(no subject)

[gwydion]

* "Rudd’s apology, 10 years on: the elusive hope of a ‘breakthrough moment’:" https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/12/looking-back-at-rudds-apology-the-shining-hope-of-a-breakthrough-moment

* "Oxfam's disgraced Haiti official left earlier post over 'sex parties':" https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/feb/13/oxfam-disgraced-haiti-official-liberia-post-roland-van-hauwermeiren

* "Jacob Zuma faces no-confidence vote in final bid to oust president:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/gupta-family-south-african-police-raid-zuma-anc

* "U.S. Strikes Killed Scores of Russian Fighters in Syria, Sources Say:" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-13/u-s-strikes-said-to-kill-scores-of-russian-fighters-in-syria

* "Trump administration giving Russia what it wants on sanctions:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-administration-giving-russia-what-it-wants-on-sanctions-1161140291610?playlist=associated

* "U.S. intel agencies predict Russia to escalate election meddling efforts:" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-intel-agencies-expect-russia-escalate-election-meddling-efforts-n847551

* "Angus King: We can't fight Russian meddling if Trump keeps denying it exists:" http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/373678-angus-king-we-cant-fight-russian-election-meddling-if-trump-continues-to-deny

* "Trump still unconvinced Russia meddled in 2016 election:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/politics/trump-unconvinced-russia-meddled-election/index.html

* "3 Trump properties posted 144 openings for seasonal jobs. Only one went to a US worker.:" https://www.vox.com/2018/2/13/16466542/trump-h-2b-guest-workers

* "Trump's 87 picks to be federal judges are 92% white with just one black and one Hispanic nominee:" https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/13/trumps-87-picks-federal-judges-92-white-just-one-black-and-one-hispanic-nominee/333088002/

* "Rep. Maxine Waters: WH domestic abuse 'cover-up' exposed:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rep-maxine-waters-wh-domestic-abuse-cover-up-exposed-1161065539905

* "Trump White House still struggling to get its act together:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-white-house-still-struggling-to-get-its-act-together-1161157187944?playlist=associated

* "How the White House Gamed the Security-Clearance System:" https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/porter-security-clearance/553214/

* "Echoes of Mike Flynn in White House bungling of Porter scandal:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/echoes-of-mike-flynn-in-white-house-bungling-of-porter-scandal-1161136195988?playlist=associated

* "Kelly increasingly isolated as Porter scandal rages on:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/13/kelly-porters-scandal-white-house-407242

* "FBI director contradicts White House on Porter investigation:" https://www.axios.com/fbi-director-contradicts-white-house-claim-that-porter-background-investigation-was-ongoing-1518537888-f4540b14-fc2f-4a46-8f3e-0230c9d93269.html

* "Top official departs ‘rudderless’ railroad safety agency:" https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/10/railroad-safety-agency-chief-resigns-heath-hall-402093

* "Trump Administration Plans To Defang Consumer Protection Watchdog:" https://www.npr.org/2018/02/12/:" https://www.axios.com/fbi-director-contradicts-white-house-claim-that-porter-background-investigation-was-ongoing-1518537888-f4540b14-fc2f-4a46-8f3e-0230c9d93269.html584980698/trump-administration-to-defang-consumer-protection-watchdog

* "Donald Trump's controversial pick to run the 2020 census just withdrew:" https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/02/trumps-controversial-pick-to-run-the-2020-census-withdraws/

* "Jeff Sessions remarks on 'Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement':" https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/jeff-sessions-remarks-anglo-american-heritage-law-enforcement-n847286

* "Kirsten Gillibrand Pledges To Stop Accepting Donations From Corporate PACs:" https://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/kirsten-gillibrand-pledges-to-stop-accepting-donations-from?utm_term=.fsGvDv344B#.xfXMRMwGGP

* "Trump wants to replace food stamps with food boxes, for some reason:" https://www.vox.com/2018/2/13/17004636/snap-trump-budget-food-stamps-food-boxes

So most of the people using EBT who are not working poor are Disabled and/or Elderly people. You know what is super common for people who are disabled and/or Elderly? Limited diets. People may have chewing, for example. A really common class of medication that people are on has deadly interaction with grapefruit juice, and other medications bar people from eating certain foods. Lots of people are on medical diets for a host of conditions made worse by certain foods. Canned foods are often high in sodium and/or sugar which is a problem for a host of conditions including high blood pressure, heart conditions, and diabetes. you know what a lot of elderly and disabled people have? High blood pressure, heart conditions, and diabetes. People also have allergies, some of them fatal. Forcing people who are allergic to peanut butter to waste some of their food allotment on peanut butter is incredibly cruel. Egg yolk allergies are more common than you think and people with high cholesterol, heart conditions, etc. are told not to eat them by their Doctors, so again, why are they wanting to make people waste part of their food allotment on things that are incredibly unhealthy for some people? Similarly, a lot of people are lactose intolerant or told to eliminate or restrict dairy because of medical conditions. What about folks with celiac who can do themselves permanent terrible harm eating the pasta the Republicans want to force them to get?

You know who has a much better idea what sort of food a household actually needs and what they are medically advised to eat and not eat? Surprise! The people actually in that household.

So they want to waste a whole lot of money setting up a second separate food distribution system with boxes that will be hard for people to get and/or easily stolen, whole harming local economies by stopping people shopping from local stores in order to give people food they literally can’t use without harming themselves, simply because punishing people for being disabled or old feels good to rich people.

It turns out if you let people buy their own damned food they make fairly rational decisions based on their actual needs.

I can forage free pasta, beans, bread, and rice, usually in quantities larger than I can possibly use. I can forage or grow most of the vegetables I need, so when I buy vegetables, it’s usually mushrooms or seasonal things like corn on the cob from the farmer’s market, or an ingredient I’m short of that week. I live in a region of the country where fresh fruits and vegetable come from, and they are generally ridiculously cheap and often free if you'll take them a little old and/or irregular, and much healthier than canned. My EBT money is better spent on things like safe for me protein sources, foods I can make when I’m too sick to cook, things like sauce to put on the pasta and similar to make the other stuff palatable, perishables tailored to my dietary restrictions, etc.. I know intimately my long, annoying list of things that make me sick in the immediate or long term sense. Approximately half my allotment on average is protein since protein that I can/am allowed to eat is more expensive than meat usually. That's the same amount they want to take away and replace with stuff that will make me sick. From the proposed list of foods in these boxes, I do not want or literally can’t use a majority of them. (Off the top of my head: Eggs, Milk, Pasta, peanut butter, meat, and likely the juice and/or canned fruit and/or soup, as odds are they aren’t safe for me. Two of the three most common commodity juice types are bad for me. I’m betting the canned soup will be high sodium and full of meat. I’m really not even supposed to have cheese, as I’m medically advised not to have animal products at all, but my Doctor and I agreed a small cheese ration won’t actually kill me and is more sustainable for me than veganism). Uh, thanks for taking away food I can eat and replacing it with things I can’t? Because I’m pretty sure these will be one size fits all boxes and not ones that take special diets into account as doing it properly would skyrocket the already large expense of implementing it.

And I’m not special. My point is that every one has particular needs based on their particular circumstance. Where they live, health, and yes, taste.

You know what that money would be better spent on? Expanding the program instead of letting several million people starve to pay for it and the planned cuts designed to offset the massive corporate welfare and tax cuts for the 1% that congress just gave themselves. Feeding people who actually need it is good for people and the economy and letting them pick their own damned food is dramatically less expensive and wasteful).

It is bullshit that the party that goes on and on about how personal choice is ALWAYS better ha too exceptions and that's health care choices and food poor people eat. It's how you can tell they are lying when they make every time they try to devolve a public good or civil right to the states. If they thought individual choice was always better as they claim, medical decisions would stay between a person and zir doctor and people would be left alone to make rational food choices based on health a circumstances instead of them endlessly insisting that someone who knows nothing of a person's individual situation gets to over ride what's best for the individual's well being.

* "Trump plans to cut food stamps, deliver boxes of food:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-plans-to-cut-food-stamps-deliver-boxes-of-food-1161082947543

* "Pelosi resurfaces Trump tweet vowing no Medicaid cuts after budget that slashes Medicaid:" http://thehill.com/homenews/house/373503-pelosi-resurfaces-old-trump-tweet-vowing-no-cuts-to-medicaid-after-trump

* "GOP candidate's parents donate to his Dem. opponent:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/gop-candidate-s-parents-donate-to-his-dem-opponent-1161071171805

* "Second U.S. judge blocks Trump administration from ending DACA program:" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-ruling/second-u-s-judge-blocks-trump-administration-from-ending-daca-program-idUSKCN1FX2TJ

* "Hayes: Why are we deporting people who call 911?:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-why-are-we-deporting-people-who-call-911-1161075779793

* They didn't even arrest the guy breaking in. "Police answered immigrant's call for help, then gave him to ICE:" https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/us/tukwila-police-ice-detain-trnd/index.html

* "Kansas chemistry professor fighting deportation held in Hawaii after boarding plane out of U.S.:" http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-kansas-chemistry-professor-deportation-20180213-story.html

* "Jeanne Ives Peddles Transphobia In Illinois Gubernatorial Campaign Ad:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/02/jeanne-ives-peddles-transphobia-in.html

* "The Education Department Officially Says It Will Reject Transgender Student Bathroom Complaints:" https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/edu-dept-trans-student-bathrooms?utm_term=.qamLdLyMMa#.miYqPqBRRG

* "Obama portraits revealed:" http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/obama-portraits-revealed-1160126531761

* "YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS - Annabel:"

Watch on YouTube

* ...And not only am I failing to sort out the sleep situation, but I'm either relapsing or getting kicked by one of my chronic things. (It is incredibly hard to tell which until the symptoms are dramatically worse, since things like throwing up, exhaustion, headache, cough, mild fever, muscle ache, etc. could be either). I still haven't foraged this week and I've a nasty suspicion I won't be up to it today. I literally spent all evening in bed and am back to bare minimum things around the house for myself and the plants/fish/cats. I had ONE JOB.... Anyway, I apologize for the ways this is gumming up the works. I am not doing it on purpose.

Livia is really growing up. In the last couple weeks she's gone from squeaking to high pitched meows. She can get toys out of the busy box without beating it up, and is finally getting a handle on household routines instead of just depending on Tavy to lead her to whatever is delicious and/or interesting going on. She is still trying very hard to make friends with LM, who alas is not having it.

* I watched the first season of the Good Place. I guessed the big first season twist very early in the first episode and spent the whole season waiting for the reveal. I was impressed they went for the long con instead and it was genuinely funny which isn't something I say for many sitcoms. I am sold.

* "Loki is Good With Kids:" http://butlerbookbinding.tumblr.com/post/170795282279/loki-and-children

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

* "Help us stop the humanitarian crisis on Manus:" https://www.asrc.org.au/donate-now/

* "RISE (Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees):" https://www.givenow.com.au/riserefugee/donate

* How to help Rohingya refugees: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/asia/rohingya-aid-myanmar-bangladesh.html?emc=edit_nn_20171012&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=50784086&te=1&_r=0

* Help fight for Net Neutrality restoration: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/170010496350/democrats-are-just-one-vote-shy-of-restoring-net

* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey

* Trans Lifeline is one of those organizations you can call at (877) 565-8860 in the US and in Canada (877) 330- 6366.

* The Trevor Project has a 24 hour hotline geared toward helping our youth, and you can call it at 1-866-488-7386

* Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

Comments

[conuly]

Trump is convinced, all right. He just can't admit it. Loser.