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Wednesday’s Forum
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19 responses to “Wednesday’s Forum”
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I received an additional $90 Social Security payment yesterday. I was curious about where the money was coming from. Apparently, it is spent out of the Medicare Improvement Fund which was established in 2008 by Congress. The Medicare Improvement Fund (MIF) was established by Section 7002 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008. Its purpose is to finance improvements to the traditional Medicare program (Parts A and B).
It is a one time good deal. It is about less than half of the monthly $202 Medicare payment.
No, it will not influence my vote.
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Those improvements are supposed to be for things like system upgrades and so forth. Distributing them to the public means that those funds are now NOT being used to “finance improvements.”
It’s not really a good deal when one considers that money will now need to somehow be backfilled so that the account can fulfill its proper purpose.
I did see a number of people on BlueSky who have turned around and donated that money to Democratic candidates, and in one instance, an animal shelter.
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Early voting starts 19 Oct. I just printed out my ballot. It has 107 choices. Besides the big ones of Gov, Senator, Representative, and Texas legislators, the majority of voting choices are judges, county positions, constable, school district budgets, etc. It really is too much and I think most will just vote on the first page of the ballots.
I’ve actually seen people pick up the ballot for the first time on their way into the voting center and then start to look at it.
No wonder why we are screwed up.
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We had ballots like that in Missouri. Lots of citizens’ petitions on the ballot as well.
In NH, our local stuff (local positions, school and town budgets, etc.) is all voted on in March. The November ballot is federal and state offices.
It’s expensive for the town to run multiple elections, but I do prefer the shorter ballots.
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As I recall, my ballot last March was 10 pages long. Beyond the local and county offices, since most of NH communities have a “town” form of government, we vote on the budget items that average about 35 items, plus citizen and board initiatives.
Besides the town officer and budget items, there are two school districts, elementary and the regional high school, with officer and budget items and a county ballot. It’s best to pack a lunch and use the bathroom before going into the voting booth.-
Wow, note to self, do not ever move to a bigger community in NH… 😀
Our warrants are usually about 20+ items, and citizens petitions…I think one was the least I’ve seen and five probably the maximum. They are almost always so poorly worded that a court case is all but guaranteed, which some people have started to zero in on, as it’s driving up the legal expenses line of the budget.
I don’t think it’s ever taken me longer than 10 minutes to vote in our wee town (not counting standing in line, but even that, max 20 min.).
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Ballot in AZ is full of BS initiatives that need a no vote, put on the ballot by the Republican controlled legislature.
Lots of stuff they tried as legislation that could not get past a Democratic governor veto, so they are trying to get around her by the initiative route.
Typical GOP BS: make voting harder with ID BS, keep the trans out of school sports, schools notify parents their kiddie is LGBTQ, that sort of stuff.
Here in AZ the legislature generating ballot initiatives is a thing.
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It’s of a piece with the Texas constitution. When I lived in Arlington in the early 70s I bought a copy. It’s an average size paperback. It was written to reverse everything they saw as the evils of Reconstruction It nailed down every detail of state government. It makes reform difficult. But not impossible, IIRC I voted for something like the 300th amendment, removing the prohibition on operating an “open saloon”. Smart Clippy tells me they’re now up to 545.
A couple years after I moved north I got a Texas jury summons. It listed occupations exempt from service, including faith healers and agents at one-man railroad stations.
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I’m seeing claims the B-1 bombers were pulled out of the UK for fear of a drone attack. This may or may not be a specific threat and may or may not be connected to the van guys who were arrested. But it occurs to me to ask how good the drone defenses are at the B-1 home bases in TX, SD, and KS? One suspects not much different than at RAF Fairford.
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Meanwhile, in the People’s Democratic Republic of Seattle, our police are pretending to be cats, purring and hissing at vet staff, and being super-creepy sex pests.
Click to access 2025OPA-0413ccs7-17-26.pdf
NE#1 was not necessarily unprofessional when he mimicked a cat at the clinic, given his love for cats and animals. However, NE#1’s conduct crossed the line into unprofessionalism when, in September 2025, he invaded CM#1’s personal space and rubbed his head against her arm without
permission.It goes on and gets worse. NE is “named employee” and “CM” is community member.
I’m sure a 30-day suspension with retraining will correct this behavior in the future.
