US Politics: coughing for peace is like dying for the economy

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Jace, Basilissa said:

As a taxpaying citizen I am appalled by the Captain's actions and think he should be arrested. Army Mans don't get to act like Jessica at the GAP and search for sympathy online. 

Some how I missed this.

You have snot on your blouse, Jacelyn. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

Michelle Goldberg has a piece here (NYT, limited clicks) about Kushner and how terrible he is.  

 

Here's a sample:

 

 

Like I said before, I have officially kicked him out of the tribe. 

@DMC can henceforth change his unofficial status to verified (I wrote so many different terrible jokes here, but had to delete them quicker than the one before). Passover is coming soon, and since you're the youngest new member, time to learn:
 

 

[Fragile Bird]

10 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I'm sorry that this is so South Park-esque or something, but even just reading these four words...the concept of a person that hates Canada is so absurd as to be ROFL or whatever the kids say.  Best thing I've seen all day.  

ETA: Let me be clear, Navarro might be that cartoonish of a villain that he really does hate Canada.  

I watched him on CNN tonight, totally ignoring Anderson Cooper’s questions and talking about everything under the sun except what was asked. The interview started with Navarro announcing that an order had been signed preventing export of vital supplies out of the US because they were being sold to black market dealers who were marking the supplies up by extraordinary amounts and re-selling them to the highest bidders.

In other words, he accused 3M of selling not to the government of Canada or the governments or hospitals of Latin America but black marketeers. And Homeland Defense was going to prevent this evil from being done.

Peter Navarro is one fucking evil fucker.

And you ignored the rest of my post where I said there was a special place in hell for Trudeau.

[DMC]

18 minutes ago, Triskele said:

I'm sorry that this is so South Park-esque or something, but even just reading these four words...the concept of a person that hates Canada is so absurd as to be ROFL or whatever the kids say.  Best thing I've seen all day.  

To be clear, though, we should all hate & fear Beelzaboot!

 

4 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

@DMC can officially change his unofficial status to verified (I wrote so many different terrible jokes here, but had to delete them quicker than the one before). Passover is coming soon, and since you're the youngest new member, time to learn

I was gonna say there's no way you're getting me bar mitzvahed because I don't wanna get drunk with a bunch of 13 year olds, but upon second thought I could probably use the money all my friends got 20 years ago.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

22 minutes ago, DMC said:

I was gonna say there's no way you're getting me bar mitzvahed because I don't wanna get drunk with a bunch of 13 year olds, but upon second thought I could probably use the money all my friends got 20 years ago.

Long ways off buddy. That prayer is for the youngest to learn and recite. There's a five or six year gap between me and my next youngest cousin while my older cousins are all separated by like a year or two in a giant cluster. I've largely forgotten how to speak Hebrew outside of some prayers, but I'll remember the above until I can't remember things in general. 

And the adults get drunk together, lol. The kiddos chug Shirley Temples. 

[Fragile Bird]

Trump has removed (ie fired) Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, the person who reported the whistleblower's complaint to Congress.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

36 minutes ago, Triskele said:

One who aligns with fascists...I expect there'd be trouble at home.  Worth it for Jared, I guess.  

When you go from that broke to liquid....

ETA, Now if you will excuse me, Lamar Jackson is looking to go up 27-0 for the Vikes. I think I have like 5 rushing TDs for every passing one with him. About to be 11-1 on All-Madden, and that's because I threw a dumb pick-six. The TD-Int ration is, I must admit, worse than anything real life Jameis could have done.

[DMC]

7 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Long ways off buddy. That prayer is for the youngest to learn and recite. There's a five or six year gap between me and my next youngest cousin while my older cousins are all separated by like a year or two in a giant cluster. I've largely forgotten how to speak Hebrew outside of some prayers, but I'll remember the above until I can't remember things in general. 

Meh from what I recall of the reading from the Torah, for how long the passages were I could memorize that in a couple weeks, which is what most of my friends did anyway.

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

And the adults get drunk together, lol. The kiddos chug Shirley temples. 

Of the 15-20 of them I went to growing up, we definitely weren't drinking Shirley temples.  Does remind me though, the last bar/bat mitzvah I went to was my ex's little sister's when I was about 20.  Other than my one friend growing up whose parents were millionaires, the reception was usually held in the synagogue.  But my ex was from Staten Island then moved out to Jersey.  Now, her dad is a stockbroker, so he pulled down probably $150k a year, but hardly any more (and usually less) than any of the friends' I attended growing up in suburban Rochester (Brighton). 

So when she asked me to go I was like "blah, this is gonna be boring, I have to be on my best behavior with her parents, and we gotta drive from DC to Jersey."  But goddamn, her sister's reception was in a hotel ballroom and had an awesome open bar.  Her mom got drunk and told me the whole thing cost them 25 grand.  I remember thinking "holy shit, I'm never gonna make a Jews being cheap joke again" (which of course I broke that vow probably minutes later).  Based on that experience, seemed like there were some big distinctions between NYC Jews and the ones I grew up with in upstate NY.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

14 minutes ago, DMC said:

Meh from what I recall of the reading from the Torah, for how long the passages were I could memorize that in a couple weeks, which is what most of my friends did anyway.

Of the 15-20 of them I went to growing up, we definitely weren't drinking Shirley temples.  Does remind me though, the last bar/bat mitzvah I went to was my ex's little sister's when I was about 20.  Other than my one friend growing up whose parents were millionaires, the reception was usually held in the synagogue.  But my ex was from Staten Island then moved out to Jersey.  Now, her dad is a stockbroker, so he pulled down probably $150k a year, but hardly any more (and usually less) than any of the friends' I attended growing up in suburban Rochester (Brighton). 

So when she asked me to go I was like "blah, this is gonna be boring, I have to be on my best behavior with her parents, and we gotta drive from DC to Jersey."  But goddamn, her sister's reception was in a hotel ballroom and had an awesome open bar.  Her mom got drunk and told me the whole thing cost them 25 grand.  I remember thinking "holy shit, I'm never gonna make a Jews being cheap joke again" (which of course I broke that vow probably minutes later).  Based on that experience, seemed like there were some big distinctions between NYC Jews and the ones I grew up with in upstate NY.

Reading your post made me throw a pick-six. 

100% your fault.

(Will respond sincerely later) 

ETA: TD! 

 

[Altherion]

1 hour ago, Triskele said:

Michelle Goldberg has a piece here (NYT, limited clicks) about Kushner and how terrible he is.  

The problem here is not just this specific individual, it's the system that instills this unearned confidence. You can say he was a mediocre student... but he still got into Harvard. You can say that he screwed up the real estate deal... but it all worked out for him in the end. This might be a particularly egregious example, but as long as the scions of the wealthy are not allowed to fail (at most, they fail upwards), there will be a lot of people of this sort.

[DMC]

13 minutes ago, Altherion said:

This might be a particularly egregious example, but as long as the scions of the wealthy are not allowed to fail (at most, they fail upwards), there will be a lot of people of this sort.

Sure but the problem is someone this incompetent and "failing upwards" being delegated such significant responsibilities in the WHO.  Hell, Dick Cheney may have dropped out of Yale, but he earned his way up as a political operative to become CoS to Ford at the age of 34, then climbed up the House leadership to become Whip in eight years.  Both parties used to at least value competence before the Tea Party to Trump.

[mcbigski]

10 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lovely. Donald Trump called 3M and told them not to ship anything to Canada.

I have heard it was only respirators, but I also have heard it was everything medical.

Fuck you, America!

I'm not pleased that so much of our antibiotics are manufactured in China.  But Canada probably has more timber and petro chemicals per capita than the US.  Either way, when the Democrats are blaming Trump for not using the Defense Act or whatever it's called, what do you expect?  Pelosi and Schiff are starting a new comittee on blaming Trump for Coronavirus.  He's got to cover his back, right?

Also, in reference to our conversation last week about the SALT deduction:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-pushes-new-stimulus-that-would-help-wealthy-locales-including-her-district-with-salt-rollback

Democrats in favor of tax cuts for the rich.  I don't see why people who live in high tax districts and want higher taxes in general shouldn't pay higher taxes themselves, but I'm outlier around here.

Quote

A 2019 report from the Joint Committee on Taxation projected that of those who would face lower tax liability from the elimination of the SALT cap – which only affects those who itemize tax deductions – 94 percent earn at least $100,000. The government would lose out on $77.4 billion in tax dollars, with more than half of that amount being saved by taxpayers earning $1 million or more. Those earning more than $200,000 would reap most of the balance.

California's 12th congressional district, which Pelosi represents, is among the wealthiest in the U.S., with a median income of $113,919, according to census data.

4 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

I have often stated that if the mail shuts down, it means modern civilization has ended.  Used to be a sort of distant theoretical.  Now, it looks possible - and if USPS does go under. then...well....it's really, really bad news for a lot of folks.  And no - FedEx and USPS *cannot* take up the slack - they have major issues of their own, and Amazon...the less said about that bunch, the better.  Maybe Team Trump and Conservatives really are that stupid...

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/us-postal-service-could-shut-down-by-june-lawmakers-warn/ar-BB128O5w?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=msnclassic

 

 

This is just more stimulus pork. Post office employs about 500000 people nationally.  $25 billion is about $50,000 per employee.  So roughly speaking, they are asking for enough to pay every employee for the next 8 to 10 months, assuming zero income from any postage.  The article gives it away when they talk about paying off their debt, which has nothing to do with Coronavirus.  Not sure why they can't charge more for all the mail that goes directly from my mailbox to my dumpster that I never requested.

 

1 hour ago, DMC said:

Meh from what I recall of the reading from the Torah, for how long the passages were I could memorize that in a couple weeks, which is what most of my friends did anyway.

Of the 15-20 of them I went to growing up, we definitely weren't drinking Shirley temples.  Does remind me though, the last bar/bat mitzvah I went to was my ex's little sister's when I was about 20.  Other than my one friend growing up whose parents were millionaires, the reception was usually held in the synagogue.  But my ex was from Staten Island then moved out to Jersey.  Now, her dad is a stockbroker, so he pulled down probably $150k a year, but hardly any more (and usually less) than any of the friends' I attended growing up in suburban Rochester (Brighton).

Quote

In disagreed with quite a few of the Obama Administration’s policies but to be honest I would much rather have a beer with him than George W. Bush.  I don’t have to, or want to, agree with someone to enjoy their company or their ideas.

A conversation with someone where we agree on everything sounds really dull.

Edited Wednesday at 10:05 AM by Ser Scot A Ellison

 

Sorry somehow I got Scot's post from the last thread mixed into yours.  I've only been to one Bar Mitzvah and we definitely drank Shirley Temples.  My friend is less than a month older than me, I would assume the non-adolescents weren't.  So sample size of one. 

As for Ser Scot's post,  in honor of social distancing I'm going to go with two spaces after commas from now on,  as I was saying,  first off GWB quit drinking,  otherwise, are you saying that you agree more with Bush 43 than Obama,  but would rather have a beer with Obama?   Otherwise,  I'm missing the point.

[GrimTuesday]

4 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

I have often stated that if the mail shuts down, it means modern civilization has ended.  Used to be a sort of distant theoretical.  Now, it looks possible - and if USPS does go under. then...well....it's really, really bad news for a lot of folks.  And no - FedEx and USPS *cannot* take up the slack - they have major issues of their own, and Amazon...the less said about that bunch, the better.  Maybe Team Trump and Conservatives really are that stupid...

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/us-postal-service-could-shut-down-by-june-lawmakers-warn/ar-BB128O5w?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=msnclassic

 

 

Wow, who would have thought that undermining the post office for the last however many years has set it up to fail. I mean gosh, who could have seen that coming.

In all seriousness, it's a fucking outrage what this country has done to the postal system. The Postal Service is one of the great triumphs of this country (though maybe not one that is unique to us), and idea of running it as a profit making enterprise is just plain cruel when you consider how many people depend on it every day.

Out of curiosity, as a postal worker, what are your thoughts on postal banking?

[ThinkerX]

1 minute ago, GrimTuesday said:

Wow, who would have thought that undermining the post office for the last however many years has set it up to fail. I mean gosh, who could have seen that coming.

In all seriousness, it's a fucking outrage what this country has done to the postal system. The Postal Service is one of the great triumphs of this country (though maybe not one that is unique to us), and idea of running it as a profit making enterprise is just plain cruel when you consider how many people depend on it every day.

Out of curiosity, as a postal worker, what are your thoughts on postal banking?

Never heard of 'postal banking,' though the in-office clerks do things like money orders and passport applications. My job is straight delivery. I can say from direct experience that the post office delivers a huge number of bills, checks, legal and business documents, along with everything from medications to machine parts to books to household goods and appliances.  That goes away - it's a death sentence for a huge swath of the populace.  And again FedEx and UPS cannot and will not 'fill the void.'

[GrimTuesday]

13 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

Never heard of 'postal banking,' though the in-office clerks do things like money orders and passport applications. My job is straight delivery. I can say from direct experience that the post office delivers a huge number of bills, checks, legal and business documents, along with everything from medications to machine parts to books to household goods and appliances.  That goes away - it's a death sentence for a huge swath of the populace.  And again FedEx and UPS cannot and will not 'fill the void.'

Ah, postal banking is a service that post offices used to offer up until the 1960s that allowed the Post Office to conduct banking business, offering low-cost, consumer-driven financial services via the Postal Service. Many of the proposals call for services from check cashing to bill payment to savings accounts to small-dollar loans. Basically the idea is that because there is not the requirement to turn a profit, the postal bank can offer low income and rural customers another option in areas where there might not be many. A lot of people have written better than me on this, but needless to say I think that it is something that would be a void that the Postal Service, if properly funded, could fill very effectively.

Also I think you and all your compatriots are awesome and don't get the recognition or the respect you folks deserve. Thank you for delivering all our junk mail (and the important shit too I guess).

[ants]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Trump has removed (ie fired) Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, the person who reported the whistleblower's complaint to Congress.

Unfortunately this will be a surprise to exactly nobody.  

[GrimTuesday]

1 minute ago, ants said:

Unfortunately this will be a surprise to exactly nobody.  

Only real surprise is that it took him this long.

[DMC]

23 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

Sorry somehow I got Scot's post from the last thread mixed into yours.  I've only been to one Bar Mitzvah and we definitely drank Shirley Temples.

Square.  To be clear, I'm not saying the kids were served alcohol - other than maybe a glass of Manischewitz - just that my friends and I were already at the point we were stealing from our parents' liquor cabinets and bringing flasks.

11 minutes ago, ThinkerX said:

I can say from direct experience that the post office delivers a huge number of bills, checks, legal and business documents, along with everything from medications to machine parts to books to household goods and appliances.  That goes away - it's a death sentence for a huge swath of the populace.  And again FedEx and UPS cannot and will not 'fill the void.'

While the USPS essentially operates as a government corporation, it is essentially the only federal agency outside the military explicitly authorized by the Constitution.  I have a hard time believing Congress will allow it to shut down.

[GrimTuesday]

3 minutes ago, DMC said:

Square.  To be clear, I'm not saying the kids were served alcohol - other than maybe a glass of Manischewitz - just that my friends and I were already at the point we were stealing from our parents' liquor cabinets and bringing flasks.

While the USPS essentially operates as a government corporation, it is essentially the only federal agency outside the military explicitly authorized by the Constitution.  I have a hard time believing Congress will allow it to shut down.

They've been trying to privatize it for years (though given the breadth of your knowledge I am sure you are aware of that), I wouldn't be surprised if that is their supposed remedy for this situation. I can't imagine that there aren't numerous Republicans licking their chops at the prospect.

[DMC]

1 minute ago, GrimTuesday said:

They've been trying to privatize it for years (though given the breadth of your knowledge I am sure you are aware of that), I wouldn't be surprised if that is their supposed remedy for this situation. I can't imagine that there aren't numerous Republicans licking their chops at the prospect.

If the GOP still enjoyed unified government, I would maybe be a bit worried about this.  While pushes for privatization have been around since, well, as long as I can remember, I've never seen anyone explain how they're getting around Article 1 Section 8.