The Big SSA Announcement

The Social Security Administration made its annual gratis announcement this morning, giving us our COLA raise for 2027 of 3.6%. Yippee!

However, the Medicare Part B premium which is automatically deducted from your SSA payment is projected to be around $210 per month, which is an increase of about $8 per month over 2026. This will affect all recipients who sign up for Part B.

So, the average payment is expected to be around $75 more each month for each recipient. But then, we lose $8 for our health insurance, leaving a whopping $67 a month to live. That, friends, is a cool $16.75 a week, not even the cost of one large cheese pizza, with nothing else on it. Or one Wendy’s Dave Double with fries and a coke.

Yum! Something to not look forward to after all those years of paying into the Federal Insurance Compensation Act Program for forty years or more.

Think about this for a moment. This is the greatest Ponzi scheme ever devised and it is legal. Why?

When when you consider all the funds deposited to the “trust” fund on your behalf by you and all your employers over those forty years, you will never recoup even a small part of it.

Assuming you were fortunate to make $100,000 for those forty years, the total contribution between you and your employers would be $496,000 plus accrued interest. Then, if you retired at your normal retirement age of 65 to 67 years old, depending on your date of birth, and you live until eighty, you would never recover the funds paid on your behalf.

But there are a few concepts to consider, as well. Most people did not make anywhere near $100,000 a year for forty years. Instead, the average monthly payment is $2,088 less the $202 for Medicare, leaving net monthly income of $1,886 for 2026.

When you add the net increase of $67 ($75 - 8), you end up with a net monthly payment of $1,953 or $488 week. Not enough to pay the rent, utilities and food for one person. Plus inflation. And if you have to use a car?  You are done. For sure

And why is it a Ponzi scheme? First, when you die, your beneficiary will get a death benefit of $255. Any remaining funds will be kept by the “trust” fund. And then, there is the ongoing threat which claims the funds will be exhausted theoretically by late 2032.

Finally, the funds were also drained due to our government’s “compassion” by paying benefits to those who were not entitled to them. Hence, unregulated and mismanaged fraud.

All so that American seniors can celebrate and enjoy a big 3.6% increase to their meager Social Security “benefit”, while still struggling to get by each month.

 Oh, Happy Day!

Why Columbus Day

In honor of Columbus Day, we should explore some the reasons we honor this day.

The Knights of Columbus

The  Knights of Columbus was founded on March 29, 1882 by Blessed Father Michael J. McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut, to provide financial aid for Catholic families and unite men against anti-Catholic prejudice of the time.

Father Michael J. McGivney: A 29-year-old assistant pastor at St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut, who gathered a small group of Catholic men on October 2, 1881, to establish the mutual benefit society.
Christopher Columbus: Chosen as the organization's patron to emphasize that Catholics were not only part of American society, but also instrumental in its historical foundation.
Core Principles: Formed with the founding principles of charity and unity, with fraternity added in 1885 and patriotism added in 1900.
Early Expansion: Grew rapidly across New England and expanded internationally to Canada by 1897.

Official Reasons for the Holiday

We celebrate Columbus Day to commemorate Christopher Columbus' landing in the Americas on October 12, 1492, while also serving as a celebration of Italian-American heritage and a point of deep historical controversy. 

Historical Anniversary: It marks the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus arriving in the Bahamas and establishing early European contact.
Italian-American Pride: 
In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Italian-American communities, facing intense discrimination, embraced Columbus (who was from Genoa, Italy) as a symbol of cultural pride and contribution to the United States.
 
Federal Recognition: President Benjamin Harrison first promoted a national observance in 1892, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it an annual federal holiday in 1937.

The Controversy and Shift 

• Legacy of Colonization: Critics and Indigenous activists point out that Columbus's arrival triggered centuries of forced labor, enslavement, displacement, and deadly diseases that devastated Native populations. 

Alternative Observances: Many US states, cities, and institutions have replaced or paired the day with Indigenous Peoples' Day to honor Native American history and culture instead.

For me, as a Patriotic American Fourth Degree Knight, as an Irish Catholic and as a proud Sicilian-Italian-American, I will always celebrate this day as Columbus Day. 

I realize that certain atrocities happened hundreds of years ago, but I also will not submit the sins of the past to presentism. Instead, we should recognize that they happened and learn from them.

That is a huge lesson which should be taught concerning Christopher Columbus. And why it is an important day in America.

Cheering For a Cinderella Team

It is do-or-die for this year’s Cinderella team, the Chicago White Sox. They need to beat the Cleveland Guardians tonight in this year’s ALDS. Or they can join the Yankees, the Braves and the Padres on the couch to watch the Finalists vie for the ticket to the World Series.

The Dodgers, the Brewers and the Rays will be attending their respective Championship Series to go on to the Big Show. It behooves the Sox to make a point, considering how awful they were just two years ago.

It would be fun to watch the White Sox pummel the mighty Rays, especially since they humiliated the Yankees in three straight, As a Mets fan, I was shocked how quickly the Yankees were sent to the showers. 

And of course, the Dodgers once again, made mince meat of their opponent, this time the Braves. It seems the Dodgers are regularly in the post-season, something they rarely did when they played in Brooklyn.

As a baseball fan, I can sympathize with the White Sox fan. Much like the Mets play to the Yankees in New York, the Sox seem to play second fiddle to the Cubs In Chicago. Even the Bulls, the Bears and the Black Hawks seem to get better coverage in the Tribune and Sun-Times.

So, to paraphrase my team’s long-held  chant to help motivate the enthusiasm felt by Mets fans, I want to be the first to say, Let’s Go Sox!

Baseball In October

The White Sox are on the precipice to be in the ALCS, should they continue their drive to win the ALDS. This is a team which captured the all-time loss record of 121 losses, previously held by the New York Mets with 120 since 1962.

That is quite a turn-around!

At the point this is written, Chicago beat Cleveland and the White Sox go home to try to win the series in front of Chicago’s home crowd. They are a passionate fan base, which has waited for twenty-one years to get this chance to reach the ALCS.

They have won their division or won the wild card, and  made it to the Division series several times since then but but not to the ALCS since 2005.

This would be a Cinderella miracle if they win the ALCS, considering only two years were removed from their disastrous season. 

They were the third place wild card team, which beat Houston, the Western Division Champs in two games, and have beaten the Guardians, the Central Division Champs two games to none. They have won four straight thus far with no losses.

If the White Sox’ luck holds out, they will cash in their ticket to the League Championship Series against either the Rays or the Yankees on Monday, October 12. Both teams are power houses and will be tough to beat.

But, we have seen this play out before, since the playoffs have been expanded. So, it would not be a complete surprise if the White Sox moved on.

That’s why it is a whole new season where all teams start even and any team can hit the lightening in that  magical bottle. With the champagne  on ice to pour.

So, good luck to the White Sox as they try to win the Division Series and make it through the LCS.

A Close Call to Another Disaster

​The disaster which was averted yesterday in the skies over the Middle East, when the landing of a 737 MAX jetliner was safe and sound in Saudi Arabia, and was truly a miracle. 174 souls on the plane and countless more on the ground could have lost their lives when a deranged co-pilot tried to hijack the plane and crash it.

Whether you support Israel’s politics or not, one must recognize the inhumanity it took to use innocent civilians, many from other countries, as sacrificial lambs to attempt such a heinous crime.

When he was asked if Iran was behind the attempted hijacking, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to  take a diplomatic “wait and see” response to the question. But he also indicated that investigations were ongoing. 

He gave praise to the stabbed pilot, who had the wherewithal to unlock the cockpit door, to allow off duty pilots and other crew members to overcome the hijacker and prevent the plane from crashing. He credited the Saudi government for arresting the perpetrator and initiating an investigation.

The passengers and crew were flown from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv later in the day. The pilot is now in stable condition after surgery.

Both Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi confirmed the identity of the flight's pilot as Indian national Captain Smit Machchhar, praising him as a hero. 

The copilot, whose identity officials have not yet released, has been identified as an Omani national.

Today, we can be give thanks that we are not mourning a what could have been another successful anti-Semitic  attack against innocents who boarded a plane to get home to their loved ones. Thank God. Amen.

Welcome To Hallothanksmas

​

We are marking time. Can you believe 2026 is now 3/4 complete as of midnight tonight? And that the 2026 Hurricane Season is beginning the last trimester for the year?

As of tomorrow, we will officially begin the 2026 Hallothanksmas season. Break out your Halloween candy, pumpkin pie and pfeffernusse cookies and begin the festivities.

People have already begun decorating their windows, doors and lawns with some of the scariest and creepiest ideas imaginable, with skeletons, carved pumpkins and ghosts to frighten all of us.

The month will culminate with trick or treaters ringing our doors, with fun and creative costumes to entertain us. And the overnight of that Saturday will require us to gain an hour of sleep by setting our clocks back one hour.

Two days after we see the sun set earlier than the night before, we will finally vote in the midterms, which we have heard about ad nauseum for two years.

Then, we begin shopping and preparing for the annual glutton-fest, otherwise known as Thanksgiving. Get your chestnuts ready for roasting, watch a parade or two and a weekend of football!

The weekend of football isn’t even finished;  and you need to decorate your home with a tree (or two), max out your utility budget with the brightest lights and play the most festive music until you can’t stand it anymore.

That’s what Hallothanksmas is, Charley Brown. A three-month Roman party with all the trimmings. And to cap it all off, we will end it with a night  of food,  marathon TV shows  and rambunctious partying.

Or fall asleep by 8 PM on New Year’ Eve, pooped out by all the gaiety and glee from the past ninety-two days.

And when we groggily wake up on Saturday, January 1, 2027, we just might make resolutions to do a better job for the next year. Yeah, right!

Election Day Is Upon Us Again

​It is exactly five weeks or thirty-five days until we vote and count the results of the 2026 mid-term elections. Some states, including Maine and Minnesota, have already begun Early Voting.

Most other states will begin Early Voting on October 19, although a few will start earlier. Mail-balloting has begun in virtually all states, but most only allow this process for military personnel, disability, or for voters planning to be out of the country on either on business or pleasure.

Several states will see a rise in socialist-identifying candidates, given the recent success of Mamdani in New York, the continued success of Senator Sanders, and Representatives Tlaib and Ocascio-Cortes. 

This year, the most prominent was Abdul El-Sayed, who won the Democratic nomination for Senate in Michigan. Currently, DSA candidate Nithya Raman is leading incumbent Karen Bass to become the next Mayor of Los Angeles. And there are other important races, as well.

This is expected to be another close race for both the House and the Senate. “Experts” from both parties are predicting their party will win control of the Congress. We will see whose experts were correct on November 4.

The last two years of President Trump’s term will be affected by the outcome. If the Republicans win, the road will be somewhat easier. But if the Democrats win both Houses of Congress, they will stall his agenda, making him a truly “lame duck” President. 

It is up to all of us to make certain we get out and vote. It is our right as free Americans to exercise our right, but it is also our responsibility, to honor those who protected this right for all of us.

And if you choose not to vote, you really don’t deserve to criticize the actions of those who were elected because of your failure to take a few minutes out of your life, especially since there are many options, days and times to vote besides the calendar date of November 3. Otherwise, please have a seat and be quiet.

Take the time to find out and educate yourself on the candidates vying for election. Then, make a decision and go vote. See you out there at the polls.