DL Open Thread: Saturday, November 1, 2025
Judges Order Trump To Forestall Starvation For Millions:
A judge in Rhode Island on Friday ordered the Trump administration to keep paying for food stamps during the shutdown, finding that it had acted unlawfully by refusing to tap emergency funds to sustain the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Late on Friday, President Trump said that the administration would provide the funding for food stamps in November once a federal court could clarify “how we can legally” supply the money. But he indicated that a delay was inevitable.
“It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date,” he wrote on social media, “and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while states get the money out.”
Why even bother litigating such nonsense here? Don’t think anybody’s blaming Democrats for Trump illegally withholding these funds.
The disruption to SNAP is just one example of how federal programs have been imperiled — not just by the month-old shutdown, but also by the administration’s efforts to curtail spending on social programs as part of the domestic policy and tax cut law that President Trump signed in July.
Federal funding for several antipoverty programs will dry up this month because of the shutdown, affecting tens of millions of Americans who depend on subsidies for child care and utilities as well as food.
In previous shutdowns, the fate of SNAP had caused less concern because of the relative brevity of those closures and a broadly shared assumption that the government would continue to fund such programs, said Christopher Bosso, a professor of food policy at Northeastern University and the author of a book on the history of federal food assistance.
“There’s always — always — some money,” he said. “Everybody understood that.”
But after the current shutdown began on Oct. 1, White House officials argued that safeguarding SNAP benefits was beyond their control, even as the administration went to unusual lengths to reorganize the budget to maintain other programs. Vice President JD Vance insisted this week that President Trump had “tried to do everything” in his power to make the shutdown painless.
Critics dismissed that assertion, saying that the benefits were endangered because the Trump administration was unwilling to draw upon reserves that had been set aside to fund SNAP during emergencies.
What Trump Got While On Vacation:
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung presented President Donald Trump with a golden crown.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images
Plus a new marble and gold-plated Lincoln Bathroom:
The White House did not say, in response to questions, who paid for the renovation, how much it cost or which contractor built it.
You would think that the Democrats could easily contrast Trump’s starving of SNAP recipients with his lavish lifestyle and excesses, but it’s Democrats we’re talking about.
BTW, No $$’s For SNAP, But Plenty Of Taxpayers’ $$’s For This:
President Donald Trump marked the first full month of the ongoing government shutdown Friday by blaming it all on Democrats and taking a $3.4 million golf trip to Florida, bringing the total that taxpayers have spent on his hobby to $60.7 million since he retook the presidency in January.
This is his 13th trip to Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach country club, which is across the Intracoastal Waterway from his golf course in West Palm Beach, adjacent to the county jail.
Asked about the shutdown, which has furloughed nearly 700,000 federal workers and is forcing another 700,000 to continue working without pay, Trump blamed Democrats. He told reporters after arriving on Air Force One: “It’s their fault. Everything is their fault.”
During the flight south, he spent time posting photos of his latest renovation project at the White House, redoing the Lincoln bathroom in ornate marble and gold. “The Refurbished Lincoln Bathroom in the White House — Highly polished, Statuary marble!” he wrote.
I know you hate for me to keep harping on the Democrats’, yes, fecklessness, but I hate the fact that they’re so feckless. They should be pounding the table 24/7/365. Jee-zus. Politics 101.
Judge Rules Against Trump Voter Suppression:
Donald Trump’s request to add a documentary proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form cannot be enforced, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington DC, sided with Democratic and civil rights groups that sued the Trump administration over his executive order to overhaul US elections.
She ruled that the proof-of-citizenship directive was an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers, dealing a blow to the administration and its allies who have argued that such a mandate is necessary to restore public confidence that only Americans are voting in US elections.
“Because our Constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the States and to Congress, this Court holds that the President lacks the authority to direct such changes,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion.
She further emphasized that on matters related to setting qualifications for voting and regulating federal election procedures “the Constitution assigns no direct role to the President in either domain.”
You just know that Trump’s minions will try to take this case to the Corrupt Supreme Court. (Yes, by now, the first ‘C’ requires capitalization.)
Carney On Homelessness: ‘It’s Philly’s Fault’. An outright lie, by the way:
Mayor Carney said he blamed other parts of the state and cities in other states for encouraging unhoused people to get services in Wilmington. In a letter to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker in May, Carney said her office’s efforts to clear a homeless encampment on a two-block stretch of Kensington Ave were dramatically increasing the unhoused population in Delaware’s largest city.
Carney also cited media reports about Philadelphia’s program giving homeless people bus tickets to other cities and states to argue that this was also expanding Wilmington’s unhoused population.
“It’s just not right for these other places, cities and towns to send their folks to Wilmington,” he said. “The constant influx from other cities and towns makes it harder for us to care for the population here, and most importantly, it’s unfair to the city residents who live in these neighborhoods.”
However, NBC Philadelphia reported that between July 2021 and May 2025, the Stranded Traveler Assistance program funded 875 trips out of Philadelphia, to 276 U.S. cities and towns. Of those, 14 trips went to Delaware, with eight going to Wilmington.
Eight trips to Wilmington from Philly in four years. Omigod, John, how is any mayor supposed to deal with that massive influx? Carney is merely the latest marionette being manipulated by Buccini/Pollin. The Worst Governor in Delaware History Could Well Become The Worst Mayor In Wilmington History. Which, when you consider some of the recent predecessors, is really saying something.
What do you want to talk about?
Talk about? Your doing great, national and local especially that useless Mayor, former Governor, former Congressman, former LT Governor and former finance of State. Can you believe this guy will get 5 taxpayer pensions from YOU?
Believe me, he’s not worth it. He don’t care about anyone but corporate stuff. He’s the Wilmington Weasel.
Johnny boy is merely taking up the mantle of Mikie and Dennis the Menace in giving little Robbie what he wants and he wants nothing more than cleansing “his” streets of the homeless and anybody that does not meet his standards to be in “his” territory. FYI Johnny boy that party is over and you can adjust your plan to actually help your City and its people or we will do it for you!