Want to join in? Respond to our weekly writing prompts, open to everyone.
Want to join in? Respond to our weekly writing prompts, open to everyone.
from An Open Letter
I think once I was able to release all the tension in my mind about the problems we were having, I have the room to see things from her perspective a bit more. In the moment for me, it's hard for me to focus on things in her life when I'm thinking about how I don't feel comfortable talking to her about my feelings. But at the same time from her POV I would feel pretty fucking sad if I couldn't share parts of my day or life. Like she won the study abroad photography competition!!! How sick is that!! I don't even know which photo of hers won. In a vacuum that would make me pretty sad if I was her. I'm not saying this to put blame on me, or to feel guilty, but rather as just more information on how bottling things up hurt both of us. I also think of course that there were things that she did too that made it harder for me to not bottle up, but again that's not meant to be blame or guilt provoking. More just an understanding of how we have room to grow as people.
WARNING: BRAIN ROT ANALOGY
This is almost like playing kassadin and constantly fighting, roaming, and never catching waves. 30 minutes in and you're level 14 and you're losing. Next game you understand that resources are incredibly important for you, and you can prioritize that. Or a nasus with stacks, same shit different toilet.
Communication and this comfort is a two way street, and also something that is necessary over everything else – since without this you're just banking on the fact you two are perfectly compatible naturally. Like a learning rate of 1e-6 with a good start has no room for growth while a worse one with 1e-4 can.
What a weird fucking insight into my brain and the experiences I've had. If I want to have a unique experience, I think this life's been pretty damn up there lol.
from Telmina's notes
私・テルミナ™は、分散型SNSプラットフォーム「Mastodon」を用いたサーバーを3カ所運営しております。
そのうち、「あえて大手インスタンスをドメインブロックするMastodonコミュニティ」というコンセプトで運用している異色のコミュニティ「まいった~」につきまして、本日、運用再始動から1周年を迎えました。
ご利用いただいている皆様、また、「まいった~」の趣旨をご理解いただいている皆様に、厚く御礼申し上げます。
「まいった~」は敢えて大手をブロックする方針のため、利用者は極めて少なく、ほかのFediverse(Mastodonを含む分散型SNS)のいずれかのコミュニティにアカウントを持つことが半ば前提となっています。実際に、数少ない登録アカウントの大半は、「まいった~」を「隠れ家」的な意味合いで使用されています。
過去には「隠れ家」として多用していただいていた常連級の方もいらっしゃったのですが、残念ながら諸事情によりその方は「まいった~」退会と同時にMastodonそのものの利用を取りやめてしまっています。
これからもそうですが、今後も、「まいった~」については大々的な宣伝や運用方針の変更はせず、あくまで「隠れ家」として、その趣旨に賛同していただける方にのみご参加いただければと考えております。
参加をご希望の方は、利用規約にも目を通していただいた上で、それでも参加したいという方は是非、下記の管理者アカウントのうちのいずれかまでご連絡いただければと思います。ただし、いずれかのアカウントと相互フォローになってからしばらく時間が経過しているユーザ様限定とさせていただきますが。
引き続き、「まいった~」をよろしくお願い申し上げます。
#2025年 #2025年3月 #2025年3月21日 #Mastodon #マストドン #分散型SNS #SNS #Fediverse #Mytter
from Micro Dispatch 📡
Holy crap, this is an amazing cover! Okay maybe not a cover, but more like a re-imagination of the original. Redoing the song into an emo sounding track and the result is this? Very impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ7wRbq0UnI
#MusicVideo #ToddBarriage #Korn #EmoIsNotDead
from An Open Letter
One of the things I regret saying was how we probably wouldn't have reason to talk after we broke up. I think the things that I had buried in myself mixed into the pool of her in my mind. Once I could step away and look at it for what it is, I realize the big painting instead of a big blob of color. For the next time I want to speak and tell my partner the things I would want them to do before it became a problem that folds into everything else.
I think I would ask a partner to check in on me, especially when I'm going through rough periods. In an ideal world I would be able to just ask for help and I'm working on that, but in the mean time I'd appreciate this help. I'd also want to figure out a way of communicating beforehand which works for us both instead of staying on our tracks until the tension snaps the rope between us. I should also tell more about my love language, because otherwise I just didn't hear it from her.
She is an amazing and kind person, but just in an orthogonal way to me for the most part. It's kind of funny how we are such similar people but with opposite environments growing up, and how that's changed us. I wonder if there's anyone that's not true for.
I also can't help but realize how I had never really asked her for support. I saw all of the conversations talking about how something had hurt me as a softer version of that, but they really are disjoint. I never tried to proactively just take her on a drive so I could talk. That may have been better than waiting for her to ask, but how can I expect her to if it's a dangerous thing to assume.
She asked me about asking about my day a long time ago, and I told her how I didn't like that because some days I did nothing and I felt like a loser. I didn't say it like that to her, but I just tried on that statement since I had seen it before. It didn't really fit but I never corrected that. That's on me. From her perspective that must be super confusing and I can't expect her to be a mind-reader. I only really stopped to clarify that once it was too late. I think we both kept this tension with similar things and expectations and never had a chance to clarify it.
I think we both have room to grow as people, I mean we are young. I always deny myself that fact, but this has shown me how immature I am and how many things are still left to learn. It's a rough overall process but to be alive is to err. To live is to grow.
from The Father's Love
Hello, my Friends!
Have you ever found yourself wondering what God is truly like? Perhaps you've heard conflicting messages about His character—some portraying Him as distant and severe, others as loving but vague. This question isn't just theological curiosity; it strikes at the very heart of our faith journey and relationship with our Creator.
The Divine Mirror
Jesus made an extraordinary claim in John 14:9 that provides the answer: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father!” When Philip requested to see God the Father, Jesus didn't direct him elsewhere or suggest complex spiritual practices. Instead, He made a profound declaration that He Himself was the perfect representation of God.
This wasn't merely poetic language or a metaphorical connection. Jesus was making a revolutionary claim about divine identity that transforms our understanding of God. The implications are staggering—everything Jesus did, said, and embodied reveals the true nature of God Himself.
Beyond Religious Misconceptions
For centuries, religious traditions have painted portraits of God that often emphasise certain attributes while minimising others. Some focus exclusively on His judgement and wrath, while others highlight His love to the exclusion of His holiness. But Jesus cuts through these partial understandings to reveal the complete picture.
The Colossians were reminded that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). Paul wasn't suggesting Jesus merely resembled God or represented some aspects of Him—he was declaring that Jesus perfectly embodied the fullness of God's character and nature.
God's Heart Revealed Through Action
If we want to know how God responds to human suffering, we need only look at Jesus weeping at Lazarus' tomb. If we wonder how God views the marginalised, we see the answer in Jesus touching lepers, defending the adulteress from her accusers, and welcoming children.
Every healing demonstrated God's desire for our wholeness. Every act of forgiveness revealed God's mercy. Every moment of Jesus' righteous anger showed God's passion for justice. Nothing about God's true character remained hidden or contradicted in Jesus' life.
The Revolutionary Implication
This revelation completely transforms how we approach God. We don't need to fear that God has a hidden, harsher side that Jesus doesn't reveal. We don't need to wonder if the Father's heart might be different from what we see in Jesus. As Jesus declared, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
When Jesus served others with humility, that was God's servant heart on display. When Jesus extended compassion to the broken, that was God's heart of mercy in action. When Jesus forgave His enemies from the cross, we witnessed the unfathomable grace of God Himself.
Encountering God Through Jesus
The beautiful truth is that God made Himself knowable through Jesus. He translated His divine nature into human form so we could relate to Him, understand Him, and experience His love firsthand. Through Jesus, we see that God isn't distant or mysterious—He's intimately invested in our lives with perfect love.
Be blessed today, my friends, and may you find profound peace in knowing that whenever you read about Jesus in Scripture, you're discovering exactly what God is like—compassionate, merciful, and reaching out to you with perfect love!
To watch a short clip on this, check this out! https://youtube.com/shorts/3NSu1hzfNwI?feature=share
from Kroeber
A sequência de acordes de Do You Wanna, da Astrid Sonne, manteiga de amendoim, a bicicleta Rio Lima acima, o céu espelhado nos baixios de uma praia, durante a primeira aula de surf. Há coisas na vida que nos fazem acreditar na perfeição, tão impensável seria tentar melhorá-las.
from Hedge Robin
This post is not a gold star/pat on the back type post. It is one that I hope inspires others to be mindful of the offerings they make when out in the natural world and to take action in their local area when needed.
There is a natural spring in an area that I regularly walk which has a tree standing over it. Every time I come to this sacred space, I was utterly baffled and even upset by the amount of items tied and left in the tree.
Clootie trees are a fairly well-established practice in many parts of the UK whereby, usually around a festival such as Beltane or May Day, someone will dip a piece of fabric in a sacred well before tying it to a nearby tree in the hope that someone dear to them will be healed from a particular ailment.
This practice has become problematic in recent years as many items left in these special places are not biodegradable as they might once have been and they are also often not just simple strips of cloth. We hear a lot about how microplastics and other pollutants enter our ecosystem via predictable routes such as poorly managed rubbish dumps, but they can also come from seemingly harmless acts such as those described above.
So after much grumbling about “someone should do something”, I decided to be that someone. Much of the objects tied to the tree in question are not rags but beads, pieces of flint found nearby bound in a plastic-based thread, and sometimes random things like a train ticket to the area.
I thanked the tree and thanked to intentions of those who had left objects which almost certainly had meaning for them in most cases. I then set out my intention, expressing my repeated thanks and desires for the intentions to remain even if the items themselves did not. Where I could leave items but remove the plastic threads that tied them to the tree, I did.
Biodegradable objects such as shells are fine in and of themselves but as soon as you tie them to a tree with a plastic-based shoelace, it becomes a harmful object.
Leaving half finished candles or the metal containers that come with tealight is incredibly dangerous. Someone might relight a candle and start a fire, or a small animal may injure itself on the sharp edge of a tealight holder.
I carefully untied, replaced, and repositioned what I could, and removed what I could not. I also removed other dangerous objects such as a glass vessel which was already focusing the sunlight in a way that could start a forest fire in just a few months, a common issue for our part of the world.
I removed these objects to give the tree space to breathe and not be cut into by tough cords that wouldn’t break down over time.
I removed these objects so birds wouldn’t get caught in them or use them to build their nests, therefore introducing microplastics into their developing chicks.
I removed these objects so to prevent damage to people and creatures who inhabit and/or visit the space.
The Forestry Commission, who manage the land that this well and tree resides upon, have signs about the place asking for people to take rubbish with them and leave no trace. They also ask for people to be aware of fire risks and to not do anything that could cause a wild fire.
Why should leaving an offering at a sacred well be exempt from these very sensible and practical requests?
My advice would be this: if you are desperate to leave some sort of offering, make it something that is natural and biodegradable. Make a libation with water or a small shot of mead that soaks into the ground.
Perhaps leave an offering of bird seed that can be a representation of your intention but also feed the local wildlife that call the sacred tree part of their home.
If you wish to make something, carve a small object in untreated wood and then leave it to rot away at the base of the tree.
Or don’t leave anything at all and simply spend time at a site with your thoughts, take some water from the well or spring home with you, and leave the space as you found it.
While we are a part of nature, nature is not obligated to be the receptacle of our desires, wishes, or wants. For us to presume that it is ok to harm our natural spaces because our magical intentions are more important is missing the point and, quite frankly, unethical magic.
So next time you’re out in nature, consider the objects around you as potential candidates for an offering. A fallen leaf, a found pebble, a bird feather.
Or just leave your own gift of your mind and tell a story to the tree. It will listen.
#paganism #FediCoven
from The Poet Sky
At first, I didn't see them I didn't even know they were there then they flickered to life for a second bright and beautiful
just like me
They flickered and faded again and again I could only see them at special moments but as fleeting as they were I knew they belonged
Just like me
One day, I went to sleep closed my eyes and when I opened them there were my wings clear as a sunny, blue sky
Just Like me
Now my wings are always there fluttering and colorful full of light and beauty just like a butterfly
Just Like Me
#Poetry #Trans #Joy
from brendan halpin
A few weeks ago, I read a piece on 404 Media about how Hoopla was full of AI-generated slop. Then there was a followup about how Hoopla was removing the AI-generated books in its catalog. (I’m not linking to either because they’re paywalled, which is a shame because the information is important.)
Well, I guess Hoopla removed the books mentioned in the article, but that’s far from all the books. I went looking for a fantasy book to read, and folks, Hoopla is essentially unusable at this point.
I should point out that all the titles I’m about to reference are available across ebook retailers—Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc. So this is far from uniquely a Hoopla problem. I suspect it’s a problem with whatever service these scammers are paying to distribute their AI-written ebooks.
The AI-generated books seem to fall into two categories. Let’s take a look, shall we?
The best example of this is The Secret Trail of Yeti The Alps by “Guillermina Medina,” but then there’s Meeting and Falling In Love by “New York Times Bestselling Author Montserrat Medina,” Pursuit of Fairness by “Kacper Grabowski,” Unfortunate Wandering Knight by “Jorge Sanchez,” Britannia Football Stadium by “Terence Maypic,” and who can forget Mysterious Case Investigation Group by “Kemal Yarsin”?
All of these books have horrible blurbs—most are every bit as bland as the title. Shoutout to whoever prompted the AI to create the Kemal Yarsin book, though, because at least here the prose is bad enough to be entertaining: “He didn't become a sandbag, but I became a human sand mat.When we fell to the ground together, I almost vomited out my heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys.”
These include The Enchanted Forest by “Matilda Ferguson,” Divinity Strikes Back by “Ruby Henderson,” Green Wood Spiritual Classic by “Stephanie Pricerny” (okay, this one is also eligible for the “incomprehensible or bland title” category), Mumbai: Mysterious Prophecy by “Gabriel Marques” and Against the Dark Gods by “Manuel Rodriguez.”
As you can see, there are a lot of these books. I haven’t listed them all, but I did count them. 46 of the first 200 results for fantasy novels are AI slop. So very nearly a quarter of the fantasy novels you can find on Hoopla (at least browsing through the Boston Public Library) are scammy garbage.
Of course these books are available on ebook retailers as well. I have no idea what percentage of the available books they represent, but I’ll bet it’s getting bigger by the day.
This is bad for reasons beyond the obvious “people shouldn’t be tricked into reading machine-generated words no one could be bothered to write.”
One of the good things about the ebook revolution is that it has allowed people to skip the gatekeepers and publish books on their own that they couldn’t find an agent or editor to say yes to. This means more diverse authors and perspectives, and that’s a good thing.
Or it was. Because AI scammers have oozed through this gap where professional gatekeepers were, and now browsing for an ebook means adopting a defensive posture—how do I know this was actually written and not machine generated? This takes the fun out of browsing, but, more significantly, it’s going to make people far more wary of taking a chance on a book by an author they don’t know. Better to read something put out by a big 5 (is it big 4 now? I don’t know) publisher, because at least you know it was created by a human. It’s not realistic to expect people to run searches on every author and go, “Hmm, there’s a business guy in Poland named Kacper Grabowski, but he doesn’t mention writing a book anywhere, so I guess this one’s probably fake.”
So AI slop is poisoning the ebook well. But there’s something doubly devious about it polluting our library shelves. Because public libraries are funded by our taxes, and they are using that money to subscribe to Hoopla, and, long story short, some of your probably too limited library budget is going into the bank accounts of grifters using AI to game the system. At a time when libraries are under attack, this is really unconscionable.
I have used and enjoyed Hoopla for years (no waiting lists! Borrows that last 3 weeks rather than the 2 you get from Overdrive), but I will probably stick to Overdrive/Libby going forward, and I’m going to ask my library to stop subscribing to Hoopla unless it does something about this.
from EnbySpacePerson
On Fediverse, we have a few writing prompt tags. I often make long posts on it. However, today's prompt for ScribesAndMakers is long enough that I'm making a blog post about it here instead.
The March 20 prompt asks:
Do you like graffiti? Do you have an example?
Our lives are filled with advertisements from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep. Most of them are trying to get us to buy something or buy into something. (“What have you bought into? What is it going to cost to buy you out?” — Penny For A Thought by Saul Williams) Public spaces where ads are limited or prohibited are spaces where the ad is the place itself. The illusion of a pristine community is selling a different kind of conformity. One where your true self isn't welcome in public spaces.
On a fundamental level, graffiti takes back the public space. It can't sell you anything. What it asks you to buy into is often the community itself. The way that someone saw the bland ugliness of the hellscape we built and decided to add some art or message to it.
Some of the paintings in Cueva de las Manos are about 9000 years old. That predates what we would consider Sumer. It predates what we call the first dynasty in Egypt. They're markings in what would have been public spaces to the people living there at the time. Each person who held their hand to the walls of those caves and had pigment sprayed against it was fundamentally saying “I was here” and “I was a part of this community”.
The reason they're not considered graffiti to us today is that we recognize them as art. If I put on a nitrile glove (safety, y'all) and use spray can to paint the outline of my hand on a sidewalk or building, I'm participating in an artistic tradition that predates our earliest records of written language.
I don't have a particular piece of graffiti that's a favorite. All art exists in a context. Even if I had an example to share, it would exist out of the context it was meant to exist in.
There are anti-examples, though. Things that tear the community down or make people feel unwelcome because of who or what they are. We have more than enough of that coming from every commercialized angle of our lives.
#WritingPrompts #ScribesAndMakers
from Dio Writes
So yeah, my experience of the Fedi has been wholly disappointing and I'm tired of hopping from place to place trying to find a home. Between spam, terrible mods, and just bad fits for homes, I'm kind of over it. Say what you will about mainstream social media, at least there are no expectations of “betterness” there.
Is that a word? It is now.
I'm a barely contained ball of rage. I'm not deceptive about that. I'm vocal, I'm raw, and tho I'm not like, prone to calling ppl out directly I do not pull punches when I see shitty behavior. And I don't do well when reply guys dive in with their commentary and insist on mansplaining.
Anyway.
If I find a place to be myself, to be salty without having to worry about tone policing I might stay. Sadly, the “evil” masto social is prob the best option, not that the Fedi would ever admit it.
Anyway. I'm out.
#fedi #mastodon #disappointment
from emelia k. hochschild
That’s what my friends, D and F, told me. In fact, F said: Don’t waste your time on this. You’re better than this. Your time — and energy: It’s precious.
D, confused, not as experienced in dating as me —
I’m listening to Sam Goku again, folks —
https://soundcloud.com/samgoku/untitled-1
(nice url, perfect, really)
and flow just went crazy, as it generally does with him, at like 9:36
listen! listen!
D told me: Not much. Mostly just responded in a caring way. Maybe give a few weeks?
I just reread F’s messages, and F’s advice was to hold off on this one. Rear your horses!
It’s hard when you want to be emotionally honest with yourself, and also do the wise thing (millennial capital letters, for those who get it). Do the Wise Thing. Had to say it out loud. Can’t not.
It’s hard when you don’t know what the right thing is to do when you’re feeling trapped.
What if you’re a prison abolitionist?
I’ll be real, and I’m waiting for my nice journal to come in the mail. Hoping to be friends with Billy, B. Hoping to maybe date. I know what I would like, and —
I’m so glad that my dad was tender with me as a child.
Cue the playlist of songs I want to make a cover album of this year, maybe with my friend Chris (real name). He lives in NYC. Such a sweetie. Rough in sex, more than he realized — but so, so deeply caring. And respectful when things are absolutely clear:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4382hI46tYFxPnb5liA6LK
It makes complete sense to me that a man who runs a company and was with someone for like, 12 years, like me — would have become really rough in sex. Idk y’know — it’s just life?
I keep knowing this feeling, and feeling it deep in my bones: For the next 2 years, at the very least, what you might have with Billy will be incredibly fulfilling. In a way that isn’t possible with anyone else. Wine sommelier at 23; was like, star of everything he tried his hand at as a child. One of those shining stars.
Hehe — just wrote that last paragraph like it was directed at me, instead of saying I.
I noticed Billy did this too. Date 2, I think it was? No — wait, it was after trivia (I know) with my friends. (At least it was focused on 60s counter-revolutions. Bear with me.)
“We get along,” he said, us on the street, Bar Star (the joint rn in town) St-Laurent, Villeneuve — right across the street from my first flat with Lukas — “We really get along,” he repeated: Convincing himself, convincing me, convincing us.
There’s so much I like about him. If I put it all here, I’ll become obsessed.
There are some things I don’t like about him. How he tells what I assume he considers are white lies, when they’re actually not white, or small at all.
Like how he is afraid to hear the truth. But really, he’s just wise — and grew up with tyrannical parents, from the sounds of it (at least he has them 😭) — so had to develop an incredibly strong sense of internal self to survive. Old money thing. Sometimes poor kid thing too.
I wanted this to be short. Pithy; excavating; probing; deep.
But I’m not going to pretend I’m not me anymore. I’m a tyrant too.
My ex, Elliot, knew this. I feel like he said this in different ways throughout the intoxicating and violent 8 months he and I spent together, before I lost my mind — which he idolized, and was absolutely his subconscious goal when dating me : to make me lose my mind — he was obsessed with this Barthes book where he (Barthes) fell in love with a woman who obviously had schizophrenia.
It’s okay, huns, I’m a bit schizo(phrenic) too. It grounds me. It’s my tyranny.
oh my g o d thank u vero.jpg
I love this picture of me. It’ll be on my website when I revamp it soon. I need to gather my storm of depression into energy for that.
Did Aretha Franklin wait until April? Billie Holiday — Malcolm X — James Baldwin?
Wait ‘til April? For what?
🌞
from ttt + computer
Hello. It's nearing 6AM. I am having the second cup of java. Dark, rainy, cold, perfect.
The room is lit sporadically with red LEDs and an overhead light above the desk. I think to myself “yes, this will do lovely in the basement apartment in Fenton where I am moving”. I always loved the basement dwellings. THAT much more cavernous, insular, reserved and comfy.
Another thing I think: ah, the distance of allergies, pollen, mold, dust, ragweed, and the (surprisingly effective) raw honey treatments to lessen the allergic reaction to those things. In St Louis, the allergen presence in small, and the potency of things like mold/pollen are miniscule. I can breath again.
Yesterday, I learned the navigation of SDF.org. I can now cruise through the BBOARD and other elements of the server without an issue. I look through their BBOARD (bulletin board system (BBS)), and the topics therein:
UNIX OFF-TOPIC/GENERAL RETRO (computing) X (paranormal activities) JOURNALS HAM RADIO MUSIC HOMELAB
..just seeing what people are saying, having not anything there myself. Yet.
I will explore COM[] (short for COMMODE, though not “commode” as in restroom, but COM-MODE, or, COMMAND MODE, which is a proprietary chat service on SDF that utilizes a “secure” chat “SysOp” approach to correspondence. To explain: one hits a COMMAND button (a hotkey/keyboard shortcut) to enter COMMAND MODE, and then one can begin typing, when they are done with their message, they hit the COMMAND button (the hotkey) again, and the message is sent, and they are then back in SECURE mode, where nothing on the keyboard is registered in the chat. Handy if one is writing a separate document or fooling about other places in the terminal. Nothing accidentally plastered in-chat.
For now, SDF and Ctrl-c IRC channels suffice. Interesting messages there, and me lurking from a distance like a curious demon – learning, thinking, absorbing. Like a malevolent crow overhearing the happenings of 'nix life, and online activities.
from Kroeber
Demoro uma vida inteira a descobrir o que quero, como quero lá chegar, e que forças tenho para tentar. Ainda assim, cheio de dúvidas e hesitações, vou-me sabotando, não vá a confiança fazer-me acreditar que consigo voar. Os penhascos são tão altos e a vertigem dos atalhos tão tentadora.
from Silent Sentinel
The GOP War on Workers: Making the Struggle Worse
They said it wouldn't happen. That Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid were untouchable. That no politician, Republican or Democrat would dare touch the programs millions of Americans rely on.
But here we are.
Right now, Republican lawmakers are pushing for cuts that could strip healthcare from millions, gut Social Security for retirees, and leave working class Americans with nothing to fall back on. The worst part is that many of the hardest hit districts are represented by the very Republicans who claim to protect these programs while working to dismantle them. Don't buy in to the big lie.
While they promise to protect these programs, their actions, from opposing efforts to lower healthcare costs to threatening critical funding – are pushing millions of Americans toward financial ruin. And the hardest hit communities? Many of them are the same Republican led districts that rely most on these safety nets.
At the heart of this fight is a simple question: Why are Republican lawmakers-funded by billionaires-so desperate to gut social programs? I'm so glad you asked. Here is something for you to consider.
Medicare and Medicaid Under Attack
Marjorie Taylor Greene and the GOP's Hostility Toward Healthcare
Few Republicans have been as open in their disdain for public healthcare programs as Marjorie Taylor Greene:
She called Medicare a “socialist program” and attacked President Biden's efforts to enhance it. She opposed lowering Medicare costs and voted against measures that would cap insulin prices for seniors, Allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, and lower healthcare expenses for millions of Americans. She claims the Republicans have “zero plans” to cut Social Security (even her denials are lazy and unbelievable) yet the policies she supports threaten it's very existence.
Medicaid cuts: A Disaster For Working Families
If Republicans succeed in slashing Medicaid millions of low income families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities will lose coverage. States will be forced to either raise taxes or slash healthcare services to compensate for loss of federal funding. Rural hospitals will shut down, forcing people to travel hours for medical care while decreasing the availability of life saving services. Disabled individuals will lose home care assistance, leaving many without life saving support.
Social Security Cuts: A Direct Attack on Seniors
Millions of seniors could be pushed deeper into poverty, and if Social Security is their only source of income? What little retirement security they had would disappear. Forcing elderly Americans to work longer- even those who are physically barely able. Senior homelessness would skyrocket as seniors are put out of nursing homes they can no longer afford. And many others would not be able to afford rent or even enough food.
So why are Billionaires so invested in destroying these programs?
They want more tax cuts. Most billionaires don't believe in social programs because they get in the way of tax cuts for the rich. The 2017 Trump tax cuts slashed corporate and income taxes, mostly benefiting billionaires, while adding trillions to the deficit. Now Republicans use the same deficit they created as an excuse to push for cuts to Social Security and Medicaid. Middle class tax cuts from the same law expired this year- but tax cuts for corporations were permanent. Let that sink in.
Weakening the Safety Net=More Corporate Control Over Workers
A weaker safety net forces workers to accept lower wages, worse conditions, and fewer benefits out of desperation. Medicaid cuts would strip millions of healthcare, leaving many with no choice but to take any job just to get employer based insurance. Cutting Social Security would force millions of seniors and disabled Americans back into the workforce, taking low wage jobs with little protection.
Cutting social programs doesn't end dependency. It just shifts it onto businesses that control wages, healthcare, and employment. Without government programs, many people would have to work for low wages just to stay alive. The most vulnerable among us, those who cannot work will be left to die in poverty.
Billionaires do not care about the average Americans everyday problems, because everything looks beautiful from their ivory towers.
How These Cuts Will Wreck the Economy
Workers will be hit the hardest. Millions of low wage workers will lose their health insurance if Medicaid is cut. Mass layoffs in hospitals and clinics will follow, leading to shortages of doctors, nurses, and healthcare staff. Medical bankruptcies will surge, forcing families into crushing debt just to cover the basics. Local economies will collapse. Retirees help sustain small businesses in their communities. Without Social Security, local economies will shrink. States will face financial crises, forcing impossible choices between funding healthcare or cutting other essential programs.
More Inequality, More Death
The wealthiest Americans will keep their tax breaks, while working class and elderly citizens lose their safety nets. Less preventative care will lead to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and preventable deaths. Maternal mortality will rise, as fewer women have access to prenatal and maternity care. More Americans will delay or skip doctor visits , leading to worsening health outcomes across all age groups.
Red States Will Suffer the Most
Many rural and red state districts depend on Medicaid as a lifeline. If these cuts go through, these areas-often Republican strongholds- will be the most devastated. Texas already has the highest rate of uninsured children in the U.S. 12%, many of whom qualify for Medicaid but are now at risk of never getting coverage. Kentucky, West Virginia, and Louisiana. All states with high Medicaid enrollment would see severe spikes in uninsured rates. Rural hospitals in Republican districts will shut down, worsening access across the South and Midwest.
The Political Fallout: The Damage Will Be Done
Republicans pushing for these cuts will face backlash, but by then it will be too late. Once safety net programs are gutted, restoring them becomes nearly impossible. The fabric of American life will change, and not for the better. This isn't just about numbers. These cuts mean real people losing their homes, their healthcare, and their ability to survive.
T he Time to Fight Is Now
If you're reading this, chances are you or someone you love will feel the impact of these cuts. The billionaires pushing for these policies aren't going to stop unless we make them.
Here's what you can do:
Call your representatives – demand answers and accountability
Spread the word – talk to your friends, family, and coworkers. Share this article, post on social media, and make sure people understand what's at stake.
Attend town halls, rallies, organize, join protests. Whatever you can do to help build momentum for real change.
Support candidates who will protect Social Security and Medicaid. This isn't about party loyalty; it's about survival, vote accordingly – politicians who push these cuts must be held responsible at the ballot box.
Refuse to be silent. Billionaires and their allies count on people being too overwhelmed to fight back. Prove them wrong.
The GOP's war on workers is making the struggle worse. This is a direct attack on the most vulnerable Americans. If we don't fight back now, when? When will you stand up and say: Enough.
from Kroeber
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