Snap Decisions

Believe it or not, new hires at Walmart are specifically taught how to apply for SNAP and Medicaid. The minimal amount of wages that Walmart pays them means that tax-payers pick up the part of their wages that Walmart should have paid in the first place.

Meanwhile Walmart keeps all the money their employees are rightfully entitled. Money that, more liberally and fairly shared, could enable their employees to live a better life without begging for a government handout.

BTW, Walmart isn't alone in this offense against humanity. Almost every large retail company has also come to rely on tax-payers to fund their operations in the same manner. This is why it's important to demand for a livable wage.

A civilized society shouldn't need something like SNAP to help the working man. It should be reserved for those who cannot help themselves. Capitalism is failing the workers of this country because employers got greedy. But what else is new?

Raise the minimum wage now.

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I think the GOP is actually delighted that Momdani was elected mayor of New York, for the same reason they were happy that Obama won the presidency in 2009.

While most of America was rejoicing in the knowledge that America had matured a bit by forgetting, for a moment, its racist past and electing at least a half-Black person to the highest office in the land the GOP was embarking on a relentless eight-year spree of open and hostile racism aimed squarely at Mr. Obama.

As Mitch McConnell put it "The GOP's top priority [in the fires of a worldwide economic meltdown created by Bush and the GOP, no less] was to make Obama a one-term president."

So, yes, they'll employ the same racist tactics against Mr. Momdani and fund-raise until the cows come home.... And the bovines will be armed and wearing masks.

For the record: Give 'em Hell, Zohran!

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Today, while digging through a box of dusty junk at a local garage sale, a kitten, about three months old, joined in. He was a handsome brown tabby, bright-eyed and ready to play.

I've been hitting garage sales for decades and this was honestly the first time a kitten ever interrupted my scrounging. It was, mere days after burying what I consider my last cat ever, as though Fate was trying to tell me my cat-loving days weren't quite over, whispering "Go on. Take him home" into my ear.

You might be disappointed to learn that I told Fate to fuck right off, especially after I learned the lady running the sale told me that the kitten's only other sibling had died and so she was keeping this one. Fair enough.

I still intend to remain fully feline-less but it delights me to know the little buggers are out there, waiting to tug at my heart.

- Lefty