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Damage from DOGE

We cannot ignore the DOGE slashing up funds to services for us as individuals or globally is happening. This has become a severe reality to my family. My son-in-law is a Doctor who has been treating patients around the world for over six years with tuberculosis (TB). His work has been supported by federal grants to develop successful treatments and decrease the spread of TB on our planet. Why is this important to all of us? Because TB is the deadliest infectious disease on our planet: 1.2 million die from TB every year globally. TB was significantly reduced in the US in the past ...

Social Security

This is just a note of warning. The attack on Social Security has started. That is the first step — to undermine it. The suggestion is made that it is filled with fraud. The proof is given that people 130 years old and older are receiving Social Security. The reason impossibly old people are in the Social Security database is that Social Security has an outdated computer system, and if a birthdate is not given, then these ridiculous ages are entered by default. They do not receive Social Security because virtually all of them are dead. Social Security will be solvent until 2034. One ...

Audit away

Former IRS commissioner J. Brocken Lee said the cost of maintaining the huge federal machinery must come out of the taxes before the citizens can get anything. Frank Chodorov, an extraordinary thinker and writer in the 1950s, said the government has nothing of its own to give, for it is not a producer of wealth. In granting one citizen a special advantage it automatically creates a disadvantage for other citizens. It is obvious that by handing out special privileges the government is doing what it ought not to do, it is using its power not for the purpose of dispensing justice, but for ...

Fiber optic

Many people think fiber optic service is free. First of all our taxes are paying billions of dollars to install it. Then the service is not free. You pay for it like other providers. We were not given a choice. You will have this and like it. Our street looks like a war zone. The ugly plastic plates are high enough they will be hit by mower blades. Holes are filled with big crushed rock. That will have to be removed and filled with dirt. And unless mechanically tamped that will settle. And fiber optic is touted as the future. It is not. I spoke with several people who work in IT. They ...

Something must be done

The news has been disturbing because it is obvious that oligarchs are in cahoots with Trump.  Any savings created by gutting the government have been immediately scooped up by Musk.  Today the unconscionable display by the vice president and then by the president toward Zylenski was an unimaginable, disrespectful bullying of a great leader.  It should concern all patriotic Americans that Trump is throwing all of our allies under the bus and playing nice with murderous dictators like Putin, and possibly setting the stage for another world war.    In addition we will be on track soon ...

Shortsighted

The Marshalltown council meeting and the Times-Republican reporting reflects the shortsighted decision making of MAGA America. I will not get into the extortion issues proposed by Mark Mitchell of a quid pro quo of the Epoch Times in exchange for like-minded volunteers to drive the Bookmobile. Truly the Over the Hill Gang Rides Again. The big questions were ignored in the reporting and in the meeting by the council. Why is a salaried position which was budgeted four years ago for a Bookmobile driver being included in the budget cuts at all as part of the levy? Why does the council ...