#budget 2020 key points

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amy Maxmen at KFF Health News:

Keith Poulsen’s jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack. But the scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They showed videos of systems they built to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In 14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus. “It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating hundreds of wounded soldiers,” he said. Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 875 herds across 16 states have tested positive.

Experts say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the outbreak. “We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.” To understand how the bird flu got out of hand, KFF Health News interviewed nearly 70 government officials, farmers and farmworkers, and researchers with expertise in virology, pandemics, veterinary medicine, and more. Together with emails obtained from local health departments through public records requests, this investigation revealed key problems, including deference to the farm industry, eroded public health budgets, neglect for the safety of agriculture workers, and the sluggish pace of federal interventions. Case in point: The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month announced a federal order to test milk nationwide. Researchers welcomed the news but said it should have happened months ago — before the virus was so entrenched.

“It’s disheartening to see so many of the same failures that emerged during the covid-19 crisis reemerge,” said Tom Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Far more bird flu damage is inevitable, but the extent of it will be left to the Trump administration and Mother Nature. Already, the USDA has funneled more than $1.7 billion into tamping down the bird flu on poultry farms since 2022, which includes reimbursing farmers who’ve had to cull their flocks, and more than $430 million into combating the bird flu on dairy farms. In coming years, the bird flu may cost billions of dollars more in expenses and losses. Dairy industry experts say the virus kills roughly 2% to 5% of infected dairy cows and reduces a herd’s milk production by about 20%. Worse, the outbreak poses the threat of a pandemic. More than 60 people in the U.S. have been infected, mainly by cows or poultry, but cases could skyrocket if the virus evolves to spread efficiently from person to person. And the recent news of a person critically ill in Louisiana with the bird flu shows that the virus can be dangerous.

Just a few mutations could allow the bird flu to spread between people. Because viruses mutate within human and animal bodies, each infection is like a pull of a slot machine lever. “Even if there’s only a 5% chance of a bird flu pandemic happening, we’re talking about a pandemic that probably looks like 2020 or worse,” said Tom Peacock, a bird flu researcher at the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom, referring to covid. “The U.S. knows the risk but hasn’t done anything to slow this down,” he added. Beyond the bird flu, the federal government’s handling of the outbreak reveals cracks in the U.S. health security system that would allow other risky new pathogens to take root. “This virus may not be the one that takes off,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the emerging diseases group at the World Health Organization. “But this is a real fire exercise right now, and it demonstrates what needs to be improved.”

[...] Curtailing the virus on farms is the best way to prevent human infections, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, but human surveillance must be stepped up, too. Every clinic serving communities where farmworkers live should have easy access to bird flu tests — and be encouraged to use them. Funds for farmworker outreach must be boosted. And, she added, the CDC should change its position and offer farmworkers bird flu vaccines to protect them and ward off the chance of a hybrid bird flu that spreads quickly. The rising number of cases not linked to farms signals a need for more testing in general. When patients are positive on a general flu test — a common diagnostic that indicates human, swine, or bird flu — clinics should probe more deeply, Nuzzo said. The alternative is a wait-and-see approach in which the nation responds only after enormous damage to lives or businesses. This tack tends to rely on mass vaccination. But an effort analogous to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed is not assured, and neither is rollout like that for the first covid shots, given a rise in vaccine skepticism among Republican lawmakers.

KFF Health News reports on how America lost control on containing the bird flu that could set the stage for another pandemic. If we see another COVID-level or even Ebola-level pandemic, America will be in for a world of hurt, thanks to the rise of anti-public health sentiments.

See Also:

CNN: How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic

[mariacallous]

The headlines coming out of COP29—the recently concluded United Nations climate conference—focus on one key number: $300 billion. This is the annual amount of climate finance the governments of wealthy countries are responsible for generating for developing countries by 2035.

But to focus solely on whether the number is too big or too small misses what it means and why it matters. The agreement does not automatically produce any funds on its own, and no court can enforce it.

Wealthy countries will not provide most of the funds directly; the money will pass through entities like the World Bank, the Green Climate Fund, or even private companies. And the $300 billion number is not even the only climate finance goal to come out of COP29—the agreement also includes a target of $1.3 trillion per year in climate investment from all sources for developing countries by 2035.

As many have argued, the $300 billion goal is too small, and both it and the $1.3 trillion goal are riddled with ambiguities. But the agreement is also a rare force that places pressure on developed countries’ climate finance, and taking its targets seriously demands more transformative action than developed countries had been anticipating. Actually achieving the agreement—and more importantly, maintaining a safe shared climate—requires a set of actions that must unfold across the global economy. Setting the goals was just the beginning. What matters most is what happens next.

The $300 billion goal is structured similarly to the original climate finance goal agreed upon in Copenhagen in 2009, which said that developed countries would provide $100 billion per year by 2020. It is perhaps the greatest failing of the new climate finance agreement that it did not correct the key unanswered questions in the formulation of that goal: the distribution of responsibility among developed countries; the allocation of resources between developing countries; how and whether to distinguish between grants, subsidized loans, and market-rate loans; and the relationship between climate finance and development finance.

The ambiguities are so great that countries could not even agree if the original goal has been met. Developed countries say they met it in 2022, but earlier versions of the new climate finance agreement contained dueling language on the question. It proved so impossible to agree that the subject was simply dropped from the final draft.

Unfortunately, developed countries will presumably continue using the same, disputed method of counting climate finance as they did before. And as with the original goal, only a relatively small share of the $300 billion will come from grants from a developed country to a developing country. Bilateral climate finance—climate finance from one country to another—currently adds up to $41 billion.

Increases in this bilateral finance, which tends to place the greatest strain on national budgets, will likely only go a small way toward the $300 billion. It is not that developed countries do not have the means to provide more, but that domestic political realities stand in the way.

Contributions from major developing countries, which are not required to contribute toward the new goal but can do so voluntarily, may add some money. For example, from 2013-2022, China provided an average $4.5 billion per year in climate finance under the label of South-South cooperation.

Finance through multilateral climate funds like the Green Climate Fund will also increase. The new agreement called for a tripling of financing through these mechanisms, but they are starting from such a low baseline that even this would only form a few percentage points of the $300 billion.

This leaves two main sources for developed countries to meet the goal. The first is mobilizing private finance, which developed countries controversially count toward the total. But despite years of ambitious plans to mobilize private finance, it has demonstrated little success. In the most recent year with data, less than a fifth of developed countries’ climate finance came through mobilized private investment.

These realities mean that multilateral development banks (MDBs) like the World Bank are the most viable route to power the growth in climate finance needed to reach the $300 billion goal. They were already the fastest-growing source of climate finance under the $100 billion goal and became the single largest source in 2022.

These banks provide few grants, but they provide loans at cheaper interest rates than borrowing countries could access on the market. And they are cost-effective for donors: They can lend out several multiples of what governments put in. However, if MDBs are to provide finance on the necessary scale—and if they are to ensure new climate finance does not come at the expense of development priorities—they will need shareholding countries to contribute more.

In recent years, as developing countries were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, high interest rates and debt levels, as well as mounting climate impacts, the idea of international financial architecture reform grew in prominence. The idea expands focus beyond individual aid programs or funding priorities to the broader rules and institutions that direct money around the globe—too often in ways unfavorable to developing countries.

While the new climate finance goal does not explicitly engage with these debates, its contents make its achievement dependent on international financial architecture reform. Expanding and improving MDBs has been a major priority of these efforts: During the recent G-20 summit, members approved a road map to achieve this.

The overall $1.3 trillion investment target in the new climate finance goal is rightly criticized as vague, but it is more closely tied to the needs of developing countries than the $300 billion goal—and meeting it would require more ambitious action. The implication is that private finance is expected to fill the gap between the $300 billion goal and the $1.3 trillion goal.

But private financial flows will not suddenly proliferate without government action, and given how low private finance mobilization rates are, it is implausible that $1.3 trillion in investment could be met without an increase in public finance well beyond the minimum necessary to meet the $300 billion goal. Even the International High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, whose work was influential in shaping the $1.3 trillion target, projected that private finance would account for just around $500 billion of the $1.3 trillion total.

Reaching that target will also require addressing the financial constraints that prevent climate investment in developing countries. Many countries will need debt relief so that unsustainable debts do not crowd out climate investments. The International Monetary Fund will need to reorient itself to prioritize a green investment push. And international levies on undertaxed activities like shipping, aviation, and financial transactions could produce reliable revenue streams for climate finance.

The $1.3 trillion target also creates opportunities through the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to 1.3T”—a plan added to the agreement to address outstanding issues before next year’s COP30 in Belém, Brazil. It provides an opportunity to address the broader reforms needed in the international financial architecture, as well as to salvage priorities excluded from this year’s agreement, such as guaranteeing funding for particularly vulnerable countries and for adapting to climate change. With countries’ new climate action plans due in the coming months, it is crucial to give quick signals to developing countries that they will be backed by adequate finance.

The new climate finance agreement demands transformative action in the international economy. It is also eminently achievable. Even the broader $1.3 trillion target equates to about 1 percent of global gross domestic product. It is around half of global military spending. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will likely pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement—again—but Washington already provided relatively little climate finance.

Much depends on whether rich countries see this year’s new goal as the bargain at the heart of global climate cooperation or an unwanted obligation they should minimize, as many developing countries understandably perceive them to have done under the original goal. This dynamic is part of why the $100 billion struggled to advance the objective it was meant to address—the need for developing countries to manage climate impacts they did little to cause and to forgo the fossil fuel-heavy development model today’s developed countries used to get rich.

Since the signing of the Paris Agreement, a period in which global emissions should have fallen rapidly, global emissions have grown, with two-thirds of growth coming from developing countries other than China. If developing countries cannot reduce emissions, any emissions savings from initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States or the Green Deal in Europe could quickly be canceled out.

Wealthy governments will need to understand the centrality of climate finance to their global legitimacy, as well as the inescapably global nature of the climate crisis. And supportive domestic political constituencies must put organized pressure on them to follow through on the agreement.

Still, this climate finance agreement is not what decides whether humanity pays for climate change. Someone will pay. It could be—and often already is—farmers spending their savings to replace drought-ravaged crops and governments drowning in interest payments they incurred to help citizens drowning in floods.

It could be the governments of developed countries paying for the consequences of emissions and instability they could have helped avoid. But it doesn’t have to be. Working together to pay now is cheaper and fairer than paying the price later.

[nanowrimo]

Writing Tips for Every Age and Mental State

Not every piece of writing advice will apply to you —  and that’s okay! Sometimes, your writing strategies will change as you go through life or learn more about yourself. NaNo Participant Clara Ward shares writing advice that they've learned over time.

There’s no right way to write. Writing—like life—is about finding your best fit. What follows are tricks that worked for me. Please borrow what works best for you right now. (Then save a few ideas for future you!)

I wrote my first novel four decades ago, when I was thirteen. I’ve written while juggling three jobs or zero. I’ve written as a kid, a parent, and an empty-nester. I’ve learned from my own neurodiversity and mental health challenges along the way.

Each struggle taught me how to customize my writing practice. Here’s a list of what worked for me at different stages. Adapt as you see fit.

Stage 1: Meet Yourself Where You’re At

Outline - For my first novel, I sketched furtive notes on the back pages of a school notebook. I created headings for each page that became section or chapter titles later. Numbers helped me order the scenes and letters delineated details.

Note: Leave extra space for fun facts or snippets of overheard dialog. Years later, I heard a NaNoWriMo buddy joke, “Careful, or you’ll end up in my novel.” My apologies to my high school geometry teacher, who received no such warning.

Avoid Distractions - I needed a closed door to write at first. I couldn’t read other fiction during the week or two when I frantically converted my outline into a rough draft. Luckily, I wasn’t in charge of meals back then!

Stage 2: Find Your People

Give Yourself Permission - I first heard about NaNoWriMo in 2004, when I was parenting, working, and volunteering as if there were two extra days in each week. I hadn’t written a story, an outline, or notes in over a year, but I knew exactly what I wanted to write. I signed up for NaNoWriMo and opened a family meeting by showing the webpage to my spouse and kids. I explained how I’d budget four hours a week for writing in November.

Note: I didn’t complete 50,000 words that first November. But the next year, my kids enthusiastically joined the Young Writers Program!

Enlist Support - Eventually, my kids and I designated one hour each day for writing. There were many distractions, but it felt great! We attended NaNoWriMo write-ins at a donut shop to build community, and my kids each persuaded a friend to join. (Yes, donuts are a sometimes food, but at least they weren’t asking for coffee!). With support and determination—and for me, a bit of sleep debt—we all met our writing goals most years!

Stage 3: Embrace Your True Strengths

Emotion Mapping - In the last couple decades, as attitudes and terminology evolved, I’ve learned a lot about my own neurodivergence and mental health. Oddly enough, the self-knowledge I gained by masking and compensating before I knew those words, informed both my writing and the tips given above. As I became more honest with myself, I brought more emotion to my writing.

Note: Sometimes it helps to skip scenes I’m not in a good headspace to write. I jot down key plot and character points inside curly brackets and skip to a scene that suits my current feelings. Since I don’t used curly brackets anywhere else in my writing, they’re easy to search for when I’m ready to go back.

Fascinations - After years of being warned about “info dumps,” I realized that my own fascinations (neurodivergent or otherwise) were assets that could serve my writing. At the beginning of 2020 I did a deep dive into researching sea creatures and ways to protect our oceans. At the back of my research notebook, I gradually outlined my 2020 NaNoWriMo Novel, Be the Sea. Parts of that outline cross-referenced pages of ocean research or articles I’d saved online.

Note: The system above worked well enough for me that I now have a book deal for Be the Sea, which will be published by Atthis Arts in early 2024!

Seriously though, this isn’t a post about how to get published on a 40-year plan. By matching your writing practices to your ever-changing self, you give all your stories the chance to be told. I wish you and your stories that success!

Clara Ward lives in Silicon Valley on the border between reality and speculative fiction. When not using words to teach or tell stories, Clara uses wood, fiber, and glass to make practical or completely impractical objects. Their short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Decoded Pride, The Arcanist, and as a postcard from Thinking Ink Press. Clara’s 2020 NaNoWriMo novel, Be the Sea, will be available from Atthis Arts in early 2024. For updates on this and other projects, follow Clara on their website. Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels

[covid-safer-hotties]

As new school year opens, COVID-19 surge forces abrupt classroom closures in the US

In the opening days of the 2024-25 school year, at least two schools were forced to shut down due to SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. This is only the tip of the iceberg, as 1.3 million Americans are currently being infected daily, and most US schools have yet to reopen. For instance, in New York, Michigan and many other northern states, districts typically start after Labor Day.

On Monday, August 12, Jefferson-Abernathy-Graetz (JAG) High School in Montgomery, Alabama closed, moving to remote learning. Fifteen educators reported COVID-19 infection after last week’s two-day orientation. Officials said they would reassess the situation and possibly reopen the building by Friday, at which point they said masks and disinfectant wipes would be made available to students.

The same day as the Alabama closure, Humboldt schools in western Tennessee called off classes at Stigall Primary. Officials informed parents by letter that the school would be closed for “sanitizing” due to an “uptick in COVID.” A later report said an undisclosed number of students and staff tested positive for COVID-19, while others were symptomatic.

“Everyone’s like, ‘COVID is back, COVID is back’,” said Jessica Williamson, a parent of a first grader at Stigall. “I just feel like it didn’t really go anywhere,” she told local media. “Those are little kids. They’re the most prone to put things in their mouths, to touch each other, to just share germs,” Willamson said.

Why, indeed, is “COVID back”? The response of the Tennessee school to the outbreak provides a partial answer.

The district said it was carrying out a “deep clean, disinfecting every surface,” according to Ginger Carver, the communications director for the school district. She added that teachers and staff would follow protocols to keep the classrooms and common areas disinfected. “When students move from class to class, teachers will be wiping down the desks, the desktop surfaces. They’ll be using disinfectants. Basically, the protocols that we were doing back when COVID was full blown,” she said. Humboldt schools reopened on Wednesday.

In other words, COVID is returning with the new school year because no action is being taken to combat the main cause of COVID transmission, the aerosolization of the virus. Furthermore, schools are being reopened almost immediately despite high community spread.

As scientists have demonstrated and nearly five years of COVID deaths have underscored, the key to fighting COVID is disinfection of the air. Without the use of HEPA filtration in all indoor spaces and other mechanisms, including Far-UV light, schools will dramatically exacerbate the spread of the disease. Despite the use of these methodologies by the ruling elites to protect themselves—at the Davos Economic Summit or at the White House, for instance—no such measures are in place for millions of schoolchildren.

The Biden administration, with the full support of the Republican Party, has deprived schools of the funds necessary to make schools safe and prioritized spending for war. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds allocated to schools beginning in 2020 were purportedly aimed at counteracting COVID. However, they fell far short of addressing the urgently required but costly upgrading of air quality in schools. ESSER amounted to a financial band-aid to districts reeling from decades of budget cuts and inflation.

A House of Representatives study prior to COVID showed that US school buildings were so antiquated and dangerously unsafe that outlays of $145 billion per year were required to modernize and maintain them. The costs of air disinfection would no doubt significantly increase that figure. For its part, the Biden/Harris administration allowed ESSER to end while funneling more than $1 trillion into its rapidly expanding wars against Russia in Ukraine and its military build-up against Iran and China.

Death and disease have been normalized, while mitigation measures as important and effective as masking have been demonized by the right wing among both Republicans and Democrats. This is another reason COVID is back to greet returning students.

An important new study in The Lancet has shown the critical importance of face coverings to prevent transmission in indoor spaces. As Bill Shaw reported on the WSWS:

Face coverings dramatically reduce the load of SARS-CoV-2 in exhaled breath from infected persons. The reductions reached as high as 98 percent, with variations according to the type of face covering worn.

Despite this clear research, neither these schools nor others will require masking when they reopen, spurring new outbreaks of COVID.

Reacting to the new school-related outbreaks, healthcare expert and data analyst Greg Travis posted on X/Twitter Wednesday, “FYI since 2020 more children have died of their SARS-CoV-2 infections … than from all other infectious pathogens COMBINED Stop pretending that SARS-CoV-2 spreading in schools is only a problem for parents, teachers, bus drivers, etc. It is killing kids.”

It is killing and disabling parents, staff and family members as well. JAG High School in Montgomery was the workplace of beloved school custodian Morris Pitts, who died of COVID on November 29, 2020. Pitts was one of eight educators from Montgomery whose lives were taken over a matter of weeks. State, local and federal government officials turned a blind eye to the rampaging virus to keep students in school and parents at work.

The criminal “let it rip” policy of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Biden’s ending of the Public Health Emergency in May 2023 has left the working class abandoned to the ravages of the disease and the growth of Long COVID.

In that vein, Montgomery parents were also instructed—in the most milquetoast language—that when their children develop symptoms, “it’s best to keep them at home.”

Education unions, including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA), have said nothing about the inevitable superspread resulting from the beginning of a new school year in the midst of a record summer surge. As their websites testify, the AFT and NEA are instead hyperfocused on getting out the vote for Harris/Walz in November in order to maintain their lucrative role as labor contractors and government partners.

Clare, a member of the Alabama Educators Rank and File Committee who protested the unsafe conditions in schools on the Montgomery County Court House steps in October 2020, denounced the failure of schools and health authorities to protect children. She noted that she is herself currently recovering from the virus and had been told by a Veterans Administration nurse, “Just treat the symptoms.” She angrily related that the nurse “had the nerve to say the common cold is just a variation of coronavirus, an extract of COVID. She refused to test me, telling me people are not dying as before and that I’d be alright. They denied me a test. I think they just don’t want to pay for tests anymore.”

Referring to the Montgomery educators who formed “No Plan, No Personnel” and then the Alabama Educators Rank-and-File Committee, Clare said, “This was the problem from the beginning, they have no plan. They should know we might have to go remote at any time because nothing has been done to make the schools safe.”

Clare said a recent family funeral resulted in at least eight members of her family contracting COVID in the summer surge. Bitterly refuting the claims that the virus has mutated to a mild, non-threatening disease, she said, “I felt like I was dying, I never felt like this before. On my third day, it was not a headache—it felt like a migraine. I had body aches from my head through my spine to my feet. I couldn’t breathe and was nauseous. It’s been two and a half weeks now, and I’m fatigued from just doing simple things. It’s debilitating. I get so tired I can’t even pick up the phone.”

While these two schools have been forced to close, right-wing administrators around the country are vowing to keep schools running no matter the cost. On July 31, Arizona State Superintendent of Education Tom Horne told ABC News that despite the surge across his state, “If anybody talks about closing school, I will fight it as hard as I can.” He added, “Closing of the schools that occurred last time was an unbelievable disaster.” His contemptuous disdain for the health of students and their communities was buttressed by his referencing of the CDC’s prescription to treat COVID “like a common respiratory virus.”

While the fascist right is pushing for prohibitions on school closures and outright anti-vaccination policies, the dismantling of the public health system has been bipartisan. It began with Trump but was then spearheaded by the Biden administration. Both ruling class parties insist that workers should report to work, whether or not they are sick. Under the Biden/Harris administration over 800,000 Americans died from COVID, while millions more suffered debilitating Long COVID, for which the long-term generational impacts of annual reinfections will not be fully grasped for years or decades to come.

The two schools in Tennessee and Alabama are the only sites currently reporting outbreaks, but this has more to do with lack of media coverage than lack of COVID. For instance, in a San Diego high school, the administration sent a cart around with free COVID tests (although well past their 2022 expiration dates).

Another reason for the return of COVID arises from the years of right-wing disinformation campaigns to spread confusion and conspiracy theories within the population, cultivating the most backward and fascistic conceptions. This has resulted in a terrible decline of vaccination rates for all preventable diseases, not just COVID, which will continue to worsen the impact. The share of kindergarten children with a vaccine exemption has increased in 36 states since the pandemic began. Twenty-one states have banned student COVID-19 vaccine mandates, both Republican- and Democratic-dominated states, including Michigan, Ohio, and New Hampshire.

WSWS writer Benjamin Mateus reported on the declining rates of vaccination:

As of May 11, 2024, only 22.5 percent of adults have received an updated COVID vaccine since September 14, 2023. However, for children six months of age through 17, that figure is a deplorable 14.4 percent.

He noted the social impact of these abysmal numbers:

Including the complete abandonment of all mitigation measures, the ongoing surge of infections is being driven by the waning immunity in the population.

The pandemic has revealed the contempt of the ruling elites and both of their political parties, Democrats and Republicans, for the working class. It has exposed the role of the pro-capitalist AFT and NEA, which continue to insist educators work in an unsafe environment and children breathe unsafe air.

Every day, countless people continue to die or be sickened needlessly while mankind has the capacity to end this and future pandemics. The working class must end “Forever COVID” by ending “Forever Capitalism,” taking health and safety into its own hands, and ending the subordination of social life to private profit. Join or build an independent rank-and-file committee at your school or workplace today.

[darkmaga-returns]

Starbucks is reducing its corporate employees’ holiday bonuses by 40% due to declining sales and financial struggles.

Key Facts:

– Bonus Cuts: Corporate staff will receive only 60% of their usual holiday bonuses this December. – Sales Slump: The company experienced its worst year since 2020, with revenue increasing less than 1% and operating income dropping 8%. – Customer Cutbacks: Cash-strapped customers are spending less on expensive menu items amid rising prices. – Operational Issues: Long wait times and controversies have further impacted customer satisfaction and sales. – Leadership Changes: New CEO Laxman Narasimhan is implementing strategies to revitalize the brand and regain customer trust.

The Rest of The Story:

Starbucks is facing significant financial challenges, prompting a substantial cut in holiday bonuses for its corporate employees. The company’s revenue growth has stalled, and operating income has declined, marking its most challenging year since the pandemic began. Customers are scaling back on premium beverages due to increased prices, leading to a slump in sales. Additionally, operational hurdles like lengthy wait times and public controversies have strained the company’s relationship with its clientele.

In response, CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who took over in September, is spearheading initiatives to rejuvenate the brand. These include hiring more baristas to improve service efficiency and redesigning store spaces to make them more inviting, reminiscent of Starbucks’ early days as a “third place” between work and home. Despite these efforts, employees at various levels are feeling the impact of the company’s financial downturn through reduced bonuses and halted merit raises for senior staff.

Commentary:

The financial woes of Starbucks are a reflection of the broader economic challenges many Americans face today. High inflation, often attributed to current economic policies, has eroded purchasing power, leaving consumers with less disposable income for non-essential luxuries like a $5 latte. The concept of “Bidenomics” has been criticized for contributing to rising costs of living, making it harder for average people to justify spending on premium-priced coffee when budgets are tight.

Moreover, the steep prices at Starbucks have long been a point of contention. In an era where every dollar counts, consumers are opting for more affordable alternatives or skipping the coffee shop altogether. This shift in consumer behavior underscores the need for economic policies that alleviate inflationary pressures and help restore financial confidence among the populace.

Looking ahead, there’s optimism that future leadership changes at the national level could steer the economy in a more favorable direction. Pro-growth strategies and fiscal policies aimed at curbing inflation could rejuvenate consumer spending. Such economic revitalization would not only benefit companies like Starbucks but also provide much-needed relief to consumers feeling the pinch of current economic strains.

The Bottom Line:

Starbucks’ decision to cut employee bonuses highlights the challenges businesses face amid economic hardships and shifting consumer behaviors. Addressing the root causes of these financial struggles is crucial for both the company’s recovery and the broader economic well-being.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies :: Shirk. http://Newsday.com/matt

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 24, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 25, 2024

Since the night of the November 5, election, Trump and his allies have insisted that he won what Trump called “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” But as the numbers have continued to come in, it’s clear that such a declaration is both an attempt to encourage donations— fundraising emails refer to Trump’s “LANDSLIDE VICTORY”—and an attempt to create the illusion of power to push his agenda. 

The reality is that Trump’s margin over Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris will likely end up around 1.5 points. According to James M. Lindsay, writing for the Council of Foreign Relations, it is the fifth smallest since 1900, which covers 32 presidential races. Exit polls showed that Trump’s favorability rating was just 48% and that more voters chose someone other than Trump. And, as Lindsay points out, Trump fell 4 million votes short of President Joe Biden in 2020. 

Political science professor Lynn Vavreck of the University of California, Los Angeles, told Peter Baker of the New York Times: “If the definition of landslide is you win both the popular vote and Electoral College vote, that’s a new definition” On the other hand, she added, “Nobody gains any kind of influence by going out and saying, ‘I barely won, and now I want to do these big things.’”

Trump’s allies are indeed setting out to do big things, and they are big things that are unpopular. 

Trump ran away from Project 2025 during the campaign because it was so unpopular. He denied he knew anything about it, calling it “ridiculous and abysmal,” and on September 16 the leader of Trump’s transition team, Howard Lutnick, said there were “Absolutely zero. No connection. Zero” ties between the team and Project 2025. Now, though, Trump has done an about-face and has said he will nominate at least five people associated with Project 2025 to his administration. 

Those nominees include Russell Vought, one of the project's key authors, who calls for dramatically increasing the powers of the president; Tom Homan, who as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) oversaw the separation of children from their parents; John Ratcliffe, whom the Senate refused in 2019 to confirm as Director of National Intelligence because he had no experience in intelligence; Brendan Carr, whom Trump wants to put at the head of the Federal Communications Commission and who is already trying to silence critics by warning he will punish broadcasters who Trump feels have been unfair to him; and Stephen Miller, the fervently anti-immigrant ideologue.

Project 2025 calls for the creation of an extraordinarily strong president who will gut the civil service and replace its nonpartisan officials with those who are loyal to the president. It calls for filling the military and the Department of Justice with those loyal to the president. And then, the project plans that with his new power, the president will impose Christian nationalism on the United States of America, ending immigration, and curtailing rights for LGBTQ+ individuals as well as women and racial and ethnic minorities.

Project 2025 was unpopular when people learned about it. 

And then there is the threat of dramatic cuts to the U.S. government, suggested by the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, headed by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They are calling for cuts of $2 trillion to the items in the national budget that provide a safety net for ordinary Americans at the same time that Trump is promising additional tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Musk, meanwhile, is posturing as if he is the actual president, threatening on Saturday, for example: “Those who break the law will be arrested and that includes mayors.”  

On Meet the Press today, current representative and senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA) reacted to the “dictator talk,” with which Trump is threatening his political opponents, pointing out that "[t]he American people…voted on the basis of the economy—they wanted change to the economy—they weren’t voting for dictatorship. So I think he is going to misread his mandate if that’s what he thinks voters chose him for.”

That Trump and his team are trying desperately to portray a marginal victory as a landslide in order to put an extremist unpopular agenda into place suggests another dynamic at work. 

For all Trump’s claims of power, he is a 78-year-old man who is declining mentally and who neither commands a majority of voters nor has shown signs of being able to transfer his voters to a leader in waiting. 

Trump’s team deployed Vice President–elect J.D. Vance to the Senate to drum up votes for the confirmation of Florida representative Matt Gaetz to become the United States attorney general. But Vance has only been in the Senate since 2022 and is not noticeably popular. He—and therefore Trump—was unable to find the votes the wildly unqualified Gaetz needed for confirmation, forcing him to withdraw his name from consideration. 

The next day, Gaetz began to advertise on Cameo, an app that allows patrons to commission a personalized video for fans, asking a minimum of $550.00 for a recording. Gaetz went from United States representative to Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general to making videos for Cameo in a little over a week. 

It is a truism in studying politics that it’s far more important to follow power than it is to follow people. Right now, there is a lot of power sloshing around in Washington, D.C. 

Trump is trying to convince the country that he has scooped up all that power. But in fact, he has won reelection by less than 50% of the vote, and his vice president is not popular. The policies Trump is embracing are so unpopular that he himself ran away from them when he was campaigning. And now he has proposed filling his administration with a number of highly unqualified figures who, knowing the only reason they have been elevated is that they are loyal to Trump, will go along with his worst instincts. With that baggage, it is not clear he will be able to cement enough power to bring his plans to life.

If power remains loose, it could get scooped up by cabinet officials, as it was during a similarly chaotic period in the 1920s. In that era, voters elected to the presidency former newspaperman and Republican backbencher Warren G. Harding of Ohio, who promised to return the country to “normalcy” after eight years of the presidency of Democrat Woodrow Wilson and the nation’s engagement in World War I. That election really was a landslide, with Harding and his running mate, Calvin Coolidge, winning more than 60% of the popular vote in 1920.

But Harding was badly out of his depth in the presidency and spent his time with cronies playing bridge and drinking upstairs at the White House—despite Prohibition—while corrupt members of his administration grabbed all they could. 

With such a void in the executive branch, power could have flowed to Congress. But after twenty years of opposing first Theodore Roosevelt, and then William Howard Taft, and then Woodrow Wilson, Congress had become adept at opposing presidents but had split into factions that made it unable to transition to using power, rather than opposing its use.

And so power in that era flowed to members of Harding’s Cabinet, primarily to Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who put into place a fervently pro-business government that continued after Harding’s untimely death into the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, who made little effort to recover the power Harding had abandoned. After Hoover became president and their system fell to ruin in the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took their lost power and used it to create a new type of government. 

In this moment, Trump’s people are working hard to convince Americans that they have gathered up all the power in Washington, D.C., but that power is actually still sloshing around. Trump is trying to force through the Senate a number of unqualified and dangerous nominees for high-level positions, threatening Republican senators that if they don’t bow to him, Elon Musk will fund primary challengers, or suggesting he will push them into recess so he can appoint his nominees without their constitutionally-mandated advice and consent. 

But Trump and his people do not, in fact, have a mandate. Trump is old and weak, and power is up for grabs. It is possible that MAGA Republicans will, in the end, force Republican senators into their camp, permitting Trump and his cronies to do whatever they wish. 

It is also possible that Republican senators will themselves take back for Congress the power that has lately concentrated in presidents, check the most dangerous and unpopular of Trump’s plans, and begin the process of restoring the balance of the three branches of government.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[tr0v3]

The Rise Of Lethal Company

What makes an Indie game successful?

Is it a simply an emotional appeal, something that generates feelings of tension and excitement in players? The Among Us 'mania' of the early 2020s certainly achieved that, creating a socially appealing game that recieved almost half a billion players in 2020 as well as cementing its place in meme culture ever since, if nothing else. Or is it just having a memorable 'style', a unique combination of retro art and music with endearing characters to build up the story? Undertale is surely a prime example of how to do virtually everything right in a game, and that's without even mentioning how widely revered one of its tracks is (even though it technically didn't originate from the game!) Perhaps it comes down to conceptual curiosities, an inspired idea or a mystery that makes players think - in which case Five Nights at Freddy's takes the cake, retaining an engaged fanbase with thousands of fangames to this day! Maybe success really just depends on a unique selling point, like Minecraft's promise of boundless creativity back in 2011...

The list could go on and on - the point is, success is not achieved on a set path, especially for indie games. Indie games lack the budget and recognition of AAA titles, and therefore rely more on creativity and innovation to grow an audience. Exceptional indie games such as the aforementioned have not only managed to profit immensly and garner millions of players on release, but retain lasting cultural icons, stories, scenes and memes both within and beyond their respective fanbases for years (if not decades!) - they have competed with AAA games, and even outdone them (or become them, in Minecraft's case)

AAA games all have opportunities for success that Indie games usually don't, via massive financial and logistical backing - mainstream ad placements, simulataneous releases across platforms, popular design choices and yearly releases...So how, in a remarkable instance of virality, did Lethal Company outsell Call Of Duty one year ago?

This video by Lufa highlights a number of key points that won't fit into this article, so for more information I reccommend watching it!

It also explains succinctly just how different these two games are, and how they can represent Indie and AAA games as a whole.

Given how Lethal Company was outselling multiple discounted AAA games during Autumn sales, and the inherent differences in genre/target audience of these two games, it might not seem fair or helpful to compare the two - however, since Lethal Company released at just the right time to rise to virality as Call Of Duty (COD) Modern Warefare 3 (MW3) released a few weeks later, awareness for both was high and enough people were interested in both to make comparisons based on their own experiences.

Player experiences are crucial to Lufa's video, and why Lethal Company did so much better than COD MW3 - essentially, while the latest COD represented the worst aspects of AAA gaming (numerous bugs that made the gameplay a broken mess + a forgettable and uninspired story) Lethal Company engaged players in a strikingly unique way. Looking at the steam reviews, its clear that the gameplay and atmosphere of Lethal Company were more appealing and unique than COD's.

In fact, Lethal Company is (arguably) a good game for many reasons. There is a lot that could be said about Lethal Company's gameplay loop and functionality, from the genuine freedoms of playstyle and tactics avaliable to players who explore the different maps and utilize the various items avaliable from the store, the challenging variety of threats that roam the moons which require different approaches to mitigate, the use of sound effects to guide but also mislead the player - but for this essay, I'd like to explore some of the more unique facets of the game which elevate it to the same level of popularity as Among Us or SCP Secret Laboratory (a game with similiar horror and proximity chat features which I would highly reccommend for Lethal Company players interested in similiar games!)

Lethal Company's success can at least partially be attributed to emotional social appeal.

One of the things that stands out the most about Lethal Company is how it is scary and funny at the same time - Lufa mentions it, Miithzan's second video playing Lethal Company has it in the title, almost everyone who has made a YouTube video on this game understands the dichotomy of emotion at play. So how does it do it?

Lethal Company sets up a scary scenario, entering dark, labyrinthine buildings with eerie sounds and ambience to collect literal garbage - with the right adjustments, this is a pretty reliable way to make a decent singleplayer horror experience, something the creator is no stranger to. Naturally it follows this up with sudden and unexpected things happening - but rather than plain ol' jumpscares, the game plays on phobias with giant bugs and spiders, or traps in the form of explosive landmines and turrets. This does create tension and fear, but it can also be humourous because almost all of the threats in the game are totally overkill, and can be as absurdly cartoonish as they are deadly.

The real humour of Lethal Company comes from its players though. Watch any YouTube clips on this game, and the average player will 'turn into an A-list voice actor' - proximity voice chat already makes for comedic moments, placing real people and genuine reactions into the fictional environment of the game - but the excitement is enhanced even further by the combination of this feature with unpredictable enemy AI, exaggerated character designs and simple but cleverly used tropes.

There are endless examples of this, from watching your loud-mouthed teammate boldly grab a two handed item from a group of recently-angered Hoarding Bugs, or making some optimistic remark right before having your neck snapped by a Bracken, as if in movie. Its almost as fun to watch as it is to play, and includes the player's agency of speech, via the proximity chat feature not only as a fun addition but a central aspect of the game.

To put it simply, a person getting suffocated to death by a giant insect is scary, but your friend's voice being muffled by the weird creature wrapped around their head is funny - and Lethal Company manages to do both, often at the same time.

Crucially, it also does all of this without breaking any immersion within the game's scenario - the game's setting is well established and the horrors fit well enough into that setting for everything to seamlessly flow together, as a complete experience.

I must draw attention to this brilliant example I discovered in a steam review - in the clip of the experience they were describing, every part of Lethal Company's emotional appeal is perfectly demonstrated. It begins with the competitive comraderie of the teamwork scenario, leads to spike in fear as a result of an unexpected scare, then the comical hilarity of such an obviously foreshadowed and avoidable death, before additionally returning to the gnawing fear of being alone with a now-near danger:

There is even foreshadowing and irony in the scares themselves, with the thumbnail choosing the silliest-looking frame from the entire video - if I didn't know better, I would say that it was scripted slapstick humour...

So that's why Lethal Company rose to success - but how well has it held onto its success since?

Click here to read Part 2!

Thank you for reading =D

[cleanwaterchronicles]

Lake Erie phosphorus reduction

Protecting and preserving the state’s water quality continues to be a top priority for both the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) and the administration of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist.One focal point of this mission is the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB), where sometimes-harmful algal blooms have affected aquatic life and drinking water in recent years. Factors contributing to algal blooms include nutrient-rich water from wastewater treatment plants and farm fields.While reductions of phosphorus at four of the key wastewater facilities in Michigan’s portion of the WLEB helped Michigan hit its 20% phosphorus loading reduction goal by 2020, they won’t be sufficient to achieve the 40% reduction target Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario agreed to reach by 2025 under the 2015 Western Basin of Lake Erie Collaborative Agreement.Moving forward, it will require new approaches to realize progress from agricultural contributions. MDARD is laser-focused on accelerating conservation in the right places across the WLEB watershed with programs and projects defining success through realistic and achievable water quality outcomes to restore the health of the Lake Erie ecosystem.While significant progress has been made with point sources (pollution from a single identifiable source or area), it’s time to put our foot on the gas pedal with agricultural nonpoint sources (pollution from many sources at once).In support of the governor’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, the Fiscal Year 2024 budget includes a total $15 million investment to support soil health, climatesmart agriculture practices, and regenerative agriculture. These priority areas aren’t solely about building stronger agricultural systems and resilient rural economies; they also place a specific focus on improved environmental outcomes.These investments in soil health to improve water quality are a notable shift in MDARD’s efforts to tackle nutrient losses. Managing agricultural systems to improve waterholding capacity and rainfall infiltration, while enhancing biological cycling to reduce the need for fertilizer inputs, is a paradigm shift in nutrient management for MDARD. Regenerative agriculture principles have been shown to not only reduce nutrient losses but mitigate the impacts of extreme weather – all while prioritizing the agricultural diversity that powers our rural communities.To better prioritize conservation practice implementation and quantify results, the Domestic Action Plan (DAP) Team, composed of staff from MDARD and the Michigan DNR and EGLE, is working with MSU to enhance the Great Lakes Watershed Management System to annually quantify phosphorus load reductions from conservation practice implementation relative to the 40% reduction goal. This public-facing online platform will include a dashboard that tracks water quality outcomes associated with social and ecological metrics, providing greater accountability for program implementation in Michigan’s portion of the WLEB.MDARD is dedicated to achieving demonstrable water quality improvements in Lake Erie. The state’s investments in soil health and regenerative agriculture principles hold the promise to not only improve water quality but enhance the climate resiliency of our agriculture systems, while placing value on how and where our food is grown.These new budget investments by Gov. Whitmer position Michigan to achieve long-term, tangible outcomes that take us beyond water quality.Take a deeper diveLearn more about phosphorus reduction efforts in Michigan’s portion of the Lake Erie watershed at Michigan.gov/LakeErieDAP.

[jasonsutekh]

Psycho Goreman (2020)

An alien is awoken on Earth by a couple of children, one promptly gains the power to control it but an intergalactic mercenary is sent to kills it in the name of order.

It was good to see some of the old style practical effects used with such variety and creativity and several of the creatures were really pretty cool. Even the digital effects, though very low budget, passed ok since the aesthetic was included as part of the humour. A lot of the overall effect was similar to the Power Rangers franchise.

What emotion there was in the narrative was negated by the prominent comedy, which was amusing at times but doing it so consistently left little balance in the tone. One of the key problems was that the main girl was too difficult to identify with since whenever the chance to develop was offered she defaulted to being distant and unusual.

There were a fair few funny lines, the dialogue being the better source of comedy throughout. Most of the rest of the entertainment was created through the fight scenes which were a little slow due to the practical movements but still decent enough. One of the most amusing parts was the homoerotic suggestions made by the Goreman himself.

While it’s an effective kind of humour to parody the classic tropes of most monster movies, there’s a level that this film passes which causes it to undermine its own story without committing entirely to going full Scary Movie franchise. Several of the plot points needed more closure by the end, in particular the young boy who gets no reconciliation aside from a half-apology.

5/10 -Can’t find a better example of average-

-The human disguise PG wears is based on the main protagonist from Jurassic Park (1993).

[notebooknebula]

From Veteran To Real Estate Millionaire: Gervon Simon with Jay Conner

https://www.jayconner.com/podcast/episode-73-from-veteran-to-real-estate-millionaire-gervon-simon-with-jay-conner-the-private-money-authority/

Key Takeaways:

Funding your deals without using your own money

How to Become a Millionaire in three years

Perfecting the BRRR method: Buy, Rehab, Renovate, Refinance

How to find real estate deals before your competition does: be a realtor

Veterans can get multiple VA loans,

Lessons learned: Have a margin and learn to say no—nothing ever goes according to your budget plan.

Don’t let your emotions decide—the math should make the decision.

Advice for new investors: partner in some way or form, especially with someone who knows what they’re doing.

Don’t wait to buy real estate. The number way to be on the winning side is by owning properties.

Gervon Simon is the founder of GQ Home Team, a real estate company that buys/sells homes.

Within just 12 months in business, in 2021, they sold 61 homes worth over $30M.

On the side, he has also stepped into real estate development, and since 2020, he has flipped 10 properties.

Gervon is a military veteran who attended The United States Military Academy at West Point, from 2013 to 2017, where he played football and graduated with a degree in business management.

During Gervon's time serving as an officer in the Army, he had to gain the trust of many different kinds of individuals to be effective at his job.

Today, he draws upon this experience when he works with his real estate clients, and he is dedicated to being transparent, honest, and encouraging each step of the way.

Gervon has had the opportunity to work with several clients in a variety of circumstances, whether the clients were purchasing their first home, selling their home due to hard times, or relocating from across the country for a military move.

He faced many different situations and challenges, and each time he’s been able to empower his clients to accomplish their goals. In addition to helping his clients with their real estate endeavors,

Gervon also invests in real estate on his own, and in 2018 he purchased his first 2 rental properties.

Timestamps:

0:01 – Get Ready To Be Plugged Into The Money

0:17 – Today’s guests: Gervon Simon

2:13 – How Gervon Simon Gets Started In The Real Estate Business

5:51 – How Do You Fund Your Deals Without Using Your Own Money

7:10 – Jay’s Free Private Money Guide: https://www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide

8:31 – How To Become A Millionaire In A Span Of 3 Years

11:37 – Perfecting the BRRRR Method

14:06 – How To Find the Best Real Estate Deals Before Your Competition Does

16:25 – Veterans Can Get Multiple VA Loans

19:03 – Gervon Simon’s Early Struggles And Lessons Learned On His Real Estate Business

21:53 – Best Advice For Brand New Real Estate Investors

25:47 – Connect with Gervon Simon: https://www.TheGQHomeTeam.com

26:01 – Team Website – https://www.GQHomeTeamWA.com

26:29 – Parting Comments from Gervon Simon: Don’t Wait To Buy Real Estate. The Number One Way Of Being A Part Of The Winning Side Is Own Real Estate And Collect Assets.

Private Money Academy Conference:

https://www.JaysLiveEvent.com

Free Report:

Join the Private Money Academy: 

Have you read Jay’s new book: Where to Get The Money Now?

It is available FREE (all you pay is the shipping and handling) at

What is Private Money? Real Estate Investing with Jay Conner

Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. He maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal without using his own money or credit.

What is Real Estate Investing? Live Private Money Academy Conference

YouTube Channel

Apple Podcasts:

Facebook:

Listen to our Podcast:

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

Russ Vought, a frequent guest on right-wing media shows and key figure in Project 2025, a broad effort to staff a future Republican administration, will have a top role in drafting the platform for the GOP's convention this July, virtually ensuring the document will be a wishlist of MAGA priorities. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign made the joint announcement on May 15, highlighting Vought’s new role “as the committee's policy director” for the RNC’s 2024 Committee on the Platform and noting his previous tenure as director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump. In that position, Vought oversaw the administration’s attempts to remove supposed “critical race theory trainings” from federal programs and sought to coordinate the White House’s directives across the executive branch more broadly. 

[...]

After Trump’s loss in 2020, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, where he has consistently pushed a Christian nationalist agenda. He has called for an “army” of right-wing activists with “biblical worldview” to serve in the next Republican administration, and wrote an op-ed for Newsweek in 2021 with the headline: “Is There Anything Actually Wrong With 'Christian Nationalism?' As Politico reported, “One ​​document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. ‘Christian nationalism’ is one of the bullet points.” 

The Center for Renewing America has emerged as a key player in the MAGA-aligned think tank world. It’s one of the more than 100 conservative groups that make up Project 2025, an effort organized by The Heritage Foundation to provide staffing and policy proposals to a future GOP presidency. Vought plays a central role in the effort, including as the author of a chapter in Project 2025’s guiding document, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, in which he argued that the “enormous power” of the executive branch should be exclusively the purview of the president rather than dispersed within agencies and departments.

Though that argument may sound anodyne, Vought’s vision has radical implications. First and foremost, Vought advocates for implementing a policy known as “Schedule F,” which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees as political appointees — thus stripping them of union protections. If Trump is reelected in November and chooses to go forward with Schedule F, he could fire career civil servants from agencies and departments en masse and replace them hardcore MAGA foot soldiers, potentially decimating the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, and other frequent right-wing targets. “What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” Vought has said, according to The New York Times.

Center For Renewing America founder and key Project 2025 influencer Russ Vought was appointed to the RNC's Platform Committee for the upcoming convention in Milwaukee this July. #RNC2024

[mariacallous]

Both parties have spoken about the need to focus on children and families during this year’s election cycle. In fact, it has been a talking point for decades in both Democratic and Republican party platforms. Support for children and families is key to the future health of a nation.

Despite this professed commitment, however, approximately 23.6 million young children (0-5 years) in America are at risk of not meeting their developmental potential, draining the country of much-needed human capital. Analyses of the U.S. federal budget indicate very limited investment in children. Overall, data from 2018 to 2024 shows that the share of federal spending on children ranged from 9.71% in fiscal year (FY) 2018 to 12.16% in 2024, with a dip to 7.48% in 2020. Focusing on children under age three, however, indicates a 1.52% federal budget spending in FY 2024. This represented a sliver of the total budget and a decline from an allotment of 1.66% in FY 2023. While the increase in overall spending on children in fiscal year 2024 is welcome news, it falls woefully short of meeting the needs of America’s children and families and is concerning when compared with funding in peer nations around the world.

The result of this checkered pattern of investment is that America ranks last among OECD countries in providing family care and leave, has one of the lowest pre-K enrollment rates with no current universal system in place, last in family-friendly policies, and ranks near the bottom of 41 advanced countries on a series of child wellness markers.

To be fair, the U.S. has taken small steps forward for young children through the Child Tax Credit (CTC), a minor increase in access to licensed childcare centers, an increase in some states for pre-K and family leave. However, these policies offer a piecemeal approach to supporting young children from birth to five years and families and do not offer countrywide, comprehensive coverage. Implementation of many of these initiatives is left to states with uneven consequences. The ultimate result? Child poverty in the U.S. is among the worst in the industrialized nations, and many children in families with fewer resources—who are disproportionately Black and Brown —trail behind their peers from more affluent environments in mental and physical health, education outcomes, and more.

Our wavering commitment to children and families in terms of actionable, comprehensive policies that support children from birth to five years and their families leaves some wondering whether America really cares about its children despite the rhetoric.

This policy brief points to six key areas of investment in which bipartisan action can bring America in line with other nations and make a marked difference in the lives of millions of young children 0-5 years and their families.

We propose bipartisan investment to 1) increase high quality childcare options; 2) increase the availability of quality pre-K; 3) increase programs to mitigate poverty; 4) establish a federal paid family leave policy; 5) increase support for infant and child mental health; and 6) establish a permanent national level body to coordinate multi-sectoral supports for children.

[leam1983]

Oh (no) Canada...

We've made ourselves some pasta salad and some deviled eggs, and Walt thought he'd break ground by introducing us to Maria Chapdelaine, the 2020 adaptation of Louis Hémon's 1910s novel on the long-suffering nature of your average French Canadian Catholic settler.

To be fair, he knew what to expect and pointed a finger at me. "Don't spoil it for me or Sarah, Mister French Literature degree!" he'd said, while bringing his slice of Key Lime pie to slowly peck at it over the movie's runtime.

I'm not about to give anyone who could read this an expert class, but let's just say that the early twentieth century was one that saw Eastern Canada be oppressively stifled by our Catholic priesthood, to the point of instilling gonzo virtues in the local literary output - such as the notion that a self-respecting colonist moved way up north into Pine Country, hacked foundations out of soil that never completely thaws using primitive tools and then spent a precious few months out of the entire year cultivating a few veggies out of the hardscrabble, with the end-goal of either covering his loan for his lot and tools or dying a good, long, agonizing and Christian death while the sawbones is trying to push a frustrated gelding through fifteen inches of snow. The priest got to you first if you were lucky, you were given your Last Rites and, well, that was it.

So. In this context, we find young and demure Maria Chapdelaine, settled in a verdant hellhole I'd call the Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean region generations prior to modern-day logging camps and factories. As the exact same spot today is heavily industrialized outside of the pine preserves, but back then, it basically was a clean slate. For people from Montreal or Quebec City, the North was their second Klondike of choice: either you moved down to the States to adapt to the Big City or you abandoned civilization out of the honestly unproven notion that you could just Harvest Moon your way to prosperity.

Maria is sixteen, marriageable, demure, soft-spoken - and absolutely gonzo for a Métis trapper called François Paradis. He represents the 1910s Judeo-Christian ideal in the region, the "Civilized Wild Man" with all the virtues needed to thrive in Society and all the backbone and gumption you'd need to stake out your own fortune in an inhospitable environment. He loves her in the same way - desperately. She hasn't obtained her father's consent, however, so nothing happens. Nothing happens for long enough, in fact, that François up and dies in those pine-strewn wastes after betraying his status as a supposedly-flawless tracker. Maria is beyond distraught, but her social conditioning holds fast. She's the second woman of the household, so her grief only shows at night.

The problem is, Paradis hadn't proposed to her. He hadn't so much as engaged her, either, so it's effectively a love being pined for out of wedlock. You can imagine what the local priests, hypocrites that they are, would've thought about that.

Then comes the second john; a man going by Lorenzo Surprenant. He's the Self-Made Man, the Guy Who's Made it - or to borrow from French songwriter Bernard Lavilliers, the archetypal Tonton d'America, pulling several tall tales about Buffalo, Indiana's trolley system, its electric lights, its well-heated and lit brownstones and, well, the whole glitz and glam of the City, when all you've known is pines that are snowy about eight months out of twelve. Maria hasn't gone over the loss of her pelt-wearing Ken doll, so she responds to Lorenzo's advances noncommittally.

Finally follows Eutrope Gagnon, her neighbour by a few country miles who more or less promises a straight-line continuation of her current life. If anything, he's barely more of an optimized version of her father, as he's budgeted every purchase decades in advance and clearly has contingency plans set in place that could allow for failing crops or subpar yields to generate some profit. He has none of the first's passion, none of the second's pragmatic outlook on holding down a city-based job - and also none of the elder Chapdelaine's hangups about working on a milder lot further down south, where yields are better even if the social and moral credit of giving it a shot up north is abandoned.

If you thought she'd throw her conventions aside during a Disney musical number and confront Buffalo as a new challenge for her to undertake, you haven't really studied up on how the upper States and Provinces in the East coast were still stupefyingly Conservative as of World War One. The Roaring Twenties would improve things in cities, but only the sixties would see Progressivism fully kick the French Canadian clergy in the teeth.

As all this - the suffering of people like Maria's character, her settling for an unambitious life focused on servitude - was seeded in place by our clergy. We were born humble, made for humble lives and destined for hardship. To the Anglophones and Americans went tall tale of pre- and postwar success, we were being held down and more or less morally and intellectually abused by a ruling class of stole-wearing fuckwads who were the defacto lords-o-the-manor for most lots across Quebec that weren't, in fact, in Anglophone hands.

Considering this, should you really be surprised that Quebec and Ontario are as Liberal and Progressive as they are? We didn't just cast our chains off in the Quiet Revolution - we broke them to smithereens. It makes most of us default allies to POC, to the LGBTQA+, all of it because we know precisely well what it feels like to be marginalized. We know precisely how it feels to have natural instincts, personal goals or greater hopes be considered anathema by morons with a collar who hid behind their status as divinely-anointed representatives to control local politics, stifle minds and hoard their admittedly surprising scientific knowledge base (see Jesuits and their interest in Natural Sciences, for instance) for themselves alone.

They got money, they got resources, and French Canadians were told to shut up and take it, to the point where one of our leading character archetypes in adventure serials was Maria Chapdelaine's clone!

Shut up and like it. Carry your burden nobly. Suffer for sins you know nothing of. Endure in silence, for your reward is in Heaven.

Walt's background is consequently different. He grew up reading of Ontario's own Catholic and Anglican priesthoods, but Ontario and the ROC never really had this masochistic complex on being less than nothing and remaining as such. Ontarians are Diet Americans, in a sense - same gusto, same gumption, with just a dash of extra manners inherited from their long-removed English roots. If Louis Hémon had couched his story anywhere close to Sarnia, for instance, the poor kid would've hightailed it to Buffalo without question.

So, as the movie ended, and did so with the slight alteration of Maria not giving any of the three men a definitive answer - Walt gave me a puzzled look.

"Why didn't she leave with Lorenzo? I don't get it."

"Because the story isn't concerned with making sense, Walt," I told him. "This is catechism for shiftless Frenchie kids in their mid-teens as of 1910, hawked to them by well-meaning child molesters who only really think of putting more money in the diocese's coffers by acting as money-lenders to reckless kids with a sense of adventure and some misplaced Judeo-Christian sense of duty."

Sarah, who didn't study Lit, is equally confused. "Why send anyone up north like that? The ground's no good without modern tech or hydroponics!"

I scoffed. "You think fucking priests knew this? These guys seriously thought you could pray horniness away and pray fertility into a bunch of rocks and roots. Oh, and let's not forget that this didn't concern anyone's identity as a Québécois - anyone who did this was a Canadian French; un Canadien errant."

Walt falls silent as he processes this for a few seconds. "I mean, I sort of already knew why, but after this? After seeing this, your Atheism makes a Hell of a lot more sense. Damn, I'd have kicked one of those sanctimonious pricks in the balls, too!"

So... Québécois Lit 101, or Why Catholicism is a fucking grift that's only just recently realized that people are growing increasingly harder to indoctrinate into unquestioning belief.

Which is sort of funny, seeing as you see a lot of local hardcore Atheists sort of take to a hodgepodge of various spiritual, occult or "magical" practices - but hey, they reason, as long as you're not putting more money in the pockets of some shriveled old goat in a white stole in the Vatican, it's all good, right?

I mean, I guess. It's not like Brighid or Odin the Allfather or fucking Baron Samedi have tax collectors indoctrinating people left and right, hm?

Anyway - Happy Canada Day, if you're the type to go shop at Roots.

[rdtechindore]

Best books for finance

Here are some best books on finance

 that might interest you to buy:

"Rich Dad Poor Dad" is a personal finance book written by Robert Kiyosaki. It was published in 1997 and has since become a bestseller, selling over 32 million copies worldwide. The book advocates for financial education and encourages the reader to think differently about money. It suggests that traditional financial advice, such as getting a good education and working hard, may not necessarily lead to financial success. Instead, the book promotes the idea of building wealth through investing in assets and starting businesses. The book is based on Kiyosaki's own experiences growing up with two fathers, one of whom was financially successful and the other financially struggling. It has been highly influential and is considered a classic in the personal finance genre.

"Think and Grow Rich" is a personal development and self-help book by Napoleon Hill. It was published in 1937 and has since sold millions of copies worldwide. The book teaches the reader how to think positively and overcome mental barriers to achieve success. It suggests that one's mindset is a key factor in determining whether or not they will achieve financial success, and provides a set of principles for developing a success-oriented mindset. The book is based on Hill's research and interviews with successful individuals, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. It has been highly influential and is considered a classic in the personal development genre.

"The Psychology of Money" is a personal finance book written by Morgan Housel. It was published in 2020 and has received widespread praise for its insights into the psychological factors that shape our relationship with money. The book covers a wide range of topics related to personal finance, including decision-making, risk, prosperity, and financial behavior. It argues that understanding the psychological biases and motivations that influence our financial decisions is key to making better ones. The book is based on extensive research and draws on examples from history, literature, and pop culture to illustrate its points. It has been widely praised for its engaging writing style and its ability to make complex financial concepts accessible to a broad audience.

"I Will Teach You To Be Rich" is a personal finance book written by Ramit Sethi. It was published in 2009 and has since become a bestseller, with over a million copies sold worldwide. The book is aimed at young people and aims to teach them how to manage their money effectively and build wealth over time. It covers a wide range of topics, including budgeting, saving, investing, and negotiating salaries and raises. The book promotes a practical and actionable approach to personal finance, and includes a number of tools and resources for implementing the strategies it suggests. It has received positive reviews and is considered a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their financial literacy and achieve financial success.

"The Richest Man in Babylon" is a personal finance book written by George S. Clason. It was published in 1926 and has since become a classic in the field of financial literacy. The book is a series of parables set in ancient Babylon, and each parable teaches a lesson about money and financial success. The book covers a wide range of topics, including saving, investing, budgeting, and debt management. It suggests that financial success is achievable for anyone who is willing to work hard and follow certain principles of financial management. The book is known for its simple and easy-to-understand approach to personal finance, and has been highly influential in helping people improve their financial literacy.

These books cover a wide range of topics in finance, including investment strategy, financial analysis, financial institutions, derivatives, corporate finance, and sustainable investing.

Visit our website to get buy link:

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 11, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

OCT 12, 2023

In a secret vote by the House Republican Conference today, Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) won the race to become the Republican candidate for speaker of the House of Representatives, beating out Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) by 113 to 99. 

In the past, the conference as a whole would have stood behind the majority’s choice, but traditional rules no longer apply to today’s Republican Party. Three of Jordan’s supporters have already said they will not support Scalise, and Representative George Santos (R-NY) is complaining that Scalise hasn’t called him, convincing him to throw his vote to “ANYONE but Scalise and come hell or high water I won’t change my mind.”

To become speaker, Scalise needs 217 votes. Unless he can attract Democratic votes, he cannot lose more than 4 Republican votes. All 212 House Democrats remain united behind Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), meaning that he is closer to a majority than any of the Republican candidates.

Rather than hold a floor vote to elect a speaker today, the House recessed in order to let Scalise try to get his ducks in a row.

Both Scalise and Jordan are Trump supporters; both went along with the lie that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Early in his career, Scalise compared himself to Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke “without the baggage,” while Jordan is accused of overlooking sexual assault when he was an assistant wrestling coach and was a key player in the January 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. It is astonishing that a major U.S. political party is considering either man to become the second in line for the presidency. 

As the Republicans try to line up behind one of the two candidates—so far—the chaos is hobbling the government. Until the House is organized again under a new speaker, it cannot provide aid to Ukraine or Israel, or work toward reaching an agreement on next year’s budget before the continuing resolution funding the government at 2023 levels runs out in mid-November. Or do pretty much anything other than try to elect a speaker.

Senate Republicans are creating their own chaos. Joe Gould and Connor O’Brien of Politico reported today that in the Senate, Democrats are trying to push through the hold Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has placed on more than 300 military promotions as well as other senators’ holds on a number of diplomatic officers. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) has called for a reform of the current nominations process, which permits a single senator to stop confirmations. 

In light of the crisis in the Middle East, the holds reveal how easy it is for a senator or two to weaken the United States. Gould and O’Brien point out that Tuberville’s hold means that two of the senior military positions in the region are unconfirmed, as are State Department appointments including ambassadorships to Middle Eastern countries—among them both Egypt and Israel—and the department’s top counterterrorism position. 

These are not controversial appointments in their own right. Republicans are using them as leverage for their own policy goals. Pentagon officials have warned senators that the holds are disrupting our national security and that of our allies and partners. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today heard arguments in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, a gerrymandering case notable in part because the attorneys and justices all agree that the Republican-dominated South Carolina legislature constructed a district map rigged in favor of Republicans so dramatically that it is virtually impossible for Republicans to lose. 

In the 2019 Rucho v. Common Cause decision, the Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering was a state question rather than a federal one, making it impossible to challenge partisan gerrymanders in federal courts. But partisan gerrymanders quite often overlap with racial gerrymanders, and the question before the court in Alexander is whether the South Carolina map violated the law by being racially discriminatory. A federal three-judge panel agreed that it did, but if the Supreme Court disagrees, the process of carving up districts so politicians can pick their own voters will have gotten even easier.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[computer8920]

Comparing Different Types of RAMs: DDR3 VS DDR4 VS DDR5

In computer hardware, RAM (Random Access Memory) is crucial for performance, acting as a computer's short-term memory. When selecting the right type of RAM for your system, you may have encountered DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5. These are different generations of DDR RAM, each offering unique features. Let’s break down their differences.

1. What is DDR RAM?

DDR stands for Double Data Rate, referring to how RAM transfers data.

DDR technology enables data transfer on both the rising and falling edges of the clock cycle, effectively doubling the data transfer rate compared to older SDR (Single Data Rate) RAM.

There are multiple versions of DDR RAM: DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5, each offering speed, efficiency, and performance improvements.

2. DDR3 RAM

Introduction: DDR3 RAM was the standard for many years and remains common in older systems.

Speed and Frequency: DDR3 typically operates at frequencies from 800MHz to 2133MHz.

Bandwidth: It offers lower bandwidth compared to DDR4 and DDR5, meaning it transfers data more slowly.

Performance: Ideal for everyday tasks but can be limiting for more demanding applications such as gaming or content creation.

Power Efficiency: DDR3 operates at a higher voltage (1.5V), leading to more power consumption and heat production compared to newer RAM types.

3. DDR4 RAM

Introduction: Released in 2014, DDR4 replaced DDR3 as the standard for modern systems.

Speed and Frequency: DDR4 operates at higher speeds, typically between 2133MHz to 3200MHz, with some models reaching higher frequencies.

Bandwidth: DDR4 offers improved bandwidth, which allows for faster data transfer and overall better system performance.

Power Efficiency: It operates at a lower voltage (1.2V) than DDR3, reducing power consumption and heat generation.

Compatibility: DDR4 is incompatible with DDR3 systems, meaning upgrading requires a motherboard that supports DDR4.

4. DDR5 RAM

Introduction: DDR5, the latest RAM iteration, was introduced in 2020 and is increasingly being adopted in new systems.

Speed and Frequency: DDR5 begins at a base speed of 4800MHz, with future versions expected to surpass 8400MHz.

Bandwidth: It offers significantly higher bandwidth than DDR4, improving data throughput and enabling faster processing for demanding tasks like gaming, video editing, and 3D rendering.

Power Efficiency: DDR5 uses an even lower voltage (1.1V), making it more power-efficient than DDR4.

Target Users: DDR5 is designed for power users, gamers, and content creators who need cutting-edge performance.

5. Key Differences Between DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 RAM

Speed and Bandwidth: DDR3: Lower speed and bandwidth, suitable for basic tasks. DDR4: Faster speeds and higher bandwidth for improved system performance. DDR5: Highest speeds and bandwidth, ideal for performance-intensive applications.

Power Efficiency: DDR3: Higher voltage and power consumption. DDR4: More efficient, with reduced power usage. DDR5: The most power-efficient, operating at a lower voltage.

Compatibility: DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 are incompatible with each other due to different physical and electrical specifications.

Price: DDR3 is the cheapest option, as it's older and less in demand. DDR4: More affordable than DDR5, offering a good balance between cost and performance. DDR5: Most expensive, reflecting its advanced features and higher performance.

6. Which RAM Should You Choose?

For Older Systems: If you have a system that supports DDR3 and you're on a budget, upgrading to DDR3 will provide a boost for basic tasks.

For General Use and Budget-Friendly Upgrades: DDR4 is a solid choice, offering a good balance of performance and cost, making it ideal for most modern systems.

For Power Users or Enthusiasts: If you're gaming, creating content, or processing large amounts of data, DDR5 is the best choice, providing top-tier performance—but at a higher price point.

7. Conclusion

DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 all offer different levels of performance and efficiency.

DDR4 remains the most common choice for modern systems, offering good speed, efficiency, and affordability.

DDR5 is the next step for high-performance needs but comes with a premium price.

Your choice depends on your system, performance needs, and budget.

Want to Buy RAM in Bulk at Affordable Prices from VSTL?

If you're looking to buy RAM in bulk at affordable prices, VSTL offers a great solution. With a wide range of memory options suitable for various needs, they provide competitive pricing without compromising on quality. Whether you're upgrading your system or outfitting multiple devices, purchasing from VSTL ensures you get reliable products at budget-friendly rates. Their bulk buying options make it easy to stock up on the RAM you need, making it an ideal choice for businesses or tech enthusiasts.