Rebecca M. Townsend

12. Food stamps benefit plenty of Republicans, too. Oklahoma has the fourth-greatest number of recipients, according to one survey. Louisiana has the second-most. (New Mexico is No. 1.)
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8. That report was featured on the frontpage of the Hartford Courant under the headline: “Trump using shutdown to consolidate powers.”

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These 5 people could caucus with the Democrats, giving them a majority & firmly opposing the fascism, any time. It might be nice for an enterprising journalist to ask them why they keep not doing this every day as the crimes & corruption continue & John Thune refuses to fulfill his oath of office.

Graphic with text on top: We're Suing the Trump Administration for illegally suspending SNAP benefits for millions of Americans. The graphic has grocery store food aisles and an empty shopping cart at the bottom.

The federal government has the money to continue funding SNAP benefits — they’re choosing to suspend it and harm millions of families across the country already struggling to make ends meet.

I’m leading a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to release these funds immediately.

Social Security, Medicare are "going to be gone," Donald Trump warns Trump made the comments in response to criticism from a Democrat amid the government shutdown.

The Regime is now threatening Social Security and Medicare if the government shutdown doesn’t end.

Reminder that Republicans have the power to end the shutdown at ANY TIME.

They simply do not care to do so.

President for Life Donald Trump is trying to amass the powers of a king.

Donald Trump has amassed the powers of a king, J. Michael Luttig writes. He won’t give them up easily.

caption: A king room at the Omni Parker House in Boston. After a multi-million dollar renovation, rooms are calming and modern.WERNER SEGARRA PHOTOGRAPHY INC. from the article When I walked into my room this summer, I breathed a sigh of relief. I knew it would be an improvement over the previous incarnation, but in a way I wasn’t prepared for. The Omni Parker House didn’t redesign its rooms to look back to its 170-year history wistfully. Instead, the rooms are uncomplicated, calm, and very of-the-moment. The walls are muted, pale gray, the art is minimalist, and the furniture is unfussy. I was initially wary of the geometric carpet, but the longer I spent in the room, the more I warmed to it. The carpet echoes the stitching of the headboard, the nightstands, and other accents in the room. Unless you’re in the room studying details, none of these bits would be apparent, and that’s precisely how a hotel room should be. The space should be relaxing, not complex.

breakfast at the Parker House when I was there nearly a decade ago tables with white tablecloths, brown chairs waiters standing in the background

all text except for photo of miniature Boston Creme Pie rest all text ​A slice of heaven: Boston Cream Pie - CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-slice-of-heaven-boston-cream-pie/

#Boston Omni Parker House renovation: From garish past to serene present

www.bostonglobe.com/...

Everyone talks about Malcolm X waiting tables there--but how many know that Ho Chi Minh worked as a baker? Glad this story included that. Did he bake a Boston Creme Pie?

🙋‍♀️

Mass. State House staff are unsatisfied, underpaid, and planning to leave, new survey shows - The Boston Globe The results, shared exclusively with the Globe, largely mirror similar survey results from last year, reflecting a workforce that has not grown happier despite some changes to salary ranges and additi...

NEW: Half of the Massachusetts State House staff plan to leave their jobs within two years, according to a new survey conducted by a group of staffers. The survey comes ahead of a hearing this week on legislation that would allow them to unionize.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/27/m...

But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

Turns out it’s a lot easier to draw a contrast from a Republican Senator on actual issues when you don’t vote for the Republican Senator repeatedly.

As Governor, I fought to defend and expand reproductive rights in Maine. My Republican opponent can't say the same. She cast the pivotal vote for Brett Kavanaugh who brought down Roe v. Wade.

Rail service between the 413 and Boston is returning on December 1 after a sinkhole in New York swallowed the only trans-commonwealth service in Massachusetts. #mapoli wmasspi.com/2025/10/brie...

Under the Constitution the Founders expected that "ambition would counteract ambition" and that branches would push back if another tried to seize their powers

They could not imagine congressional leaders who are sniveling cowards happy for the president to trample on them

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1/ My anti-fascist struggle with various historical and contemporary windmills has been described in Daniel Rachel’s latest book "This Ain’t Rock ’n’ Roll." My story and Trupa Trupa’s story close this dark and brilliant book, which is causing quite a stir and has just landed on the

As a reminder, when Biden announced student loan forgiveness—based upon a statute passed by Congress which explicitly said the President could do exactly that—Douthat called it "semi-Caesarist" because it was done "without consulting Congress."

New York Times article reads: "Mr. Zhao had pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and served four months in federal prison, after a yearslong investigation by financial regulators and U.S. prosecutors. “President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Thursday. “The Biden administration’s war on crypto is over.” The pardon was the latest example of how high-profile business partners of Mr. Trump and his family have benefited from his rollback of the wide-ranging crypto crackdown orchestrated by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. To seek the pardon, Mr. Zhao hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration, while Binance struck a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto start-up."

the most corrupt administration in my lifetime

As far as I can tell, Graham Platner hasn’t said outright that “I am Joe Sixpack – vote for me.” But he has performed the part impressively. He has allowed media allies as diverse as The Young Turks & Pod Save America to believe he is. And that’s where the problem begins.

He’s not working class.

This person is one hundred percent correct and it’s scary af. We will never “media literacy” our way out of this as a society. We are about to reap the whirlwind when it comes to misinformation, disinformation, and informational warfare.

Live Updates: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire East Wing

Oh

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

East Wing lobby from 2023

This is what it used to look like inside the lobby area.

It's not "budgetary Twister," it's willfully violating Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution.

Just because President Trump chooses to ignore Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 does not mean that the NYT should pretend Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 does not exist.

No, ‘One Battle After Another’ Is Not a ‘Left-Wing’ Movie The film has been characterized that way by the right...but also by the left. They're both wrong.

'The real revolution going on in this country now is the Christian nationalist revolution — an attempt to upend the American Dream and replace it with a theocracy.'

variety.com/2025/film/co...

As an IU grad who once had a letter to the editor of the IDS published when I was there, & as someone who used the Ernie Pyle Hall Journalism collections for my MA thesis on McCarthyism's rhetorical norms and the limits of <tolerance>, I am glad to see Purdue's solidarity with the IDS.

Murphy: We are not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We are in the middle of an authoritarian takeover. But Trump has not won.

Map: Governors Public Health Alliance * Guam is also a member of the alliance Updated October 15, 2025 Map: @luckytran • Created with Datawrapper

15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more.

Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.

Whether intentional or ignorant, seems ominous: CDC cuts the unit that assessed whether its proposed research studies are ethical.

Blandford hosts dedication to Revolutionary War patriot Approximately 80 people including generations of descendents, representatives from the Daughters of the American Revolution, Blandford residents and officials turned out for the dedication of the Revolutionary America marker to Patriot Jethro Jones on Oct. 11. The main speaker at the dedication was Jocelyn Jones Arnold, the great-great-great-great granddaughter of the patriot.

Blandford hosts dedication to Revolutionary War patriot

Chickenpox outbreak in Westfield schools underscores declining vaccination rates “We are definitely seeing a decline in vaccination rates,” said Fawne StPierre, the school district’s health and safety supervisor. “It’s definitely a concern because it’s not just chickenpox we worry...

There is also a chickenpox outbreak right here in Massachusetts in Westfield, again because there isn't a high enough vaccination rate to prevent that www.masslive.com/westernmass/...

Here's a link to the full story
www.indystar.com/story/news/e...