Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Anela]

 

Both from threads. 

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, Absolom said:

I'd like a report on how much money the Orange Menace has wasted vs the 1/10 of 1% of the budget DOGE has saved.  I'd also like to note that there is no real savings due to the IRS losses on taxes due to cutbacks at the IRS.  

Saving money was not the point. Overthrowing the government waas the point.  

[Lantern7]

Still waiting for the other shoe to drop on all these bastards. George Santos getting seven-plus years in the pokey doesn't really count for me.

[Absolom]

36 minutes ago, Affogato said:

Saving money was not the point. Overthrowing the government waas the point.  

For the history books and my personal knowledge, I'd still like to see the accounting. 

[tres bien]

On Wednesday Gramps pardoned Michele Fiore a former Las Vegas city council member and Trump loyalist

In October Fiore was convicted in federal court after being found guilty of pocketing money she claimed was for a police memorial 

Evidence at trial demonstrated that Fiore promised donors that 100% of the contributions would be used towards the construction of memorials for the fallen officers however she did not use any of $70,000 she raised towards the memorials she used the money for personal expenses 

 

[suomi]

The conversation here regarding formal education and earned degrees piqued my interest. My 71-year-old sister has developmental delay and she has lived with me since our mother died in July 2002. I spent more time caring for her than anyone in our household did during our formative years. (I left home at age 18, when she was 15). Three times during our more recent journey together, social workers and service providers have said they wished I had a degree so they could hire me.

Lots of people in this world gain valuable expertise that cannot be measured by credits and degrees. It seems counterproductive that extracurricular aptitude cannot be acknowledged and valued and put to good use.

[peacheslatour]

18 minutes ago, suomi said:

The conversation here regarding formal education and earned degrees piqued my interest. My 71-year-old sister has developmental delay and she has lived with me since our mother died in July 2002. I spent more time caring for her than anyone in our household did during our formative years. (I left home at age 18, when she was 15). Three times during our more recent journey together, social workers and service providers have said they wished I had a degree so they could hire me.

Lots of people in this world gain valuable expertise that cannot be measured by credits and degrees. It seems counterproductive that extracurricular aptitude cannot be acknowledged and valued and put to good use.

I didn't understand the point of that whole debate. Some people are just mounted on their hobbies and it's almost like they speak a different language than I do.

[annzeepark914]

Good grief. They're now contemplating dropping the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth. What a bunch of evil creeps. What is wrong with these people? 

[tearknee]

6 hours ago, Yeah No said:

If anyone is the poster child of what is considered "elite" it should be Trump. After all, he is Wharton school educated and comes from money and positional power. But he is proof that none of those things make a person an "elite" at all. It's attitude. Trump didn't have the attitude of a person with his education and advantages. And the intellectuals that would have expected it of him did not accept him as one of their own, that's for sure. But it wasn't because he was a "nerd". To them he was an unsophisticated, ignoramus that probably got all that thanks to the advantages that came along with his family's wealth and connections. A friend of mine (also from Queens) would say of Trump, "Oh, he has plenty of class. Too bad it's all lower", LOL. He wanted the intelligent intellectuals to accept him but he's a cartoon caricature and not that bright. And definitely not that self aware. So that's why he hates them and wants to pit "the little guy" against them. It's revenge. he felt snubbed by them. Well, sorry to say I understand why he was now that I know what he's really made of. And I'm not an elitist snob, either. As the old saying goes, "If the shoe fits, wear it"!

That was one of my points as CC wrote - if you are going to make it clear with your attitude as what you think of the vast majority of the general public who *don't give a donkey's * for your id-pol obsessions (reparations/fistfuls of dollars, staying in the EU, "always was, always will be", From the River to the Sea, getting rid of the British monarchy), they will flock to someone who does listen to them.

 

 

[suomi]

Our tax dollars in action. I enjoy the poor publicity resulting from this.

It is the mystery that has gripped Washington.

On Sunday night, Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, was dining downtown at Capital Burger with her family when a thief snatched her purse out from under her chair.

The culprit scored, big time: The bag contained Ms. Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, blank checks, department badge, passport and $3,000 in cash.

The Capital Burger caper made for capital farce — the top official charged with patrolling the nation’s borders and protecting it from terrorist threats, burgled in plain view of her security detail. That it happened to Ms. Noem, of all cabinet officials, only added to the drama.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that Ms. Noem had withdrawn the cash to spend while her family was in town on vacation.

“I don’t really think someone who lives in D.C. is going to have great insight into why a rancher is carrying physical money versus a credit card,” Ms. McLaughlin told a New York Times reporter, referring to Ms. Noem’s South Dakota background. She declined to explain further.

Other mysteries about the burger joint episode persist.

How exactly could the thief pull off the heist with Ms. Noem’s security detail there?

One law enforcement official familiar with what happened said that there were several agents assigned to Ms. Noem who were at the restaurant that day, but that they were hanging back more than 20 feet away, wanting to give Ms. Noem space to enjoy an Easter Sunday with her family. While the agents did keep a clear line of sight to Ms. Noem, they apparently couldn’t see everything that was happening around the table. Or, more specifically, under the table.

The thief was at a nearby table and didn’t have to approach the homeland security chief to snag her bag. As Ms. Noem’s spokeswoman has said, “her bag was under her feet, and the perpetrator hooked the bag with his foot and dragged it across the floor and put a coat over it and took it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/noem-stolen-purse-homeland-security.html

Edited April 25 by suomi

[tearknee]

Next time the Dems are in: Presidential Medal of Honor for the thief and a full and free pardon?

[Browncoat]

28 minutes ago, annzeepark914 said:

Good grief. They're now contemplating dropping the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for LGBTQ+ youth. What a bunch of evil creeps. What is wrong with these people? 

Isn't 988 for anyone in crisis?  Not just LGBTQ+ youth?  Either way, dropping it is horrible.

[Anela]

33 minutes ago, tearknee said:

That was one of my points as CC wrote - if you are going to make it clear with your attitude as what you think of the vast majority of the general public who *don't give a donkey's * for your id-pol obsessions (reparations/fistfuls of dollars, staying in the EU, "always was, always will be", From the River to the Sea, getting rid of the British monarchy), they will flock to someone who does listen to them.

Yes, but Trump was clearly not going to give them what they wanted, and he's talking about reparations, but for his pet insurrectionists. Not actual reparations, where it counts. Trump just said, "I know, the Democrats suck!" and he never hid that he wanted a ceasefire, so that he could turn Gaza into a resort. We recently found out that Kamala's people were told to ignore anyone contacting her about Gaza, and that pissed me off, because I was calling and writing about it (wait, didn't we? I can't find anything about that now). But I knew that trump wasn't going to stop anything. It's happening. They've run out of food, and he's bitching about whatever the fuck he's bitching about today. 

 

Edited April 26 by Anela

[tearknee]

Just now, Anela said:

Yes, but Trump was clearly not going to give them what they wanted, and he's talking about reparations, but for his pet insurrectionists. Not actual reparations, where it counts. Trump just said, "I know, the Democrats suck!" and he never hid that he wanted a ceasefire, so that he could turn Gaza into a resort. We recently found out that Kamala's people were told to ignore anyone contacting her about Gaza, and that pissed me off, because I was calling and writing about it. But I knew that trump wasn't going to stop anything. It's happening. They've run out of food, and he's bitching about whatever the fuck he's bitching about today. 

 

The bolded part -- you just confirmed the point in my post. 

[Anela]

5 minutes ago, tearknee said:

The bolded part -- you just confirmed the point in my post. 

No, I didn't. We're talking about slavery, not people who went on a rampage for a man-baby, when he couldn't admit that he lost the election. They literally went to fight for him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_for_slavery

Edited April 26 by Anela

[Anela]

 

[suomi]

Our tax dollars at work.

Fired U.S.A.I.D. Workers to Keep Government-Issued Phones and Computers

Staff members being fired from the federal agency responsible for distributing foreign aid will be able to keep their government-issued electronic devices when it closes its doors this summer, according to an internal email, copies of which were shared with The New York Times.

In the email, sent to employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Trump administration officials said that iPhones, iPads and laptops would “be remotely wiped and marked as disposed.” 

The letter stipulates that devices will not be marked as “disposed” until they have been remotely wiped. It makes no request that the employees dispose of the devices.

There is also no clear deadline stipulated in the email, which says merely that devices will be remotely sanitized “on or around the employee Reduction in Force (RIF) date.” Staff based in the United States have been told that their employment will end by Aug. 15, which is also the date by which U.S.A.I.D.’s foreign service officers are expected to return to the United States.

Before President Trump returned to office in January and began cutting the work force, U.S.A.I.D. had over 10,000 employees. Though it was not immediately clear how many devices employees were issued, the value of the devices could reach into the millions of dollars.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/us/politics/usaid-phones-computers.html

[annzeepark914]

28 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

Isn't 988 for anyone in crisis?  Not just LGBTQ+ youth?  Either way, dropping it is horrible.

Yes it is for everyone. 

[Anela]

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/23/lgbtq-hotline-funds-eliminated-hhs-draft-leak

Quote

A Trump administration budget proposal that calls to strike a number of programs from the federal health bureaucracy would also seek to eliminate funding for specialized crisis services for LGBTQ+ youth.

The big picture: The national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline's LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services has received more than 1.2 million crisis contacts since 2022. Scrapping the program, advocates say, would put young people at risk.

988 launched the pilot program to specifically support LGBTQ+ young people under the age of 25 in 2022 and expanded the lifeline option the following year to provide 24/7 care.

The draft demonstrates the priorities of Trump's Office of Management and Budget for his FY 2026 budget request to Congress, the Washington Post notes. The new federal fiscal year starts Oct. 1.

The budget proposal doesn't say how much the cuts would total, but the LGBTQ+ Youth Subnetwork that provides 988 Lifeline crisis services received an estimated $50 million in restricted federal funds for FY 2025, per the Trevor Project. 

Context: Mental health challenges are pervasive among LGBTQ+ youth, who already face significant hurdles to accessing care, according to research from the Trevor Project, which supports life-saving services via the 988 Lifeline.

LGBTQ+ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers, according to the LGBTQ+ advocacy and crisis service organization.

The Trevor Project served more than 231,000 crisis contacts through the lifeline in 2024, said Janson Wu, the organization's vice president of advocacy & government affairs, in a statement to Axios.

It handles nearly 50% of the specialized services' contact volume as one of seven centers in the LGBTQ+ Youth Subnetwork.

What they're saying: "Suicide prevention is about risk, not identity. Ending the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline's LGBTQ+ youthT specialized services will not just strip away access from millions of LGBTQ+ kids and teens – it will put their lives at risk," said Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black.

Black emphasized that the proposed cut in the leaked document — known as a budget passback — is not final. 

Zoom out: Also suggested in the 64-page budget proposal, first reported on by the Washington Post, is the elimination of programs for rural health care providers, HIV treatment efforts and childhood lead poisoning, Axios' Emily Peck and Maya Goldman reported.

It also would not fund Head Start, a federal program that provides services like childcare and nutrition assistance.

But it calls for about $20 billion to be appropriated to a new agency within HHS called the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA).

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which funds the 988 lifeline and has already faced steep cuts, would be rolled into AHA, according to Kennedy's proposed HHS restructuring plan.

Zoom in: Since assuming office and during his time on the campaign trail, President Trump has prioritized rolling back protections for transgender Americans, jeopardizing access to health care, military participation, federal recognition and other parts of public life.

The bottom line: Robert Gebbia, the CEO of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, highlighted the importance of "uniquely trained counselors" to provide dedicated services for high-risk groups, like LGBTQ+ youth and veterans.

He added, "These crisis response services are effective and save young lives."

 

 

[Absolom]

2 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

What a bunch of evil creeps. What is wrong with these people? 

They are petty, vindictive, and as you say evil - evil to the core.  This all came out of ultra conservative "christianity," but I'll forever have to put it in quotes, because it is nothing like the christianity of my life.  This has nothing to do with Christ.

[Anela]

I am missing the dissociation from last year, and earlier this year. Sometimes I’m okay, but then there are times when I feel like the muppet Animal.  Like this:

And it usually has nothing to do with anyone I’m actually in contact with, unless I cross internet paths with someone like a former friend I’ve mentioned.  It’s my life, and it’s everything that’s affecting all of us.  

Edited April 26 by Anela

[tearknee]

1 hour ago, Anela said:

No, I didn't. We're talking about slavery, not people who went on a rampage for a man-baby, when he couldn't admit that he lost the election. They literally went to fight for him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_for_slavery

Uh, yes you did. the notion of reparations for slavery is the id-pol stuff that most voters oppose and are angered that the left and far-left refuse to listen to them, as i wrote. Descendents of slaves are not the slaves just as descendants of refugees (e.g. Greek Cypriots, Palestinian Arabs) are not real refugees, they are fake refugees, and the public have indicated they know this in opinion polls on reparations.

[tearknee]

1 hour ago, Anela said:

 

The Dems are correct that rewarding the decades of terror and murder (including things for which there is no redemption, no coming back from for the Palestinians and their groups) would send precisely the wrong message.

[suomi]

I lived in Utah for 35 years so the parallels have always been obvious to me. Alyssa Grenfell explains it better than I could: The Devout Mormon Orchestrating Elon Musk's Harem Drama (37:10) She cites the WSJ.

Dude also manages Musk's wealth and privacy.

 

Edited April 26 by suomi

[Soapy Goddess]

13 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

It's true. He is what a lot of MAGA think is a classy rich person. And what they would want to be if they were rich.

God NO!  He has the most gaudy taste ever! Especially the "gold" that looks like cheap brass. 🤮

13 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Whenever I see that gaudy gold decor on the fireplace (behind our kingster when he's babbling to the media), I cringe. 

Cringing right along with you. 

[Soapy Goddess]

10 hours ago, tres bien said:

On Wednesday Gramps pardoned Michele Fiore a former Las Vegas city council member and Trump loyalist

In October Fiore was convicted in federal court after being found guilty of pocketing money she claimed was for a police memorial 

Evidence at trial demonstrated that Fiore promised donors that 100% of the contributions would be used towards the construction of memorials for the fallen officers however she did not use any of $70,000 she raised towards the memorials she used the money for personal expenses 

 

I'll never understand his motive for pardoning this thief. It was proven that she used the money for plastic surgery, expensive dinners, and to pay for an elaborate wedding for her daughter (among other things). 

[Spartan Girl]

So I watched the final season of You on Netflix. on. To be honest, I cheated and looked at spoilers ahead of time because ever since GOT I’ve been wary of finales, and if things would end the way I was afraid they were going to, there was no way I’d watch, not after everything that’s happened this year…

Spoiler

Watching Joe finally get what he deserved might have been wish fulfillment, but god dammit I NEEDED that catharsis. Although watching Bronte fall for Joe’s crap and turning on so frustrating; it was painfully relevant to dealing with Trump voters and third party voters and the reliable misogyny of the internet—even among other women! But…I thought that it was interesting that Joe’s other victims finally got through to her by tapping into why she wanted to believe him. Because him being innocent meant she wasn’t one of “those women”: the supposedly pathetic women that defend abusive men, the ones we all both pity and mock and secretly thank god we’re all smarter than. Except we’re not. Because the truth is anybody can be duped by someone that tells us what we want to hear and lets us think we’re the smartest person in the room.

 

[bluegirl147]

4 hours ago, Soapy Goddess said:

I'll never understand his motive for pardoning this thief. It was proven that she used the money for plastic surgery, expensive dinners, and to pay for an elaborate wedding for her daughter (among other things). 

Birds of a feather and all that.

[Affogato]

12 hours ago, tearknee said:

The Dems are correct that rewarding the decades of terror and murder (including things for which there is no redemption, no coming back from for the Palestinians and their groups) would send precisely the wrong message.

Do we imagine there will be coming back from the horrors that are being inflicted in gaza? That the horrors visited on the Jewish people deserve reparation and slavery does not?  Or the many actual broken contracts our actual government made with indigenous peoples? Is the rape of a child excusable if it turns out the rapist was also raped? 
 

it was stupid not to address this, nor does the other side have any moral ground right now. But it as an attempt to let something slide that was a divisive issue. It just turned out to be a mistake. 
 

your point is usually that ‘the people’ voted for trump because of an increasing resentment because of the growing financial and social divide. (Most People are increasingly poorer and more resentful, fewer are rich and have the luxury of choice) and Trump, as a selfish and self centered rich person straddled the divide.   

Edited April 26 by Affogato

[Dimity]

Quote

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all

This is me right now.  Our election is Monday and I am cautiously optimistic.  

But what wears me down is knowing that unlike previous elections this time we really are choosing between the forces of good and the forces of evil.  

And just as you Americans have experienced we have far too many people who are looking away from that and focusing on 'owning the libs' even if it means handing the keys to the front door to Herr Trump. 

There has been story after story about our Conservative leader copying straight from the Trump playbook and yet we still have people going 'but Trudeau...'.

It's going to be a long week-end.

Edited April 26 by Dimity

[annzeepark914]

Good luck, Canada. You don't want to end up like the US. 🤞🍀🙏

[Affogato]

7 hours ago, Soapy Goddess said:

I'll never understand his motive for pardoning this thief. It was proven that she used the money for plastic surgery, expensive dinners, and to pay for an elaborate wedding for her daughter (among other things). 

He pardons people who support him. He punishes people who defy him. It can change on a dime. 

[DrSpaceman73]

No warrant for his arrest.  

Not only that they lied snd said they did have a warrant. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mahmoud-khalil-arrest-ice-without-warrant-trump-administration/

At the highest level these people have no respect for the law. 

[DrSpaceman73]

Deported a 2 year old legal citizen. 

 

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/26/nx-s1-5378077/honduras-deported-girl-citizen

 

 

[tearknee]

5 hours ago, Affogato said:

Do we imagine there will be coming back from the horrors that are being inflicted in gaza? That the horrors visited on the Jewish people deserve reparation and slavery does not?  Or the many actual broken contracts our actual government made with indigenous peoples? Is the rape of a child excusable if it turns out the rapist was also raped? 
 

it was stupid not to address this, nor does the other side have any moral ground right now. But it as an attempt to let something slide that was a divisive issue. It just turned out to be a mistake. 
 

your point is usually that ‘the people’ voted for trump because of an increasing resentment because of the growing financial and social divide. (Most People are increasingly poorer and more resentful, fewer are rich and have the luxury of choice) and Trump, as a selfish and self centered rich person straddled the divide.   

Survivors and the family members of the Israelis and non-Israelis killed over the last several decades by Palestinian groups and their passive and active assistants are very much alive. The southern slaves and their immediate relatives are all dead.

Reparations are for direct living survivors of recent atrocities or such and not multi-generation descendants.

Edited April 26 by tearknee

[Dimity]

2 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

and a child with a rare form of metastatic cancer who’d been receiving treatment in the US

Just adding an extra layer of cruelty onto a tossed salad of cruel.  This is beyond defending and I truly hope even the most ardent Trumpers will agree.

[Absolom]

It's time to start throwing ICE agents in jail.

[Affogato]

1 hour ago, tearknee said:

Survivors and the family members of the Israelis and non-Israelis killed over the last several decades by Palestinian groups and their passive and active assistants are very much alive. The southern slaves and their immediate relatives are all dead.

Reparations are for direct living survivors of recent atrocities or such and not multi-generation descendants.

The existence of Israel, whose creation stirred up this conflict, is an actual reparation for the holocaust. Palestinian individuals were displaced in its creation, I knew some. Israel was not an empty hotel room waiting for their reoccupancy.  The Israelis are not innocent victims, certainly not in the past couple of years, when they are carpetbombing children and families. . They are no better, or worse, than the palestinian terrorists ( who are not all of palestinians).
 

Racism in the US id a direct result of slavery in the US and is very much alive. There is what happened in Tulsa, of course. Reparatio s in the US might be different, attempts to level the playing field, attempts to honor the history,  the things trump is dismantling. 
 

You need to investigate the meaning of reparations further. 

Edited April 26 by Affogato

[tearknee]

Do you want to know what real carpet bombing is?

 

Japan through most of 1945.

 

Gaza is not that.

 

As for the 'eternal Palestinian nation' pseudohistory?

 

why do you gloss over things like 1948-67 where it is striking that no attempt was made to establish a Palestinian state in those areas of the Mandate still under Arab control or that Israel offered to return the captured territory (except for East Jerusalem) in exchange for recognition and peace treaties, only for the Arab leaders to respond with the Khartoum Resolution and its three Nos?

 

Or that that the plans rejected by Arafat and Abbas offered the Palestinians much more land than the Alon Plan - a time when not a single 'settler' had returned to Judea and Samaria/the West Bank?

 

 

[Affogato]

2 minutes ago, tearknee said:

Do you want to know what real carpet bombing is?

 

Japan through most of 1945.

 

Gaza is not that.

 

As for the 'eternal Palestinian nation' pseudohistory?

 

why do you gloss over things like 1948-67 where it is striking that no attempt was made to establish a Palestinian state in those areas of the Mandate still under Arab control or that Israel offered to return the captured territory (except for East Jerusalem) in exchange for recognition and peace treaties, only for the Arab leaders to respond with the Khartoum Resolution and its three Nos?

 

Or that that the plans rejected by Arafat and Abbas offered the Palestinians much more land than the Alon Plan - a time when not a single 'settler' had returned to Judea and Samaria/the West Bank?

 

 

Not actually the point of the discussion. 

[tearknee]

"They are no better, or worse, than the palestinian terrorists ( who are not all of palestinians)."

 

 I got called racist for pointing out that power differential matters and that most Muslims being peaceful and progressive means very little given they don't have the guns and bombs of the militants or even the authoritarian governments. Given how little power Islam has in Albania (where Hoxha [brutally] broke religion), it's likely that if the coercion were removed (no more threatening death [judicially in many countries] if you leave Islam, for a start), practice of the faith would decline, become more moderate and many Muslims would be more like the "Christmas and Easter" Christians.

[Affogato]

14 minutes ago, tearknee said:

"They are no better, or worse, than the palestinian terrorists ( who are not all of palestinians)."

 

 I got called racist for pointing out that power differential matters and that most Muslims being peaceful and progressive means very little given they don't have the guns and bombs of the militants or even the authoritarian governments. Given how little power Islam has in Albania (where Hoxha [brutally] broke religion), it's likely that if the coercion were removed (no more threatening death [judicially in many countries] if you leave Islam, for a start), practice of the faith would decline, become more moderate and many Muslims would be more like the "Christmas and Easter" Christians.

I am not a devotee of the middle eastern faith. 
 

sorry. Whatever the history at this point, or the means, people are dead, traumatized and starving. 

Edited April 26 by Affogato

[tearknee]

7 minutes ago, Affogato said:

I am not a devotee of the middle eastern faith. 

I never said you were. You may take propaganda and pseudohistory readily but that just proves their effectiveness not any fault of you as a person.

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, Absolom said:

It's time to start throwing ICE agents in jail.

Let's call them what they are. The gestapo.

[anony.miss]

2 hours ago, tearknee said:

Reparations are for direct living survivors of recent atrocities or such and not multi-generation descendants.

That's not accurate re: American policy.

Most recently (under Obama) the U.S. gov paid 1.4 billion in reparations to Native American plaintiffs over a dispute that originated in the late 1880s  - we've already cleared any theoretical hurdle when it comes to multi-generation descendents being paid for harm visited on their ancestors.

As well, the U.S. paid reparations to slave owners in the District of Columbia, per a law Lincoln signed in April of 1862:

"...It gave former slave owners $300 per enslaved person set free. More than 3,100 enslaved people saw their freedom paid for in this way, for a total cost in excess of $930,000 – almost $25 million in today’s money. In contrast, the formerly enslaved received nothing if they decided to stay in the United States."

https://today.uconn.edu/2021/03/there-was-a-time-reparations-were-actually-paid-out-just-not-to-formerly-enslaved-people/#

The U.S. paid reparations to multi-generation descendents of atrocity and injustice. The U.S. paid reparations to slave owners.

But when it comes to the descendents of slavery themselves, suddenly it's no-can-do, even though that position flies against the history of reparations in America. Doesn't pass the smell test, imo.

Edited April 26 by anony.miss

[anony.miss]

Israeli Holocaust survivor, Veronika Cohen, on why she protested the horrors in Gaza on Holocaust Remembrance Day:

"I don’t think we can remember our suffering without acknowledging the suffering of Gaza, the deaths of tens of thousands of children, the starvation that’s going on this minute, for which we are partially responsible. It occupies the same place in my heart."

She acknowledged that she was in the minority in Israel when it came to speaking up about the terrible cost of the war to Palestinian life. “People here see Palestinians as the other and that’s why they have created a barrier,” she said. “They have managed not to feel their pain and I find that incomprehensible. To me, when I read the stories of their suffering in Gaza, it blends completely into how I feel about the Holocaust.”

I spoilered the rest - her comments graphically deal with the bruality of Israel's bombing campaign:

Spoiler

Cohen’s eyes filled with tears as she recalled seeing a recent photo of a young Palestinian boy whose arms had been blown off by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza. “The news story said that when he woke up from his operation, the first thing he did was turn to his mother, and he said: ‘how will I hug you now?’ To me, that’s a Holocaust story. And that’s why we are here: to try to awaken people to their pain in any way we can.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/25/we-have-lost-our-humanity-holocaust-survivors-call-for-end-to-war-in-gaza

Hopefully,her words will resonate with her fellow Israelis, and soon.

Edited April 26 by anony.miss

[Lantern7]

Someone call me when the people behind all those orders are dragged outside by their hair.

Yeah, I know, way too much to ask for. I’d be good with tar and feathers. Hell, the tar wouldn’t have to be boiling. Sticky would do just fine.

Oh, and Trumpty Dumpty made an ass of himself at Pope Francis’ funeral. Not that we would expect something different, of course.

Edited April 26 by Lantern7

[Anela]

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-executive-order-raises-alarm-over-women-financial-independence-2063733

Trump Executive Order Raises Alarm Over Women's Financial Independence

Quote

 

n Executive Order (EO) signed by President Donald Trump is raising concerns over the protection of women's financial independence, as well as other potential civil rights violations.

The EO, titled Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy is intended to encourage "meritocracy and a colorblind society, not race- or sex-based favoritism."

It calls for an evaluation of all pending proceedings under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), which was first passed in 1974 and amended in 1976 to prevent lenders from discriminating against women based on marital status.

Although the EO cannot change the law, that can only be done by an act of Congress, if independent federal agencies abide by the order they will stall litigation protecting women from being discriminated against for credit, and they will roll back guidance and regulations which were in place to protect people's rights.

 

 

There's more in the article.

13 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Someone call me when the people behind all those orders are dragged outside by their hair.

Yeah, I know, way too much to ask for. I’d be good with tar and feathers. Hell, the tar wouldn’t have to be boiling. Sticky would do just fine.

Oh, and Trumpty Dumpty made an ass of himself at Pope Francis’ funeral. Not that we would expect something different, of course.

Same. I finally got some sleep today, and then I log on to see the article I posted above. 

Edited April 26 by Anela

[Absolom]

I can remember when I couldn't get a credit card in my own name.  It's dehumanizing.  I was Mrs. James Smith not Harriett Smith.  

[bluegirl147]

For anyone who wants to boycott Trump supporting businesses this story links to the website that was intended to support Trump supportive businesses but is having the opposite effect.   My former massage therapist is on there. Can't say I'm surprised.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/publicsquare-trump-critics-boycott-businesses_n_680900d2e4b00850c6839b0b