#at least I have stable housing during this unemployment

[ana-hata]

.

[missmentelle]

COVID-19, Inequality, and You

This pandemic has been a bad time in a lot of ways, but one of the most devastating impacts we’re going to see besides the death toll is the economic impact - the economic impact on real, working people, not on stock index numbers. Unemployment rates are skyrocketing, and people are being thrown into financial chaos as a result. 

But for all the talk we’ve heard during this pandemic of “we’re all in this together”, and “we’re all in the same boat”, it’s important to remember that, financially, we’re really, really not. Job losses, evictions and health crises are not equally distributed; if anything, this pandemic has been a stark reminder of inequality as the wealth gap grows wider and wider. 

My own life has been a weird cross-section of the ways that the pandemic has economically affected different people in very different ways - my mother has completely lost her job at a seasonal tourist restaurant that will likely go out of business, my brother’s hours at his campus security job have been cut as the school moves online, my boyfriend is seeing his savings rise as he goes out less but makes exactly the same salary at his financial tech job, and I’ve fielded multiple job offers through this pandemic as government grants for social services boom in my region in anticipation of a coming homelessness crisis.  

The news has been reporting on unemployment numbers and shuttered businesses, but there hasn’t been a lot of in-depth coverage about the ways that this is really going to affect people’s lives. There will be a lot of unexpected consequences to this pandemic if governments don’t step in to provide relief, including:

‘Eviction freezes’ are throwing tenants into debt without protecting their housing. Many places have put moratoriums on evictions during the pandemic, which is great. You don’t want a sudden surge in mass homelessness during a pandemic. But “no evictions” does not mean “no rent” - people who are currently being protected from eviction are still being charged rent, and their arrears are growing every month. As soon as eviction protections expire - which is set to happen very soon in many places - landlords can move forward with evicting tenants, going after their back rent, sending their debt to collection agencies and destroying their credit scores. 

A lot of people are about to lose most of their possessions. If you get evicted, your parents or friend might have room for you to move in with them for a while. They probably do not have room for your couch, dresser, bed, table, desk, bookshelves, TV and an entire apartment full of stuff. Putting your things in storage is an option, but you need to be able to pack and transport all of your things to the storage unit and pay for the unit every month. You could try selling the stuff you can’t take with you, but it may be difficult with so many other people also struggling financially, and you may have to leave on short notice. A lot of people who get evicted will end up abandoning a lot of their stuff, which they’ll have to re-purchase all over again to get back on their feet. 

People with low wages are disproportionately likely to lose their jobs. If you work as a software engineer, you’re probably still employed. If you work as a hotel maid, there’s a good chance you’ve lost your job or had your hours cut to nearly nothing. The jobs that are most impacted by shutdowns are jobs in the service and hospitality industry, and they tend to be low-wage, hourly jobs that cannot be done from home - bartenders, servers, hotel clerks, and dishwashers are way more likely to have lost their jobs than lawyers, accountants, engineers and college professors. In many ways, the people who are getting kicked the hardest right now are the ones who could least afford it. 

Not every university will survive this pandemic. With a lot of universities and colleges scrambling to figure out whether to have in-person fall semesters, the future of a lot of post-secondary institutions looks bleak. Many students are choosing to take a year off or defer their admission rather than deal with online courses that have been haphazardly thrown together. On top of that, it’s not clear if international students will be able to attend university abroad this year, or if they even want to take the risk. This adds up to a whole lot of lost tuition money, leaving some universities with no way to keep operating - at least one American university has already permanently closed its doors because of the pandemic. The big players - Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia - will probably pull through, but smaller colleges are at serious risk of going under, leaving their students in limbo and at risk of not finishing their disrupted degrees. 

A lot of people are about to go from “poor” to “disabled”. The people most likely to contract coronavirus are the workers who have to interact with the public every day - not only nurses and doctors, but grocery store workers, delivery people, ride-sharing and taxi drivers, transit workers and janitorial staff. Those who survive are at risk of life-long complications of coronavirus, including permanently reduced lung capacity - that’s not great when you need to work a physically demanding job. A lot of people are about to find themselves in a situation where they are no longer able to do their jobs due to a virus that they contracted because of their jobs. 

Many women’s careers may never recover from this. Daycares and schools are closed, and women are bearing the brunt of it. In a world where women still tend to earn less than male partners, it’s women’s careers that have taken a backseat when things get rough. Even when both partners are working from home, women are the ones overwhelmingly taking on most of the domestic and child-rearing chores, which hurts their work performance and leaves them more vulnerable to layoffs. And that’s a relatively privileged position to be in - without childcare services available, many working moms and single moms have had to quit their jobs, whether they could afford it or not, because they have no other options for their children. This kind of career disruption is something that these women may never totally recover from, especially as they try to re-enter an increasingly hostile job market. 

Black and brown people are the most affected by rising unemployment. People of colour - especially immigrants and women of colour - are facing higher rates of unemployment than other groups. Hispanic and Latina women are in particularly dire circumstances, which is alarming, as they are also the most likely to be dealing with an uncertain immigration status. People of colour - particularly women - are disproportionately likely to work in industries that have been impacted by the pandemic, like the hospitality, food service, retail, child care, beauty and personal care industries, and they face systemic racism that makes it difficult for them to advocate for safe working conditions or access adequate medical care. 

College and tourist towns are at risk of complete economic meltdown. A lot of towns or small cities depend on their local university or annual tourism to survive. A huge crowd of strangers flocks to their town for a few months per year and gives local businesses the money they need to pay for necessities year-round. My hometown is one of these places - most businesses are only open from May - September, and they make enough money during that time for everyone to scrape by for the rest of the year. Those tourists aren’t coming this year, which is something that locals have only learned as they begin to run out of last year’s money. You don’t need to work for a university or a hotel to be impacted by school and tourism shutdowns - the ripple effects will be felt by entire communities. 

Escaping domestic violence will be difficult even after lockdown ends. It’s not exactly a secret that domestic violence has skyrocketed since the global pandemic began, a fact that many experts attribute to the fact that everyone is trapped indoors together and under a lot of stress. But even as lockdown regulations start to lift in areas that handled the pandemic responsibly, victims of domestic violence will face higher-than-usual barriers to escape - many victims may have lost their jobs and burned through their savings, and may have difficulty finding a new job that can finance their escape. Victims with health issues may also be wary about going to shelters for fear they will be further exposed to the virus. 

Poor children will fall even further behind their upper-middle-class peers. I come from a part of rural eastern Canada where reliable internet access is simply not available. So for young children in the region, school effectively ended in March - they do not have the resources needed to connect to online learning. And children from rural areas aren’t the only ones missing out - more than half of all students in the United States aren’t accessing their online classes regularly, and marginalized kids are especially likely to be absent. Poor kids are staring down the barrel of an enormous education gap; they are less likely to have a stable internet connection and a device for their online learning, they are less likely to have books at home, and their parents are more likely to be essential workers who still have to go to work right now and don’t have time to teach them. Middle-class and wealthy families can afford laptops, educational software, tutors, books and time at home to educate their children - when schools are eventually back in session, the gaps between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds will probably be the widest they’ve ever been. 

Don’t get me wrong - I am not arguing that we should end lockdowns prematurely to ease the economic impact. Public health measures exist for good reason, and I don’t think any of us want to even imagine, much less live through, the personal, physical and economic devastation of letting a pandemic rage out of control and melt down our healthcare systems. Despite what many people seem to believe, managing a global pandemic is not about “health vs. economy” - letting the virus rage out of control and kill millions would devastate every economic and social system we have. The preservation of human life has to come first.

What we need instead is comprehensive action to recognize and address the issues that come with long-term quarantines and economic shutdown - we need rent relief, social safety nets and basic assured income programs to get our most vulnerable friends and neighbors through this pandemic. The world will probably never return to the “normal” that we knew before the pandemic struck, and it shouldn’t - it’s time for a new, better normal that doesn’t leave our most marginalized people behind. 

[argyle-s]

Hello,

My name is Molly Bragg. I’m a bi trans gender author who has writing for almost three decades. I’m passionate about creating the kind of content I enjoy, which means stories that center around queer women, I’ve recently completed a original queer genre romance novel and I’m looking for help covering the cost of having it professionally edited.

To give you a preview of what you would be supporting, here’s Chapter 1:

***

Beth watched the buildings pass as the air cab carried her over Los Angeles taking in the changes the last ten years had wrought on the city.  Most of the low-income areas had been bulldozed, and those areas were now filled with alien arcologies.  Massive buildings that stretched kilometers into the sky, each one a city unto itself, and in their shadows, the skyscrapers that had once been incredible achievements of human architecture and engineering.  The buildings which had been hubs of human industry and centers of financial empires were now reduced to little more than playhouses for the backwards primitives who had the misfortune to be born natives of the Galactic Hegemony’s latest colony world. If they’d had another century or two things might have been different.  Humanity had been advancing quickly.  They wouldn’t have been on par with the technology of the Hegemony by any stretch, but they might have been able to dictate better terms.  The Gatekeepers hadn’t cared.  The gate had drifted into a stable orbit in the outer system, and the Gatekeepers had announced that, like it or not, the Sol system was being added to their vast network of space fold gates.  The first ships from the Hegemony had arrived just a month later, and ever since, Earth had been on the road to becoming the galactic equivalent of a banana republic. So far, her job and her savings had let her avoid the worst of what was happening, but unemployment was at a record high as alien automation systems replaced human labor in almost every sector.  The company she worked for had shifted gears from research and development to reverse engineering alien tech and had seen a short windfall in profits, but that was starting to vanish as the inevitable inflation drove prices up and the people they had been selling reverse engineered tech could no longer afford it. Beth wasn’t really that worried for herself.  She’d been poor before, and however much she might hate the idea she could survive being poor again.  What brought her to LA today was Sam.  Sam was getting close to graduation, and she had acceptance letters from every college that could afford postage.  A 4.0 unweighted GPA, high SAT scores, and a couple of impressive summer internships meant that schools were falling all over themselves to offer her full rides.  Ten years ago, that would have all but ensured her a bright future.  These days a PhD from Harvard, Yale, or MIT wasn’t worth the cost of paper to print the degree. People still made noise about human exceptionalism and about taking humanity’s place in the larger galactic community, but Beth had spent a lot of time over the last decade studying the history of colonization on Earth, and it never once ended well for the people being colonized.Regardless of what  happened to the colonized peoples as a whole, there were always individual exceptions...  people who avoided the fate of their brethren.  It was her determination to ensure her daughter’s future that brought her to LA today.   While billionaires had started buying their kids spots in alien schools the moment they were  allowed out of the Sol System, Beth didn’t have that option.  She was well off enough that she and Sam weren’t feeling the effects of the colonization yet, but nowhere near rich enough to buy a ticket off-world for Sam, much less pay for an off-world education.  Instead, she’d spent years looking into other options.  So far, none of her work had paid off, but she hadn’t given up hope.   She was headed to a meeting with a broker who helped place kids into programs that offered grants, scholarships and all expenses paid exchange programs.  She was going to find a way to offer her daughter a better future than most of Earth’s children could look forward to.  No matter what it took. *** “Ms. Murray, it’s so nice to meet you,” the man said as he held out his hand.  Beth took it and gave it a quick shake while trying her best not to let on that he reminded her of a used car salesman.  She needed his help, and it wouldn’t do to offend him. “Nice to meet you too, Mr. Cooper.” “Please, call me Owen,” he said.  “Right this way.” He led her out of the small, brightly decorated waiting room and into a small, neat office.  He gestured to a chair in front of his desk as he walked around behind it and took his seat. “So, I just want to make sure we’re on the same page here Ms. Murray.  You are looking for an opportunity for your daughter to continue her education off-world, is that correct?” “Yes,” Beth said. “Okay.  I just wanted to make sure that we’re both looking for the same outcome.  Now, I’ve gone through Samantha’s records.  Academically, she’s in great shape, and the extra-curriculars are good too.  I’ve been able to find at least twenty different programs that will accept her.” “That’s great,” Beth said, though she didn’t believe it.  She’d heard the exact same thing from more than a dozen other brokers, and she suspected she wasn’t going to hear anything new.  “What are the terms?” “It varies from program to program.  All of them require a period of indenture, but some are as low as eight years.” Beth tried to hide her disappointment.  She wanted to give her daughter a better future, not sell her into virtual slavery for almost a decade. “Owen, I’m looking for a program without any period of indenture.  I know they exist, but you’re the fifteenth broker I’ve talked to and none of them have offered even an application to an indenture free program.” “They do exist, but Ms. Murray, you must understand.  There are a lot of people who want their children to receive an off-world education, and slots which don’t require a period of indentured service are in especially high demand.” “I understand that, but I haven’t gotten high demand, I’ve gotten completely unavailable.  I’d like to know why no one will even consider letting her apply.” Owen looked at her for almost a minute, not saying anything, before he finally leaned back in his chair and let out a weary sigh. “Honestly, Ms. Murray?” “Please.” “Those slots go to the kids of billionaires, presidents, CEO’s, ambassadors, kings and other high level government types.  Each year, a handful will go to some poor kids from the ghetto so that they can parade them around as part of a puff piece about how generous the aliens are, but that’s just window dressing.  The truth is, your daughter is neither rich enough, nor poor enough to ever get one of those slots.” Beth had to bite her tongue to keep from swearing.  She wasn’t surprised at all, but she was angry and frustrated.  She’d half suspected something like that was going on, but hearing it spelled out so clearly was still enough to make her blood boil. “Isn’t there anything, any way that I can get her off-world without selling her into slavery?” “Ms. Murray, Indentured Service is hardly slavery.” “It’s close enough.” Owen stared at her for a moment, and then shook his head. “What?” “It’s nothing.” “It’s something,” she said.  “Please.” He sighed.  “It’s not something I would normally offer to someone of your background.” “What does that mean?” “It means that some aliens have cultural practices that people of Western European descent find unpalatable, while those from other cultures would find those practices perfectly normal.” “I’m not sure I follow.” “Ms. Murray, you are aware that, much to the surprise of every biologist on the planet, there are a number of species with whom humanity shares a degree of reproductive compatibility?” “I am,” she said. “Well, there is a species called the Sionnach.  They’re native to a planet called Talamh in the Grian system, and they bear a rather striking resemblance to humans.  There are differences of course, but the basic morphology is the same.  The reason I bring this up is that about eighty years ago, Talamh suffered an environmental catastrophe that wiped out nearly ninety-five percent of their population in the span of a few weeks.  Because of their reproductive practices prior to the incident, the Sionnach found themselves facing a sort of genetic bottleneck, and they decided that the best way to alleviate this was to seek an outside infusion of genetic material.” “They’re looking for breeding stock,” Beth said. “Yes.” “You can’t be serious.” “And this is why I don’t offer this option to white people,” Owen said.  “Ms. Murray, I’m not suggesting you sell your daughter off as some kind of brood mare.  The Sionnach take selection of their mates very, very seriously.  They gather applications from a number of candidates, and the Sionnach in question reviews them, and selects the ones they like.  Then, their family reviews their choices, and select a candidate.  The candidate is then brought to the house of their prospective spouse, and they spend a period of time together.  Roughly five hours.  During that time they talk, get to know each other, and decide if they want to proceed.  If both parties agree, they enter a five year engagement.  During those five years, the candidate is treated as a member of the house.  They are given a stipend, they’re educated, they’re housed, fed, provided with medical care, and they undergo medical procedures which allow them to survive on Talamh without special equipment.” “What sort of medical procedures?” “Talamh is a high gravity world with a higher-than-normal concentration of heavy metals in the environment.  Your daughter would need procedures to be able to stand up to the local gravity, and to be able to filter out metals she would not normally be able to purge from her system.  She would also undergo a type of gene therapy which would make her more resistant to radiation and give her the ability to see parts of the infrared spectrum and hear sounds normally outside of the range of human hearing.” “That sounds dangerous.” “The Sionnach are one of the founding species of the Hegemony.  Their technology is thousands of years more advanced than ours, and they’ve been doing these procedures since before humans built their first cities.” Beth shook her head.  “An arranged marriage…  I don’t know.” “If I’m honest, it’s a long shot.  You would have to take your daughter for a screening.  She’d have to pass the screening for any sort of genetic issues that would eliminate her, then she would have to be selected by one of the Sionnach.  If that happens, you and your family would have to travel to Talamh at the expense of the Sionnach house that selected her, and your daughter would have to get through the initial interview.  But if she does, she would get the education you want for her.” “And what happens at the end of the five years if she decides she doesn’t want to marry the person who selected her.” “Then she’s free to walk away.  She’d be given a small amount of money, and passage to anywhere within the Hegemony, but she’d be free to do what she wants.” “No indenture?  No repayment of expenses?” Beth asked. “No,” Owen said.  “But again, it’s a long shot, and I take my normal fee just to put you through the application process, whether she gets selected or not.” “How many humans get selected?” Beth asked. “She’d be the first,” Owen said. “What’s your fee?” Beth asked. “Five hundred Hegemony credits.” Beth winced.  Given current exchange rates, that was almost ten thousand dollars. “How quickly would we know?” Beth asked. Owen turned and woke up his computer.  She watched as he pulled up a page and scrolled through before clicking on a link. “There’s only one family looking right now.  Applications are due by the end of next week.  You’d know in a month, tops.” Beth thought about it for a moment.  It was a longshot, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was a good idea, but it was better than an indenture, so she reached for her credit card. *** Sam looked up from her homework at the sound of a light knock on her bedroom door.  The door was wide open, and her mother was standing there looking at her.  Sam couldn’t quite place the expression on her face but given the appointment she had earlier, Sam didn’t have any doubt about what it meant. “No luck, huh?” she asked, trying not to let the relief she felt creep into her voice.  She knew an off-world education would open a lot of doors for her and give her opportunities that she wouldn’t have otherwise, and she really did want to go off-world, travel in space and see other planets someday, but the idea of living on another planet for four or more years was both frightening and overwhelming. “Not much,” her mom said.  “He did have one program you could apply for that doesn’t include an indenture period.  I emailed you the link to the application.  I need you to fill it out today, because I made an appointment for tomorrow for you to go for the physical and psych scan that’s required.” “Tomorrow?  Mom, tomorrow’s Jenny’s birthday party.” “I know, sweetie, and I’m sorry.  I know you were looking forward to the party, but you might have to miss it.  I’ve already got us portal tokens, and tomorrow is the only day we can go before the deadline without you missing school.  I made the appointment for as early as I could, so you should get home in time to go.” Sam wanted to argue, but she already knew it was useless.  She hadn’t missed a day of school since halfway through the eighth grade, and she knew her mom wasn’t going to let her start less than a month before graduation.  She also knew her mom wasn’t going to let her pass up a chance at an off-world scholarship just to go to a birthday party.  Even if the birthday girl was her best friend who she’d been crushing on since Kindergarten.  Of course, her mom didn’t exactly know that last part because she hadn’t told her she liked girls.  She’d considered telling her a few times, but she’d always changed her mind at the last minute, because if her mom knew she liked girls, she might decide that Jenny was a distraction that Sam didn’t need in her life and that wasn’t a battle she wanted to fight. “Fine,” she said, reaching for her laptop.  “I’ll do the application now.” “Thank you.  And Sam, I love you.” “I love you too, mom,” she said. Her mom left and Sam opened up the email link, which took her to a form that asked her for an invite code.  She checked the email and sure enough, there was a code for her.  She copied it and pasted it into the form, and when she did, it took her to the next page, and a lot of the information was prepopulated, including her latest ID card photo, name and age, along with her school transcripts and medical records.  The stuff that was left for her to fill out read more like a dating profile than a college application. The first section was hobbies and interests and activities.  She thought about it for a minute and decided to just be honest instead of going through all the BS she usually did for the college apps.  She put down soccer, swimming, surfing, electronics, robotics, reading, martial arts, camping and motocross.  She attached pictures of herself in her soccer uniform, along with a couple of video clips from some of the team’s games, then she added a few videos of her swim meets, and a couple of pictures and some videos of her surfing.  She pulled up her YouTube folder and attached a few build videos for some of her robotics projects, along with the parts lists, schematics, models for the 3D printed parts, and the source code for the micro-controllers she’d written.  She added a picture of her holding two trophies from a local Karate tournament where she’d placed second in sparring, and third in bo staff, and added a few videos of her matches.  She also added a few pictures from her camping trips and a picture of her sitting on a dirt bike, along with a video Jenny had taken of her running one of the beginner courses, then pulled up her ebook library and dumped the list of all her books, listed her favorite movies and attached all her playlists from her music library. The next section was a little weird.  It asked about what sort of foods she liked, so she gave a list.  Then is asked whether she enjoyed various activities.  Most of them were fairly common things.  Theater, music, art.  A couple she had to check the cultural database link.  She was surprised and excited when she found out that whoever was sponsoring this program apparently considered dragon racing important enough to put on the questionnaire. All in all, she spent about two hours filling out the application, and once she was done, she hit submit, and then pulled out her cell phone and opened up her text messages with Jenny. Sam:  ‘Bad news.  I might miss your party.’ Jenny:  ‘What?!!!’ Sam:  ‘Mom’s dragging me to New York in the morning for a physical and a psych scan for a scholarship.’ Jenny:  ‘She’s still on that off-world college kick?’ Sam:  ‘Yeah.’ Jenny:  ‘Girl, you don’t want to go to college with ET’s’ Sam:  ‘I’ve got to get accepted before I have to worry about it.’ Jenny:  ‘Come by my place when you’re done.  Even if you miss the party, I want to see you.’ Sam:  ‘Will do.  See you tomorrow.’ Jenny;  ‘Night.’ Sam sat down her phone and looked at her homework.  She’d wanted to finish before dinner, but there was no way that was happening now.  She grabbed it anyway and went back to work, trying to get as much done as possible before her mom called her downstairs. 

***

End Chapter 1

***

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[tinyshe]

I wanted to snip this because I believe the incoming administration will try to erase and change facts/history to suit them so here is a hot link and one in the title. I hope the copy traveled well because it was so large!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/

As of January 2021

Trump Administration Accomplishments

Unprecedented Economic Boom

Before the China Virus invaded our shores, we built the world’s most prosperous economy.

America gained 7 million new jobs – more than three times government experts’ projections.

Middle-Class family income increased nearly $6,000 – more than five times the gains during the entire previous administration.

The unemployment rate reached 3.5 percent, the lowest in a half-century.

Achieved 40 months in a row with more job openings than job-hirings.

More Americans reported being employed than ever before – nearly 160 million.

Jobless claims hit a nearly 50-year low.

The number of people claiming unemployment insurance as a share of the population hit its lowest on record.

Incomes rose in every single metro area in the United States for the first time in nearly 3 decades.

Delivered a future of greater promise and opportunity for citizens of all backgrounds.

Unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those without a high school diploma all reached record lows.

Unemployment for women hit its lowest rate in nearly 70 years.

Lifted nearly 7 million people off of food stamps.

Poverty rates for African Americans and Hispanic Americans reached record lows.

Income inequality fell for two straight years, and by the largest amount in over a decade.

The bottom 50 percent of American households saw a 40 percent increase in net worth.

Wages rose fastest for low-income and blue collar workers – a 16 percent pay increase.

African American homeownership increased from 41.7 percent to 46.4 percent.

Brought jobs, factories, and industries back to the USA.

Created more than 1.2 million manufacturing and construction jobs.

Put in place policies to bring back supply chains from overseas.

Small business optimism broke a 35-year old record in 2018.

Hit record stock market numbers and record 401ks.

The DOW closed above 20,000 for the first time in 2017 and topped 30,000 in 2020.

The S&P 500 and NASDAQ have repeatedly notched record highs.

Rebuilding and investing in rural America.

Signed an Executive Order on Modernizing the Regulatory Framework for Agricultural Biotechnology Products, which is bringing innovative new technologies to market in American farming and agriculture.

Strengthened America’s rural economy by investing over $1.3 billion through the Agriculture Department’s ReConnect Program to bring high-speed broadband infrastructure to rural America.

Achieved a record-setting economic comeback by rejecting blanket lockdowns.

An October 2020 Gallup survey found 56 percent of Americans said they were better off during a pandemic than four years prior.

During the third quarter of 2020, the economy grew at a rate of 33.1 percent – the most rapid GDP growth ever recorded.

Since coronavirus lockdowns ended, the economy has added back over 12 million jobs, more than half the jobs lost.

Jobs have been recovered 23 times faster than the previous administration’s recovery.

Unemployment fell to 6.7 percent in December, from a pandemic peak of 14.7 percent in April – beating expectations of well over 10 percent unemployment through the end of 2020.

Under the previous administration, it took 49 months for the unemployment rate to fall from 10 percent to under 7 percent compared to just 3 months for the Trump Administration.

Since April, the Hispanic unemployment rate has fallen by 9.6 percent, Asian-American unemployment by 8.6 percent, and Black American unemployment by 6.8 percent.

80 percent of small businesses are now open, up from just 53 percent in April.

Small business confidence hit a new high.

Homebuilder confidence reached an all-time high, and home sales hit their highest reading since December 2006.

Manufacturing optimism nearly doubled.

Household net worth rose $7.4 trillion in Q2 2020 to $112 trillion, an all-time high.

Home prices hit an all-time record high.

The United States rejected crippling lockdowns that crush the economy and inflict countless public health harms and instead safely reopened its economy.

Business confidence is higher in America than in any other G7 or European Union country.

Stabilized America’s financial markets with the establishment of a number of Treasury Department supported facilities at the Federal Reserve.

Tax Relief for the Middle Class

Passed $3.2 trillion in historic tax relief and reformed the tax code.

Signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – the largest tax reform package in history.

More than 6 million American workers received wage increases, bonuses, and increased benefits thanks to the tax cuts.

A typical family of four earning $75,000 received an income tax cut of more than $2,000 – slashing their tax bill in half.

Doubled the standard deduction – making the first $24,000 earned by a married couple completely tax-free.

Doubled the child tax credit.

Virtually eliminated the unfair Estate Tax, or Death Tax.

Cut the business tax rate from 35 percent – the highest in the developed world – all the way down to 21 percent.

Small businesses can now deduct 20 percent of their business income.

Businesses can now deduct 100 percent of the cost of their capital investments in the year the investment is made.

Since the passage of tax cuts, the share of total wealth held by the bottom half of households has increased, while the share held by the top 1 percent has decreased.

Over 400 companies have announced bonuses, wage increases, new hires, or new investments in the United States.

Over $1.5 trillion was repatriated into the United States from overseas.

Lower investment cost and higher capital returns led to faster growth in the middle class, real wages, and international competitiveness.

Jobs and investments are pouring into Opportunity Zones.

Created nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones where capital gains on long-term investments are taxed at zero.

Opportunity Zone designations have increased property values within them by 1.1 percent, creating an estimated $11 billion in wealth for the nearly half of Opportunity Zone residents who own their own home.

Opportunity Zones have attracted $75 billion in funds and driven $52 billion of new investment in economically distressed communities, creating at least 500,000 new jobs.

Approximately 1 million Americans will be lifted from poverty as a result of these new investments.

Private equity investments into businesses in Opportunity Zones were nearly 30 percent higher than investments into businesses in similar areas that were not designated Opportunity Zones.

Massive Deregulation

Ended the regulatory assault on American Businesses and Workers.

Instead of 2-for-1, we eliminated 8 old regulations for every 1 new regulation adopted.

Provided the average American household an extra $3,100 every year.

Reduced the direct cost of regulatory compliance by $50 billion, and will reduce costs by an additional $50 billion in FY 2020 alone.

Removed nearly 25,000 pages from the Federal Register – more than any other president. The previous administration added over 16,000 pages.

Established the Governors’ Initiative on Regulatory Innovation to reduce outdated regulations at the state, local, and tribal levels.

Signed an executive order to make it easier for businesses to offer retirement plans.

Signed two executive orders to increase transparency in Federal agencies and protect Americans and their small businesses from administrative abuse.

Modernized the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the first time in over 40 years.

Reduced approval times for major infrastructure projects from 10 or more years down to 2 years or less.

Helped community banks by signing legislation that rolled back costly provisions of Dodd-Frank.

Established the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing to bring down housing costs.

Removed regulations that threatened the development of a strong and stable internet.

Eased and simplified restrictions on rocket launches, helping to spur commercial investment in space projects.

Published a whole-of-government strategy focused on ensuring American leadership in automated vehicle technology.

Streamlined energy efficiency regulations for American families and businesses, including preserving affordable lightbulbs, enhancing the utility of showerheads, and enabling greater time savings with dishwashers.

Removed unnecessary regulations that restrict the seafood industry and impede job creation.

Modernized the Department of Agriculture’s biotechnology regulations to put America in the lead to develop new technologies.

Took action to suspend regulations that would have slowed our response to COVID-19, including lifting restrictions on manufacturers to more quickly produce ventilators.

Successfully rolled back burdensome regulatory overreach.

Rescinded the previous administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which would have abolished zoning for single-family housing to build low-income, federally subsidized apartments.

Issued a final rule on the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard.

Eliminated the Waters of the United States Rule and replaced it with the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, providing relief and certainty for farmers and property owners.

Repealed the previous administration’s costly fuel economy regulations by finalizing the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles rule, which will make cars more affordable, and lower the price of new vehicles by an estimated $2,200.

Americans now have more money in their pockets.

Deregulation had an especially beneficial impact on low-income Americans who pay a much higher share of their incomes for overregulation.

Cut red tape in the healthcare industry, providing Americans with more affordable healthcare and saving Americans nearly 10 percent on prescription drugs.

Deregulatory efforts yielded savings to the medical community an estimated $6.6 billion – with a reduction of 42 million hours of regulatory compliance work through 2021.

Removed government barriers to personal freedom and consumer choice in healthcare.

Once fully in effect, 20 major deregulatory actions undertaken by the Trump Administration are expected to save American consumers and businesses over $220 billion per year.

Signed 16 pieces of deregulatory legislation that will result in a $40 billion increase in annual real incomes.

Fair and Reciprocal Trade

Secured historic trade deals to defend American workers.

Immediately withdrew from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Ended the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and replaced it with the brand new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The USMCA contains powerful new protections for American manufacturers, auto-makers, farmers, dairy producers, and workers.

The USMCA is expected to generate over $68 billion in economic activity and potentially create over 550,000 new jobs over ten years.

Signed an executive order making it government policy to Buy American and Hire American, and took action to stop the outsourcing of jobs overseas.

Negotiated with Japan to slash tariffs and open its market to $7 billion in American agricultural products and ended its ban on potatoes and lamb.

Over 90 percent of American agricultural exports to Japan now receive preferential treatment, and most are duty-free.

Negotiated another deal with Japan to boost $40 billion worth of digital trade.

Renegotiated the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, doubling the cap on imports of American vehicles and extending the American light truck tariff.

Reached a written, fully-enforceable Phase One trade agreement with China on confronting pirated and counterfeit goods, and the protection of American ideas, trade secrets, patents, and trademarks.

China agreed to purchase an additional $200 billion worth of United States exports and opened market access for over 4,000 American facilities to exports while all tariffs remained in effect.

Achieved a mutual agreement with the European Union (EU) that addresses unfair trade practices and increases duty-free exports by 180 percent to $420 million.

Secured a pledge from the EU to eliminate tariffs on American lobster – the first United States-European Union negotiated tariff reduction in over 20 years.

Scored a historic victory by overhauling the Universal Postal Union, whose outdated policies were undermining American workers and interests.

Engaged extensively with trade partners like the EU and Japan to advance reforms to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Issued a first-ever comprehensive report on the WTO Appellate Body’s failures to comply with WTO rules and interpret WTO agreements as written.

Blocked nominees to the WTO’s Appellate Body until WTO Members recognize and address longstanding issues with Appellate Body activism.

Submitted 5 papers to the WTO Committee on Agriculture to improve Members’ understanding of how trade policies are implemented, highlight areas for improved transparency, and encourage members to maintain up-to-date notifications on market access and domestic support.

Took strong actions to confront unfair trade practices and put America First.

Imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of Chinese goods to protect American jobs and stop China’s abuses under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

Directed an all-of-government effort to halt and punish efforts by the Communist Party of China to steal and profit from American innovations and intellectual property.

Imposed tariffs on foreign aluminum and foreign steel to protect our vital industries and support our national security.

Approved tariffs on $1.8 billion in imports of washing machines and $8.5 billion in imports of solar panels.

Blocked illegal timber imports from Peru.

Took action against France for its digital services tax that unfairly targets American technology companies.

Launched investigations into digital services taxes that have been proposed or adopted by 10 other countries.

Historic support for American farmers.

Successfully negotiated more than 50 agreements with countries around the world to increase foreign market access and boost exports of American agriculture products, supporting more than 1 million American jobs.

Authorized $28 billion in aid for farmers who have been subjected to unfair trade practices – fully funded by the tariffs paid by China.

China lifted its ban on poultry, opened its market to beef, and agreed to purchase at least $80 billion of American agricultural products in the next two years.

The European Union agreed to increase beef imports by 180 percent and opened up its market to more imports of soybeans.

South Korea lifted its ban on American poultry and eggs, and agreed to provide market access for record exports of American rice.

Argentina lifted its ban on American pork.

Brazil agreed to increase wheat imports by $180 million a year and raised its quotas for purchases of United States ethanol.

Guatemala and Tunisia opened up their markets to American eggs.

Won tariff exemptions in Ecuador for wheat and soybeans.

Suspended $817 million in trade preferences for Thailand under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program due to its failure to adequately provide reasonable market access for American pork products.

The amount of food stamps redeemed at farmers markets increased from $1.4 million in May 2020 to $1.75 million in September 2020 – a 50 percent increase over last year.

Rapidly deployed the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which provided $30 billion in support to farmers and ranchers facing decreased prices and market disruption when COVID-19 impacted the food supply chain.

Authorized more than $6 billion for the Farmers to Families Food Box program, which delivered over 128 million boxes of locally sourced, produce, meat, and dairy products to charity and faith-based organizations nationwide.

Delegated authorities via the Defense Production Act to protect breaks in the American food supply chain as a result of COVID-19.

American Energy Independence

Unleashed America’s oil and natural gas potential.

For the first time in nearly 70 years, the United States has become a net energy exporter.

The United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world.

Natural gas production reached a record-high of 34.9 quads in 2019, following record high production in 2018 and in 2017.

The United States has been a net natural gas exporter for three consecutive years and has an export capacity of nearly 10 billion cubic feet per day.

Withdrew from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Agreement.

Canceled the previous administration’s Clean Power Plan, and replaced it with the new Affordable Clean Energy rule.

Approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

Opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil and gas leasing.

Repealed the last administration’s Federal Coal Leasing Moratorium, which prohibited coal leasing on Federal lands.

Reformed permitting rules to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and speed approval for mines.

Fixed the New Source Review permitting program, which punished companies for upgrading or repairing coal power plants.

Fixed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) steam electric and coal ash rules.

The average American family saved $2,500 a year in lower electric bills and lower prices at the gas pump.

Signed legislation repealing the harmful Stream Protection Rule.

Reduced the time to approve drilling permits on public lands by half, increasing permit applications to drill on public lands by 300 percent.

Expedited approval of the NuStar’s New Burgos pipeline to export American gasoline to Mexico.

Streamlined Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal permitting and allowed long-term LNG export authorizations to be extended through 2050.

The United States is now among the top three LNG exporters in the world.

Increased LNG exports five-fold since January 2017, reaching an all-time high in January 2020.

LNG exports are expected to reduce the American trade deficit by over $10 billion.

Granted more than 20 new long-term approvals for LNG exports to non-free trade agreement countries.

The development of natural gas and LNG infrastructure in the United States is providing tens of thousands of jobs, and has led to the investment of tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure.

There are now 6 LNG export facilities operating in the United States, with 2 additional export projects under construction.

The amount of nuclear energy production in 2019 was the highest on record, through a combination of increased capacity from power plant upgrades and shorter refueling and maintenance cycles.

Prevented Russian energy coercion across Europe through various lines of effort, including the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation, civil nuclear deals with Romania and Poland, and opposition to Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Issued the Presidential Permit for the A2A railroad between Canada and Alaska, providing energy resources to emerging markets.

Increased access to our country’s abundant natural resources in order to achieve energy independence.

Renewable energy production and consumption both reached record highs in 2019.

Enacted policies that helped double the amount of electricity generated by solar and helped increase the amount of wind generation by 32 percent from 2016 through 2019.

Accelerated construction of energy infrastructure to ensure American energy producers can deliver their products to the market.

Cut red tape holding back the construction of new energy infrastructure.

Authorized ethanol producers to sell E15 year-round and allowed higher-ethanol gasoline to be distributed from existing pumps at filling stations.

Ensured greater transparency and certainty in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.

Negotiated leasing capacity in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Australia, providing American taxpayers a return on this infrastructure investment.

Signed an executive order directing Federal agencies to work together to diminish the capability of foreign adversaries to target our critical electric infrastructure.

Reformed Section 401 of the Clean Water Act regulation to allow for the curation of interstate infrastructure.

Resolved the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil crisis during COVID-19 by getting OPEC, Russia, and others to cut nearly 10 million barrels of production a day, stabilizing world oil prices.

Directed the Department of Energy to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to mitigate market volatility caused by COVID-19.

Investing in America’s Workers and Families

Affordable and high-quality Child Care for American workers and their families.

Doubled the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child and expanded the eligibility for receiving the credit.

Nearly 40 million families benefitted from the child tax credit (CTC), receiving an average benefit of $2,200 – totaling credits of approximately $88 billion.

Signed the largest-ever increase in Child Care and Development Block Grants – expanding access to quality, affordable child care for more than 800,000 low-income families.

Secured an additional $3.5 billion in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help families and first responders with child care needs.

Created the first-ever paid family leave tax credit for employees earning $72,000 or less.

Signed into law 12-weeks of paid parental leave for Federal workers.

Signed into law a provision that enables new parents to withdraw up to $5,000 from their retirement accounts without penalty when they give birth to or adopt a child.

Advanced apprenticeship career pathways to good-paying jobs.

Expanded apprenticeships to more than 850,000 and established the new Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship programs in new and emerging fields.

Established the National Council for the American Worker and the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.

Over 460 companies have signed the Pledge to America’s Workers, committing to provide more than 16 million job and training opportunities.

Signed an executive order that directs the Federal government to replace outdated degree-based hiring with skills-based hiring.

Advanced women’s economic empowerment.

Included women’s empowerment for the first time in the President’s 2017 National Security Strategy.

Signed into law key pieces of legislation, including the Women, Peace, and Security Act and the Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act.

Launched the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity (W-GDP) Initiative – the first-ever whole-of-government approach to women’s economic empowerment that has reached 24 million women worldwide.

Established an innovative new W-GDP Fund at USAID.

Launched the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) with 13 other nations.

Announced a $50 million donation on behalf of the United States to We-Fi providing more capital to women-owned businesses around the world.

Released the first-ever Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, which focused on increasing women’s participation to prevent and resolve conflicts.

Launched the W-GDP 2x Global Women’s Initiative with the Development Finance Corporation, which has mobilized more than $3 billion in private sector investments over three years.

Ensured American leadership in technology and innovation.

First administration to name artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and 5G communications as national research and development priorities.

Launched the American Broadband Initiative to promote the rapid deployment of broadband internet across rural America.

Made 100 megahertz of crucial mid-band spectrum available for commercial operations, a key factor to driving widespread 5G access across rural America.

Launched the American AI Initiative to ensure American leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), and established the National AI Initiative Office at the White House.

Established the first-ever principles for Federal agency adoption of AI to improve services for the American people.

Signed the National Quantum Initiative Act establishing the National Quantum Coordination Office at the White House to drive breakthroughs in quantum information science.

Signed the Secure 5G and Beyond Act to ensure America leads the world in 5G.

Launched a groundbreaking program to test safe and innovative commercial drone operations nationwide.

Issued new rulemaking to accelerate the return of American civil supersonic aviation.

Committed to doubling investments in AI and quantum information science (QIS) research and development.

Announced the establishment of $1 billion AI and quantum research institutes across America.

Established the largest dual-use 5G test sites in the world to advance 5G commercial and military innovation.

Signed landmark Prague Principles with America’s allies to advance the deployment of secure 5G telecommunications networks.

Signed first-ever bilateral AI cooperation agreement with the United Kingdom.

Built collation among allies to ban Chinese Telecom Company Huawei from their 5G infrastructure.

Preserved American jobs for American workers and rejected the importation of cheap foreign labor.

Pressured the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to reverse their decision to lay off over 200 American workers and replace them with cheaper foreign workers.

Removed the TVA Chairman of the Board and a TVA Board Member.

Life-Saving Response to the China Virus

Restricted travel to the United States from infected regions of the world.

Suspended all travel from China, saving thousands of lives.

Required all American citizens returning home from designated outbreak countries to return through designated airports with enhanced screening measures, and to undergo a self-quarantine.

Announced further travel restrictions on Iran, the Schengen Area of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Brazil.

Issued travel advisory warnings recommending that American citizens avoid all international travel.

Reached bilateral agreements with Mexico and Canada to suspend non-essential travel and expeditiously return illegal aliens.

Repatriated over 100,000 American citizens stranded abroad on more than 1,140 flights from 136 countries and territories.

Safely transported, evacuated, treated, and returned home trapped passengers on cruise ships.

Took action to authorize visa sanctions on foreign governments who impede our efforts to protect American citizens by refusing or unreasonably delaying the return of their own citizens, subjects, or residents from the United States.

Acted early to combat the China Virus in the United States.

Established the White House Coronavirus Task Force, with leading experts on infectious diseases, to manage the Administration’s efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and to keep workplaces safe.

Pledged in the State of the Union address to “take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from the Virus,” while the Democrats’ response made not a single mention of COVID-19 or even the threat of China.

Declared COVID-19 a National Emergency under the Stafford Act.

Established the 24/7 FEMA National Response Coordination Center.

Released guidance recommending containment measures critical to slowing the spread of the Virus, decompressing peak burden on hospitals and infrastructure, and diminishing health impacts.

Implemented strong community mitigation strategies to sharply reduce the number of lives lost in the United States down from experts’ projection of up to 2.2 million deaths in the United States without mitigation.

Halted American funding to the World Health Organization to counter its egregious bias towards China that jeopardized the safety of Americans.

Announced plans for withdrawal from the World Health Organization and redirected contribution funds to help meet global public health needs.

Called on the United Nations to hold China accountable for their handling of the virus, including refusing to be transparent and failing to contain the virus before it spread.

Re-purposed domestic manufacturing facilities to ensure frontline workers had critical supplies.

Distributed billions of pieces of Personal Protective Equipment, including gloves, masks, gowns, and face shields.

Invoked the Defense Production Act over 100 times to accelerate the development and manufacturing of essential material in the USA.

Made historic investments of more than $3 billion into the industrial base.

Contracted with companies such as Ford, General Motors, Philips, and General Electric to produce ventilators.

Contracted with Honeywell, 3M, O&M Halyard, Moldex, and Lydall to increase our Nation’s production of N-95 masks.

The Army Corps of Engineers built 11,000 beds, distributed 10,000 ventilators, and surged personnel to hospitals.

Converted the Javits Center in New York into a 3,000-bed hospital, and opened medical facilities in Seattle and New Orleans.

Dispatched the USNS Comfort to New York City, and the USNS Mercy to Los Angeles.

Deployed thousands of FEMA employees, National Guard members, and military forces to help in the response.

Provided support to states facing new emergences of the virus, including surging testing sites, deploying medical personnel, and advising on mitigation strategies.

Announced Federal support to governors for use of the National Guard with 100 percent cost-share.

Established the Supply Chain Task Force as a “control tower” to strategically allocate high-demand medical supplies and PPE to areas of greatest need.

Requested critical data elements from states about the status of hospital capacity, ventilators, and PPE.

Executed nearly 250 flights through Project Air Bridge to transport hundreds of millions of surgical masks, N95 respirators, gloves, and gowns from around the world to hospitals and facilities throughout the United States.

Signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to ensure that Americans have a reliable supply of products like beef, pork, and poultry.

Stabilized the food supply chain restoring the Nation’s protein processing capacity through a collaborative approach with Federal, state, and local officials and industry partners.

The continued movement of food and other critical items of daily life distributed to stores and to American homes went unaffected.

Replenished the depleted Strategic National Stockpile.

Increased the number of ventilators nearly ten-fold to more than 153,000.

Despite the grim projections from the media and governors, no American who has needed a ventilator has been denied a ventilator.

Increased the number of N95 masks fourteen-fold to more than 176 million.

Issued an executive order ensuring critical medical supplies are produced in the United States.

Created the largest, most advanced, and most innovative testing system in the world.

Built the world’s leading testing system from scratch, conducting over 200 million tests – more than all of the European Union combined.

Engaged more than 400 test developers to increase testing capacity from less than 100 tests per day to more than 2 million tests per day.

Slashed red tape and approved Emergency Use Authorizations for more than 300 different tests, including 235 molecular tests, 63 antibody tests, and 11 antigen tests.

Delivered state-of-the-art testing devices and millions of tests to every certified nursing home in the country.

Announced more flexibility to Medicare Advantage and Part D plans to waive cost-sharing for tests.

Over 2,000 retail pharmacy stores, including CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens, are providing testing using new regulatory and reimbursement options.

Deployed tens of millions of tests to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), tribes, disaster relief operations, Home Health/Hospice organizations, and the Veterans Health Administration.

Began shipping 150 million BinaxNOW rapid tests to states, long-term care facilities, the IHS, HBCUs, and other key partners.

Pioneered groundbreaking treatments and therapies that reduced the mortality rate by 85 percent, saving over 2 million lives.

The United States has among the lowest case fatality rates in the entire world.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program to expedite the regulatory review process for therapeutics in clinical trials, accelerate the development and publication of industry guidance on developing treatments, and utilize regulatory flexibility to help facilitate the scaling-up of manufacturing capacity.

More than 370 therapies are in clinical trials and another 560 are in the planning stages.

Announced $450 million in available funds to support the manufacturing of Regeneron’s antibody cocktail.

Shipped tens of thousands of doses of the Regeneron drug.

Authorized an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for convalescent plasma.

Treated around 100,000 patients with convalescent plasma, which may reduce mortality by 50 percent.

Provided $48 million to fund the Mayo Clinic study that tested the efficacy of convalescent plasma for patients with COVID-19.

Made an agreement to support the large-scale manufacturing of AstraZeneca’s cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies.

Approved Remdesivir as the first COVID-19 treatment, which could reduce hospitalization time by nearly a third.

Secured more than 90 percent of the world’s supply of Remdesivir, enough to treat over 850,000 high-risk patients.

Granted an EUA to Eli Lilly for its anti-body treatments.

Finalized an agreement with Eli Lilly to purchase the first doses of the company’s investigational antibody therapeutic.

Provided up to $270 million to the American Red Cross and America’s Blood Centers to support the collection of up to 360,000 units of plasma.

Launched a nationwide campaign to ask patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma.

Announced Phase 3 clinical trials for varying types of blood thinners to treat adults diagnosed with COVID-19.

Issued an EUA for the monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab.

FDA issued an EUA for casirivimab and imdevimab to be administered together.

Launched the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium with private sector and academic leaders unleashing America’s supercomputers to accelerate coronavirus research.

Brought the full power of American medicine and government to produce a safe and effective vaccine in record time.

Launched Operation Warp Speed to initiate an unprecedented drive to develop and make available an effective vaccine by January 2021.

Pfizer and Moderna developed two vaccines in just nine months, five times faster than the fastest prior vaccine development in American history.

Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are approximately 95 effective – far exceeding all expectations.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson also both have promising candidates in the final stage of clinical trials.

The vaccines will be administered within 24 hours of FDA-approval.

Made millions of vaccine doses available before the end of 2020, with hundreds of millions more to quickly follow.

FedEx and UPS will ship doses from warehouses directly to local pharmacies, hospitals, and healthcare providers.

Finalized a partnership with CVS and Walgreens to deliver vaccines directly to residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities as soon as a state requests it, at no cost to America’s seniors.

Signed an executive order to ensure that the United States government prioritizes getting the vaccine to American citizens before sending it to other nations.

Provided approximately $13 billion to accelerate vaccine development and to manufacture all of the top candidates in advance.

Provided critical investments of $4.1 billion to Moderna to support the development, manufacturing, and distribution of their vaccines.

Moderna announced its vaccine is 95 percent effective and is pending FDA approval.

Provided Pfizer up to $1.95 billion to support the mass-manufacturing and nationwide distribution of their vaccine candidate.

Pfizer announced its vaccine is 95 percent effective and is pending FDA approval.

Provided approximately $1 billion to support the manufacturing and distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate reached the final stage of clinical trials.

Made up to $1.2 billion available to support AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate reached the final stage of clinical trials.

Made an agreement to support the large-scale manufacturing of Novavax’s vaccine candidate with 100 million doses expected.

Partnered with Sanofi and GSK to support large-scale manufacturing of a COVID-19 investigational vaccine.

Awarded $200 million in funding to support vaccine preparedness and plans for the immediate distribution and administration of vaccines.

Provided $31 million to Cytvia for vaccine-related consumable products.

Under the PREP Act, issued guidance authorizing qualified pharmacy technicians to administer vaccines.

Announced that McKesson Corporation will produce store, and distribute vaccine ancillary supply kits on behalf of the Strategic National Stockpile to help healthcare workers who will administer vaccines.

Announced partnership with large-chain, independent, and regional pharmacies to deliver vaccines.

Prioritized resources for the most vulnerable Americans, including nursing home residents.

Quickly established guidelines for nursing homes and expanded telehealth opportunities to protect vulnerable seniors.

Increased surveillance, oversight, and transparency of all 15,417 Medicare and Medicaid nursing homes by requiring them to report cases of COVID-19 to all residents, their families, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Required that all nursing homes test staff regularly.

Launched an unprecedented national nursing home training curriculum to equip nursing home staff with the knowledge they need to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Delivered $81 million for increased inspections and funded 35,000 members of the Nation Guard to deliver critical supplies to every Medicare-certified nursing homes.

Deployed Federal Task Force Strike Teams to provide onsite technical assistance and education to nursing homes experiencing outbreaks.

Distributed tens of billions of dollars in Provider Relief Funds to protect nursing homes, long-term care facilities, safety-net hospitals, rural hospitals, and communities hardest hit by the virus.

Released 1.5 million N95 respirators from the Strategic National Stockpile for distribution to over 3,000 nursing home facilities.

Directed the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council to refocus on underserved communities impacted by the coronavirus.

Required that testing results reported include data on race, gender, ethnicity, and ZIP code, to ensure that resources were directed to communities disproportionately harmed by the virus.

Ensured testing was offered at 95 percent of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), which serve over 29 million patients in 12,000 communities across the Nation.

Invested an unprecedented $8 billion in tribal communities.

Maintained safe access for Veterans to VA healthcare throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic and supported non-VA hospital systems and private and state-run nursing homes with VA clinical teams.

Signed legislation ensuring no reduction of VA education benefits under the GI Bill for online distance learning.

Supported Americans as they safely return to school and work.

Issued the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, a detailed blueprint to help governors as they began reopening the country. Focused on protecting the most vulnerable and mitigating the risk of any resurgence, while restarting the economy and allowing Americans to safely return to their jobs.

Helped Americans return to work by providing extensive guidance on workplace-safety measures to protect against COVID-19, and investigating over 10,000 coronavirus-related complaints and referrals.

Provided over $31 billion to support elementary and secondary schools.

Distributed 125 million face masks to school districts.

Provided comprehensive guidelines to schools on how to protect and identify high-risk individuals, prevent the spread of COVID-19, and conduct safe in-person teaching.

Brought back the safe return of college athletics, including Big Ten and Pac-12 football.

Rescued the American economy with nearly $3.4 trillion in relief, the largest financial aid package in history.

Secured an initial $8.3 billion Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Act, supporting the development of treatments and vaccines, and to procure critical medical supplies and equipment.

Signed the $100 billion Families First Coronavirus Relief Act, guaranteeing free coronavirus testing, emergency paid sick leave and family leave, Medicaid funding, and food assistance.

Signed the $2.3 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, providing unprecedented and immediate relief to American families, workers, and businesses.

Signed additional legislation providing nearly $900 billion in support for coronavirus emergency response and relief, including critically needed funds to continue the Paycheck Protection Program.

Signed the Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act, adding an additional $310 billion to replenish the program.

Delivered approximately 160 million relief payments to hardworking Americans.

Through the Paycheck Protection Program, approved over $525 billion in forgivable loans to more than 5.2 million small businesses, supporting more than 51 million American jobs.

The Treasury Department approved the establishment of the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility to provide liquidity to the financial system.

The Treasury Department, working with the Federal Reserve, was able to leverage approximately $4 trillion in emergency lending facilities.

Signed an executive order extending expanded unemployment benefits.

Signed an executive order to temporarily suspend student loan payments, evictions, and collection of payroll taxes.

Small Business Administration expanded access to emergency economic assistance for small businesses, faith-based, and religious entities.

Protected jobs for American workers impacted by COVID-19 by temporarily suspending several job-related nonimmigrant visas, including H-1B’s, H-2B’s without a nexus to the food-supply chain, certain H-4’s, as well as L’s and certain J’s.

Great Healthcare for Americans

Empowered American patients by greatly expanding healthcare choice, transparency, and affordability.

Eliminated the Obamacare individual mandate – a financial relief to low and middle-income households that made up nearly 80 percent of the families who paid the penalty for not wanting to purchase health insurance.

Increased choice for consumers by promoting competition in the individual health insurance market leading to lower premiums for three years in a row.

Under the Trump Administration, more than 90 percent of the counties have multiple options on the individual insurance market to choose from.

Offered Association Health Plans, which allow employers to pool together and offer more affordable, quality health coverage to their employees at up to 30 percent lower cost.

Increased availability of short-term, limited-duration health plans, which can cost up to 60 percent less than traditional plans, giving Americans more flexibility to choose plans that suit their needs.

Expanded Health Reimbursement Arrangements, allowing millions of Americans to be able to shop for a plan of their choice on the individual market, and then have their employer cover the cost.

Added 2,100 new Medicare Advantage plan options since 2017, a 76 percent increase.

Lowered Medicare Advantage premiums by 34 percent nationwide to the lowest level in 14 years. Medicare health plan premium savings for beneficiaries have totaled $nearly 1.5 billion since 2017.

Improved access to tax-free health savings accounts for individuals with chronic conditions.

Eliminated costly Obamacare taxes, including the health insurance tax, the medical device tax, and the “Cadillac tax.”

Worked with states to create more flexibility and relief from oppressive Obamacare regulations, including reinsurance waivers to help lower premiums.

Released legislative principles to end surprise medical billing.

Finalized requirements for unprecedented price transparency from hospitals and insurance companies so patients know what the cost is before they receive care.

Took action to require that hospitals make the prices they negotiate with insurers publicly available and easily accessible online.

Improved patients access to their health data by penalizing hospitals and causing clinicians to lose their incentive payments if they do not comply.

Expanded access to telehealth, especially in rural and underserved communities.

Increased Medicare payments to rural hospitals to stem a decade of rising closures and deliver enhanced access to care in rural areas.

Issued unprecedented reforms that dramatically lowered the price of prescription drugs.

Lowered drug prices for the first time in 51 years.

Launched an initiative to stop global freeloading in the drug market.

Finalized a rule to allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada.

Finalized the Most Favored Nation Rule to ensure that pharmaceutical companies offer the same discounts to the United States as they do to other nations, resulting in an estimated $85 billion in savings over seven years and $30 billion in out-of-pocket costs alone.

Proposed a rule requiring federally funded health centers to pass drug company discounts on insulin and Epi-Pens directly to patients.

Ended the gag clauses that prevented pharmacists from informing patients about the best prices for the medications they need.

Ended the costly kickbacks to middlemen and ensured that patients directly benefit from available discounts at the pharmacy counter, saving Americans up to 30 percent on brand name pharmaceuticals.

Enhanced Part D plans to provide many seniors with Medicare access to a broad set of insulins at a maximum $35 copay for a month’s supply of each type of insulin.

Reduced Medicare Part D prescription drug premiums, saving beneficiaries nearly $2 billion in premium costs since 2017.

Ended the Unapproved Drugs Initiative, which provided market exclusivity to generic drugs.

Promoted research and innovation in healthcare to ensure that American patients have access to the best treatment in the world.

Signed first-ever executive order to affirm that it is the official policy of the United States Government to protect patients with pre-existing conditions.

Passed Right To Try to give terminally ill patients access to lifesaving cures.

Signed an executive order to fight kidney disease with more transplants and better treatment.

Signed into law a $1 billion increase in funding for critical Alzheimer’s research.

Accelerated medical breakthroughs in genetic treatments for Sickle Cell disease.

Finalized the interoperability rules that will give American patients access to their electronic health records on their phones.

Initiated an effort to provide $500 million over the next decade to improve pediatric cancer research.

Launched a campaign to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America in the next decade.

Started a program to provide the HIV prevention drug PrEP to uninsured patients for free.

Signed an executive order and awarded new development contracts to modernize the influenza vaccine.

Protected our Nation’s seniors by safeguarding and strengthening Medicare.

Updated the way Medicare pays for innovative medical products to ensure beneficiaries have access to the latest innovation and treatment.

Reduced improper payments for Medicare an estimated $15 billion since 2016 protecting taxpayer dollars and leading to less fraud, waste, and abuse.

Took rapid action to combat antimicrobial resistance and secure access to life-saving new antibiotic drugs for American seniors, by removing several financial disincentives and setting policies to reduce inappropriate use.

Launched new online tools, including eMedicare, Blue Button 2.0, and Care Compare, to help seniors see what is covered, compare costs, streamline data, and compare tools available on Medicare.gov.

Provided new Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits, including modifications to help keep seniors safe in their homes, respite care for caregivers, non-opioid pain management alternatives like therapeutic massages, transportation, and more in-home support services and assistance.

Protected Medicare beneficiaries by removing Social Security numbers from all Medicare cards, a project completed ahead of schedule.

Unleashed unprecedented transparency in Medicare and Medicaid data to spur research and innovation.

Remaking the Federal Judiciary

Appointed a historic number of Federal judges who will interpret the Constitution as written.

Nominated and confirmed over 230 Federal judges.

Confirmed 54 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals, making up nearly a third of the entire appellate bench.

Filled all Court of Appeals vacancies for the first time in four decades.

Flipped the Second, Third, and Eleventh Circuits from Democrat-appointed majorities to Republican-appointed majorities. And dramatically reshaped the long-liberal Ninth Circuit.

Appointed three Supreme Court justices, expanding its conservative-appointed majority to 6-3.

Appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.

Appointed Justice Brett Kavanaugh to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Achieving a Secure Border

Secured the Southern Border of the United States.

Built over 400 miles of the world’s most robust and advanced border wall.

Illegal crossings have plummeted over 87 percent where the wall has been constructed.

Deployed nearly 5,000 troops to the Southern border. In addition, Mexico deployed tens of thousands of their own soldiers and national guardsmen to secure their side of the US-Mexico border.

Ended the dangerous practice of Catch-and-Release, which means that instead of aliens getting released into the United States pending future hearings never to be seen again, they are detained pending removal, and then ultimately returned to their home countries.

Entered into three historic asylum cooperation agreements with Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to stop asylum fraud and resettle illegal migrants in third-party nations pending their asylum applications.

Entered into a historic partnership with Mexico, referred to as the “Migrant Protection Protocols,” to safely return asylum-seekers to Mexico while awaiting hearings in the United States.

Fully enforced the immigration laws of the United States.

Signed an executive order to strip discretionary Federal grant funding from deadly sanctuary cities.

Fully enforced and implemented statutorily authorized “expedited removal” of illegal aliens.

The Department of Justice prosecuted a record-breaking number of immigration-related crimes.

Used Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to reduce the number of aliens coming from countries whose governments refuse to accept their nationals who were ordered removed from the United States.

Ended asylum fraud, shut down human smuggling traffickers, and solved the humanitarian crisis across the Western Hemisphere.

Suspended, via regulation, asylum for aliens who had skipped previous countries where they were eligible for asylum but opted to “forum shop” and continue to the United States.

Safeguarded migrant families, and protected migrant safety, by promulgating new regulations under the Flores Settlement Agreement.

Proposed regulations to end the practice of giving free work permits to illegal aliens lodging meritless asylum claims.

Issued “internal relocation” guidance.

Cross-trained United States Border Patrol agents to conduct credible fear screenings alongside USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) adjudication personnel to reduce massive backlogs.

Streamlined and expedited the asylum hearing process through both the Prompt Asylum Claim Review (PACR) and the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process (HARP).

Launched the Family Fraud Initiative to identify hundreds of individuals who were fraudulently presenting themselves as family units at the border, oftentimes with trafficking children, in order to ensure child welfare.

Improved screening in countries with high overstay rates and reduced visa overstay rates in many of these countries.

Removed bureaucratic constraints on United States consular officers that reduced their ability to appropriately vet visa applicants.

Worked with Mexico and other regional partners to dismantle the human smuggling networks in our hemisphere that profit from human misery and fuel the border crisis by exploiting vulnerable populations.

Secured our Nation’s immigration system against criminals and terrorists.

Instituted national security travel bans to keep out terrorists, jihadists, and violent extremists, and implemented a uniform security and information-sharing baseline all nations must meet in order for their nationals to be able to travel to, and emigrate to, the United States.

Suspended refugee resettlement from the world’s most dangerous and terror-afflicted regions.

Rebalanced refugee assistance to focus on overseas resettlement and burden-sharing.

85 percent reduction in refugee resettlement.

Overhauled badly-broken refugee security screening process.

Required the Department of State to consult with states and localities as part of the Federal government’s refugee resettlement process.

Issued strict sanctions on countries that have failed to take back their own nationals.

Established the National Vetting Center, which is the most advanced and comprehensive visa screening system anywhere in the world.

Protected American workers and taxpayers.

Issued a comprehensive “public charge” regulation to ensure newcomers to the United States are financially self-sufficient and not reliant on welfare.

Created an enforcement mechanism for sponsor repayment and deeming, to ensure that people who are presenting themselves as sponsors are actually responsible for sponsor obligations.

Issued regulations to combat the horrendous practice of “birth tourism.”

Issued a rule with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make illegal aliens ineligible for public housing.

Issued directives requiring Federal agencies to hire United States workers first and prioritizing the hiring of United States workers wherever possible.

Suspended the entry of low-wage workers that threaten American jobs.

Finalized new H-1B regulations to permanently end the displacement of United States workers and modify the administrative tools that are required for H-1B visa issuance.

Defended United States sovereignty by withdrawing from the United Nations’ Global Compact on Migration.

Suspended Employment Authorization Documents for aliens who arrive illegally between ports of entry and are ordered removed from the United States.

Restored integrity to the use of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) by strictly adhering to the statutory conditions required for TPS.

Restoring American Leadership Abroad

Restored America’s leadership in the world and successfully negotiated to ensure our allies pay their fair share for our military protection.

Secured a $400 billion increase in defense spending from NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies by 2024, and the number of members meeting their minimum obligations more than doubled.

Credited by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for strengthening NATO.

Worked to reform and streamline the United Nations (UN) and reduced spending by $1.3 billion.

Allies, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, committed to increase burden-sharing.

Protected our Second Amendment rights by announcing the United States will never ratify the UN Arms Trade Treaty.

Returned 56 hostages and detainees from more than 24 countries.

Worked to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region, promoting new investments and expanding American partnerships.

Advanced peace through strength.

Withdrew from the horrible, one-sided Iran Nuclear Deal and imposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian Regime.

Conducted vigorous enforcement on all sanctions to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero and deny the regime its principal source of revenue.

First president to meet with a leader of North Korea and the first sitting president to cross the demilitarized zone into North Korea.

Maintained a maximum pressure campaign and enforced tough sanctions on North Korea while negotiating de-nuclearization, the release of American hostages, and the return of the remains of American heroes.

Brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, bolstering peace in the Balkans.

Signed the Honk Kong Autonomy Act and ended the United States’ preferential treatment with Hong Kong to hold China accountable for its infringement on the autonomy of Hong Kong.

Led allied efforts to defeat the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to control the international telecommunications system.

Renewed our cherished friendship and alliance with Israel and took historic action to promote peace in the Middle East.

Recognized Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel and quickly moved the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Acknowledged Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and declared that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not inconsistent with international law.

Removed the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council due to the group’s blatant anti-Israel bias.

Brokered historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab-Muslim countries, including the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Sudan.

In addition, the United States negotiated a normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco, and recognized Moroccan Sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara, a position with long standing bipartisan support.

Brokered a deal for Kosovo to normalize ties and establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

Announced that Serbia would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

First American president to address an assembly of leaders from more than 50 Muslim nations, and reach an agreement to fight terrorism in all its forms.

Established the Etidal Center to combat terrorism in the Middle East in conjunction with the Saudi Arabian Government.

Announced the Vision for Peace Political Plan – a two-state solution that resolves the risks of Palestinian statehood to Israel’s security, and the first time Israel has agreed to a map and a Palestinian state.

Released an economic plan to empower the Palestinian people and enhance Palestinian governance through historic private investment.

Stood up against Communism and Socialism in the Western Hemisphere.

Reversed the previous Administration’s disastrous Cuba policy, canceling the sellout deal with the Communist Castro dictatorship.

Pledged not to lift sanctions until all political prisoners are freed; freedoms of assembly and expression are respected; all political parties are legalized; and free elections are scheduled.

Enacted a new policy aimed at preventing American dollars from funding the Cuban regime, including stricter travel restrictions and restrictions on the importation of Cuban alcohol and tobacco.

Implemented a cap on remittances to Cuba.

Enabled Americans to file lawsuits against persons and entities that traffic in property confiscated by the Cuban regime.

First world leader to recognize Juan Guaido as the Interim President of Venezuela and led a diplomatic coalition against the Socialist Dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.

Blocked all property of the Venezuelan Government in the jurisdiction of the United States.

Cut off the financial resources of the Maduro regime and sanctioned key sectors of the Venezuelan economy exploited by the regime.

Brought criminal charges against Nicolas Maduro for his narco-terrorism.

Imposed stiff sanctions on the Ortega regime in Nicaragua.

Joined together with Mexico and Canada in a successful bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with 60 matches to be held in the United States.

Won bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

Colossal Rebuilding of the Military

Rebuilt the military and created the Sixth Branch, the United States Space Force.

Completely rebuilt the United States military with over $2.2 trillion in defense spending, including $738 billion for 2020.

Secured three pay raises for our service members and their families, including the largest raise in a decade.

Established the Space Force, the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces since 1947.

Modernized and recapitalized our nuclear forces and missile defenses to ensure they continue to serve as a strong deterrent.

Upgraded our cyber defenses by elevating the Cyber Command into a major warfighting command and by reducing burdensome procedural restrictions on cyber operations.

Vetoed the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act, which failed to protect our national security, disrespected the history of our veterans and military, and contradicted our efforts to put America first.

Defeated terrorists, held leaders accountable for malign actions, and bolstered peace around the world.

Defeated 100 percent of ISIS’ territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Freed nearly 8 million civilians from ISIS’ bloodthirsty control, and liberated Mosul, Raqqa, and the final ISIS foothold of Baghuz.

Killed the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and eliminated the world’s top terrorist, Qasem Soleimani.

Created the Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) in partnership between the United States and its Gulf partners to combat extremist ideology and threats, and target terrorist financial networks, including over 60 terrorist individuals and entities spanning the globe.

Twice took decisive military action against the Assad regime in Syria for the barbaric use of chemical weapons against innocent civilians, including a successful 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles strike.

Authorized sanctions against bad actors tied to Syria’s chemical weapons program.

Negotiated an extended ceasefire with Turkey in northeast Syria.

Addressed gaps in American’s defense-industrial base, providing much-needed updates to improve the safety of our country.

Protected America’s defense-industrial base, directing the first whole-of-government assessment of our manufacturing and defense supply chains since the 1950s.

Took decisive steps to secure our information and communications technology and services supply chain, including unsafe mobile applications.

Completed several multi-year nuclear material removal campaigns, securing over 1,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and significantly reducing global nuclear threats.

Signed an executive order directing Federal agencies to work together to diminish the capability of foreign adversaries to target our critical electric infrastructure.

Established a whole-of-government strategy addressing the threat posed by China’s malign efforts targeting the United States taxpayer-funded research and development ecosystem.

Advanced missile defense capabilities and regional alliances.

Bolstered the ability of our allies and partners to defend themselves through the sale of aid and military equipment.

Signed the largest arms deal ever, worth nearly $110 billion, with Saudi Arabia.

Serving and Protecting Our Veterans

Reformed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to improve care, choice, and employee accountability.

Signed and implemented the VA Mission Act, which made permanent Veterans CHOICE, revolutionized the VA community care system, and delivered quality care closer to home for Veterans.

The number of Veterans who say they trust VA services has increased 19 percent to a record 91 percent, an all-time high.

Offered same-day emergency mental health care at every VA medical facility, and secured $9.5 billion for mental health services in 2020.

Signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017, which ensured that veterans could continue to see the doctor of their choice and wouldn’t have to wait for care.

During the Trump Administration, millions of veterans have been able to choose a private doctor in their communities.

Expanded Veterans’ ability to access telehealth services, including through the “Anywhere to Anywhere” VA healthcare initiative leading to a 1000 percent increase in usage during COVID-19.

Signed the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act and removed thousands of VA workers who failed to give our Vets the care they have so richly deserve.

Signed the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017 and improved the efficiency of the VA, setting record numbers of appeals decisions.

Modernized medical records to begin a seamless transition from the Department of Defense to the VA.

Launched a new tool that provides Veterans with online access to average wait times and quality-of-care data.

The promised White House VA Hotline has fielded hundreds of thousands of calls.

Formed the PREVENTS Task Force to fight the tragedy of Veteran suicide.

Decreased veteran homelessness, improved education benefits, and achieved record-low veteran unemployment.

Signed and implemented the Forever GI Bill, allowing Veterans to use their benefits to get an education at any point in their lives.

Eliminated every penny of Federal student loan debt owed by American veterans who are completely and permanently disabled.

Compared to 2009, 49 percent fewer veterans experienced homelessness nationwide during 2019.

Signed and implemented the HAVEN Act to ensure that Veterans who’ve declared bankruptcy don’t lose their disability payments.

Helped hundreds of thousands of military service members make the transition from the military to the civilian workforce, and developed programs to support the employment of military spouses.

Placed nearly 40,000 homeless veterans into employment through the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program.

Placed over 600,000 veterans into employment through American Job Center services.

Enrolled over 500,000 transitioning service members in over 20,000 Department of Labor employment workshops.

Signed an executive order to help Veterans transition seamlessly into the United States Merchant Marine.

Making Communities Safer

Signed into law landmark criminal justice reform.

Signed the bipartisan First Step Act into law, the first landmark criminal justice reform legislation ever passed to reduce recidivism and help former inmates successfully rejoin society.

Promoted second chance hiring to give former inmates the opportunity to live crime-free lives and find meaningful employment.

Launched a new “Ready to Work” initiative to help connect employers directly with former prisoners.

Awarded $2.2 million to states to expand the use of fidelity bonds, which underwrite companies that hire former prisoners.

Reversed decades-old ban on Second Chance Pell programs to provide postsecondary education to individuals who are incarcerated expand their skills and better succeed in the workforce upon re-entry.

Awarded over $333 million in Department of Labor grants to nonprofits and local and state governments for reentry projects focused on career development services for justice-involved youth and adults who were formerly incarcerated.

Unprecedented support for law-enforcement.

In 2019, violent crime fell for the third consecutive year.

Since 2016, the violent crime rate has declined over 5 percent and the murder rate has decreased by over 7 percent.

Launched Operation Legend to combat a surge of violent crime in cities, resulting in more than 5,500 arrests.

Deployed the National Guard and Federal law enforcement to Kenosha to stop violence and restore public safety.

Provided $1 million to Kenosha law enforcement, nearly $4 million to support small businesses in Kenosha, and provided over $41 million to support law enforcement to the state of Wisconsin.

Deployed Federal agents to save the courthouse in Portland from rioters.

Signed an executive order outlining ten-year prison sentences for destroying Federal property and monuments.

Directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate and prosecute Federal offenses related to ongoing violence.

DOJ provided nearly $400 million for new law enforcement hiring.

Endorsed by the 355,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Revitalized Project Safe Neighborhoods, which brings together Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials to develop solutions to violent crime.

Improved first-responder communications by deploying the FirstNet National Public Safety Broadband Network, which serves more than 12,000 public safety agencies across the Nation.

Established a new commission to evaluate best practices for recruiting, training, and supporting law enforcement officers.

Signed the Safe Policing for Safe Communities executive order to incentive local police department reforms in line with law and order.

Made hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement.

Signed an executive order to help prevent violence against law enforcement officers.

Secured permanent funding for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund for first responders.

Implemented strong measures to stem hate crimes, gun violence, and human trafficking.

Signed an executive order making clear that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to discrimination rooted in anti-Semitism.

Launched a centralized website to educate the public about hate crimes and encourage reporting.

Signed the Fix NICS Act to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals.

Signed the STOP School Violence Act and created a Commission on School Safety to examine ways to make our schools safer.

Launched the Foster Youth to Independence initiative to prevent and end homelessness among young adults under the age of 25 who are in, or have recently left, the foster care system.

Signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which tightened criteria for whether countries are meeting standards for eliminating trafficking.

Established a task force to help combat the tragedy of missing or murdered Native American women and girls.

Prioritized fighting for the voiceless and ending the scourge of human trafficking across the Nation, through a whole of government back by legislation, executive action, and engagement with key industries.

Created the first-ever White House position focused solely on combating human trafficking.

Cherishing Life and Religious Liberty

Steadfastly supported the sanctity of every human life and worked tirelessly to prevent government funding of abortion.

Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, ensuring that taxpayer money is not used to fund abortion globally.

Issued a rule preventing Title X taxpayer funding from subsiding the abortion industry.

Supported legislation to end late-term abortions.

Cut all funding to the United Nations population fund due to the fund’s support for coercive abortion and forced sterilization.

Signed legislation overturning the previous administration’s regulation that prohibited states from defunding abortion facilities as part of their family planning programs.

Fully enforced the requirement that taxpayer dollars do not support abortion coverage in Obamacare exchange plans.

Stopped the Federal funding of fetal tissue research.

Worked to protect healthcare entities and individuals’ conscience rights – ensuring that no medical professional is forced to participate in an abortion in violation of their beliefs.

Issued an executive order reinforcing requirement that all hospitals in the United States provide medical treatment or an emergency transfer for infants who are in need of emergency medical care—regardless of prematurity or disability.

Led a coalition of countries to sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, declaring that there is no international right to abortion and committing to protecting women’s health.

First president in history to attend the March for Life.

Stood up for religious liberty in the United States and around the world.

Protected the conscience rights of doctors, nurses, teachers, and groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor.

First president to convene a meeting at the United Nations to end religious persecution.

Established the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

Stopped the Johnson Amendment from interfering with pastors’ right to speak their minds.

Reversed the previous administration’s policy that prevented the government from providing disaster relief to religious organizations.

Protected faith-based adoption and foster care providers, ensuring they can continue to serve their communities while following the teachings of their faith.

Reduced burdensome barriers to ensure Native Americans are free to keep spiritually and culturally significant eagle feathers found on their tribal lands.

Took action to ensure Federal employees can take paid time off work to observe religious holy days.

Signed legislation to assist religious and ethnic groups targeted by ISIS for mass murder and genocide in Syria and Iraq.

Directed American assistance toward persecuted communities, including through faith-based programs.

Launched the International Religious Freedom Alliance – the first-ever alliance devoted to confronting religious persecution around the world.

Appointed a Special Envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.

Imposed restrictions on certain Chinese officials, internal security units, and companies for their complicity in the persecution of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Issued an executive order to protect and promote religious freedom around the world.

Safeguarding the Environment

Took strong action to protect the environment and ensure clean air and clean water.

Took action to protect vulnerable Americans from being exposed to lead and copper in drinking water and finalized a rule protecting children from lead-based paint hazards.

Invested over $38 billion in clean water infrastructure.

In 2019, America achieved the largest decline in carbon emissions of any country on earth. Since withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, the United States has reduced carbon emissions more than any nation.

American levels of particulate matter – one of the main measures of air pollution – are approximately five times lower than the global average.

Between 2017 and 2019, the air became 7 percent cleaner – indicated by a steep drop in the combined emissions of criteria pollutants.

Led the world in greenhouse gas emissions reductions, having cut energy-related CO2 emissions by 12 percent from 2005 to 2018 while the rest of the world increased emissions by 24 percent.

In FY 2019 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleaned up more major pollution sites than any year in nearly two decades.

The EPA delivered $300 million in Brownfields grants directly to communities most in need including investment in 118 Opportunity Zones.

Placed a moratorium on offshore drilling off the coasts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.

Restored public access to Federal land at Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Recovered more endangered or threatened species than any other administration in its first term.

Secured agreements and signed legislation to protect the environment and preserve our Nation’s abundant national resources.

The USMCA guarantees the strongest environmental protections of any trade agreement in history.

Signed the Save Our Seas Act to protect our environment from foreign nations that litter our oceans with debris and developed the first-ever Federal strategic plan to address marine litter.

Signed the Great American Outdoors Act, securing the single largest investment in America’s National Parks and public lands in history.

Signed the largest public lands legislation in a decade, designating 1.3 million new acres of wilderness.

Signed a historic executive order promoting much more active forest management to prevent catastrophic wildfires.

Opened and expanded access to over 4 million acres of public lands for hunting and fishing.

Joined the One Trillion Trees Initiative to plant, conserve, and restore trees in America and around the world.

Delivered infrastructure upgrades and investments for numerous projects, including over half a billion dollars to fix the Herbert Hoover Dike and expanding funding for Everglades restoration by 55 percent.

Expanding Educational Opportunity

Fought tirelessly to give every American access to the best possible education.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expanded School Choice, allowing parents to use up to $10,000 from a 529 education savings account to cover K-12 tuition costs at the public, private, or religious school of their choice.

Launched a new pro-American lesson plan for students called the 1776 Commission to promote patriotic education.

Prohibited the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the Federal government.

Established the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.

Called on Congress to pass the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act to expand education options for 1 million students of all economic backgrounds.

Signed legislation reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program.

Issued updated guidance making clear that the First Amendment right to Free Exercise of Religion does not end at the door to a public school.

Took action to promote technical education.

Signed into law the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, which provides over 13 million students with high-quality vocational education and extends more than $1.3 billion each year to states for critical workforce development programs.

Signed the INSPIRE Act which encouraged NASA to have more women and girls participate in STEM and seek careers in aerospace.

Allocated no less than $200 million each year in grants to prioritize women and minorities in STEM and computer science education.

Drastically reformed and modernized our educational system to restore local control and promote fairness.

Restored state and local control of education by faithfully implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Signed an executive order that ensures public universities protect First Amendment rights or they will risk losing funding, addresses student debt by requiring colleges to share a portion of the financial risk, and increases transparency by requiring universities to disclose information about the value of potential educational programs.

Issued a rule strengthening Title IX protections for survivors of sexual misconduct in schools, and that – for the first time in history – codifies that sexual harassment is prohibited under Title IX.

Negotiated historic bipartisan agreement on new higher education rules to increase innovation and lower costs by reforming accreditation, state authorization, distance education, competency-based education, credit hour, religious liberty, and TEACH Grants.

Prioritized support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Moved the Federal Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiative back to the White House.

Signed into law the FUTURE Act, making permanent $255 million in annual funding for HBCUs and increasing funding for the Federal Pell Grant program.

Signed legislation that included more than $100 million for scholarships, research, and centers of excellence at HBCU land-grant institutions.

Fully forgave $322 million in disaster loans to four HBCUs in 2018, so they could fully focus on educating their students.

Enabled faith-based HBCUs to enjoy equal access to Federal support.

Combatting the Opioid Crisis

Brought unprecedented attention and support to combat the opioid crisis.

Declared the opioid crisis a nationwide public health emergency.

Secured a record $6 billion in new funding to combat the opioid epidemic.

Signed the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, the largest-ever legislative effort to address a drug crisis in our Nation’s history.

Launched the Initiative to Stop Opioid Abuse and Reduce Drug Supply and Demand in order to confront the many causes fueling the drug crisis.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded a record $9 billion in grants to expand access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services to States and local communities.

Passed the CRIB Act, allowing Medicaid to help mothers and their babies who are born physically dependent on opioids by covering their care in residential pediatric recovery facilities.

Distributed $1 billion in grants for addiction prevention and treatment.

Announced a Safer Prescriber Plan that seeks to decrease the amount of opioids prescriptions filled in America by one third within three years.

Reduced the total amount of opioids prescriptions filled in America.

Expanded access to medication-assisted treatment and life-saving Naloxone.

Launched FindTreatment.gov, a tool to find help for substance abuse.

Drug overdose deaths fell nationwide in 2018 for the first time in nearly three decades.

Launched the Drug-Impaired Driving Initiative to work with local law enforcement and the driving public at large to increase awareness.

Launched a nationwide public ad campaign on youth opioid abuse that reached 58 percent of young adults in America.

Since 2016, there has been a nearly 40 percent increase in the number of Americans receiving medication-assisted treatment.

Approved 29 state Medicaid demonstrations to improve access to opioid use disorder treatment, including new flexibility to cover inpatient and residential treatment.

Approved nearly $200 million in grants to address the opioid crisis in severely affected communities and to reintegrate workers in recovery back into the workforce.

Took action to seize illegal drugs and punish those preying on innocent Americans.

In FY 2019, ICE HSI seized 12,466 pounds of opioids including 3,688 pounds of fentanyl, an increase of 35 percent from FY 2018.

Seized tens of thousands of kilograms of heroin and thousands of kilograms of fentanyl since 2017.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecuted more fentanyl traffickers than ever before, dismantled 3,000 drug trafficking organizations, and seized enough fentanyl to kill 105,000 Americans.

DOJ charged more than 65 defendants collectively responsible for distributing over 45 million opioid pills.

Brought kingpin designations against traffickers operating in China, India, Mexico, and more who have played a role in the epidemic in America.

Indicted major Chinese drug traffickers for distributing fentanyl in the U.S for the first time ever, and convinced China to enact strict regulations to control the production and sale of fentanyl.

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: The Break-In

In our first Very Special Episode, the Girls’ home is broken into. Rose doesn’t take it well. Blanche has a bad encounter with mace.

Picture It...

The Girls are returning from a Madonna concert, only to open the door and find the house has been ransacked -- they’ve been robbed. After determining that the robbers are no longer present, the Girls separate to check their rooms to see what was stolen. Rose, left alone in the living room, is absolutely petrified the robbers will come back. Dorothy returns and accidentally scares Rose. The robbers made off with Dorothy’s mink stole.

Blanche emerges from the kitchen covered in flour. The robbers got her jewels, which she keeps hidden in the flour or the freezer. Sophia tries to say her clothes were stolen but Dorothy doesn’t buy it. The Girls argue about why they were robbed, with Blanche saying it’s karma, while Rose insists they’d be safer with a man around. Sophia and Dorothy go to rest until the police arrive, while Blanche says she’ll see the robbers whipped and hanged for daring to touch her jewels.

The girls attempt to purchase a security system, but the salesman is doing everything he can to freak them out with statistics about violent crime. Unwilling to acquiesce to paying $10,000 despite the hard sell, Dorothy angrily throws him out. The girls go to get dinner, but the guard dog Rose got is camped out in the kitchen. Sophia eventually gets fed up and goes in the kitchen anyway. According to her the dog peed on the floor and ran for it. Clearly Rose is already starting to overcompensate for security.

Blanche is on the couch, groaning in pain as Dorothy tends to her. Rose comes running in, having mistaken their gardener for a “swarthy man with a weapon.” She assumes Blanche was attacked, but Blanche tells a different story: She took what she thought was a bottle of hairspray from Rose’s room, then went to the police station about her jewelry. When she sprayed herself, she found the hard way it was mace. Rose says she no longer needs mace, as she just bought a gun. Dorothy says Rose is now going overboard, as she doesn’t know how to use a gun, and insists they all go see a psychiatrist.

The Girls return later, having seen the psychiatrist. Dorothy feels better, Blanche picked up a date with him, and Sophia didn’t like him. Rose, on the other hand, wasn’t comforted at all -- she feels worse, believing he was her last hope. The girls reveal that Rose now doesn’t sleep at night at all, but sleeps during the day and then keeps an all-night vigil with the gun.

At night, we see the house in darkness and hear a man’s voice. The door opens, the alarm goes off, and Rose blindly fires her gun in the direction of the door. The lights go on, revealing Blanche and a date; Rose shot Blanche’s Chinese vase. Dorothy and Sophia come in as Blanche sends her date, who accidentally set off the alarm, away. Sophia helps Blanche pick up the pieces of the vase (while hiding some, because she hates the vase).

Dorothy tries to tell Rose this has all gone too far, and Rose can’t live this way, and tries to tell her that the robbery is over and she’s safe now. Rose has a breakdown and says, in her mind, the people who invaded her home will always be there. Dorothy holds her while she sobs.

This comes to a head when we next see Rose walking alone in a parking garage. Suddenly she hears footsteps behind her and looks back to see a shadowy figure. She panics and bolts for the stairs, as a man races after her, calling out for her. She makes it down the stairs before he catches up with her and grabs her. We see her cry out in fear before it cuts away.

Sophia and Dorothy are playing Scrabble, and Sophia denies Dorothy the right to disprove her word “disdam” by saying the robbers took the dictionary. Blanche announces they caught the robbers, and they found Dorothy’s stole. Rose comes home and tells them about the parking garage. When the man grabbed her, she managed to knock him to the ground. She’s finally got her confidence back, knowing she can take care of herself, which prompts Blanche to go put champagne on ice. Unfortunately, the man who was chasing Rose was the parking attendant, trying to give her back her keys. But at least Rose isn’t afraid. Blanche comes back with a surprise: Her jewelry was in the freezer the whole time.

“Now get out of here before the victim of violent crime in this house is you.”

This is by far the heaviest episode of Golden Girls yet. I hesitated at first to dub this a Very Special Episode, since I usually associate that term more with hot button issues of the moment. But it’s got all the highlights -- intense emotional responses, trauma, and references to a social problem of some kind (in this case, crime).

This is another episode written by Susan Harris, and I meant what I said about how her episodes are almost universally good. She has a knack for being able to make the girls feel sad or deeply emotional without it sounding preachy or overwrought. Rose’s confused attempts to verbalize how the crime has effected her perfectly capture how that kind of trauma feels.

ROSE: I know it’s over. I know they’re gone. But not for me. For me, in my mind, they’ll always be here.

Harris is also particularly good at showing how, having gone through that, Rose needs to heal from the inside. Rose’s attempts to compensate for her suddenly-missing security aren’t particularly effective, and it’s because, for Rose, nothing would ever be good enough, would make her feel safe enough. So while, when I first saw this episode I was a little baffled by Rose’s proclamation that “I’m not helpless,” I now appreciate it for what it is -- Rose reclaiming her own inner sense of safety, at the expense of one beleaguered parking attendant.

Speaking as an adult woman myself, being told that we can take care of ourselves and that we’re not helpless is something I think more women need to hear. Though I do have one question: Why didn’t that idiot parking attendant say that’s who he was, or attempt to tell her why he was chasing her? That fool deserves as many knees in his safety deposit box as he gets.

The emotional struggles don’t stop the episode from being hilarious, though. With the first two minutes, Dorothy gives a Dirty Harry monologue that I’d put on par with Clint Eastwood’s any day.

In fact, everyone gets their shot at a great comedy moment: Blanche is hilariously angry about the robbery, and Rue McClanahan gets the chance to show her comedy chops are just as strong as the other girls, especially her rant about the mace. Were it not for Sophia’s awesome line (see below), Blanche’s distressed cry of “I MACED MYSELF right there in the police station” would be my favorite part of the episode.

Dorothy, on the other hand, handles the situation very practically, even pointing out the societal ill that caused someone to rob them in the first place (massive unemployment). She even suggests they see a psychiatrist, which strikes me as surprisingly progressive -- even today, you’ll find people who respond to the suggestion of therapy the way Rose does: “You think I’m crazy!” The only time she really seems to crack is when she realizes Rose bought a gun -- and by the way, an understated but still great moment of visual comedy is watching Rose pull multiple skeins of yarn out of the same shopping bag where she’s carrying a handgun.

At first it seems strange that Sophia is so blasé about the robbery, immediately going to sleep after it happens. While the other girls shriek and gasp when they discover the ransacked house, Sophia’s response is a weary “Oh boy.” But then, in her “Stable Mabel” rant, she points out that she’s seen a lot more than a simple burglary in her time, and there’s not much that’ll phase her anymore. Her attempts to use it to con Dorothy out of new clothes and a Scrabble win are another early sign her character isn’t just “vaguely suffering from discretion-shattering stroke,” but is actually rather clever and devious -- traits that’ll become more apparent when she gets standout episodes.

As Very Special Episodes go, to me this is a good template for how to do it right. The situation is treated seriously, and there are two big dramatic moments (one the gun-shooting scene, the other Rose being chased through the parking garage). However, the show puts in about three jokes for every dramatic moment, and it’s those jokes you remember the episode for just as much as the important moment behind it. GG will do this again, but this will always remain one of the best.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰 (five cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite Part of the Episode:

You can’t beat Sophia, who’s been the stoic all episode, finally blowing her stack after Rose shoots her gun:

[dipulb3]

How the pandemic has changed Americans' spending and saving habits

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/how-the-pandemic-has-changed-americans-spending-and-saving-habits/

How the pandemic has changed Americans' spending and saving habits

Appradab Business asked readers how the pandemic has changed their spending and saving habits. Here’s what some of them had to say.

Paul Grim described himself and his wife, Michelle, as “more savers than spenders” before the pandemic struck.

Then Grim was laid off from his IT job. His wife, who is still working, has reduced her 401(k) contributions to free up some cash.

“We have been dipping into our emergency savings to cover our bills where unemployment falls short,” he said.

The couple, who live in upstate New York with their dog, Barley, are eating at home, minimizing impulse purchases and postponing pricey things like dental work.

“Once I am working again we intend to increase the amount of our emergency fund to ensure we are even more well-prepared for any potential future financial emergency, no matter how severe,” Grim said.

Jim Stearns of Alaska runs big events for nonprofits, including the state’s annual music festival Salmonfest. But his business dried up once large gatherings were canceled.

When he started collecting unemployment he was getting $800 a week, but that has since fallen to $200 a week, after the temporary $600 weekly federal supplement expired. Now he is tapping his savings to support himself and his teenage daughter.

“I’m spending very little as my savings slowly but surely diminishes by the day,” he said.

Stearns is less worried about himself than the hundreds of vendors and musicians he normally books for events. “I can limp along and survive. But the tragedy of this is this incredible trickle-down effect.”

Slashing expenses, saving more

Sarah Way reworked her family budget when her part-time job in California was cut back to one day a week and her husband’s employer temporarily cut his pay in half. Travel, dinners out and commuting expenses were eliminated by default because of the pandemic. But she went even deeper.

“We parked a car and took it off insurance. We cut cable TV. We slashed the grocery bill. After four months, my hubby’s salary went back to normal, but we didn’t adjust our budget back up,” Way said.

Instead, she noted, “We have increased our retirement savings and built a six-month cash reserve. We did complete a few house projects that had gone unfinished, but for the most part we are in better shape now than we were before Covid.”

Natalie Sawyer, a school administrator in Texas whose husband is a retired military officer and now a teacher, also took the pandemic as an opportunity to power-drive household savings.

“Before Covid, I spent money without even thinking about it. We ate out a lot and I shopped for things that I didn’t necessarily need. It was a kind of free-for-all with my money. Once Covid hit and [we] were forced to stay in, we started cooking all of [our] meals,” Sawyer said.

“With that in mind, starting in March I decided to put $500 a month in an interest-bearing online savings account just to see if I could make it work.”

Sawyer has saved an extra $4,200 so far. Even though she has resumed some shopping, she said, “I find myself not spending nearly as much as I used to and we’re still cooking a lot more at home. … Covid helped us realize that we don’t need most of the stuff that we were spending on.”

Karen Jones works in the cloud software industry in Oregon. Her husband, Kim, whose work is tied to outdoor concerts and fairs, was laid off early on in the pandemic, then brought back in June. But he was laid off again in mid-August.

Jones initially halted contributions to her 401(k) and put the money into their savings account. “I wanted cash that I could get to right away if needed and I didn’t have faith that the market wouldn’t slide further and negate any contributions that I made during that time,” she said.

The couple canceled vacation plans and paid off their credit cards. The extra money her husband got as a result of the temporary $600 a week federal unemployment subsidy went toward savings. Jones is also saving money on gas and lunches out because she has been working from home.

“We still eat out or [do] takeout once a week to support local businesses, but are not looking for any other big ticket activities such as vacations through the summer of next year,” Jones said.

Putting life on hold

Michelle Williams graduated from college during the Great Recession in 2008. And it was only recently that she and her husband, Sheldon, had felt financially and professionally secure enough to consider trading up to a better house from their starter home in Missouri. They also were going to start a family.

Now they’re holding off.

Williams, who works for her county’s public library, didn’t lose her job. But her husband was laid off in March. He has since found new work, but their household income is a little less than before. Still, Williams said, “We are very, very lucky.”

Normally she’d put any extra money they made toward their mortgage or student loan debt. And she had planned to start saving for retirement before Covid hit, but now all spare cash is used to create a six-month financial cushion should they lose their jobs in the next year or have a big medical expense. “I don’t know what might be coming in the near future,” Williams said.

Paying off debts

Kalikoweo Keolanui-Daniele and her husband, Louis Daniele, both work for a coffee producer in Hawaii and live in a remote area, where their home — now paid off — runs on solar power and rainwater. They also grow their own vegetables.

Neither has been laid off, but Keolanui said the pandemic has made a huge impact on their money habits.

She used their stimulus check to pay down credit card debt and put more money toward her auto loan so she can pay it off faster. Plus, she added, “I put at least half [my paycheck] toward savings and plan to continue to do this to build up an emergency nest egg.”

They’ve eliminated all non-essential spending — from recreational shopping to haircuts and beauty treatments. Keolanui did, however, invest in a good pair of hair scissors.

“I feel more and more comfortable the bigger that nest egg gets,” she said. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s so much uncertainty.”

Looking to buy a home

Gillian Needham, a mental health practitioner, and her partner, Mike Ryerse, were not savers before the pandemic. They used to spend most of their disposable income traveling from their home in Minnesota to see their favorite bands.

But the pandemic has provided them an opportunity to squirrel away money.

“Since Covid began, we have dropped event and bar attendance to zero and have been able to save nearly $10,000 in the last seven months,” Needham said. That money is now earmarked to help them buy their first house.

Looking ahead, Needham expects they’ll continue to save and not only because there’s not much they do during the cold winters. “[The longer] I do something the more it sticks,” she said.

‘Comfort shopping’

Anna Harrington, a college professor in Tennessee, has never been much of a shopper. She used to spend money on plants, concerts and theater. But since the pandemic, she’s become a kind of impulse shopper.

“I’m ‘comfort shopping’ the way that others ‘comfort eat,'” Harrington said. “I’m saving and spending the same amounts as before — I’m lucky that my job is secure. But this past summer, I bought the oddest things I never would have normally bought — a sunrise alarm clock, pink fuzzy bunny slippers, the entire Buffy the Vampire CD collection, and vintage furniture from the 1970s,” Harrington said.

“When the bunny slippers arrived, I thought, ‘What am I doing?'”

Donating more than ever

Harrington also said that she’s making more charitable contributions than ever, including donating her entire stimulus check.

So is Kristina Laursen-Carr, a substitute teacher in upstate New York with four children. She feels lucky that her family’s finances have remained stable. Her husband, Joseph, a helicopter pilot who is retired from the military, is the main breadwinner and works for an air ambulance company.

When the pandemic hit, Laursen-Carr no longer traveled to pick up their two daughters and bring them home from college every weekend. And the family didn’t take vacation this summer. So she used the money they saved to bolster their retirement savings and help others.

“The best thing we started to do was buy food [and other] items for our local food bank on a weekly basis. We donate between $20 to $30 each week,” Laursen-Carr said.

Doyle Tarver, a retiree now living in Mexico, said his income — from Social Security and savings — has remained steady. But Tarver said he has been spending more in recent months than before the pandemic to support local businesses, even if it means sometimes buying things he doesn’t need. And he’s been tipping wait staff in restaurants up to 50%.

“I feel fortunate to be in the financial situation I am in and think everyone in a position to help should do so,” Tarver said. “There are many out there who have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced and need our help.”

[doyoungbunnyagenda]

Crown Of Thorns; Bed Of Roses - k.dy: Chapter 1

 <- [preivous] |

Summary • Alcohol and late-night rendezvous were the only things keeping the young princess Y/N stable. Doyoung was an actor finding his relief his in cigarettes and dark streets. Ever since meeting one night, they both have spent their time picking up each other’s pieces and building each other from the ground up. When Y/N thinks her life is back on track, her childhood demons come back to bite her, however this time they have a proposal. That had to do with her father, herself and a shotgun... When Doyoung tries to rescue her from her demons, he puts himself in equally as much danger.

Pairing • actor!doyoung x modernprincess!reader

Genre • drama with a whole lot a angst and small traces of fluff. royalty!au

Word count • 3k

Warnings • underaged drinking(depends on where u live), drug usage, swearing, mentions of death, mentions of corrupt governments, arranged marriage, dialogue-heavy

Songs to listen to • War Crimes, Watch What Happens Next, I Felt Younger When We Met all by Waterparks I’m a big parxs fan okay, don’t judge

A/N • @original-jomi , @elite-puppy-seungminnie So this is what I’ve been doing for the whole Christmas break. This was so much fun to write. And as this is written by me, there is barely any fluff (like four lines in total). Well nevertheless, I hope you enjoy!!!

Winter 2017

“You think you can control me like I’m some doll of yours, where you play dress up and chuck them with whatever man you think best, I’m an adult for Christ’s sake.” She shouted at your father lounging on the expensive couch like he owns the entire country which he did.

“Come on, princess it’s only an arranged marriage, nothing out of the ordinary.”

She let out a scoff at the sound of his words.

“So do you even care about me as a person? Are you even putting my happiness into consideration, or do you see me as a business transaction, a peace treaty?” She questioned starting to get to her wit's end with her Dad’s attitude.

“No the point is you fall in love during the marriage, have you seen the Jung family? I remember going to that wedding and they were arranged.” Her protests fell silent.

“If you need more examples, me and your mother we‘re arranged, look where it left us.” The King proclaimed.

“With my mother dead and with a father who only cares about his own safety and nothing else.” She gave her father an ice-cold glare as he remained stunned on the couch. Before he could open his mouth too, argue back, She spoke,

“I don’t care about what you think anymore, I’m not marrying any man you decide to put with me and that’s final, not that you’ll listen anyway.” You cut him off while storming out of one of the many royal places situated, in the middle of the capital.

In her hand, she made sure she had her black face mask and her designer beanie that she received as a gift from one of her friends. Quickly, you darted out of the house, ignoring her father’s angry desperate pleas for her to listen to him, getting quieter and quieter the further she ran. She fixed her mask on her face and went down the back passageway behind the mansion. If anyone went through the front way, they definitely would’ve been caught by security. The builders were stupid enough not to build a security system at the back of the mansion. Breaking in was a piece of cake, all it took was a jump and they were in. The girl leapt over the hedge and made it out of the courtyard, her feet landing on the pavement with a thud. No one could tell who she was and it felt good for once.

Strolling the midnight streets of her country, she turned around the block of some random fast food place. The silence of the city was something she craved. The world around her felt too loud, so she treasured the time she got alone to herself. She just wished Her dad could understand from her perspective. Her point of view. Not his own twisted perspective. 

Hers.

 It was her life he was handing over not his own. Ever since the princess was born your dad traded around her like poker chips. Anything and everything that would improve public opinion about him and his family was on the table. 

Signing her up for any elite activity he could think of. Horse riding, she started at the age of seven. Archery, she had already won several gold medals in national tournaments. By the age of 13, she was already a world-renowned child ballet dancer. On top of all of that, she had to get extremely high grades, it didn’t matter if she couldn’t, she had too. It wasn’t like the king was doing it to better his daughter's future. He only cared about his image and how he can make his family look like a trophy family when it was far from the truth. Totally forgetting that the country still hasn’t forgotten about the ‘indecent” 13 years ago.

Nights like this were nights where she enjoyed getting drunk off her head. It was always fun to drink your problems away. Wandering into the liquor store, she always visits because they didn’t ask for ID. She swore they knew she was underage. As she once walked in with her ‘friends’ from private school one Saturday night many moons ago, buying out the whole store's stock luxury red wine. From one of the shelves, her hand grasped a bottle of hard liquor, shaking slightly as she grabbed it. You went up to the cashier and slammed a tenner on the counter, then left, leaving them very confused and alone in the shop once again. Her mask was now resting on her chin. She popped open the bottle and lifted the top of its neck to her chapped lips. The burn that ran down her throat felt electric, giving her body an instant buzz. She continued to wander down this lonely road, occasionally taking swigs from the drink. She knew it was irresponsible to go out at this time of night and get so drunk she couldn't stand up straight, but it was a means of escaping her reality. And trust me she would take any chance she got.

“Stupid father” The girl mumbled as she ambled and staggered down the streets. The bottle of liquor was long discarded on some random roadside and her mask was perched on her face. She somehow made her way to the shadiest part and poorest part of town. The level of unemployment was so high in this area that many people had resorted to other (less legal) means to keep themselves alive. She honestly didn’t blame them, when the rich were using all their tax money to live a lavish lifestyle, they were in the corners starving, outcasted by their government. The only thing they should be expected to do is rebel. She mumbled another curse word before stumbling into an alleyway collapsing on the floor. She was tired. She had been awake since 6 am in the morning. She swore her dad barely understood the basic concept of sleep. Her head banged against the flimsy garage opening behind her. The princess let out a curse at the sudden pain surging through her head accompanied by a pulsing migraine.

“Problem?” A low voice from above her spoke, his tone laced in darkness. her eyes remained plastered onto the floor, too shy to look up at the person above her. 

“A shy one, I see.” The person said to themselves, they sighed deeply again at her persistent silence and spoke once again,” Not replying when you’re spoken too, is quite impolite, with the clothes you’re wearing I’d expect more of your upbringing.” The person rudely remarked.

“Excuse me, who are you to say that?” She said, with a look of offence evident in her eyes. 

Abandoning her shyness, she got the courage to look at the person who dares to insult her. If only they knew who she was. When she looked up everything she was planning to say got caught in her throat. To only be replaced by a gasp. Their presence was intimidating, to say the least. A male from what you could tell. His shoulders were broad and his eyes a piercing shade of dark brown. If it wasn’t for the moonlight, she could have sworn his eyes were as black as the world around him. Tuffs of raven hair could be seen slightly poking outside of his midnight stained hat. If she didn’t look close enough, he could be mistaken for invisible. A cigarette was held in his nimble fingers and he brought out a lighter from his back pocket. He held it to his lips and lit a spark on the end. After he took his hit, the man looked back at the girl before him.

“You realise staring is also quite rude?” The man sighed sarcastically. She remained silent. “I expected a rich girl like you to know better. Do you know how many people I know who would love to wear that coat or hat of yours.”

She scoffed,” What right do you have to say that. Have you seen yourself? Your hat, no normal person could afford that here. Who’s a credit card is that coming from hmm?” She drunkenly slurred.

The man sighed at your state and chucked lightly.” I’m self-made man, no trust fund, no inheritance, nothing of that sort. I worked my life from the ground up and see where I am now.”

“Smoking a blunt alone in the most dangerous part of town? That definitely sounds like The Life to me.” She said.

“That’s right buttercup, I’m living the life aren’t I?.” He laughed and looked into your eyes. A warm feeling crept up in her chest and a small smile that he could not see graced her features.

“But what do you mean alone, I’m talking to you right? Or has the spice gotten to me and I’m just talking to a ghost.” He joked.

“That latter obviously.” She rolled her eyes and laughed along with her.

“I like your sense of humour, what’s your name?”

Her eyes went wide. If there was one thing he couldn’t know it was her name, it was too risky, her family’s perfect image would be cut in half and plunged into disrepair.

“No can do, it’s a secret.” She teased and playfully put her finger up to her mask. “What about you?” She questioned

“That’s a secret too, I’m afraid.” The man said while mimicking your action.

After laughing at their childishness for a couple of minutes. A comfortable silence filled the air. She observed the slight rise and fall in his chest as he took a couple more hits of the drug and discarded it on the ground and stomped out the tiny flame with his foot. She would blame it on her drunken self, but he reminded her of a prince. A prince you would find in a somewhat twisted modern fairy tale. With all his money he practically could be classified as one. He had a dominative aura which she couldn’t help but challenge. The man could obviously take a joke which was a welcomed change to what she was had known and gotten used to for the whole of her life. For once the girl felt comfortable. Unrestricted. At peace with her thoughts and it wasn’t the alcohol, it was because of him.

“I wish I could be you, you seem so carefree, I want your life.” She said, out of the blue.

“I’m not, trust me, it’s just because of the drugs, I’m not like this, I’m not the person your seeing now.”

“I don’t believe that.” She said her words breathy.”I believe this is your true self when drugs and alcohol get involved, there’s no hiding from yourself. The mistakes you make when your drunk and high aren’t mistakes, they’re not late-night regrets-“

The man interrupted her drunk ramblings and said,” So if me finding myself in the bed of my best friend’s roommate isn’t a mistake, then what was it?”

“It was what you wanted to do, ignoring all the consequences of the morning. When you're under the influence, your common sense is replaced by pure desire. You don't think and that's good, right? It's hard to think with a raging headache."

He sighed,” No that’s not it and I know from experience, your deepest desires aren’t always the best for you and the people around you. The life you are describing is the life you want to get away from..."

“Am I mad for wanting to kiss you right now?” She said unexpectedly, causing a slight gasp to escape from the man next to her.

“Yes, you’re crazy.”

“I would like to I think I’m perfectly sane.”

A blush crept on to the apples of his cheeks for the first time that night. His following words were stuttered. He was flustered.

“Your mother and father must have really gone wrong to create a child like you.”

“Just father here.” You replied 

“What about your mother?”

“Dead.”

“How long?”

“13 years...” she paused before taking a deep breath and continuing. “13 years dead, 13 years of hell for me. I swear ever since she died a switch was flipped in my father. Never known why.” She sighed looking down at the gravel floor.

“13 years ago, I was a runaway. Home was never the safest place, it was for the best. I’m pretty sure my parents didn’t even go looking for me.”

“Seems the both of us have had shitty up upbringings. I guess that makes us equal"

“Well then, about that kiss...” the man trailed off-topic.

“What about it?” You laughed slightly.

“I can’t kiss someone whose name I don’t know.”

The cheesy grin plastered under her mask was embarrassing. She pretended to think about it, but her answer was already set the minute he finished his sentence.

“Well in that case I guess-“

She felt a buzz in the back pocket of her black jeans and went silent.

“Oh, shit-“ She blurted out surprised that someone would call her at this hour. She checked her phone and saw it was her cousin Youngho. She rolled her eyes at the thought of her dad calling Youngho to sort her out, being too lazy to do it himself. She opted to answer the call and lifted the phone to her ear.

“Y/N, Where the fuck are you!?” He shouted from the other end of the line. She winced at the loud noise before continuing.”

“Somewhere, I don’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders and saw the man next to her stifle a giggle.

“You’re so stupid, it’s 4:29 am and you don’t know where you are? I'm so done with you. I’m tired of being woken up at 4 am with your father screeching at me to go pick you up.”

You heard your cousin sigh tiredly.

“Well it not my fault he doesn’t have my number, he could care less about where I am.” She argued back.

“Shut up and tell me where you are,” Youngho said defeatedly.

“You know where the 603’s last stop is, I’m near there.” She finally remembered.

“The most dangerous part of town, I see. Whatever I’m coming to pick you up hang on in there.” He said before hanging up.

“Your dad doesn’t have your number even my father was better than that.” The man next to you commented at your conversation.

“Does it look like my dad even gives two shits? He hasn’t bothered to get my new number after I changed my phone a year ago.”

“You don’t deserve that no one does.” He sympathised with her.

“Now you know why I run away. But it’s almost 5 am and I haven’t slept in 24 hours and I don’t fancy passing out on the streets so I think it’s time for me to leave.”

“Fair enough, see you never...” He paused as if he was waiting for her to say something.

“Y/N.” She said firmly 

“Doyoung.” He stated as she walked away from him, leaving him to wallow in his own thoughts and feelings.

She stumbled to the bus stop where she said she’ll meet Youngho. Her head rested against the metal pole and she sighed. A sigh full of contentment. Remembering what happened moments earlier, her heart warmed her chest and started to beat faster than had ever been. She felt lightheaded. Duplicates of what was in front of her kept appearing in her vision. Like some weird fever dream. Her eyes were about to flutter shut, bringing her into a dream-filled sleep but she was brought back to reality by a low but loud car horn ringing in her ears.

“Get in,” Youngho said, his tone clear and flat. Her cousin turned down the tinted windows of his Mercedes Benz and looked into her eyes with no emotion what so ever. She tried to search for his the usual bright look in his eyes, normally twinkling constantly rain or shine. But all she found was black. Pits of charcoal staring into her own. Because of her wasted state, the only way she could respond was with a laugh. Youngho continued to look unimpressed.

He pushed out the door of the car, for the girl to stumble in and hit her head on the headrest. Even though he found his cousin’s fumbling and slurring funny at times, he needed to keep a straight face.

“For fuck's sake Y/N, you’re so wasted that you can’t even get your seat belt on, here let me help.” Youngho sighed. He draped the seat belt over her half-asleep body and clicked it into the latch. He sat back in his seat and ran a hand through his brown locks. She looked up at him and noticed defined black circles under his eyes. He looked about as tired as she was. He yawned before speaking again.

“I’m tired of acting like your babysitter Y/N. Why can’t you just grow up and stop stupid stunts like this?” Youngho pleaded, tiredness laced in his voice.

“If you don’t want to feel like my babysitter, then stop acting like my dad, you’re my cousin. The three years between us doesn’t mean that much.” She protested weakly.

“Someone has to care about you, Y/N. Your dad is obviously doing a terrible job so that just leaves me, your amazing older cousin.” He chuckled hoping to loosen the atmosphere. It obviously worked as she started to smile again.

“What would I do without you?” She giggled

“Crash, burn and die,” Youngho said before placing his hands on the wheel.

“Just make sure not do this again,” He followed up,” We’re going to my place, by the way, it’s closer. Your dad was like a feral dog to me over the phone. Y’know there are much better ways of getting back at him.”

“Like what?” She questioned eyes half-open and mouth agape leaning her head against the window.

Instead of an answer, you were greeted with nothing but the sound fresh raindrops beating the window from outside and the sound of Youngho hitting the gas pedal and speeding off, into the night.

In due time, the young princess fell into a deep slumber, filled with cigarette dreams, expensive wines, cherry red lips, everlasting nights and a man named Doyoung.

[mimmerr]

#MusicalOddities: G is for Grandmaster Flash.

The #MusicalOddities series is an alphabetical blog series by Molly and Bradley Hall. The series curates the lesser known works and personal stories of and about prominent musicians. You are welcome to join in or respond, using the #MusicalOddities hashtag.

My friend Joe tagged me in a tweet once; it was from Relentless (the energy drink). They were hosting a music blogger competition and he thought I’d have a good chance in it. The challenge: review a gig and send it in. The prize: a year being Relentless’ in house music reviewer. A foot in the door in an overcrowded and unkind industry that I had been hokey cokeying in and out of since I was fifteen. I hadn’t and have never given myself fully to the ambition in the fears of unemployment but this seemed like my chance - a way to get there without risking a stable future.

So I had a go. Unsurprisingly, I chose Arcade Fire, I had seen them at Hyde Park a few months earlier. And amazingly, I made the top five out of hundreds of applicants - a real pat on the back considering I hadn’t studied journalism. We had one final challenge to compete on: a gig review: Grandmaster Flash at the O2 Brooklyn Bowl. I managed to book it off at the part time job I had, citing “life changing opportunity” as the excuse.

We had around a week to prepare. I had heard of the Grandmaster: ‘The Message’ was nearly in every advert or TV series and Shaun and Ed dance to ‘White Lines’ in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ with a zombie. But I’ll admit, I wasn’t an expert, indie bands with dodgy haircuts were my area of expertise - GM was the godfather of hip hop, the inventor of scratching and DJing. So I spent seven days listening to his discography, reading every website I could find and plying my DJ dad with questions on tech and the historical context of The Grandmaster. I even prepared interview questions on the off chance that we would meet him.

The day arrived and following advice from my friends and family, I really dressed up, nearly all in black with a very on trend co ord set with creepers to match. I had enough make up on that you could probably scratch it off with a credit card. I wanted to feel confident and glamorous. I just ended up looking a bit overdressed and try hard. Anyway, we did some interviews with the brand and filmed some footage for the competition. We all spoke about our experiences, of which I had the least. And somebody said how pretentious it was to use a notebook during a gig for notes, which I always did and was planning to do tonight. My bag had never felt heavier or lamer. 

We separated out and began to observe and enjoy. I had to get my book out in the fear I would forget the samples GM was using. These were the days before I had an iPhone. It was a great gig and I made sure to show this in my article. The ‘master’ part of his stage name was well deserved, the whole performance was effortless and full of surprising cuts and changes to his classics. It was an education into the world of hip hop.

We all parted and wished each other good luck. I didn’t win, which was at the time saddening but also understandable. The girl who had was thoroughly lovely and talented. Whereas,  I had a long way to go within my own work and style but the whole experience did remind me that I could do it, with or without a formal qualification. Here we are years later with a (partially) successful blog and self assurance. And what’s more, I had found a new appreciation for a genre of music I hadn’t known about. I later saw Grandmaster Flash of my own accord and without the notebook.

[werevulvi]

I just did a sound recording of me randomly rambling as part of my regular voice training routine, and that got me rambling about my facial hair. It made me realise something important about why I'm so on and off about whether I want it removed or not, and finally figured out what I think is causing a lot of my hesitations: I don't want it entirely removed, I just want it reduced a lot. I would strongly prefer laser, but it seems my country only offers electrolysis.

The problem with that (for me) is that not only is electrolysis far more painful, more time-consuming and has more risks, it's also a lot more permanent. Laser, however, I feel would be perfect for me. It works the best for people with light skin and dark hairs like me, and because it can't remove blonde hairs, I'd then easily keep my 10-20% of hairs that are blonde, but get rid of most of the rest. It's a bit weird, but yes I actually have a two-coloured beard: dark brown and light blonde, and around 80-90% of it is dark brown. It doesn't matter to me if I'd keep 10% or 30% of my facial hair, or where the remaining hairs would be located. I also don't care if the result with just a few hairs left would look bad.

The thing is that I don't want to look fake and super smooth. I don't want to have to choose between "all or nothing." I want to have the option of either being a little fussy on some days or completely smooth on other days. I want to get rid of my beard shadow, which is caused by that my facial hair is very thick, dark and compact. Because basically whatthe shadow is, is the dark hair follicles/roots under the skin showing through the outmost layers of skin when the hairs are shaved off as close to the skin surface as possible. Where my beard is sparse, on my cheeks, I don't get a shadow. So sparsing it all out a lot would make no such shadow show up anymore.

I'd be fine with needing to shave to be smooth, but having to spend an hour of lots of pain every day to get it smooth and keep it smooth is an entire literal hell and doesn't work long term. It is only a short term solution. I want to have just a few hairs that are easily maintained and would look natural for an otherwise very hairy woman to have. Because I want to keep my body hair, including my chest hairs, getting my face entirely smooth would feel off. I'd feel weird about such a huge contrast between my face and my body. I'd feel the best if I had much less facial hair, but I'd feel wrong about BOTH being entirely smooth on my face AND about keeping all of my facial hair.

When I think about what I want with it, I keep thinking about what I want right now as my life is right now, and then it doesn't hugely matter to me if I have it or not. Because I can manage like this as I only have to leave my apartment once or twice a week, except I'm constantly not a fan of the beard shadow and I do worry about my face stubble being uncomfortable for my girlfriend when snuggling or having sex. It does get very, very sharp and that's physically uncomfortable even fror myself. But aside from that discomfort and that I struggle to pass the few times I leave my house, I feel like this is managable.

However... what about my future? I want to get a job someday (currently am very curious about the lumberjack profession, but also similar types of jobs: working with machines, not people), I want to practice karate again someday, I want a richer social life and I most definitely want to move on and away from this trans-detrans hell I'm currently stuck in. I just wanna be a normal woman in a tiny little lesbian paradise with my girlfriend, and not be constantly haunted and tormented by my past transition. I'm fine with being forever detransitioned, but I'm not fine with seeing my horrible medical mistakes in the mirror every single day. I want to pass as female, at least most of the time. Although I don't wanna chase a perfect passing ideal, I do want to strive towards a reasonable passing possibility. I want to be able to use womens bathrooms and locker rooms again without fearing getting tossed out or yelled at. I want to feel safe and be welcome in my own fucking spaces. I want to be able to go to all women's events and to not feel like a threat among other lesbians. I want to look like a woman; not like a trans woman, and I do not want to look like fake barbie. I cannot fit a beard into that kinda future that I want for myself.

I guess I want to go for an in between. The beard equivalence of a breast reduction instead of a full mastectomy.

To have just a few hairs on my face, but very severely thinned out, I think I'd pass just fine. A lot of women have a few hairs on their faces without constantly getting mistaken for men. I would most likely be insecure about having just a few hairs on my face as well, but I still feel like that would be a lot better, and a lot more ideal, than getting it all removed.

Because I can compare it to my body hair: I'm insecure about being very hairy neck down, and I do feel more confident and relaxed in public when I'm all shaven smooth, however... I also feel fake, plasticky, propped up and cut down, I don't feel natural or genuine. I then feel like a feminine stereotype instead of an actual woman. And that feeling is actually also very uncomfortable. No matter how bad I feel when strangers see my body hair, I'd much rather keep it because then at least I feel genuine and natural. It's their opinions that get to me, not my actual hairs.

Which is why I stopped shaving my body hair neck down, because I don't actually want to get rid of it. That doesn't mean I'm having a jolly fun, easy peasy time with it in public, but it does mean that removing it is NOT the solution: working on my confidence is. And I tackle that insecurity by wearing low cut tops that show my chest hair, shorter skirts during summer that show my leg hairs, and I go swimming in a bikini that shows off... well all of my body hairs except from most of my pubes and some of my chest hair. It is actually working, slowly but surely, and I feel a lot better and more proud of my fur now than I did a month ago, or 6 months ago, or a year ago. I used to think I feel entirely different about my facial hair, but upon a closer look, it's not so different.

The difference is that I can't pass with a full on beard or shadow, but I can pass just fine with a hairy chest and stomach, hairy legs and armpits. Because my goal is to look female, but not like a plasticky stereotype, my facial hair is a bigger hurdle because it makes me instantly look male. What is the same about my facial hair as is with the rest of my body hair: I would feel just as relaxed publically about my facial hair if it was all gone - but I would also feel just as fake and awry about it. And if I had just a little of it I would feel more genuine and natural, but also needing to work up confidence about it, like I'm currently doing about my body hair. I would have more choice then. It would make my agonising shaving experience a walk in the fucking park, and far less of a pressing need to be able to pass.

In a future when I might have to be out and about 4-5 days a week, I'd have to shave every day considering the current state of my facial hair. It would mess up my skin a lot, because shaving already messes up my skin and the more I do it, the worse it gets. But if I had just a few hairs, I'd be granted a freedom much greater than this current mess. I'd be able to get away with shaving maybe just once or twice a week, and for probably just a couple of minutes. And I could also possibly even skip shaving altogether and still occasionally pass as female.

THAT is what I want and it would be fucking perfect. But I fear that the gender cult therapists would not accept me taking such a middle ground as my goal.

I worry they'd say it just means I'm still having doubts and that I'm not really ready for getting any sort of hair removal. They'd probably start harping on about me being nonbinary again (my gender is "hairy dyke who fucks with your concept of normal" now leave me alone about it.) That the biggest reason I want laser is because it's not working as well, might be considered suspicious motives. But I strongly feel that I need to do SOMETHING about my facial hair, because this is not working in the long run, and I feel that a more or less permanent, big reduction is exactly what I need; not a near total removal. I also worry that the trans clinic can't/won’t offer laser at all. I don't doubt there must exist some technician in Sweden who does laser, but it is my impression that the trans clinic doesn't refer their patients (in this case, usually trans women and other kinds of male trans people) for laser and thus I can't get that covered either.

Because of course, as a detrans woman, what they can offer me for my reverse dysphoria, is only what they can offer their MtF patients.

In theory I could find a laser technician on my own and pay for it out of pocket, but problem with that theory is that I'm a broke ass, mentally disabled social case living on bare minimum welfare and my kind parents' money, so there is no way I could ever save up some 500-1000 euro for a few laser sessions (it's taken me 3+ years to save up just under 50 euro, alright) and I want that shit done before putting my currently unemployable ass up on the job market. Because I need to reduce as much of my stress-factors in life and have as much of my current issues in order and recovered, before I can even possibly consider my mentally disabled ass stable enough to handle having a job (yes, even part-time) and getting the education that I will need to qualify for it, and my facial hair is a huge stress-factor.

I will try to discuss it with my gender therapist, and also perhaps try to talk with some Swedish trans women if they know anything about getting laser covered instead of electrolysis.

Hopefully my worries about them only covering electrolysis are wrong. Or maybe they can at least in rare cases cover laser instead, hopefully. Another solution could be getting sloppily done electrolysis with fewer sessions, but eh I dunno about that. But either which way I think I'd definitely aim at getting fewer sessions than what's usually recommended. I don't know any Swedish trans women though, so I would have to holler out into some random trans groups and hope for the best, I guess. I just think they'd be the kinda of people who would be the most likely to have that kinda knowledge, I mean.

Because yeah, it's different with the US so unfortunately US focused (and other EU countries) advice about that is totally useless for me. Sweden has an entirely unique health care system and the trans clinics follow those standards, but also not every clinic does the exact same thing, or offers the exact same stuff to all of their patients. It is possible to go private here too, but it's insanely expensive and it's not feasible for me, as I said. I'd only go that route if I had absolutely no other choice what so ever, but then it would also take probably 10+ years before I could afford it, or I could maybe afford one laser session ever third year lol. I think that was a very important realisation though, and the closest so far that I've gotten to understanding what I really feel and want about my facial hair.

But also, I know that not even electrolysis is guaranteed to remove every single hair, and most people who do that kinda procedure do end up with a few stubborn whiskers left. But because I specifically don't want it all removed, it just feels like laser would be an all around better, and safer, option for me. Electrolysis is generally intended to remove as much hair as possible, while laser is a much better method for specifically wanting a reduction because it can be used for that goal much more easily. Also, I've had these thoughts before, about possibly favouring a reduction, but not in such great depth as I did just now.

I still feel some vague hesitation within myself, but this is great for me to know.

Because now I can give myself time to really consider if a facial hair reduction might be what I actually, truly want, instead of a near total removal. And my instant feeling about it is quite a lot of relief, actually. I think that says something. Like it would be tons better than my current beard situation, and also favourable over a near total removal. It feels like I might actually want this. I just need to think it through properly to make sure that I'm not rushing into anything. If anyone has any input on that I’m considering this kinda middle ground route, I'd love to hear it. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

[jenivadiamonds]

The Impact of Sudden Unemployment

 Preface

           The past seven years of my life have been a roller coaster of events that culminated at the development and successful launch of The Exponentials an online magazine and editorial that concerns itself with raising awareness on the issues surrounding unemployment and the impacts it has on the individual and the society at large. After being fired from my teaching job I have had for almost seven years, I became depressed and wallowed in misery, shame that came with what I saw as my downfall. It was during these hard times that my mum and siblings stuck with me and helped me build a career from scratch, and I found the most beautiful thing “love”. This story however would not be complete nor fair without the mention of the input of my now husband Chike Austin, a stranger turned best friend; confidant and business partner who pushed me to look outside the realms of teaching and helped me in building this business idea to what it is today. Am also appreciative of second chances, that brought my life together once again.

The Impact of Sudden Unemployment

“I have lost my job.” Saying this loud to my sick mum Tessy sounded so alien. I felt ashamed and concerned at the same time about the possibility of the hard times ahead. No matter how casual the statement may sound, its impacts on an individual are immense and far reaching. Thousands of individuals, not just in the United States but globally, lose their source of income every day; this trend is not a preserve of underdeveloped nations rather also hugely affects an alarmingly high number of people in developed economies too. According to Marinescu Ioana (17), “the impacts of not having a stable source of income for a long time can be quite devastating - especially for individuals who have families, since their inability to provide spells doom for those who are dependent on the fired individual”. Losing my job had come as a shock not just to me and my colleagues at work, but also to my mum, who knew how much I was dedicated to my professional life. Prior to this I had the perception that the loss of a job came because of bad luck and lack of commitment on the part of the employee; but having to go through it gave me a new perspective on the issue; I no longer felt callous toward unemployed individuals.

The news had evidently hit my mother way harder than it hit me; I felt guilty. “What are we going to do,” my mum stammered amidst the uncontrollable tears running down our faces since I first broke the news. I will get another job; two, if I have to I replied, trying to mask the uncertainty that all of a sudden seemed so real. She looked so lost, I realize the situation was more serious than I really had thought it was. The look on her face said a lot of the deep thoughts that must have been razing through her mind at the time. She became really sick immediately I finished my highschool. She was beautiful with long dark hair and also very healthy looking, until suddenly from what we thought was a little fever to so many years later of a deteriorating illness. At the time, my elder sister was finishing from college, so I had to work as a teacher in a local elementary school, took care of our mum and also went to adult night school, so that my sister wouldn’t have to drop out to help at home. We had gone through our share of arguments and fights but never for once had I seen the defeated look she had at this moment. It broke my heart to see the worries in her eyes.  I saw the fear that everything might come crashing down at my feet, which was a scary thing to witness. I felt I understood am almost about to lose my mind just looking at my sick mother look defeated.

For over two years, the school I worked for has been laying off employees who were working in other locations that had been opened in various parts of the country as part of a long term-strategy to incorporate a lean workforce. This had been triggered by the decline in funds and incomes due to the economic crisis that was crippling the world economy. It was a little kept secret that the Education Ministry at the time was embezzling the money mapped out for developments and reconstruction, prior to the economic crisis and had even done worse under the new management that had taken over after the ousting of the previous management team. There had been hushed rumors among the workers that we all were in a sinking ship however none of us wished to resign just yet, hoping that things might turn around for the better and the downsizing would not affect the branch we were working in. When the downsizing at the office began with the firing of a few non-academic staffers, things began spiraling and going to work every day was like a game of Russian roulette. As I headed to work each morning, I kept wondering who would be let go that day or week. The impact of such a stressful work environment coupled with the uncertainty of whether you will be out of work tomorrow had taken a toll on the performance of the employees and within a few weeks there were reports of various complaints that had been filed by the parents and teachers as well. 

Over the course of my working and adult life I had not any bank loan and this gave me a relief that I might have it a little easier than some of my colleagues. The in-home lesson job I had taken up at few of my pupils house, had also aided me in clearing the student loan that I had accumulated over my days in college. As such in comparison to how bad some of my colleagues had it, I would argue that I had it a little bit easier. Additionally, I was lucky to have helped my dad complete the payment of the mortgage that we had taken on the family house. As such, this meant that my immediate concern was to ensure that I took care of my personal needs, my mum’s medical bills and most of the time daily meals for me and my younger ones. However, this was made more complicated by the lack of any meaning full savings and this meant that I had to find a job quickly. Despite all these concerns now I knew that the supplies that were already in the house and the few hundred dollars that I still had in my account would at least give me the start I needed. I decided to take a week off to get my thoughts straightened out before deciding on the next best course of action not just for me but for my family. Thinking about it now, I realize this decision was made of the shock that I was in at the time which could not allow me to plan my thoughts. at the time it seemed the most logical and reasoned thing to do.

As the week progressed, I did almost nothing to salvage myself from the situation that I had found myself in, except the effort to link up with some of my old friends and relations contacts, some of whom I had not seen or talked to in over three years. It was at this time that I got an interesting email from a long time contact I had been in contact with during my carefree days as a caterer, baker and home delivery cook. Beyond these futile attempts at getting over my now regularly grumbled mood and constant state of depression, I maintained my status as a passive sore unemployed loser. As the weeks rolled by depression was becoming more and more of a reality as households needs and bills began to pile each day. Things had gone from bad to worse; I had been out looking for menial jobs with no success and it was no secret that also things were getting bad at the home front. I would regularly get home, so tired from walking around or sitting at a place with a childhood friend who also had been ousted from his high paying job only to lose all his money, house, and family. This was where I was headed, I kept telling myself.

During this period, my mum kept urging me to revive my freelance translating career, though I knew it could pay, I somehow succeeded in putting it off for a long time. This was undoubtedly one of the lowest points of my life. I had fallen from a level where I was able to provide a comfortable life for my family to where I was depending on a few scraps here and there. It was however through him that I was finally able to get a breakthrough soon to receive an urgent translation order with an attractive pay. This opened a lot of doors not just in terms of opportunities to finally earn some cash and raise myself from what was evidently going to be a story of personal destruction. With a high level of expertise and long-term experience coupled by the urge to get things right, soon enough I had more than a few referrals from various parts of the world. With the high quality of writings, and even though the freelancing gig could provide a temporary reprieve from the lack of a way to provide for the basic needs in the home front, I fully realized that it would not go for long. 

Amid my adversities, I became acquainted with a client named Chike all the way from Africa. This client played an important role in my subsequent redemption from the low depths of life that I had resigned myself to. The name according to him was given to him by his grandmother based on the time he was born; which was the late evenings when the village goats were coming back from the grazing fields. Despite the huge and probably incomparable cultural and social circumstances and settings, which both of us had been born and raised, it was hard to imagine how he would have ended up being friends and playing a huge part in both of our futures. At first, he wanted a part of his novel to be translated and rectified in terms of subject verb agreements and all the rules of professional writing, (Carley, Micheal, and Phillipe Spapens), and I accepted his request for the same. After the first part was approved and the interest that the progress had raised in me, I was interested in asking him about the rest of the novel and whether it would need any type of help considering that the first part had been successfully published. 

After several days of correspondence, managing and working together on the book, we ended up becoming very good online friends. Just like me, he too was once unemployed and had taken up the gig of writing opinion editorials for some of the little-known online magazines and newspapers. With a common interest on the writing and publishing field for income, we continued to talk about the differences that existed between both countries in terms of job opportunities and the quality of life for citizens in our respective countries (Marinescu, Ioana, and Roland Rathelot). I soon introduced him to my mum and family, through video calls that were later to become a norm for a long time and he too introduced me to his family. It was a surprise to both of us that indeed there were various fundamental similarities that were apparent between both nations and the similarity in challenges facing people from developed countries such as our great USA countries. The challenges faced, the concerns used by lack of job opportunities, the impacts that this phenomenon uses not just on the individual and their family but on the nation was also a topic that never failed to come up every time we conversed.

It was during these kinds of conversation that my perspective on work changed, Chike had a very interesting view of how work should be viewed especially in the current technological world. Technology has exponentially grown to a point where an individual does not need to be at a locale to be part of a workforce. This has fundamentally hanged the concept of the workplace and the work setting through enabling individuals to work form any given place if they have access to the internet and a personal computer. Chike encouraged me to look for opportunities from diverse industries and areas other than just sending my credentials and applications to companies working within the Educational industry alone. This helped me a lot in quitting the mentality that has been commonly characterized by the saying that ‘The man is for work, not work for the man.” It was during this journey of self-discovery that I came to realize and discover what I truly wanted out of life both in a personal level and at a professional level. It was also during this time that I felt that I had the inspiration to identify my goals in life and consequently developed the plan to do so. 

           While this seems like fate, it was during one of our long conversations on life in Nigeria and the United States that the idea of developing an online magazine and platform was born. At first, we intended that the site would cater for the professional unemployed individuals all over the world could post online jobs and share experiences was born. This however was just but an idea and we knew that making it a reality would not only be challenging but would require a substantial amount of financial backing, money which at the time we did not have. First, it would be important to do the necessary research and get all the legal documentation ready not just in the US but also back in Nigeria. While I was preparing myself in the US, I was surprised two-days later when Chike got in touch saying that his part in the Nigerian capital had been complete. It came as surprise only to learn that most if the regulations covering the use and ownership of most sites in the nation were not under any sort of regularized framework. While this was a shock it also was an advantage not just to us but it meant a lot more people in and around the nation would easily access the site. Chike, my soon to be business partner, planned and flew to the US and stayed with us for a few months before moving out to his own apartment.

Life was beginning to take a good shape, and I felt that I was finally doing something that was not only fulfilling but had the potential to really take off and earn me and my family a comfortable lifestyle. At this point my mum had started recovering, she had seen me through the worst part of my lowest points in life and now I could see a spark of light at the end of a long and dark tunnel. I soon visited the bank and after asking for loans from close friends and confidants, who still had trust in me, we were able to fully fund the development of an operational online magazine and editorial that also supported the posting of various jobs at a fee. Within a year from the date the site went live, traffic had grown substantially and soon we had to move from the garage office that we were occupying and rented a bigger office space. The journey to where we were at that time had been full of ups and downs but we had finally managed to capture a small but important piece of the online magazine market with significant income. Sometimes, I am surprised that I can still identify myself with my old self before I lost my job, despite the life changing experience I went through. However, I believe this can be attributed to the strong and sometimes commanding nature of the people who were able to guide and push me during the lowest points of life when I thought I would never again be able to provide for my family. The role of Chike and his family towards the successful redemption and bounce back cannot be understated; as I look at my family now, and the smiles they have I know we will be able to overcome anything together.

After two years of starting our business, Chike and I started dating. Although I knew I had a thing for him through all the years of being two unemployed online friends trying to make ends meet. A year after we went out the first time he proposed, and we later got married at the Notre Dame Catholic Church Houston, Texas. It was a glorious day in our lives, because I got to meet his mother, whole family and friends that flew in to be part of our beautiful day. Also if I must say, the life we are living now was of our own making. You have to get up and move on, life waits for no one. Do not procrastinate or feel defeated, you will get there, it might only take time. Our business is flourishing, so am grateful to God and the universe for bringing us together through unemployment. From my bad experience I got to be with someone I love and do something meaningful with my life again. According to (Margaret Linn, Richard Sandifer, Shayna Stein) on the article “Effects of unemployment on mental illness and physical health.” Our mental health has a lot to do with our emotional and physical health. We humans are relentless, we can do anything we set our minds to.

                        Work Cited

 Carley, Michael, and Phillipe Spapens. “Sharing the world: sustainable living and global equity in the 21st century”. Routledge, 2017.

Edward Moore, Kennedy. “The challenges before us”. Am Psychol. 1984 Jan;39(1):62–66. American Public Health Association. Web. June 13, 2019.

Margaret W., Linn, and Richard, Sandifer. Shayna, Stein., “Effects of unemployment on mental and physical health”. 75, 502-506. NCBI (May 1985). American Journal of Public Health. Web. June 13, 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1646287/pdf/amjph00281-0056.pdf

Marinescu, Ioana, and Roland Rathelot. "Mismatch unemployment and the geography of job search." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 10.3 (2018): 42-70.

Marinescu, Ioana. "The general equilibrium impacts of unemployment insurance: Evidence from a large online job board." Journal of Public Economics 150 (2017): 14-29

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Colorado Clinic’s Prescription for Healthier Patients? Lawyers

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — In her 19 years of living with cerebral palsy, scoliosis and other ailments, Cynthia Enriquez De Santiago has endured about 60 surgeries and her heart has flatlined at least four times.

But the most unusual doctor’s referral of her life came last year: Go see an attorney.

Enriquez De Santiago sought help at a Colorado health clinic that takes a novel approach to improving the health of its patients: It incorporates legal assistance into its medical practice for patients facing eviction or deportation proceedings, among other legal woes. And the state’s Medicaid program helps fund the initiative.

Although Medicaid traditionally doesn’t fund clinics to supply legal assistance, Colorado is one of several states that have been given permission to use some of their Medicaid money to help pay for such programs. Every day in Commerce City, four lawyers join the physicians, psychiatrists and social workers at Salud Family Health Centers’ clinic in this suburb north of Denver, as part of Salud’s philosophy that mending legal ills is as important for health as diet and exercise.

The goal: Reduce toxic stress and keep families intact, on the premise that it will serve their health for years to come, said Marc Scanlon, the attorney who directs the program.

Mostly, that has meant helping people with unemployment benefit claims and Social Security Disability Insurance denials. But it also regularly entails helping patients — many of whom speak only Spanish after having arrived here from Mexico or Central America — with immigration hearings.

The program is among at least 450 existing medical-legal partnerships across the nation that typically serve impoverished people and migrants. The vast majority don’t rely on Medicaid dollars, which are used only in fewer than 10 states, according to the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.

The role of these sorts of medical-legal partnerships has grown over the past year as millions of people in the U.S. have faced lost income and the threat of losing their homes during the covid-19 pandemic. Some partnerships have helped patients secure unemployment checks, while others have fought some of the evictions that weren’t already barred by state or federal moratoriums.

“All the issues that people are struggling with in the pandemic are all the same issues that medical-legal partnerships have been trying to work with forever,” said Vicki Girard, a law professor and co-director of the Georgetown University Health Justice Alliance in Washington, D.C.

In Montana, Kallie Dale-Ramos helped persuade a primary care association, the state’s legal aid organization and six community health centers operating in cities across Montana to pool $20,000 to help hire an attorney, who can split time among the clinics to help patients affected by the pandemic.

Since the start of 2020, that investment has helped more than 130 patients seek unemployment claims — and potentially stave off financial ruin.

One woman had been waiting for unemployment assistance since applying in March 2020, and only recently received her first check, said Dale-Ramos. Without legal help along the way, the woman “would have just been like, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” Dale-Ramos said.

This sort of legal-medical partnership is centered on the notion that doctors can do only so much to keep their patients healthy.

Proponents See Lasting Impact

Advocates for such programs cite the example of a child suffering from asthma caused by mold in a dilapidated apartment. While a doctor couldn’t force a landlord to clean up the property or break the lease, a letter from a lawyer might be persuasive, said Dr. Tillman Farley, Salud’s chief medical officer.

“Some of these impacts carry out for decades,” Farley said. “And once you get into effects like that, then you’re really talking generational changes in health outcomes.”

Beyond common sense, evidence from emerging research suggests the approach can work. Patients at Veterans Affairs clinics in Connecticut and New York, for example, saw their mental health improve significantly within three months of consulting a clinic attorney, according to a 2017 study in Health Affairs.

And at Colorado’s partnership, a survey of patients from 2015 to 2020 found statistically significant drops in stress and poor physical health, as well as fewer missed medical appointments among its 69 respondents, said Dr. Angela Sauaia, a professor at the Colorado School of Public Health who led the research.

The possible reasons for missing fewer doctor appointments after getting the legal help, Sauaia said, included patients having more income, being less depressed and having an improved immigration status that made them less fearful to venture into public.

Medical-legal partnerships should be considered part of health care, Sauaia believes. “You should be referring to them the same way a provider would be referring a patient to a specialty, such as endocrinology or surgery.”

The biggest challenge for these programs is securing stable funding. Many are funded with a small amount of seed money, or by grants that run only a year or two.

Medicaid, established in 1965, is a nationwide health care program for people who have low incomes or are disabled. It’s jointly funded by the federal government and each state, and traditionally has covered medical costs such as physician visits and hospital stays.

In recent years, though, some states have increasingly sought to use Medicaid dollars to fund initiatives such as using social workers or offering legal assistance to address the social determinants of health. That includes North Carolina, which is using a federal waiver and hundreds of millions of dollars in a highly scrutinized effort to transform its Medicaid program. Among its strategies is more legal aid for patients.

Some Critics See Overreach by Medicaid Plans

The nationwide shift has prompted some health policy experts to question whether Medicaid is beginning to run too far afield of its purpose.

“Everybody agrees that social factors play a very large role in health outcomes; the question is what to do about it,” said James Capretta, a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute who was an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget during the George W. Bush administration.

“Medicaid is already an immense program with lots of financial challenges,” Capretta noted. “The program was not built for Medicaid to pay for too many services beyond the more direct services that are related to a medical condition or a disability.”

The small-scale use of waivers and supplemental Medicaid dollars to fund programs aimed at the social factors of poor health — such as housing for people with severe mental illness — works in some places, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. But for Medicaid to provide widespread funding for such social service programs would be unsustainable, and shouldn’t happen, he said.

“It is not — and should not be — Medicaid’s responsibility to figure out how to pay for it,” he said.

Some advocates for legal assistance programs and health policy experts worry about a potential public backlash based on misperceptions about how the little-known medical-legal partnerships use Medicaid. For one, the programs generally aren’t reimbursed for services in the same way traditional Medicaid programs are, said Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University. Medicaid is more of “an indirect funder,” she said.

A 2019 Manatt Health Strategies report on funding for medical-legal partnerships said “the time is ripe” for these partnerships to explore the little-used avenues available in Medicaid.

The states that administer the Medicaid programs and the managed care organizations that contract with them have some discretion to fund non-clinical services that improve access or outcomes for social determinants of health, according to the report.

States also can write the medical-leaderships programs into a larger federal waiver application for experimental, pilot or demonstration projects that promote Medicaid’s objectives.

“The dollars are minimal,” said Ellen Lawton, former director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, and a senior fellow at HealthBegins, a consulting firm. “And I think what we’re seeing is that — appropriately — the Medicaid programs are pacing themselves. They’re looking to see what works — what works in our state, what works in our region, what works with the populations that we’re focused on.”

States have been creative in funding these sorts of legal assistance programs. Colorado officials said they amended their Medicaid spending plan to provide grants to two such partnerships. Other states have sought federal waivers allowing them to support those programs. The Department of Veterans Affairs also offers the services of medical-legal partnerships funded by outside organizations.

Scanlon, the attorney at the Salud clinic, is part of a nonprofit organization called Medical Legal Partnership Colorado that operates under a joint agreement with the clinic. Colorado’s Medicaid program approved a $300,000 grant to the partnership that was renewed this year to pay for three attorneys’ salaries.

Authorizing the funding took little convincing, said Michelle Miller, chief nursing officer for the state’s Medicaid program. “When we were asked to approve funding for this, I jumped at it,” Miller said.

One Woman’s Story

For Cynthia Enriquez De Santiago, the 19-year-old patient from Salud’s Commerce City clinic, legal advice made all the difference in her medical care.

In addition to her cerebral palsy, the teen is blind and has difficulty speaking; she needs round-the-clock care, including help eating and using the bathroom. Her doctor at the clinic put Rafaela De Santiago, Cynthia’s mother, in touch with an attorney who could help her continue to be her daughter’s legal guardian after the teen turned 18 last year.

The timing of that legal help proved critical: Several months after seeing the attorney, Enriquez De Santiago was rushed to a hospital. For no obvious reason, she had become hypothermic; her blood pressure dropped and her blood-oxygen levels cratered.

“The doctors were telling me I had to be ready for the worst,” the teen’s mother said through a Spanish-to-English interpreter.

Because she was Enriquez De Santiago’s legal guardian, her mother was able to sign off on follow-up tests after that emergency to quickly get to the root of the medical problem and help prevent it from happening again.

Without guardianship, “it would have been really, really hard, because I wouldn’t know where to begin the process,” Rafaela De Santiago said.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

Colorado Clinic’s Prescription for Healthier Patients? Lawyers published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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Who Created Social Security Democrats Or Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-created-social-security-democrats-or-republicans/

Who Created Social Security Democrats Or Republicans

The Philosophy Behind Democratic Economic Policy

Special Ops TV: Social Security: Which Political Party Drained it Dry?

Democrats gear their economic policies to benefit low-income and middle-income families. They argue that reducing income inequality is the best way to foster economic growth. Low-income families are more likely to spend any extra money on necessities instead of saving or investing it. That directly increases demand and spurs economic growth. Democrats also support a Keynesian economic theory, which says that the government should spend its way out of a recession.

One dollar spent on increased food stamp benefits generates $1.73 in economic output.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt first outlined the Economic Bill of Rights in his 1944 State of the Union address. It included taxes on war profiteering and price controls on food costs. President Harry Trumans 1949 Fair Deal proposed an increase in the minimum wage, civil rights legislation, and national health care. President Barack Obama expanded Medicaid with the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Social Security Fixes That Democrats And Republicans Agree On

This article originally appeared on The Motley Fool.

Social Security income is vital to the well-being of our nation’s retireesdata from the Social Security Administration shows that 61 percent of retirees currently receiving Social Security rely on their benefits for at least half of their monthly income. But seniors’ benefits could be in trouble less than a generation from now.

According to the Social Security Trustees Report from 2016, the program is on track to deplete its more than $2.8 trillion in spare cash by the year 2034. If this cash is exhausted and Congress passes no new laws to boost revenue collection, benefit cuts of up to 21 percent could be needed across the board to sustain benefit payouts through 2090. This isn’t a comforting outlook for those seniors counting on Social Security income to make ends meet.

The unanswered question at this time is how best to fix Social Security. Lawmakers have no less than 15 solutions on the table, but political gridlock in Congress has halted any progress. However, the American public has a pretty clear picture of what it’d like to see happen.

Based on responses from nearly 8,700 registered voters across eight states, the Voice of the People Citizens Cabinet Survey conducted by the Program for Public Consultation, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, found that Americans from both the Democratic and Republican parties agree on a four-step solution to fix Social Security.

Two additional observations

The Reach Of Entitlement Programs

More than half of Americans have personally received benefits from at least one of the six major entitlement programs tested in the survey.

The survey finds that 16% of those who have not personally received benefits also say a member of their household has gotten help. Taken together, these results indicate that about seven-in-ten households contain at least one member who has benefited at some point in his or her life from an entitlement program.

If veteran benefits and federal college loans and grants are added to the mix, the proportion of Americans who personally have ever received entitlement benefits rises to 70% and the share of households with at least one recipient grows to 86%.

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A Bipartisan Nation Of Beneficiaries

As President Barack Obama negotiates with Republicans in Congress over federal entitlement spending, a new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that a majority of Americans have received government benefits from at least one of the six best-known federal entitlement programs.

The survey also finds that most Democrats and Republicans say they have benefited from a major entitlement program at some point in their lives. So have nearly equal shares of self-identifying conservatives , liberals and moderates .

The issue of entitlements moved to center stage during the 2012 presidential campaign. The survey finds that among those who voted for President Obama last month, 59% say theyve benefited from a major entitlement program. It also finds that 53% of those who supported Mitt Romney have benefited from a major entitlement program.

The survey, which was conducted by telephone from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5, 2012, among a nationally representative sample of 2,511 adults, asked respondents if they or a member of their household had ever received Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare or unemployment benefits. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

The use of entitlement begins at an early age for many Americans, the survey finds. A third of all adults ages 18 to 29 say they have received at least one major entitlement payment or service in their lives.2

Social Security Is 15 Years Away From Kissing Its Asset Reserves Goodbye

This past June, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its newest annual report detailing the short-term and long-term outlook for the program. Arguably the biggest change in the recent forecast from previous years is that Social Security was expected to expend more than it collects in 2018 for the first time since 1982. Mind you, the net cash outflow created from this event will be very small compared to the nearly $2.9 trillion currently in Social Security’s asset reserves. The problem is that this net cash outflow is indicative of the payout schedule being unsustainable.

According to the report, as ongoing demographic changes weigh on the program, it’ll quickly diminish its excess cash. By the year 2034, Social Security’s asset reserves are projected to be completely exhausted. Should this happen, Social Security wouldn’t be bankrupt or insolvent. However, it would pave the way for an across-the-board cut in benefits of up to 21% in order to sustain payouts through the year 2092, without the need for any further cuts. Considering that more than three out of five retired workers is reliant on Social Security for at least half of their monthly income, such a cut could prove devastating.

The only resolution to the estimated $13.2 trillion shortfall Social Security is facing between 2034 and 2092 is to either raise additional revenue, cut expenditures, or implement some combination of the two. And the only way that’s happening is if Congress tackles the problem.

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Democrats And The Gop Are Polar Opposites When It Comes To Fixing Social Security

Now, the question you’re probably asking yourself is this: “Why the heck isn’t Congress doing anything about Social Security’s issues?” And the answer is also simple: Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on much when it comes to fixing Social Security.

Democrats have long favored raising additional revenue for the program by raising or eliminating the cap associated with the payroll tax . The Social Security Administration found that $1.2 trillion in earnings escaped the payroll tax in 2016 because the well-to-do had earned income above the maximum cap. Democrats believe that raising or eliminating this cap, and requiring the wealthy to pay more, will resolve the program’s problems.

Meanwhile, Republicans have often approached a fix by suggesting an increase in the full retirement age — i.e., the age at which you become eligible to receive 100 percent of your retirement benefit. Since longevity has increased at a much faster pace than the full retirement age, increasing the full retirement age would coerce workers to wait longer to receive their full payout, or to accept a steeper permanent reduction if claiming early. In easy-to-understand terms, it would reduce long-term expenditures by cutting lifetime payouts.

To be clear, both of these fixes work to resolve Social Security’s cash shortfall between 2034 and 2092, albeit they achieve their goal from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Mitt Romney On Social Security

Mitt Romney sees a need to reform Social Security in order to make it functional long-term. He supports price indexing that is tied to a lower inflation growth model, as well as reducing Social Security benefits for top bracket earners. In terms of what his plans would be for the system, he stated Now, my own view is, that we have to make it very, very clear that Social Security is a responsibility of the federal government, not the state governments, that were going to have one plan, and were going to make sure that its fiscally sound and stable. And Im absolutely committed to keeping Social Security working. I put in my book that I wrote a couple of years ago a plan for how we can do that and to make sure Social Security stable not just for the next 25 years, but for the next 75.

Mitt Romney is a strong supporter of the idea to partially privatize Social Security, by giving individual workers the choice to divert part of their benefits into a private account. During his campaign for President, Romney said One thing that President Bush proposed, and its a good idea, is to take some of that money, or all of that surplus money and allow people to have a personal account, so they can invest in things that have a higher rate of return than just government debt. They can invest in things like our stock market or the worlds stock marketso that they can get a better return, and maybe that would make up for some of the shortfall. Thats a good idea.

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They Haven’t Taken A Dime From The Social Security Program That Isn’t Accounted For

Another misconception is that the Republican Party stole money from the Social Security Trust and used it to fund wars. More specifically, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush have come under intense scrutiny for borrowing from Social Security and “not putting the money back.”

However, the truth of the matter is that Congress has been able to “borrow” Social Security’s excess cash for five decades, and it’s happened under every single president over that stretch. In fact, the Social Security Administration is required by law to purchase special-issue bonds and certificates of indebtedness with this excess cash. Please note the emphasis on “required by law” that I’ve added above. The federal government isn’t simply going to sit on this excess cash it borrows from Social Security. It’s spending this cash on various line items, which may be wars and the defense budget, as well as education, healthcare, and pretty much any other expenditure you can think of.

This setup is actually a win-win for both parties. The federal government has a relatively liquid source of borrowing with the Social Security Trust, and the Trust is able to generate significant annual income from the interest it earns on its loans. Last year, $85.1 billion of the $996.6 billion that was generated by the program came from interest income.

Democratic Views On Social Security

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May 31, 2015 By RepublicanViews.org

Social security is a tremulous issue. As Americans live longer and longer, the sustainability of social security as a system is being questioned. Democratic views on social security revive around reinstating the systems sustainability without privatizing or cutting back benefits, stating Democrats believe that after a life of hard work, you earn a secure retirement. Our commitment to protecting the promise of Social Security is absolute. Democrats believe that maintaining an income after retirement is the fundamental right of any American that paid into Social Security during their working years. Democrats strongly oppose Republican efforts to privatize social security, believing that this puts peoples retirement income at the mercy of the stock market. In fact, they wish to forbid employers from locking retirement savings into a companys stock. They also oppose reducing social security benefits for those that are part of other retirement plan options. Democrats do not believe that raising retirement age is a reasonable solution to the problem. They believe that the institution of social security is one that needs protecting, stating, In 1935, Democrats and President Franklin Roosevelt created Social Security. In 1965, Democrats and President Lyndon Johnson created Medicare. Ever since, Democrats have continually fought to defend these cornerstones of the American Dream in the face of attempts to dismantle or undermine both.

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Democrats Oppose Relief For Essential Workers Just Because Of Politics

Payroll taxes are the largest taxes most workers pay, and during the economic lockdown, many families have gone from earning two incomes to earning just one. Thats why Congress ought to provide an instant payraise for the frontline workers who are keeping this economy running by supporting Rep. Kevin Bradys Support for Workers, Families, and Social Security Act. The bill forgives employee …

Republicans Aren’t Going To Take Away Social Security

Without beating around the bush, the Republican Party is often associated as being the party of the well-to-do — and the rich typically aren’t reliant in any way on Social Security income. There’s, therefore, been a long-running belief that Republicans would aim to do away with Social Security sometime in the future. This is nothing more than another in a long line of pervasive Social Security myths.

Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have an understanding of the importance that Social Security plays in keeping some 22 million people currently receiving benefits above the federal poverty line. Though both parties may have suggested tweaking how revenue is generated for the program, neither party would remove or replace any of the three funding sources: the payroll tax on earned income, the taxation of benefits, and interest income on the program’s asset reserves.

In other words, no Republican is going to advocate scraping Social Security. And even if they did, the idea would have no chance of gaining traction in Congress.

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The Primary Funding Mechanisms For Social Security Should Remain Intact

Americans can collectively breathe a sigh of relief in knowing that neither Democrats nor Republicans have any intention of changing how the Social Security program generates income. That means less uncertainty about the future.

Social Security is currently funded three ways:

Payroll tax: The 12.4 percent payroll tax on earned income is by far the program’s workhorse, supplying it with $873.6 billion of the $996.6 billion in revenue collected last year.

Interest income: Social Security’s $2.89 trillion in excess cash is required by law to be invested in special-issue bonds and, to a lesser extent, certificates of indebtedness. The average yield on these assets is about 2.9 percent, and it led to $85.1 billion in interest being generated for the program in 2017.

Taxation of benefits: Passed in 1983 and introduced in 1984, the taxation of benefits becomes applicable when adjusted gross income, plus one-half of benefits, exceeds $25,000 for an individual or $32,000 for a couple filing jointly. The taxation of benefits led to $37.9 billion being collected last year.

In 2017, a GOP lobbyist tossed around the idea of eliminating the payroll tax and replacing it with a value-added tax on consumption. The idea didn’t get anywhere near the legislative floor, confirming Republicans’ and Democrats’ steadfastness in leaving these funding mechanisms as is.

Happy 86th Birthday Social Security It’s Time To Expand Benefits

This year, Social Securitys birthday, Aug. 14, comes at an exciting time. Congress is on the verge of greatly expanding our economic security through its upcoming reconciliation bill.;

Because Social Security cannot be addressed through budget reconciliation, it is not part of that legislation. But given the overwhelming consensus among the American people in support of expanding Social Securitys modest benefits, Congress should make it the next priority immediately after the Build Back Better legislation passes. ;

Enacting legislation that expands Social Security builds on the strong foundation laid down by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his colleagues eighty-six years ago, on Aug. 14, 1935. On that August day, when President Roosevelt signed Social Security into law, he described the new law as a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete.;

President Roosevelt was determined that Social Security would be a success. In his Jan. 17, 1935 message transmitting the proposed legislation to Congress, he cautioned:

A further expansion of Social Security is long overdue. This year, President Joe BidenJoe BidenMilley says civil war ‘likely’ in AfghanistanSoutheastern parts of Louisiana could have power restored as late as Sept. 29It’s time to transform our unemployment systemMORE and Congress have the opportunity to follow President Roosevelts directive and take a large step forward.

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Type Of Entitlement And Demographics

The survey finds that, overall, more Americans have received entitlements from programs primarily designed for the poor orunemployed than from those that mainly target older adults , while 17% have received benefits from both program types. Not surprisingly, the biggest difference in the demographic profiles of the two groups is the age of recipients.

Adults 65 and older are nearly eight times as likely as adults younger than 30 to receive assistance targeting older Americans .4 But among those who received poverty entitlements, the generation gap narrows to 13 percentage points . While adults 65 and older are still more likely than young people to have benefited from these programs, those 30 to 49 are about as likely as those 65 and older to have received this type of entitlement. Fully half of all 50- to 64-year-olds, the largest share of any age group, have received a poverty entitlement.

On other demographic comparisons, the differences are less dramatic and the patterns less consistent. In fact, despite the very different goals of these two classes of entitlement programs, the demographic patterns in one class of entitlement programs often are roughly mirrored in the other. For example, women are more likely than men to say they have received help from programs that benefited the poor as well as from those that target older adults .

[kleroterion]

Thoughts on Long-Term Unemployment

This is not a survival guide, nor is it a comprehensive tip list for getting through long-term unemployment (or, really, any period of unemployment). It’s a series of things that I learned while job searching for almost a year after I graduated from college. A close friend was looking for almost 3 years post-graduation, and another friend close to 8 months. This is not a unique experience and you are not alone. Granted, I had it easy compared to others - a supportive family, a place to stay and be cared for while I looked for a job, and enough savings to get me by. But it was a terrible experience and I want to at least try to help someone who is going through the same thing. These musings reflect my own experience and will not necessarily apply to everyone. This is a collection of notes and thoughts, not a panacea. I know at the end of the day you will go to bed with anxiety, no matter what I say. But maybe something here will speak to someone. I want to try.

—

Phone interviews/pre-interviews are increasingly common, which gives you an opportunity to have notes in front of you and to be in a comfortable environment while you talk. Take this opportunity to really shine - you’ve got the advantage. A lot of people have phone anxiety, but think of it as a way to cater the conversation to your space: you can have information pulled up on your computer, spread out hand-written scribbles in front of you, and be dressed in comfy pajamas. Make it so that the interview is on your terms - times are typically highly negotiable because it’s just over the phone, so you can pick a time that represents your peak efficiency mode.

If you can, try to participate in something during this long stretch of time. This is something that requires a financial safety net, so it won’t work for everyone (I’m sorry). Try to find activities that you can talk about in interviews or that can build your resume (and aren’t just filler): Volunteering (Meals on Wheels, at a library, homeless shelters, anywhere or anything), helping a political campaign, learning a new skill (like InDesign) or language, or studying for an exam you know you’ll have to take (the GRE, LSAT, MCAT, etc.). Take advantage of this time if you can. Getting out of the house and socializing is really important during these hard times and working towards a goal or helping others is a way to move forward when you feel so stuck (and can put things in perspective).

Open curtains and windows. Being cloistered up with only fluorescents or lamp light isn’t super conducive to mental health (in my opinion). Air out the house. Let natural sunlight in.

People in the relevant industries should consider having an online portfolio, and that url should be placed prominently on one’s resume. WordPress is free, and employers (especially in that industry) like to see applicants with 21st-century skill sets. Demonstrate that you can navigate website-making tools while also showing off your talents. If you can, buy a domain name, but it’s not essential. WordPress has enough versatility on its own to get what you want and to let people see what you are capable of.

Yes, you will have to write cover letters. And not everyone is good at this. Because you’re going to be applying a lot, have a template that you can customize to each job. It should be something general enough to work for many outlets, but you need to make a point to make it unique to that company, and tailoring it is essential. You won’t necessarily need to write a new one from scratch each time, but make sure to let them know you’re talking to them, not just anyone. Read the job description and incorporate their needs with your skill set into the letter. Try to make your letter a narrative rather than a formulaic sheet of information that they can easily glean from your resume. What experiences make you qualified for that particular job? Why are you the best candidate, and how can you prove it? Find a way to show patterns and traits in your life that define you as a person, and tie it into your employment and experience.

Self-care is a thing for a reason. Stay hydrated. Shower. Do the dishes. Getting up in the morning can be really hard. There’s a lot of disappointment in long-term unemployment. Taking the little steps each day when you don’t want to will keep a sense of control and order in your life. A pile of dirty dishes in the sink, clutter and laundry, dirty hair: no judgment. Seriously. I understand depression. I’ve been there. I’m there. But those things, while seemingly just aesthetic, really do impact you mentally. If you can try to stay on top of those things, you might be able to get to the bigger stuff. I don’t think you’ll ever feel bad after doing any of them, and getting just a few things done tends to propel you just based off of action - an object in motion stays in motion.

Resist the temptation to sleep in. When you’re unemployed for long stretches of time, it’s so, so tempting to let yourself sleep until noon, but you have to fight that urge. Please trust me on this. When you do finally land a job, early hours won’t be as much of a shock. Also, waking up with a chunk of the day already over is disorienting and, to me, tends to be less productive. Everyone is different, but I think staying on a schedule with relatively early hours is more stable. I slept until roughly 9 a.m. - this is a luxury to some people, and crazy early to others. I think 9 is a good choice because it fits close to an 8-to-5 schedule but still allows you some extra time in bed.

Networking will not necessarily save you. I had many, many people working in my favor inside companies and it did nothing. The job that I landed (and love) was a hire where I had no referral or contact. People like to hype up networking as the key to success, and I’m sure it is - once you’re in the industry. Networking works for some people, but I truly don’t believe it should be your focus or concentration. (This of course varies by what your career path is.) It’s all about volume: apply, apply, apply, apply. And then apply again.

Most of the time, you’re not going to hear back from an employer after you apply. That’s how it is now.

Don’t be ashamed to file for unemployment. These resources are there for a reason. You might as well take the opportunities (the few that are left) that the government has to offer. If you are actively trying to look for a job but cannot get one, there is no shame in asking for help from the people you pay taxes to and who in return provide services for people in need. The social contract goes both ways.

Be prepared for group interviews. These are happening more and more now. 75% of my interviews were with 2 or more people. Don’t let it put you off. In some ways, it’s easier to have a conversation when there are more voices in the room, and they are usually there to gauge chemistry more than they are to grill you (in my experience). And while I’m on the subject of interviews: cliche questions still occur, but many questions related to my experience and real-life scenarios on the job or in life. They want examples - times you stepped up, times where you might have failed but bounced back, times you showed leadership. Have stories ready. Yes, sometimes I’d get an occasional “What’s your favorite hobby?” or “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” and you should have answers ready for those. But lately the trend is about showing them you are a good fit for the job, rather than summing yourself up in three words.

It’s really hard to get a government job. They take forever to get back to you. They typically hire internally. It sucks. USAJOBS is a pain. You should know this ahead of time.

There will be bad days. There will be bad weeks. There might be bad months. Keep applying.

You will be tested. Quite literally. For almost every job that I got a response from, I was required to take further action, and sometimes in multiple phases, before an interview was even set up. Companies are being really choosy right now because they know they can. It’s disheartening, but it’s best if you are rid of the illusion that you stop taking tests after college. I had to take actual exams, write multiple-page projects, do short quizzes, come up with proposal ideas, and fill out interview questions all before I spoke to someone. It’s frustrating but also the reality that I faced.

It’s okay to be a little bit picky. Especially at first. You don’t have to settle immediately. Apply to the passion jobs and the long shots. Make sure you know your deal-breakers, and don’t feel guilty about sticking to them. If you really don’t want to work in a certain area or do a certain task, don’t apply to those jobs. So don’t feel bad about that. But just know that there may come a time later when you will have to compromise.

Sometimes you have to play the game. You should get a LinkedIn account and monitor your social media. I know. I resisted it for awhile, but it’s something that a lot of people say is important, and employers do want to see an online presence of some kind. LinkedIn is a “respectable” way of doing it, and keeping your social accounts relatively clean is the best way to go. (Coded language for “hide your tumblr”? Perhaps.)

A lot of the time, rejection really isn’t about you. It’s almost impossible to believe that, and a part of me still feels that it was personal, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever think otherwise, but I know logically that isn’t true. I have heard from hiring managers and HR people that job listings have to be posted even if the vacancy is planned from the start to be filled internally. This. Happens. Too. Often. To. Count. Also, the job market is FLOODED. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s rough. It really is. The competition is fierce. It isn’t necessarily about you. But it still stings.

Try not to beat yourself up if there are days where you don’t apply for jobs. No one is perfect. You can have a break. Binge watch Black Mirror (no, seriously, watch Black Mirror) but come back to your search. Don’t go too far down the rabbit hole.

Don’t follow a resume template. This is a tough one and hard to really delve into in this setting, as it is so unique to every person. It takes work and oftentimes a guiding hand to get a great resume. I’ve had multiple hiring managers and a career counselor tell me that when they see a cover letter that looks different from the rest, they are immediately interested. Use segments, boxes, and graphics rather than a linear, wordy timeline of your employment and education history. You’re more likely to get interviews if you use a narrative rather than bullet points and facts. Describe your experience and accomplishments in concise, substantive language (no filler!), and highlight your technological and practical skill set in a section all its own. (Computer programs/coding, web design, media production, and writing/communication are all good things to emphasize if they apply to you.)

Use your college resources: your professors. I got a freelance research project from a professor I had a deep connection with, and used others as a support system during hard times. Some places have good Career Centers (mine didn’t), and others have alumni or honor society job networks. I personally don’t have any experience with those so I don’t know how effective they are, but I can attest that bonding and having communication with various professors in your field is psychologically and sometimes monetarily rewarding, and might help more than you think in the short and long term. There’s more incentive than a good grade when it comes to befriending your teacher.

Don’t stay in the house for longer than three days at a time. It’s obviously not a hard and fast rule, but things got really tough for me after that length of time without either being in the light or being around people. It might be really hard, but try to get out at least every few days in some capacity. Long-term unemployment is rife with apathy and entropy, and succumbing is not difficult in that environment. If you can, get out.

I absolutely detest Monster.com. I think it was utterly useless; it got me nowhere and I was left with a bunch of unhelpful spammy emails with terrible listings. Indeed had good matches to my skill set and interests, but I never heard back from a single one. My best experiences came from Craigslist. Real, legitimate corporations advertise there, and I got many interviews from respectable places via Craigslist. I highly recommend it. There are some neat, unconventional postings, but just keep your eyes open for anything sketchy (you know how the internet works). I ended up getting my current job, however, through its website (I work at a theatre). I also got some responses that way, too: going to the websites of individual places you want to work and browsing their Employment section. Also, consider freelancing, package delivery, tutoring, substitute teaching, and other part-time gigs while you look for something permanent and full-time.

In between applying for jobs (which itself should be your full-time job), read that long book series you’ve been wanting to get to forever. Start - and finish - that cleaning project you’ve been putting off for years. Go through your home and donate anything you don’t need to Goodwill or local homeless/battered women shelters. Write that poem or novel that’s been in your head for a decade. Go for the 7-minute mile. If there’s something that’s been on your mind, now is the time to do it. Create. Organize. Contribute.

When it comes to letters of reference, go for quality over quantity. It’s better to have 2-3 really strong, glowing references than 4-5 mediocre ones. The better they know you, the more they will invest in the letter, so choose from the best of those in your life. Employment references are the most useful, but academic ones are great too, especially if they are particularly positive. Only use a personal reference (which is a non-family member, usually a friend/religious advisor/etc.) if they ask for one. Also, I’ve been told it’s outdated to include references with your application (and they should only be given upon request), but I couldn’t say for sure if it matters or not.

[orbemnews]

Elon Musk Makes a Hard Swerve on Bitcoin Tesla’s sharp turn on Bitcoin Elon Musk has been a big cryptocurrency booster of late, even directing Tesla to buy $1.5 billion in Bitcoin for its corporate treasury earlier this year. Yesterday, he abruptly reversed course, tweeting that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin as payment for cars, citing environmental reasons. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” he said. Bitcoin’s price promptly plunged by more than 10 percent. Tesla said it would begin accepting the cryptocurrency a few months ago, when it also revealed a billion-dollar Bitcoin buy, pushing the price up by more than 10 percent. Bitcoin seems remarkably sensitive to the billionaire’s tweets, and “if one person can dramatically alter spending power, the ‘stable store of value’ criteria of a currency is not met,” Paul Donovan of UBS wrote in a note to clients today. Mining Bitcoin is energy-intensive, and the more it is worth, the more power it takes a network of computers to create the tokens, by design. Bitcoin’s climate problem is hardly a secret. So what gives? Why now? Tesla only started accepting Bitcoin for car purchases in the U.S. in March. Just over two weeks ago, Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla’s C.F.O., told investors that “it is our intent to hold what we have long term and continue to accumulate Bitcoin from transactions from our customers as they purchase vehicles.” He described the rationale for buying and accepting Bitcoin as, simply, “Elon and I were looking for a place to store cash that wasn’t being immediately used, trying to get some level of return.” What changed about Tesla’s understanding of energy issues? An entry-level Tesla is worth about 1 Bitcoin, so the company’s $1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase in February far surpasses the amount of crypto it would collect from car sales for a very long time. That raises questions about the vetting and approval process for that investment, which may worry E.S.G. investors, who otherwise look favorably at an electric vehicle company. Did Musk not know about Bitcoin’s environmental impact until now? Who advised him on it? Did climate factor into the board’s approval process? How does Musk justify the environmental impact of his other companies? SpaceX’s rockets are massive carbon emitters. The Boring Company, his tunnel drilling endeavor, has also faced criticism about its environmental impact. Did Tesla or Musk sell Bitcoin before the announcement? Musk’s statement said that “Tesla will not be selling any Bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy.” We’ll see whether it made any recent trades when it reports second-quarter results in July. Given the impact Musk’s tweet had on Bitcoin’s price, any action just before or after will be scrutinized. Did regulation play a role in the reversal? The return policy for cars bought with Bitcoin worked in Tesla’s favor, stipulating that buyers get back Bitcoin if it’s worth less than the equivalent dollar value at purchase but get back dollars if Bitcoin is worth more. That raises many issues, including accounting risks and worries about warranties and other consumer protection laws. Musk can be an unreliable narrator. On Tuesday, he asked his followers on Twitter if Tesla should accept Dogecoin, the jokey cryptocurrency. (Most said yes.) On Sunday, he announced that SpaceX had taken Dogecoin as payment for shuttling a satellite to the moon. And as host of “Saturday Night Live,” he said that cryptocurrency was both “the future of currency” and “a hustle.” In other crypto news, Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, donated $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency to several charities yesterday, including around $1 billion in so-called meme coins to a Covid relief fund in India. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING The Colonial Pipeline resumes operations. The pipeline, which supplies the East Coast with nearly half its transportation fuel, took the first step in restarting after a ransomware attack as panicked consumers rushed to buy gasoline. Normal conditions won’t return for several days. The C.D.C. approves the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds. The move is meant to accelerate school reopenings. Meanwhile, Ohio is creating a lottery with $1 million prizes to encourage residents to get vaccinated, and seven New York Yankees — all fully vaccinated — have been quarantined after testing positive. Opposition to pandemic unemployment benefits grows. At least 11 Republican-led states plan to end the $300 weekly checks as early as June, amid debate over whether they are contributing to labor shortages. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, said he won’t vote to extend them when their authorization expires in September. Bill Ackman bets big on Domino’s Pizza. The billionaire hedge fund investor said he had amassed a 6 percent stake in the chain, praising its performance during the pandemic and its delivery capabilities. He also hinted that his $5 billion SPAC was working on a complex deal for a well-known company. Coinbase faces its first test as a publicly traded company. The cryptocurrency exchange will report its first earnings since going public after markets close today. Analysts expect a strong set of numbers, though they’re closely watching for the impact of increased competition. Markets fear inflation U.S. stock futures and global indexes are down this morning, following yesterday’s market drop — the third in a row — after consumer price data stoked fears of rising inflation that would test the Fed’s commitment to keeping interest rates low. All that also has the Biden administration increasingly concerned about the fate of its ambitious (and expensive) economic proposals. The S&P 500 dropped 2 percent, its worst day since February, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.7 percent. (The flagship fund of Ark Invest, which bet heavily on high-growth tech darlings, has fallen to a six-month low.) The yield on the 10-year Treasury note jumped to around 1.7 percent, from 1.5 percent a week ago. A top Fed official suggested the central bank won’t act yet. “This is just one data point,” said Richard Clarida, the central bank’s Trump-appointed vice chair, though he conceded that yesterday’s numbers were a “surprise.” Clarida cited last week’s disappointing job gains data as a reason for the Fed to stay its course on interest rates. But some economists remain skeptical: “There is a lot of concern that the Fed is behind the curve on this,” Alan Detmeister of UBS told The Times. The White House is privately anxious about its expansive economic policies, The Washington Post reports. Officials from the National Economic Council and the Treasury Department met over the weekend to discuss strategy. And an effort yesterday to woo Republican support for President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal appeared to gain no converts. Publicly, administration officials said they were committed to their agenda: “If anything, what we’re seeing are the positive impacts of the rescue plan as they work their way through the recovery,” the economic adviser Jared Bernstein said. “Those who are least engaged are very comfortable working from home.” — Sandeep Mathrani, WeWork’s C.E.O., at a Wall Street Journal event. “People are happier when they come to work,” the chief of the office rental company added. Sewing up the carried interest loophole Yesterday, Democratic senators introduced the Carried Interest Fairness Act, proposing to end a tax break that benefits real estate, private equity and venture capital investors above all. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the centrist Democrat who doesn’t always toe the party line, is among those proposing to shut the long-debated, little-understood loophole, which is one sign that it may become law after previous false starts. Investment managers often pay less tax on earnings than other workers. Money from investment returns (or “carry”) is taxed at the capital gain rate, about 20 percent. Regular income is taxed at more than double this rate, when state and local levies are taken into account. Proponents of the practice, who hold a lot of political sway via their connections and donations, say that the funds merely represent a return on investment, not income. Closing the gap would raise $15 billion over 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. “For far too long, hedge fund managers working on Wall Street have not paid their fair share,” Manchin said in a statement. Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to end the break, but the tax law that emerged from Congress did not address it. The loophole’s persistence surprised even Larry Kudlow, the conservative economist who crafted Trump’s tax plan. “I don’t know how that thing survived,” he said at the time. “I’m sure the lobbying was intense.” President Biden has also promised a fix. He called on Congress to eliminate the loophole, saying it would be “an important structural change that is necessary to ensure” fairness. The Democrats have narrow majorities in both chambers, but the loophole has proved hard to close. THE SPEED READ Deals The electric scooter company Bird plans to go public by merging with a SPAC at a valuation of around $2.3 billion. (Axios) Shares in Hertz soared after the rental-car company backed a $6 billion takeover bid that includes a rare payout to shareholders of a bankrupt company. (CNBC) The activist hedge fund ValueAct has taken a 4 percent stake in the owner of 7-Eleven and suggested it favors breaking up the convenience store operator. (Reuters) Politics and policy Behind the infighting on how to manage trillion-dollar federal stimulus programs: “It is just staggering how little oversight there is.” (NYT) The U.S. ran a nearly $2 trillion budget gap in the first seven months of its fiscal year, a record. (WSJ) David Cameron, the former British prime minister, will testify today about his multimillion-pound work advising the now-failed lender Greensill Capital. (WSJ) Tech Amazon won an appeal over a $300 million tax bill from the E.U., as American tech giants turn to courts to battle tighter regulation. (NYT) Facebook’s digital currency project abandoned its application for a Swiss payments license and will focus on operating in the U.S. (CNBC) An Airbnb pricing algorithm led to wider racial pricing disparities, including for Black hosts, a new study found. (FT) Best of the rest JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo are among the banks that plan to issue credit cards to people with no credit scores, using deposit account data instead. (WSJ) Ellen DeGeneres is ending her talk show after two decades, following a ratings slide and accusations of a hostile work environment. (NYT) How N.B.A. stars turned Top Shot Moments into some of the most popular NFTs around. (NYT) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Bitcoin #Elon #Hard #Musk #Swerve

[dadfashion]

cw: brief mentions of suicidal ideation, drug and alcohol addiction, and general oversharing. lol i have no idea how yall do these anymore

hey. no idea if anyone will read this but sometimes u just need to put things out into the universe and maybe someone will see it you know. also i will say im in a particularly fragile mental state atm - have not slept in maybe 40 hours - that probably is part of the reason i’m about to spill my guts out here, haha. have not used this blog in years, not even sure when i made it honestly, all i know is i was in such a radically different place in life than i am today. not to say i don’t stand by anything i may have said lol because the vast majority of those feelings and experiences are still here today. but i have existed in the world a little bit longer now and definitely navigate them a little differently and in a more authentic way than i was able to in the past, which is great.

idk im not really trying to talk about my gender right now im just trying to take stock of things as i enter month 6, 7 etc of quarantine. past year or two of my life has easily been the hardest thus far even before the pandemic, tbh even considering my 2015 s*ic*de attempts. lots of mental issues gone untreated for way too long u know. got diagnosed w some real fucked up adhd maybe 2 years ago, eventually had to drop out of school for a year- this is my first semester back lol this time at a much cheaper school. no idea when i’ll graduate. i got a lot of debt already. it was dumb. i live in a “leftist” cooperative house with 22 other people, mostly students. i say leftist very loosely because the vast majority of these people do not come close to holding any sort of true anti imperialist principles, and many are actively anti-communist lmao. don’t worry im not really here to talk about my politics either.

idk. im at kind of a turning point where i decide to get my shit together or not- i’ll be transferring to a new school with a new major after my initial crash and burn. i got a job i like pretty well even if its waiting tables during the global pandemic. making enough money to pay rent And have a little savings account w that and the unemployment i received combined. lol unemployment changed my life actually bc i literally am financially stable for the first time ever in my life so at least theres that.

im addicted to alcohol, w**d, and nicotine. im in the middle of a terrible e*ting d*sorder relapse. have not seen anyone other than those i live and work with since maybe april. i am deeply deeply depressed, lonely, and insecure still, even before the adhd on top of that. i feel constantly like i’m somehow on the brink of snapping and going truly “insane” for real, whatever the hell that means as if im not insane already. my mental health is in fucking shambles lol but to be fair i genuinely am very impressed at how much worse it could be but isn’t. at least im not actively suicidal and haven’t been in a hot minute. at least i have access to medication and a fucking therapist now dude. there are some things that bring me joy but i worry they won’t be enough for me to survive whatever comes next.

idk. im not gonna go back and read my older posts on here but i’d probably be a little embarrassed by them, much like im sure i will be of this one soon. not sure what im going to do or where anything goes from here. whole country and government is collapsing around me as i speak so. thanks for reading this if for some reason u came across this. hope ur doing well.