#Debt reconciliation

[otherworldlyinfo]

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[annemarieyeretzian]

dorian seeing orym down and panicking, freezing up; dorian seeing orym surrounded by enemies; dorian feeling it’s cowardly “but I have to;” dorian taking orym by the hand, casting dimension door and getting orym to safety; dorian getting orym to safety and then going back into the fight 🩵💚

[fursasaida]

This article is from 2022, but it came up in the context of Palestine:

Here are some striking passages, relevant to all colonial aftermaths but certainly also to the forms we see Zionist reaction taking at the moment:

Over the decade I lived in South Africa, I became fascinated by this white minority [i.e. the whole white population post-apartheid as a minority in the country], particularly its members who considered themselves progressive. They reminded me of my liberal peers in America, who had an apparently self-assured enthusiasm about the coming of a so-called majority-minority nation. As with white South Africans who had celebrated the end of apartheid, their enthusiasm often belied, just beneath the surface, a striking degree of fear, bewilderment, disillusionment, and dread.

[...]

Yet these progressives’ response to the end of apartheid was ambivalent. Contemplating South Africa after apartheid, an Economist correspondent observed that “the lives of many whites exude sadness.” The phenomenon perplexed him. In so many ways, white life remained more or less untouched, or had even improved. Despite apartheid’s horrors—and the regime’s violence against those who worked to dismantle it—the ANC encouraged an attitude of forgiveness. It left statues of Afrikaner heroes standing and helped institute the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which granted amnesty to some perpetrators of apartheid-era political crimes.

But as time wore on, even wealthy white South Africans began to radiate a degree of fear and frustration that did not match any simple economic analysis of their situation. A startling number of formerly anti-apartheid white people began to voice bitter criticisms of post-apartheid society. An Afrikaner poet who did prison time under apartheid for aiding the Black-liberation cause wrote an essay denouncing the new Black-led country as “a sewer of betrayed expectations and thievery, fear and unbridled greed.”

What accounted for this disillusionment? Many white South Africans told me that Black forgiveness felt like a slap on the face. By not acting toward you as you acted toward us, we’re showing you up, white South Africans seemed to hear. You’ll owe us a debt of gratitude forever.

The article goes on to discuss:

"Mau Mau anxiety," or the fear among whites of violent repercussions, and how this shows up in reported vs confirmed crime stats - possibly to the point of false memories of home invasion

A sense of irrelevance and alienation among this white population, leading to another anxiety: "do we still belong here?"

The sublimation of this anxiety into self-identification as a marginalized minority group, featuring such incredible statements as "I wanted to fight for Afrikaners, but I came to think of myself as a ‘liberal internationalist,’ not a white racist...I found such inspiration from the struggles of the Catalonians and the Basques. Even Tibet" and "[Martin Luther] King [Jr.] also fought for a people without much political representation … That’s why I consider him one of my most important forebears and heroes,” from a self-declared liberal environmentalist who also thinks Afrikaaners should take back government control because they are "naturally good" at governance

Some discussion of the dynamics underlying these reactions, particularly the fact that "admitting past sins seem[ed] to become harder even as they receded into history," and US parallels

And finally, in closing:

The Afrikaner journalist Rian Malan, who opposed apartheid, has written that, by most measures, its aftermath went better than almost any white person could have imagined. But, as with most white progressives, his experience of post-1994 South Africa has been complicated. [...]

He just couldn’t forgive Black people for forgiving him. Paradoxically, being left undisturbed served as an ever-present reminder of his guilt, of how wrongly he had treated his maid and other Black people under apartheid. “The Bible was right about a thing or two,” he wrote. “It is infinitely worse to receive than to give, especially if … the gift is mercy.”

[thinkingonscripture]

Jesus' Substitutionary Atonement in Salvation

Atonement is a very important concept in the Bible. In the OT, the word atonement translates the Hebrew verb kaphar (כָּפַר) which means to “cover over, pacify, propitiate, [or] atone for sin.”[1] Theologically, it means “to bring together in mutual agreement, with the added idea, in theology, of reconciliation through the vicarious suffering of one on behalf of another.”[2] The animal…

[astrocafecoffee]

•Healing through marriage (Based on Groom pc) •

✨For entertainment purposes only, enjoy ✨

☞ Masterlist

☞solar return observation

☞Groom pc obs. Part 1

☞Groom pc obs. Part 2

•. •. •. •.(☉｡☉)•. •. •. •.

🌹What to check?

- check your Chiron in your groom persona chart , where it falls in.

🌹Why Chiron?

- Chiron is associated with our deepest wounds and our capacity for recovery . In your groom pc ,it can show how you fs will heal your inner child/ your trauma through marriage.

Let's go ~

❤️ Chiron in 1st house : Your fs may heal you through unconditional acceptance. They may love and accept you for who you are, flaws and all, helping you overcome self-doubt and low self-esteem. They could provide a safe space for you to express your emotions, validating your feelings and helping you process past wounds.Their empathetic nature may help you feel understood and supported, especially during difficult times.

❤️ Chiron in 2nd house: your future spouse may help you overcome financial struggles, debts, or insecurities, teaching you healthy financial habits and empowering you to achieve stability. Their presence in your life could help you recognize your inherent value and worth, transcending material possessions or external validation. They might empower you to take charge of your financial life, making informed decisions and breaking free from dependency or fear.

❤️ Chiron in 3rd house: your future spouse may help you express yourself more clearly and confidently, fostering open and honest communication in your relationship. Their influence could help you quiet your mind, reducing mental chatter and increasing focus, allowing you to tap into your inner wisdom. They might teach you to recognize and manage your emotions, developing emotional intelligence and empathy.

❤️ Chiron in 4th house:your future spouse may help you resolve unresolved issues with your family, fostering understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Their presence could help you build a strong emotional foundation, providing a sense of security and stability.Chiron in the 4th house can indicate wounds from childhood; your partner may help you heal and integrate your inner child.

❤️ Chiron in 5th house:your future spouse may help you overcome creative blocks or insecurities, fostering self-expression and artistic growth.Chiron in the 5th house can indicate a need to reconnect with childhood joy and creativity; your partner may help you recapture that spark. They might help you heal from past relationship wounds, teaching you to love yourself and others in a healthy, empowering way.

❤️ Chiron in the 6th house : Your future spouse's influence could help you establish a sense of structure and organization in your daily life, making you more efficient and productive. Chiron in the 6th house can indicate a need to integrate your mind and body; your partner may help you develop a greater awareness of your physical and emotional needs. They might help you find a healthy balance between work and personal life, reducing stress and increasing overall well-being.

❤️ Chiron in the 7th house: Your future spouse might help you overcome past relationship traumas or wounds, teaching you to form healthy, empowering partnerships. Their influence could encourage you to examine your own role in relationships, taking responsibility for your actions and growth. With Chiron in the 7th house, they may help you find a balance between independence and interdependence, recognizing the value of both.

❤️ Chiron in the 8th house:Your future spouse may help you overcome fears or insecurities around intimacy and vulnerability, creating a safe space for deep connection.Their influence could guide you in exploring your shadow, acknowledging and integrating repressed aspects of yourself. With Chiron in the 8th house, they may facilitate transformative experiences through intimate connections, helping you rebirth and renew yourself.

❤️ Chiron in the 9th house : Chiron in the 9th house can indicate a need for continuous learning and growth; your partner may inspire you to pursue higher knowledge and wisdom.They may foster a sense of curiosity and wonder, inspiring you to ask questions and seek answers.Their presence could help you recognize the interconnectedness of all things, fostering a sense of oneness and unity with the universe.

❤️ Chiron in the 10th house: Your future spouse might help you discover your life purpose and passion, aligning your career with your soul's mission. Their influence could help you overcome self-doubt and imposter syndrome, recognizing your value and expertise.They might inspire you to redefine success on your own terms, prioritizing fulfillment and happiness over external validation.

❤️ Chiron in the 11th house:Chiron in the 11th house can indicate a need to embrace innovation and progress; your partner may encourage you to think outside the box and pioneer new ideas.They might help you expand your professional and social network, connecting you with like-minded individuals and opportunities.They may help you overcome feelings of isolation or disconnection, integrating you into a larger community.

❤️ Chiron in the 12th house : Chiron in the 12th house can indicate a need to confront and heal subconscious wounds; your partner may support you in this process.They might inspire you to develop greater compassion and empathy, understanding the struggles of others.Their influence could help you recognize and break free from self-sabotaging patterns, releasing limiting beliefs and behaviors.

-----------------✨------------------

Hope you enjoyed ❤️

- Piko ✨

[batboyblog]

The budget reconciliation provision would raise eligibility requirements for low-income schools and districts to serve free meals to all students.

The House Ways and Means Committee is suggesting cutting $12 billion in school meal programs over 10 years by adjusting school qualification for the Community Eligibility Provision and requiring income verification for national K-12 breakfast and lunch programs, according to a document on the committee’s budget reconciliation options.

Specifically, the committee proposed raising the minimum threshold for low-income schools and districts to qualify for CEP, which allows low-income schools to serve free meals to all students. To participate in the program, 25% of students enrolled in a school have to be certified as eligible for free school meals. The House proposal calls for a 60% threshold. 

The proposal would strip away 24,000 schools’ ability to participate in CEP, impacting over 12 million children, according to the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit anti-hunger advocacy group.  

The suggested cuts offer an early glimpse into House Republicans’ priorities for school nutrition policy.

A rollback in school eligibility for the provision is being proposed just as Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation, has called for the elimination of CEP altogether. The policy agenda developed in conjunction with some former Trump administration officials also recommended the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees CEP,  work with lawmakers to curb any efforts in support of universal school meal programs.

The federal school lunch and breakfast programs “should be directed to serve children in need, not become an entitlement for students from middle- and upper-income homes,” Project 2025 said.

The committee’s proposals have been released ahead of an expected budget reconciliation, which is part of a special legislative process to fast-track high-priority fiscal legislation that adjusts laws regarding spending, revenues, deficits or the debt limit. 

Reconciliation bills cannot be filibustered in the Senate, “giving this process real advantages for enacting controversial budget and tax measures,” according to the nonpartisan research nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. To pass, these bills only need a simple majority in the Senate rather than 60 votes and don’t require the president’s signature. 

The committee’s move also comes at a time when CEP participation has climbed in recent years, most recently rising 19% during the 2023-24 school year. 

As of last school year, half of all schools in the National School Lunch Program were using the provision to serve free meals to all students, according to a January FRAC report. 

“Taking away this important and effective way for local schools to offer breakfast and lunch at no charge to all of their students would increase hunger in the classroom, reintroduce unnecessary paperwork for families and schools, increase school meal debt, and bring stigma back into the cafeteria,” FRAC said in a Jan. 17 statement. 

Unpaid school meal debt has continued to increase for nearly a decade, according to a January report from the School Nutrition Association. In fact, the median unpaid school meal debt was $6,900 per district nationwide in 2024 — a 26% rise from the previous year.

When pandemic-era waivers ended in 2022 for a temporary universal school meal policy nationwide, some schools took on more meal debt. 

Meanwhile, eight states have established their own universal meal programs in lieu of federal action, according to FRAC. Other states leaders are eyeing similar measures this year, including in Alaska, Missouri, Oregon, and New York.

[burningvelvet]

being a romantic era poet: a quick how-to guide

walk around in nature contemplating Things. start hiking, swimming, sailing, rowing, shooting, riding, etc. for inspiration

be obsessed with the french revolution and related enlightenment-era figures like rousseau, voltaire, mary wollstonecraft, and madame de staël. be more disappointed by napoleon bonaparte than you are by your own father. 

speaking of fathers, your parents and most of your other relatives are all either dying or dead or emotionally abusive. if you have any siblings (full, half, step, or adopted) who DIDN'T die tragically already, then you may choose to be close to them. you also may end up being much TOO close to them. various circumstances may also ban you from seeing them. 

be at least slightly touched by madness and/or some other severe illness(es) including but not limited to: consumption, horrors, syphilis, deformities, lameness, terrors, piles, boils, pox, allergies, coughing, sleep abnormalities, gonorrhea, etc. — for which you must take frequent bed rest and copious amounts of Laudanum (opium derivation)

consider foregoing meat and adopting a vegetable diet instead to purify the spirits. you may also abstain from alcohol for the same reasons. alternatively, you may attempt the veggie diet, end up rejecting it, and becoming a rampant alcoholic instead. in romanticism there is no healthy medium between abstinence and excess.

reject, or at least heavily criticize, christianity. refuse to get married in a church and consider becoming a fervent champion of atheism. alternatively, you may embrace catholicism, but only on an aesthetic basis. eastern religions and minority religions are also acceptable, only because they piss off the christians. 

if you’re not a self-hating member of the aristocracy and instead have to work for a living, do something that allows you to benefit society, be creative, and/or contemplate life. viable options include, but are not limited to: apothecarist, doctor, teacher, preacher, lawyer, farmer, printmaker, publisher, editor. there is also the possibility of earning a few coins from your art. if you were cursed to be born a She, no worries. we believe in equality. you may choose from these occupations: wife, nanny, housekeeper, spinster, amanuensis (copy writer for a man), lady’s companion, divorced wife, singer/actress/escort, widow, regular escort, tutor, or housewife. 

speaking of sexist institutions, try rejecting marriage entirely. Declare your eternal devotion to your lover by having sex with them on your mother’s grave instead.

if you do get married — elope, and only let it be for necessary financial reasons, or to try and save a teenage girl from her controlling family, or out of true love with someone you view as your intellectual equal, or because your life is so racked with scandals and debt that you can only clear your name by matrimony to a wealthy religious woman as your last resort before fleeing the country.

After marriage, quickly assert your belief in the powers of free love and bisexuality by taking extramarital lovers and suggesting your spouse follow suit. If they cannot keep up with your intellectual escapades then consider leaving them. Later on, propose a platonic friendship with them following the separation, or beg them for reconciliation.

If your marriage is happy, try moving in with another bohemian couple to shake things up. Alternatively, you may die before the wedding for dramatic effect.

If you beget children (whether in or out of marriage, makes no matter), do society a favor by choosing to raise them with your beliefs. Consider adopting orphan children, or even non-orphan children. If their parents are poor enough they probably won’t mind. Try kidnapp— I mean adopting — children off the side of the road if you can. 

DIE but do it creatively. ideally young. ideas: prophecy your own death, lead an army into war and then die right before your first battle and on your deathbed curse everyone and demand to see a witch, write a will leaving money to your mistresses or some random young man you have an unrequited romantic obsession with, carry a copy of your dead friend's poetry and read it right before you drown so that your washed up corpse can only be identified by his book in your pocket, die while staring at your lover's shriveled up heart that you keep wrapped up in a copy of his own poetry and then be buried with it, die of the poet's illness (consumption) while your artist friend draws you and then be buried with your lover's writing, get mysteriously poisoned (by yourself) after a series of scandals and accidents and then have your family announce that you were killed by god, die from romanticizing poverty or receiving bad reviews from literary critics, die from walking or horseback riding in the cold and the rain while poeticizing, etc.

[follow-up-news]

Senate Republicans released a new budget blueprint Wednesday that would pave the way for $1.5 trillion in new tax cuts in addition to making President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent. They hope to adopt the plan in the coming days to instruct committees to begin work a massive bill to pass Trump���s agenda on taxes, immigration funding and other priorities. Senate Republicans are using the budget “reconciliation” process to evade the 60-vote hurdle in the chamber, where they hold a 53-47 majority, and cut Democrats out of the process. Republicans are using a controversial new accounting method known as “current policy baseline” to score the cost of a Trump tax cut extension at $0. Democrats have slammed it as “magic math” that papers over the multitrillion-dollar cost of extending those tax cuts and are exploring their options to challenge the approach. The Senate GOP budget resolution includes a $5 trillion debt limit increase.

[maegoorskeep]

Lord Paramount Orys of house Baratheon and his good wife the princess Argella of house Durrandon in 36 AC.

Those two are my favorite couple in Fire and Blood. I adore Argella and Orys so…. Here some Headcanons :

— When they meet for the very first time, Orys fell immediately in love with Argella. He had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life.

— Argella hated him for what she thought was all false righteousness. When he cloaked her, she said something like : “Don’t think this changes any of what you have done.“

— She cried when Orys told her about Argilac’s death. He was her only parent, her mother died during childbirth.

— When Aegon made Orys lord Paramount of the Stormlands, Argella was furious and she refused to dine with him for three moons, taking all her meals in her maiden chambers like she was some kind of prisoner of war.

— One night, she sat her father’s throne, missing him so terribly. Orys sat on the ground near her, holding her hand without a word.

— Argella started to open up after that, first with meals, then horse riding together, by the sixth moon, everyone in Storm’s end knew they had meetings in Orys’ chambers.

— She was the first one to say “I love you”.

— After their marriage, life was not always all sunny in paradise. Orys and Argella had very scarce arguments but, they were huge one and literal scream battles and furniture throwing.

— Their son Davis was the result of one reconciliation bedding.

— When Orys left for Dorne, Argella was all confident at first that he would come back quickly. She sat the throne, governing in his stead.

— But soon, she became silent and fell in a profound melancholy, sitting by her window every single day.

— She gave birth to their son Raymont alone eight moons after Orys left.

— When he came back, his bitterness profoundly struck Argella. This man was not the Orys she had known, her sweet, gentle giant gone in a place she could not follow.

— Orys took most of his meals alone or with his men, joining his family only for occasions or when he was tired.

— He still had so much love for Argella, it was just impossible to push through the hate and the pain he felt. So, he preferred to stay away from her so she would not be hurt by his nature.

— Orys deserted his bed for 7 years, joining his wife only for a few hours either to rest on her chest or to accomplish his marital obligations.

— Raymont grew up resenting his parents for this. He thought his father had no love for him and that her mother did not try hard enough.

— It’s not true, though. Everyday, Argella ran after Orys, begging, supplicating, always at his feet in hope he would come back.

— He did when he heard his wife had taken a great ill. Argella had a miscarriage a few moon after and Orys kissed her face like he would before.

— In 37 AC, after 30 difficult years, Orys left again for the Second Dornish War, joined by his son Davos. Raymont had started to understand the difficult nature of his parents’ marriage.

— Argella stood strong for a bit but collapsed soon after that into her old habit. She did not speak anymore, waiting all day, praying most of the nights.

— When Orys died that year, it was said Argella was never the same. She became bitter, cold and resentful. She started to hate the Targaryen who did nothing to help her husband, cursing them again.

— On her death bed, at the noble age of 68, her son Raymont whispered something to her. Argella was said to smile after that, holding her granddaughter’s hand.

— Some has said Raymont had whispered about the death of Aenys and how the debts was paid.

— Argella whispered the name of her sweet lover when she went to rejoin the God Above.

[annemarieyeretzian]

dorian ‘compliments are my love language’ storm: “[orym is] a natural born leader.” “you look great!” “orym is my… very good friend!” “[orym’s outfit] sounds… fabulous.” “there is no one more capable or qualified than orym.” “I knew [orym] would be [safe.]” “I just like to see you happy.” “every step of the way, I’ve thought about you.” “you can’t protect everyone all the time. look at me. I’m here now. you don’t have to save everyone.” “I wouldn’t be here without you. and now I’m here with you.” “[orym] is dedicated to the cause.”

[centrally-unplanned]

Though, to be clear, I am also pissed at the Biden Admin over this ERA stunt. How do I say this...why aren't you printing a platinum coin to cancel the debt ceiling? Why isn't Peurto Rico or DC a state - passed sans-filibuster as part of a rider on a reconciliation bill? Because if you are willing to consider legal hail marys for dramatic partisan plays, then why aren't you doing it for things that will actually do anything? Even if the ERA passed - which it won't - it would change virtually nothing. We already have federal legislation on sex discrimination, and Republicans control the courts so they will just bypass this shit. It won't stop abortion legislation, or educational policies, or anything.

You keep saying "we can't do play x y z because legal brinksmanship isn't decorous" and then do exactly that level of legal brinksmanship for useless, failed errata! Unserious flailings from an unserious admin, catering to The Groups, a few of which got obsessed with this because they have broken models of how power & policy function.

Idk man, it is just a dumb stunt, but it gets to me. It feels symbolic somehow; the very last act of the Biden years being an ineffectual handout to insiders, the defining failure of the entire administration coalesced into a single moment. It demonstrates a spiteful cluelessness around what went wrong. You don't have to do that to yourself.

[modern-politics111]

This BlueSky thread on the budget reconciliation puts it into perspective and what happens from here

House Rs just passed the budget resolution, the first step in their process to enact a bill that'd kick millions off Medicaid & cut SNAP down to just $1.60 per person per meal on avg while cutting taxes for the top 0.1% by $278k - all while increasing the debt

This whole process is about passing a reconciliation bill. What's special about reconciliation? In the Senate, it can avoid a filibuster - as long as it follows certain rules. That means that, as long as Republicans stick together, they can enact this legislation even if all Democrats vote no.

So, the next step is for the House and Senate to agree to an identical budget resolution. The Senate passed a very different version. It called for the same SNAP cuts but much smaller Medicaid cuts - and no tax cuts. This is the next place where we can stop them.

If we fail, then after that, committees can begin writing legislation. Usually the House goes first. If taxes are involved, the House must go first. At least one chamber needs to go through the full committee markup. In this thread, I'm going to assume that's the House.

So, each committee will write legislation that adheres to the instructions set in the budget resolution. Here's what the House budget resolution calls for:

Each committee then marks up that legislation, where only the members of the committee can vote on it. This will be the first time we get the full details on what they're trying to do. They won't be able to pretend they aren't cutting Medicaid anymore. This is the next place where we can stop them.

If we fail, then after that, all the various committees' bills as amended go to the Budget Committee for markup. This is the next place where we can stop them.

If we fail, then it goes to the House floor for passage. This is the next place where we can stop them. When they tried to repeal the ACA in 2017, we initially stopped them here in March of 2017 before they eventually passed it through the full chamber in May 2017.

If we fail, it goes over to the Senate. If the House went through the full committee process, the Senate can slap on a full substitute and go straight to the floor. The Senate will then move to proceed to the bill. This is filibuster-proof. This is the next place where we can stop them.

If we fail, then there are 20 hours of debate, after which we move to vote-o-rama. At that point, they consider amendments until there are no more amendments or everyone agrees to move to final passage. This is the next place to stop them, and it's where we finally stopped them on ACA repeal.

If we fail, then the House and the Senate need to pass identical versions. The House can just take up the Senate version and pass it, or they can go to conference and both try to pass what comes out of conference. This is the next place where we can stop them.

The single most important thing you can do, by a parsec, is show up at a town hall w/ your GOP member and talk to them face to face. Heroes like @indivisible.org helped organize last time. People drove for hours to spend just a few minutes talking to their members. But we saved lives because of it.

The next most important thing you can do is call your GOP member's office every single day. When I worked in the Senate, in every single weekly all-staff meeting, we went over the phone calls we'd received.

Tell them you don't want any Medicaid cuts. Tell them you don't want any SNAP cuts. Tell them you don't want huge tax cuts for billionaires. Tell them why it matters to you. *Make them* hear WHY Medicaid matters to you. That is how we convinced Murkowski, Collins, and McCain to vote no.

This will be a very hard fight, but it's worth it, because people matter. We owe it to our family members who rely on Medicaid and SNAP. We owe it to our friends. We owe it to our neighbors. We owe it to the people we'll never meet.

You can read my explainer on the reconciliation process here:

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Nick Anderson/Political Cartoonist :: @Nick_Anderson_

Spreading like...

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 13, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 14, 2025

The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.

Although experts on the National Security Council usually carry over from one administration to the next, Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press today reported that incoming officials for the Trump administration are interviewing career senior officials on the National Security Council about their political contributions, how they voted in 2024, and whether they are loyal to Trump. Most of them are on loan from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency and, understanding that they are about to be fired, have packed up their desks to head back to their home agencies.

The National Security Council is the main forum for the president to hash out decisions in national security and foreign policy, and the people on it are picked for their expertise. But Trump’s expected pick to become his national security advisor—his primary advisor on all national security issues—Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL) told right-wing Breitbart News that he wants to staff the NSC with people who are “100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda.”

Ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) warned that the loyalty purge “threatens our national security and our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the ongoing and very real global threats in a dangerous world.”

But during Trump’s first term, it was Alexander Vindman, who was detailed to the NSC, and his twin Eugene Vindman, who was serving the NSC as an ethics lawyer, who reported concerns about Trump’s July 2019 call to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to their superiors. This launched the investigation that became Trump’s first impeachment, and Trump appears anxious to make sure future NSC members will be fiercely loyal to him.

With extraordinarily slim majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans are talking about pushing through their entire agenda through Congress as a single bill in the process known as budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation, which deals with matters related to spending, revenue, and the debt limit, is one of the few things that cannot be filibustered, meaning that Republicans could get a reconciliation bill through the Senate with just 50 votes. If they can hold their conference together, they could get the package through despite Democratic opposition.

House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders have said that the House intends to pass a reconciliation bill that covers border security, defense spending, the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, spending cuts to social welfare programs, energy deregulation, and an increase in the national debt limit.

But Li Zhou of Vox points out that it’s not quite as simple as it sounds to get everything at once, because budget reconciliation measures are not supposed to include anything that doesn’t relate to the budget, and the Senate parliamentarian will advise stripping those things out. In addition, the budget cuts Republicans are circulating include cuts to popular programs like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in combating climate change, and the supplemental nutrition programs formerly known as food stamps.

Still, a lot can be done under budget reconciliation. Democrats under Biden passed the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under reconciliation, and Republicans under Trump passed the 2017 Trump tax cuts the same way.

A wrinkle in those plans is the Republicans’ hope to raise the national debt limit. As soon as they take control of Congress and the White House, Republicans will have to deal immediately with the treasury running up against the debt limit, a holdover from World War I that sets a limit on how much the country can borrow. Although he has complained bitterly about spending under Biden, Trump has demanded that Congress either raise or abandon the debt ceiling because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts he wants to extend will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years, and cost estimates for his deportation plans range from $88 billion to $315 billion a year.

Republicans are backing away from adding a debt increase to the budget reconciliation package out of concern that members of the far-right Freedom Caucus will kill the entire bill if they do. Those members want no part of raising the national debt and have demanded $2 trillion in budget cuts before they will consider it. Tonight, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) told Jordain Carney of Politico that Senate Republicans expect the debt limit to be stripped out of the budget reconciliation measure.

So Republicans are currently exploring the idea of leveraging aid to California for the deadly fires in order to get Democrats to sign on to raising the debt ceiling. Meredith Lee Hill of Politico reported that Trump met with a group of influential House Republicans over dinner Sunday night at Mar-a-Lago to discuss tying aid for the wildfires to raising the debt ceiling. Today, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed to reporter Hill that this plan is under discussion.

Indeed, Republicans have been in the media suggesting that disaster aid to Democratic states should be tied to their adopting Republican policies. The Los Angeles fires have now claimed at least 24 lives. More than 15,000 firefighters are working to extinguish the wildfires, which have been driven by Santa Ana winds of up to 98 miles (158 km) an hour over ground scorched by high temperatures and low rainfall since last May, conditions caused by climate change.

On the Fox News Channel today, Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA) said: "We will certainly help those thousands of homes and families who have been devastated, but we also expect you to change bad behavior. We should look at the same for these blue states who have run away with a broken tax policy.... Those governors need to change their tune now.” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) blamed Democrats for the fires and said of federal disaster relief: “I certainly wouldn't vote for anything unless we see a dramatic change in how they're gonna be handling these things in the future.”

Aside from the morality of demanding concessions for disaster aid after President Joe Biden responded with full and unconditional support for regions hit by Hurricane Helene (although Tennessee governor Bill Lee is still lying that Biden delayed aid to his state, when in fact he delayed in asking for it, as required by law), there is a financial problem with this argument. As economist Paul Krugman noted today in his Krugman Wonks Out, California “is literally subsidizing the rest of the United States, red states in particular, through the federal budget.”

In 2022, the most recent year for which information is available, California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it got back. Washington state also subsidized the rest of the country, as did most of the Northeast. That money flowed to Republican-dominated states, which contributed far less to the federal government than they received in return.

Krugman noted that “if West Virginia were a country, it would in effect be receiving foreign aid equal to more than 20 percent of its G[ross] D[omestic] P[roduct].” Krugman refers to the federal government as “an insurance company with an army,” and he notes that there is “nothing either the city or the state could have done to prevent” the wildfires. “If the United States of America doesn’t take care of its own citizens, wherever they live and whatever their politics, we should drop “United” from our name,” he writes. “As it happens, however, California—a major driver of U.S. prosperity and power—definitely has earned the right to receive help during a crisis.”

Today, Biden announced student loan forgiveness for another 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people relieved of student debt to more than 5 million borrowers, who have received $183.6 billion in relief. This has been achieved through making sure existing debt relief programs were followed, as they had not been in the past.

Establishment Republicans continue to fight MAGA Republicans, and MAGA fights among itself: former Trump ally Steve Bannon yesterday called Trump’s sidekick Elon Musk “truly evil” and vowed to “take this guy down.” But even as their enablers in the legacy media are normalizing Republican behavior, a reality-based media is stepping up to counter the disinformation.

Aside from the many independent outlets that have held MAGA Republicans to account, MSNBC today announced that progressive journalist Rachel Maddow will return to hosting a nightly one-hour show for the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.

And today journalist Jennifer Rubin joined her colleagues who have abandoned the Washington Post as it swung toward Trump. She resigned from the Washington Post with the announcement that she and former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen have started a new media outlet called The Contrarian. Joining them is a gold-star list of journalists and commentators who have stood against the rise of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, many of whom have left publications as those outlets moved rightward.

“Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission—defending, protecting and advancing democracy,” Rubin wrote in her resignation announcement. In contrast, the new publication “will be a central hub for unvarnished, unbowed, and uncompromising reported opinion and analysis that exists in opposition to the authoritarian threat.”

“The urgency of the task before us cannot be overstated,” The Contrarian’s mission statement read. “We have already entered the era of oligarchy—rule by a narrow clique of powerful men (almost exclusively men). We have little doubt that billionaires will dominate the Trump regime, shape policy, engage in massive self-dealing, and seek to quash dissent and competition in government and the private sector. As believers in free markets subject to reasonable regulation and economic opportunity for all, we recognize this is a threat not only to our democracy but to our dynamic, vibrant economy that remains the envy of the world.”

In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[odinsblog]

Veterans’ health care


A 1996 law set eligibility requirements for military veterans to receive hospital, medical and nursing home care and authorized spending for those services and patient enrollment. That law has not been renewed, but Congress regularly allocates additional Department of Veterans Affairs funding and allows benefits to increase automatically based on inflation. VA provides medical care to more than 9.1 million enrolled veterans, according to the agency.
​

Drug development and opioid addiction treatment

Most of this spending relates to the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act of 2016. That law provided money to the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration to modernize pharmaceutical research and medical trials. It funded research for cancer cures and state-level grants for opioid addiction and other substance abuse treatment.


​State Department

In 2003, Congress passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which set policy priorities and created spending authority for the State Department. That law has not been renewed, but Congress every year since has passed annual funding bills for the department, which Trump has announced he’ll nominate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) to run.


​Housing assistance

President Bill Clinton in 1998 signed the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, which overhauled federal housing assistance policies, including voucher programs and other antipoverty assistance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies continue using this law to implement federal housing programs.


​Justice Department

In 1994, Congress passed the landmark Violence Against Women Act and has renewed it multiple times since. In 2006, lawmakers packaged a VAWA renewal with authorizing legislation for the Justice Department. As with the State Department, Congress has not approved new authorizing legislation for the Justice Department since, but it has funded the agency — and even authorized hundreds of millions of dollars more for a new FBI headquarters — every year.


​Education spending

The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act delegated power to state and local education officials to set primary and secondary education achievement standards. It gives billions of dollars in federal grant money to state and local education officials to fund schools and school districts. Those standards are still used by the Education Department, even though the legislation has not been reauthorized. Trump has suggested he’d like to eliminate the entire department.

NASA

Stripping funding for NASA, which was last reauthorized in 2017, could spell doom for Musk’s commercial spaceflight firm, SpaceX. The company has contracts worth more than $4 billion — including for return trips to the moon and retiring the International Space Station — linked to programs approved in the 2017 law.


​Health-care and student loan programs

What’s known as the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was actually passed in two separate bills in 2010. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act represents the second bill, which included some tax revisions and technical changes to the ACA. The law has not been reauthorized since, but the Department of Health and Human Services reported in March that more than 45 million people have health insurance coverage backed by the Affordable Care Act.

The law that made those final tweaks to the ACA also overhauled the Education Department’s student loan program. Where some schools relied on private lenders to issue federally backed loans, with this law, the government itself became the lender. That change has since enabled President Joe Biden to offer student loan debt relief, though many of his most ambitious policies have been blocked by the courts. Student loans are generally funded through mandatory spending — similar to social safety net programs such as Medicare and Social Security — and not subject to annual spending laws.


​International security programs

The 1985 International Security and Development Cooperation Act bundled together authorizations for a number of international security programs, including funding and regulations for arms sales to allies, economic aid for developing countries, airport security, anti-narcotics-trafficking policies, the Peace Corps and more. This Reagan-era law continues to be foundational to congressional funding and federal policy.


​Head Start

Head Start provides preschool education for children from low-income families. In the 2023 fiscal year, more than 800,000 children enrolled in Head Start programs, according to the National Head Start Association. The program also helped place more than 530,000 parents in jobs, school or job-training programs. It was last authorized in 2007.

(continue reading)

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Wait wait wait hold up hold up hold up I can’t I’m emotional

Each of Sanji’s siblings taking turns rescuing him?? Starting with the boys, who despite saying they’re there to take down Big Mom and are only coincidentally on the same side as Sanji and have no obligation to help him having already done what they needed to “repay their debt” earlier at the tea party, go OUT OF THEIR WAY to help Sanji.

Calling him a pain and troublesome in the MOST affectionate they’ve ever sounded. Sanji is still fully in argumentative mode but they’re almost playful?? Like Ichiji is the typical leader not showing anything except order Sanji to run in the most “I’ll handle things from here” kind of demand. But Yonji and ESPECIALLY Niji (who was by far the most brutal of the brothers) cracking jokes but propelling Sanji forward nonetheless into safety???

The way it so heavily reads “yeah we were assholes to you but no one else is allowed to be”. And the way I’m like, do I… do I see a speck of humanity?? Even if it’s nothing more than some semblance of loyalty to someone they once perceived as their brother??? And it wasn’t by Judge’s orders that they help him either. This is purely their own volition. They want to help him out.

And then the last person to help was the first person that helped Sanji escape the first time around. Reiju sends him off last but instead of demanding he never look back like she once did, she says “ja na!” Which is closer to see you later in Japanese. Which means she is hopeful they will meet again! That they may even meet again under nicer circumstances!

And she returns to the battle with a smile that Sanji mimics. A stark difference to the tearful parting when they were children.

And when Reiju re-enters the fray, it’s so subtle as her smile shifts to a straight face as she goes back into battle mode.

But once she’s back on the ground with her brothers, they all smile.

And so does Sanji! Because it wasn’t just Reiju that sent him off this time. It was all his siblings. They may never get along. They may never truly heal the wounds of the past they dealt on Sanji (tho I argue given the boys programming and how their father manipulated them they only did what they were inherently born to do and Judge has zero rights as a father to have anything close to this kind of reconciliation with Sanji), BUT in this moment, they all fought as a family with the same mission. To get Sanji to safety.

And Sanji knew that. And in this one moment he felt like their family. And he was finally returning to his true one.

[freedelusionshere]

For me, in S4 I want to skip all jealousy subplots and just get into Syd’s interior life and what she wants or wanted from Carmy. They have a lot to show/say they’ve been holding back about Syd’s interior life and backstory.

It’s bad enough Shapiro is poaching her but the real thing is: why can’t she tell Carmy what’s up? The most obvious answer is that she has grown to love him. She had a panic attack and Luca was right there and Chef Terry in her kitchen, and guess who was on her mind the most? She was acting carefree before that.

Syd is set up to be in financial trouble with the bad credit and debt, now having an apartment lease, on deferred pay, and Carmy isn’t good at running a restaurant or finances and The Bear is about to lose its backer. All those people will be out of jobs if it’s not resolved.

All Carmy has left is to finally put his heart out there, which he’s already done symbolically when Syd ate the blood orange Hamachi dish.

There’s so much more mess to deal with beyond predictable jealousy subplots, like Carmy getting square with Donna and Richie, their parents’ reactions to what is going on, the disaster wedding on the horizon, the franchising of The Beef which was discussed and never followed up on, and them both deprogramming from fine dining and getting back to what their original plan was at the end of S1.

I want real meaty stuff for Syd, to showcase her emotions, and real reconciliation and clarity being portrayed between her and Carmy after all the legerdemain of S3.