Current Affairs General US politics (ie, not POTUS related)

[LinekersLegs]

Personally I’d rather they forget the blanket direct payments to everyone and instead pour that money into higher weekly dollar amounts for unemployment and more aid to businesses to put them in a more advantageous position so they aren’t forced to decide between their physical and financial health.

There are obviously a lot of people in desperate need of money right now, and while just throwing everyone a set amount of money is probably logistically easier, it also ends up with a lot of people who are weathering the pandemic just fine getting a check. I had no need for the $1200 they sent me back in the spring, and don’t have any need for another $600 (much less $2k) right now. If we’re going to borrow or just print all this money, it just makes sense to try and get it to the people who need it most, even if that requires a little more work.

I’d originally thought that but have changed my mind after seeing how long people had to wait for unemployment - weeks and often months.

Unemployment Payments Weeks Late in Nearly Every State • Stateline

Like millions of Americans, Kathleen Kroeger lost her job in the pandemic and needed help. Five months later, alongside scores of other Americans, she’s still looking for it. States are swamped with unemployment claims, delaying the resolution of even minor paperwork issues. In some cases, it...

www.pewtrusts.org

The blanket payments as you say aren’t very good at targeting where most needed but they do have the advantage of getting the money into people’s hands quickly.

 

[TN Toffee]

I’d originally thought that but have changed my mind after seeing how long people had to wait for unemployment - weeks and often months.

Unemployment Payments Weeks Late in Nearly Every State • Stateline

Like millions of Americans, Kathleen Kroeger lost her job in the pandemic and needed help. Five months later, alongside scores of other Americans, she’s still looking for it. States are swamped with unemployment claims, delaying the resolution of even minor paperwork issues. In some cases, it...

www.pewtrusts.org

The blanket payments as you say aren’t very good at targeting where most needed but they do have the advantage of getting the money into people’s hands quickly.

Fair point. Obviously we’ll all pay for this with extortionate interest somewhere down the line in the form of inflation or something else. Was just thinking from the perspective that I wouldn’t borrow $1200 if I knew when it was all said and done I’d be repaying $5000 unless I DESPERATELY needed the money, which right now I personally don’t. Clearly a lot of people do though.

 

[LinekersLegs]

Fair point. Obviously we’ll all pay for this with extortionate interest somewhere down the line in the form of inflation or something else. Was just thinking from the perspective that I wouldn’t borrow $1200 if I knew when it was all said and done I’d be repaying $5000 unless I DESPERATELY needed the money, which right now I personally don’t. Clearly a lot of people do though.

People have been warning about high interest rates/inflation from our deficits for ages yet for 25 years our inflation has only once briefly got over 5% iirc and the 30 year note is currently 1.7% so tbh it is a very long way down my list of worries atm!

 

[TN Toffee]

People have been warning about high interest rates/inflation from our deficits for ages yet for 25 years our inflation has only once briefly got over 5% iirc and the 30 year note is currently 1.7% so tbh it is a very long way down my list of worries atm!

Agreed. Barring some major setback on the vaccine front, we’re now realistically 4-6 months away from starting to return to some version of normality. We’ve just got to get everybody through the first half of next year without massive homelessness, starvation and other apocalyptic nightmares, and then figure out where best to go from there.

 

[carolinablue232]

Personally I’d rather they forget the blanket direct payments to everyone and instead pour that money into higher weekly dollar amounts for unemployment and more aid to businesses to put them in a more advantageous position so they aren’t forced to decide between their physical and financial health.

There are obviously a lot of people in desperate need of money right now, and while just throwing everyone a set amount of money is probably logistically easier, it also ends up with a lot of people who are weathering the pandemic just fine getting a check. I had no need for the $1200 they sent me back in the spring, and don’t have any need for another $600 (much less $2k) right now. If we’re going to borrow or just print all this money, it just makes sense to try and get it to the people who need it most, even if that requires a little more work.

If you have no need for it, take the 600 or 2000 and donate to a food bank? It’d be nice if more thought like you on this. I don’t have faith that those who don’t need it won’t still just pocket the “free money.”

 

[BirkenheadBlue]

If you have no need for it, take the 600 or 2000 and donate to a food bank? It’d be nice if more thought like you on this. I don’t have faith that those who don’t need it won’t still just pocket the “free money.”

I think we’ve seen proof in this very thread (or possibly the Trump one) that plenty will do exactly that

 

[verreauxi]

From Lawyers, Guns, and Money:

The Horrors of Tyson - Lawyers, Guns & Money

ProPublica is a gem. Their reporters continually produce perhaps the best investigative journalism in America. Today’s drop is a maddening deep dive in Tyson’s utter indifference to the workers dropping dead like flies from COVID-19 in its Waterloo, Iowa plant. It’s the must read of the day. In...

www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com

ProPublica is a gem. Their reporters continually produce perhaps the best investigative journalism in America. Today’s drop is a maddening deep dive in Tyson’s utter indifference to the workers dropping dead like flies from COVID-19 in its Waterloo, Iowa plant. It’s the must read of the day.

In an apartment on the west side of town, a Karenni refugee from Myanmar woke up one morning in April gasping for air. His wife tried to help, but the man, who butchered hog carcasses for a living, was suddenly too weak to get out of bed.
A few miles away, Congolese immigrants, short of breath and struggling with coughing fits, cocooned themselves in blankets and leaned over steaming pots of lemon, ginger and garlic.
Outside the weather was getting warmer, but the streets were eerily empty, almost like when the ocean pulls out all the water before pounding a wave onto the shore. In the lull, Dr. Sharon Duclos, the co-medical director of the Peoples Community Health Clinic, waited anxiously, hoping that the deadly new virus would somehow spare her city.
Then it hit. Overnight, the number of cases in urgent care doubled, then tripled and quadrupled. The clinic’s interpreters, fielding calls in multiple languages, couldn’t keep up. Unable to get through, families drove to the clinic, lining up on the sidewalk as the smell of fast food drifted from the Hardee’s next door.
As the staff tended to the sick, a chilling pattern emerged: 99% of the patients either worked at the local Tyson Foods meatpacking plant or lived with someone who did. Some patients said they’d come from a town two hours away where an outbreak had shut down another Tyson plant.

This is the story of the corporate domination of a town, the recruitment of an easily exploited workforce, and a political system far more concerned with corporate interests than that of workers. Of course, given that Iowa’s utter failure at managing the pandemic only led to the reelection of all its Republicans and winning back congressional seats held by Democrats, I guess Iowa Republicans know their voters: people highly resentful of these immigrants doing these awful jobs that keep the economy of their state alive, if not the workers themselves.

 

[summerisle]

Is there a lying gene particular to politicians ?

 

[Sassy Colombian]

Senator Purdue is a crook that has used inside information, provided to him as a senator, to sell off his stock shares when it benefited him the most. He needs to be removed from office so I am really hoping
that Ossoff becomes the youngest senator in the upcoming Congress. It is an uphill battle but turn out in the Senate race has already passed two million votes and higher turn out usually benefits Democrats so I'll continue dreaming of a Democrat run senate in January.


https://nyti.ms/3aOgbN4

 

[riddick]

Senator Purdue is a crook that has used inside information, provided to him as a senator, to sell off his stock shares when it benefited him the most. He needs to be removed from office so I am really hoping
that Ossoff becomes the youngest senator in the upcoming Congress. It is an uphill battle but turn out in the Senate race has already passed two million votes and higher turn out usually benefits Democrats so I'll continue dreaming of a Democrat run senate in January.

View attachment 112433
https://nyti.ms/3aOgbN4

I'm completely pessimistic about this. Just don't see how BOTH GA seats go to the Democrats. Also completely expect, if it does, that they will screw it up completely.

 

[Sassy Colombian]

I'm completely pessimistic about this. Just don't see how BOTH GA seats go to the Democrats. Also completely expect, if it does, that they will screw it up completely.

It does seem imposible but I'm really hoping we beat the odds and surprise everyone with two wins. But I totally understand your skepticism, we will be defying history with such a win.

 

[LinekersLegs]

 

[sdk]

Crenshaw lacks perception and he lacks depth, but he really, really lacks depth perception.

 

[Death]

Omg did anyone.see Rand Paul's passionate speech against the stimulus package. Ewwwww.

 

[Sassy Colombian]

Today's report on NPR continues giving me glimpses of hope that Democrats have a chance to grab the two senate seats in GA.

According to the report, voting data suggest that out of the 2.3 million votes that have been cast, a good number is coming back from from younger and more diverse type of voters than the general population. A lot of the early and absentee voting is also happening in large suburban areas that tend to vote for Democrats. On the data is also noticeable the people that have been absent from voting, that's Republicans and voters from rural areas who in the past had made more use of early and absentee voting. If the voting data is correct then Democrats are at an advantage at the moment. Let's hope this trend continues and if so then Democrats need to take into account the way Stacey Abrams has been campaigning in GA and replicate her approach in two years.