SecondJon @SecondJon@qoto.org

@realcaseyrollins @wjmaggos other than Paul Ryan, whose political career was halted over talking about entitlement reform....when was the last time any Republican seriously talked about this?

Biden is as committed as Trump was about not touching these. From what I can tell it's a sacred ponzi scheme neither party is willing to touch.

@shearsjt@mastodon.social @swcollings I got half way through, lost track of who was who (hey, I'm not up on Russian nick names) and put it down.

Until I grabbed Crime and Punishment, read it quickly and tracked the names more easily of the smaller cast of characters. Picked up Karamazov again from page 1 and finished it.

So very good.

@realcaseyrollins yes! I was bewildered at the comments of Twitter flockers until I remembered the time spent just blocking and blocking for myself.

I'm glad I'm on an instance that gives me the freedom to do this on my own. I follow people who likely block each other for understandable reasons...but glad their choices don't block me from following either.

I figure... Let me block for my own subjective reasons but not be blocked by yours.

"During the civil war, the Union counterfeited Confederate currency and deliberately gave it away in the South to cause massive inflation. "

https://www.kickassfacts.com/fact-of-the-day/2/

Huh. Glad the government doesn't just give money away anymore.

Wondering if the primary goal of taxes is to get the government as much money as possible OR to reward and punish targets with tax benefits and penalties.

It certainly doesn't seem to provide the government with the amount of money to cover the necessary and only the necessary expenses of government with clear limits.

#Colorado in the news again! Way to go! Following the news that #Denver is the worst city in America to raise a family, we now see "Colorado ranked dead last among US states for adult mental health"

"Colorado has one of the highest shares of adults with a mental illness. According to the report, 23.5% of the state’s adults have some kind of mental illness, roughly one in four....

5.5% of Colorado adults report having had serious thoughts of suicide, the eighth-highest rate in the U.S...

11.75% of Colorado adults have a substance abuse disorder, the highest rate among states."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/colorado-ranked-dead-last-among-us-states-for-adult-mental-health/ar-AA16EdYz

Headed with the kids to the art museum. The list of supplies is longer than it used to be. We now have to take canned soup and super glue, right? Is it one can and one give per kid, or per family?

For the record, I too have not accepted a $50 million 4 year contract to do a podcast.

Tonight's reading from Jeremiah 19 seems like it should be shocking. Even elders among the priests were called out because "the people have forsaken me....they have filled this place with the blood of innocents... to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings...which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind"

Even the religious leaders seem complicit in the death of the youngest children as sacrifice in exchange for... What? The hope of a better life for the adults?

It's framed here as totally foreign and opposite of the ideas of the God of Israel they claimed to represent.

Despite being called out on this by Jeremiah, they don't change and subsequently face divine punishment they evidently thought would never come.

Thinking about how this might apply today...

@AdamAtSea @ReadyKilowatt yep... Got this email too.

I think this:

"With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin."

Translates to: We can't push these nonprofits around when we only give pennies each. And these are things that consumers care about, often not exactly aligned with Amazon's corporate interests. But consolidate those pennies and we can really channel the tax deductible funds to our benefit.