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

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

Gohmert needs to be fed through a wood chipper. I can't think of many people who are such a potent cocktail of stupidity and malevolence.

_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

technically tbf they didn't just "give" Wall Street 1.5 trillion dollars and poof, it was gone. it was basically paid in one and three month short-term loans via purchases made through the repo market.

MSM needs to chill the fuck out with the "Border Crisis" world ending invasion narrative. Sure it needs to be covered and addressed but FFS let's not feed into this bullshit alarmist crap that we are being overrun by brown people.

xpost fair point Neanderthal

re carne asada—yes! my two oldest friends (centrist-y, liberal, liked Klobuchar lol) with whom I have a long-running politics group chat seemed concerned about it sort of out of the blue. and it’s like where are y’all getting thi— *tunes into MSM* oh. Oh ok yes I see now smdh

my two oldest friends (centrist-y, liberal, liked Klobuchar lol) with whom I have a long-running politics group chat seemed concerned about it sort of out of the blue.

i've got the same thing in my life -- except they are my parents: centrist-y, liberal, liked Klobuchar lol

Yeah we don’t have a “border crisis,” we have an immigration system crisis. We handle border crossings by way more people coming in legally every day. (At least under normal circumstances.) That’s because our customs system is set up to process people quickly. We could have a border system for people coming in without visas or passports that was just as efficient, if we had an infrastructure to support it. In the absence of that infrastructure we have instead built a whole bunch of “temporary” detention centers. Which is not any kind of solution or system at all.

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y8Rw9yvF7A

My mom is definitely "centrist-y liberal liked Klobuchar lol." (Haven't heard her talk about the border, though.)

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who helped lead the crusade by Republican lawmakers to steal the 2020 election on ex-President Donald Trump’s behalf that eventually led to the Capitol insurrection in January, is reportedly poised to launch a campaign for the Senate next week.

Punchbowl reports that Brooks will announce the bid during his rally with former Trump adviser Stephen Miller on Monday.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/report-top-trump-enabler-in-house-to-announce-al-senate-bid-after-helping-incite-insurrection

i don't think my parents are terribly concerned about the "border crisis" because they live in agribusiness-land, California, where a crisis has been in the shortage of farm labor.

great, Mo Brooks is gonna be the new fascist voice of a new generation

my mom, who at one point was a Reagan / Bush republican, would roll her eyes at the trump supporters who complained about the "bad hombres" taking American jobs because it wasn't like they were flocking to California to pick fruit and vegetables. In other words, if they were complaining about Mexicans taking jobs that they themselves weren't going to do, then they were just whiners and racists.

Still can’t wrap my mind around the two facedness of believing in a “border crisis” and liking cheap produce tbr.

Re: "the border crisis", my parents' viewpoint is primarily "why would we support ways to make life difficult for people who are already suffering"

lol for real -- though I grew up with people who worked in farming and also eagerly shopped at Wal-mart, which at the time, did the most to fuck over farmers by cornering the market on certain crops and refusing to pay a fair price for them.

and Wal-mart's shitty practices then led to a lot of farmland being sold to developers to build exurban single family homes that would be a significant amount of the real estate that was the basis of the mortgage crisis. Meanwhile .... how much money does the Wal-mart family have? ... Are they due a visit to Mr. Choppy?

why would we support ways to make life difficult for people who are already suffering

Suffering is un-American iirc.

well well

President Joe Biden is planning the first major federal tax hike since 1993 to help pay for the long-term economic program designed as a follow-up to his pandemic-relief bill, according to people familiar with the matter.

Unlike the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus act, the next initiative, which is expected to be even bigger, won’t rely just on government debt as a funding source. While it’s been increasingly clear that tax hikes will be a component — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said at least part of the next bill will have to be paid for, and pointed to higher rates — key advisers are now making preparations for a package of measures that could include an increase in both the corporate tax rate and the individual rate for high earners.

With each tax break and credit having its own lobbying constituency to back it, tinkering with rates is fraught with political risk. That helps explain why the tax hikes in Bill Clinton’s signature 1993 overhaul stand out from the modest modifications done since.

For the Biden administration, the planned changes are an opportunity not just to fund key initiatives like infrastructure, climate and expanded help for poorer Americans, but also to address what Democrats argue are inequities in the tax system itself. The plan will test both Biden’s capacity to woo Republicans and Democrats’ ability to remain unified.

doesn't help that some people seem to think immigration into the US is free and as easy as clicking a button on a website.

if I was poor and desperately needed to get out of Mexico, I'd probably choose the option that didn't have a $220 green card fee and takes a year or more to process

this.hasImmigrated = true;

there, all set

White House @PressSec says President Biden "supports DC statehood."

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 18, 2021

fucking neolib

what about Puerto Rico?

yes if they all move to DC

the fact that capital gains (most of them) are taxed lower than actual earned income is something that is a serious inequity. If those tax rates got raised, most of the money would come from rich people, the Mr. Choppy class, and it could have the added benefit, of using the opportunity zone laws (if those are kept idk i have mixed feelings about them) to funnel wealth into major development projects that could alleviate poverty in terms of building more affordable housing.

what about Puerto Rico?

Puerto Ricans themselves are split basically 50-50 on statehood; meanwhile, DC residents are something like 85% in favor. Also, DC residents pay taxes that PR residents don’t. DC should get to go first.

also alphabetical order

also supporting PR statehood for the purpose of getting Democratic votes in the Senate is correctly noted by Puerto Ricans as rankest colonialism

and the current administration is fairly conservative

puerto rico would likely be a swing state, and republicans who are staunchly opposed to its joining the union are doing a racism of their own

biden is already on record as supporting dc statehood

DC should be a state. Pass it on. https://t.co/xUJ1sud76f

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 25, 2020

considering DC is the most reliable Democratic voting entity -- it's like, well hello buttered side of the bread

seems to me the first and most urgent way of approach this major new "tax hike" on the rich would be to just... undo the Trump tax cuts on the rich. and the Bush ones too.

it a) looks better and b) could be more effective to actually design new & simple taxes

meanwhile, DC residents are something like 85% in favor. Also, DC residents pay taxes that PR residents don’t. DC should get to go first.

This and subsequent arguments are good, but also fuck it, just get both done at once. Don't waste money redesigning the flag twice.

And brand this DC reinvention as The New 52, that always works.

http://danbliss.blogspot.com/2011/11/51-star-flag.html

52 is definitely better than 51 here

the argument from design suggests we need to jump right to 54 states.

Or they could not change a thing and just tell people there are 51 stars.