Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

Do not google "toilet snake." Yes, you will get plumbing tips, but you will also get the stuff of nightmares.

he's a cold toilet snake
look into his eyes

lol what is even happening itt rn

Everything is just really poopy in the world

We're pitching an Aaron Sorkin vehicle

a little miffed you beat me to the paula abdul joke but yours was better than what I was trying to come up with

Promise of a new post

hush hush

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/politics/os-ne-florida-medicaid-expansion-20210317-uxyqvh3trjgvthw4qxoba52syy-story.html?

god could we get a real governor in my lifetime? last time we had a Democrat I was in middle school.

I am willing to make that sacrifice as I don't think even in these godforsaken times that anyone can become President after being filmed extruding a reptile from their ass on basic cable

We used to think that when we watched Alex Jones on his cable access show here in Austin

trump became president after championing one of the most broad and public racist conspiracy theories of all time

i think the more evil and gross you are, the better you do in america

you have to be the right kind of 'gross' though

If that massive agenda includes addressing climate change in a serious way, protecting voting rights, taxing the rich and promoting racial equality, then I don't care how porny the media headline writers get.

― Judge Roi Behan (Aimless), Wednesday, March 17, 2021 11:56 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Agreed on the last three, but 2 degrees C is already locked in, and tbh, if you have kids, you should probably tell them to build a fortified home near a fresh water source.

(Just reality, not trying to be a dick, really) (It's sad and terrifying) (I'm also sad and terrified)

then, i was inspired
now...i'm sad and tired

i'm not looking forward to seeing 105 degree temps in every major city in April in 20 years

I disagree - what’s baked in is awful, and was entirely preventable.

If we keep going on like we are, and have been, what’s coming is much worse, even, while also being entirely preventable.

Giving up on climate change now is like not wearing a mask right now, only with more lasting and terrible consequences

xposts to table

KM- agreed, actually, but I think that the official rhetoric around climate destabilization and consciousness around it really needs to change.

Of course, that would mean that people need to believe in it in the first place.

But even among those who believe in the reality of the situation, there is something of sunny day thinking, and while I understand the psychological reasons behind that, I also think it is *dangerous* to continue as if there isn't already a catastrophe baked in to a reality in our lifetimes.

I only bring this up here because it was mentioned, obv, but also because so much of the talk from politicians around the issue is hollow in that it does not give heed to this reality...even though they probably know what the facts are.

table, I'm sorry for snapping earlier. I read your comment as doomposting, which got under my fucking skin because in the last 24 hours a couple friends said their checks would cover rent, etc. they couldn't pay last month.

As much as the bill represents a gauze bandage for the damage wrought by austerity politics since the late '70s, for the citizens who know no history, this will do.

on one hand the way the world mobilized to develop a vaccine exponentially quicker than it's ever been done in human history is actually sort of inspiring to me. the fact that we went from "what the fuck is this disease" to vaccinating nearly 3 million people a day in America in a year's time is crazy. I have a great uncle who developed vaccines for a living (he's retired now) and his assumption was even if everything went right most people wouldn't get vaccinated until Summer 2022. I feel like a massive decarbonization effort + investments into large scale carbon capture technology could work the same way. When I was in college I remember reading that solar would just never be cost efficient and now it's cheaper than even the most optimistic projections were.

on the other hand we all watched helplessly as so called "advanced" countries punted the ball on Covid, and we know now that acting just 2 weeks quicker would've saved hundreds of thousands of lives & trillions of dollars. I've always hated conservatives but watching so many of them gleefully go on TV to tell people "there's nothing we can do about this, it'll be better if we all just let ourselves get infected, and if you have to die to save the economy then you're dying an honorable man" legitimately scared me

table, agreed with you too :) i missed the earlier posts/context, sorry. i'm with you. i mean, it's like "hey sisyphus! keep rolling that fucking boulder up the mountain, it's just as important now as it was 20 years ago!"

sisyphus, or anyone else who has cared about it and still cares, is well within their rights to be like "fuck this mountain, though"

It's fine, Alfred, I *was* doomposting.

The bill will help us out, certainly.

A lot of my anger and doomsaying arrives from the fact that much of this country's response to crises is to look the other way until it can't anymore. It's been this way my whole life, and yours too. And so even things that will help a little are totally inadequate, and there's not much any of us can do about it individually.

My despair takes over sometimes, and I get really nasty. So, apologies to all who have been the target of it.

and we know now that acting just 2 weeks quicker would've saved hundreds of thousands of lives & trillions of dollars.

it should absolutely not be overlooked that we knew that during the two weeks, as well

yea I definitely remember the week where on Monday it was like "huh, I wonder if we're getting an email about this" and by Friday it is "holy shit it's downright negligent that we haven't been sent home yet"

I kinda get the attitude in January when a lot of the reporting was based around how this was a China thing that only really affected Wuhan, that it might come here but it might not. but there were like...WEEKS where this thing was raging in Europe and was obviously spreading rapidly here as well and we were just like "uh well, let's see what happens here"

of course having the fucking President of the United States use his massive platform to tell everyone this was no big deal and was going away in a month probably caused such an immeasurable amount of damage, I think it's probably the single most harmful thing he's done and a sane country would put him on trial for it

you know, if it weren't for him though, we wouldn't be getting a vaccine for another 5 years, if ever

Look at DeSantis. He has not hidden his intention to open vaccination to rich donors: the Trump model.

2 weeks quicker ... trillions of dollars.

like, they poured $1.5 trillion into Wall Street during those two weeks of not closing businesses or airports, and it was completely gone hours later

it's 26 times "2 weeks" later and they still haven't closed airports or quarantined and traced arrivals

sorry, going to rant a little about my stimmy experience. trump bucks: direct deposit, no problem. 2019 taxes: filed in july, owed a bunch, paid it (though i still have a balance from 2017). 600: i never got it. no direct deposit, no debit card, no check.

The first check was most likely based on 2018 filing -- the second one took into account 2019 info, so it is quite likely, that since you owed for 2019, they didn't direct deposit that check. They also are sending out letters to people who did receive payments. If you got a letter and no payment, then they fucked up. If you didn't get a letter or a payment, then you should be able to claim it as a rebate on 2020 filing.

i claimed the recovery rebate for 600 on my federal. the IRS TOOK ALL OF IT because i owe a balance and i'm on a monthly payment plan. they literally take $100 from my checking account every month. they OBVIOUSLY have both my bank info and my current address right? wtf.

the way the rebate works on the 2020 tax return, is it's just a credit, so if you owe, they take it. Also, these things, you would think the systems would be integrated. Sadly, no. The IRS is an underfunded government agency with antiquated computer systems.

i've got a hunch they're withholding stimulus from people who owe them. but i got the first one???? beyond confused. i could really use the money lol.

i don't think this is the case. i remember back in the GWB rebate era where they sent them out based on the last two digits of your SSN -- at any rate, not everyone is getting the payments all at once, and I'm pretty sure they said as much. There are also regional things at play -- like the issuing of payments is divided up by regions of the country. I'm guessing the West is slower than other parts of the country -- why -- idk.

I predict the international community will get together, roll up its sleeves, and push for the 9 degree C by 2100 global temperature rise stretch goal.

re: those two weeks when we were acting too slowly, this was going on, so at least someone had their eye on the ball

This is amazing: Today is the first anniversary of the day on which the first person in Moderna's Phase 1 trial received a dose of #Covid-19 vaccine. The trial was the first to get underway in the U.S., starting 2 months after China shared the genetic sequence of SARS-2. pic.twitter.com/IuOMoSlgkD

— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 16, 2021

Yeah, plenty of individual people, businesses and local government officials knew and were doing things; a systemic response would have been different.

Cool anniversary, though!

closed airports or quarantined and traced arrivals

Biden was warning about pandemic preparation on twitter in October 2019. He took office months ago, warning that the "darkest days" were yet to come.

Western Australia is a single state that takes up 1/3 of the landmass of the continent. (Mostly desert: 11% of the country's population live there, 75% of those in one city.)

They closed their borders even to interstate travel so hard that they didn't even do a lockdown and mask mandate until February 2021 - for five days, because with borders open (w/ permits & quarantine) this year, they got one (1) case of the British 'vid variant.

This was under the aegis of a first term governor, who was up for re-election this weekend.

(ALP = Labor, LIB = tory/GOP, NAT = farmers)

https://i.imgur.com/DITiqrT.jpg

Turns out that the goverment taking steps to keep you alive* and able to go outside and keep your job is both successful and popular!

*they had nine deaths from the 1st of March to the 3rd of May tbf.

sorry, going to rant a little about my stimmy experience. trump bucks: direct deposit, no problem. 2019 taxes: filed in july, owed a bunch, paid it (though i still have a balance from 2017). 600: i never got it. no direct deposit, no debit card, no check.

The first check was most likely based on 2018 filing -- the second one took into account 2019 info, so it is quite likely, that since you owed for 2019, they didn't direct deposit that check. They also are sending out letters to people who did receive payments. If you got a letter and no payment, then they fucked up. If you didn't get a letter or a payment, then you should be able to claim it as a rebate on 2020 filing.

i claimed the recovery rebate for 600 on my federal. the IRS TOOK ALL OF IT because i owe a balance and i'm on a monthly payment plan. they literally take $100 from my checking account every month. they OBVIOUSLY have both my bank info and my current address right? wtf.

the way the rebate works on the 2020 tax return, is it's just a credit, so if you owe, they take it. Also, these things, you would think the systems would be integrated. Sadly, no. The IRS is an underfunded government agency with antiquated computer systems.

i've got a hunch they're withholding stimulus from people who owe them. but i got the first one???? beyond confused. i could really use the money lol.

i don't think this is the case. i remember back in the GWB rebate era where they sent them out based on the last two digits of your SSN -- at any rate, not everyone is getting the payments all at once, and I'm pretty sure they said as much. There are also regional things at play -- like the issuing of payments is divided up by regions of the country. I'm guessing the West is slower than other parts of the country -- why -- idk.

― sarahell, Wednesday, March 17, 2021 10:18 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

thanks for taking the time to respond to my whine.

Xpost Our own Governor was arguing with health officials that FL didn't have community spread when it was pretty obvious we did.

I knew we were finished from a contact trace perspective at that point

we might have had the first US shelter-in-place order ... we still have a lot of cases and problems

If our contact tracing in the US was a cheer, it'd have been...

What do we have?

COVID! Possibly.

When did we get it?

I DON'T KNOW!

Who did we get it from?

STOP ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS!

SF was first, yeah - Inslee kept going on TV that week and asking people to stay home instead of just giving an order, which seems to have been a policy to get people prepared.

the cases and problems that come from a year of no federal response can't be headed off by one local order tho.

oh totally ... that was my point

the second one took into account 2019 info, so it is quite likely, that since you owed for 2019, they didn't direct deposit that check.

yeah, i found a section in the return that includes my bank info for a debit but turbotax marked the checkbox above that, authorizing a deposit, as no.

it's weird that i never received anything in the mail though, they definitely had the right address if they were going from 2019.

the deposit box is only checked yes if you are getting a refund via direct deposit ... not that it is disallowing deposits. ... I got a refund in 2018 and got the first payment direct deposit; I owed in 2019, and got the atm card for the second one. There is a number you can call to do a trace -- to see if they thought they sent you the $600 -- and that # is 1-800-919-9835

Thank you!

weirdly my 'fraud' account that was closed for fraud was erroneously re-opened by the idiot bank so I left it just in case they would direct deposit the stimmy in it, but....nope. re-closed it goes.

They need to come up with some snappy name like 'the squad' for the group of 12 house members that voted against the Congressional Gold medals for the Police during the riot. My vote is for the 'white power posse'.

What possible reason did they give for opposing that? Are they flat out claiming the insurrection wasn’t violent?

if you're a true hardass, you don't stand for participation trophies

only first place trophies. and the police did not dominate that day.

just trying to get in the mindset. i didn't look to see who voted against them, but i assume greene and boebert, immediately

time to look it up, here we go now.

The GOP lawmakers, who said they objected to the use of the term “insurrectionists” in the resolution, are: Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Andy Harris (Md.), Lance Gooden (Tex.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Louie Gohmert (Tex.), Michael Cloud (Tex.), Andrew S. Clyde (Ga.), Greg Steube (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.) and John Rose (Tenn.).

wow, forgot that gaetz always has to be on the vanguard of being a fucking asshole, and gohmert is one of the three dumbest politicians in congress, so

wait, boebert didn't vote for that? what's her fucking problem?!

i would excerpt the reasons for the various lawmakers in the article, but i just got really sad for some reason, like really fucking sad