#debt fund

[leonardcohenofficial]

the two biggest pieces of advice that i would express to anyone thinking about grad school are

1) do not pay for grad school. i am dead serious on this one. this was the number one thing every single professor i had in undergrad expressed to me. going to a grad school that doesn’t offer tuition remission or teaching or any type of funding so you can complete the work you need to do is not worth going into debt for don’t do it don’t do it don’t do it because—

2) besides the obvious (the degree) grad school offer you two things (ideally they offer both); training or access. by training i mean rigorous high level hands on practice honing your skills in your chosen field; by access i mean connection to people/institutions/funding to help support whatever work or research you’re doing. (i think that at least in the arts broadly speaking, it is easier to find training than it is to gain access.) i think it’s extremely important to weigh out what you’re getting out of a specific program and decide not only what is more important to you but also what opportunities a school is offering you

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*tries to organize my thoughts*

*remembers i'm not in school and therefore beholden to neither heaven nor hell nor any man's grading system*

*joyously shredding & tossing all my carefully arranged 3x5 mental notecards into the air like so much beige confetti. raising my arms in victory, cheering raucously until i accidentally inhale bits of homemade confetti*

(*coughing up itty bits of paper like a cat evicting a hairball with a firm understanding of tenants' rights*) wait wat happens next

[the-fab-fox]

These two images state my reason for the updated GoFundMe campaign. As an explanation for everyone, since not everyone can read images, I was informed that I would not be able to work for Doordash in order to make ends meet during my medical leave.

I am in need of this money for rent and car note most! Any extra will go towards any groceries/necessities I've been unable to get from other resources when needed. But ultimately, you all are keeping a roof over my head as well as my car in my possession so that I can actually get back to work once the leave is over.

So basically, for car note and rent alone, I'll need 675 and 750 for my rent for January and my car note for this month and next month (so 375 x2).

So if y'all can help with that, please consider giving toward my GoFundMe campaign which can be found here (or on the link below).

You can also donate via my PayPal if you would rather not go through GoFundMe (as it can take several days for the donations to hit whereas PayPal is immediate). My PayPal is eriklovescats@gmail.com. [Just advice that it is towards my GoFundMe so that I can manually enter your donation.]

Thank y'all so much for your time and help. It absolutely means the world to me and the donations I've already received have continued to keep me alive and surviving. For that I appreciate it so very much.

Sending epic awesome vibes for the rest of your year and setting the intention that life gives y'all everything you need to thrive in life! Asking my gods for help in manifesting these intentions. So mote it be! 🙏💖🙏💖🙏💖

Finley's GoFundMe Campaign

If you are unable to help financially, I beg that you reblog this for me if you are willing to that others who can help monetarily can find it. Thank you!

[800-dick-pics]

Help a Black Disabled Lesbian out of debt for Black History Month!

In the past month(s) ive had to max out my credit card to survive and now my monthly payments are $492. Due to disability I have limited/no income at the present and jobs are not clamoring to hire a visibly disabled Black person. I am in the long process of training a service dog so I CAN work a traditional job in the future but for now I need support. If you can pls support n share this around.

Happy Black History Month!

CA: $sleepyhen

VN: wildwotko

DM 4 P@ypal

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Emergency Roof Repair and Storm Cleanup Commissions

As mentioned in previous posts and pinned @anotherdayforchaosfay , we have just been through a natural disaster. Please read the pinned post on that blog. Updates will be added once we get outside and photograph the damage for our insurance claim.

I have opened commissions three months earlier than planned because we need to raise money to cover our insurance deductible as well as hiring someone to remove the tree from our roof and yard. The tree is owned by a lazy landlordlord who owns the property next door. We have told him repeatedly it needs to be trimmed or there will be damage. His property got a quick install sunroof.

I have four slots available across the board and prices start at $150 USD.

I have made the option of commissioning me for a quilt available. Three finished quilt tops are listed as commissions because they're ready for handquilting. Several people have inquired about one of the tops, so now's your chance to have it done sooner than later.

If you can do only a partial payment right now, DM me. I'll write up a contract for payments, and will require 50% upfront and weekly/monthly installs after that. You will then receive an invoice.

Commissions will begin immediately because we now have power.

I will close commissions when all slots are filled or June 1st, 2024. Whichever happens first (hopefully the former). If slots are filled, I will reopen them again after I finish all the commissions. I work fast and may complete six quilts netween now and then.

Donations are accepted,and there are four listings available in my shop with the option to pay more than my asking price (if you add an extra zero, I may very well cry).

Samples of my work below as well as in my gallery.

[bitchesgetriches]

Hi Bitches! First, thank you for all of the help and advice you guys offer 💜 I had a question for you - I currently have some credit card debt, and I pay the minimum payments every month, but I’m trying to figure out a method to pay it down faster with my limited funds. Currently, I have 10% of my paychecks going into savings automatically. Do you think it’s wise to pause that for the moment and put that 10% towards credit card payments? This would mean about an extra $250-$300 towards a card per month, but my savings is just over $1k at the moment, so I’m hesitant. Anyway, just wanted to get your thoughts! Thank you again!!

Honey, we are THRILLED that you are thinking so logically about this. You're doing us proud and we know you're going to be fine.

So the first thing to decide is how big of an emergency fund you need to be safe. Here's our guide for that:

You Must Be This Big to Be an Emergency Fund 

Once your savings reaches your emergency fund goal number, then you should treat your debt like an emergency. That means putting what you WERE saving toward the debt instead. The ONLY way to successfully pay down debt without paying out the ass in interest is to pay more than the minimum. Here's more advice for how that works:

How To Pay off Credit Card Debt: From the Snowball to the Avalanche Method

Season 4, Episode 3: “My credit card debt is slowly crushing me. Is there any escape from this horrible cycle?” 

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about How to Pay off Debt

You got this, kiddo!

Did we just help you out? Join our Patreon!

[arabaka]

queer latina desperately needs help. ($495/999)

i'm drowning and i don't know how much more of this i can take. the last few months have been the worst of my life.

i've lost two close friends. i've been learning about my abuse as a child and later SA on top of my already existing mental illnesses and other diagnosis. as if i needed more trauma, my cats, my babies, have been terribly sick.

i've already lost one (chompy, bottom right) to kidney disease. toothless and copper (right side) needed emergency dentals and we nearly lost toothless. then chachi (top left), my light, got a tumor and i got the worst news of my life. her breast cancer is back and it's aggressive. idk what i'm going to do without her.

everything has amounted to $999 and that's only so far. i'm a struggling, queer latina who is the breadwinner of my family of 5 (two of which are my parents who were/are my abusers and i cannot afford to leave) and i make below the average salary.

i know this is a writing blog but i'm desperate. thank you for reading. love and light your way.

GoFundMe

Cashapp $jacklynzapiain

Paypal @ jacklyng95

Venmo @ jacklynzapiain

[hexcodesims]

fundraising for palestine!

if you feel pushed to help palestinians with donations after the ICJ ruling as well as the news that many western nations have paused funding for the UNRWA, i hope i can give you a little incentive.

send me a screenshot of a donation you made to a mutual aid fund or charity for palestine (here's a link to a tumblr post with a variety of different funds/charities), and i'll post a piece of cc for every $20 raised. i'll stack the amounts donated, so if four people donate $5 that'll count as one piece of cc!

if possible, please make sure that your receipt screenshot has a date in it. and if you made a donation earlier this week, feel free to submit anyway! i'll count everything back until 1/21/24.

(also, if you made a $10 donation to esims for gaza you can get a piece of art from the cartoonist cooperative)

thank you if you decide to make a donation!

Total: $62

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Wuerker, Politico

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 20, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 21, 2024

This evening the House of Representatives passed a measure to fund the government for three months. The measure will fund the government at current levels halfway through March. It also appropriates $100 billion in disaster aid for regions hit by the storms and fires of the summer and fall, as well as $10 billion for farmers.

Getting to this agreement has exposed the power vacuum in the Republican Party and thus a crisis in the government of the United States.

This fight over funding has been brewing since Republicans took over the House of Representatives in January 2023. From their first weeks in office, when they launched the longest fight over a House speaker since 1860, the Republicans were bitterly divided. MAGA Republicans want to slash government so deeply that it will no longer be able to regulate business, provide a basic safety net, promote infrastructure, or protect civil rights. Establishment Republicans also want to cut the government, but they recognize that with Democrats in charge of the Senate and a Democratic president, they cannot get everything they want.

As Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post recounted, when the nation hit the debt ceiling in spring 2023, Republicans used it to demand that the Democrats cut the budget back to 2022 levels. Democrats objected that they had raised the debt ceiling without conditions three times under Trump and that Republicans had agreed to the budget to which the new Republicans were demanding cuts.

The debt ceiling is a holdover from World War I, when Congress stopped micromanaging the instruments the Treasury used to borrow money and instead simply set a debt limit. That procedure began to be a political weapon after the tax cuts first during President George W. Bush’s term and then under President Donald Trump reduced government revenues to 16.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product while spending has risen to nearly 23%. This gap means the country must borrow money to meet its budget appropriations, eventually hitting the ceiling.

The Treasury has never defaulted on the U.S. debt. A default would mean the government could not meet its obligations, and would, as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned in 2023, “cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability.”

As journalist Borage recalled, when then–House speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to raise the debt ceiling in June 2023 in exchange for the Fiscal Responsibility Act that kept the 2024 and 2025 budgets at 2022 levels, House extremists turned on him. In September those extremists, led by then-representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threw McCarthy out of the speaker’s chair—the only time in American history that a party has thrown out its own speaker. Weeks later, the Republicans finally voted to make Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaker, but Johnson had to rely on Democratic votes to fund the government for fiscal year 2024.

For 2025, Johnson and the Republicans said they wanted more cuts than the Fiscal Responsibility Act set out, and even still, the extremists filled the appropriations bills with culture-wars poison pills. Johnson couldn’t get any measures through the House, and instead kept the government operating with Democratic votes for continuing resolutions that funded the government first through September 30, and then through today, December 20.

At the same time, a farm bill, which Congress usually passes every five years and which outlines the country’s agriculture and food policies including supplemental nutrition (formerly known as food stamps), expired in 2023 and has also been continued through temporary extensions.

On Tuesday, December 17, Johnson announced that Republican and Democratic congressional leaders had hashed out another bipartisan continuing resolution that kept spending at current levels through March 14 while also providing about $100 billion in disaster relief and about $10 billion in assistance for farmers. It also raised congressional salaries and kicked the government funding deadline through March 14. With bipartisan backing, it seemed like a last-minute reprieve from a holiday government shutdown.

Extremist Republicans immediately opposed the measure, but this was not a surprise. There were likely enough Democratic votes to pass it without them.

What WAS a surprise was that on Wednesday, billionaire Elon Musk, who holds billions in federal contracts, frightened Republican lawmakers into killing the continuing resolution by appearing to threaten to fund primary challengers against those who voted for the resolution. “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” he tweeted. Later, he added: “No bills should be passed Congress [sic] until Jan 20, when [Trump] takes office.”

Musk’s opposition appeared to shock President-elect Donald Trump into speaking up against the bill about thirteen hours after Musk’s first stand, when he and Vice President–elect J.D. Vance also came out against the measure. But, perhaps not wanting to seem to be following in Musk’s wake, Trump then added a new and unexpected demand. He insisted that any continuing resolution raise or get rid of the debt ceiling throughout his term, although the debt ceiling isn’t currently an issue. Trump threatened to primary any Republican who voted for a measure that did not suspend the debt ceiling.

Trump’s demand highlighted that his top priority is not the budget deficit he promised during the campaign to cut by 33%, but rather freeing himself up to spend whatever he wishes: after all, he added about a quarter of the current national debt during his first term. He intends to extend his 2017 tax cuts after they expire in 2025, although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that those cuts will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years. He has also called for the deportation of 11 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants and possibly others, at a cost estimate of $88 billion to $315 billion a year.

House Republicans killed the bipartisan bill and, yesterday afternoon, introduced a new bill, rewritten along the lines Musk and Trump had demanded. They had not shown it to Democrats. It cut out a number of programs, including $190 million designated for pediatric cancer research, but it included the $110 billion in disaster aid and aid to farmers. It also raised the debt ceiling for the next two years, during which Republicans will control Congress.

"All Republicans, and even the Democrats, should do what is best for our Country and vote 'YES' for this Bill, TONIGHT!" Trump wrote.

But extremist Republicans said no straight out of the box, and Democrats, who had not been consulted on the bill, wanted no part of it. Republicans immediately tried to blame the Democrats for the looming government shutdown. Ignoring that Musk had manufactured the entire crisis and that members of his own party refused to support the measure, Trump posted, “This is a Biden problem to solve, but if Republicans can help solve it, they will.”

Then, as Johnson went back to the drawing board, Musk posted on X his support for Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) neo-Nazi party. This raised back to prominence Trump’s having spent November 5, Election Day, at Mar-a-Lago with members of AfD, who said they are hoping to be close with the incoming Trump administration.

Today, social media exploded with the realization that an unelected billionaire from South Africa who apparently supports fascism was able to intimidate Republican legislators into doing his bidding. In this last week, Trump has threatened former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) with prosecution for her work as a member of Congress and has sued the Des Moines Register for publishing a poll that was unfavorable to him before the November election. Those actions are classic authoritarian moves to consolidate power, but to those not paying close attention they were perhaps less striking than the reality that Musk appears to have taken over for Trump as the incoming president.

As CNN’s Erin Burnett pointed out “the world’s richest man, right now, holding the country hostage,” Democrats worked to call attention to this crisis. Representative Richard Neal (D-MA) said: “We reached an agreement…and a tweet changed all of it? Can you imagine what the next two years are going to be like if every time the Congress works its will and then there's a tweet…from an individual who has no official portfolio who threatens members on the Republican side with a primary, and they succumb?”

The chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Patty Murray (D-WA), said she would stay in Washington, D.C., through Christmas “because we’re not going to let Elon Musk run the government. Put simply, we should not let an unelected billionaire rip away research for pediatric cancer so he can get a tax cut or tear down policies that help America outcompete China because it could hurt his bottom line. We had a bipartisan deal—we should stick to it…. The American people do not want chaos or a costly government shutdown all because an unelected billionaire wants to call the shots.”

Republicans, too, seemed dismayed at Musk’s power. Representative Rich McCormick (R-GA) told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins: “Last time I checked, Elon Musk doesn’t have a vote in Congress. Now, he has influence and he’ll put pressure on us to do whatever he thinks the right thing is for him, but I have 760,000 people that voted for me to do the right thing for them. And that’s what matters to me.”

Tonight the House passed a measure much like the one Musk and Trump had undermined, funding the government and providing the big-ticket disaster and farm relief but not raising or getting rid of the debt ceiling. According to Jennifer Scholtes of Politico, Republican leadership tried to get party members on board by promising to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion early in 2025 while also cutting $2.5 trillion in “mandatory” spending, which covers Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP nutrition assistance.

The vote in the House was 366 to 34, with one abstention. The measure passed thanks to Democratic votes, with 196 Democrats voting yes in addition to the 170 Republicans who voted yes (because of the circumstances of its passage, the measure needed two thirds of the House to vote yes). No Democrats voted against the measure, while 34 Republicans abandoned their speaker to vote no. As Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News wrote: “Dem[ocrat]s saved Republicans here.” Democrats also kept the government functioning to help ordinary Americans.

The fiasco of the past few days is a political blow to Trump. Musk overshadowed him, and when Trump demanded that Republicans free him from the debt ceiling, they ignored him. Meanwhile, extremist Republicans are calling for Johnson’s removal, but it is unclear who could earn the votes to take his place. And, since the continuing resolution extends only until mid-March, and the first two months of Trump’s term will undoubtedly be consumed with the Senate confirmation hearings for his appointees—some of whom are highly questionable—it looks like this chaos will continue into 2025.

The Senate passed the measure as expected just after midnight. Nonetheless, it appears that that chaos, and the extraordinary problem of an unelected billionaire who hails from South Africa calling the shots in the Republican Congress, will loom over the new year.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[finncakes]

opening my comissions again!! please fill out the form to be put in my queue and thank you 🙏

[ausetkmt]

https://x.com/NewBlackMan/status/1702891802833904057?s=20

er 15, 2023September 15, 2023

Georgetown University and the Jesuits have pledged $27 million in money and land donations to the descendants of 19th-century enslaved people who were sold to fund the highly prestigious institution.

According to CNN, the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation confirmed the gifts of $10 million from Georgetown and an additional $17 million from the Jesuits in the form of financial retribution and plantation land.

“These contributions from Georgetown University and the Jesuits are a clear indication of the role Jesuits and other institutions of higher education can play in supporting our mission to heal the wounds of racism in the United States, as well as a call to action for all of the Catholic Church to take meaningful steps to address the harm done through centuries of slaveholding,” Monique Trusclair Maddox, CEO of the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation and chair of its board of directors, said.

The donations hope to be a crucial step in rectifying the injustice enacted upon 272 enslaved men, women, and children sold from Jesuit plantations to settle Georgetown’s debts in 1838.

The long-term plan of Georgetown is to pledge over $1 billion through the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation. According to CNN, the Jesuits made a $100 million commitment to the efforts in 2021. The foundation will use the funds to invest in the lifelong education of descendants, endow programs invested in anti-racism advocacy, and provide support to elderly descendants throughout their lives.

“It is an honor for our University to have the opportunity to contribute to their efforts. The difficult truths of our past guide us in the urgent work of seeking and supporting reconciliation in our present and future,” Georgetown President John J. DeGioia said.

In recent years, the university and the Jesuits have issued public apologies for the atrocities enacted upon the enslaved by the institution’s founding body.

[mikkeneko]

Consider: Cang Qiong High School Host Club.

.....Huh.

Hmmmm.

[the-name-is-loser]

I’m one more fake fundraiser ask away from just turning off asks entirely

[du-hjarta-skulblaka]

Hey folks

We recieved another £40 (bringing the total this month to £78 I think?) Which is gonna go on electricity in the next few days

But im primarily making this post because Alfie has set up a GoFundMe. The goal is pretty huge (I'll be real I neither expect nor. Especially want to recieve that much) but they've been calculating exactly how much debt we have and what we need to make it go away. They also go into a lil bit of detail as to our situation to explain why we are where we are, although I know most folks that follow me are pretty familiar.

Anyway, even if you don't plan on donating it would mean alot to me if yall could spread this around. My own discomfort aside, it would genuinely be life-changing for both of us. Thank you so much for reading and for all of the support you just. Keep on giving. Yall are awesome.

[bitchesgetriches]

Ask the Bitches: How Do I Prepare for a Recession?

We’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about a hypothetical looming recession. The stock market has taken a bruising; bellwether companies are stumbling. Do such omens and portents mean that another recession on its way?

The good news is, we can answer this one very easily.

Yes. Another recession is coming.

We know this with 100% certainty.

How?

The same way we know with 100% certainty that Piggy and I will be dead within the next hundred years. It is in the nature of a living being to die, just as it is in the nature of economies to grow and contract. The sun rises; the sun falls. The tides go in; the tides go out. It’s just the way things are.

Sounds kinda shitty, right? It’s possible that, someday far in the future, someone will devise some new system that will smooth out or even eliminate these cycles. Maybe the nature of goods and services will change so fundamentally that economies will transform in ways we can’t even imagine. But that’s Phillip K. Dick stuff—innovations that live so far in a hypothetical future that they’re still science fiction. You should plan to endure these market cycles throughout your lifetime.

And yes, there are lots of things you can do to make yourself more prepared. Let’s go through them.

Keep reading.

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