Julia from the PNW

MAGAZINER: How many veterans have you deported?

NOEM: We haven't deported veterans

MAGAZINER: We are now joined on Zoom by a combat veteran you deported to Korea

Many women also don't produce enough (despite hours of torturous pumping and trying to build a supply) and need to supplement with formula, and should not feel shame about that whatsoever. The healthiest kind of baby is a fed baby, full stop.

My son participated in the walk out at Mountainside - good job, kids!

The Real Math of Survival The official poverty line for a family of four in 2024 is $31,200. The median household income is roughly $80,000. We have been told, implicitly, that a family earning $80,000 is doing fine—safely above poverty, solidly middle class, perhaps comfortable. But if Orshansky’s crisis threshold were calculated today using her own methodology, that $80,000 family would be living in deep poverty. I wanted to see what would happen if I ignored the official stats and simply calculated the cost of existing. I built a Basic Needs budget for a family of four (two earners, two kids). No vacations, no Netflix, no luxury. Just the “Participation Tickets” required to hold a job and raise kids in 2024. Using conservative, national-average data: Childcare: $32,773 Housing: $23,267 Food: $14,717 Transportation: $14,828 Healthcare: $10,567 Other essentials: $21,857 Required net income: $118,009 Add federal, state, and FICA taxes of roughly $18,500, and you arrive at a required gross income of $136,500. This is Orshansky’s “too little” threshold, updated honestly. This is the floor.

The single largest line item isn’t housing. It’s childcare: $32,773. This is the trap. To reach the median household income of $80,000, most families require two earners. But the moment you add the second earner to chase that income, you trigger the childcare expense. If one parent stays home, the income drops to $40,000 or $50,000—well below what’s needed to survive. If both parents work to hit $100,000, they hand over $32,000 to a daycare center. The second earner isn’t working for a vacation or a boat. The second earner is working to pay the stranger watching their children so they can go to work and clear $1-2K extra a month. It’s a closed loop.

The Housing Lie (Or, Why the Model Is Optimistic) Critics will immediately argue that I’m cherry-picking expensive cities. They will say $136,500 is a number for San Francisco or Manhattan, not “Real America.” So let’s look at “Real America.” The model above allocates $23,267 per year for housing. That breaks down to $1,938 per month. This is the number that serious economists use to tell you that you’re doing fine. In my last piece, Are You An American?, I analyzed a modest “starter home” which turned out to be in Caldwell, New Jersey—the kind of place a Teamster could afford in 1955. I went to Zillow to see what it costs to live in that same town if you don’t have a down payment and are forced to rent. There are exactly seven 2-bedroom+ units available in the entire town. The cheapest one rents for $2,715 per month. That’s a $777 monthly gap between the model and reality. That’s $9,300 a year in post-tax money. To cover that gap, you need to earn an additional $12,000 to $13,000 in gross salary. So when I say the real poverty line is $140,000, I’m being conservative. I’m using optimistic, national-average housing assumptions. If we plug in the actual cost of living in the zip codes where the jobs are—where rent is $2,700, not $1,900—the threshold pushes past $160,000. The market isn’t just expensive; it’s broken. Seven units available in a town of thousands? That isn’t a market. That’s a shortage masquerading as an auction. And that $2,715 rent check buys you zero equity. In the 1950s, the monthly housing cost was a forced savings account that built generational wealth. Today, it’s a subscription fee for a roof. You are paying a premium to stand still.

Never forget that we're in a CLASS WAR, not a political one.

shorturl.fm/2qBi9

Where are all the people who tore their garments over legitimate non violent criticisms of Charlie Kirk? Where are all the people who rant about "left and right” when the violence of the GOP is front and center?

Just a reminder: there was a Biden administration investigation into Epstein and Maxwell's co-conspirators. Trump killed it in January, fired the prosecutors, stole the files, & ordered Bondi to open a new sham investigation, led by a handpicked prosecutor, so DOJ wouldn't have to release the files.

If this picture was of Obama, you know @FoxNews would do three weeks solid on why the flag was on the ground.

At least three weeks

Priorities.

Another revelation from all of these emails is that many of the richest and most powerful people in the country absolutely cannot write. Helps explain their sweaty embrace of LLMs.

And this is why the corporate class shut down Teen Vogue.

Mamdani: "Yes, aunties."

WOW. 81% of women 18-29 voted for Mamdani, 80% for Sherril, and 78% for Spanberger.

Gen Z women aren't playing around.

hilarious graphic right now on msnbc as they call it in california

BREAKING: PROP 50 HAS PASSED IN CALIFORNIA

Oh we will not forget who bent the knee.

Everyone should pay careful attention to the Maine voter ID ballot measure (Prop 1). It is on track to lose -- thereby proving that the GOP claims that voter ID laws are overwhelmingly popular is a lie. Perhaps now the legacy media will stop repeating that nonsense.

Democratic women have made history tonight:

Abigail Spanberger will be the first female governor of Virginia.

Mikie Sherrill will be the first female Democratic governor of New Jersey.

I’m looking forward to seeing these strong, dedicated leaders deliver a bright future for their states. 🎉

Hi, I’m God.

Jesus and I agree that starving the poor so you can build yourself golden bathrooms and golden ballrooms is evil. Anyone who does that shall burn for eternity. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Thanks,

God

Best 3 minutes you will spend on the internet today.

BREAKING Democrat-led states sue the Trump administration for withholding emergency SNAP funding during the shutdown. Trump is witholding food assistance from 42 million Americans—using them as political pawns—instead of negotiating with Democrats to reopen the government. Source: New York Times Photo: Getty Images.

Trump and Congressional Republicans would rather starve children than lower health care costs for millions of Americans. This is a cynical, callous choice they’ve made in order to exert political leverage and avoid releasing the Epstein files.

It’s that gross.

Trump is deliberately defunding SNAP, choosing to let 40 million Americans—including 16 million kids—go hungry.

There’s $5 billion in emergency SNAP funds just sitting there, and they’re flat-out refusing to use it—breaking the law in the process.

He may be demolishing one of the most iconic structures in American history…

But on the bright side, the billionaires he gave massive tax cuts to will have a nice ballroom to dance in.

You’re not invited, though. 🫤

And your healthcare premiums are going to skyrocket. 🤷‍♂️

Baseball is a misery who invented this shit

the president using the office to punish americans that didnt vote for him should really be one of the biggest scandals in americas history

I live right outside of Portland, went downtown to a concert last night. Restaurants and bars were busy and people were out and about. Didn't see anything boarded up. Lies.

That's my city!

Portland is so peaceful Republicans had to go all the way to South America to find photos from years ago for their bad memes.

This story is absolutely horrific and the police officer caught on camera needs to be held accountable.

Update on Boomertifa from the war zone.

MORE: Minutes after this happened, video emerged of ICE officers on the roof of a facility in Portland firing rubber bullets at protesters outside the facility—not on facility grounds—who were merely standing and looking at the building.

No violence, no crimes, no disruptions. They were fired upon.