what’s in the $2.3 trillion 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act?

I’ve borrowed bits from three pieces at RT.com, plus: the Grayzone, Newsweek, off-guardian.org, yahoo finance, rge Federal News Network, the Chicago Tribune, wsws.org, and the Twitterverse without attribution. Apologies if I double-up on items.

The pdf of the 5593 page full text of H.R. 13 is here

(click for larger)

Of the $6.1 billion appropriated for funding foreign militaries, a whopping $3.3 billion — more than half — “shall be available for grants only for Israel,” [image above] and must be “disbursed within 30 days of enactment of this Act.”

We get a check for $600; what they got is rancid pork, but the worst is bucks for regime change ‘Democracy Projects’ and cash injections for Pet Friends Projects like Israel.

Israel will receive $3.3 billion in grants, while Egypt will get $1.3 billion from the foreign military financing program. Burma, also known as Myanmar, will receive $135 million in aid “for programs to promote ethnic and religious tolerance and to combat gender-based violence” in addition to mitigating ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims.

Colombia will receive $461 million in aid. Colombia must take steps to hold government and military officials accountable for any crimes or human rights violations.

$2.417 billion, and $6.175 billion on the “Foreign Military Financing Program.” Another $112.9 million is appropriated for “International Military Education and Training.”

$6 billion more is allocated toward the domestic procurement of US Air Force missiles and US Navy weapons of war. This is in addition to the $740 billion defense bill passed earlier in December.

$671.5 billion allocated to “base defense spending,” with another $77 billion going to “overseas contingency operations.”

$300,000,000 shall be made available for a Countering Chinese Influence Fund to counter the malign influence of the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party and entities acting on their behalf globally.

$8 million to NGOs for activities in Tibet or to support the Tibetan government-in-exile.  An entire section of the bill is devoted to defining US policy “regarding the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.”

$85.5 million in assistance to Cambodia is contingent on it “taking effective steps” to enforce “international sanctions with respect to North Korea,” and “assert[ing] its sovereignty against interference by the People’s Republic of China.”

Not less than $33,000,000 shall be made available for ‘democracy programs’  for Venezuela; $461.3 million for Colombia.  [Under NATO’s umbrella, from which USAID ‘aid’/s convoys were launched into VZ.

$453 million appropriated for assistance to Ukraine, $290 million for “countering Russia,” $173 million for NATO, and $132 million for NATO ally Georgia, or about billion dollars toward new cold war policies against Moscow.

Not all the money being sent overseas is for buying weapons, some is for backing coups. Venezuela and Belarus get special mention here, each getting their own section of the bill detailing how terrible their “illegal regimes” are.

One site said Iran was mentioned 28 times, but with no explanation.  (Small wonder, although I’d spent far too long Bingling that with no luck.)

In Hong Kong, where CIA cutout the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has given financial support to activist groups leading riots that rocked the city for months on end, the United States is now devoting $3 million for local destabilization efforts, including “internet freedom,” activists’ legal fees, and “democracy programs.”

(I've been saving this Tweet)

4 BILLION dollars for the Gates-funded GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.

Vaccine “misinformation” is also a concern, and the bill provides for a pro-vaccine propaganda campaign – or rather a “PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN ON THE IMPORTANCE OF VACCINATIONS”

So-called stimulus bill includes $4 billion for GAVI, the Bill Gates-controlled vaccine consortium that is the leading edge of Pharmaceutical Imperialism

The sole mention I’d found on Bucks for the USPS was ‘the USPS receives a reprieve on repaying $10 billion in Treasury loans authorized under the $2 trillion HR 748 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed in March.’  That would be in aid of funding the Post Office through the Nov. election, iirc.

Small wonder to then read :

Doubtless with foreknowledge of the so-called “new normal,” Bill Gates invested heavily in FedEx, UPS and Amazon.

One disturbing section dramatically expands copyright law to the point that anyone caught in “unauthorized streaming” of copyrighted content more than once could face 10 years in prison – even if they didn’t know the content was protected.

In an unconscionable giveaway to major entertainment conglomerates, the bill creates a new “copyright claims court” to further skew copyright law against independent content creators, who already face frequent content takedowns on YouTube and other platforms for what is technically (and legally) “fair use.” This court will be staffed with taxpayer-funded attorneys, who – the bill specifies – can only be paid as much as the highest-paid senior federal employee. That’s a relief!

The eviction moratorium that was set to expire at the end of the month has been extended to the end of January, staving off the flood of destitute Americans into the streets for another month. While $25 billion has been set aside for rental assistance, that’s just over a third of what Americans owe, and the procedure for accessing that money is (perhaps deliberately) complex.

New Smithsonian museums: Establishes the Women’s History Museum and the National Museum of the American Latino as new Smithsonian museums located near the National Mall.

Intelligence programs: Reauthorizes intelligence programs for 2021.

Kennedy Center ($26 million), Smithsonian ($1 billion), Nat’l Art Gallery ($154 million), Natl. Arts and Humanities ($167 million), W. Wilson Center ($14 million).

Included in the combined relief and spending bill are generous tax incentives for large businesses totaling over $110 billion for liquor producers, wind energy lobbyists, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and electric motorcycle manufacturers.

While the bill is the longest in US history at nearly 6,000 pages, not a single line was devoted to protecting career federal employees from political retaliation and termination. Two weeks before the election, Trump issued an executive order that allowed him to reclassify federal employees and civil servants who work within government agencies, such as the Office of Budget and Management, allowing them to be dismissed with little cause, similar to political appointments. It is unknown how many of the 2.1 million federal workers, many of whom deal with crafting policy or giving confidential advice to top officials, could be affected.

The bill continues the bipartisan war on immigrants with $15 billion set aside for Customs and Border Protection, nearly $8 billion allotted for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and an additional $20 million for “border processing coordinators.”

Over a third of the bipartisan relief bill is dedicated to the Small Business Administration, including $284 billion for the misnamed Paycheck Protection Program, which was ostensibly created to provide low-interest grants and loans to small businesses, but has instead been used by large corporations, sports teams, the politically connected and wealthy landlords to enrich themselves while laying off thousands of workers. The program has generated nearly $3 billion in revenue through fees for large US banks such as JPMorgan and Citibank.

The $25 billion in rental assistance is several factors lower than what is needed, meaning that millions of families will face eviction in roughly one month, pending further congressional action. Another $15 billion was provided to the major airlines, which already received $25 billion earlier this year and still proceeded to lay off over 90,000 workers.

For your further enjoyment, ‘US Federal Reserve backstops rising corporate debt mountain’, wsws.org, Dec. 24, 2020  (a few outakes to wet your whistles…)

“As the WSWS noted, there was one notable feature of the passage of the $900 billion relief bill through the US Congress earlier this week that demonstrated the absolute loyalty of the Democrats to the Wall Street financial oligarchy.

After abandoning aid for cash-strapped cities and states to provide services and agreeing to a grossly inadequate one-time payment of $600 to most working people, they rose up in arms against at attempt to restrict operations by the Fed to bolster major companies.”  […]

“Initially debt was raised to cover the loss of income due to the pandemic. But what the Financial Times called “the largest corporate borrowing spree on record” has developed as companies have used the ultra-low interest rates facilitated by the Fed to build up their cash holdings in order to take advantage of any favourable buying operations.

The significance of the Fed’s intervention into the corporate debt market, which the Democrats were so desperate to ensure continued unimpeded, was underscored by Jonny Fine, the USA head of debt syndicate at Goldman Sachs. He described it as “the most important piece of central bank policy-making I have seen in my career.”

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The $600+ Billion for bases is a hundred times the amount spent on foreign militaries all together.

I think a good part of the Israel/Egypt spending is a payoff to their militaries for the Carter Peace Accord. It does seem like they could refrain from killing each other without our money.

Others are to counter $$ given by China, like in Burma and Cambodia. Unfortunately China goes about things differently. China funds large infrastructure projects often employing Chinese labor, with the country itself held as collateral, or the income from the project. Say they make a hydro dam, or a big high speed rail, they take sovereignty over the surrounding countryside in exchange. Easy to buy corrupt countries.

The PPP not only provides free money to large businesses and banks, it also provides lots of free money that goes without audit to small businesses. And in case you think small means mom and pop hole in the wall businesses, it doesn't. Small means doing pretty doggone well, like half million dollar houses and 20 or 50 employees.

I've been doing construction projects for small business owners all year. All of a sudden price is not an issue. Meanwhile I see homeless people expanding out along side the housing sprawl. Murder is way up, I'd call murder a growth industry except no one makes money. Defunding police shore does save money though.

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@ban nock

It does appear this way.
China is in it for the future.
Not by killing their citizens
as the us seems bent on

fight back

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wendy davis's picture

@ban nock

to you and all. i'd agree with all you've said save you last two sentences, but that's fine. yes, china plays the long game, and doesn't simply invade say, an african nation like africom does (destabilize, make war, choose a US-friendly new 'leader'.

on my dec. 30 'bombs, missiles, and Apaches for KSA and other ME ‘partners in peace’: Updated here:

B-52s fly over Persian Gulf as Washington escalates war threat against Iran’,
Bill Van Auken, wsws.org, 10 hours ago

CB had brought this from caitlin johnstone:

We’re now getting mass media reports that yet another country the US government doesn’t like has been trying to kill American troops in Afghanistan, with the accusation this time being leveled at China. This brings the total number of governments against which this exact accusation has been made to three: China, Iran, and Russia.

“The U.S. has evidence that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] attempted to finance attacks on American servicemen by Afghan non-state actors by offering financial incentives or ‘bounties’,” reads a new “scoop” from Axios, quoting anonymous officials who refused to name their sources.

“The Trump administration is declassifying as-yet uncorroborated intelligence, recently briefed to President Trump, that indicates China offered to pay non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American soldiers, two senior administration officials tell Axios,” the evidence-free report claims.

as well as this new years message from xi jinping (wish i could watch; it's only 10 mins...)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUevNynvlkw&feature=emb_logo]

this one is from iranian FM javad zarif:

the extra bucks to israel and explicit instructions, imo, are more threats against iran and proxies in syria, as the Abraham Accords with israel and sunni/salafist nations are the same. we often wonder w/ amerika and israel: who's the client, who's the state?

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earthling1's picture

I have no words to describe the disgust.

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13 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1

and fight

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RantingRooster's picture

@QMS but why stay an fight? If I could leave tomorrow, I would be gone in a heart beat. I've served my country and then they stabbed me in the back. Everything is a lie. Sure, there are a few people and places I like, but, it's just not worth it anymore.

I know life isn't fair, because ya know, we have to have pro sports during the worst healthcare crisis in a century! This is all just so insane it's pathetic!

Gee, stay and fight, well, fine, fight for what, for our elected reps to go along to get along with the "establishment"? Heck, they capitulated at the first opportunity. Biden gave them cover to accept $600 instead of $2,000 stimulus checks.

I physically can no longer fight. I'm worn out, mentally, emotionally, intellectually. I'm sick and tired of the abuse and I f-king hate this country with a passion.

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

snoopydawg's picture

@RantingRooster

Entertainment industry is filming shows and movies. Amazon and other big box stores are open while small family businesses are closed because oh my gawd, but not really there’s an epidemic happening. And for congress to publicly screw us for 9 months straight and holding people on the edge of hope but then turning their back on them is really beyond comprehension.

Yeah I’d leave too if it wasn’t so hard to do.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
But sheeple flocked to the two parties whose only argument is who can screw us better.

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11 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

snoopydawg's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

It’s going to be interesting to see how Biden’s supporters react when we reach 5-6,000 deaths a day or more. Will they see that nothing has changed since Trump left or will they blame him for lightning the wildfire and give Biden a pass? People still need lots of PPE and the other supplies that have been short this whole time and the ones that are now becoming scarce. So will Biden use the defense authorization act and ramp up supplies? Remember he gave Trump crap for not doing it. I read his plan for the epidemic and he’s doing nothing that Trump isn’t doing now. It’s laughable.

No mention yet of Harris voting against the money as well as Schumer and other democrats. Will they see that funding the military is more important than people’s lives. Stay tuned.

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15 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg isn't fully supportive of the D's. FP peeps can't, and the others would get banned.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@snoopydawg
I DO miss "Gunfail". I especially liked the would be bank robber with the gun in his belt who shot himself in the groin trying to pull it out - twice!
My normally non-violent spouse said, "Too bad he didn't try it three times."

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6 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

Biden and Democrats rush to reopen schools in new year as COVID-19 death toll climbs, dec. 31

Biden, however, proposed no emergency measures to prevent this catastrophe. On the contrary, he reiterated his plan to open up the majority of schools by mid-April, imperiling the lives of millions of children and educators. Underscoring this, Biden has chosen Connecticut School Superintendent Miguel Cardona, an outspoken advocate of reopening public schools, as his secretary of education.

now pam and russ martens do some brilliant work, but in their dec. 18 op-ed: ‘Race to Control U.S. Senate: “Georgians for Kelly Loeffler” Campaign Committee Packed with NY and CA Trading Firm Billionaires’, i'd howled with glee over their partisan speculation (although i'd thought this one had contained 'use the fed's money better, too):

If Democrats win both seats they would take control of the U.S. Senate, now controlled by a Republican majority. Democrats already control the House. That would enable Democrats to back Biden’s policy agenda and break the current logjam in getting anything done in Congress for millions of struggling Americans who have lost jobs and businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

@JoeBiden 17h

We have less than one week to do everything in our power to help Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win their Senate runoff elections in Georgia. These races will not only determine the fate of the Senate but the future of our country. Chip in today:

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RantingRooster's picture

@wendy davis Saving Capitalism is the only option right? I mean, hey, if we have to kill a few hundred thousand, no worries. We can get rid of the elderly and the sick and have a better economy right?

Just be sure to get your COVID passport!
[video:https://youtu.be/L6asrU0OJsg]

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

vertigo non-musical videos give me, even though it's five minutes...but i can see on the crawl something about covid-passports. and yes, highly controversial, but even bill gates now denies that he'd envisioned covid microdot tattoos under a finger nail. it may have been robert kennedy, jr. on twitter who'd showed his Ted talk on the same.

but lord high gates has long said that it would be at least 2022 before folks could go to museums again, and some in new york are auctioning off paintings to (allegedly) pay staff wages.

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@wendy davis
is also selling exhibits.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

bet they're awesome!

i found these this a.m.

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@wendy davis

Servants shouldn't get above themselves.

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2 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

i hadn't even read the southeby link!

Sale Calendar

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale, New York, 28 October 2020
Contemporary Art Day Auction, New York, 17 November 2020
Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale, New York, 19 November 2020
Fabergé & Vertu: Property from the Brooklyn Museum, Sold to Support Museum Collections, London, 2 December 2020
Impressionist, Modern & Contemporary Art | An Evening Sale, New York, 8 December 2020
Art Contemporain Evening Sale, Paris, 16 December 2020

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/01/those-us-who-dont-die-are-...

Cline knew she needed to protect herself before entering the room, where a second COVID-19 patient was trembling under the covers, sobbing. She reached for the crinkled and dirty N95 mask she had reused for days.

In her post-death report, Cline described how the patient fell victim to a hospital in chaos. The crash cart and breathing bag that should have been in the room were missing. The patient wasn’t tethered to monitors that could have alerted nurses sooner. He had cried out for help, but the duty nurse was busy with other patients, packed two to a room meant for one.

“He died scared and alone. It didn’t have to be that way. We failed him — not the staff, we did everything we could,” she said. “The system failed him.”

From Cline’s perspective and that of other health care workers I spoke with from the VA hospital in Sioux Falls, the lack of masks was a symptom of larger failures at the agency overseeing the medical care of 9 million veterans. The hospitals lacked staff and scrounged to find gowns, medical supplies, ventilators — everything needed to battle COVID-19.

The resulting scramble, which ProPublica has investigated over the past eight months, was a disorganized, poorly overseen effort to buy masks and other supplies from just about anyone who said they could deliver. Hoping to compensate for a disastrous lack of preparation, the VA awarded more than 100 contracts worth over $120 million to vendors with whom it had never done business.

Her outrage intensified when she read a story I wrote about how the VA awarded a $34.5 million contract to a random mask broker, who then rented a private jet to locate N95s that never existed from suppliers he didn’t know with money from investors he’d never met.

Long article worth a read.

This is murder most fowl. A deriliction of every duty that government swore and oath to. Wouldn't a pandemic fall under domestic enemy?

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6 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg I didn't know you read DK daily. I have wandered over time to time, maybe once a month but don't read it thoroughly. Not much good writing, a very very narrow viewpoint, and little discussion beyond "ya man".

"The left" or Democrats, covers a very wide range of peoples, DK seems to give voice to very few of them and to actively promote (with whose dollars I don't know) an even narrower slice of BIPOC as it's called. Ausauges the conscience of the privileged maybe but I find little to make me reconsider.

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@ban nock

of awareness Wink

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snoopydawg's picture

@ban nock

Fish out of water, Palekeo and a few others write about things that affect the world as opposed to those who write "TRUMP IS BAD AGAIN" here's what he did.

The funniest thing today is on Melania Trump who says she doesn't give a F about decorating for Xmas. Comments are misogynistic, lots of swear words directed back at her and basically being down on her level. But since there is a lot of them, they are better than her or any of the Trump MAGAts. And of course I get a kick out what they think they know about Putin, Russia and Russia Russia....... might as well start the day with a chuckle.

"The left" or Democrats, covers a very wide range of peoples, DK seems to give voice to very few of them and to actively promote (with whose dollars I don't know) an even narrower slice of BIPOC as it's called. Ausauges the conscience of the privileged maybe but I find little to make me reconsider.

Spot on. Whenever someone from the left is the least critical of any dem the same people come out every time to scold them and make sure they know that it is only the GOP that keeps us from having nice things.

They haven't picked up that the denial of the $2k checks came from Biden who gave Pelosi permission to flee the $2.2 trillion bill for one 2/3rds less. This is Biden's bailout, not Trump's. IMO of course.

DK has become nothing less that the DP gatekeepers to change. I saw one diarist write about the problem and then offer ways to fix it. It was an uplifting honest point of view and did she get dissected in the comments. Unbelievable.

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4 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
permanently. Losing Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's is a body blow they can't recover from. But Boeing and AA get money to put the 737MAX flying deathtrap back in the air. I've always preferred Boeing aircraft but I won't fly again unless the airline can guarantee me an Airbus plane. So it's Metra, driving or "riding the dog".
Big fast food chains are ding well, but the Democrats have destroyed Middle line and even expensive restaurants. Quite a few high priced restaurants on Michigan Avenue have shut their doors permanently, but that may have been partly because of the BLM riots and looting and the black Mayor/Black police chief/black prosecutor all refusing to bring anyone to justice and just saying publicly,"Please Please stop burning and looting stores."

Apparently Alabama hasn't ordered restaurants to commit Suppuku, but I'm told business is down greatly and some nice small places are also going under. If it's public choice, it's one thing, but if it's fiat from a Governor (not even the legislature!) it's something else. The kind of something that caused the American Revolution.

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8 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@RantingRooster

it may be a fight to get out as well
hope you find peace
good luck

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RantingRooster's picture

@QMS I really did not and do not mean anything personal towards you. I just don't know why I should fight anymore? I'm worn out, tapped out, and just plain sick of all of it. I'm tired of tilting at windmills with no resources.

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

@RantingRooster

and a much bigger fight to get ahead.
Have gotten worn out as well, and the resource
well is almost empty. Find a mind state to move
beyond the bad, find a way forward. Good is out there.

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Dawn's Meta's picture

@earthling1 2010 with retirement looming we made plans to leave. We looked all around the US with some basic criteria: first could we move from our rural location with enough money to buy into where ever we thought we could make it? Would we have access to groceries if we couldn't drive? Would we have enough money and access to medical and other needed services if we got feeble? Was there anywhere we could use public transport when we couldn't drive far anymore?

We couldn't find anywhere US that met those criteria. If mass transit was available it was urban which meant our rural house sale couldn't fund us into an urban living.

So we started looking at best lists of places to retire. At the time we found many lists and France was on every one. So we went and took a look. Did a lot of research, and found out that even without Medicare (can't take it with you) we could have health care, residency, and house, transportation, services for the elderly on what we make in SS and one small pension.

It's taken a long time but we made it. It's a great adjustment at our age, but safer, and not crazy. We can talk with our neighbors and friends about politics without anger. People listen and exchange ideas.

We still fight for change via the internet (signed the Jimmy Dore petition) and contributions. But we are out of the fray and taking care of ourselves.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

@Dawn's Meta
Our plan, is to leave this ice palace and move to Alabama where our daughter and two of our adult grandsons live. If needed, mass transit is her truck or her or one of the boys driving one of our cars. Bought a new Equinox on Sep 30 at price sale price and it should outlast me if it isn't drowned in road salt. University of Alabama Medical center is about 30 miles away. Twice as far as hospitals here but they do have a Medevac helicopter and one can't live forever. so less air pollution and we only drink distilled water anyhow despite Chicago water being purer than most cities (Lake Michigan water with tons of added chlorine).

Before I retired, a co-worker tried to interest me in moving to Calabria. I don't think we would fit in. My great-grandfather came from there as a political refugee. He was Calabrian, I'm American. OTOH, I've heard a lot of Englishman retire to Tuscany.

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4 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Dawn's Meta's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness school for me and two college years for mr. meta. It was a start. What helped most was joining a French community choir. Weekly practices followed by a smaller house gathering forced French listening and learning. With Corona virus we have begun to lose our hard won improvements in French.

Italy asks for a much higher bank account and contribution to its financial stability. There is also a much more entrenched under economy which must be accommodated. We have a familial attachment to Italy and would have moved there but the affordable areas had less infrastructure and housing requiring complete renovation.

That said there are or were some Italian initiatives which if an immigrant purchases a house that needs renovation and undertakes the upgrades or rebuilding within the first year, the original purchase price is incredibly low.

Countryside living in Europe is quite inexpensive as it is emptying in favour of cities and towns. That leaves large swaths of rural Europe to re-nature. The key is finding a location with year around services, access to transportation, medical facilities, village/town with stable populations and multiple skills and offerings. We miss going to large cities which we can do easily by train including Paris, Lyon and other medium cities. Lyon offers access to all of Europe and is an easy hour away by car or train.

Hope this helps. Ask away.

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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

wendy davis's picture

@earthling1

i can hear gulf gal's plaintive wail again: 'why does our government hate its people so?'

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wendy davis's picture

readers might crowd-source the PDF to see what they'd find, as i'd indicated i would earlier. one member here had asked why he should read the tome, since it's law now in any event. i'd answered him that 'knowing is always better than not knowing'. i might have even called it: 'bearing witness to the abject contempt our government shows for us'.

i will offer that it's been a herculean task for me, one i've been working on since the monstrosity was passed...and so bicamerally easily, to boot.

the popular resistance newsletter had a ted rall post at counterpunch that resonated in part. WI gov fightin' bob la
follette v. FDR:

Roosevelt, La Follette complained, was too quick to compromise with reactionaries. FDR insisted that “half a loaf is better than no bread.” While that might seem intuitively obvious, La Follette had a ready reply. “Half a loaf, as a rule, dulls the appetite, and destroys the keenness of interest in attaining the full loaf.” That can be dangerous. The average adult male requires approximately 2500 calories of nutrition per day. 1250 is better than 0, but 1250 is still malnutrition that would eventually kill him.

Even in a long-running crisis, the sustained agitation necessary to pressure the political classes into granting concessions doesn’t usually occur before people’s suffering has become acute. If the powers that be provide partial relief in the form of a half-measure that partly alleviates a problem, angry citizens can be persuaded to put down their pitchforks and go home peaceably. Yet the problem persists.

The Affordable Care Act is a perfect example. Obama became president at the peak of a major economic crisis, the subprime mortgage meltdown of 2007-09. With hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs every month, the need for government intervention in the healthcare system was obvious to most Americans. So Obama campaigned on major change that included a public option. Two out of three people, including many Republicans, favored a single-payer system similar to those in many other countries.

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the copyright laws are set forth?
I have been waiting for the ACLU to weigh in on the topic, or the American Bar Assoc., but so far, they have not discussed it.

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4 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

wendy davis's picture

@on the cusp

RT.com had no links save one in europe which criminalized even gifs, but i let my fingers do the Bingling externally and aha! the copyright alliance.org (create, innovate, protect)

it opens:

Washington, DC — Today, Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid released the following statement applauding Congress for including and passing the CASE Act and the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act as part of the end-of-year omnibus and COVID-19 relief package, titled the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.

“We commend the House and Senate for including and passing the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, legislation that will bring much needed economic support for thousands of creators who have lost jobs, gigs, performances and significant income due to the pandemic. The bill, which will now go to the President’s desk for signature, also includes the long-awaited Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (the CASE Act) and the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act (PLSA).

“The CASE Act has been a critical legislative priority for hundreds of thousands of photographers, illustrators, graphic artists, songwriters, authors, bloggers, YouTubers and many other creators and small businesses across the country. For far too long, these individual creators have had rights but no means of enforcing them due to the expense and complexity of federal court. With today’s passage of the CASE Act, creators will have a voluntary, inexpensive and streamlined alternative — a small claims tribunal that will be housed within the U.S. Copyright Office — enabling them to defend their copyrighted works from infringement. In addition to enjoying widespread bipartisan support in Congress, as evidenced by the 410-6 vote in the House and by diverse stakeholders across the country supporting it, the CASE Act has been the culmination of years of Congressional deliberation, U.S. Copyright Office research and expertise, and stakeholder input, as well as negotiations to address concerns with previous versions of the bill. Today’s passage is a momentous victory for individual creators and small businesses who, despite strong opposition by certain internet behemoths and the organizations that they fund, did not give up their decade-long fight for a level playing field.

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@wendy davis I suppose I need to move beyond my reticence to give the government a thumbs up for giving "the little guy" a boost.
Perhaps "the little guy" boost is helping them take good aim at Twitter, You Tube, Facebook, et. al.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

wendy davis's picture

@on the cusp

i may not be taking your meaning but what buyniski had written above was:

The spurious add-ons aren’t the typical harmless-yet-ridiculous pork one finds in some mega-bills, either. One disturbing section dramatically expands copyright law to the point that anyone caught in “unauthorized streaming” of copyrighted content more than once could face 10 years in prison – even if they didn’t know the content was protected.

In an unconscionable giveaway to major entertainment conglomerates, the bill creates a new “copyright claims court” to further skew copyright law against independent content creators, who already face frequent content takedowns on YouTube and other platforms for what is technically (and legally) “fair use.” This court will be staffed with taxpayer-funded attorneys, who – the bill specifies – can only be paid as much as the highest-paid senior federal employee. That’s a relief!

i will offer that i'd spent some time reading up on fair use because one of the better alternative indy news places whose work i'd wanted to use never emailed me after three request, one to a email address at the site for one of the authors. two or three days i waited. and given that they request donations, i'd have thunk they'd be eager to give me permission, as i'd also said i'd include a message that readers might click thru if they wanted to send them some money.

anyhoo, this is one site i'd found, and other than parody, it seems as though it's whatevr a judge...says it is, as so often. but with this law, even parody might be verboten.

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@wendy davis Buyniski has an opinion of it closer to mine.
What I dislike most about it is the removal of "intent" as an element of the crime. People spreading copyrighted material that have no knowledge it is copyrighted and have no intention of committing a criminal act can have intent imputed to them, because, "reasons".
This specially created court that enables the little guys to sue cheaply also allows the Big Guys to pick up a phone, make a call, and have a little guy prosecuted and fined at zero cost.
I am sure analysis by a legal foundation or association will come soon enough.
With a specially appointed judge presiding over the sacred copyright, does anyone believe they will ever render an unbiased judgment?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

wendy davis's picture

@on the cusp

set up to me. or: heads i win, tails you lose!

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wendy davis's picture

NOT confer causality, i remembered seeing at RT.com that the WHO just approved the pfizer/bioNTech covid vaccine (but has stalled on russia's Sputnik jab), i'd wondered it i'd remember correctly that bill gate. jr owns plenty of stock in pfizer.

short answer: yes

No, Bill Gates does not own Pfizer Inc. However, in recent years, The Gates Foundation has given multi-million dollar grants to Pfizer for research purposes and Bill Gates allegedly owns stock in the company.

no mention of how much stock he owns./s but he does own about half of the WHO. ; )

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snoopydawg's picture

@wendy davis

which was created around 2009 and he infused it with lots of cash and I am sure he has assets in the company. But bioNTech also has ties to astra zenaka which means Gates is involved with them too. This seems to be Gates' baby to run with.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

then, and yes, the link i'd given had also said:

Bill and his wife Melinda have been involved in philanthropy since creating The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In March, the Foundation revealed they were collaborating with several companies to speed up the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, and Pfizer Inc. was speculated to be among those names.

too right, snoop. cory morningstar calls some of these compromised NGOs part of the non-profit industrial complex. iirc, his wealth has tripled since he'd started 'giving away his money'.

but no Sputnik./s

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