I say this with a genuine combination of love and seriousness, because I deeply appreciate all of the fantastic people on UP.
There are a lot of smart people on this forum, and smart people (especially poker players, maybe) are unusually adept at looking for and finding threats in the world around us. That said, I think we need to be careful about becoming an echo chamber for acute depressive thoughts in response to each of Trump’s new weekly horrors.
The dude is a monster, surrounded by monsters, and enabled by monsters. I’m scared too, and my family is in the process of updating our passports. But none of us UPers are made safer by driving each other toward despondent helplessness, and the game isn’t over yet.
Worst case scenario, we can all pile in a solar-powered bus caravan and get some breathless coverage from Tucker Carlson before we bluff our way (right? who else could do it better?) across the Canadian border.
Trump was accustomed to cutting deals and sharing gossip on his private cellphone, often loudly. He enjoyed being around billionaires, to whom he would “show off about some of the stuff he thought was cool — the capabilities of different weapons systems,” one former senior administration official recalled. “These were superrich guys who wouldn’t give him the time of day before he became president. He’d use that stuff as currency he had that they didn’t, not understanding the implications.” Trump also stocked his President’s Intelligence Advisory Board with wealthy businesspeople who, when briefed by one intelligence official, “would sometimes make you uncomfortable” because on occasion, “their questions were related to their business dealings,” this individual recalled.
CNN/WaPo/NYTimes headlines: “Democrats, forced to action by President’s Executive Orders, pass stimulus bill that some say gives away too much money with too little oversight”
There were obvious security issues that seemed not to have occurred to Kushner, who “would have the Chinese ambassador and his minions wandering around the West Wing unescorted,” recalled one former senior administration official.
It’s illegal for states to offer unemployment? What? California has its own unemployment insurance.
The states should pay. We should pay 30% in tax to the state and 10% to federal government instead of the other way around. Or better yet 0% to the federal government. 40 million people is more than enough for a country.
The payroll tax cut would be a little weird just because the employer and employee each pay half of it. Are the planning on employers not paying their half?
Although looking around there is already a 50% employer payroll tax credit related to Covid.
I think there are employee side credits that exist, unrelated to Covid, but I am not entirely sure on that. If that’s the case the payroll tax cut might offer up a decent increase on the paycheck but be offset come tax time, compared to previous years.
I think it is a stupid plan. Just give people money. Doing a payroll tax cut adds a bunch of additional moving pieces that are going to cause problems for many people.
Plus taking funds from Social Security and Disability is bad.
Ehhhhhh, I really think for the majority of us (still) we are less concerned about our own way of lives and just how badly this is going to fuck everyone else who are less fortunate than us.
GOP Sen: You pretended to be a gay fundamentalist Mormon and married a near stranger in order to fraudulently gain Canadian citizenship. How can you assure us of your loyalty to the United States?
Washington, D.C. – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today issued the following joint statement after President Trump signed an executive order and memoranda instead of negotiating with Democrats to pass meaningful coronavirus relief legislation:
“Today’s meager announcements by the President show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families. We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the President instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare.
“These policy announcements provide little real help to families. For instance, not only does the President’s announcement not actually extend the eviction moratorium, it provides no assistance to help pay the rent, which will only leave desperate families to watch their debt pile higher. Instead of passing a bill, now President Trump is cutting families’ unemployment benefits and pushing states further into budget crises, forcing them to make devastating cuts to life-or-death services.
“Furthermore, these announcements do nothing to increase testing, nothing to reopen schools, nothing to put food on the table for hungry families, nothing to prevent heroes being laid off across state and local government, nothing to protect the Postal Service or the integrity of our elections, nothing on many critical needs of the American people.
“Since the House passed The Heroes Act twelve weeks ago, more than 3.5 million Americans have become infected and 70,000 have tragically died. The coronavirus is moving through our country like a runaway freight train and the economy is quickly running out of steam. The only solution to crush the virus and protect working families is to pass a comprehensive bill that is equal to the historic health and economic catastrophe facing our country.
“Democrats repeat our call to Republicans to return to the table, meet us halfway and work together to deliver immediate relief to the American people. Lives are being lost, and time is of the essence.”
How shitty must it be to be the Chinese agent who has to listen the “intelligence” gathered from the bugs in the WH? All day listening to a guy scream about publicly available news stories, with no actionable intel because he doesn’t take his briefings. And you have to listen closely for keywords like “Jyna”. It’s just degrading.