Didn’t know where to put this but figure it’s important and this is a well read thread.
Regarding flexible spending accounts and dependent care assistant plan, I wrote my congressman (Denny Heck) to find out if anything was being done because I’m guessing I"m not alone in that I have a couple of thousand locked up in a DCAP with no hope of recovering it. This was one of his staff’s reply:
I really appreciate you raising this issue, and I’ll share your concerns with the Congressman. A potential fix to this problem was included in the House-passed HEROES Act. The HEROES Act would give employers the flexibility to allow employees to roll over all contributions to a dependent care FSA from a plan year ending in 2020 to a plan year ending in 2021. Additionally, the bill would allow benefits or contributions from these plans or arrangements to be used for expenses incurred up to 12 months after the end of the plan year. A similar fix was included in the Senate’s response bill, so I think it’s likely this is something that would be addressed in any compromise bill.
So, there may good news if you’re in the same position as us.
I’m not sure how it happened, but my employer definitely opened up FSA options recently to allow us to stop contributing. Of course, my kid ended up needing braces, so it quickly became irrelevant.
Anecdotally judging by my one-week vacation in Thessaloniki (Greece) I just returned from, no they aren’t. Bars are open, waiters are wearing either ridiculously tiny face-shields or proper masks, while guests usually don’t wear any mask (although apparently since Wednesday a mask mandate has been re-issues.
And especially many people are wearing the masks wrong… like 40% of people at the airport gate had their nose out.
The whole air travel system is just a perfect breeding ground for diseases if people aren’t careful.
We changed our contribution twice. Once I dropped the amount expecting to still need it in the fall, then I cancelled it completely. Since I expected to use it in the fall, my account has that leftover cash.
Whatever gets the job done. Shutting down transportation infrastructure is always the go-to.
True. However, and in general, nurses working the ICU/etc jobs won’t ever go out on strike, and are not expected to by their FWs.
Nurse unions in the US are down by law for two reasons: (1) in several jurisdictions they aren’t legally allowed to strike, and (2) in common with all other unions in the US, the Taft-Hartley Slave Labor Act makes secondary strikes and boycotts illegal. But us, civil society (and as long as we aren’t legally calling ourselves a union)… can do all the secondary strikes we feel like.
I’m not sure what to do here. My SIL and nephew are back in town. They don’t take any precautions or social distancing measures. The SIL and BIL drink purified silver for health benefits. They won’t vaccinate my nephew because they don’t want him to get autism. 9/11 was an inside job. Evolution is something people just made up and now force people to “confirm” in order to be awarded research grants. They were afraid to drive across states for fears protestors would pull them out of their car and murder them. That’s the level of WTF I’m at with them.
SIL suggested getting lunch. She wants to dine in (WTF). We said we would like to get food and eat socially distanced at a park. We said we’re busy until next Friday. That’s true but is also our covert way of letting them stay home in the middle of nowhere for a pseudo quarantine and see if they develop symptoms.
On one hand, I feel like I accepted that the last time I saw them was essentially goodbye until the pandemic is over or they change their minds about it being a fear-mongering hoax. On the other hand, this is likely to be the last chance I have to see my nephew for a long long long time.
I also am concerned about keeping the peace. I want a relationship with my nephew, and my spouse wants a relationship with her sister. I don’t want my SIL to say some nutty conspiracy theory shit and I try but can’t restrain myself from saying something. Even if it’s just “…wow.” But I mostly don’t want to get infected and think JFC what was I thinking. I knew they were high risk and went anyway???
This is how we all end up walking around with dead eyes in the coming years after they refuse to hold the election this fall and nobody does nothing and the baby king becomes POTUS for life.
I’m really done using soft language with the people who aren’t taking the pandemic seriously. Whether it’s the greed of my SO’s boss making her go back to work when WFM has worked fine, or the brutal ignorance of a relative not wearing a mask, they are trying to get us killed or maimed. Fuck those ■■■■■■ This is a fight for survival.
Where I live this is almost perfectly correlated with age. Every nose out is accompanied by grey hair. Did Reagan tell then that only commies cover their noses or something?
In a message accompanying the video, Cranston writes:
Hi. About now you’re probably feeling a little tied down, restricting your mobility and like me, you’re tired of this!! Well, I just want to encourage you to have a little more patience. I was pretty strict in adhering to the protocols and still… I contracted the virus. Yep. it sounds daunting now that over 150,000 Americans are dead because of it. I was one of the lucky ones. Mild symptoms. I count my blessings and urge you to keep wearing the damn mask, keep washing your hands, and stay socially distant. We can prevail – but ONLY if we follow the rules together. Be well – Stay well. BC
Supposedly it took the romans something like two decades to realize they were no longer in a republic after caesar seized power. Can’t think of a reason why that’d be different today.
If it makes you guys feel any better there are lots of people like me who have loved ones at super high risk that would be incredibly grateful just to have our loved ones surrounded by good people in their final moments.
Like I said before I know if my mom gets this shes dying alone and the best I can hope for is shes surrounded by really nice/cool nurses or doctors.
