign labor issues, the outlook for the trucking and logistics industry has improved considerably. The decline faced in recent years has been attributable to violations of federal laws, most notably allowing those not legally authorized and without English proficiency to saturate the market and to violate cabotage restrictions. We are encouraged by the renewed emphasis on enforcement and compliance. As these measures take effect and below-market labor practices are curtailed, American motor carriers will once again be able to begin breaking even and then to profit. Telecommunications Too much funding (private equity combined with the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program) is flowing into the broadband industry as evident by the number of broadband providers in any given area. While it has naturally increased competition, resulting in lower pricing, it is also driving irrational investment decisions. These decisions will have consequences once the broadband market begins a correction in the next three to five years. Truck transportation Our business has died. Utilities I feel better about business activity, but the threatened tariffs do not help with the business situation. Warehousing and storage General economic conditions appear to be worsening, though it's hard to put a finger on exactly where or why. We're working through 2026 budget and are expecting revenue to either stay flat or dip. We are eliminating a small number of heads, roughly 4 percent of our workforce. We expect inflation to continue to impact the cost to provide services and will be adjusting revenue in response.

Dallas Fed services comments are LIT this month

"generally antibusiness policies being championed by Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration"

www.dallasfed.org/research/sur...

A water tower common to suburbs that has the text “Save Transit” on it

It's the last week of veto session at the Illinois Legislature, and they haven't passed a transit reform & funding bill yet.

Call your reps TODAY and let them know you want them to get the job done NOW! It takes takes 5 minutes to make 2 calls at savetransit.org

Huh

Voters Did Not Understand the Stakes in 2024 - The American Prospect A large majority of American voters are greatly dissatisfied with the state of things, most especially the economy. It turns out that median voters were catastrophically misled about the stakes of the...

"A critical mass of people who decided the election were bamboozled by America’s horrendously broken information environment, and don’t like the results of their own choices." prospect.org/2025/10/29/v...

I basically think that the economy is slowing down in the USA but that the bottom hasn't fallen out because companies are trimming headcount from a forecast for expansion that never came. Everyone's holding steady over policy uncertainty but no catalyzing event for a blood bath yet.

man. this should not piss me off as much as it does. man oh man it does tho