White Checkered-Skipper (Burnsius albescens)
Ice Age National Scientific Reserve Unit, Wisconsin, USA
2018 Photos\OldPhotoZ2012 IMG_4964aaa
Nothing serves the Rich (and consequently their politicians) like War$$$:
"To my mind, Medicaid must be off the table,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, told KHN.
“The idea of coming down heavy on people who are of low income would be outrageous, and I feel very much that’s what Republicans have in mind.”
"But instead of proposing a CUT to FRAUD-RIDDEN PENTAGON SPENDING, Biden is reportedly aiming for an increase of around $20 billion—and, if recent history is any indication, Congress will likely add tens of billions more to the president's request, pushing the overall 2024 military budget close to $900 billion."
"The free-lunch program that fed every U.S. public school student for just $11 billion a year? Expired.
Meanwhile, Congress ADDED $45 bil to the already $800+ billion Pentagon budget.
We can absolutely afford to alleviate child hunger. PRIORITIES are JUST APPARENTLY ELSEWHERE."
Working Families Party @ WorkingFamilies
"Progressive lawmakers and peace advocates have long argued that excessive military spending—much of which inevitably winds up in the coffers of private contractors—comes at the expense of critical social investments and outcomes, from ending child poverty to guaranteeing healthcare and affordable housing for all.
"The choice to spend so much on the military is equally a choice not to provide healthcare, invest in early education, address climate chaos, and more," Public Citizen president Robert Weissman said in a recent statement.
Last month, Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) reintroduced their bill calling for a $100 billion cut to topline U.S. military spending, money they argued would be far better spent elsewhere."
"Our national priorities are reflected in our spending," Lee said"
“As Hunger Surges and Medicaid Cliff Looms, Biden Readies Record Pentagon Budget
"We can absolutely afford to alleviate child hunger," said the Working Families Party. "Priorities are just apparently elsewhere."”
*
“Twenty Years Ago We Were Vladimir Putin
Reflecting on the nightmarish U.S. decision to invade Iraq amid Russian crimes in Ukraine, it seems that we have also lost all memory of the example we set and the moral authority we lost.”
*
“Michel Jerome
February 25 at 8:16 AM
·
Want to know who owns your member of Congress? Just look at how they vote. For example, Democratic Representatives and their Republican colleagues killed the ability of Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
To put this into context, the VA and every insurance company and hospital group in America negotiates prescription drug prices. Only Medicare is forced to pay around $60 billion a year more than they should. Which echoes as higher retail drug prices through our entire healthcare system.
Instead, Democrats are enthusiastically and publicly representing the interest of the pharmaceutical industry, which, Senator Bernie Sanders notes, “Has spent over $4.5 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past 20 years and has hired some 1,200 lobbyists to get Congress to do its bidding.”
Americans pay an average of $1500 a year more for prescription drugs than citizens of any other nation. But the crisis isn’t just the rip-off that’s making Big Pharma executives rich: it’s quite literally killing us. - Thom Hartmann, art by Mr. Fish.”
*
Democrats & Republicans mission accomplished. Fascists have no use for the elderly:
“Older adults were hit hardest by COVID-19. Not only did Americans 50 and older account for 93 percent of all deaths during the pandemic, but according to our survey, more than half of those who were infected had some long COVID symptoms. Learn more about the survey’s findings”
“AARP Survey: COVID-19 Has Taken Its Toll on 50-Plus Americans
4 in 10 older adults have been infected, and more than a quarter with severe symptoms”
*
“Things make so much more sense when you boycott Mainstream Media’s lies, omissions, distractions, and DivideAndConquer Political Theater.”
*
“Imperial Narrative Managers Always Try To Make Peace Seem Unnatural”
*
Edith Dume Lerner:
“We #Americans need to wake up and smell the coffee... We need to see in #Israel’s reality a mirror of what our society might look like if in 2024 we don’t #defeat the #extremism, #divisiveness, #hatred, #racism & #bigotry of the #ReligiousRadicalRight”
PURGE THE DIVISIVE LEONARD LEO AND HUS JUDGES. They’re animals, they’re not even human
“A WARNING FOR ISRAEL & THE US: When the ‘separation of state & church’ fails & religious extremists seize political power, Democracy also fails…”
*
Sam Carana:
“WE ARE NOW IN THE SUICENE
The Holocene is the geological epoch that started approximately 11,650 years ago. The demarcation point between the Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene is the end of the last Glacial Period, in line with variations in the Earth's orbit.
Instead of going down as would be in line with changes in the Earth's orbit, temperatures and greenhouse gas levels over the past few thousands of years have kept going up as a result of activities by people.
It makes sense to name an epoch after the dominant force shaping its climate. An earlier analysis concludes that, from the year 3480 BC, emissions by people have been higher than the amount it takes to negate the natural trend for the temperature to fall. From 3480 BC, forcing due to activities by people was stronger than the natural fall in temperature that would have eventuated in the absence of such activities. This makes the year 3480 BC most significant as a climate marker, and it makes sense to regard this both as the base for the temperature rise from pre-industrial and as the start of the Anthropocene.
As we keep appointing omnicidal maniacs who act in conflict with best-available scientific analysis, we are now facing a temperature rise that looks set to drive humans into extinction. Humans are now functionally extinct, and another name change is in order. Indeed, we are now in the Suicene.
In conclusion, we have left the Anthropocene. We are now functionally extinct and we look set to drag most, if not all life on Earth into extinction with us, as we keep appointing omnicidal maniacs who act in conflict with best-available scientific analysis. We are now in the Suicene.
From the post 'We are now in the Suicene', at:
*
“Aquaculture: The Painful Truth Beneath the Surface - “Putrid conditions, rampant disease and widespread cruelty to fish…”
Meat, Egg and Dairy Alternatives https://www.vegan.com/vegan-alternatives/
*
For proof that America is no longer a Democracy you need look only at war. Where our waring is coming from. And it’s coming from the collective doing of some very undemocratic realities:
1 Citizens United has effectively transferred govt decision making to the rich and their corporations
2 War involves tremendous govt spending and the country’s economic system is rigged in favor of the rich. Aided in no small part by a Stock Market that is overwhelmingly owned by the rich.
3 The US Supreme Court will most certainly continue its tradition of serving the rich meaning the legal liability the rich face in all manner of affairs and conduct are severely limited to the point of being nonexistent (in the face of their check books)
4 The costs of war are socialized. What portion of any costs of wars the rich do face are inconsequential given their wealth
So there will be war as there is no downside to war for the rich and the rich are calling the shots when it comes to American govt
Consequently, The rich can kill and steal with impunity to build their profit provided they first couch it as formally being done in the name of “defense.” Our rich private citizens face no personal liability for actions of their govt
In this way, Washington offers the protection of a perfect straw entity where the rich can get away with nearly anything.
If the rich do choose to recognize a limit perhaps it might be related to the animosity their constant waring generates against America on the international stage.
But they don’t seem to care. And even if the rich did they know that the leadership of the(se) angry country(ies) could be kept in line with “western money power.” Sadly, the prospect of extreme wealth appears to be a universal human weakness. It is valued more than the lives (nonrich) destroyed to get it
America wars because the benefactors face no meaningful downside
Comments