Federal funding update. Thursday Jan 29

 The U. S. Senate is considering bills to fund six sets of agencies and departments for the rest of the fiscal year.  Subsequent to the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and due in large part to large amounts of public pressure,  all Senate Democrats and... seven Republican Senators voted against the funding bill.  The Democratic demand is to have the Department of Homeland Security funding part of the bill split out, which the administration does not want to do.   The Republicans who voted with the Democrats are:

Seven fiscally conservative Republican senators Rand Paul (Ky.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah), Ashley Moody (Fla.), Rick Scott (Fla.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.).

It seems like we are in an upside-down world, and it is hard to know what these senators are thinking/what their play is.  Unless there is some sort of continuing resolution or a compromise by tomorrow night (Friday, Jan. 30), parts of the Federal government will again be shut down.  

ACTION: KNOWLEDGE: PLEASE don't fall into "normal life" trap. ACT NOW PLS!

 Our democracy is a 5 alarm fire!!!!

Our chance to reverse this is closing fast: 

Pete Gamlen for Vox

Signs of Justice postcards

Please speak with friends and activate them. Please inform everyone. 

PLEASE encourage action. 

YOUR HELP MATTERS!!!!!!!!

(Please call Senator Curtis and Rep. Moore daily, please.  & Mention Trumpstein files every time.

and then find ACTIONS that resonate with you in this partial list of ways to help and resist)

AND 

USE 5calls.org to make it easy.

Vox has a very important article that explains how: 

"LIFE FEELS NORMAL 
yet AMERICA IS TRULY A DYSTOPIAN HELLSCAPE. 

BOTH ARE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME:

We must all push back and resist the Bull in our china shop.

Full article is here

Key insight:

Here’s his main insight: Life under authoritarianism is actually, for the most part, weirdly normal. It’s often even, well, boring. The average person can go about their day as usual. You take your kids to school, you head to the office, and yes, you even host dinner parties. You live in the realm that Fraenkel referred to as “the normative state,” and from within that realm, it’s easy to think that if you just keep your head down and avoid making waves, you’ll be perfectly fine, thank you very much.

But Fraenkel’s book is called The Dual State for a reason. This first state, the business-as-usual one, actually exists to lull you into a sense of complacency such that you don’t realize that another state is also operating in parallel with it. That second state, which Fraenkel calls “the prerogative state,” only becomes visible to you when you do something that the powers that be don’t like. Then suddenly you’re in a realm where the rule of law does not exist, where citizens can be killed with impunity, where you — even you, who thought you were invulnerable — can become a target.

The dark genius of this setup is that most people don’t realize that the prerogative state is active until it’s too late. They only wake up when the knock comes on their very own door — or when the door is forcefully broken down.

“The Dual State lives by veiling its true nature,” Fraenkel wrote.

DUAL STATE EXAMPLE AND Recall Renee Nicole Good:  She was smiling and happily attending to neighbors, and keeping an eye of federal agents.  This is all her right.  She was mildly impeding traffic.  Then BAM, suddenly she is murdered in broad daylight.

The Alex Pretti execution is a similar example of a DUAL STATE.  Pretti had been injured by federal goon agents a week earlier and he had broken rib.  Perhaps their recognized him?  

ALL of US CAN FIND OURSELVES ON THE BLUE SIDE OF THE DUAL STATE AT ALMOST ANY TIME.  The Trump-Miller-Noem-Bovino-Vought-Kennedy-Hegseth-XXXXXX terror state is our there is make us afraid and cower.

Minnesotans showed us the way forward.  Organize, resist peacefully, and look out for our neighbors who are being illegally targeted-if you are in a position to do so.

If not, there are hundreds of other meaningful actions you can take.  Google to find other lists of actions (boycott the Epstein class, etc).

Please share insights into the wide range of actions that help us save democracy.  

We must act like there is a wrecking bull (=Trump and MAGA) systematically destroying our CHINA SHOP (=our beloved democracy and federal government)

If we don't get that bull under control, you may have voted in your last free and fair nationwide election.

Sorry to be triggering-this is the reality of our lives.

 we have not choice but to face it as best we can.

Pete Gamlen for Vox

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Sigal Samuel is a senior reporter for Vox’s Future Perfect. She writes primarily about the future of consciousness, tracking advances in artificial intelligence and neuroscience and their staggering ethical implications. Before joining Vox, Sigal was the religion editor at the Atlantic.