it's funny when republicans like to change the definition of communism to fit their narrative but when it comes to socialism they like using the book definition to prove whatever trump signs off and spends isn't socialistic.

I am not denying the trillions given to big businesses without getting guarantees for workers weren't wasteful, Rainmaker. Just pointing out you were moving the goalposts. "They should have been running on 2k checks " "Well, they already passed 2k checks but the Senate didn't take it up" "Then they should have been running on 3k checks"..
Honestly, checks are great, but I feel like getting the extended unemployment bump and the PPP for super small businesses much more important. I would prefer a 1k-2k monthly income enhancement across the board over all of it. And free healthcare.

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And a pony

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Monthly? Because those ponies would add up quick.

It didn't seem to be part of the campaign at all. Just saying I think stimulus checks should have been one of the main messages. Maybe they would have done better actually campaigning on something.

You can also do PPC, unemployment, and stimulus checks. Seems like a priority over handing banks and other large businesses a slush fund when they spent the last 5 years buying back stock.

I'm like you (well, I may become a Republican voter in 2020, we'll see how it goes) but me, wife and family have been fortunate.

I've previously stated it would be better if the stimulus check is more targeted. As others countered, pay it now to everyone to speed it up and take it back during tax season for the more wealthy. Well, they are paying it now but they aren't planning to take it back from the more wealthy during tax season. So we are where we are.

Regardless, I gave up waiting for this second check and bought the Peloton (enjoying it btw). Wife and I agreed that whatever we get, we'll divide by 4 and tell the kids to actually spend/donate the money, not save it.

I know she has her little pet project in the deal to get landlords in the entertainment industry paid. But there should be no reason to object to the $2000 if you're a Democrat. Her response should be "it sucks he did this at the last minute but I support an additional $1400".

Remember that Klobuchar has always sucked.

Klobuchar, Sasse, Booker, Scott Introduce Legislation to Help Unemployed American Workers Access Skills Training Programs During Coronavirus Pandemic - News Releases - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar

:banana: :banana: :banana:

Trump vetoes defense bill, teeing up holiday override votes in Congress
By Karoun Demirjian

https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...036_story.html

This seems like it will be overriden. Even Republicans in Congress aren't fond of his holding up defense spending because they won't remove protections for social media companies in an unrelated bill.

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And apparently there is talk that regardless of Trump's words last night, he may still sign the Covid relief bill. I'd say that if he does, the Dems should immediately introduce an additional $1400 direct payment to make it $2000. Of course McConnell is going to reject it... As he did last year.

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I am sorry, there is a problem with giving people money to retrain for in demand jobs? You definitely lost me there.

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We don't have a news media thread do we?

Anyways, I don't want to dunk on Fox News during a down time for the company but damn. I typed "incoming ceo smithfield foods" into Google and I got a picture of the incoming CEO of Smithfield Foods. The guy who was interviewed does not look like the guy who who is the actual incoming CEO.

Fox Business anchor says she was 'punk'd' on air by animal rights activist | TheHill

Why not?

Christmas spirit

Add a few more cronies to the pardon list.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a second batch of pardons in as many days, this time forgiving the crimes of two former associates, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, as well as Charles Kushner, the father of Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

Wednesday's list also includes several people recommended by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was part of Trump's impeachment defense team, and Ike Perlmutter, the former CEO of Marvel Entertainment and a member of the president's private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a statement from the White House.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/paul-manaf...ry?id=74879785

Trump is calling for a special counsel for the election. Barr refused, but now Barr is gone.

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It isn't giving people money. It is a tax credit for someone who has no income (or tax liability) because they don't have a job. It makes sense if it is someone who has a job and wants to take night classes or something, but not for someone who has no income.

Also wtf are you going to get with $4k?

In a trade school? The full course in many cases. And they qualify for financial aid. So either the $4,000 credit (meaning it will come to them in their tax rebate like the earned income credit) to pay back their student loans, or they could just pocket it if they qualify for free school. Sounds like a great program.

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Wait, the credit is dollar for dollar, so it will only pay back costs, but I looked. Not a single local tech school cost more than 3300 a year. Many programs are only 6 months long.

But not Cohen or Gates, who cooperated with the enquiry... 🤔

When you are out of work and can't pay rent, a tax credit you will get next year for a class you can't afford now is just what the doctor ordered.

I don't know what you aren't getting Rainmaker. Financial aid pays for the classes, and the tax credit pays off your financial aid. This is a way for free training. So you are saying it is bad to get free training?

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Do the people coming out of schools with 6 figure debt know about this financial aid and cheap courses?

Is this financial aid paying for rent and food?

Did the people coming out with 6 figure debt know about tech schools that you couldn't possibly run up that kind of debt? And some financial aid for tech schools does help with those things, but this specific law was about helping people retrain. Does every legislation have to solve all problems for everyone? Aren't there other programs for unemployed?

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With a quick Google search I found 7 state run tech schools that offer numerous programs that can be finished in 6 months for far less than $4k that are less than 30 minutes from my house. Encouraging people to use them for retraining is a good thing.

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And just to add from personal experience: my wife did a two year program through a tech school that got her license as an Optician. She paid exactly zero dollars for it because of a program just like this from the state. They work.

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I grew up in a lower income area and many of my high school classmates got pretty much full rides to their 4 year schools through financial aid. Typically you'd get so much that you end up with a refund check that's a few thousand dollars that's supposed to be used to cover textbooks and other school related expenses. My grants were around 50% cause my parents' income were close to middle-class.

Of course if you're flunking you won't be qualified for financial aid.

The graduates who come out of shcool in debt are typically from middle class/upper middle class families.

The incentives are so weird on the right that Scott Walker is posting food from a restaurant he's at, but it's a picture from 2019 and the restaurant in question is take-out only right now.

It's fine, he's tweeting bible verses today about God being the armor to protect against the devil, basically implying tweets about him on the devil and God is protecting him.

They're so unself-aware that they don't realize that if God provides/is the armor, then wearing a mask would clearly be God's will to protect against the Devil/COVID.

So Trump still hasn't signed and has not vetoed the government spending bill and Covid relief. Allowing additional unemployment benefits to expire before they could 'fix' the bill. And now giving Congress three days to pass a CR to prevent a shutdown.

My irritation with the bailout checks is that it goes by 2019 AGI. My 2020 AGI is going to be much lower because my employer cut our pay and most of my supplemental income consulting has dried up. We are talking like 10-15% reduction most likely in AGI, which is a couple of hundred dollars. I hope they pass something new in 2021 and go by 2020 AGI.

Still not addressing college aged dependents sucks.

Well now Trump is saying he will sign the Government spending and Covid release bill before the CR deadline Monday night.

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I’m sure there’s no quid pro quo...

Typical Trump, blows it up and creates a crisis then wants credit for fixing it.

And to say that it's not what HE wanted, but he's going to give it to you anyway, because it's better than nothing, and he was the only one who could have given it to you. You owe him everything,.

It's not even that complicated. No one was paying attention to him so he had to get in the headlines.

lol at Trump suggesting his redlining means anything. The bill is now law ad nobody's going to do anything regarding his "demands".

Well darn. I guess it's the $600 and not $2,000 version.

Definitely better than nothing, so can't complain.

i thought i read you get the stimulus credit when filing your 2020 taxes if this is the case.

LOL at the idea of the President having the patience to read, let alone redline, a 5,000+ page document.

He must really think his supporters are that dumb that they will think the President can "redline" a bill. The line item veto was declare unconstitutional, what 2 decades ago? And it isn't like he's even trying to do that.

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For some, like us, because of our kids ages, it's the $360 version.

I think they are processing the payments in the next few weeks based on 2019 AGI. They would have to wait until after April to start the checks if it were based on 2020, which is too long I think.

My wife sent me some shit from Facebook this morning. Apparently some Trump supporters she's friends with (through family) believe Trump could have line item vetoed parts of the bill but instead set this trap for congress so that when they don't hold up to their end of the non binding agreement he can simply use the Impoundment Control Act to replace congress.

Not sure of the specifics, but I'm pretty sure that's exactly how Palpatine dissolved the Senate.

Yeah, but Palpatine was competent.

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"So I threw the senate at him... the whole senate! True story."

SI

That's debatable. My theory is that he just retroactively claimed that everything that happened was "all part of his plan". And honestly, who COULDN'T turn that dolt Anakin?

Obi-Wan is feeling personally attacked.

I mean he did create a random clone army, while basically pulling the strings of the trade federation to manufacture a crisis. I mean sure, it probably didn’t go exactly as anticipated, but there were enough pieces in play to allow him to send up in control that I’m ok with saying he planned very well.

The $2000 stimulus checks passed in the House with surprisingly bipartisan support. Puts a lot of pressure on Collins and Loeffler.

As someone in the WH said early on, he's not playing 4-dimensional chess, he's just eating the pieces. It's amazing to me how they still think he's some sort of super genius.

trump is a genius because he lets his base do all the mental gymnastics for him

But he is on TV so he must be!

I did not see this coming.

Jesus Christ, are you fucking kidding me

Only the best wasteful additions to the military. Lots of people say great things about the Space Force.

Is the only reason Star Trek hasn't sued them because the "Space Force" only really exists on paper?

I'm not sure those uniforms are the reich choice.

It’s not even subtle, unlike your post - well played, sir!

Dola, although after a quick google, I can’t find any link to this - is it definitely legit?

So McConnell has blocked unanimous approval of having a $2000 direct stimulus payment. Trump retweeted someone reporting that Sen Sanders is going to filibuster the NDAA until the $2000 is brought to the floor. Perdue and Loeffler in GA have come out in favor of the $2000 stimulus (realizing they have to come out against McConnell to have a chance to win)

It's nice seeing McConnell in a pincer like this.

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I wonder how much money was spent designing that uniform.

The guess on how McConnell handles this is he adds the two other things Trump wanted votes on (repeal 230 and election investigation), and then when it fails, he'll say "well, I let it have a vote, but the Dems voted it down."

He could also just add any simple "poison pill" on to the bill that could pass, but the House will not agree to.

One thing I doubt will happen is an actual vote on the $2k stimulus. McConnell is going to block it and try to blame it on the Dems somehow.

He'll just tack on stripping out Section 230 and force the Democrats to vote it down.

My hope is that it is not real. My guess is it is a bit of banter from the other branches of service. At worst, it was a test balloon they could easily distance themselves from by saying that they are not considering that uniform for the final product. In any case, a uniform in development is not something you would find via google.

Cool look, but can do without the belt buckle. Reminds me a bit of Starship Troopers.

Eh, our helmets nowadays look a lot like the German WW2 helmets.

But there's a functionality reason for that.

McConnell can try, but reports are that the vast majority of Senate Republicans are against the $2000 stimulus amounts. So a McConnell bill may go down 90-10. And there is the fear that in conference they may remove the poison pills and send it back to the Senate. Also any long term discussion may delay the NDAA vote significantly. So he's gotta figure out how to balance all those considerations.

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Spend my tax dollars on me. That is not a difficult thing. Shoot, the government is more than willing to drop a couple trillion on corporations. A couple grand my way is a drop in the bucket.

The crazy is strong among my HS Facebook friends.

Treasury says they started sending paper checks today, and direct deposit will go out tonight through the begining of next week.

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In the middle of all that, he throws in that Trump also cut some burdensome regulations.

600 or 2000?

600 is current law. The 2000 is what McConnell is trying to kill.

If they send out 600 and then the bill for 200 passes, do we get both or 1400?

Durbin too.

2000 total. The bill is about boosting the payments to 2000, not adding another 2000 on top of the 600.

I read that... felt like a speed bump.

Can't help but whatabout even when arguing with nobody - it's pure reflex

SI

McConnell officially put in a bill with the $2k, repeal 230 and a commission to investigate voter fraud. A bill that can't pass, and even if it did the House will not pass. What a surprise. I never saw it coming.

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A Republican congressman-elect from Louisiana died today of COVID. He was only 41.

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And the thing is it will work and the Democrats will somehow come out the losers because they are awful at messaging.

I think being out in front of this before it got to McConnell is going to help a lot. Esp with the GA runoffs in a few days.

That being said, it's kind of funny that Trump is pushing to remove Section 230 as it would almost surely lead to the banning of Trump from Twitter (as they would not want to be liable for his libel). And Parler would be sued out of existence.

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Hawley's going to contest the Electoral College results, meaning a 20 minute counting will take 12-14 hours.

I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking this - I nearly posted something similar a couple of days ago when I first saw that it was one of his stipulations, but assumed I must have missed something.

They want to strip section 230 and then sue social media companies for censoring conservative voices when they start dropping bans.

Yes, it's stupid and wouldn't work that way but that's the end game they hope for.

I wish Dems would vote this through and then deal with it in conference. Dems should message that tey are in favor of 2000 checks, but the GOP will only help people if they can destroy the internet.

It's amazing how when McConnell says something like "we aren't going to confirm any of Obama's nominees" or "We aren't going to vote on $2,000 checks," the Dems say "Yes, sir" and just take it. Maybe they give a speech or two saying "no fair," but they don't actually use any leverage to make anything happen.

But when he says something like "Hey, GOP Senators, don't join in the House's objections," the GOP Senators will actually do what they think is in their best interest.

The Dems are just SO BAD at this. Even the GOP manages to stand up to the GOP better than they have.

Check your accounts. Our stimulus checks just arrived via direct deposit.

I don't see how Hawley's contesting is anything more than a "no fair" or a Sanders threatening a filibuster on the NDAA that goes no where. It's literally les effective than the five gazillion failed attempts to strike down the ACA. It's just going to take a little bit less time than an angry speech.

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It's different if you're in the GOP. Now they are going to have to go on record individually and that's going to lead to some number of primary challenges.

It's more that McConnell asked the GOP not to do this, and Hawley actually realized that he could do what he wanted.

The GOP seems to be broken up into 3 major groups right now. 1.) Those that have accepted Trump's loss and have largely moved on 2.) Those that feel the election was likely/possibly stolen by Dems but have turned their focus to Georgia and '22 3.) Those that feel the election was 100% stolen and support any and all means of staying in power.

One seems to be a growing group. Trump's handling of the stimulus has really chipped away at his support based on what I've seen on social media and reddit. Group 2 is split between people that have moved on from Trump and those that still support him. Group 3 is still far too many people

The party is largely a mess. They're going through a more conspiracy-tinted form of acceptance that Dems struggled with in 2016. The difference is the GOP has always been able to pull everyone back and get their eye on the ball. It's going to be interesting to see if they can pull it off post-Trump. Hawley's 2024 hopes seem to be a gamble of playing to Trump now and at some point in the future replaying some greatest hits to get everyone focused on a common enemy again.

I mean, if Pence behaves in the traditional manner, the House and GOP will, at worst, split on the votes, leaving the original slate in place, and yeah, it becomes a tantrum.

There is a fringe element whispering in Pence's ear, though: "Psst, since you're the one who opens the envelopes containing the electoral votes, you can just open the pro-Trump envelopes instead for AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, and WI and presto we win."

And Hawley contesting the results gives Pence a fig leaf to try that.

I think Congress would still have to vote on whether to accept the alternate slate, and a failure by both houses to accept it would leave the certified ones in place, so I don't THINK that maneuver can go anywhere, but I'm not a Constitutional Law scholar. Maybe there's a loophole I don't know about.

Not to mention that approach leads to mass demonstrations and violence.

There's no loophole. Pence's job is simply to read the certified states. Then it's Congress's job to approve or contest each state and any attempts to contest have to be agreed to by both a majority of the house and senate. That isn't going to happen.

Despite what some on the right believe, January 6th is largely ceremonial. Any attempts to contest are people trying to position themselves for 2024 or to stay in Trump's good graces.

Let's take the $2,000 checks as an example. Their goal is a vote on them with nothing attached. What leverage do they have to employ to make McConnell do that?