This is the hyper Fundamentalist Christian who is radically against trans people and the entire LGBTQ+. He has made it his mission in political life to push bigotry and hate to anything he thinks the Christian god hates while trying to promote Christianity as a state religion at every turn. So here he is trying to shut down a homeless shelter. Really what Jesus would ask his followers to do, right? No this is not based on religion or faith, this is about profit and who gives him money. He pushes religious stuff because his main benefactor and political protector is a billionaire fundamentalist Christian preacher who thinks the government should force every person to be a Christian with his views. And what about the homeless shelter … Well local business don’t like the look or the congestion so more donations to remove them … Get the point. The point is the wealthy people who support this … Ultra Christian simply don’t like the poor around. They want them to go away and never be seen. Hugs.
In this June 22, 2017, file photo, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to shut down an Austin, Texas, homeless center, calling the charity a public nuisance.
The Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center says it’s the largest provider of homeless services in Travis County. According to its website, the center provides a number of services, including physical and mental health care, substance abuse care, harm reduction, housing interventions and benefits enrollment. The center has received over a $1 million from the city of Austin, according to Paxton’s complaint.
“In South Austin, a once peaceful neighborhood has been transformed by homeless drug addicts, convicted criminals, and registered sex offenders,” Paxton says in the complaint, filed in Travis County District Court. “These people do drugs in sight of children, publicly fornicate next to an elementary school, menace residents with machetes, urinate and defecate on public grounds, and generally terrorize the surrounding community.”
In his complaint, Paxton notes the center’s location across the street from an elementary school. The Texas Attorney General’s Office said in a statement on the lawsuit that the school has been forced into lockdown repeatedly due to violent behavior from people receiving services at the center.
Paxton also takes issue with the center allowing a clean syringe distribution program on its property, which he says amounts to facilitating drug use. Part of a “harm reduction” philosophy, clean syringe programs aim to help people who are already using intravenous drugs do so more safely. In Texas, such programs operate in a legal grey area, as they are not authorized by the state and Texas law criminalizes the possession of drug paraphernalia.
“Drug activity and criminal behavior facilitated by this organization have hijacked an entire neighborhood,” Paxton said in a statement. “By operating a taxpayer-funded drug paraphernalia giveaway next to an elementary school, this organization is threatening students’ health and safety and unjustly worsening daily life for every single resident of the neighborhood. We will shut this unlawful nuisance behavior down.”
Paxton seeks an injunction requiring the center to close for a year and prohibiting it from conducting operations within 1,000 feet of a school, playground or youth center. But in a statement, the center’s executive director Mark Hilbelink said the services will continue.
“It is regrettable that Attorney General Paxton took this route, especially during the week of Thanksgiving, but Sunrise intends to keep offering services to people in our community who need them,” Hilbelink said in a statement. “We are committed to being a good neighbor. We will continue to work, every day, to support Joslin Elementary School, our neighborhood, and our entire community.”
He also noted the center is a ministry of Sunrise Community Church and is therefore protected by the First Amendment, the U.S. Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“These laws have been tested in court on multiple occasions, always with the same result: churches are protected to do work that is an expression of their religious practice,” Hilbelink said.
Farm data shows [sic] holiday meal staples are collectively at their cheapest, after adjusting for inflation, in nearly 40 years — not including the Covid-hit year of 2020.
You may not know it by looking at sticker prices in grocery aisles, but Thanksgiving dinner is more affordable than it has been in years.
The costs of this year’s holiday feast — estimated at $58.08 for a 10-person gathering, or $5.81 a head — dropped 5% since last year, the lowest level since 2021, according to a nationwide survey of grocery prices by the American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents millions of U.S. farmers. But the picture improves further when adjusted for inflation. (snip)
A defining feature of the post-pandemic recovery, and the 2024 election, is the divergence between Americans’ sour views of the economy and its underlying strength. Many shoppers understandably focus on price levels — the dollar value of the things they buy — rather than those purchases’ inflation-adjusted, or “real,” costs. The latter is the true test of affordability, since it reflects an often underappreciated piece of the inflation puzzle: wage inflation.
And indeed, while Thanksgiving food prices are up 19% since 2019, according to the AFBF, federal data shows median household wages growing by about 25% during the same period.
What’s more, “the average American also has to work fewer hours to buy the same meal than in previous years,” the report added. “Wages continued to grow faster following the COVID-19 pandemic, even as inflation cooled. Because average wages rose 4% from 2023 to 2024, it took 9% less work time for us to pay for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner.” (Emph. mine -A)
Snip-there is more, and being a mainstream news outlet, they are both siding the economy by including people’s feelings about it as opposed to the facts, but still. They could have been saying these things for the past year and a half, because I don’t know about where everyone else here lives, but our prices in S. Central KS have been lower again for at least a year and a half now. Prices went through the roof after DJT and Republicans allowed suppliers to do what they needed to to solve the supply chain crisis they made during COVID, and so suppliers raised prices so severely.
But maybe that’s not true where everyone lives, either.
American Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 28. Grandma Heckel is visiting the FurBabies. This is only fair since she hosted the dinner last year and had the Buffet family visit for Canadian Thanksgiving this year. Grandma likes turkey.
Kate wasn’t allowed to make the pies last year. She was just an influencer.
FurBabies, November 19, 2023
Grandma did like it.
The Dog Family had a Friendsgiving with Mrs. Oldman and Buster.
FurBabies, November 21, 2023
Since Grandma is visiting, Mrs. Oldman is celebrating the holiday elswhere this year, possibly in Mexico. (I like to think that all of the off camera characters are living ordinary lives when I don’t have the ‘camera’ on them; we get glimpses when they do something funny.)
FurBabies is seen from the point of view of the Dog Family and Kate. The parents and Grandma never appear in the strip, so I had to find a situation that would allow us to guess their reactions to an unanticipated event. Luckily I found a great ‘human interest’ story about a dog and an Item that was perfect for the occasion.
Plans for the formal dinner began on Monday, November 25. Grandma likes dressing up. We see Shawm and Stella ‘suit up’ for a rehearsal, then cut to a night scene. Grandma Heckel is staying in Kate’s bedroom, which she shares with Sirius and Floof. Everyone has to find a new place to sleep. Sirius is not happy with his options. Sirius finds the Item on November 27, so I won’t reveal it here. I was happy with the results. We also see where Shawm and Stella sleep every night.
The situation resolves on November 30, which then conveniently transitions into the Holiday strips. There’s a bit of repetition with variation when Kate once again tries to send a text to Santa. Things do not work out as planned.
Real life is like that, except it isn’t usually funny. (snip)
As someone who has always taught inclusion, loving thy neighbor, and supporting marginalized groups, I’ve been deeply concerned about Trump’s mass deportation proposals that he spoke frequently about during his Presidential campaign.
To many in his uninformed and racist voter base, they hear about the proposal and think it’s a great idea.
What they don’t realize is how it’ll affect – among many things – their food supply.
You see, farmers depend on undocumented immigrants to manage their crops, because it’s a grueling job that most Americans don’t want to take. Immigrants, however, are looking for any life they can start in America and are willing to take on the job.
They’re also freakin’ tough-as-nails types of people!
We’re still nearly two months away from Trump returning to office (Sigh), and already, key U.S. agricultural organizations are advocating for the exclusion of farmworkers from mass deportation attempts.
Reuters spoke to numerous farm groups who said they are already working to ensure their workers are exempt from any deportations.
Should Trump’s ‘mass deportation’ idea go through (And let’s be clear: It would be a VERY difficult task – it’s basically his new ‘Build the Wall’ proposal), that would mean that about HALF of the two million farmworkers in the United States would be deported.
It’d be like a Thanos snap – it would have HUGE implications for the American food supply.
When all those workers disappear, the food would disappear too. And if you thought eggs were costly now, just wait until you lose half of your workers who are employed on farms and meat processing plants.
A More Jesus-y Plan
What Trump’s incoming administration should be doing instead of instilling fear in the American people is giving these undocumented migrants a path to citizenship. These people who live in America not only work tough jobs, but they also contribute to the American economy by supporting businesses that they visit. That in turn generates tax revenue for America.
EVERYONE benefits from having immigrants in their country.
In The Parable of the Good Samaritan, I taught that your “neighbor” is not limited to those within the same community or background but extends to anyone in need. I encourage Humans to cross cultural boundaries to show kindness and mercy. (snip)
The subject may not be for everyone; you’ll be able to tell by reading rawgod’s piece, and then decide whether to read the other blog posts. I am engrossed in this, because of raising a child, and later work in the schools here. Of course, there is another entire point beside that, which is humans keeping an open mind in regard to our treatment of other human beings. Give it a look!
Same with watching a pet hedgehog eat watermelon, which is also out there on YT somewhere. Meanwhile, this is right here. 17% lower is a good thing. Watch it 2x!
