#credit restoration agency

[whatcomcredit]

In today’s financial landscape, having a healthy credit score is more important than ever. Whether you’re looking to buy a home, secure a loan, or get a credit card, your credit score can significantly impact your financial opportunities. Unfortunately, life can sometimes throw curveballs that negatively affect our credit. This is where Credit Restoration Services come into play, offering a lifeline to individuals looking to recover and improve their financial standing. In this blog post, we’ll explore how Credit Restoration Services can help pave the way to financial recovery and stability.

[rivilu]

I want an origins remake/remaster so bad it's not even funny

[sungroupfinancial]

Website : http://www.sungroupfinancial.com/

Address : 5801 N Ann Arbor Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73122

Phone : +1 833-843-5979

SUN GROUP FINANCIAL is the "highly esteemed" leading authority among financial institutions in the mortgage industry. As an in-house lender, all the loan advisors, underwriters, and processors are based in one location working together to secure a loan for you and your family. We have a credit restoration program, that will increase your credit score quickly and easily to get the best rate in this current market. With over 25 years experience and dedication to our clients, SUN GROUP FINANCIAL will continue to serve families with their credit, financial, and real estate needs when others say "NO".

Yelp : https://www.yelp.com/biz/sun-group-financial-no-title

[maximumqueer]

Luffy not wanting to be viewed as a hero is actually so important to me. Because while the first reasoning we get for this is him not wanting to share his food

We also learn later on that Luffy also doesn't want to be viewed as a savior, nor does he ever want to present himself as such. He doesn't want to be placed on a pedestal or (ironically) be deified by the people he helps.

At the end of Fishman island, he was fully ready to leave without fanfare because he did not want to be treated by the people in that way, and only agrees to stay because he is promised food. The same thing happens at the end of Wano, where he refuses to take any credit for the downfall of Kaido and instead simply enjoys the festival with everyone else.

I cannot overstate how much I love this decision for Luffy as a character. It is incredibly common for stories like Fishman Island and Wano to have the main character swoop in and save the oppressed people, with said character being to sole person to rally them and "teach" them how to fight back. We don't get that with Luffy.

In Fishman Island, he tells the people that its up to them to decide whether or not he is their friend or foe instead of swooping in playing the role of the hero. In Wano, he understands to importance of who begins the fight with Kaido, and stands back to let the Red Scabbards (Wano natives) get the first major hit on Kaido

Even in the prison when Luffy gives his speech, he is asking the people to let him help, to have faith that they and their country can be free again, to fight for the freedom that had been cruelly stripped away from them. And even then, it is Momo and members of the Red Scabbards that fully restore the Udon prisoners faith.

Hell, we even see this all the way back in Arlong Park, where Luffy waits to take action until Nami asks him for help. He doesn't come in guns blazing and save her like some sort of white knight, but instead waits for Nami's go ahead, placing the power in her hand.

It's just such a refreshing way of seeing a protagonist in this type of story be portrayed. To have him understand the importance of the people he fight's side by side with, and not place himself as the fixer of all problems, but rather as an aid to these people (often times an aid that they explicitly asked for). It actively rejects the white savior/white knight trope(s) and allows for the people native to the island to have agency in these large battles instead of being sidelined. It is their lives and stories that are centered as being the most important in these moments, and Luffy is simply there to help them.

[reasonsforhope]

"Seven federal agencies are partnering to implement President Biden’s American Climate Corps, announcing this week they would work together to recruit 20,000 young Americans and fulfill the administration's vision for the new program. 

The goals spelled out in the memorandum of understanding include comprehensively tackling climate change, creating partnerships throughout various levels of government and the private sector, building a diverse corps and serving all American communities.

The agencies—which included the departments of Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, Labor and Energy, as well the Environmental Protection Agency and AmeriCorps—also vowed to ensure a “range of compensation and benefits” that open the positions up to a wider array of individuals and to create pathways to “high-quality employment.”  

Leaders from each of the seven agencies will form an executive committee for the Climate Corps, which Biden established in September, that will coordinate efforts with an accompanying working group. They will create the standards for ACC programs, set compensation guidelines and minimum terms of service, develop recruitment strategies, launch a centralized website and establish performance goals and objectives. The ACC groups will, beginning in January, hold listening sessions with potential applicants, labor unions, state and local governments, educational institutions and other stakeholders. 

The working group will also review all federal statutes and hiring authorities to remove any barriers to onboarding for the corps and standardize the practices across all participating agencies. Benefits for corps members will include housing, transportation, health care, child care, educational credit, scholarships and student loan forgiveness, stipends and non-financial services.

As part of the goal of the ACC, agencies will develop the corps so they can transition to “high-quality, family-sustaining careers with mobility potential” in the federal or other sectors. AmeriCorps CEO Michael Smith said the initiative would prepare young people for “good-paying union jobs.” 

Within three weeks of rolling out the ACC, EPA said more than 40,000 people—mostly in the 18-35 age range—expressed interest in joining the corps. The administration set an ambitious goal for getting the program underway, aiming to establish the corps’ first cohort in the summer of 2024. 

The corps members will work in roles related to ecosystem restoration and conservation, reforestation, waterway protection, recycling, energy conservation, clean energy deployment, disaster preparedness and recovery, fire resilience, resilient recreation infrastructure, research and outreach. The administration will look to ensure 40% of the climate-related investments flow to disadvantaged communities as part of its Justice40 initiative.  

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the MOU would allow the ACC to “work across the federal family” to push public projects focused on environmental justice and clean energy. 

“The Climate Corps represents a significant step forward in engaging and nurturing young leaders who are passionate about climate action, furthering our journey towards a sustainable and equitable future,” Regan said. 

The ACC’s executive committee will hold its first meeting within the next 30 days. It will draw support from a new climate hub within AmeriCorps, as well as any staffing the agency heads designate."

-via Government Executive, December 20, 2023

-

This news comes with your regularly scheduled reminder that WE GOT THE AMERICAN CLIMATE CORPS ESTABLISHED LAST YEAR and basically no one know about/remembers it!!! Also if you want more info about the Climate Corps, inc. how to join, you can sign up to get updates here.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - 29 April 2024

1. Net neutrality rules restored by US agency

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 on Thursday to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and reassume regulatory oversight of broadband internet rescinded under former President Donald Trump.

2. Airlines required to refund passengers for canceled, delayed flights

DOT will also require airlines to give cash refunds if your bags are lost and not delivered within 12 hours.

The refunds must be issued within seven days, according to the new DOT rules, and must be in cash unless the passenger chooses another form of compensation. Airlines can no longer issue refunds in forms of vouchers or credits when consumers are entitled to receive cash.

3. How new mosquito nets averted 13 million malaria cases

Compared to standard nets, the introduction of 56 million state-of-the-art mosquito nets in 17 countries across sub-Saharan Africa averted an estimated 13 million malaria cases and 24,600 deaths. The New Nets Project, an initiative funded by Unitaid and the Global Fund and led by the Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC), piloted the use of dual-insecticide nets in malaria-endemic countries between 2019 and 2022 to address the growing threat of insecticide resistance.

4. Germany has installed over 400,000 ‘solar balconies’

This new wave of solar producers aren’t just getting cheap electricity, they’re also participating in the energy transition.

More than 400,000 plug-in solar systems have been installed in Germany, most of them taking up a seamless spot on people’s balconies.

5. Voyager-1 sends readable data again from deep space

The US space agency says its Voyager-1 probe is once again sending usable information back to Earth after months of spouting gibberish.

The 46-year-old Nasa spacecraft is humanity's most distant object.

6. Missing cat found after 5 years makes 2,000-km journey home

Five years after it ran out the door, a lost cat was returned to a couple in Nevada after it was found thousands of kilometres away. The couple are praising the cat’s microchip for helping reunite them.

7. Restoring sight is possible now with optogenetics

Max Hodak's startup, Science, is developing gene therapy solutions to restore vision for individuals with macular degeneration and similar conditions. The Science Eye utilizes optogenetics, injecting opsins into the eye to enhance light sensitivity in retinal cells.

Clinical trials and advancements in optogenetics are showing promising results, with the potential to significantly improve vision for those affected by retinal diseases.

---

That's it for this week :)

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Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week.

January 19-26 2024

The Energy Department announced its pausing all new liquefied natural gas export facilities. This puts a pause on export terminal in Louisiana which would have been the nation's largest to date. The Department will use the pause to study the climate impact of LNG exports. Environmentalists cheer this as a major win they have long pushed for.

The Transportation Department announced 5 billion dollars for new infrastructure projects. The big ticket item is 1 billion dollars to replace the 60 year old Blatnik Bridge between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota which has been dangerous failing since 2017. Other projects include $600 million to replace the 1-5 bridge between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, $427 million for the first offshore wind terminal on the West Coast, $372 million to replace the 90 year old Sagamore Bridge that connects Cape Cod to the mainland,$300 million for the Port of New Orleans, and $142 million to fix the I-376 corridor in Pittsburgh.

the White House Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access announced new guidance that requires insurance companies must cover contraceptive medications under the Affordable Care Act. The Biden Administration also took actions to make sure contraceptive medications would be covered under Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. HHS has launched a program to educate all patients about their rights to emergency abortion medical care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. This week marks 1 year since President Biden signed a Presidential Memorandum seeking to protect medication abortion and all federal agencies have reported on progress implementing it.

A deal between Democrats and Republicans to restore the expand the Child Tax Credit cleared its first step in Congress by being voted out of the House Ways and Means Committee. The Child Tax Credit would affect 16 million kids in the first year and lift 400,000 out of poverty. The Deal also includes an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit which will lead to 200,000 new low income rental units being built, and also tax relief to people affected by natural disasters

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted for a bill to allow President Biden to seize $5 billion in Russian central bank assets. Biden froze the assets at the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, but under this new bill could distribute these funds to Ukraine, Republican Rand Paul was the only vote against.

The Senate passed the "Train More Nurses Act" seeking to address the critical national shortage of nurses. It aims to increase pathways for LPNs to become RNs as well as a review of all nursing programs nationally to see where improvements can be made

3 more Biden Judges were confirmed, bring the total number of Judges appointed by President Biden to 171. For the first time in history the majority of federal judge nominees have not been white men. Biden has also appointed Public Defenders and civil rights attorneys breaking the model of corporate lawyers usually appointed to life time federal judgeships

[sapphicsparkles]

"Bo-Katan isn't mean" Okay because I'm so tired of hearing this:

[/mēn/] adjective: unkind, spiteful, or unfair. vicious or aggressive in behaviour. Not mean? Okay definitely not vicious or aggressive in behavior Like her first appearance where she's part of Death Watch, a terrorist group and slaps Ahsoka's ass without consent to demean her?

Or when she shoves Ahsoka to the ground and *laughs* in a tent where Death Watch (including Bo-Katan) has stolen women from the local village on Carlac and put them into forced servitude?

OR when she helps slaughter the village and burn down said village for asking Death Watch to leave them alone? (that's her on top of the roof)?

Or after when she tried to kill Ahsoka and Lux for trying to help the villagers and leave?

Or when she aided in a plot to cause intentional destruction and fear to manipulate the people of Mandalore into deposing her own sister and overturn Satine's very successful government that ended the clan wars (the Traditionalists then were given the lush moon of Concordia and their own political agency and government in which Pre Vizsla was the governor)? Then forcefully deposed Satine at gunpoint after she had abdicated because of the will of the people who no longer accepted her rule due to the manipulation of public perception by Death Watch.

While Bo-Katan was likely traumatized by the Mandalorian Civil War/Clan Wars at a young age and there's no solid canon evidence but It's widely believed by fans that Bo-Katan was groomed and/or radicalized by Pre into DW from a young age--even if you believe this, IT DOES NOT EXCUSE HER HORRIFIC ACTIONS. None of it justifies her wrongdoing. She still had agency.

Okay so what about unkind or unfair?

Surely that can't apply to her sarcastic comment to Ahsoka when approaching her after she had watched her struggle on Kessel and made no move to assister her, only watching her to use her to fight back against Maul and reclaim Mandalore. While she does respect and befriend Ahsoka by the end of the Siege, she still initially saw her as someone to be used for her agenda.

Or when she uses Obi-Wan's guilt over his relationship with Satine to convince him to aid her forces in retaking Mandalore, which Republic intervention would disintegrate treaties over a hundred years old and start another war on top of the ongoing Clone Wars. Which to her was a legitimate, even desperate method to reclaim her planet from Maul who was only serving his own agenda, but it wasn't a very nice way to do it. In some ways Bo-Katan is justified in how she is mean, but it doesn't make her not mean.

Then there's her anger towards Sabine after she discovering what the Duchess does and that Sabine created it (after hearing how guilt ridden she is and how she already destroyed it.) Was her anger valid, oh yeah. Was it kind and and fair? No.

What about in The Mandalorian you ask? She's not a literal terrorist anymore in the Mandalorian. She's surely not still spiteful or unkind. Definitely not when she insulted Din's religious beliefs and way of life and called the COTW a cult.

Or when she took credit for killing that one guy's brother without any remorse.

Or when she changed the terms of her agreement with Din and forced him into helping her by withholding the agreed upon information after Din upheld his side of the deal. Which was her plan all along. And then on top of that, mocks him by using his own mantra.

And then there's the disdainful opinion she has of Din and her own superiority.

Only agreeing to help Din save his kid when he has something to offer her to serve her own agenda. Which again, valid but not something she does out of the kindness of her heart.

Oh and then she's so direct and straightforward to Boba, not mean at all.

Then in season 3 when Din shows up to help her reclaim Mandalore the first thing she does is take out her anger on him and once again insult his religion/COTW and invalidate his belief that the Mines will restore his place in his religion. All unnecessary.

TO BE EXTREMELY CLEAR: I'm not discrediting Bo-Katan's personal progress into a better person or when she does do good--a hero even by the end of Mando season 3--that's the whole point of a redemption arc, you have to be redeemed from something. And at her core is a commitment to Mandalore, but you can't ignore the cruelty and ego and dare I say it meanness that has gone with it, that's the beauty of her complexity is that she can be a character that grows and evolves and becomes honorable and also still be bitchy. Bo-Katan doesn't have to be morally squeaky clean or a victim to enjoy her character and her sometimes ruthless determination for Mandalore or appreciate her compassionate aspects and letting go of her ego. She's not an easily consumable or morally black and white character. This is in fact, what I love about her.

Thank you @armoralor for assistance with the screenshots from The Mandalorian!

[conduitandconjurer]

I think I've figured out one thing (beyond that .... "ending" ....) that bothers me about TUA s4 and Klaus.

It seems like the popular dichotomy, in terms of his characterization, is "fearful of life because he's mortal" versus "careless and effectively invicible" and that somehow being divested of his abilities would pave the way to healing and guarantee sobriety. Klaus's rage at his family for saving his life by returning his powers is proof enough that HE believes this. Alongside this is the presumption that all of his character development last season, mastering the gift of immortality, is itself--RATHER THAN THE WAY THAT HE MASTERED IT (by being led on and used by Reginald, and made to equate his worth with his usefulness/skill)--should be nixed. It's bad for him to be porous to the veil between life and death. It's bad for him to be immortal. He can't "deal with it" and he'll go on a bender the moment it's restored. His unwillingness to drink the "marigolds" (until he's dying and forced to do so) is supposed to be proof of this.

I have some qualms with this line of thinking, despite its solid attempt at showing character development.

I think Klaus is braver than people give him credit for WHILE he is mortal. Friends have posited (and I agree with this part) that he becomes very high strung and phobic about any form of injury or illness because even though mortality is scary to someone who just found out he was immortal...and then lost that immortality...he also feels he has CONTROL over his own body and mind and life that he was NOT afforded when he could be possessed by ghosts and used for his conjuring powers (both by family and predators). And I've been harping on Klaus's need to actually have agency and grant consent since that squicky Ben-possession joke in season 2. But, agh.

To begin with, I don't think Klaus is 'afraid' of life (or at least that the fear is unwarranted or laughable) so much as he's forcing himself to endure what he KNOWS is deeply perilous and unfortunate t unlucky people like himself, without resorting to the powers that also open the door to substance abuse. Of all of the Brellies, he tries the hardest, the most often, to break patterns, when he sees that there is motivation to do so (more on this later). He is hardcore and brave as fuck, rubber gloves or not.

But is it really a good thing, or even necessary for Klaus as a character, to equate no powers with guaranteed sobriety and powers with falling off the wagon? I don't think it is.

Unfortunately, this is hard to glean from the audience pov, because all we're given in this season is the most extreme, toxic, abusive, stomach-turning example of how his powers can be abused the moment they return--and how, of course, this exacerbates relapse. We get the whole 'have sex with his body while the deceased possess it, for drug money" subplot. We get him getting so desperate for the cycle to end that he begins inviting harm and self-harming out of some grim hope that his powers will fail (getting shot in the head scene). And he needs the drugs that this awful situation provides BECAUSE OF said situation. Compound upon that the PAST trauma that it's opening back up like a raw wound (literally, from at least the age of 8). Of course Klaus is using because of his powers, but because THEY'RE BEING ABUSED.

Klaus's abilities don't guarantee a fall off the wagon. His low self-esteem does, and the inability of anyone in his life to communicate with him or intervene does. When (deleted but still important scene) Lila's relatives are calling him, in front of him, a loser junkie (etc), and he says, "Yeah, that's....that'd be me," Klaus is mortal. We see the cogs in his head turning: yeah, I'm worthless, what's the point. And it's already too late right there, unless someone intervenes.

"What's the point," AND NOTHING ELSE, is Klaus's kryptonite. And he isn't a fatalist by nature, I'll (controversially, I guess) add, but there are things nobody can endure forever. Klaus, like any addict, is there because of underlying core beliefs about himself and about his ability to change his circumstances. What I love about the deleted scene that shows Klaus INSISTING on having his AA meeting is that he becomes his own advocate, because well, the Hargreeves are "all assholes" (well spotted, Klaus, lol) in their own ways, and each has to be their OWN intervention. This has more to do with self-determination than it does with seeing ghosts. The cause and the remission of Klaus's addiction is deeper-seated than powers that are given and taken away at surface level.

Why is this so important to me? I guess because to me the powers Klaus never asked for still remind me of something perhaps not initially intrinsic to someone's being--but still something they have to integrate into their lives in order to go on living. I think it MEANS more to fans who identify with Klaus (at least it does to me, someone with debilitating chronic illness) that he be able to transform his abilities into a strength that is, to Klaus and his loved ones, benign, while also not letting it become the central facet of his identity. He IS a medium, but he is also OTHER things. He is a human being, and all human beings have many interests, roles, and hopes.

The precipiating events of Klaus's trauma are NOT his ability to see ghosts or resuscitate. They're the abuse inflicted by those who would use Klaus for their own gain. Why should he give up his powers in order to heal, just because Reginald is an unconscionable monster who was willing to kill his own child over and over and over? I wish Klaus himself had had this epiphany before the show ended.

Losing his powers for good would certainly be the quickest route to healing and growth, and fine, if fans like it, go for it. To me, though, it feels like "don't ever wear crop tops because if you do, you won't get SA'd." Like, no. Maybe the world needs to operate by a kinder standard. Maybe Klaus needs a real support group, a better family of his own, to help him contradict his feelings of self-loathing. Maybe he needs the AA counselor to stay when he shows up for his chip. Maybe he needs reliable transportation to and from. Maybe he needs to move to a different city. Maybe he needs to chat with some of the ghosts he sees, and start a fucking Tuesday evening afterlife meditation circle. Maybe he can get a cheap apartment and fill his living space with succulents that he has to be held accountable to feed and water and keep ALIVE. Maybe he should become an AA counselor and help other people go the right direction. Maybe he should resort to poetry or knitting every time he has an urge to use, and that can become a healthier compulsion. Maybe someday he can get a kitten or start dating again (someone alive, in this century). What Klaus needs is to have MORE in his life to define him than his powers and how they can be used for the benefit of others.

Maybe the TUA writing staff is weirdly sadistic and won't let any of that happen. But by God, we can. And it's important. It's important that healing and remission not be dependant on things others can bestow or take away (like powers). It needs to depend on something internal, an "internal locus of control," as the CBT shrinks call it. THAT is having control over your own life.

[whatcomcredit]

Credit Restoration: 5 Steps to Rebuild Your Financial Future

Credit restoration is an essential process for anyone looking to improve their financial health and open the door to new opportunities. Whether you are recovering from a financial setback or simply aiming to achieve a higher credit score, understanding how to navigate this journey can significantly impact your financial future. This blog post will outline five crucial steps that can help you rebuild your credit and enhance your overall financial well-being.

Understanding Your Credit Report and Score

To effectively begin your credit restoration journey, it’s crucial to grasp the details of your credit report and score. Your credit report is a comprehensive record of your credit activity, including your borrowing and repayment behavior, personal information, credit accounts, payment history, and any existing debts. Lenders use this report to evaluate your creditworthiness.

Your credit score, typically a number between 300 and 850, serves as a summary of your credit report. This score influences the interest rates and credit limits you may receive from lenders. Credit scores are generally categorized as poor (300-579), fair (580-669), good (670-739), very good (740-799), and excellent (800-850).

It’s essential to request a free copy of your credit report from the three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—at least annually. Thoroughly reviewing these reports helps you understand your current credit standing and identify areas for improvement. By staying informed about the contents of your credit report, you can take proactive steps towards effective credit restoration.

Identifying and Disputing Errors on Your Credit Report

Once you have your credit reports in hand, the next step in credit restoration is to identify and dispute any errors. Errors on your credit report can significantly affect your score, so it’s crucial to address them promptly. Common errors include incorrect account information, outdated debts, or fraudulent accounts opened in your name. To dispute an error, gather documentation that supports your claim, such as account statements or payment records. Contact the credit bureau reporting the error and provide a detailed explanation of the mistake along with your supporting documents. Each credit bureau is legally required to investigate your dispute, usually within 30 days, and will inform you of the results. If the error is confirmed, it will be corrected, potentially improving your credit score.

Creating a Budget and Paying Down Debt

To regain control over your finances, it’s crucial to create a detailed budget and focus on reducing your debt. Begin by itemizing all your sources of income and listing your monthly expenses, including rent, utilities, groceries, and discretionary spending. This will give you a clear picture of your financial situation and help you identify areas where you can cut back.

Next, list all your outstanding debts, such as credit card balances, personal loans, and medical bills. Prioritize these debts based on factors like interest rates and outstanding balances. Two common strategies to consider are the snowball method, which targets the smallest debts first, and the avalanche method, which focuses on the highest-interest debts.

Ensure you are at least making minimum payments on all your debts to avoid penalties and further damage to your credit score. Whenever possible, allocate extra funds to pay off debts more aggressively. This approach not only helps to lower your debt but also positively affects your credit utilization ratio, a key factor in your credit score calculation.

Automate your payments to avoid missed deadlines, and consider using budgeting apps to track your spending and stay disciplined. Over time, consistently adhering to your budget and reducing your debt load will contribute significantly to your credit restoration journey.

Establishing Good Financial Habits

Establishing good financial habits is essential for long-term credit restoration and overall financial health. One of the most effective practices is to make timely payments consistently. Missing payments can significantly impact your credit score, so setting up automatic payments ensures you never miss a due date.

Another important habit is to keep your credit utilization low. Aim to use less than 30% of your available credit, as this positively affects your credit score. If you find it challenging to manage your spending, consider setting up alerts on your accounts to notify you when you’re approaching your credit limit.

It’s also wise to avoid taking on unnecessary debt. Each application for new credit can lead to a hard inquiry on your credit report, which may temporarily lower your score. Be selective about when and why you apply for new credit to maintain a stable credit profile.

Monitoring your credit regularly can help you stay on track. Credit monitoring services alert you to significant changes or potential issues in your credit report, allowing you to address problems before they escalate. Additionally, using budgeting tools and financial planning apps can help you keep track of your spending, set financial goals, and stick to your budget. By consistently practicing these habits, you’ll create a strong foundation for a healthier financial future, making it easier to restore and maintain good credit over time.

Utilizing Credit-Building Tools and Resources

To enhance your credit profile, it’s important to take advantage of various credit-building tools and resources available to you. One effective strategy is to apply for a secured credit card. This type of card requires a cash deposit as collateral, which minimizes risk for the issuer and helps you build credit responsibly. Make regular, on-time payments and keep your credit utilization low to benefit the most from this tool.

Another valuable option is becoming an authorized user on someone else’s credit card, preferably a person with a strong credit history. This can positively influence your credit score by reflecting their good payment behavior on your credit report.

Credit builder loans, offered by many banks and credit unions, are another excellent resource. These loans are designed specifically to help individuals improve their credit scores. By making timely payments on a small loan amount, you can demonstrate responsible borrowing behavior, which is reported to credit bureaus.

Additionally, some rent reporting services allow your monthly rent payments to be reported to credit bureaus, helping to boost your credit profile. Utilizing these tools strategically can lead to gradual and sustainable credit improvement, paving the way for a healthier financial future.

Contact Us :

Address - 3409 Chandler Pkwy Bellingham, WA 98226

Phone - (360) 312-7164

Email - info@whatcomcreditrestoration.com

Website - Whatcom Credit Restoration

Blog - Credit Restoration: 5 Steps to Rebuild Your Financial Future

[creditspecialists]

The Impact of Credit Report Repair Services on Your Finances

Credit repair is the service of restoring or correcting a poor credit score. They help individuals improve their credit scores by identifying and disputing inaccurate or outdated information on their credit reports. The Credit Specialists provide the best credit report repair services in Texas. If you are struggling with a bad credit score then don't worry we help you improve it and maximize your finances. For more details visit the official website of The Credit Specialists.

[bumblebeeappletree]

“Litter raking” was once common in many mountain and upland areas where alternative sources of bedding, such as straw, were scarce. This material was used as bedding for livestock in winter, and beech leaves were even used in the Alps to fill mattresses for human use. With the advent of alternative sources, this practice has largely been abandoned. However, the use of litter raking now appears to be very suitable for restoration and maintenance management to conserve the biodiversity of open forests.

Credits:

Manuscript: Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Pamadillo

Animation: Pamadillo - https://www.pamadillo....

Intro/ending music: Gregor Quendel https://www.gregorquen...

Middle music: Andreas Raad / @baltimus9000

Project: ROTATE: Application of traditional knowledge to halt biodiversity loss in woodlands

Funding: Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and Norway Grants 2014–2021

Contact: NIBIO researcher Fride Høistad Schei, fride.schei@nibio.no

References:

1. - (0:25) Cutout: Women gather needles and herbs https://www.waldwissen...

2. - (0:54) Historic photograph: Litter collecting day in Betlis https://www.researchga...

3. - (0:56) Historic photograph: Extraction of beech leaves https://www.waldwissen...

4. - (0:58) Historic photograph: Litter collecting day in Betlis https://www.researchga...

5. - (01:00) Cutout: Woman and boy with filled leaf baskets https://www.waldwissen...

6. - (1:02) Cutout: Lady https://www.life.com/h...

7. - (1:03) Cutout: Sheep https://cartorum.fr/ca...

8. - (01:10) Cutout: Horse and carriage https://www.alamy.com/...

9. - (01:42) Cutout: Lady and leaves / 1774065544066425111

[mariacallous]

The Federal Communications Commission has voted—once again—to assert its power to oversee and regulate the activities of the broadband industry in the United States. In a 3-2 vote, the agency reinstated net neutrality rules that had been abandoned during the height of the Trump administration’s deregulatory blitz.

“Broadband is now an essential service,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday in prepared remarks. “Essential services—the ones we count on in every aspect of modern life—have some basic oversight.”

The rules approved by the agency on Thursday will reclassify broadband services in the United States once more as “common carriers” under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, subjecting broadband to the same public-utilities-style scrutiny as telephone networks and cable TV.

That distinction means that the agency can prevent internet service providers from blocking or throttling legal content, or letting online services pay ISPs to prioritize their content with faster delivery speeds. But it’s difficult, particularly in an election year, to say whether net neutrality is here to stay or whether the FCC’s vote is just another inflection point in a regulatory forever-war.

“Net neutrality rules protect internet openness by prohibiting broadband providers from playing favorites with internet traffic,” Rosenworcel says. “We need broadband to reach 100 percent of us—and we need it fast, open, and fair.”

This reclassification was first attempted by the Obama administration following a lawsuit by Verizon in 2011; the ruling pointed to reclassification as a necessary hurdle in efforts to bring broadband under scope of the FCC’s oversight. The outcome of that case prompted the introduction of the Open Internet Order of 2015, which not only reclassified the industry in line with the court’s suggestion but imposed a slate of new rules with “net neutrality” serving as the FCC’s guiding philosophy.

Two years later, those rules were overturned by the Trump-appointed FCC chair at the time, Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer. Back in the private sector now, Pai derided the FCC’s efforts this week as a “complete waste of time;” something, he said, “nobody actually cares about.”

The rules put forth under Rosenworcel are somewhat different than those previously introduced. Past FCC orders pursing net neutrality have been repeatedly challenged in court, giving the agency today a fair idea of which policies will be defensible in the onslaught of lawsuits definitely to come.

Though banning the creation of “pay-to-play internet fast lanes” remains a priority, the reasons for reclassifying broadband are not limited to warding off the industry’s well-documented predatory practices. The new order also gives the FCC the ability to more closely examine industry behavior; how, for instance, companies respond (or fail to) in the event of widespread network outages.

“Net neutrality” was not originally devised as a set of rules but rather as a principle by which regulators seek to strike a balance between the profit-motivated interests of megalithic broadband companies and the rights and welfare of consumers. It is often summed up simply as the practice of ensuring that “all internet, regardless of its source, must be treated the same.”

While the Trump FCC asserted that it had no authority to regulate ISPs, it paradoxically claimed—in a failed effort—the power to crack down on states working to create regulation for themselves. Still, in 2018 California successfully banned broadband companies from engaging in a host of anti-consumer activities, from digital redlining and data discrimination to zero-rating schemes, which enable ISPs to funnel consumers toward particular websites or services by exempting them from arbitrary data caps.

Net neutrality advocates typically credit laws like California’s with preventing “virtually lawless” service providers from going haywire over the past half-decade. Industry associations offer a counter-history: Net neutrality protections must have been pointless all along, since the sky didn’t fall once they disappeared.

State-level protections, however, haven’t prevented cable and satellite TV companies from pushing a menu of anti-consumer policies nationally. The industry has threatened to hike monthly subscription prices if ever prevented from charging early-termination fees to customers locked into yearlong contracts. It has opposed rules proposed by the Federal Trade Commission designed to “make it at least as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to start it.”

Rosenworcel and other net neutrality proponents point to the growing reliance on broadband as successive generations of Americans increasingly eschew forms of communication that traditionally fell under the FCC’s blanket. Broadband is undeniably a telecommunications service today—even more so now than when the FCC first sought to adopt net neutrality as its guiding principle.

“Today's action brings back moderate rules that have already passed court muster and are essential building blocks for a consumer-friendly and citizen-friendly internet,” says Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner. “Our communications technologies are evolving so swiftly, affecting so many important aspects of our individual lives, that they must be available to all of us on a nondiscriminatory basis.”

Consumer reliance on digital platforms and tools for communication is only increasing: Teenagers today notoriously loathe—some say fear!—talking on the phone, while the landscape of communications dynamics shifted violently for US workers in the post-pandemic era. Nevertheless, Americans today have little agency on their own to combat predatory-pricing schemes and lopsided usage restrictions. Consumer advocates note that Americans cannot simply vote with their wallets while locked into receiving services from a de facto monopoly.

While having evolved far past its original conceit, net neutrality is at heart a policy of "non-discrimination," as Tim Wu explained in the 2002 white paper coining the phrase.

“The point of the neutrality principle is not to interfere with the administration of the internet-protocol side of a broadband carrier’s network,” wrote Wu, then an associate professor at the University of Virginia Law School. “It is, rather, to prevent discrimination in that administration.”

[dragoneyes618]

Let’s not get caught up in the details of the controversy that made headlines this past weekend about the fact that 12 employees of UNRWA—the U.N. refugee agency dedicated to assisting the Palestinians—took part in the Hamas pogroms in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The New York Times broke the story, and many of the governments that are the principal funders of UNRWA, including the United States, which is the largest donor giving $422 million to it in 2023, have since expressed various levels of concern or outrage.

No one who knows anything about UNRWA can pretend to be surprised by what happened. The notion put forward by some of its apologists that the people who took part in the terror attacks are just a tiny minority of its 13,000 employees is not to be taken seriously. As The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported, it is estimated that approximately 10% of UNRWA employees are either active members or have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

For years, it has been well known that UNRWA facilities, including schools and other places that are supposed to be devoted to charitable purposes, have been used by Hamas to store weapons or otherwise assist terrorists. Its education programs are as bad as those run by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority when it comes to indoctrinating young Palestinians in hatred for Israel and the Jews. UNRWA’s creation in 1949, coupled with its actions and the infrastructure it has built up since then, is dedicated to perpetuating the conflict with Israel. Forget philanthropy or—as every other refugee agency in the world focuses on—resettling those displaced by war in some safe place where they can make a new start in life.

That said, the notion that anything is shocking about the fact that a few of the UNRWA staff were caught taking part in the Oct. 7 attacks, including direct participation in kidnapping and mass murder, is a joke.

Sadly, so is most of the discussion about holding UNRWA accountable.

An unaccountable U.N. agency

Much to the dismay of Israel-haters like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the Biden administration announced that it was suspending funding of UNRWA. But when the details are drilled down, it turns out that the United States is continuing to pay the money it already pledged but will only put a pause on sending cash for new projects. The same is true for Germany and Canada, as well as some other donor nations. The government of the Netherlands has suspended all funding but other countries, like Ireland, Spain and Turkey, are refusing to take any actions to hold UNRWA accountable.

If the past is any indication of the future, even those who have spoken out about this, like the United States, will eventually, even if quietly, resume full funding of UNRWA. As part of his policies that attempted to hold Palestinians and their enablers accountable for their support for terrorism and rejection of peace, former President Donald Trump cut all ties with and funding for UNRWA in 2018. Unfortunately, among the first actions when Joe Biden took office in 2021, he reversed that move and restored funding. Biden and his foreign-policy team are steadfast supporters of the United Nations and everything it does, regardless of the fact that it has long been a cesspool of antisemitism.

Even those administration officials who have been the most outspoken in reaffirming Israel’s right to self-defense—like John Kirby, the communications director for the National Security Council, who has also denounced Hamas and supported the goal of its elimination—also defended UNRWA. According to Kirby, UNRWA does “amazing work” saving lives. Incredibly, he even gave it credit for wanting to investigate the problem.

The reason for this is that UNRWA has made itself indispensable to the business of caring for Palestinians in Gaza. It is, as it has been for the last 75 years, the primary conduit of assistance to a population that has been made dependent on the international community for all services, including employment. As such, it can and does present itself to the world as the embodiment of philanthropy, providing sustenance to an enormous number of people in need.

That is why any effort to investigate its activities and penalize it for its close ties to terrorists is always derailed by invoking its good works and the notion that if it were shut down, millions would starve.

So, even when UNRWA is caught red-handed storing rockets to be fired at Israel or even having its staff actively taking part in the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, the odds that its parent organization or the various nations that have spent billions of their citizens’ taxpayer dollars on funding it will do anything other than slap it on the wrist are negligible.

As with the rest of his policies that ignored the advice of the foreign-policy establishment and the “experts,” Trump had it right on UNRWA. The only theoretical hope for there to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians must start with the abolition of institutions that not only provide assistance and employment to terrorists but have as their purpose the perpetuation of a futile quest to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet. UNRWA must not merely be defunded. It must be abolished.

A world full of refugees

The very fact of its existence is a function of the way the international community has acted to prevent a resolution of the conflict.

When UNRWA was created by the United Nations in 1949, the plight of refugees was among the world’s most pressing problems. Up to 60 million people were displaced in Europe during and immediately after the Second World War.

That included those Jews who had survived the Holocaust seeking to go to Israel or the West, as well as millions of others who had been uprooted for one reason or another. Among them were ethnic Germans who were thrown out of their homes throughout Eastern Europe, including traditionally German regions like East Prussia. As Europe adjusted to new borders largely imposed by the demands of the Soviet Union, many people were forcibly evicted and told to move to places where their ethnicity would be welcomed. Any who resisted were not supported by the international community. They were violently repressed, imprisoned and forgotten.

Nor was Europe the only region where there was a refugee crisis. When Britain abandoned its rule of India, the subcontinent was partitioned into two separate nations—largely, Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. The drawing of those lines on the map created 14 million people who found themselves on the wrong side of the new borders and became refugees. More than 1 million people died in the ethnic and religious violence there as massive populations scrambled to find new homes.

Arab and Jewish refugees

Coming around the same time as the catastrophe caused by the partition of India was the refugee problem caused by Britain’s leaving another of its former possessions: the Mandate for Palestine. The United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states: one for the Jews and one for the Arabs with Jerusalem being an international enclave. While the Jews accepted the partition scheme, the Arabs did not. The leaders of the Palestinian Arabs—like the pro-Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini—declared war on the Jews. Neighboring Arab nations supported them and invaded the newborn State of Israel on its first day of existence in May 1948.

The Arab war to destroy Israel not only failed; the fighting led hundreds of thousands of Arabs in the former Mandate to flee. A small minority were forced out by Israelis during bitter fighting in some areas. But most of them left out of fear of what would happen to them if they fell under the rule of Jews (and with the expectation that they would take over all the land once the Jews were “thrown into the sea”). That was mostly the product of projection since in many instances Jews captured by their foes were massacred. But it was also the result of propaganda from the Arab side in the fighting in which they sought to demonize their enemies and strengthen the will of the Palestinian Arabs to fight.

During the same period as approximately 700,000 Arabs became refugees, some 800,000 Jews either fled or were forced to flee their homes in the Arab and Muslim world where they had lived for centuries. The very different disposition of those two populations says all anyone needs to know about the next 75 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Jewish refugees were resettled in a massive philanthropic project funded by Jews around the world. Most of those refugees went to Israel, where they faced hardships in what was then a very poor and embattled country. Today, their descendants make up about half the Jewish population and have contributed enormously to its defense and flourishing as a modern state. Others found new homes in the United States and other parts of the world.

Unlike every other refugee population, the Palestinian Arabs were not resettled. They were kept in camps throughout the Middle East with the largest concentration in Gaza, which was controlled by Egypt from 1949 to 1967. They were prevented from finding new homes in Arab and Muslim countries, where they spoke the language and shared a common culture. Nor were they enabled to go elsewhere to make new lives.

Instead, they were kept in place to wait for the day when they could “go home” to their former villages in what was now Israel. Their leaders and the rest of the Arab world opposed their resettlement, doing all they could to prevent it.

And the agency that enabled this policy to continue for generations was none other than UNRWA.

It’s important to understand that at the time when all these refugee problems arose, the United Nations created two refugee agencies. One, UNRWA, deals only with the Palestinians. The other, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (or UNHCR) has the responsibility for all of the other refugees in the world.

The UNHCR has its flaws, but its job is to help the refugees by giving them not just immediate aid in surviving being displaced by wars and other disasters but also assistance in resettling in places where it will be safe for them. Their goal is to ensure that their problems are resolved and that their children will make new lives rather than continue to live in camps.

By contrast, the UNRWA exists solely to ensure that Palestinian refugees are never resettled. That’s why almost all of the people who are called Palestinian refugees are the descendants of the people who fled the war the Arab world started in 1948. Several generations have been born in the camps but, contrary to the way other populations are treated, all are given the same status as those who were the original 1948 refugees.

Of all the tens of millions of refugees of the 1940s, the only ones whose descendants have not been resettled are the Palestinians. A humane and rational policy would have led to their being absorbed into other populations. But that’s not UNRWA’s job. It operates the ultimate welfare state in which generations are kept dependent on charity. Worse than that, its programs and policies all encourage the Palestinians to go on believing that someday Israel will cease to exist, and then they can return to where their grandparents and great-grandparents lived three-quarters of a century ago. Though it pretends to be a humanitarian force, it encourages its charges to look forward to the day when Hamas’s genocidal objective—the mass murder of Israel’s 7 million Jews—will be achieved.

Therefore, it’s little surprise that UNRWA is riddled with supporters of Hamas and that among its staff are people who take part in terrorist atrocities. And that much of the aid it receives from the world goes to help Hamas continue to function. UNRWA allows the very people its donors think they are helping to be used as human shields in a cynical hopeless war.

So, let’s not waste much time arguing about the details of UNRWA’s complicity in Oct. 7 or other acts of terror. The only discussion that needs to be held is one about its abolition and replacement by a genuine refugee agency. The world needs one that can give Palestinians new homes rather than keep them in misery awaiting another Holocaust for the Jews that they’ve been led to believe will magically solve their problems.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A ransomware attack compromised the data of current and former employees at Canada's biggest bookstore chain, Indigo Books & Music Inc. says.

In a statement on its website, Indigo said the breach on Feb. 8 left no indication that personal customer information, such as credit card numbers, had been accessed, but that "some employee data was."

The Toronto-based retailer said it has contracted consumer reporting agency TransUnion of Canada to offer two years of credit monitoring and identity theft protection to workers at no cost.

Customers remain unable to make purchases online except for "select books," after Indigo halted website and app operations in what it referred to last week as a "cyberattack."

When the incident began more than two weeks ago, Indigo was only able to process purchases made in store with cash, but some of its services, including over-the-counter credit and debit payments as well as exchanges and returns, have since been restored. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[impossiblycolorfulpanda]

Why I think neither ATLA nor LOK are true masterpieces.

First, I think ATLA was too short. It should've had 4 seasons.

Ozai was a boring and wasted villain. He should've been the one behind the Great War in any way while also still being the "final boss" archetype he was used as before. If I'm to truly believe that only the Avatar can win against Ozai and that doing so would instantly end the great war, I need to be shown, not just told.

Aang never truly mastered all the elements. This was even acknowledged in-universe. In each season, Aang spent one or two episodes gaining an element and barely practiced it. The rest of each season mostly consists of the gaang stopping whatever bad thing the FN is up to at the moment, having some expedition dump, and putting the spotlight on Zuko every now and then.

I'm even beginning to doubt that Aang truly mastered airbending and he prematurely got his tattoos as a result of this air scooter, because, as the monks tried separating Aang from Gyatso, they wanted to send Aang to other air temples to complete his training. That's odd because if Aang had mastered airbending in every way, what more could Aang learn? Why not send him to one of the water tribes as the cycle demands?

Most people agree that the lion turtle and the pointy rock showing up out of nowhere were a lazy robbery of Aang doing any real work to find an alternative and the agency of Aang making a choice and dealing with the consequences of it. He never tries to take advantage of energybending and bestow airbending to any of his new-found actolytes.

The established relationships between Aang and Katara, plus Zuko and Mai, don't really fit with the narrative, imo, they bring the four characters down, not up. There's a reason why the dynamic between Zuko and Katara is much more appealing and compelling.

I don't like how Katara was virtually erased from history by the time of LOK. There's no statue of her, no credit as a founder or republic city along with Aang and Zuko, she never shows up to her granddaughter's tattoo ceremony, or calls out Aang for being too favorable of their youngest son.

She's only called the world's greatest healer who illegalized bloodbending but she's never given a chance to show that off as she's apparently unable to undo Amon's damage, instead, it's her dead husband who saves the day.

It's even worse for Suki. No one even mentions the Kyoshi Warriors.

I think it was a waste not exploring the world and seeing how the world progressed in Korra's time.

Harmonic Convergence and the dark avatar arc didn't fully fit with the tone LOK was trying to show, so I imagine that airing in ATLA instead. I would've been ok with Korra losing her past lives if they were exchanged with Vaatu's powers/status being siphoned away and combined with Raava's after Vaatu is purified. True balance is restored but at a great price.

Aang was overly coddled by the narrative while Korra was given the exact opposite treatment and was forced to believe she deserves whatever suffering she goes through in order to be more respectful. Sound familiar?

Nobody get it twisted. I don't fully hate ATLA or LOK. There are many things in both that are very much enjoyable, especially season 3 of LOK. But they are not as perfect as Disney's hunchback of Notre Dame 1 and pre-Disney Star Wars.