Why Working People Got the Blues

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/10/23/why-working-people-got-the-blues/

Sanctuary Defended, Sanctuary Denied

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/18/sanctuary-defended-sanctuary-denied-2/

The War on Iran is a Local Issue

             The US-Israeli war on Iran is a Vermont state issue.  That sentence applies to every state in the union.  Every dollar spent on bombs, missiles and the machines that deliver them is a dollar taken away from health care, education, highways, public transit, food subsidies and many more institutions and programs residents of Vermont and every other US state use.  This is true even during the current period, where Donald Trump and the US right wing do almost everything they can to end those programs by cutting federal funding.  Furthermore, the rising price of gasoline and other fossil fuels that everyone uses, no matter how far off the grid they might live, affects everybody’s ability to live.  More money spent on fuel means less money spent on other items like food and clothing.  Those who struggle to pay rent will find that struggle even greater should the price of these fuels continue to rise and not go down in any substantial way.

            This war was begun for reasons privy only to certain individuals in the US and Israeli governments.  Most readers know that there was an agreement with Iran to prevent that nation’s nuclear power program from building nuclear weapons; that agreement was torn up by the first Donald Trump administration.  Although the more recent talks were moving along and—according to most reports—going Washington’s way, the militaries of Israel and the United States launched a bloody and violent attack on Tehran, killing its political and spiritual leader.  Israel’s involvement is part of its stated desire to annex much of the region known as West Asia/Mideast into its expanding borders, creating a considerably larger Israel.  Given that Israel is at best an ally of Washington and at worst a colony, a larger Israel would certainly benefit the designs Washington has (and has had) for the region.

            Of course, just wishing for a giant Israeli garrison state is not the same as making one.  That is where war and genocide come in.  That is why Washington supports Israel’s ongoing attempts to destroy the idea of Palestine; it is also why Washington is intent on establishing military relations with the monarchies in West Asia. Once again, these endeavors cost a lot of public money and that money comes from taxes paid by US residents.  So, when the Israeli-US alliance goes to war, against the Palestinian people, the Lebanese, or the nation of Iran, the amount of money taken from the US public’s money and transferred to the war industry and the military increases—a lot.  The US military and security apparatus were budgeted over 1 trillion dollars for the current year.  Now, after almost a month of war against Iran, the war hawks in Washington, Virginia and wherever else they lurk want another $200 billion.  According to the US Census Bureau, 174 million US citizens were registered to vote, 73.6% of those eligible in 2024. If one divides the sum of $200 billion desired by the war hawks by 174 million, this would mean that each registered voter is being asked to give approximately $1150.00 more to this ill-begotten and incredibly foolish war.  That amount is on top of the amount already being paid.  Although $1150.00 doesn’t buy much on the arms market, it represents a few weeks of groceries for many Vermonters even at today’s prices (prices which will continue to go up, especially if this war continues to expand.

            In the past few years, some Vermont towns have passed referendums or legislation calling for an end to some trading with Israel until it ends its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.  Those who oppose these referendums and legislation use an argument that says local governments—state and municipality—should not be legislating about matters of foreign policy because it’s not in their purview. This argument belittles each individual and each government struggling to make ends meet in the face of increasing expenditures on wars and occupation.  If it isn’t our job as citizens of towns, cities, villages and indeed, the United States, to challenge those who profit from, clamor for and send troops to war, then whose role is it?  If it isn’t our role as citizens to oppose our money being used to illegally and violently occupy another land, then whose job is it?

            The people of Vermont could make a bold statement by demanding their legislature make it known via a resolution that the majority of the people of Vermont oppose the war in Iran.  They could make an even bolder challenge to the war machine by demanding Vermont’s National Guard forces be removed from battle, whether the Guard agrees or not; it is supposed to be the people’s militia, not the war industry’s.  

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/iran-war-local-issue 

Operation Imperial Fury

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/05/operation-imperial-fury/

Money for War, Wars for Money

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/18/money-for-war-wars-for-money/

Food, Not War

           Bob Marley’s song “Them Belly Full (But They Hungry) has a lyric that goes “A hungry mob is a angry mob…”  I quote the song because tens of millions of people in the United States will lose their access to SNAP/EBT on November 1, 2025.  For those who don’t know, SNAP/EBT is how those people can afford enough food to feed themselves and their families.  Not only do these folks depend on this program to supplement their income so they can buy food, so do the grocery stores—big and small—depend on the income generated by those purchases.  Those purchases came to almost 94 billion dollars in 2024.  SNAP/EBT is not a handout, it is an essential part of a US economy that is out of whack; an economy that continues to give more money to the wealthiest among us while impoverishing more and more hardworking people.  Yes, most people who receive EBT subsidies work, just like most of the people who receive Medicaid and even more of the people who receive subsidies to help pay their health insurance.  Let me repeat, these subsidies are not handouts, even though it would be irrelevant if they were.

             According to an October 26, 2025 article on the The Hill website, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a five billion dollar reserve in its contingency fund. This funding is there to be used when regular funding is not available.  The USDA administers the SNAP/EBT program.  It could use these funds to stave off what will certainly be a drastic increase in hunger, but it refuses to do so.  There’s one main reason it is refusing.  The GOP and Donald Trump won’t let them.  It seems reasonable to say that the GOP and Donald Trump want people to go hungry, even while they continue to collect their paychecks and eat good meals most likely prepared by someone else.  Yes, letting people go hungry is a choice, just like deciding to send thousands of troops and sailors to the Caribbean to kill people accused without proof of being involved in drug trafficking while threatening sovereign nations with war is a choice.  Letting people go hungry is a choice, just like spending billions of dollars to build a gestapo-like police force with orders to kidnap people because of their skin tone and accent is a choice.  I could go on, but I think I made my point. 

            The current government shutdown is an act of vengeance by Donald Trump and his minions.  This becomes clear when one reads the text on the websites of numerous government agencies blaming the “far-left” Democrats for the shutdown.  It becomes even clearer when one goes beyond the alleged reasons given by the White House, reasons that include the lies that undocumented immigrants receive SNAP/EBT, Medicaid and ACA healthcare supplements.  They don’t.  Do I think they should be able to?  Yes.  But they can’t under current law.

            I live in Vermont.  A few days ago (10/23/2025), the newspaper Vermont Digger reported that some Vermont legislators are looking for a way to provide emergency funding so tens of thousands of Vermonters will not go without food sometime in November, the month we celebrate Thanksgiving.  That same article also reported that Vermont’s Governor Scott can order funds to be released that would cover those payments.  I hope and expect Vermont will figure something out.  However, that will do nothing for the tens of millions of other people in the US whose cupboards will be bare without the funds they receive because of the SNAP/EBT program.

            By the way, Happy Thanksgiving.

Trump and Vance Bully, Zelenskyy Leaves the Room, the War Drags On

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/03/03/trump-and-vance-bully-zelenskyy-leaves-the-room-the-war-drags-on/

Kamala Harris: A Hubert Humphrey for 2024

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/27/kamala-harris-a-hubert-humphrey-for-2024/

NATO Still Needs to Go

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/07/12/nato-still-needs-to-go/

Any Way You Look at It, You Lose

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/05/any-way-you-look-at-it-you-lose/ 

Washington and Tel Aviv: Morally Diseased

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/24/washington-and-tel-aviv-morally-diseased/

2023--Darkness at the Break of Noon

https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/12/29/2023-darkness-at-the-break-of-noon/

Afghanistan's Sorrows

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/08/25/afghanistans-sorrows/

NATO's Declaration of War

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/18/natos-declaration-of-war/

Is This What You Voted For?

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/04/25/is-this-what-you-voted-for/

Making War Usually Means More War

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/03/28/making-war-usually-means-more-war/

Open Letter to the Progressive Caucus in Congress

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/25/an-open-letter-to-the-progressive-caucus-in-congress/

It's time we demand peace from Congress

 https://vtdigger.org/2022/10/10/ron-jacobs-its-time-we-demand-peace-from-congress/

The Big Fools Say to Push On

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/07/the-big-fools-say-to-push-on/

New Collection titled Living the American Nightmare--New edition

Living the American Nightmare

The content is the same, but the book is set up more formally.

This is just a small collection of some of my essays and articles published on Counterpunch since January 2019. It is currently only available on Amazon, but should be available via other distributors in a week or so. Although you can find the pieces herein online, this is just in case you want to have a print or ebook version. Here's the First edition's back cover blurb "

The concept of an American Dream has been promoted like the latest Hollywood smash for decades. For too many residents of the United States, that dream has been more unattainable than true romance. In the twenty-first century, the American Dream is revealing itself to be a nightmare--something it's always been for many in the US and abroad. This collection of essays asks the question-is a nightmare still a dream? Is the American Dream a nightmare? "