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US Politics: Mad Max Beyond Corona Dome


Tywin Manderly

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15 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I just looked at a few reliable medical sites and sneezing isn't a common indicator, but a stuffy nose is and the two can go hand in hand. Personally I'm a little worried that I'm coughing more than usual, but it hasn't felt like a dry cough until the past few hours.

My BP meds have a side effect of dry cough. I think I terrify people sometimes. I have new meds but I decided to use up the last of this stuff rather than throw it away. I can’t return them, even though they are in blister packs. And I have a stuffed nose, which I suspect is actually seasonal allergies, I hope.

But over Christmas and well into January I had the cold from hell. When my dry cough was so bad I couldn’t get to sleep, I went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription for a codeine cough syrup to control it. He’s Chinese Canadian, and when I think back he asked me about fever and muscle aches and pains, which I did not have, so he told me it was likely ‘some kind of virus’. Now, this was Jan 3, so it would have been really early if it was Covid-19, and nobody around me got sick. But for 4 days after seeing him I was damn sick, very exhausted, coughing crap out of my lungs (he had checked them and said they were ok) and I completely lost my appetite, basically drinking water and beef broth only and days later finally forcing down some dry toast. I couldn’t eat because I had no sense of taste whatsoever. I can’t remember if I could smell anything, or if I was stuffed up so didn’t notice.
 

But for the very first time in my life I actually fainted - I got out of bed to go to the bathroom on day 3 or 4 and one moment I was standing by the sink and the next moment I was lying on the floor. Now that was very weird. I was quite sick for a good week and not really well until the end of January. Some time down the road I will ask the doctor if my blood can be checked for antibodies.

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regarding Trump supporters and the outbreak: lots of Trump fans on my route, maybe every third customer.

So, yesterday, I'm stuff mail into a long row of cluster boxes when one of the regular's trucks pulls up - except, it's not the regular (SS age big time Trump fan) it's one of his 30 something relatives.  I go, 'where's the old man at?' thinking he might be sick, as the plague has reached even my corner of the world.  

Kid goes, 'He's fine. Went to (New) Mexico to pick up a motor home.'  (A third of my route is snowbirds of a conservative bent.)

I go, 'well what of the travel restrictions (Canada having closed the border) and all the lock-down's going into effect?'

Kid: 'He thinks all that's fake news'  (unspoken subtext - because Trump spent upwards of a month calling it fake news.)

So...think about it...;lots of elderly cantankerous Trump fans meandering about the country... 

 

 

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Well I know it's early on with the proposed legislation but I'm hearing now that unless the IRS already has your direct deposit info, it will take up to 4 months to get a check.  

I wonder what type of person, would be most likely not to use direct deposit, or have a bank account at all.  

Probabaly mostly stockbroker types who are already set. 

Just have the feeling most relief legislation is going to be, as usual, total trash for people who actually need help.

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24 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

My BP meds have a side effect of dry cough. I think I terrify people sometimes. I have new meds but I decided to use up the last of this stuff rather than throw it away. I can’t return them, even though they are in blister packs. And I have a stuffed nose, which I suspect is actually seasonal allergies, I hope.

But over Christmas and well into January I had the cold from hell. When my dry cough was so bad I couldn’t get to sleep, I went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription for a codeine cough syrup to control it. He’s Chinese Canadian, and when I think back he asked me about fever and muscle aches and pains, which I did not have, so he told me it was likely ‘some kind of virus’. Now, this was Jan 3, so it would have been really early if it was Covid-19, and nobody around me got sick. But for 4 days after seeing him I was damn sick, very exhausted, coughing crap out of my lungs (he had checked them and said they were ok) and I completely lost my appetite, basically drinking water and beef broth only and days later finally forcing down some dry toast. I couldn’t eat because I had no sense of taste whatsoever. I can’t remember if I could smell anything, or if I was stuffed up so didn’t notice.
 

But for the very first time in my life I actually fainted - I got out of bed to go to the bathroom on day 3 or 4 and one moment I was standing by the sink and the next moment I was lying on the floor. Now that was very weird. I was quite sick for a good week and not really well until the end of January. Some time down the road I will ask the doctor if my blood can be checked for antibodies.

Damn, my initial reaction was to make a bird flu joke, but these are not the time for that. 

That sounds like an awful experience. 

:grouphug:

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10 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Well I know it's early on with the proposed legislation but I'm hearing now that unless the IRS already has your direct deposit info, it will take up to 4 months to get a check.  

I wonder what type of person, would be most likely not to use direct deposit, or have a bank account at all.  

Probabaly mostly stockbroker types who are already set. 

Just have the feeling most relief legislation is going to be, as usual, total trash for people who actually need help.

Everyone knows only the rich don't keep their money in banks. Didn't Scrooge McDuck teach you anything?

That said, there is no good way to do any of this. There's too much money at play. Too many greedy people at all levels of society that want to game this out best for themselves. And too many this could fail even with the best intentions at heart. I really have no idea how you do this without having society hit an economic pause, and I also have no idea what the fuck that would actually do.

But then again, I'm the rich brat arguing that we should do away with money, and a crisis can present some tasty opportunities :drool: 

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10 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Well I know it's early on with the proposed legislation but I'm hearing now that unless the IRS already has your direct deposit info, it will take up to 4 months to get a check.  

I wonder what type of person, would be most likely not to use direct deposit, or have a bank account at all.  

Probabaly mostly stockbroker types who are already set. 

Just have the feeling most relief legislation is going to be, as usual, total trash for people who actually need help.

Yeah, that's true of the one-time check. Supposedly the IRS has direct deposit info for 70 million taxpayers, so they'll get quick checks (and yes, its definitely more likely to be those who are poorer who are not on file). Hopefully the checks for their kids can get included in that too, but everyone else will take much longer unless the IRS finds an administrative fix. Or someone gets smart and they give this over to the SSA instead of the IRS, who are much more used to sending mass checks on a regularly basis.

Now the plus side is, those checks aren't the main relief, its the beefed up UI. And that will be administered by the state UI agencies. The swiftness of those agencies certainly varies as well, but in most blue states at least they are pretty damn fast at getting more out the idea.

Also, hopefully the flood of layoffs slows down with all the money rushing in to businesses. There really is a ton there, for both large and small businesses. It won't be enough to help businesses totally swamped, like hotels, restaurants, and florists, but its hopefully enough to keep most other businesses afloat for the next few months that need a lifeline.

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I really don't understand this complaint that the direct payments will go out to people that have direct deposit as opposed to those who do not.  Well, yeah.  If you have the direct deposit on file, then they can disburse those payments quickly.  Which gives them more time to process and disburse the payments to those that don't.  I'm not sure what alternative would be better from any organization.  You want them to send checks out without knowing where the fuck they're going?  I mean, this whining gets at me.  The top story on HuffPo right now is decrying how this bill is just like TARP and the "bank bailouts."  As if TARP was some type of social travesty.  The "bailout" currently is a net +$121 billion on a $634 billion investment.  Not the greatest rate of return, but let's stop acting like this is plutocracy's revenge.  Leftists annoy me I'm drunk.

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16 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Does anyone understand if these checks we'll all be cut (not the UI benefits) are just pegged inversely to income?  And is it based on a couple tax seasons ago?  So maybe it's we were making in the Spring of 2018 instead of now or something?  

Here's the bill text. https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rSVHQuPeCB_g/v0

Good luck figuring out the legalize. I believe the relevant subsection starts on page 145 (of 880).

The way I read it (which could be very wrong), its based on the most tax year on file; so 2019 or 2018 for most people. Anyone up to the income limit ($75k for individuals, $112,500 for head of household, $150k for join filings) gets the full $1,200. Anyone above that, gets $1,200 minus 5% of whatever they earned above the limit. So an individual filer who earned $85,000 in 2019 would get $700; because $85,000 minus $75,000 is $10,000; 5% of $10,000 is $500; and $1,200 minus $500 is $700.

The one exception is people getting benefits from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, which I believe really does just cover railworkers; they'll get $1,200 regardless of anything else. Someone secured a carve out.

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51 minutes ago, DMC said:

 You want them to send checks out without knowing where the fuck they're going?

No.

Quote

I really don't understand this complaint that the direct payments will go out to people that have direct deposit as opposed to those who do not.  Well, yeah.  If you have the direct deposit on file, then they can disburse those payments quickly.  Which gives them more time to process and disburse the payments to those that don't.  I'm not sure what alternative would be better from any organization.

I think the complaint, at least concerning the manner and timing of disbursement, isn't so much about the method of disbursement, but is more about pointing out that, yet again, U.S. society has structured itself in such a way that the people who need the help most urgently, will yet again receive that help too late to really make much of a difference for them.

Pivoting on this topic a bit, has anyone seen information on how the new legislation affects people who are already receiving unemployment benefits, or who have already exhausted them? And what about people who don't have any income, or have too little to have to file a tax return?

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31 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

more about pointing out that, yet again, U.S. society has structured itself in such a way that the people who need the help most urgently, will yet again receive that help too late to really make much of a difference for them.

That is indeed the way the US is structured.  Did you expect the stimulus bill to fix that?  Honestly, give me a proposal that could fix that in terms of the direct payments.  Like, did you expect this bill to heal the world or something?  I just..this seems like an underlying attack on the agencies that work their asses off to ensure benefits are distributed as quickly as possible.

37 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

And what about people who don't have any income, or have too little to have to file a tax return?

Pretty sure they don't get shit.  This would be my brother, who I'd like to claim as a dependent.

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2 hours ago, larrytheimp said:

Well I know it's early on with the proposed legislation but I'm hearing now that unless the IRS already has your direct deposit info, it will take up to 4 months to get a check.  

I wonder what type of person, would be most likely not to use direct deposit, or have a bank account at all.  

Probabaly mostly stockbroker types who are already set. 

Just have the feeling most relief legislation is going to be, as usual, total trash for people who actually need help.

This problem dawned on me immediately. Both of my wife’s brothers are young food service workers in their 20’s who, to be perfectly honest, are ridiculously irresponsible people.  However both have been massively affected by this and are essentially out of work.  We are going to get money because we actually do our taxes.  I doubt either of them do, and they need it more than us.

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And the final bill passes the Senate 96-0. Best guess is that its $2 trillion and that most of the funds will be used in only 3-4 months (there's a few other things thrown in there that'll last longer, like $425 million more for substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery through September 2021). Honestly one of the more remarkable legislative feats in modern US history.

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6 minutes ago, DMC said:

That is indeed the way the US is structured.  Did you expect the stimulus bill to fix that?  Honestly, give me a proposal that could fix that in terms of the direct payments.  Like, did you expect this bill to heal the world or something?  I just..this seems like an underlying attack on the agencies that work their asses off to ensure benefits are distributed as quickly as possible.

No, it's really not meant to be that at all; at least not in how I see it. It's a good thing that people will be helped out far more than they were during the GFC, but it's just hard to feel thrilled about it when thinking about the people I know who are going to get hit hardest by this won't get a damn thing. Did they at least manage to get SNAP benefits saved, or even increased?

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13 minutes ago, The Great Unwashed said:

it's just hard to feel thrilled

I don't think anyone feels thrilled right now.  That's different from admonishing the Dems from getting as much as they could get from an inherently disadvantageous position.

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47 minutes ago, DMC said:

I don't think anyone feels thrilled right now.  That's different from admonishing the Dems from getting as much as they could get from an inherently disadvantageous position.

Fair enough.

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Billionaires Want People Back At Work, Even If It Kills Them
Hurting the economy “could be worse than losing a few more people,” Paychex founder Tom Golisano told Bloomberg.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/billionaires-workers-coronavirus_n_5e7b92f0c5b62a1870d68b11

Quote

 

A number of the country’s richest businesspeople spoke frankly about the matter for a Bloomberg story published Wednesday. Dick Kovacevich, who ran Wells Fargo until 2007, said he wants healthy people under age 55 to return to work in late April if the outbreak is contained enough.

“We’ll gradually bring those people back and see what happens. Some of them will get sick, some may even die, I don’t know,” he said. “Do you want to suffer more economically or take some risk that you’ll get flu-like symptoms and a flu-like experience? Do you want to take an economic risk or a health risk? You get to choose.”

 

 

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Looks like 538 came out with their own...something,regarding Trump reelection prospects. They have their own Economic Index (first designed in 2012); like all 538 models its a fair bit complicated and I got tired going down the rabbit hole. Anyway, they have their predictions up, and a mild recession could have Trump trailing the popular vote anywhere from 4 to 6 points with an error bar that is quite large (>5 points).

Note that Trump has a built in EC advantage, so 4 points with a large error bar can still have him win the EC. The caveat here also being that partisanship can dull the response to a recession, so some of this may be baked in to the approval ratings come November.

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