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“These guys talk about states’ rights all the time, except when it comes to poor people,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, one of the biggest anti-hunger advocates in the House.

Republicans launch opening salvo against food aid By MEREDITH LEE HILL and GARRETT DOWNS

By MEREDITH LEE HILL and GARRETT DOWNS

House Republicans are taking their first shot at slashing federal spending on nutrition programs for low-income Americans. It won’t be their last.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), is introducing a bill Tuesday, shared exclusively with POLITICO, to expand current restrictions on who qualifies for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. It’s the first of what is expected to be a wave of GOP efforts this year to set limits on SNAP, the country’s largest food assistance program, which grew significantly during the pandemic. But while Republicans have telegraphed their desire to curb nutrition spending, House Democrats have yet to mount a coordinated response, raising concerns in the caucus about whether they can fend off likely GOP attacks on the program during the negotiations over the debt limit, budget and 2023 farm bill.

Johnson’s bill would expand the age bracket for able-bodied SNAP recipients without dependents, who have to meet complicated work requirements. The legislation would also limit the federal government’s ability to waive those work requirements for states he says are abusing loopholes in the system.

Republicans Are Consigning the Poor to Disease and Death

Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit

“Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the General Fund to reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security Trust Fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing a budget or erasing or lowering the deficit.” — President Ronald Reagan 7 October 1984

Washington teeters on the brink of a Cold War over Social Security By BURGESS EVERETT

Amending entitlements is a tall order for a Congress that disagrees on nearly everything. Lawmakers are still wading into the mess, hoping to recreate a famed bipartisan deal that shored up the programs four decades ago.

ongress, whose members struggle to accomplish simple tasks like funding the government and raising the debt ceiling, is suddenly talking about changes to Medicare and Social Security.

There’s plenty of reasons to be skeptical that any of that big talk will pay off.

Delaware Democrat Chris Coons, for one, has a unique seat at the table as a bipartisan group of his fellow senators meet quietly about potential solutions to shore up Social Security’s long-term fiscal health. Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden who’s sat in on meetings of the bipartisan Social Security gang, openly admits that changing the popular entitlement “is one of the most difficult things for Congress to do.”

Elise Stefanik, Lier, Trump Toady, and Traitor

Stefanik speaks at CPAC, makes false claims about the FBI (BY EMILY RUSSELL (ADIRONDACK REPORTER)

North Country Rep.Elise Stefanik spoke last weekend at CPAC , the annual conference for conservative lawmakers and activists. Stefanik attacked the Biden administration and celebrated the work of her Republican colleagues.

“I am so excited to be here with you as the conference chair of the new House Republican majority,” said Stefanik, smiling as she took the stage on Saturday.

Stefanik was notably the only member of the Republican congressional leadership at this year’s CPAC. Missing from the event were House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and former vice President Mike Pence.

This year’s CPAC was more a celebration of Trumpism than it was a broad spectrum of Republican speakers and ideals.

Stefanik spent her speech attacking President Biden and the Senate Democrats. “They want a blank check to continue to spend our hard-earned taxpayer dollars on wasteful, woke programs,” said Stefanik.

She blamed inflation and crime rates on Democrats. She also made three false claims about the FBI and the Department of Justice.

“America is seeing Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ and FBI fully weaponized as they label parents domestic terrorists,” said Stefanik.

The Justice Department said it’s never used that term to describe parents. The term ‘domestic terrorists’ was instead used in a letter written by the nonprofit National School Board Association to the DOJ.

Stefanik continued her speech with another false claim about the DOJ and FBI, saying that “they conducted an unprecedented and illegal raid on President Trump’s home”

The raid was legally authorized by a federal judge. Stefanik provided no evidence to support her claim. The FBI also searched President Biden’s home and personal property.

Stefanik also falsely claimed that the FBI “illegally paid Twitter $3 million to suppress stories, such as the Hunter Biden laptop story all for the political benefit and purpose of electing Democrats.”

The FBI did pay Twitter $3.4 million, but according to USA Today, it was for records requests, not to suppress stories on the social media site.

Separately, the FBI has flagged Twitter accounts it says violate the company’s terms of service. According to Rolling Stone Magazine, Stefanik’s staff has done the same, making regular requests over both the Trump and Biden presidencies that Twitter moderate its content.

Putting news in perspective

Trump, Taylor Greene, and the Trump dead-enders — traitors at the gate. — wfw

Sam Smith – According to traditional journalism – as opposed to what we see these days on Fox News – the job is to tell the facts. One of the things, however, that can be left out of coverage is historical perspective. How does this compare with what has happened in the past? For example, while over 50,000 people have died in a current earthquake, did you know that over 200,000 died in one in Northern Sumatra in 1964 , displacing 1.7 million people in 14 countries?

The current Trumpian assault on American democracy has this problem as well. While much of the media has done a good job telling us the facts, there is seldom mention of how unusual it is. The only other time Americans have struggled to overthrow our political system was during the Civil War nad it is fair to describe what is happening now as not just a political scandal but the efforts of a second Confederacy.

If that seems excessive consider these words from Rep.Marjorie Taylor Greene:

“We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.”

Or these by Donald Trump shortly before the 2020 election when he was demanding that Biden, Obama and Hillary Clinton be put in prison: “Biden, Obama, and crooked Hillary led this treasonous plot.”

Admittedly, we not yet at war, but this is the second worst assault on our democracy in our history as a republic. And its leader is Donald Trump.

Trump dead-enders in a race to the bottom

Updated February 23, 2023

It’s obvious that the Republican Party has morphed into a real-life “Idiocracy. underscored by a reverence for stupidity that cannot be denied — and run by a clique of misfits akin to MTG who rails against the “Gazpacho police,”(1) who “fragrantly (2) and horrifically” violate our due-process rights. You can’t make this up… — wfw

Greene blasted for ‘parroting Kremlin talking points’ after Biden visits Kyiv

Marjorie Taylor Greene shredded for saying Black people should be ‘proud’ to see Confederate monuments

‘Freak show’ Marjorie Taylor Greene is too powerful to be ignored: conservative author

How ‘vile’ MAGA Republicans are painting Ohio’s environmental nightmare as a ‘war on white people’

‘Stay in Hollywood’: Marjorie Taylor Greene suggests movie ban in ‘national divorce’ rant

‘Incredibly insulting’: Marjorie Taylor Greene slams Biden’s Ukraine visit

‘People in the asylum have taken control’: Michigan GOP operative sounds alarm about party’s new leader

MTG says US should be ‘bombing Mexican cartels’ and ‘Antifa BLM rioters’ instead of ‘aiding’ Ukraine

Marjorie Taylor Greene compares Ashli Babbitt to George Floyd

Rep. Lauren Boebert raged against historic performance of ‘Black national anthem’ at the Super Bowl

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written as a poem by the NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900 and used as a rallying cry for Black Americans during the civil-rights movement.

‘The party of a yowling Marjorie Taylor Greene’ is going to hand Biden a second term: conservative columnist

‘A tightwire act’: GOP committee head saddled with keeping Marjorie Taylor Greene and Boebert under control

Relationship Between Marijuana and Opioids

Cannabis access is associated with reduced rates of opioid use and abuse, opioid-related hospitalizations, opioid-related traffic fatalities, opioid-related drug treatment admissions, and opioid-related overdose deaths

This cohort study of New York State Prescription Monitoring Program data from 2017 to 2019 included patients receiving MC for chronic pain while also receiving opioid treatment. Of these, patients receiving LOT [long-term opioid therapy] prior to receiving MC were selected. Individuals were studied for 8 months after starting MC [medical cannabis]. … The daily MME [morphine milligram equivalent] for the last month of the follow-up period among patients receiving longer MC was reduced by 48% in the lowest stratum, 47% in the middle stratum, and 51% in the highest stratum compared with the baseline dosages. … In this cohort study of patients receiving LOT, receiving MC for a longer duration was associated with reductions in opioid dosages. … These findings contribute robust evidence for clinicians regarding the potential benefits of MC in reducing the opioid burden for patients receiving LOT and possibly reduce their risk for overdose.Changes in prescribed opioid dosages among patients receiving medical cannabis for chronic pain, New York State, 2017-2019, JAMA Network Open, 2023

Schoharie County government defies state order to reinstate health director

Dr. Amy Gildemeister was unanimously approved for a new contract by the county Board of Health, but the supervisors’ board has refused to authorize her salary.

Rachel Silberstein Jan. 27, 2023Updated: Jan. 27, 2023 3:22 p.m.

SCHOHARIE — Defying a direct order from New York’s health commissioner to reinstate Schoharie County’s longtime health director, the county Board of Supervisors — which previously criticized the ousted health official’s implementation of state COVID-19 guidelines — has locked her out of county offices and put an interim health officer in her place, according to email communications obtained by the Times Union.

Amy Gildemeister, who has served the county for nine years, was unanimously reappointed for another term by the county Board of Health in December, but the county supervisors, who act as the rural county’s legislative body, have refused to authorize her salary.

Gildemeister resigns as county’s Public Health head

AT&T and DirecTV drop Newsmax — conservative poseurs claim censorship

There’s nothing conservative about Trump’s Dead-enders, as evidenced by their actions on January 6, 2020. –wfw

The “head of Newsmax played the white right victimhood card,” they were dropped was for their political views. That is 100% a lie. The GOP wants to force businesses to do what they want or suffer consequences like their beloved Putin does in Russia.” — Sirius XM host and attorney Dean Obeidallah

Republicans in both the House and Senate are falsely screaming “censorship” and threatening to haul executives from DirecTV and AT&T in to testify before cameras in congressional hearings after the digital satellite TV service provider dropped Newsmax over the far-right wing, pro-Trump channel’s demand for higher fees.

DirecTV is majority-owned by multinational telecom giant AT&T, which has a history of donating to far-right extremist Republicans. AT&T also spent millions to fund the creation of another far-right channel, One America News Network, better known as OAN or OANN. Last year Newsweek reported “AT&T sits atop a list of corporate donors to U.S. senators and congressmembers who voted against certifying the election for Biden.”

What did the Congresswoman know?

Update: January 24, 2023 Elise Stefanik under fire from donors for suckering them in with George Santos endorsement

Elise Stefanik has yet to comment on her unquestioning support for serial lier, George Santos which comes as no surmise given that she has yet to comment on Donald Trump’s call to terminate the U.S. Constitution and reinstate him as president. — wfw

Peter Wilson (Lake Clear, NY) letter to the editor was published in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise on January 20, 2023.

An open letter to Rep. Elise Stefanik.

As the new Congress — and its close-to-even split between Republicans and Democrats — gets to work, New York state has had the dubious distinction of attracting attention, not for any great acts of statesmanship, but for the gall exhibited by a man (from downstate) who won his election having spewed lie, after lie, after lie, and on and on.

For New York’s Republican Party, one might call the victory part of the “Red-Faced Wave.” They stepped up last week, admitted they’d done a terrible job of fact-checking (lie-checking?) and called on Rep.* Santos (or whatever name he goes by) to resign.

But what of the House of Representatives’ highest-ranking New Yorker, our own 21st Congressional District’s Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican caucus chairperson? She campaigned hard for Mr. Santos during her all-out push for the 2022 — disappointing — Red Wave. She even lent the candidate the expertise of her top political aides, but has she stepped up to publicly insist he bow out with whatever shred of grace he might maintain? No.

Most recently, we have learned that Congressperson* Santos wasn’t as expert, as news consumers might have assumed, at covering his tracks and preventing the voting public from uncovering his shams and scams. Some of his own staff, several deep-pocket donors, even some members of the New York GOP establishment expressed grave concerns long before he was chosen to be the candidate. How could it be that the Leader Number Three in the House GOP, and such a powerful campaign voice on Santos’ behalf, was utterly fooled?

I respectfully request that Congresswoman Stefanik do something other than sweep this issue under the rug. You, Rep. Stefanik, have done your best to avoid commenting, leaving me (and probably at least a few others constituents) wondering whether you were either, one, an unwitting victim, or two, fully aware and thus part of Santos’ scam, turning a blind-eye, sacrificing integrity (yours, and that of the GOP, the state and Congress) in the interest of winning at any cost. If your answer is Number One, shame on you for your lack of due diligence; if it’s Number Two, shame on you for your brazen greed for political power.

Representative Stefanik, admit that the GOP shot itself in the foot in the case of Rep.* Santos. You helped foist him upon the people of your state, you should be part of ushering him out – sooner rather than later, before any more deceptions (as entertaining as they can be) are uncovered, any more “shoes drop.”

(* Like sports statistics that reflect special circumstances, this Long Island Congressman holds his title under a shadow of controversy, shame, and dishonesty. His name should henceforth be marked with an asterisk.) ####

Stefanik was missing at Capitol memorial

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