BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION AUG. 28-30, 2026) — THE PLANET just read a poll by an organization that favors the DSA approach to politics. The data assembled more preachments to the choir than reliable numbers. The survey predicted that Alex Ocasio-Cortez would be the Democrat presidential candidate in 2028.

Republicans can only hope.

In the words of one writer, AOC stands “as the poster child for economic illiteracy of Gen Z and millennial socialists.” Well said of this lightweight who called her live-in boyfriend of 10 years her “spouse.” The lad came to his senses, though. The blissful young couple broke up earlier this month.

You know what they say. “All is fair in … ”

AOC pulls down $173K in Congress, yet she’s been a deadbeat on her student loans. If you recall, she’s the one who nagged and shrilled a clueless Joe Biden to wave his autopen and grant an instant $50,000 in loan relief to a gaggle of young moochers, the ones who love to borrow money but do not think about paying it back. Socialists never do. They called it loan “forgiveness.”

You know what THE PLANET knows but what these Peter Pans don’t: Loans are never “forgiven.” Debt gets transferred to those who actually believe in pay-back responsibility. Their names? Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski.

AOC wants Medicaid for everyone. Apparently, it doesn’t bother her that almost 2/3 of those able-bodied souls on such take do not work. Of course, as we saw in or previous column, “work” is something that so many of AOC’s ilk have come to detest. They avoid it like the Bubonic Plague.

———- ooo ———-

We present two numbers.

349,403,222.

40,000,000,000,000.

The first is the population of the United States on Aug. 27, 2026. The second is the size of the U.S. debt. Do the math, and it turns out that each man, woman, and child in America “owes” $117,000. THE PLANET paid our share last night.

Both numbers are alarming, but we’ll offer a few comments on the debt.

Debt means borrowing assets you don’t have with the promise of future payback. For the right to use the money now, your future payback will be with interest to the lender. Fine as it goes, but when the country owes such an incomprehensible amount, it creates enormous problems.

For ordinary people, it drives up the costs of borrowing by putting pressure on available capital. For the government, this size debt makes it more difficult to operate, since so much money goes to debt service.

In our view, the most dangerous aspect of the debt can be found in the nation’s (i.e., the politicians’) attitude. It used to be that the U.S. borrowed to finance war and/or to deal with emergencies. No so now. Today, America sees debt as “structural,” that is, built into the country’s economic assumptions.

That’s the reason it doesn’t matter which party is in control.

Democrat or Republican, debt wise we are fried.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“We all want to get old, but few want to be old” — Sir Donald Turpentine, Knight of the Bath.

OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL

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