Crowley's Corner

You have medical history. You have financial behaviour. You have location patterns. You have political views. You have relationship data.

In the wide scheme of life, I'm relatively privileged. Because millions of people are dead because of or violently damaged by him. For me, due directly to Elon Musk/DOGE/Project 2025/Dark MAGA...

My job of 15 years at a gender justice/youth serving nonprofit is gone. A job that used to have federal grants and other "DEI" related funding behind it that he decimated. I found a new job, but it doesn't pay nearly as well. The org is now serving about 1/2 of the number of youth they used to through after school enrichment programs....with HUNDREDS of girls statewide losing access to supportive adults and mentorship.

My 87 year old aunt (who I am power of atty for) lost access to a study she was participating in for treatments for her macular degeneration WHICH WERE WORKING because the nonprofit that was funding her treatments was slashed.

My partner is only able to get insurance as a self employed person via the Affordable Care act. EM is a big part of the premiums now costing us 150% of what they were in 2024.

Perhaps we could have afforded that increase, but not only am I making less now, but that self employed partner has also frequently been paid via local Austin arts organizations which were similarly decimated. My partner is now getting about 40% as much gig work as he did 2 years ago.

Where I live, everyone is freaking out because we're on the verge of a very very VERY bad screwworm situation due to DODE related prevention program cuts. All kinds of animals are unnecessarily at risk now.

“If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”

Though they make at least $7.25 an hour, the state siphons 40% off the top of all wages and also levies fees, including $5 a day for rides to their jobs and $15 a month for laundry.

Turning down work can jeopardize chances of early release in a state that last year granted parole to only 8% of eligible prisoners — an all-time low, and among the worst rates nationwide — though that number more than doubled this year after public outcry."

If two people on SSI are married, the MAXIMUM they can receive is $1,491 a month, total, for both of them. (Meaning marriage to another SSI recipient reduces your maximum income possible to $745 a person each month.)

Could you live on that?