The Gang

1. I feel I need to explain in detail how a Bill becomes a Law in the United States. Since a lot of people think now that the Senate passed the Big Beautiful (more like Butt-Ugly) Bill - it will now go to the House and voila, signed into Law. Uh, no, this is not how it works, folks.

But wait, another lawyer did it for me! To the tune of I'm only a Bill, just a little old bill...via School House Rock, which oversimplified it.

How A Bill Becomes a Law by Anne P. Mitchell

First and foremost: In order for a bill to be sent to the president to be signed into law the House and the Senate MUST pass *identical* versions of the bill!  This is what we are seeing happen right now with the budget bill, the House originally passed their version and sent it to the Senate. The Senate made massive changes to it, then voted on that changed version just now, so now it goes back to the House. If the House makes ANY changes, then it goes back to the Senate for them to either vote on or make additional changes.

( Here is How a Bill Becomes a Law )

The process gives me hope. It did have a lot gutted from it. Also the Senate added 800 billion to the national debt. Meanwhile various States are in the process of passing laws to withhold federal taxes, since the federal government is not representing them in a fair and reasonable manner.

2. What is in the Big Butt-Ugly Bill aka the Big Beautiful Bill that the Senate Passed? (Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder apparently?)

Here's What got in and What got cut from the Big Butt-Ugly Bill

It went from 1000 pages to 940 pages.

In the bill: ( what stayed in the Bill )

On the Medicaid Cuts, what got in and got cut out of the bill:
( Read more... )

What is left out of the bill or was cut:

Public land sales
( what they were trying to do and why it was cut )

Excise tax on wind and solar, State AI provisions (The Senate stripped a provision barring states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI). )

For a more precise and total breakdown? Go HERE - The link is NY Times article via remove pay wall.

This tells you exactly what the Senate removed from the bill, changed, altered and left in and why.

Note they removed everything that wasn't budgetary related and broke the rules.

Example?

Measure to limit court contempt powers

The parliamentarian rejected a measure in the bill that would have made it harder for courts to enforce lawsuits against the Trump administration. The measure targeted preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges against Trump’s executive orders and other directives. MacDonough argued that limiting courts’ ability to hold Trump in contempt violates Senate rules.

Go HERE for complete list of no-gos that can't be in the Bill at all

Note, it's still a controversial bill.

3. Want a way to help either in the US or out of the US?

We The People Defend provides information on how.

It's a non-profit site that provides emails with contact information, and instructions on how to go about contacting Senators, White House, Congress, Etc.

You don't have to do everything or anything at all. There's no pressure. But it helps explain how the law works and how to help change what is going on in a pro-active way.

So far, folks have managed to change a lot of things by doing this, so it is working.

If however, you are too pissed off like myself to rationally call and explain in a calm manner, you might want to hang back for a bit or do something else?

4. [ETA: Folks? Be mindful of my blood pressure and please knock off the defeatist talk or keep it out of my journal. I get we're all worried, scared and angry. But it does nobody any good, including you. And I honestly have enough troubles sleeping as it is. I'm on medication for anxiety. So be mindful and keep it to yourselves?]

Actually, Jay Kuo states all of this better than I can - so I'm reposting his words below:

"Folks, some real talk.
( Read more... )

What he said.

1. Macs are not the best when it comes to saving files or organizing electronic files, or finding them later. PC's are better for that as is Windows Operating system. But Macs have less viruses and last longer.

I have both - Mac laptop at home, PC desktop at work. I flirt with getting another PC desktop for home, but I like the Mac virus protection better for home use and firewall. However, I need to get a new Mac and I don't want to. They are expensive.

2. Been fighting a sick headache all day long, no idea what is causing it. High blood pressure? (I took it - it's high, so took the diuretic which makes me woozy to bring it down). The weather? Blood sugar? Menopause? God knows. [ETA: It's better now - combination of headache (a generic excedrin), benedryl, and blood pressure diuretic, plus water, and a brownie. Seems to have done the trick.]

Also got off the computer and watched Poker Face on Peacock instead. Poker Face is basically Rian Johnson's take on Columbo, with Natasha Lyon playing the detective. ( Read more... )

I recommend for anyone who likes episodic detective stories, with a parlor room mystery style. Also Natasha Lyon. It's currently on Peacock in the US.

3. I think I figured out why I hate conflict and arguing with folks online or off - it's because it brings out the worst in me? I don't like hurting people. Or tit for tat. I don't like getting condescending. Or cursing. Or fighting. It makes me physically ill. It raises my blood pressure. It tightens my chest cavity. And it causes anxiety.

Some people get off on it, I think? But I never have. It's why I realized I couldn't be a litigator - I didn't like fighting with people. And negotiations often fell in that category as well. I don't like arguments.
I never have.

Every time it happens - my hands shake so badly, I can't type. I lose sleep. And I feel ill. I'm a writer not a debater. It's probably why I didn't become a practicing attorney. I know how to debate - but I hate doing it.

4. Meant to work on my novel this weekend - sent the info to myself and everything, but alas, I just couldn't. No bandwidth capacity - me, not the computer. Frustrating, that. At this rate - it will never be completed, or so it seems. I have all these ideas, but no physical bandwidth to get them out and in writing.

In other writing related news? I got a positive comment on a Buffy fanfic (No Regrets") that I wrote ages ago, and posted on Ao3, I didn't respond back. I learned my lesson with Ao3, don't respond to comments (positive or negative) or add any new posts - or they will find me and attack me with emails about freezing my account and taking down my stuff and how I'm not following some arcane and incredibly difficult to understand rule or other. Much better to stay quiet. But it was a nice comment.

"That was a very profound read, really interesting in depth look at what becoming human might mean for Spike into Will.
Also seeing Buffy's own thoughts on the changes in her life
I like the way that you ended it, no neat bow, but with perhaps a friendship to continue and a bit of a nostalgic laugh also."

I still get kudos from that page from time to time, which makes me think maybe I'm touching people with my writing in a good way? That I'm reaching folks that I've never met and somehow making their lives a little better, or giving them something to connect to, or making them think a little bit differently about something? I think that's all any of us want to do sometimes, is just find a way to connect with one another, and obtain a positive emotional response? To share the love? And to some degree the pain - at least to the point in which it makes us feel less alone, and connected to something bigger? To know there's someone else somewhere out there wherever they may be that feels the same way we do about this?

Life can feel very lonely at times. ( Read more... )

I think art and culture often connects us - in a good way. Television shows, music, concerts, live theater, movies, books, readings, dance, and sporting events. A way to come together and discuss things that bring us joy. But all of that can also divide. Humans are complicated organisms after all.

5. I watched some television shows.

Finished The Bear S4. The Bear does for restaurants what The Pitt does for the ER, except it has more family interaction and really delves into the individual characters deeply. Also has quite the cast - three to four members of it - have taken off since the series aired. And multiple members have gotten Emmys. Season 4, unlike the previous seasons, is really comforting and provides a sense of closure for multiple character arcs - each of the characters manages to resolve the main issue plaguing them since the beginning of the series. I may re-watch it from the beginning in July. It's not long. Just 10 episodes per season. First season had 8. And each episode is about 30 minutes. They aren't long episodes. But jam packed with information and character development.

Shows how much you can do in a short period of time.

( Read more... )

Andor - is unfortunately not as good. And I love science fiction and Star Wars (it was my first real fandom, well next to the Monkeys at any rate, and Batman and Robin, which I'm not completely sure counts). It is a different genre. But it is, alas, far too political for its own good - and a lot of time is wasted on plot mechanics, with the characters getting a bit lost in the shuffle. ( Read more... )

It's on Disney + in the US, and I don't recommend if you have brain fog, are depressed by the current political situation (and seriously who isn't?) and not really a devoted Star Wars fan?

I'll stick with it, but I may wait a bit.

I saw this quote on Facebook from a social activist that I've been following, which stated:

"Do less of passing on your fears to people."

And I thought, if less people did this? I wouldn't have social anxiety or a lot of other anxieties for that matter - most of which have been thrust onto me by other people. People can be scary.

This quote is also apropos for the episode of Buffy that I re-watched this week, entitled (per Hulu) Gingerbread, S3 Episode 11. I think it's 11. It's not an episode that I remember fondly, and have been known to skip it on past re-watches. Mainly because it focuses on a recurring theme in horror/supernatural fiction - which is well - the witch hunt. It's been explored in a lot science fiction series as well, from Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (a classic Twilight Zone Episode). And historically with the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust - where a group of people become scapegoats and people hunt them down and kill them as if they are demons or animals with no worth. I'm not fond of the theme - because, well, I find it frightening and incredibly frustrating, not to mention annoying, especially right now. I'd rather not think about it or watch it. Out of sight, is out of mind, right? Well unfortunately not always.

Also, I remembered Gingerbread being somewhat cliche and eye-rolling in places. (It's not. I was mistaken.)

I was surprised by how cleverly written this episode actually is, and how it manages to involve all of the main contracted cast, with the exception of Faith (who isn't a lead cast member and recurring).

It manages to take a well-known fairy tale and flips it on its head, in a way no one else has done before or since. What if the villains in the fairy tale were in reality the protagonists or victims, and they weren't what they seemed?

( spoilers for well anyone who hasn't seen the show in the last 25 years and still wants to...when do spoilers expire anyhow, probably never? )

I found this episode, like all the other episodes in s3, to date rather well - and to cross-over well into the modern age, in that we've always had this problem. And it is an universal one. People get afraid of something or someone - and feel the need to tell everyone else about it - to share this anxiety or fear. Right now it's immigrants - and the fear that the immigrants will take away their jobs, their homes, and their way of life. Irrational as this fear is, they believe it is a real threat and they must fight to make sure it doesn't happen by any means necessary.

I once had a frightening debate with a poster named peasant in my journal way back in 2017. Peasant, a Brit, was convinced that the evil immigrants were coming to take away their job, home, and everything they held dear, and they had to stop them. That the evil socialists would help the evil immigrants. Fascism was better in Peasant's view than the alternative. And Capitalism was the best approach, everyone was happier under that. Peasant was terrified of socialism. Peasant's political views scared me, not just the views themselves, mind you, which were scary in of themselves, but the fact that someone actually thought that way? That they had demonized a group of people in their head to that extent. An otherwise rational and from what I saw kind person who cared about animals, gardened, etc - felt like this? That scared me. Peasant scared me, not the immigrants. I was afraid of Peasant. And I'm not an immigrant - my ancestors came to the United States in the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s, both my parents, grand-parents, and for the most part great grandparents and great great grandparents are US Citizens. I was afraid for the immigrants, Peasant hated, and the their view that fascism was the better choice. That scared me. So badly, that I eventually blocked them from my journal.

Fear divides people and unites people - it also starts wars, and kills millions. It causes debilitating anxiety.

Peasant in attempting to pass their fears on to me, much like Joyce does to the other adults in town including Willow's mother - caused me to block them and ended our correspondence.

Another example? JK Rowlings fear of transgender has resulted in various people distancing themselves from her, and book stores no longer selling her books and removing them from their shelves. I don't see them at all in area book stores any longer. She has been deemed a lost cause, and repeals people with her hate and fear, and her attempts to pass it on to other people. Even those who agree with her, such as Musk, have attempted to reign her in on Twitter (aka X).

Passing fear on to others - may be rewarding in the short term, but it isn't in the long term. It did Joyce no favors - at the end of the episode, it is implied not shown by Buffy that Joyce has retreated to her gallery, and (potentially her booze), appalled at her actions, and her friends have disassociated themselves from her. This is shown with wry humor in the episode, but at the same time - as a kind of twisted morality lesson? Not to take things at face value, to question fears, and to try not to instigate a lynch mob.

I read this week in some psychology posting that it was more than okay not to be okay at the moment. In fact feeling awful right now, with a sense of dread - means you are most likely a caring empathetic human being and struggling with human failings. If this is the case? Than I'm clearly a caring empathetic human being - because I've been feeling kind of awful for several months now?

What helps? Watching comfort shows, avoiding dingbats, avoiding bad news (as much as possible), trying to eat healthy, and focus on the positive.

As always, good news is often in the eye of the beholder - so mileage may vary on it?

( our fight appears to be mainly in the courts... )

***

The below isn't necessarily good news, but it is a necessary explanation of a recent Supreme Court ruling, since a lot of folks think it trumps or undoes some of the good news above, it doesn't. It may reframe it or change it, but it doesn't undo it. Trump didn't necessarily win, nor do the Republicans, also this issue has been hanging around for a while now. And it may just bite the Republicans in the ass down the road.

While it is entertaining to watch amateur lawyers debate what the recent Supreme Court decision on Birth Nationals and Injunctions is, it's also annoying - so below is an actual lawyer, who specializes in legislative, Constitutional and Administrative Law - has to say about it (and no, it's not me):

WHAT TODAY'S SUPREME COURT DECISION ON UNIVERSAL INJUNCTIONS AND BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP MEANS by Anne P. Mitchell

First, and most importantly, it does NOT UNDO BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP! And really that was never what it was about, as I've said before. (In fact here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16sATn6TcJ/)

This was *always* a universal injunction case dressed up in birthright citizenship clothing. It was and is about universal injunctions. And that is on what the Supreme Court just issued its opinion.

In the case, Massachusetts issued a universal injunction (applies to everyone similarly situated) against the birthright citizenship executive order; the Supreme Court is saying the injunction should have only applied to the plaintiffs in the case.

Here is what the Supreme Court *actually* said:
( Read more... )

Sigh, here's a pretty picture of flowers..