Free Covid tests. Order starting today

[link:https://www.covid.gov/tests

or

]https://special.usps.com/testkits]

Many of the previously shipped kits have extended expiration dates. The USPS site above lists these kits by brand and lot number and gives the extended expiration date if applicable.

Swear words in different languages have one thing in common

From CNN:

What’s in a swear? The world’s filthiest words typically refer to something vulgar or taboo, for one.

But there’s something else swears across the world’s languages have in common. They’re all missing the more melodic consonant sounds you’re more likely to hear in a lullaby than in a colorful reaction to a stubbed toe.

Swear words lack the consonant sounds l, r, w and y across several languages – including Chinese, English and Spanish, according to a new study from researchers at Royal Holloway, University of London. The team set out to find “phonetic patterns” in profanity in several disparate dialects.

“Swearing – like religion, or music – is a ubiquitous phenomenon across cultures,” study co-author and psychology professor Ryan McKay told CNN. “Our work suggests that it’s not just the semantic content of words that gives them their potency, but that the sounds in these words may also play a role.”

More at link.

[link:https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/10/world/swear-word-similarities-cec/index.html|


I personally have found that my substitution swear words are not as satisfying.

Feds often hand migrants over to state police rather than process immigration claims - ACLU of TX

The Texas Tribune

[link:https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/02/texas-migrant-arrests-border-patrol/|

Feds often hand migrants over to state police rather than process immigration claims, complaint says
State police often rely on federal immigration officials to lock up migrants on state trespassing charges, according to a new complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. The collaboration contradicts federal and Texas officials’ attacks on each other’s immigration policies.

BY JOLIE MCCULLOUGH DEC. 2, 202217 HOURS AGO

Many of the thousands of migrants arrested on trespassing charges under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security operation have been locked up in Texas prisons only after U.S. Border Patrol agents handed them over to state police, according to a new complaint to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

At least once, Texas Department of Public Safety officers never even saw the arrested migrants on the scene of the alleged trespassing, instead picking them up from federal agents at a gas station and taking them to jail, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas reported Friday in its letter to federal officials.

The ACLU of Texas argued that federal government officials should not be assisting Texas’ controversial “arrest-and-jail” approach by sending migrants off to face state charges instead of processing their immigration cases.

The complaint stems from an analysis of police reports on more than 350 trespassing arrests made this summer under Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. A quarter of those arrests were made with Border Patrol involvement, the civil rights organization said, with federal agents providing surveillance information to state police or both agencies working side by side and divvying up migrants for arrest or immigration processing based largely on their gender.

More at link

Status of the Social Security Trust Fund, Income and Outgo: Fiscal 2022

by Wolf Richter • Nov 8, 2022 • 84 Comments
Income jumped by $105 billion to a record $1.04 trillion as more people worked and earned higher wages, and contributed more.

[link:https://wolfstreet.com/2022/11/08/status-of-the-social-security-trust-fund-income-and-outgo-fiscal-2022/|

snip:

The balance in the Social Security Trust Fund – technically known as “Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund” – declined by 1.2% during the US government fiscal year through September 30, to $2.72 trillion, according to figures released by the Social Security Administration. In the prior year, the balance had dropped 2.0%; in 2018, the balance had dropped by 0.8%. Those were the only three fiscal-year declines in the fund balance since 1987.

Despite those declines, since 2010, the balance of the fund has risen by 12.1%. These figures to not include the Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which by law is a separate entity from the OASI Trust Fund, and is not part of this discussion here.

snip:
Interest income crushed by Fed’s interest rate repression.
In the fiscal year, the Fund earned $65.1 billion in interest on its Treasury security holdings. This interest income was 40% lower than in 2010, the year of peak interest, though the Fund balance was much lower at the time. The long-term securities it held were paying much higher interest rates than the new long-term securities that replaced them when they matured during the era of the Fed’s interest rate repression.

Retirees counting on their fixed income investments, such as CDs and bonds, for their supplemental cash flow have seen an even worse devastation of their cash-flows following the Fed’s interest rate repression that started in 2008.

Much more at link.

Need to remind voters about the Repubs. separating children from parents at the border.

They have usurped the border/immigrant message with Abbott's lies.

Stephen Miller. Has he been heard from lately? Usually in the thick of all things Trump. nt

CNN calls Biden "Indecisive" in the headline on the website.

[link:https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/politics/joe-biden-student-loans/index.html|

"How an indecisive Joe Biden finally made his mind up on student loan debt"

snip:

"Even for a famously indecisive President, the question of whether to use executive powers to forgive student loan debt appeared particularly long and drawn-out. Interviews with nearly a dozen people familiar with internal deliberations revealed a myriad of factors fueled the delay, none more than Biden's concerns over inflation and his insistence that the forgiveness plan would not be seen as a handout to the wealthy."



REALLY CNN??? "Famously indecisive President"

Had an orderly transition occurred, would the document theft been possible? nt

I Taught My 4th Grade Class About White Privilege And Their Response Was Eye-Opening

A must-read article by Justin Mazzola from the Huffington Post:

[link:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/teach-white-privilege-fourth-grade-class_n_62fbac44e4b077bb77a62756|

snip:

"Our nation’s best chance at progress is for professional teachers to shed light on its complicated past while empowering students to formulate their own fact-based opinions ― and politicians shouldn’t be standing in the way. Teaching our youth all of America’s triumphs and failures will empower them as adults to strive toward a more perfect union. A few of those kids may even end up with their photos alongside our past presidents. And if they ascend to leadership, they’ll be far more prepared than their predecessors to ensure our country is working for everyone."

Trump had no legislative history when he ran in 2016. DeSantis does.

Voters did not know what they were in for with a Trump presidency. We had fears, but no concrete evidence of how he would govern. DeSantis is an entirely different story. We have proof of how destructive he is and will be if elected.