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lookingforcactus · 3 months

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A big cost and concern for many seniors in the U.S. is the price of prescription drugs and other healthcare expenses—and this year, thanks to The Inflation Reduction Act, their costs may go down dramatically, especially for patients fighting cancer or heart disease.

I learned about the new benefits because my ‘Medicare birthday’ is coming up in a couple months when I turn 65. I was shocked that there were so many positive changes being made, which I never heard about on the news.

Thousands of Americans on Medicare have been paying more than $14,000 a year for blood cancer drugs, more than $10,000 a year for ovarian cancer drugs, and more than $9,000 a year for breast cancer drugs, for instance.

That all changed beginning in 2023, after the Biden administration capped out-of-pocket prescriptions at $3,500—no matter what drugs were needed. And this year, in 2024, the cap for all Medicare out-of-pocket prescriptions went down to a maximum of $2,000.

“The American people won, and Big Pharma lost,” said President Biden in September 2022, after the legislation passed. “It’s going to be a godsend to many families.”

Another crucial medical necessity, the shingles vaccine, which many seniors skip because of the cost, is now free. Shingles is a painful rash with blisters, that can be followed by chronic pain, and other complications, for which there is no cure

In 2022, more than 2 million seniors paid between $100 and $200 for that vaccine, but starting last year, Medicare prescription drug plans dropped the cost for shots down to zero.

Another victory for consumers over Big Pharma affects anyone of any age who struggles with diabetes. The cost of life-saving insulin was capped at $35 a month [for people on Medicare].

Medicare is also lowering the costs of the premium for Part B—which covers outpatient visits to your doctors. 15 million Americans will save an average of $800 per year on health insurance costs, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Last year, for the first time in history, Medicare began using the leverage power of its large patient pool to negotiate fair prices for drugs. Medicare is no longer accepting whatever drug prices that pharmaceutical companies demand.

Negotiations began on ten of the most widely used and expensive drugs.

Among the ten drugs selected for Medicare drug price negotiation were Eliquis, used by 3.7 million Americans and Jardiance and Xarelto, each used by over a million people. The ten drugs account for the highest total spending in Medicare Part D prescription plans...

How are all these cost-savings being paid for?

The government is able to pay for these benefits by making sure the biggest corporations in America are paying their fair share of federal taxes.

In 2020, for instance, dozens of American companies on the Fortune 500 list who made $40 billion in profit paid zero in federal taxes.

Starting in 2023, U.S. corporations are required to pay a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent. The Inflation Reduction Act created the CAMT, which imposed the 15% minimum tax on the adjusted financial statement income of any corporation with average income that exceeds $1 billion.

For years, Americans have decried the rising costs of health care—but in the last three years, there are plenty of positive developments.

-via Good News Network, February 25, 2024

#united states #medicare #healthcare #healthcare access #big pharma #prescription drugs #health insurance #us politics #good news #hope #seniors #aging #healthy aging

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batboyblog · 4 months

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The Biden-⁠Harris Administration Advances Equity and Opportunity for Black Americans

Growing Economic Opportunity for Black Families and Communities Through the President’s legislative victories, including the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—as well as the President’s historic executive orders on racial equity—the Biden-Harris Administration is ensuring that federal investments through the President’s landmark Investing in America agenda are equitably flowing to communities to address longstanding economic inequities that impact people’s economic security, health, and safety. And this vision is already delivering results. The Biden-Harris Administration has:

Powered a historic economic recovery that created 2.6 million jobs for Black workers—and achieved both the lowest Black unemployment rate on record and the lowest gap between Black and White unemployment on record.

Helped Black working families build wealth. Black wealth is up by 60% relative to pre-pandemic—the largest increase on record.

Cut in half the number of Black children living in poverty in 2021 through ARP’s Child Tax Credit expansion. This expansion provided breathing room to the families of over 9 million Black children.

Began reversing decades of infrastructure disinvestment, including with $4 billion to reconnect communities that were previously cut off from economic opportunities by building needed transportation infrastructure in underserved communities, including Black communities.

Connected an estimated 5.5 million Black households to affordable high-speed internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program, closing the digital divide for millions of Black families.

Helping Black-Owned Businesses Grow and Thrive Since the President entered office, a record 16 million new business applications have been filed, and the share of Black households owning a business has more than doubled. Building on this momentum, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Achieved the fastest creation rate of Black-owned businesses in more than 30 years—and more than doubled the share of Black business owners from 2019 to 2022.

Improved the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) flagship loan guarantee programs to expand the availability of capital to underserved communities. Since 2020, the number and dollar value of SBA-backed loans to Black-owned businesses have more than doubled.

Launched a whole-of-government effort to expand access to federal contracts for small businesses, awarding a record $69.9 billion to small disadvantaged businesses in 2022.

Through Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, invested $10 billion to expand access to capital and invest in early-stage businesses in all 50 states—including $2.5 billion in funding and incentive allocations dedicated to support the provision of capital to underserved businesses with $1 billion of these funds to be awarded to the jurisdictions that are most successful in reaching underserved businesses.

Helped more than 37,000 farmers and ranchers who were in financial distress, including Black farmers and ranchers, stay on their farms and keep farming, thanks to resources provided through IRA. The IRA allocated $3.1 billion for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide relief for distressed borrowers with at-risk agricultural operations with outstanding direct or guaranteed Farm Service Agency loans. USDA has provided over $2 billion and counting in timely assistance.

Supported small and disadvantaged businesses through CHIPS Act funding by requiring funding applicants to develop a workforce plan to create equitable pathways for economically disadvantaged individuals in their region, as well as a plan to support procurement from small, minority-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses.

Created the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that will invest in clean energy projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Increasing Access to Housing and Rooting Out Discrimination in the Housing Market for Black Communities To increase access to housing and root out discrimination in the housing market, including for Black families and communities, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Set up the first-ever national infrastructure to stop evictions, scaling up the ARP-funded Emergency Rental Assistance program in over 400 communities across the country, helping 8 million renters and their families stay in their homes. Over 40% of all renters helped are Black—and this support prevented millions of evictions, with the largest effects seen in majority-Black neighborhoods.

Published a proposed “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will help overcome patterns of segregation and hold states, localities, and public housing agencies that receive federal funds accountable for ensuring that underserved communities have equitable access to affordable housing opportunities.

Created the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity, or PAVE, a first-of-its-kind interagency effort to root out bias in the home appraisal process, which is taking sweeping action to advance equity and remove racial and ethnic bias in home valuations, including cracking down on algorithmic bias and empowering consumers to take action against misvaluation.

Taken additional steps through HUD to support wealth-generation activities for prospective and current homeowners by expanding access to credit by incorporating a borrower’s positive rental payment history into the mortgage underwriting process. HUD estimates this policy change will enable an additional 5,000 borrowers per year to qualify for an FHA-insured loan.

Ensuring Equitable Educational Opportunity for Black Students To expand educational opportunity for the Black community in early childhood and beyond, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Approved more than $136 billion in student loan debt cancellation for 3.7 million Americans through various actions and launched a new student loan repayment plan—the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan—to help many students and families cut in half their total lifetime payments per dollar borrowed.

Championed the largest increase to Pell Grants in the last decade—a combined increase of $900 to the maximum award over the past two years, affecting the over 60% of Black undergraduates who rely on Pell grants.

Fixed the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, so all qualified borrowers get the debt relief to which they are entitled. More than 790,000 public servants have received more than $56 billion in loan forgiveness since October 2021. Prior to these fixes, only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness through PSLF.

Delivered a historic investment of over $7 billion to support HBCUs.

Reestablished the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans.

Through ARP, secured $130 billion—the largest investment in public education in history—to help students get back to school, recover academically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and address student mental health.

Secured a 30% increase in child care assistance funding last year. Black families comprise 38% of families benefiting from federal child care assistance. Additionally, the President secured an additional $1 billion for Head Start, a program where more than 28% of children and pregnant women who benefit identify as Black.

Improving Health Outcomes for Black Families and Communities To improve health outcomes for the Black community, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

Increased Black enrollment in health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act by 49%—or by around 400,000—from 2020 to 2022, helping more Black families gain health insurance than ever before.

Through IRA, locked in lower monthly premiums for health insurance, capped the cost of insulin at $35 per covered insulin product for Medicare beneficiaries, and helped further close the gap in access to medication by improving prescription drug coverage and lowering drug costs in Medicare.

Through ARP, expanded postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months in 43 states and Washington, D.C., covering 700,000 more women in the year after childbirth. Medicaid covers approximately 65% of births for Black mothers, and this investment is a critical step to address maternal health disparities.

Financed projects that will replace hundreds of thousands of lead pipes, helping protect against lead poisoning that disproportionately affects Black communities.

Provided 264 grants with $1 billion in Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funds to more than 40 states to increase the supply of school-based mental health professionals in communities with high rates of poverty.

Launched An Unprecedented Whole-Of-Government Equity Agenda to Ensure the Promise of America for All Communities, including Black Communities President Biden believes that advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our government, which will require sustained leadership and partnership with all communities. To make the promise of America real for every American, including for the Black Community, the President has:

Signed two Executive Orders directing the Federal Government to advance an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda that matches the scale of the challenges we face as a country and the opportunities we have to build a more perfect union.

Nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and more Black women to federal circuit courts than every President combined.

Countered hateful attempts to rewrite history including: the signing of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act; establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday; and designating the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and Illinois. The Department of the Interior has invested more than $295 million in infrastructure funding and historic preservation grants to protect and restore places significant to Black history.

Created the Justice40 Initiative, which is delivering 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments in clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other programs to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution as part of the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history.

Protecting the Sacred Right to Vote for Black Families and Communities Since their first days in office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have prioritized strengthening our democracy and protecting the sacred right to vote in free, fair, and secure elections. To do so, the President has:

Signed an Executive Order to leverage the resources of the Federal Government to provide nonpartisan information about the election process and increase access to voter registration. Agencies across the Federal Government are taking action to respond to the President’s call for an all-of-government effort to enhance the ability of all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.

Repeatedly and forcefully called on Congress to pass essential legislation, including the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, including calling for an exception to the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

Increased funding for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which has more than doubled the number of voting rights enforcement attorneys. The Justice Department also created the Election Threats Task Force to assess allegations and reports of threats against election workers, and investigate and prosecute these matters where appropriate.

Signed into law the bipartisan Electoral Reform Count Act, which establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President, to preserve the will of the people and to protect against the type of attempts to overturn our elections that led to the January 6 insurrection.

Addressing the Crisis of Gun Violence in Black Communities Gun violence has become the leading cause of death for all youth and Black men in America, as well as the second leading cause of death for Black women. To address this national crisis, the President has:

Launched the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and taken more executive action on gun violence than any President in history, including investments in violence reduction strategies that address the root causes of gun violence and address emerging threats like ghost guns. In 2022, the Administration’s investments in evidence-based, lifesaving programs combined with aggressive action to stop the flow of illegal guns and hold shooters accountable yielded a 12.4% reduction in homicides across the United States.

Signed into the law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun violence reduction legislation enacted in nearly 30 years, including investments in violence reduction strategies and historic policy changes to enhance background checks for individuals under age 21, narrow the dating partner loophole in the gun background check system, and provide law enforcement with tools to crack down on gun trafficking.

Secured the first-ever dedicated federal funding stream for community violence intervention programs, which have been shown to reduce violence by as much as 60%. These programs are effective because they leverage trusted messengers who work directly with individuals most likely to commit gun violence, intervene in conflicts, and connect people to social, health and wellness, and economic services to reduce the likelihood of violence as an answer to conflict.

Enhancing Public Trust and Strengthening Public Safety for Black Communities Our criminal justice system must protect the public and ensure fair and impartial justice for all. These are mutually reinforcing goals. To enhance equal justice and public safety for all communities, including the Black community, the President has:

Signed a historic Executive Order to put federal policing on the path to becoming the gold standard of effectiveness and accountability by requiring federal law enforcement agencies to ban chokeholds; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate the use of body-worn cameras; implement stronger use-of-force policies; provide de-escalation training; submit use-of-force data; submit officer misconduct records into a new national accountability database; and restrict the sale or transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, among other things.

Taken steps to right the wrongs stemming from our Nation’s failed approach to marijuana by directing the Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice to expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law and in October 2022 issued categorical pardons of prior federal and D.C. offenses of simple possession of marijuana and in December 2023 pardoned additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law. While white, Black, and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionately higher rates.

Announced over 100 concrete policy actions as part of a White House evidence-informed, multi-year Alternatives, Rehabilitation, and Reentry Strategic Plan to safely reduce unnecessary criminal justice system interactions so police officers can focus on fighting crime; supporting rehabilitation during incarceration; and facilitating successful reentry.

FACT SHEET

#Joe Biden #Thanks Biden #Black History Month #black americans #african american #kamala harris #politics #US Politics #Economy #student loan debt #marijuana #criminal justice #gun violence #voting rights #from the White House #long post #because a lot has happened

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spacelazarwolf · 9 months

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Tipping vs shoplifting anon here, thanks for your response. One more thing though, aren't employers supposed to make it up to waiters if they don't meet the regular minimum wage with tips? Unless I'm misunderstanding the law, I got it from the elaws section of the US Department of Labor website.

i was gonna answer this like a normal person but my autism decided to go overboard.

minimum wage for servers and if/how much their employers are required to credit them depends on the state. some states require employers to pay servers full state minimum wage, but some have a different minimum wage for tipped employees which is where the tip credit comes in. for example, missouri's minimum tipped wage is $6/hr, and state law requires that employers ensure employees are making at least $12/hr. and iirc this doesn't mean they have to look at how much the employee got in tips per hour and if there was one hour they got no tips they'd have to pay them an extra $6, it just means their wages plus tips should average out to at least $12/hr. and the thing with tipped work is that there is an expectation that you will make more than the minimum, which is why employers get away with paying tipped employees so little.

so say we have a hypothetical server who lives in missouri. they work on average around 25 hours a week, usually serving an average of 3 tables per hour and each table's check is usually around $40. if none of their tables tipped for a month and their employer was forced to make up the difference, before tax they would make a total of $1,200. if all their tables tipped an average of $10, before tax they would make a total of $3,600.

that's a huge difference. the first would put you well below the poverty line, especially if you have a family. you would likely not qualify to rent any apartments unless you had a partner whose income could make up the difference, and even though you would qualify for some federal assistance, it's difficult to get and maintain. the second would allow you to qualify for significantly better housing and especially if you had a partner's income to rely on as well you could easily pay for health insurance and other necessities. and all it took was everyone at the table chipping in a few bucks.

if 10 people decide to steal $10 in pencils from walmart, walmart says "darn" then maybe files a loss prevention report. if 10 of our servers tables decide not to tip $10, that's $100 the server could have used to pay their bills or buy groceries. that's not to say tipping is in any way a good model for paying employees. it has an incredibly racist history, and relying on customers to basically pay your employees for you is fucked up. but until the system changes, tipped employees will continue to rely heavily on tips for their livelihood, and i will continue to consider tipping to be a moral imperative.

#ask avishai

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radiosummons · 1 year

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Real talk: Does the Jedi Order have a tax exempt status?

I know it's somewhat of a meme to make jokes about how the Jedi don't know how to pay taxes, or rather questioning whether they get paid or make any income at all. And, yes, this question is kinda dumb in the sense that whether the Jedi Order has tax exempt status or not, it doesn't effect the over all story or any actual SW lore in any way that actually matters.

I also know that tax exempt status works differently in other countries besides the US (yes, hello, I am American. I hate it here, too). But for the sake of taking this very dumb question at face value, would the Jedi Order:

1) Count as a religious institution in the eyes of Republic law?

2) If so, would their status as a religious institution have any impact on whether they attained tax exempt status from the Republic?

3) What standards and regulations would the Republic IRS have in place regarding tax exemption?

4) Do the Jedi even have an accounting department?

I would peronally argue that, yes, the Jedi Order is in fact a religious institution. On the account of the obvious connection to the Force and heavily coded (if not just downright) religious practices that the Jedi follow.

However, even if the Republic were to grant the Jedi Order the status of a lawfully recognized religious institution, I'm not sure if this would actually lead to them a guaranteed tax exempt status.

According to United States IRS standards and regulations, the Jedi Order could and would also be seen as a religious institution. However, one of the biggest stipulations for retaining tax exempt status is that the religious institution does not attempt to or make any influence on legislative or attempt to influence political campaigns.

(Palpatine voice: Ironic).

Now, if the Republic had similar stipulations, I would argue that, no, the Jedi do not get tax exemption. Mostly because one of the longest known duties associated with the Jedi Order is their role in assisting with galactic diplomacy. It would be literally impossible for them to not get involved in some capacity, especially when their aid is often directly requested (whether by a Republic aligned planet or not).

That being said, this is all going by the standards of the IRS. And at the risk of sounding too jaded, there are hundreds if not outright thousands of religious institutions in the US that should have lost their tax exempt status decades ago. And yet ....

Obviously, this all ultimately depends on what standards the Republic would theoretically have in place for situations like this. And while I would never actually want George Lucas--or any other writer for that matter--to attempt to give us a canon answer, I can't help but wonder.

Even if the Jedi Order was completely self-reliant--which I personally don't think is possible due to them, well, living on Coruscant for thousands of years-just as an example. It just doesn't make sense to me that the Jedi would limit themselves to only what they make in house when they could have easy access to other local businesses, ya know?--whose to say that they wouldn't still be required to pay for taxes like regular citizens?

The Jedi Temple, again, has literally been there for thousands of years. I don't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibility that the Republic wouldn't have sent their own SW IRS agent at least once to audit the Jedi Order.

I honestly wouldn't even be surprised if that Jedi Order would be given a slight form of tax exemption, but only if certain conditions were met. Like, I don't know, what if an official member of the local Coruscantii/Republic government were to make a direct request for the aid of the Jedi. Maybe they'd get a tax write off for all the transportation and housing (or vehicular damage) they'd acrue while on this government sponsored mission?

Or what about this? Business institutions in the US get tax write offs for charitable donations (which the fuckers exploit to hell and back, fuck me). I have to wonder if there was a point in time (maybe the early years of the ye Old Republic) where someone had to bring up the fact that a lot of what the Jedi do could count fall under charitable tax deductions. So if they wanted to continue taxing the Jedi Order, they'd probably have to change up the definition or something.

Idk, man, I'm sort of spit balling random thoughts at this point.

I'd also like to say that I believe the Jedi do, in fact, have an accounting department. Just to keep thing running smoothly in regards to the Temple budget and so on. It would be kinda hard to keep a place that big with that many occupants still around and for that long without having someone keeping a close eye on the Order's spending.

Mostly, though, I just find the idea of the Jedi being audited absolutely hilarious.

#star wars shitpost #sw shitpost #jedi order #jedi #jedi culture #sw lore #for real though #this is a dumb question #but i want to know what other people think #sw meta #i guess #i'm not an irs agent #i'm an insurance agent #so if i got something wrong #pls tell me #this is just a dumb idea #i've had floating in my head #for a while now

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dosesofcommonsense · 2 months

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👨🏽‍🏫 FWIW As a nation, we need to:

1) Abolish Federal Income Tax and the IRS; Repeal 16A.

2) Institute High Tariffs as A) the primary source of revenue, to B) protect American consumers from cheap foreign goods, and C) create Made in America manufacturing jobs.

3) Pass a Balanced Budget Amendment.

4) Pass Congressional Term Limits.

5) Implement a six month time limit on food stamps, with active job seekers only qualifying.

6) Repeal Obamacare.

7) Lift the embargo on FDA approved foreign drugs, ending decades of Big Pharma's monopoly.

8) Abolish the EPA and DOE; repurpose the Department of Energy to focus on "all the above" - Nuclear, Wind, Gas, Solar, etc, instead of pushing "green energy" sources only.

9) Abolish the Federal Reserve.

10) Abolish the FBI and replace their areas of responsibility with the US Marshals Service, which needs to be completely independent of the DOJ, remain under Federal Court Jurisdiction, and have Congressional Oversight. This would compel the AG to work with Judges, Courts, and Congress to enforce fed laws and prevent Administrations from conducting witch hunts.

Good? What did I leave out?

~@Maximus_4EVR 😇

PS Discussing House Republican stupidity, the Trump Court battles, Election 2024 details, Beltway gossip, the wars in the Middle East and Europe, "Max fact-checking" of news, and everything else you can think of over at Maximus Premium. Email [email protected] (DM @Roxie_Balboa) 4 deets. Join this month for $14, and get ready for November.

#truth #common sense #end the fed #blank the IRS

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the-empress-7 · 6 months

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I cannot wait for IRS to audit their asses.

I’m a fed and sometimes when it gets boring at work and we’re in one of Meghan’s ‘I’m going to make you love me’ PR smother moods, I think about transferring to the IRS just to be able to look at their tax info. (For the record, it is very illegal to access anyone’s tax records without specific purpose and there was a law passed recently cleaning up some of the loopholes for this.)

And if anyone was ever really truly bothered by some kind of fraudulent actions or behavior they think others might be doing, it should be reported to the appropriate agency’s Office of Inspector General. For instance, if someone was very concerned about an exiled prince receiving Secret Service protection (Department of Treasury) or utilizing diplomatic services (Department of State) or cozying up to US military (Department of Defense) or fraudulently reporting expenses and incomes (US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) or incorrectly representing their trademarks (Department of Commerce), the appropriate Inspector General agency would be able to hear any complaints or concerns via their hotlines. The individual could also submit FOIA requests to any particular agency for records related to federal decision making concerning the exiled prince, but just know it might end up in court (a FOIA request to Homeland Security over Harry’s visa application is why the Heritage Foundation is suing the government. They filed a FOIA request, and DHS said no, we can’t give you that info. Then Heritage sued.)

Thank you for sending this in. In regards to the second paragraph, I think there is no abuse of diplomatic privileges because the truth is hidden in plain sight. Harry and Meghan are still listed on the UK's Head of States as his representative for exactly this reason. At this point my beef is with Charles for enabling the subterfuge. Allegedly and in my opinion. No number of FOIA requests are going to cut it as long as Charles continues to protect them.

#fed anon

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apacnewsnetwork0 · 9 months

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The revamped website was launched on 26th August, 2023, by the Chairman of CBDT Nitin Gupta, during the ‘Chintan Shivir’, an event organised by the Directorate of Income Tax department (Systems) in Udaipur.

#CBDT #Chairman of CBDT Nitin Gupta #income tax #Income Tax Department #Income Tax department laws #Income Tax department revamps #Income Tax department revamps website #income tax services

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cosmicpuzzle · 1 year

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Saturn Transit 2023 for all Signs - Vedic

Saturn moves to Aquarius on Jan 17th, 2023 and will stay there until March 29, 2025. This transit will bring several technological changes in the world. Last time we had the World wide web, Internet, Amazon etc. This time, there could be advancement in fields like machine learning, robots, space technology, digital currency and economic recession

Let us see the effects on each sign. You can apply either to Moon or Ascendant or both. Sometimes it works for Moon sign and other times to ascendant.

Aries : Saturn moves to 11th house. Good time for changing jobs, getting a promotion long due, lot of gains in coming years, you may gain through stocks, insurance. You may cut off unfulfilling friendships now. Your health could be down. So take care.

Taurus : Saturn moves to 10th house. Your employer or boss may change. You may shift to other department in the office. Marriage could happen for those waiting as Saturn aspect 7th house. Those trying for foreign journeys may experience delays.

Gemini : Saturn moves to 9th house. You may move to a foreign country. You may return from foreign country. You may start higher education or PhD. You may have differences with mentors, father, bosses, elders and grandparents. You may feel unlucky at times. Your relation with friends and elder sibling may be restricted.

Cancer : Saturn moves to 8th house. You may face issues with in laws family especially females. Couples may face issues in intimacy. Joint assets, taxes, inheritance could pose challenges. You may have less desire for sex now. You could experience cutback in income. Must be careful with stocks, investments.

Leo : Saturn moves to 7th house. You may tie the know during this period. You may meet your partner who may be elder. Business partnerships may be formed or they may break if it has been bad for sometime now. Take care of mother's health and your own mental health. Travel to foreign places.

Virgo : Saturn moves to 6th house. Good time for work and career. Work will be rewarding and satisfactory. You can buy or construct home now. You will face less problems now. Travel to other country may be restricted. Health should improve and will be good.

Libra : Saturn moves to 5th house. You may have children now if you have been trying for long. Long term investments may prove fruitful but don't do new investments. You may have difficulty with grown up children or they may move away now for work studies. Marriage could be delayed.

Scorpio : Saturn moves to 4th house. You may change cities or residences. You may feel bit gloomy and pessimistic now. Cheer up. You may buy property or construct home now. Health would be testing. Career may feel like stagnation.

Sagittarius : Saturn moves to 3rd house. You may start new business ventures or change places or jobs. There is fresh air in your life. Long travels may be restricted and getting pregnant could be difficult. You may have issues with siblings.

Capricorn: Saturn moves to 2nd house. You may get married or start your own family. You could have children coming and thus more expenses in life. You may feel financial crunch now. Don't buy lot of things now. Good time to invest in real estate. Relation with family mother could be testing.

Aquarius: Saturn moves to 1st house. You may feel lonely and without support now. You may have weak vitality. You may lose body weight. You may feel work pressure now. You may have trouble with office mates, spouse etc. Marriage could delay or happen suddenly.

Pisces : Saturn moves to 12th house. Similar to Aquarius. You may isolate yourself. You may travel to new places, foreign countries. You may have sleep issues now. You may have problems with feet. You may become reclusive. You may feel stuck in some situation for 2 years-may be a job, relationship that's restraining you.

Book your Saturn Transit 2023 reading where I also use other exclusive techniques - DM Here.

#astrology #astrology observations #saturn transit #saturn in astrology #astrology transits #astro community #astro observations #astro notes #aries astrology #zodiac #zodiac signs #natal chart #natal chart reading #astrology signs #horoscope

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beardedmrbean · 4 months

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Two conservative groups say San Francisco and the state of California are racist for illegally giving away millions in tax money to three non-profits that exclude recipients based on race and gender identity.

The American Civil Rights Project and the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation say the city and state violate the law by picking who gets federal money based on skin color.

The suit names three guaranteed-income programs.

The Black Economic Equity Movement hands out $500 a month exclusively to young, Black Bay Area residents.

SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR PUSHES ADDICTION SCREENING FOR WELFARE RECIPIENTS

Guaranteed Income for Trans-people pays $1,200 a month to Black, Indigenous and Latino recipients, provided they are also transgender.

The Abundant Birth Project gives out $1,000 a month solely to pregnant Black and Pacific Islander women.

"We are asking for these programs to be halted until they are no longer discriminatory," says lawyer Dan Morenoff of the American Civil Rights Project.

"Each of these three programs qualifies and disqualifies individuals from participation and benefits based on their race."

San Francisco established the Abundant Birth Project in 2020 through its department of health. It provides $1,000 to $1,500 a month, for roughly nine months, solely to "Black and Pacific Islander women in San Francisco." Other races are not eligible for this "unconditional" income. Its annual budget is $1.8 million, but new $5 million in grants expand the program to four additional counties.

Advocates say that Black and Pacific Islander women need the help because of higher rates of premature birth. "This risk is primarily due to racism, both structural racism and racism that birthing people experience when they interact with physicians and other medical providers," says Dr. Zea Malawa of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

True or not, the lawsuit claims, it remains illegal to exclude White and Latino women, especially those with higher risks of complication.

In November last year, San Francisco launched another guaranteed income program.

"To participate you must be Black, between the ages of 18 and 24, and live in certain areas within Oakland or San Francisco," according to BEEM guidelines. Those applying as 'White' on-line are told they are 'not eligible'.

The GIFT project provides $1,200 a month for 18 months to "Transgender, Non Binary, Gender Non-Conforming and Intersex" individuals provided they are "Black, Indigenous or People of Color." The program is run through the city's Office of Transgender Initiatives. Last week, the watchdog group Judicial Watch also sued San Francisco over the GIFT project.

The money in all three programs is provided with no strings attached, via a debit card replenished each month.

"Guaranteed Income is a temporary monthly payment made to people without any requirements or obligations," says BEEM. "It’s an approach to supporting people, so they have a little breathing room, can take care of immediate needs, and plan for the future."

Similarly, the GIFT project says, "the $1,200 stipend will be provided to participants so they may focus on their basic physical and mental health and wellness without worrying about income."

Fox News reached out to all three programs, but all declined an interview. Mayor London Breed's office said in a statement that the programs are legal and that it looks forward to addressing the charges in court.

#nunyas news #that's illegal #violates the civil rights act

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tangledbea · 1 year

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What are your thoughts on Eugene becoming Captain of the Guard? I personally have mixed feelings about it. I understand that they wanted to give Eugene something to do since Rapunzel is going to become Queen. But he’s going to become Prince Consort. Even if he wouldn’t be ruling, he would still get to have input, and give advice to Rapunzel. And it just seemed weird that the Captain would choose Eugene over a bunch of trained soldiers.

I too have mixed feelings about it, for the reasons you state, and because ultimately becoming a part of the guard just doesn't seem like something he'd gel with, let alone captain. It's strange to me that he gave it a shot early in S1, and they discovered he wasn't good at it, but then made him Captain in S3. Yes, he's grown and matured throughout the series, but it's not like he's gotten better at listening to authorities since then.

And yeah, I understand, it's meant to be character growth. Eugene used to not belong there, and now he's in charge. But one would think that the job of Captain would be given to someone who was vying for it, not someone who, until that time, had shown some level of disdain for it and didn't even want it. And I get it, the Corona guard is incompetent and Eugene has been besting them at every turn for the better part of a decade, but honestly, him training them not as Captain seemed to be working out okay (in as much as he kind of left for a year and we have no indication that the training continued when he got back). Besides, the end of the movie (aka the ultimate canon that everything else must be measured against when it comes to this franchise) says that it's Max who whips the Guard into shape, not Eugene.

In my headcanon, Eugene doesn't stay Captain for very long. He gets the kingdom rebuilt, establishes a new way to be a guard, which vastly increases the competence of the troops in general, but then hands over the reins (so to speak) to Max and steps down to help Rapunzel. I see him in an advisory role, based largely upon my headcanon that Rapunzel forms a council of representatives from all the villages in the kingdom. Before laws are passed or big decisions are made, she turns them over to the council to get their input, and she relies heavily on people who are from lower income brackets and overlooked corners of the citizenship. She is determined to improve Corona starting in the gutter and working up. The upper class and nobility don't need as much help as the orphans and criminals do. And Eugene is her most trusted advisor in this department. He was an orphan. He was a criminal. He's intelligent, strategic, and thoughtful. He knows what life is like for the people in that tax bracket, and he gives the best advice on how to help them out.

Thanks to Eugene's advice, free education is implemented, available to every child, and apprenticeships are given to orphans close to aging out of the system so that they have better prospects then becoming criminals or dying. Rapunzel is already an advocate for criminal reformation, but Eugene's advice helps to steer her in what types of reformation work best with what types of mindsets.

Because Rapunzel focuses on helping those who actually need help the most, the overall emotional and economical health of Corona improves, and it becomes truly prosperous, rather than a veneer of prosperity that hides the criminal underbelly. And because she asks for the advice of the council, she also lays the foundations of democracy in Corona. I don't believe it would become truly and fully democratic in her lifetime, but that's at least in part because her changes make the citizens want her to continue leading them.

#Tangled #Tangled the Series #Eugene Fitzherbert #Rapunzel #TTS #Headcanons #Answered

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swagyna · 7 months

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A "Quick" Guide to Independent US President Candidates of 2024

Regardless of the party you usually vote for, I encourage you to go over this list

Jill Stein, Green Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia

A Jewish Doctor, she's been running in different campaigns for 21 years. This will be her third time running for presidency; her announcement was in direct response to President Biden's lack of action in regards to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Her main concerns are to reinvigorate our lacking Green New Deal, for the right of a living wage in a revised Economic Bills of Rights, an end to discrimination of women, BIPOC, and LGBT+ members; the removal of US influence in wars across the globe, as well as an end to our politicians being bought out by lobbyists.

Dr. Stein learned of the impacts of environmental pollution first hand while she was a practicing physician; her patients' were suffering from the nicknamed "Filthy Five" coal plants in her area. This spurred her into activism, which did eventually lead to the removal of these coal plants. While involved in this activism, she heard how many people had been demanding the removal of the plants for years. Local politicians refused to heed the people's words. Stein eventually learned it was due to lobbying, and helped to pass the Clean Elections Law. This law would only last for 5 years before Democrats removed it. A/N: Dr. Stein has only declared her running just this month on Nov. 9th. This may explain her lacking platform.

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Chase Oliver, Libertarian Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia You could describe him as sort of an "average Joe". Before entering politics, he worked restaurant jobs for 13 years. He's previously ran for Georgia's 5th district for House in 2020, as well as running for Senator in 2022 of the same state. He got enough support during his run for Senate that it caused a runoff election. His campaign is addressing many different problems, from positive immigration reform to being prochoice. Here's the list and a brief summary of what his plans are:

○ Healthcare system overhaul, swap to Direct Primary Care ○ Addressing Student Loans, making current loans interest free, ending FAFSA entirely, using Department of Defense money to pay for interest fees lost by this move. Also addressing high tuition costs. ○ Education, removal of the Department of Education to allocate money directly back to the states. ○ Allowing free market on Marijuana, signing full pardons for anyone with a non-violent drug-only criminal charge. ○ Changes to the Justice System, from courts to prisons to cops, removal of immunity from those in power, removal of mandatory minimum sentences, removal of prosecution of victimless crimes. ○ Work Changes, adjustments to taxes to make it easier on lower-income families, as well as law adjustments for people looking to open their own businesses. ○ Immigration reform, simplification for immigrants to become citizens to allow them to work and better integrate into our society. ○ Government invasion of Privacy, the potential repeal of the Patriot Act as well as any other invasive laws the government has passed in the guise of "safety". ○ The rights of bodily autonomy and Abortion, which should be codified. The exception here is that tax money cannot be used for it.

○ Ending the Death Penalty ○ Reducing Inflation by reducing government spending [a/n: this is not what causes inflation] ○ Removal of any Gun Restrictions and will strike down any new one that come up in the future What spurred him into activism roughly 2 decades ago, was President Bush's war campaign in Iraq. In 2008, he initially supported President Obama but later left the Democratic Party as he found that their policies were not anti-war and had no intention of becoming anti-war. He's spoken against regulations that prevent that feeding of the homeless and hungry in the City of Columbia [agenda], and has also made a public comment to the Atlanta City Council against Cop city (time stamp is 2:17:00).

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Independent Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia

An avid environmentalist lawyer who has won exceptional lawsuits for Indigenous People. This will be the first time RFK Jr. has officially ran for an election. In prior years, he's considered running for a Senator seat, NY's Attorney General seat, and has previously declined NY's Senate seat.

RFK Jr.'s campaign also has quite an extensive list of problems to address: ○ Housing Crisis and Cost: raising minimum wage to $15 an hour, changing zoning laws, changing taxes, opening ownership to local abandoned housing/buildings ○ Environment: restoring USDA and EPA control, incentivize companies to go green on a global scale, change agricultural practices ○ Ending of Lobbying: prosecution of officials and politicians who have been bought out by corporations, restoration of individual privacy, full government transparency. ○ Ending Party Division: RFK Jr. acknowledges that the Left vs Right is not helpful to the average person and seeks to remedy this divide by listening and compromising. ○ War: the removal of our troops and bases from countries in which we do not belong. The stop of unnecessary and profligate spending in our military machine. ○ Southern Border: Tighten control on checkpoints, restore lighting and motion detectors, but also allocate money into our courts to move asylum cases thru faster. This ties back with his stance on war, however; he wants the removal of our forces and weapons from the hands of the cartel. The US needs to stop funding the displacement of civilians in their own nations. ○ Restoration of Rights: Write into law that tech companies cannot ban, shadowban, or suppress someone if the government asks them to. Removal of government surveillance. ○ Civil Rights: to do this, a complete overhaul of these systems will happen - community repair, prison/police reform, focus on the working class and disenfranchised schooling, find addiction care that is long term, expanded youth programs, and free IDs for US citizens. ○ Native Americans: the restoration of land, the complete adherence to previous treaties that have been written and ignored by the US. ○ Veterans: optimization of the VA, creating a federal Veteran's council, to provide ways veterans can still "serve" in their communities. ○ Student Loans: the repeal of Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act which will allow people to file bankruptcy on student loans, allow people to refinance their student loans, remove interest on student loans, to hold universities accountable and not banks for loan defaults to prevent the rising prices of tuition.

Some things to note; Robert is a member of Children's Health Defense, which is an anti-vax organization that claims vaccines cause autism. Robert doesn't believe that HIV causes AIDS which he writes about in his book The Real Anthony Fauci (pg numbers: 298, 332, 347, 348, 351).

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Cornel West, Independent Party

Ballotpedia

Wikipedia

Another Doctor on the list, Cornel is a philosophy professor at Union Theological Seminary. In his practice, he focuses on how American society treats differences between gender, race, and class. This is his first time running for office, and had previously been with the People's Party which he dropped for the Green Party. In October '23, he left the Green Party to be Independent. Here is a list of what Dr. West is looking to address during his presidency: ○ Environmentalism: Canceling any and all national oil projects, codifying informed consent (FPIC) for Indigenous people and their land, end water privatization by making a clean water committee ○ Racial Justice: Reparations for black residents, following thru on the Civil Liberties Act of '88, public review commissions for all police stations, creating a committee dedicated to finding missing and murdered Indigenous women ○ Prison/Police Reform: End the death penalty, abolish current privatized prison practices, shutting down Cop City, end and ban police training thru military forces ○ Voters' Rights: Election day is to be a national holiday to ensure everyone can vote, term limits for all elected officials, ban on past elected officials from becoming lobbyists, term limits for SCOTUS members ○ Gun Control: Create national gun registry, reduce gun sales at shows, similar requirements for driver licenses to gun ownership ○ Economics: Tax billionaires, remove tax loopholes for the super rich, end Wall Street housing market holdings, ban stock trading for elected gov. officials, national minimum wage of $27/hr, create UBI commission ○ Workers' Rights: Four day work week, review US trade agreements and ban any that exploit domestic and international workers, free pre-K childcare, all for-profit companies must allow the creation of unions ○ Healthcare: Free healthcare, codify abortions, address addiction and help those affected by it, create federal panel to oversee the creation/safety/effectiveness of vaccines, focus on giving more power back to disabled people ○ Education: Redistribute tax money equally across all public schools based on student count (this way rural students still receive the same schooling as urban students), minimum wage of 80k for K-12 teachers, abolish state laws that obfuscate our US history, cancel student debt ○ LGBTQIA+: establish standards for trans healthcare, end assaults on trans people, ban on state anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, codify equal rights for LGBTQIA+ people ○ Global Influence: Removal of military support in all current wars, establish Truth Commission for the global south, disband NATO, cut the military budget, end global patriarchy and help women in Iran and Afghanistan, cancel IMF debts

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A note to end on: Firstly, I will not be discussing who I will be voting for on this post. Secondly, I want to add that just because a candidate has a large list of issues they're addressing doesn't mean they will actually get it done while in office. We regularly see candidates come in with large promises only to "forget" about them once they reach office.

Remember: the presidential election is important, but getting out and voting during midterms is infinitely much more impactful because those are our lawmakers!! A president cannot change anything if there is no house or senate backing her/him!

#yes. green and lib are established parties.#but they fit the bill bc of the massive discrepancy in funding between them and red/blue parties #just in case y'all can't tell - their campaign pages are embedded on their names #and for the love of god PLEASE read this list thoroughly and do your own research #a rb that would be nice :') idc about numbers but i KNOW a bunch of people are going to be asking “who do i vote for” in 2024 #doing research ahead of time is extremely important #i'd make a list for every midterm but there's literally hundreds if not thousands of total candidates for some of those uhm :') i'm sorry #2024 elections #presidential election #2024 presidential election #us politics #for later

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trans-girl-nausicaa · 1 year

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Just curious, as someone who is pro gun rights, what are your thoughts on mass shootings? Most liberals these days seem to think the only solution is stricter gun laws, or banning automatic assault weapons. I’m genuinely curious as to what you think would be the best solution to this? (Not just better mental health resources, I mean a more immediate and viable solution)

its a hard question. But before i give an answer per se, i want to clarify a few things:

automatic weapons are already federally regulated. They have been federally registered since the National Firearms Act of 1934 and no new automatic weapons can be manufactured after May 19, 1986, the date that the Firearm Owners Protection Act went into effect. So this makes legal automatic weapons pretty rare in the United States. Only a few hundred thousand. Except when you're a police department that buys fully automatic M-16 rifles, (and, oopsie, loses a few of them) through the 1033 program that sells surplus military equipment from the US military to US police departments. Or if the US Army accidentally sells some to a private citizen.

people can and do illegally manufacture (through 3D-printing or other means) a component called an autosear for certain semiautomatic firearms that allows that firearm to fire automatically. Glock plus stock plus autosear plus extended magazine and you basically have a submachine gun.

But uh. Back to your question.

Immediate and viable solution to preventing mass shootings? I don't think that exists.

stopping mass shootings is like stopping the megastorms caused by climate change. its a complex problem that needs a lot of work in a lot of different areas to combat it, to grind away at it gradually, and its way too late to completely prevent an incident from happening soon even if the people in power actually cared about doing something about it, which they don't.

Violent crimes, including mass shootings, are social phenomena created by the society that people live in, and require complex and comprehensive solutions including better mental health treatment (which would be easier to access if we had free universal healthcare) and better education (which would be better if the quality of public schools was guaranteed across the whole country instead of leaving local communities to crumble if they can't generate enough tax income AND we didn't have private schools & fundamentalist homeschoolers teaching creationism n shit) and a whole lot more things.

AND LET US NOT FORGET THAT MANY MASS SHOOTERS ARE INSPIRED BY RIGHT WING IDEOLOGIES. THIS HAS BEEN TRUE FOR YEARS AND YET THE RIGHT WING IN THIS COUNTRY KEEPS ON TRUCKING AS THEIR CRONIES RUN OVER PROTESTORS AND SHOOT AT SYNAGOGUES and PREDOMINANTLY BLACK CHURCHES AND ASIAN-OWNED BUSINESSES AND GAY BARS. WE NEED TO BE MAKING FUCKING POLITICAL WAR ON THE RIGHT WING AND PUSHING THEM OUT OF POSITIONS OF POLITICAL POWER AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE!!! AND THE DEMOCAN'TS ARE SO FUCKING SPINELESS AND CENTRIST AND UNWILLING TO ADVANCE A PLAN TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER! THEY REFUSE TO TRY AND DO ANYTHING THAT ACTUALLY FIXES PROBLEMS!!

The cops have all the fucking equipment they could possibly need to do all sorts of specail tacticool ops and yet when theres a mass shooting they literally do a worse job of helping with the situation than an average person would.

Stricter gun laws won't help because there are already skrillions of privately owned guns in the US meaning that illegal purchases that bypass background checks are easy as fuck. a mass shooter doesn't fucking care about filing the right forms. if they can't get a gun from a gun store they can easily get one from Some Guy. guns are really really common now and just getting more common.

i don't know what to do about mass shootings.

the contradictions in our society are causing social unrest. capitalism causes contradictions.

if you think its bad now, just know that i think it is going to get a lot worse.

#long post #gun control

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 7 months

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 29, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

OCT 30, 2023

On October 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market crashed. It had been rocked five days before, when heavy trading early in the day drove it down, but leading bankers had seen the mounting crisis and moved in to stabilize the markets before the end of the day. October 24 left small investors broken but the system intact. On Monday, October 28, the market slid again, with a key industrial average dropping 49 points.

And then, on October 29, the crisis hit. When the gong in the great hall of the New York Stock Exchange hit at ten o’clock, the market opened with heavy trading, all of it downward. When the ticker tape finally showed the day’s transactions, two and a half hours later, it documented that more than 16 million shares had changed hands and the industrial average had dropped another 43 points.

Black Tuesday was the beginning of the end. The market continued to drop. By November the industrial average stood at half of what it had been two months before. By 1932, manufacturing output was less than it had been in 1913; foreign trade plummeted from $10 billion to $3 billion in the three years after 1929, and agricultural prices fell by more than half. By 1932 a million people in New York City were out of work; by 1933, thirteen million people—one person of every four in the labor force—were unemployed. Unable to pay rent or mortgages, people lived in shelters made of packing boxes.

While the administration of Republican president Herbert Hoover preached that Americans could combat the Depression with thrift, morality, and individualism, voters looked carefully at the businessmen who only years before had seemed to be pillars of society and saw they had plundered ordinary Americans. The business boom of the 1920s had increased worker productivity by about 43%, but wages did not rise. Those profits, along with tax cuts and stock market dividends, meant that wealth moved upward: in 1929, 5% of the population received one third of the nation’s income.

In 1932, nearly 58% of voters turned to Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised them a “New Deal”: a government that would work for everyone, not just for the wealthy and well connected.

As soon as Roosevelt was in office, Democrats began to pass laws protecting workers’ rights, providing government jobs, regulating business and banking, and beginning to chip away at the racial segregation of the American South. New Deal policies employed more than 8.5 million people, built more than 650,000 miles of highways, built or repaired more than 120,000 bridges, and put up more than 125,000 buildings. They regulated banking and the stock market and gave workers the right to bargain collectively. They established minimum wages and maximum hours for work. They provided a basic social safety net and regulated food and drug safety.

When he took office in 1953, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower built on this system, adding to the nation’s infrastructure with the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which provided $25 billion to build 41,000 miles of highway across the country; adding the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to the government and calling for a national healthcare system; and nominating former Republican governor of California Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court to protect civil rights. Eisenhower also insisted on the vital importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to stop the Soviet Union from spreading communism throughout Europe.

Eisenhower called his vision “a middle way between untrammeled freedom of the individual and the demands of the welfare of the whole Nation.” The system worked: between 1945 and 1960 the nation’s gross national product (GNP) jumped by 250%, from $200 billion to $500 billion.

But while the vast majority of Americans of both parties liked the new system that had helped the nation to recover from the Depression and to equip the Allies to win World War II, a group of Republican businessmen and their libertarian allies at places like the National Association of Manufacturers insisted that the system proved both parties had been corrupted by communism. They inundated newspapers, radio, and magazines with the message that the government must stay out of the economy to return the nation to the policies of the 1920s.

Their position got little traction until the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional. That decision enabled them to divide the American people by insisting that the popular new government simply redistributed tax dollars from hardworking white taxpayers to undeserving minorities.

A promise to cut the taxes that funded social services and the business regulations they insisted hampered business growth fueled the election of Ronald Reagan for president in 1980. But by 1986 administration officials recognized that tax cuts that were driving the deficit up despite dramatic cuts to social services were so unpopular that they needed footsoldiers to back businessmen. So, Reagan backed the creation of an organization that brought together big businessmen, evangelical Christians, and social conservatives behind his agenda. “Traditional Republican business groups can provide the resources,” leader of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist explained, “but these groups can provide the votes.”

By 1989, Norquist’s friend Ralph Reed turned evangelical Christians into a permanent political pressure group. The Christian Coalition rallied evangelicals behind the Republican Party, calling for the dismantling of the post–World War II government services and protections for civil rights—including abortion—they disliked.

As Republicans could reliably turn out religious voters over abortion, that evangelical base has become more and more important to the Republican Party. Now it has put one of its own in the House Speaker’s chair, just two places from the presidency. On October 25, after three weeks of being unable to unite behind a speaker after extremists tossed out Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the Republican conference coalesced behind Representative Mike Johnson (R-LA) in part because he was obscure enough to have avoided scrutiny.

Since then, his past has been unearthed, showing interviews in which he asserted that we do not live in a democracy but in a “Biblical republic.” He told a Fox News Channel interviewer that to discover his worldview, one simply had to “go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”

Johnson is staunchly against abortion rights and gay rights, including same-sex marriage, and says that immigration is “the true existential threat to the country.” In a 2016 sermon he warned that the 1960s and 1970s undermined “the foundations of religion and morality in the U.S.” and that attempts to address climate change, for example, are an attempt to destroy capitalism.

Like other adherents of Christian nationalism, Johnson appears to reject the central premise of democracy: that we have a right to be treated equally before the law. And while his wife, Kelly, noted last year on a podcast that only about 4% of Americans “still adhere to a Biblical worldview,” they appear to reject the idea we have the right to a say in our government. In 2021, Johnson was a key player in the congressional attempt to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election.

In his rejection of democracy, Johnson echoes authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, both of whom have the loyal support of America’s far right. Such leaders claim that the multiculturalism at the heart of democracy ruins nations. The welcoming of various races and ethnicities through immigration or affirmative action undermines national purity, they say, while the equality of LGBTQ+ individuals and women undermines morality. Johnson has direct ties to these regimes: his 2018 campaign accepted money from a group of Russian nationals, and he has said he does not support additional funding for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

The rejection of democracy in favor of Christian authoritarianism at the highest levels of our government is an astonishing outcome of the attempt to prevent another Great Depression by creating a government that worked for ordinary Americans rather than a few wealthy men.

But here we are.

After Johnson’s election as speaker, extremist Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida spelled out what it meant for the party…and for the country: “MAGA is ascendant,” Gaetz told former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, “and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #MAGA #history #racism #Christian Authoritarianism #Christian Dominionism #Christian Nationalism #Biblical Republic

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cindylouwho-2 · 5 months

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RECENT ECOMMERCE NEWS (INCLUDING ETSY), January 2024

Welcome to my first commerce news update of 2024!

Now that we are through the intensity of the holiday rush, I plan on getting a few of these out each month. Please follow me on Bluesky or on LinkedIn if you want more timely updates. (New ways to get updates coming soon!)