Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“. . . the fake news isn’t reporting on Operation Arctic Frost. It’s not that they’re trying to cover it up. . . but that they actually think it was totally normal and legitimate.”

 – Hans Mahncke

Surely you’ve noticed in recent years just how gruesome the Halloween townscape has become with our competitive yard displays of giant skeletons, shrieking ghouls, corpses seeming to emerge from the crabgrass, and miscellaneous body parts strewn about the property. The symbolism seems pretty overt: America yearns to become a death cult.

The world has seen this before and it generally doesn’t end well. Something in their equivalent of the zeitgeist drove the Aztecs to sharply ramp-up the scale of their human sacrifices in the years just before Hernán Cortés came to their capital city, Tenochtitlán. Bernal Diaz, a foot-soldier in Cortés’s legion, later wrote:

“I remember that they had in a plaza, where there were some shrines, so many places of dead skulls, which could be counted, according to the concert as they were set, that when they appeared they would be more than one hundred thousand; and I say again about one hundred thousand. And in another part of the square were as many rows of bones without meat, bones of the dead, that could not be counted; and they had in many beams many heads hanging from one part to another. And keeping those bones and skulls were three priests, who, as we understood, were in charge of them. . . . “

Cortés had arrived in Mexico in April of 1519 with an expeditionary force of about 500 soldiers and by August of 1521, it was all over. He defeated the empire of a million Aztecs and commenced the systematic demolition of their monuments, including the horrifying great rack-of-skulls (tzompantli) where they displayed their thousands of trophies.

“Sculpture of the skull rack in the Zocolo, site of the great Aztec temple, Mexico City.

Something — more precisely, some cabal of somebodies — is attempting to systematically demolish the social scaffold of our country now. It can’t just be the Soros network of NGOs. The best we can do to identify the central animating agent is the Deep State or Blob, a malignancy within our own organs of national management. It’s shaping up as a kind of American Armageddon, a battle between the forces of darkness and light, death and life. The battle has been going on for at least ten years, since Mr. Trump invaded the body politic — rather like when Cortés entered Mexico and set off a chain of events that ended the cruel and despotic culture embedded there. We’re acting out something along those lines now.

The death cult is vividly on display in our time and place. Minneapolis is poised to elect the skeletal-looking Somali Omar Fateh as its next mayor. The once-emblematic city of Garrison’s Keillor’s “above average,” relentlessly “nice” prairie folk was wrecked in 2020 in tribute to BLM’s patron saint, George Floyd, and has never recovered, written off as a national sacrifice zone for the sake of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Omar Fateh styles himself as a “Democratic Socialist.” This is the next new thing.

Omar Fateh on Right

Likewise, New York City is about to elevate the Ugandan Marxist Jihadi (and self-styled Democratic Socialist) Zohran Mamdani into the top job at city hall. As usual with this brand of insurrectionists — that is, persons bent on destroying our society — the label is yet another language game meant to scramble your brain.

You have probably not failed to notice the incessant recital of the phrase “our democracy” by Democratic Party field marshals starting with “Joe Biden” in the final months of his, uh, late performance. “Our democracy” has nothing to do, really, with citizen participation in governance. The phrase is a cover for their desperate power-seeking — for instance, the “nomination” of Kamala Harris with zero democratic voting procedure — in the service of preserving a vast empire of rackets that siphon taxpayer dollars into multitudinous NGOs and countless government programs that provide jobs and free stuff to an ever-growing class of parasitic dependents in the party’s thrall.

So, the next ploy upcoming will be the sequel to the “No Kings” demos of recent months: “The Fall of the Trump Fascist Regime” mass protest event planned for Washington, DC, on November 5, following election day. The stated idea is to surround the White House with millions of shrieking “Resistance” warriors to exorcise President Trump. The unstated idea is to provoke the president to invoke the Insurrection Act and thus, supposedly, demonstrate that he is a tyrant to their satisfaction.

More likely, if things get out of hand and violence erupts, the Resistance warriors and their Antifa shock troops — sure to be on-hand — will only prove that they are the actual insurrectionists. In which case, this time, expect arrests and indictments of the folks behind the extravaganza, with the prospect of pretty harsh penalties. (Are you listening, Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, and friends?)

Meanwhile, the emerging scandal around the “Arctic Frost” scheme executed under “Joe Biden’s” DOJ to harass and persecute his admin’s political adversaries, takes shape as “worse than Watergate,” in the words of Senate Judiciary Committee chair Charles Grassley. Fresh evidence about this nefarious activity only reinforces the developing seditious conspiracy case that will be prosecuted out of the Southern District of Florida encompassing the entirety of treasonous acts from RussiaGate forward amounting to a long-running coup that never did manage to succeed, no matter how they keep at it.

Ghouls on display on East 71st Street in Manhattan today (Credit: Truman Verdun)

You know the names of most of the major players involved, and ever more members of the supporting cast, lodged in the Deep State, are being revealed daily. Think of them when you see the ghouls and skeletons on display in America’s yards this Halloween eve.

*  *  *

Saturday, November 1, is the official publication date for my new book, the novel Look I’m Gone, live on Amazon tomorrow. To celebrate, I offer readers an amusing excerpt from the book which you can find here at this link.

Authored by J.T. Young via RealClearPolitics,

Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races show the Republican candidates currently matching or beating Donald Trump’s past presidential margins. This is big for these state races and for gauging the overall country’s mood. It could be bigger still if it presages a Republican threat to Democrats’ “second blue wall” in 2026 and 2028.

In Virginia, the Republican, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, has been trailing the Democrat, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, by double digits as recently as the beginning of October. Before Republican Glenn Youngkin upset Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s bid for a second term in 2021, four of Virginia’s previous five governors had been Democrats. No Republican presidential candidate has won Virginia since 2004. 

In New Jersey, the Republican, former state representative Jack Ciattarelli, has been trailing the Democrat, former Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, by double digits as recently as the beginning of September. In presidential elections, no Republican has won New Jersey since 1988. 

Reasonable expectations would consider both states comfortable for Democrats in this year’s gubernatorial races: Neither state has been won by a Republican presidential candidate in over 20 years; this year’s Democrat gubernatorial candidates hold sizable leads; and off-year elections historically go against the party holding the presidency.   

However, polls have shown both races tightening dramatically in their final weeks.

Averaging the polls in RealClearPolitics’ list of gubernatorial races since mid-October, we get Democrat Spanberger with just a 6.9 percentage point lead in Virginia, and Democrat Sherrill with 4.6 percentage point lead in New Jersey. Democrats’ leads have been cut roughly in half in New Jersey and sharply reduced in Virginia.

While noteworthy on their own, these results are even more so when you look at how President Trump performed in these states. Over the last three presidential elections, Trump lost Virginia by an average of 6.9 percentage points. In 2024, Trump lost New Jersey by 5.9 percentage points; over the last three presidential elections, he lost New Jersey by an average of 11.6 percentage points.

In Virginia, Earle-Sears is matching Trump’s average over the last three presidential elections. In New Jersey, Ciattarelli is running ahead of President Trump’s 2024 margin and at less than half of Trump’s three-election deficit average there.    

This is remarkable for several reasons. For one, while much is made of Trump’s job approval being negative (45.3%-51.7% in RCP’s 10/23 national polling average), Trump’s favorability rating is higher at -8.3% than either the Republican Party’s (-12%) or the Democrat Party’s (-24.3%). Yet Republicans’ Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial candidates appear to be matching or outperforming them all. 

Democrats will excuse their gubernatorial candidates’ weakening positions on local issues that are sapping momentum late in these races. In Virginia, Spanberger is being hurt by fallout from the revelation of Democrat attorney general nominee Jay Jones’ violent texting and reckless driving conviction. In New Jersey, Sherrill has been hurt by her involvement in a cheating scandal while she was at the U.S. Naval Academy. 

Yet Trump, as Democrats constantly point out, is also a divisive figure who fails to rally all his base or appeal to moderates. In 2024, exit polling showed Trump losing 9% of conservatives and 58% of moderates. In other words, if the Democrat gubernatorial candidates are performing below the party’s potential, Trump too has also performed below his apparent potential. 

Looking to the 2026 and 2028 elections, there is a lot to glean from Republicans’ closing performances in Virginia and New Jersey. Both states are in the “second blue wall,” those states Democrats depend on to be presidentially competitive, but which Harris won by 10 percentage points or less (Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia, Minnesota, and New Mexico: 50 electoral votes). Without these states and the seven swing states Harris lost in 2024, Democrats become irrelevant in presidential contests. 

Republicans are holding their own in the two biggest electoral vote states in this “second blue wall.” They are doing so without Donald Trump on the ballot (which helps them), yet with him in the White House (which hurts them). 

If Republicans are now matching or outperforming what Trump did in 2024 in these six states, it bodes well for them holding control of Congress in 2026. This would deny Democrats a platform for attacking Trump during his term’s last two years, something they vigorously did after the 2018 midterms. It bodes even better for Republicans’ chances in 2028 and for their nominee outperforming Trump, cementing control of the seven swing states and breaking into Democrats’ “second blue wall.”

Building on the “Chilling Opportunity” theme around data-center cooling and the rapid rise of liquid-cooling systems in AI server racks, Goldman analysts have raised their 2025-26 global server-cooling market estimates and introduced a new 2027 forecast, reflecting surging demand tied to the accelerating AI data center buildout.

Goldman analysts, led by Allen Chang, penned a note to clients on Thursday, highlighting that liquid-cooling adoption is rapidly accelerating across data centers amid growing demand for higher compute and the accompanying rise in power consumption.

Chang modeled liquid cooling penetration to reach 15% / 45% / 74% / 80% (2024–27E) for AI training servers, 1% / 15% / 17% / 20% for AI inferencing servers, and 0% / 4% / 6% / 8% for general and high-performance computing servers. 

Since Chang’s July 2025 report, he raised his Global Server Cooling TAM forecasts by +9% for 2025 and +16% for 2026, to $7.9 billion and $14.0 billion, representing +111% and +77% year-over-year growth, respectively, noting that the upward revision is mostly because of stronger demand for high-power AI servers. It’s very simple: more power equals more compute, which means more liquid cooling.  

AI Training Servers: Liquid cooling to penetrate quickly

Chang’s note builds on the chilling opportunity theme:

• UBS Finds “Chilling Opportunity” In Data Center Cooling

• “Quick” Rise Of Liquid-Cooling At AI Data Centers Signals A “Chilling Opportunity”

• Vertiv Drops After Amazon Unveils In-House Liquid Cooling System, Marking Pivot To Liquid

UBS analyst Joshua Spector showed clients in June a roadmap through 2035 illustrating how AI server rack power consumption could surge to as much as 1,000 kilowatts per unit, compared with legacy servers currently running between 10 and 60 kilowatts, and first-generation AI servers consuming around 80 to 140 kilowatts.

More compute equals more power … and by now, you know what that means: higher demand for liquid cooling. 

ZeroHedge Pro Subs can view the full note in the usual place.

Update (1515ET):

A combination of high winds and staffing shortages among air traffic controllers due to the government shutdown has caused significant disruptions across New York City-area airports, with average delays this evening exceeding 60 minutes and some exceeding 100 minutes.

Latest disruptions by airport (courtesy of NYC Emergency Management): 

• JFK: Ground stop in effect until 7:30 PM; flights held at departure airports. Arrivals are limited to 36 per hour through early Saturday. The average delay is 60 minutes, some exceeding 100 minutes.

• Newark: Arrivals capped at 30 per hour due to staffing and wind; average delay 100 minutes, some above 170 minutes.

• LaGuardia: Arrivals restricted to 24–28 per hour; average delay 140 minutes, with some exceeding five hours. Departures are also delayed 15 minutes and rising.

JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia are all under FAA traffic restrictions this evening because of high winds and reduced staffing in multiple air traffic control centers.
⁰A ground stop is in effect at JFK until 7:30 PM due to staffing shortages in the air traffic system. Flights headed…

— NYC Emergency Management (@nycemergencymgt) October 31, 2025

Here are the latest U.S. flight delays and cancellations via FlightAware. 

More delays could follow if the weather or staffing worsen. Widespread ripple delays are expected, especially for those with connecting flights.

*   *   *

The fallout from the government shutdown worsened on Thursday afternoon and into late evening at several major airports, as staffing shortages among air traffic controllers led to delays for travelers. Air-traffic controllers missed their first paycheck this week. At the same time, the heads of major U.S. airlines blasted Democrats and sided with Republicans in urging passage of a clean continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government and avert potential travel chaos nationwide ahead of the holiday season.

Late Thursday, staffing shortages caused major travel disruptions at several airports, including Orlando International Airport, where departures were delayed an average of 2.7 hours. 

Here’s where air travel was impacted the most on Thursday (courtesy of NBC News):

• The FAA issued a ground delay for Orlando from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. ET, delaying inbound flights by an average of 2.7 hours. Earlier, the FAA had temporarily suspended landings entirely due to a lack of certified air-traffic controllers.

• The situation later improved after an “increase in staffing” at the F11 Central Florida Tracon, though delays persisted. 

• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport also faced 90-minute ground delays Thursday afternoon through early Friday, while Los Angeles International Airport suffered similar disruptions earlier in the week.

On Thursday, 14,000 air traffic controllers received their first zero-dollar paycheck as the government shutdown entered its 30th day. Earlier in the day, Delta Air Lines demanded that Congress reopen the government and warned that missing paychecks “only increases the stress on these essential workers, many of whom are already working mandatory overtime to keep our skies safe and secure.”

Later in the day, airline heads urged Democrats to back the Republican-led clean CR. Those airline bosses include:

• United CEO Scott Kirby, speaking from the White House alongside Vice President J.D. Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, called for passage of a “clean CR”—the House GOP’s stopgap funding bill that would reopen the government without new spending measures.

• American, Delta, and Southwest joined United in supporting an immediate extension of current spending levels, warning that the situation was untenable as air-traffic controllers and TSA staff continue to work without pay.

• Southwest spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said the public “expects and deserves to travel in a system where safety and security employees are paid in a timely fashion.”

Besides airlines, the American Federation of Government Employees, representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers, also urged Democrats to back the GOP spending bill. The holdup for Democrats is that they refuse to get on board with the clean CR to reopen the government unless illegal aliens (future voter base) receive taxpayer-funded benefits…

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently noted that Democrats are demanding $1.5 trillion in spending, including,

• $200 billion in taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens

• $358 billion in COVID-era Obamacare subsidies

• $500 million to Fake News outlets

• $5 billion for wasteful foreign projects like $3.9 million for LGBTQI+ democracy grants

.@SpeakerJohnson: Democrats are demanding $1.5 trillion in new spending, including:

❌ $200 billion in taxpayer-funded benefits for illegals
❌ $358 billion in COVID-era Obamacare subsidies
❌ $500 million to Fake News outlets
❌ $5 billion for wasteful foreign projects like… pic.twitter.com/SJxrWf37bn

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 14, 2025

. . . 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is set to win the contract to build a multi-billion-dollar satellite constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO), called MILNET, to support President Trump’s Golden Dome missile-defense shield.

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the new space program, funding for the so-called “air moving target indicator” system was included in the tax-and-spending bill that Trump signed in July, though it wasn’t publicly linked to SpaceX or any other contractor. 

The Musk-led company could build as many as 600 satellites designed to track hypersonic missiles, aircraft, and drones that threaten the U.S. and parts of the Western Hemisphere, as the Trump administration pushes ahead with “Monroe Doctrine 2.0,” better known to readers as “hemispheric defense“, an investing theme we’ve outlined countless times this year.

“The traction that SpaceX has gained with the coming satellite fleets is another sign of the company’s growing influence in U.S. national security,” the WSJ reported, something Democrats, their billionaire funders, and unhinged politicians have been furious about and even waged a color-revolution-style operation against Musk’s companies earlier this year, which only resulted in Tesla vehicles being firebombed. 

Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield is estimated to cost $175 billion, but some Wall Street analysts suggest the price tag could cost many billions more. Operational timing of the new defense shield is slated for the end of Trump’s second term. 

Other defense firms, including Anduril, Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and L3Harris, have also proposed technologies for Golden Dome. Goldman analysts have been very bullish on L3Harris (read report). Lawmakers such as Sen. Rick Scott warned that Trump’s missile shield project risks “vendor lock” and called for more competition to prevent overreliance on a single contractor. 

In mid-June, Breaking Defense first reported that the Space Force contracted SpaceX to build MILNET “hybrid mesh network”… 

“The network will use terminals created by SpaceX for its Starshield satellites being configured for military use, which also can link into SpaceX’s commercial Starlink constellation. The Starshield terminals have more encryption than those sold to consumers for Starlink access,” Breaking Defense wrote in a report, citing comments from Col. Jeff Weisler, Delta 8 commander, over the summer. 

As the Trump administration rushes to secure the Western Hemisphere amid a world fracturing into a bipolar state and undergoing one of the biggest military reposturings in a generation, we recently noted: What good is the Golden Dome when China’s “assassin’s mace” hybrid warfare strategy, designed to exploit U.S. vulnerabilities from within, has been underway for years?

A GOP led House Oversight Committee has submitted a report to Attorney General Pam Bondi asserting that former president Joe Biden’s “cognitive decline” was so severe he may not have been aware of pardons he allegedly signed by autopen. 

Republicans argue that the proper course is to err on the side of caution given evidence of Biden’s decaying mental condition – Even if the President was made aware of the sweeping documents rather than his aides using his autopen signature to falsify the pardons, it is likely that he still had no understanding of what the documents actually contained. 

Conservatives on the committee advise Bondi that the 4,245 presidential pardons and commutations issued by the Democrat, 82, should therefore be placed under review and could be considered invalid.  Republican Senator Josh Hawley chimed in on the issue, expressing deep concerns over some of the Biden signatures, including commuted sentences for multiple criminals who victimized children.

The report has been published only a month after one of former President Joe Biden’s top aides – Jeff Zients, told the House Oversight Committee that an aide with his email credentials was green lighting some of the most controversial ‘autopen’ pardons, that Hunter Biden – who received an insane pardon himself – was involved in the pardon discussions, and that Joe Biden’s brain was pea soup.

Hunter received a “full and unconditional” pardon for his crimes in early December, just under two months before Joe left office.  Biden approved nearly 2,500 commutations on Jan. 17, days before leaving the White House, (and issued over 4,200 in total over his term) – the most of any US president, and the most ever in a single day.

If Bondi moves forward with the investigation into the autopen scandal, it could open up a flurry of prosecutions including cases against Hunter Biden.

The panel “deems void President Biden’s executive actions that were signed using the Autopen, and the committee determines that action by the Department of Justice is warranted to address the legal consequences of that determination,” it said in its letter to Bondi, published Tuesday.

The Biden family is also subject to renewed investigation over ongoing suspicions that they misused their political positions to collect bribes from foreign officials in exchange for favors (influence peddling).  Biden did not pardon himself before leaving office, likely because of presidential immunity for “official acts” as determined by the Supreme Court in 2024.

Biden’s presidency was rife with disinformation and a number of constitutional violations, from lies about Biden’s mental health to lies about his administration’s involvement in mass censorship.  His office then wrapped itself, its aides and it’s allies in pardons upon exiting the White House as a means to avoid any future culpability.  It would be a travesty (for him and his family) if those pardons turned out to be null and void.

Hurricane Melissa was the most powerful storm to make landfall in Jamaica in over 170 years, ripping through the Caribbean island’s western region with 185 mph winds and leaving widespread destruction to infrastructure, towns, resorts, and farmland. The storm’s central pressure is likely to have fallen below the threshold that would trigger a $150 million catastrophe bond designed to offset weather-related losses through the capital markets.

According to CNBC, the government of Jamaica’s $150 million cat bond was structured by insurance broker Aon using the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s “capital at risk” program and could be triggered as soon as next month.

For the island nation’s government to receive funds, the storm’s central pressure must be less than 900 millibars upon landfall. Early indications from the National Hurricane Center show the Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph winds met that threshold in several regions in the western part of the island. 

Key details about $150 million cat bond:

• The cat bond, structured by Aon and effective through 2027, provides parametric coverage, meaning payouts are based on storm intensity metrics rather than assessed damages.

• Triggering paypout requires the storm’s central pressure must be

• If triggered, funds could reach Jamaica within about one month, far faster than traditional insurance settlements, which often take several months.

Jamaica is the first Caribbean and small-island nation to sponsor a cat bond, according to Aon. 

“While the final numbers are still being verified, the early signs suggest the transaction is doing what it was designed to do: getting critical funds to the country quickly after a major disaster,” Chris Lefferdink, Aon’s head of insurance-linked securities for North America, told CNBC in a statement. 

The question of whether the $150 million cat bond will cover all the damage remains in question. New satellite data from Bloomberg shows extensive damage. 

Damage report so far:

• Montego Bay, Black River, and surrounding parishes (Saint James, Westmoreland, Saint Elizabeth) suffered the heaviest damage, with around 40% of buildings and roads destroyed.

• Power outages persist for about 72% of customers, while many communities remain isolated due to blocked roads and debris.

• At least 19 people were killed, and economic losses are estimated at $8 billion, about one-third of Jamaica’s GDP, according to Enki Research.

Satellite imagery showing power outages across Jamaica. Top taken before Melissa. Bottom taken after. Represents lights you normally would see. https://t.co/Hk3pbO84Yf pic.twitter.com/s9NDDyLJ47

— Mike’s Weather Page (@tropicalupdate) October 31, 2025

Jamaica’s use of a cat bond and its likely trigger event in the coming weeks could spark significant interest among other Caribbean nations for next year’s Atlantic hurricane season. 

There’s good news and bad news in today’s macro data (what scarce data there is).

MNI’s Chicago Business Barometer (PMI) printed a better than expected 43.8 (42.3 exp), up from the prior 40.6…

Source: Bloomberg

There’s a little more good news as seven of the underlying components rose vs last month:

• Prices paid rose at a faster pace; signaling expansion

• New orders fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

• Employment fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

• Inventories fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

• Supplier deliveries rose at a faster pace; signaling expansion

• Production fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

• Order backlogs fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

The bad news is, as the chart above shows (normalized for the 50 cut off between expansion and contraction), this was the 23rd straight month below 50 (contraction) and the 37th month of contraction in the last 38 months.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday declared a state of emergency due to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program being suspended on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown and a lack of funding.

The decision means that $65 million in state funds will be allocated for emergency food assistance to provide for 40 million meals statewide, her office said in a statement. Around 3 million people in the state receive SNAP benefits, known as food stamps.

In a statement, the Democratic governor said that the loss of SNAP funds is “an unprecedented public health crisis” and will harm farmers, grocers, and other stores across the state.

“Today, I’m declaring a state of emergency and am committing additional state funds for emergency food assistance to ensure New Yorkers don’t go hungry,” Hochul added in her statement.

The $65 million in state funding will include $40 million “in new funding for the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides emergency food relief and nutrition services to food-insecure populations,” said her office.

The emergency order also directs the Empire State Service Corps and the State University of New York Corps, which are both state-funded public service work program for college students, to assist in SNAP registrations and other efforts.

“The Empire State Service Corps will allow current members to expand their paid hours, enabling them to provide greater support at food pantries statewide,” the statement from her office said. “In addition, new short-term crisis response positions will be created to assist food pantries and food banks facing staffing shortages.

SNAP’s looming lapse in funding comes as the shutdown has lasted nearly a month, coming after members of Congress did not come to an agreement on how to fund the government.

Democrats have said that any measure to reopen the government should include what they say are protections for health care, including an extension of health care subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans say that talks on health care should come after the government is reopened.

Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the Trump administration, have traded blame over the lapse in SNAP funding.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) warned that food stamps are set to run dry and accused Democrats of obstructing the reopening of the government. Hochul and other Democrats have blamed the Trump administration and Republicans over the shutdown and SNAP funding lapse.

Other states have issued emergency orders over SNAP deadline. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said on Oct. 27 that his administration will provide $3 million in emergency funding to a nonprofit to residents who are expected to lose access to SNAP.

The governor of Delaware, Matt Meyer, also declared an emergency earlier this week that he said will allow the state to redirect funds to food assistance during the shutdown. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee made a similar declaration on Oct. 28, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared one on Oct. 23.

At the same time, 25 states have filed a lawsuit against the federal government to keep SNAP’s funding going past the Nov. 1 deadline. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani told lawyers on Thursday in a hearing that the government can’t afford to cover the program, and that there’s a process to follow rather than simply suspending all benefits.

“The steps involve finding an equitable way of reducing benefits,” said Talwani in the hearing.

The Trump administration has argued it wasn’t allowed to use a contingency fund with about $5 billion in it for the program, while a USDA plan from before the shutdown said that money would be tapped to keep SNAP running. Democratic states have argued that not only could that contingency money be used, it must be. They also said a separate fund with around $23 billion could be tapped.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By the end of the week, Democrats will be responsible for millions of Americans losing their food stamps due to their refusal to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the federal government amid day number 29 of the shutdown. Already, working-class households are turning to food banks nationwide, and some of these free food distribution centers are warning of collapse, as they lack the proper supplies to fill the gap if food stamp cards go dark.

“Democrats have spent a month playing with people’s livelihoods because the far-left wing of their party won’t let them accept a clean, nonpartisan CR. If they want to prevent damage from their shutdown, then they can end their shutdown. The bill is right there at the desk,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X. 

Democrats have spent a month playing with people’s livelihoods because the far-left wing of their party won’t let them accept a clean, nonpartisan CR.

If they want to prevent damage from their shutdown, then they can end their shutdown. The bill is right there at the desk. pic.twitter.com/qtaLPzWL6b

— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) October 29, 2025

At the start of the week, the American Federation of Government Employees, the country’s largest union representing federal workers, urged Democrats to abandon their current position and join Republicans in supporting a stopgap solution before more damage is done to working poor households and the economy.

Front page of the New York Post.

Working poor households have wasted no time in the government shutdown and shifted to food banks nationwide. Some food banks warn that supplies are getting low amid the influx in demand, and some even warn of a collapse if SNAP goes offline this Saturday. 

Google Searches for “food bank near me” are exploding to a five-year high. 

A New Mexico-based food bank director warned MSNBC: “For every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There’s no way we can meet that gap.”

Food bank director: “for every meal that a food bank provides, the SNAP program provides nine. There’s no way we can meet that gap.” pic.twitter.com/5lYTLtBq8q

— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) October 27, 2025

Federal workers are getting their first taste of recession-like conditions.

NOW: massive line of fed employees, contractors at food bank in Northern Va.

And they are about to run out just over an hour into distribution. Took me 10 min to walk the full line.

Was in a car w a woman who teared up after hearing this. She shook it off but was shook. pic.twitter.com/sLWkD2ia3p

— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) October 24, 2025

Hundreds of TSA agents lined up to receive grocery assistance from a local food bank and its food supply partners.

https://t.co/9UGyuDORYF

— PIX11 News (@PIX11News) October 27, 2025

🍞 Massive lines for free food as federal workers go unpaid during U.S. shutdown

The video shows the situation in Landover, Maryland. Organizers of the food distribution said they were “overwhelmed” by the turnout.

According to CNN, about 1.4 million federal employees in the… pic.twitter.com/0WeC0aNb5Q

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 23, 2025

Supplies dwindling.

As a result of the government shutdown, SNAP benefits will not be going out on Nov. 1st. This is a disaster for tens of thousands of local families, and it will be crippling for local food banks. Recently, I stopped by Second Harvest, our region’s largest food bank network, to… pic.twitter.com/V4wKjzpbRU

— U.S. Congressman Ryan Mackenzie (@RepMackenzie) October 29, 2025

Atlanta area food bank says they can not act as long-term replacement for SNAP shortage https://t.co/l8PTLeAx79

— Atlanta News First (@ATLNewsFirst) October 28, 2025

🚨 Massive lines of federal workers and contractors are forming at a Virginia food bank during the shutdown. Supplies ran out within the first hour, leaving many without help. pic.twitter.com/0D5HZ8gGZl

— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) October 24, 2025

The GreenHouse Food Bank in Deer Park is expecting 13 pallets of food donations tomorrow morning from the LDS church. The director says these donations are greatly appreciated. It’s unclear how long supplies will last the community with SNAP benefits in jeopardy. @kxly4news pic.twitter.com/mgSQUVe1qv

— Mary Sherden (@MarySherdenKXLY) October 27, 2025

The odds of a government shutdown being resolved next week stand at 26%, while the odds of a resolution after mid-November are 41%, according to Polymarket data.