THE HILL: Senate Democrats appear ready to back down in government shutdown fight

Senate Democrats appear ready to back down in government shutdown fight
Senate Democrats say the six-month government funding resolution that passed the House Tuesday is a “horrible” bill, but there’s growing sentiment within the Senate Democratic conference that it would be too risky to block the legislation and risk a government shutdown that could drag on for weeks.

Read in The Hill: https://apple.news/A8p_MN49zR1qUKyFv5JaEog

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

Taking another swing at the melon

Hello All. I recently managed to completely confuse everyone with a post titled “I differ from Belle a bit on This”. It may help to put the rest of this post into context…Scottie insisted that I take my medication before I try to express myself a bit better with this second swing. I’ll have you know that my doctor says I’m feeling much better now, so… here goes; strap up buttercup!

I would like to preface this attempt at face-saving with the reminder that just because something sounds incredibly insane does not mean that it isn’t in fact, uh, fact. Let’s face it, America just voted back in a guy who… well, you know who he is. I don’t think I need to explain more there.

For those of you brave (crazy?) enough to have gone back and read that previous post, I begged for help with an eventuality that I see in our future. I told Scottie that it is like seeing something horrifying coming towards you on a fog covered road; too indistinct to quite make out, to loathsome to articulate. And for those of you keeping score, I still don’t want to say it because I don’t want to speak it into existance and I’m truly afraid of the outcome. Nonetheless…

Despite drumpf’s denials, he is plugging right down the perditious road of project 2025. We have seen him bring on banana-nut musk and his flying monkeys as they take a reaping scythe to a functioning government, mostly to the rabid applause of the far right.

For those of you who know people who work in the government, they are typically non-political. Why? Because politicians come, politicians go, and these folks have to be to work on Monday morning to do the work that needs to be done. But, drumpf and his crew of merry men fired thousands for being “unfit”.

They said that this was to “save money”, “to be more efficient” and to “root out corruption”. They told you they were going to do this in their project 2025. They also told you that they would replace them with right minded compatriots. That was such batshit craziness that no one believed them, including the now fired government workers who voted for them.

Now, for some things that they didn’t tell you that I alluded to in the previous post:

I believe that the project 2025 is a grass-roots restructuring of the American Government. The replacement of the top people every four years is expected, and has a limited effect. The rank and file ignore them and do their job around them.

The replacement of the rank and file in relevant positions will change the structure of the government in the same way that the take over of the school boards drove home the confusion and dismantling of personal freedom for young people… who grow to be the upcoming generation. The removal of DEI and reasonable minded government workers, is only the pretext for replacement of those people who mirror the very American population with compatriots who demonstrate their “fitness” by being willing to violate any law, any policy, any moral code upon direction of their Dear Leader.

In short: I believe that the drumpf administration is seeking to create the very deep state they accused the democrats of having.

I believe this grass roots movement will mirror the change in the top, but will be around for 20-30 years, long after we would presume, hope!, drumpf to be gone.

I believe this movement will not only facilitate the end goals of project 2025, but normalize it.

I believe this is designed to not just dismantle the normalcy of the government, not just open the very institution to pillaging by the powerful, but to bring about a future that would not be recognizable pre-maga.

And, the ramifications of this terrify me.

THE GUARDIAN: Trump confirms detention of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil: ‘the first arrest of many to come’ – live

The land of free speech and the right to protest that is in the constitution is no more. King Donald was displeased and so removed the offender. Hugs.

Trump confirms detention of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil: ‘the first arrest of many to come’ – live
Trump says Ice took the Palestinian student protester into custody after his executive order

Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/AkRRQOOS9QYKxNzI_X97X-A

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

THE ATLANTIC: The Pentagon’s DEI Panic

The Pentagon’s DEI Panic
What are the nation’s warfighters so afraid of?

Read in The Atlantic: https://apple.news/A5q4nZbVVT9aB5QfPnUQoTw

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

DAILY MAIL: Trump’s shock new demands to Zelensky ahead of high-stakes peace talks

Trump’s shock new demands to Zelensky ahead of high-stakes peace talks
Trump has upped the ante on his requests, demanding Zelensky call an election and consider stepping down as leader, insiders claimed.

Read in Daily Mail: https://apple.news/AGv2H6kqLTMOFz7fEaRUzmg

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

A bit of Love

I used to have a small lawn care business, just me and two lawnmowers, weed wackers, a couple of brooms putzing around the neighborhood in my old pick-up truck and Dad’s old snowmobile trailer. I couldn’t do much about the customer’s dandelions, but I let them grow in my own yard. I liked them. My neighbor’s were pissed. -randy

Priorities

One of the strangest arguments I have ever had and will ever have, I sincerely hope, is that we should make sure we are feeding our children. On the face of things, you would rarely hear someone argue differently, but when people talk about discontinuing food stamps and school lunch programs, that is the real argument: feeding kids isn’t an important enough use for my money. In this country, we throw away food because our leadership is unable/unwilling to prioritize taking care of our people at a basic level of food, housing, education, health. Hugs all. randy

In fiscal year 2023, the federal government spent $112.8 billion on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which is the largest nutrition assistance program in the United States. This was about 1.84% of the federal budget.

According to research, childhood hunger can significantly impact adulthood by increasing the risk of chronic health conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease, as well as contributing to mental health issues like depression, lower cognitive function, and reduced life satisfaction, even when adjusting for socioeconomic factors in adulthood; this is largely due to the developmental disruptions caused by malnutrition during critical growth periods in childhood.

40% of American families are one paycheck away from poverty. This means that they would be unable to cover an unexpected expense if they missed a paycheck

In 2022, 9.1 percent of U.S. households with adults aged 65 and older were food insecure at some time during the year, meaning they had difficulty providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources.