#so roughly 600 dollars every two weeks

[lavenite]

i could theoretically get my nan to drop me off

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #22

June 7-14 2024

Vice-President Harris announced that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving to remove medical debt for people's credit score. This move will improve the credit rating of 15 million Americans. Millions of Americans struggling with debt from medical expenses can't get approved for a loan for a car, to start a small business or buy a home. The new rule will improve credit scores by an average of 20 points and lead to 22,000 additional mortgages being approved every year. This comes on top of efforts by the Biden Administration to buy up and forgive medical debt. Through money in the American Rescue Plan $7 billion dollars of medical debt will be forgiven by the end of 2026. To date state and local governments have used ARP funds to buy up and forgive the debt of 3 million Americans and counting.

The EPA, Department of Agriculture, and FDA announced a joint "National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics". The Strategy aimed to cut food waste by 50% by 2030. Currently 24% of municipal solid waste in landfills is food waste, and food waste accounts for 58% of methane emissions from landfills roughly the green house gas emissions of 60 coal-fired power plants every year. This connects to $200 million the EPA already has invested in recycling, the largest investment in recycling by the federal government in 30 years. The average American family loses $1,500 ever year in spoiled food, and the strategy through better labeling, packaging, and education hopes to save people money and reduce hunger as well as the environmental impact.

President Biden signed with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy a ten-year US-Ukraine Security Agreement. The Agreement is aimed at helping Ukraine win the war against Russia, as well as help Ukraine meet the standards it will have to be ready for EU and NATO memberships. President Biden also spearheaded efforts at the G7 meeting to secure $50 billion for Ukraine from the 7 top economic nations.

HHS announced $500 million for the development of new non-injection vaccines against Covid. The money is part of Project NextGen a $5 billion program to accelerate and streamline new Covid vaccines and treatments. The investment announced this week will support a clinical trial of 10,000 people testing a vaccine in pill form. It's also supporting two vaccines administered as nasal sprays that are in earlier stages of development. The government hopes that break throughs in non-needle based vaccines for Covid might be applied to other vaccinations thus making vaccines more widely available and more easily administered.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $404 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and the region. This brings the total invested by the Biden administration in the Palestinians to $1.8 billion since taking office, over $600 million since the war started in October 2023. The money will focus on safe drinking water, health care, protection, education, shelter, and psychosocial support.

The Department of the Interior announced $142 million for drought resilience and boosting water supplies. The funding will provide about 40,000 acre-feet of annual recycled water, enough to support more than 160,000 people a year. It's funding water recycling programs in California, Hawaii, Kansas, Nevada and Texas. It's also supporting 4 water desalination projects in Southern California. Desalination is proving to be an important tool used by countries with limited freshwater.

President Biden took the lead at the G7 on the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. The PGI is a global program to connect the developing world to investment in its infrastructure from the G7 nations. So far the US has invested $40 billion into the program with a goal of $200 billion by 2027. The G7 overall plans on $600 billion by 2027. There has been heavy investment in the Lobito Corridor, an economic zone that runs from Angola, through the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Zambia, the PGI has helped connect the 3 nations by rail allowing land locked Zambia and largely landlocked DRC access Angolan ports. The PGI also is investing in a $900 million solar farm in Angola. The PGI got a $5 billion dollar investment from Microsoft aimed at expanding digital access in Kenya, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The PGI's bold vision is to connect Africa and the Indian Ocean region economically through rail and transportation link as well as boost greener economic growth in the developing world and bring developing nations on-line.

[vorenado-m]

happy disability pride month! please consider helping me take back my life as a disabled person!

the TL;DR is that for the last 3 months i have had an absolutely soul-sucking miserable minimum wage retail job that, due to the way scheduling works (and the app being broken as fuck) has prevented me from having access to literally any of the life-saving mental health/medical care i need as a disabled person.

my disability is best managed through a combination of medication, therapy, and casework-- not a single one of which i have had since march! :) contextually, up until i got this job, i took three daily medications and had casework once a week and therapy once or sometimes twice a week. these services are offered at an affordable cost to me through a local organization that is threatening to close my case due to lack of participation.

ill make another, more detailed post later with some of the services i can offer for money (i draw! i code! i write!) but until then here is a code you can scan if you have a few dollars to spare:

there are more details beneath the cut (idk about you guys but im kinda nosy so i wrote some more stuff in case anyone else is also nosy) but thats the gist of it. you can also always ask for details. i dont have a therapist right now so it might feel good to say things.

my plan is as follows: i would like to take the month of july more or less "off" from work to get my affairs in order, starting with scheduling appointments for therapy and casework and getting back on my meds. i am actively looking for a job, but i would like the ability to be somewhat picky instead of applying everywhere i think might have me for the sake of having money coming in to pay rent.

for the last two years i have made less than $800/mo and i can survive on roughly $600-$650 a month. my july rent ($550) is paid and my august rent (at least $500) is most likely also squared away, through a combination of some cash i was hoarding, a previous donation, my last expected paychecks from my current job, and my brother generously offering to cover whatever is left over. the extra $100ish is for roughly a months supply of the food that is part of my daily routine that i get cranky without (i have tea every morning, for instance.)

i have a fantastic roommate who is not struggling as much financially who will do everything in her power to make sure i have access to staple foods (rice, eggs, etc) so i really just need to buy the things only i consume (kimchi, milk, etc.) there is a food bank i go to, so i am not worried about food, but i can only go to it once per month. we have a barter system where i trade her the things i dont want from the food bank and she buys me things i will eat; alternatively, i sometimes give her things i get from the food bank (eg meat) that she turns into meals for both of us.

i live independently/"alone" with roommates and do not have support from my family pretty much at all. they have never been particularly useful for emotional support and have openly denied me financial support since i was a teenager. moving in with them/getting help from them/talking to them is not an option.

i have emailed my caseworker at the mental health organization i work with as well as my caseworker with the disability vocational program i work with to help me find a new job that is "back of house" and requires less customer interaction. i did this over the weekend, so i expect to hear back from them sometime this week. in the meantime, i am searching for jobs on my own in places like indeed, jobhat, careerbuilder, etc. as well as checking company websites of places like chain grocery stores to see what is available in my area.

my job pool is a bit limited due to the fact that i cannot drive (due to both my disability and the medication im supposed to be taking for it) but i am very well-versed at taking the bus, which is free. getting to and from work is not a concern for me; it is being able to do the job without being driven to the edge of a mental breakdown that is the problem.

the disability vocational program is my ticket out of poverty! last month i had a follow-up evaluation (i had to call out of work for it, but frankly i was at the end of my rope then too) where they approved my career goals as a web developer and we are in the process of deciding what my next steps are! the program will likely (depending on what route i take) help pay for vocational training, too, but i obviously have to pay rent while in training. which i think i can do if i have a job that doesnt make me want to die.

i have some other things that make my life a bit harder (im mixed race, i am nonbinary + gay, etc) but i would say those things dont really impact my ability to get a job as much as the disability does LOL which is why i did not feature them prominently in this post. like, the reason i cant get a job isnt because people dont want to hire me because i have blue hair and pronouns, its because im obviously disabled.

if you have any other questions, no matter how intrusive you think they might be, feel free to send a DM or an ask, and i will try to answer.

[theuniquelee]

Hello to you new week with a new schedule and ohohoho, what's this? Is that a promo for my Streamathon Celebration this Friday (March 10 2023)? Why I think it is

But seriously, I'll be having a streamathon this Friday to celebrate my Affiliate Anniversary for the first time. It's something I always happy and a bit proud of but never really got to celebrate over the years.

There's a ton of milestones and rewards and incentives for supporting because I want to do all these things anyway, might as justify them in some way.

Because it's a lot I've stuck everything under the read more so give it a look thru

Follow me on Twitch and make sure to come say hi as I lose my sanity being on stream for 12+ hrs

Uncapped* Affiliate Anniversary Streamathon

To avoid blowing up my new laptop I'll be streaming Daily, pausing and unpausing the timer at start/end of stream. Daily streams will be around 12-14 hrs, allowing myself and my laptop time to rest

My Discord will be open to public as long as the timer's up

Ways to increase the timer New Follower - 10 secs Raids with 5 or more ppl - 1 min

Bits 1 mins per 100 bits

Subs Tier 1 - 90 secs Tier 2 - 3 mins -180 Tier 3 - 10 mins - 600

Ko-fi Donations 1 min per $1

Throne Collections 1$ per time* Vtubing - 10mins stream upgrades - 5mins Quality of Life- 5 Mins

Every dollar gifted on throne for an item in these collections Example: Fully funding a $60 gift in the Vtubing collection = 600 mins or 10 hours added to stream Example 2: Fully funding a $60 gift in Stream Upgrades = 300 minutes or 5 hours added to stream

Some of these will be added manually because there's nothing that works with Throne or Ko-fi yet. I'll be adding that time at every half hour mark

Not a time extension nor a milestone I'll make a Treat Themed YCH design for up to five fully funded gifts from the Treat Collection Meaning if two gifts get funded I'll make two designs. But if a third gift is partially funded I won't make a third design

Individual Incentives Top Gifters (of each Star Tier) 1st VIP* + 3 months of sticker club (commission*) + Custom Discord Role + custom entrance command + Free Art/ Writing 2nd 2 months of sticker club (commission) + Custom Discord Role 3rd Custom Discord Role

*VIP is until the next Streamathon

You can trade sticker club in for a commission valued at the same price (Roughly $50 - it's a lot my prices are pretty cheap)

Categories by Star Ranking. The rank system is made to show what's the most helpful/ beneficial to me right now. All support is appreciated but this ranking shows what's more useful

Rainbow Star - Throne Gifts - Milestones: $10 - 200 $10 - Quizzes $25 - Future Pokemon Nuzlocke stream $50 - Model gets a straight hair toggle(s) $75 - Model gets a weird outfit (chat picks) $100 - Lore Revealed $125 - 2nd Model Mascot with Debut $150 - ASMR - Soft Talking Story Reading $175 - 3rd model Chibi with Debut $200 - 4th Model "Human" Lee with Debut

Gold Star - Ko-fi Donations / Memberships - Milestones: $1 - $200 $1 Chat picks my Twitter PFP for the month $10 - Chat makes a new channel Point redeem $25 - Future Solo Horror Game Stream $50 - Modded Stardew Series $100 - Lee makes Why MCU Spider-man is the worst,AKA The police-ification of Peter Parker video $125 - Lee makes a drama report video $150 - restart genshin on asia servers (completely from scratch) $175 - weird outfit for the model (chat picks) $200 - Custom Stream Avatars

Silver Star - Twitch Subs - Milestones:1 sub - 100 subs 1 - For 5 Pokemon Unite matches - Chat picks my pokemon 10 - Restart Genshin - Get caught up to current content 25 - Permanent Genshin streams the rest of the year 50 - Chat picks our next emotes/ animated emotes 100 - Model no longer Secret - Working on it publicly

Bronze Star - Twitch Bits / Cheers - Milestones: 100 bits - 10,000 bits 100 - chat writes a tweet 1000 - Chat picks my twitch banner for 2 weeks 2500 - Baby Photos of Me + Family 5000 - Restart Hades Playthrough 10,000 - Farm Sim Fridays - Lee Plays Farming Sims every Friday Forever

Stretch Goals Throne Funded Switch + Funded Capture Care - 8-12 hr long Switch stream + Weekly Switch Game Streams Voice Mod License funded - 5 Channel Point Redeems Added involving voices Mobile Gaming Controller + Accessory - I'll play a rage game until I rage quit or beat it Iphone Funded - Using free models ASAP (chat will pick models + ?? (Secret Reward) Stream Deck- ???? (Secret Rewards)

Ko-fi 25 New Ko-fi members - monthly digital downloads come back 50 new Ko-fi members - Quarterly APP icon/ deco packs + monthly emote + digital sticker pack

Subs Over 100 (Secret Rewards)

Bit over 10,000 (Secret Rewards)

This was a lot so thank you for reading this far down! I appreciate it a lot and cant wait to see you Friday on Twitch

[the-firebird69]

These people don't know how to house children and have to be in a separate room and we are going to get them for what they're saying in the news. We don't want to talk about your stupid stuff

+there's a huge deal happening and starting to come bigger it is regarding people who are invading homes and taking things and ruining people using it we don't find what you're doing to be amusing foreigners would be happy to do it and they're coming in to do it our son said that the investments are around 1.5 million dollars then there's this lady who screwed the lawyer and she sent some guy on the internet 1.5 million dollars and it really is odd but it is worth it because and it's very obvious and it's mean and it's meant to be mean it's against her and her son and we do see that they're saying Trump is the victim to a degree and it should be the victim but it's not really true he's holding on to the stuff and he legally so he is holding on to it illegally and threatened him a lot and others were hearing it but here's another thing he's holding on to the money and the investments and it's Max money not Mac Daddy but the Mac proper and they're going to kill him for it and it's war and he is going to die people say he's a martyr and then shitloads of them die and we can care last weekend we could care less we get code from the idiots and but they didn't think so so

-there's a lot of other stuff happening and it's really weird but it's going on and back Daddy says yeah okay he didn't know either anything said the max shouldn't issue the code but other stuff going on is our son is doing a little bit better he's healing up a little not a ton there's a little oxygen here but they really didn't open the tunnels but the oxygen is coming from the river and the harbor and the all sorts of estuaries emptying and canals and they are emptying of the fertilizer as he said it becomes soft and then the turbulence and it pulls it off and the weight of the water permeates next layers and it continues and it's been pushing out a few inches every day up to like a foot and it's a lot it's everywhere coming out the tunnels will be another boost but the oxygen levels are steadily going up slowly and it's going to be a hell of a day and it's a good deal we have a lot of things we're up to but the fertilizer coming out is good for example the Charlotte harbor down to the bottom in the middle is 18 ft to sand but right now it's to the sand in the middle and it spreads out about 100 ft either side and it's to the sand the harbor is about 800 ft across now it's about a mile and it's widest so probably half mile almost the way and 200 ft is that much but the rest of it slopes from a foot to 3 ft about 200 ft offshore so that's 400 500 600 ft less from a half mile it's still a lot of it in there at 3 ft a half mile is around 2,500 ft so it's really 2,000 ft of 3 ft but it used to be about 8 to 10 ft deep and the maximum is 3.5 ft roughly listen really it's pushing out everyday what causes because there's a trough in the middle and it's down to about 18 ft 6 and it's almost like hardened sand and once that's mostly hard in sand the sand does not slow it and it's going to go ripping through there faster than it is now it's up to 45 miles an hour peak and 35 miles an hour until a little time low tide and because of this difference in speed it pulls from the side and it causes turbulence everywhere and things are hilly and stuff in there and it's pulling the rest of it out probably about two or three inches a day and sometimes it's up to four inches so at that rate in about 3 weeks it's going to be completely gone but it's slowly feeding all around Florida and tons of allergies for me and even in the harbors along the edges which is great and the edge will slowly be get bigger and bigger and about 3 to 5 ft a day until the last few days so give me about 20 days so it's going to be a hundred foot more that's going to be covered with algae immediately and seaweed and it keeps growing back and fast and lots of it and so you real thick on the edge and it's going to have clumps floating around that's going to bring the oxygen here and it's happening in all the ponds even though the muck is sitting there and it is sitting there in a lot of the ponds but it's becoming less rancid and is getting infiltrated the whole way through by the water and it it goes through a cycle and that'll be clean and probably 3 months even if you don't touch it when it rains it brings less acid and that causes less rot and it grows and absorbs stuff and goes through a cycle and a lot of vegetation is going to rot in it and tons of algae is already growing they're almost all green already including lake Okeechobee which will be clear of the mock in about 3 weeks too additionally

+we have a lot of news and he says it's good news because it's helping all over the world this is bringing oxygen to people and when they pump the water out to feed plants it's fertilizing it and it's not Overkill a lot of places are just using the water until it clears out and it's kind of treated it's less bacteria

-there's a huge number of people who are healing from it and people need to hear it so we're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues

This guy Trump is clueless everybody's going to kill him and he can't figure it out

Hera

[robertreich]

Public Health First

Dick Kovacevich, former CEO of Wells Fargo bank, thinks most Americans should return to work in April, urging that we “gradually bring those people back and see what happens”.

Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, whose net worth is $1.1bn, recommends “those with a lower risk of the diseases return to work” within a “very few weeks”.

Tom Galisano, founder of Paychex, whose net worth is $2.8bn, believes “the damages of keeping the economy closed could be worse than losing a few more people … You’re picking the better of two evils.”

Donald Trump is concerned that a prolonged lockdown might harm his chances of reelection. “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem,” he said last week. On Sunday he backed off his Easter back-to-work deadline, saying social distancing guidelines would remain in place until the end of April.

But senior public health officials including Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, think this may be too soon.

America already leads the world in coronavirus cases. Dr Fauci believes we haven’t yet felt the worst of the pandemic.

It may seem logical to weigh the threat to public health against the accumulating losses to the economy, and then at some point decide economic losses outweigh health risks. As Stephen Moore, who is advising the White House, warns: “You can’t have a policy that says we’re going to save every human life at any cost, no matter how many trillions of dollars you’re talking about.”

But whose “trillions of dollars” of costs are we talking about?

Workers typically bear the biggest burdens during economic downturns, especially if they lose their jobs and don’t have enough money to pay the bills. Eighty percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

Late last week, lawmakers made an important step to prevent such hardships. The $2.2 trillion coronavirus bill provides jobless Americans an extra $600 in unemployment benefits per week for four months, and includes contract and gig workers.

The bill was almost scuttled when Republican lawmakers objected that this would boost incomes of some job losers higher than their pay when they worked.

Apparently, these lawmakers hadn't noticed that the pay of the typical working American has stagnated for decades, adjusted for inflation. So a temporary boost in pay in order to get people to stay home and thereby help slow the spread of Covid-19 is hardly unseemly.

Here’s what is unseemly. The “economy” that the bankers and billionaires are eager to restart had been growing rapidly before the pandemic. But most of its gains had gone into corporate profits, as shown by the meteoric rise of the stock market until a few weeks ago.

The bankers and billionaires now urging Americans get back to work own a huge share of that stock market. The richest 1 percent of the population owns roughly half of the value of all shares of stock. (The richest 10 percent own more than 80%.)

So when they recommend Americans get back to work for the sake of the “economy,” they’re really urging that other people risk their lives for the sake of restoring the bankers’ and billionaires’ stock portfolios.

While it’s true that we can’t save every human life at any cost, and at some point may have to end the lockdown of America and accept some additional coronavirus casualties, we need to keep in mind which Americans we are talking about.

The trade-off average Americans might make between getting back to work and exposing themselves to the virus is likely to be quite different from the trade-off bankers and billionaires make, especially if average Americans have enough income support to get through the crisis.

Even four months of extra unemployment benefits may not be enough. The richest nation in the world surely has enough resources to keep its people safe at home for as long as it takes.

[storymodekat]

Genshin Impact Summoning & Economics Guide

I’ve been playing Genshin Impact since the 22nd of November, 2020. I have every character except Klee, Jean, and Mona. Tonight, Eula will be joining my collection. With that in mind, and roughly $600 Canadian invested into Genshin’s mesmerizing online world, I thought it might be a good time to talk about how I decide what I want to invest in when I’m playing the game.

The first thing I want to make abundantly clear is that while I have chosen to spend money--the funds I use to use to buy new dolls or vintage My Little Pony figures--you don’t necessarily have to. You can earn 60 primogems--the game’s equivalent of one US dollar--every day by completing four daily quests and then turning them in at the Adventurers’ Guild. There are also generally a few events each month that offer primogems as prizes, helping people stack up a nice amount with absolutely zero effort.

The Welkin Moon

Want to kick it up a notch? Invest $5 USD ($7 Canadian) on getting the Welkin Moon. You get 300 Genisis Crystals (which can be used for packs in the shop or converted into those sweet, sweet primogems) up front and then 90 primogems a day over a 30 day period. Meaning, you’re getting 3,000 primogems for $7. Considering that 3,200 gems--the amount needed for 20 wishes--goes for $50 USD / $70 Canadian in the shop, this is a solid value. It will also increase the likelyhood that you’ll log in each day--which, in my opinion, should be a big deciding factor in whether you want to invest in this game. 

The Battle Pass

Another potentially valuable purchase you can make is investing in the monthly battle pass. For $10 USD or $13.99 Canadian, you can receive a variety of wishes, mora, xp books, weapon crystals, a unique 4 star weapon at rank 30, and fragile resin which will make your in game experience run much more smoothly. To be clear: everything you can get in the Battle Pass--minus the weapon--can be found either in the pass’s free version or elsewhere in game. But as a long time player who has purchased the Battle Pass four times now, I find it to be an excellent cost-to-content value. 

Go Big Or Go Home?

Anything from here out is going to start costing a more sizable sum, which some will and others won’t be comfortable with. One of the most important things to recognize is that Genshin’s Gacha system has a fail-safe on its 5 star characters. But it IS an expensive one. Every 80 pulls, you will receive at least one 5 star character. When you receive a 5 star character, that will reset your pity to 0, regardless of what number of pulls you were at when you got them. 

At full reset, you have a 50% chance of getting the banner’s featured character, and 50% chance of getting (currently) one of five 5 star characters: Diluc, Keqing, Qiqi, Jean, and Mona. If you get one of the 5 alternate characters, your next 5 star will be a banner character. If you are pulling on the same banner, you will get its character. If you wait for a different featured character and pull, you’ll get that character instead. 

It costs $100 USD / $140 Canadian for 50 wishes. Which means that it costs roughly $300 USD or $410 Canadian to guarantee you will get a specific 5 star from 0 pity at worst case scenario. (I’m ignoring roughly 10 wishes total here, but odds are good you’d have those, so let’s keep the math simple.) Personally, the only things I’ve purchased in Genshin aside from Welkin Moon and Battle Pass are characters, with the recent exception of getting constellation c1 for Childe and for Zhongli. 

In Conclusion...

At the end of the day, what every person’s budget is going to be for a game like Genshin Impact will be different. The good news is that the game itself is technically free to play, and it does a great job at allowing a player to figure out whether they are really interested in it or now. 

I went into Genshin Impact figuring I’d try it for a week and be done with it. It’s not in a genre of gaming that I tend to natively gravitate toward. Yet here I am, almost six months later, and I have not missed a day. I actually run two accounts right now, because my BF is paused on Genshin and is busy fishing in Final Fantasy XIV.  For me, the time and funds I have invested in this game--and the passion I have for the game and for interacting with the community--are an excellent value.

However, that does not blind me to the dangers of any type of game that has a gambling mechanic of any sort in it from word go. If you are going to invest in Genshin--or any other game with micro-transactions--make sure you’re not spending money you cannot afford to lose. And do not let anyone make you feel bad if you can’t buy the latest and greatest character, weapon, or anything else. 

So, how do you guys feel about the Gacha system in Genshin Impact? Are you collecting each character like they’re dolls, like me? Are you f2p or a light spender? Do you have every unit c6′d? Everyone has had different experiences, I’m sure, and I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Have fun and take care, guys!

Kat

[disillusioned41]

In late-night votes just hours after nearly 5,600 pages of legislative text were released, the U.S. Congress on Monday approved trillions of dollars worth of government funding and coronavirus relief that will temporarily avert a catastrophic expiration of key benefits, send $600 direct payments to many Americans, and provide billions of dollars in handouts to the rich.

The entire Senate Democratic caucus and every Republican but six voted for the roughly $900 billion coronavirus relief legislation, which was paired with a $1.4 trillion spending package that will fund the federal government through next September. Just two House Democrats—Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii)—voted against the coronavirus relief portion of the sprawling package (pdf), which President Donald Trump is expected to sign.

"I voted against the latest Covid-19 relief legislation because it is woefully inadequate in addressing the needs of people," Tlaib said in a statement late Monday. "I have watched as many of my colleagues rush to provide billions to corporations and wealthy individuals, while admonishing the needs of the majority of families."

"I have watched as many of my colleagues rush to provide billions to corporations and wealthy individuals, while admonishing the needs of the majority of families." —Rep. Rashida Tlaib

"Republicans continue to do all they can do to poison our society further with corporate greed, while abandoning the very people they are supposed to be working for," Tlaib added. "This is evident by the inclusion of the 'three martini lunch' tax giveaway."

The tax deduction for business meals was one of several giveaways to wealthy Americans stuffed in the mammoth legislative package, which was made available to read Monday afternoon after reported computer issues delayed its release. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was one of several lawmakers who publicly expressed outrage at the lack of time lawmakers were given to read the bill before voting on it.

"Members of Congress have not read this bill. It's over 5,000 pages, arrived at 2 pm today, and we are told to expect a vote on it in two hours," tweeted Ocasio-Cortez, who voted against a rule paving the way for speedy passage but ultimately voted yes on the coronavirus aid portion of the package. "This isn't governance. It's hostage-taking."

While the contents of the measure are still being combed, progressives noted and denounced the inclusion of billions of dollars in gifts to wealthy Americans—benefits made more obscene by the bill's inadequate relief for people who are hungry, sick, unemployed, and facing eviction.

"Pathetic," said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), pointing to the bill's $120 billion handout to rich business owners and other provisions that will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest people in the country during the most unequal recession in modern U.S. history.

The Vermont senator voted for the relief legislation, noting that "the average family of four will receive a direct payment of $2,400."

"While including these direct payments ultimately improved this bill, given the enormous economic desperation that so many working families across this country are now experiencing, there is no question but that this legislation did not go anywhere near far enough," Sanders said in a statement.

The $900 billion coronavirus relief package is a far cry from what economists say is necessary to bring the faltering U.S. economy out of recession and provide meaningful relief to the increasingly desperate public amid rising poverty and a major hunger crisis. Some economists are calling for a roughly $4 trillion package, warning that anything less would result in "permanent damage" to families and the economy.

On top of the paltry direct payments—for which millions of vulnerable people will not be eligible—the newly passed bill provides a non-retroactive $300-per-week federal boost to unemployment insurance and an 11-week extension of UI benefits, an extension accompanied by more burdensome documentation requirements for applicants who are already struggling to navigate rickety state systems.

"Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues have stonewalled state and local aid, along with survival checks that meets the scale of the crisis. This is a collective failure in helping Americans in their time of need."—Rep. Ilhan Omar

"States will be asked to implement a significant number of new rules for these programs for a law that will only last 11 weeks," noted Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. "In reality, many workers won't receive the benefits until well into this short period—and at that point, the states will be forced to cut it off once again. Worst of all, Congress will be setting itself up for another 10 million-plus worker benefit cut off that will start in mid-March, before the new administration and Congress can be reasonably expected to pass another round of relief."

"Congress has given itself little choice but to immediately get to work on the next economic stimulus package as soon as President Biden and the 117th Congress take office," Stettner added. "That package must build on the CARES Act and include key reforms to make sure benefits are available as long as the economy remains constrained by this disastrous pandemic."

Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, also raised concerns about the too-short duration of relief and pointed to the bill's inadequate sick and family leave provisions. "While the agreement continues the tax credits for employers established under the Families First Act for providing coronavirus-related sick days and family leave," Greenstein said in a statement, "it doesn't extend workers' right to take that time off, leaving that to employers' discretion."

"A likely result," Greenstein warned, "is that a substantial number of workers will be unable to stay home when they are quarantined or ill or will be unable to balance work and family care-giving needs when schools are closed or a family member has Covid-19."

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who voted for the final relief package, said late Monday that she is glad the legislation will provide direct payments that were not originally on the table as well as billions of dollars in funding for schools.

"But that doesn't mean this package is anything close to enough," said Omar. "Six hundred dollars is not close to sufficient to cover eight months of lost wages, food, or rent expenses...  Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues have stonewalled state and local aid, along with survival checks that meet the scale of the crisis. This is a collective failure in helping Americans in their time of need."

[visualcommune]

At Amanda’s House

Amandas home 

On October 29th Amanda texted the group chat (me and Fala ) to inform us that Damien was not ready to have us in the studio this week either. For the last few weeks Amanda had anticipated our weekly meeting to happen in Damien’s Studio so that me and Fala could help him prepare his materials for the upcoming fair. However, Damien still was not ready for us, which previously was frustrating to Amanda who often referred to the artist as children and her self as mama but was now great news because now Amanda had a task that she was even more excited about. Amanda excitedly texted us about Jon Grey who was buying one of John Rivas’s pieces. Her text read “ this just in. Jon Grey wants his piece. I’m going to see if he can rcv it tomorrow. If he can, I need you ladies to come here, help wrap and drop it at ghetto gastro. Stay tuned.” “We are confirmed for Jon. But like a true celebrity he’s not giving me a time ** head explode emoji **” Fala and I congratulated Amanda even though later on we admitted to each other that we had no clue what the big deal about Jon Grey was. Fala also showed amazing initiative in the group chat and offered to bring all necessary materials for packaging the art.

When I got to Amanda’s home I had to wait infront of the skinny entrance for a while until they came downstairs to open the door. Amanda’s building was on 55th st, what I would consider smack in the middle of midtown. Her apartment building was sandwiched in between two very busy business’s and it was hard to imagine that any one passing by was a resident of this neighbourhood. As a New Yorker, I get living in the hustle and bustle but this area just seemed so unfit to be someone’s neighbourhood. What would community look like in this area that seems to only share wealth in common? Once Fala came down to open the door I got my first expereice inside of Amandas apartment. 

I recall in previous conversations Amanda brought up her housing situation as if it was a situation. She had previously told us she was living with her parents, her parents had been moving for some time and that she was using her apartment to generate some extra income by running it as an Airbnb. Amanda told us the story of one time she rented it to an Australian couple. She said that when she was showing them around the apartment something felt off. She told us that the Australian couple then messaged her and said that they had decided to stay somewhere else even though they understood that they wouldn’t be getting a portion of their money back. Amanda struggled with us to not take it personally. She talked about how cute and well decorated her home was and asked us what could have been wrong with those people, even though we had never seen her place to vouch for the cuteness level. 

Now standing in her apartment I saw that conversation differently. She had a studio apartment with a bathroom door to you right when you first walk in. That was the only door. The rest of the apartment could be taken in in two head turns. The tiny space was covered wall to wall in art. Large framed pieces hung from the wall. Nearly every artist was identifiable from our collection of artist. As we stood in her apartment she told us for maybe the 5th time about her living situation. That she was using her apartment as an airbnb to pay the rent on the very same place and that her parents lived in the same apartment building as her and that she was living with them while they finalised their move. In the elevator she asked Fala (29) if it was lame that she was still living with her parents at 40. Fala assured her that if the opportunity arose, Fala would also live with her parents for ever because of the convince of food and chores and that it made a lot of financial sense too. We looked at the art on her walls for awhile, most of it was her own that she had collected at discounted rates or she was holding on to for the gallery. One of the pieces was a sculpture of a monkey holding a functioning light bulb. According to Fala who recognised the piece, the monkey lamp was apart of modern pop art and Amanda said it was one of her favourite possessions. Amanda said that on the market the lamp cost $600 but she had won her lamp for $400 at a charity auction event. She did not speak at all about what charity event she had attended. One of her other pieces was actually going to be lent out and shown in a museum, Amanda expressed that she was excited to have her name written in the contributed by line. 

The piece we had to package for Jon Grey was the biggest in the house. It was hanging on one of her walls and stood roughly 10 ft high and 8 ft wide. It left a gapping whole in the middle of her other pieces. So Amanda pulled out a  large folder that was tucked away in the side of a table, in it held EVEN MORE ART. This folder held some of her prized pieces that still needed to be framed and were just waiting for their chance to be rotated in. Amanda also said she shared art with her mom so she might potentially bring one of her moms pieces into her home and trade it for one of hers in her collection. 

When we got to packaging the massive piece we did it on top of her bed, primarily because there was absolutely no floor space in the house. It took all 3 of us to lift the piece from its mount on the wall and 20 minutes to securely bubble wrap it. Amanda complimented our professionalism in dealing with the art and said it was one of the finest packaging jobs seen had sent out. Which was surprising to me because although the job was well done it didn’t go beyond my idea of packaging standards, especially for a piece worth so much money. Efficiently using the bubble wrap so it hugged every corner and securing the tape along the extensive side was our focus.  

Once that was done Amanda told us that Jon Grey STILL had not confirmed the drop off location, which frustrated Amanda because she had already texted him twice for the information with no response. She asked us if it would be too much or annoying if she sent a third text. We advised her to send a text about another topic but that if we needed the information that she should text him again. Amanda was even more nervous to text  Jon Grey because of his celebrity. She told us that he had a Ted Talk and was so handsome and sweet. Amanda admitted that she might have a little crush on Jon Grey and assured us that we would fall inlove too even though he might seem intimidating at first because he was so tall. While we waited for his response Amanda insisted that we order breakfast from the local bagel shop and have the gallery pay for it. Once our breakfast was delivered we moved downstairs to her families apartment. Her families apartment was in the same building as hers but it was set up in a more traditional apartment way with two bedrooms, a seperate kitchen, dinning and living room. We sat at her families newly moved into dinning room. There was less art in this apartment but still quite a lot. Amanda pointed to one dark, ominous piece and said it was the oldest one in their collection and that her grandmother had collected it. Amanda said that her grandmother and other family members loved the arts even though her parents did not work in them instead they both were accountants. Amanda also mentioned that her family was from Peru and Chile. She also mentioned that she was divorced. We talked a little about the current political climate of Chile and the need for protest to happen to insight real change. Amanda told us about a recent video she had seen of Trump in the DC baseball field were they chanted “lock him up” at him. Amanda also scoffed at Melania wearing a jacket that said “ I don’t care, do you?” Or something of that nature. After an hour of small talk Jon Grey had finally gotten back to Amanda with the location of the delivery and then me and Fala were off. Amanda put us in the largest possible Uber that would accomodate the size of the piece and sent us to the Bronx. Amanda advised us to take an Uber to a fair mid point between where Fala needed to be in LES and where I needed to be in Brooklyn but also was not a gizzilion dollars for the gallery to pay. 

During our Uber ride me and Fala watched Jon Grey’s Ted Talk. Jon Grey and his team are the founders of Ghetto Gastro a space where Colored cooking and art combine. Jon himself seemed to be an artist with a rags to riches story that ultimately has helped his community thrive. The outside of Ghetto Gastro looked like a pretty typical residential building but the inside held a large cooking island with lots of coloured people and colourful smells. In the back of was a studio space designed to look like the outside of a bodega. Jon Grey was a black man of nearly 7ft tall. He helped us set the piece in the back and was very kind about letting me photograph him with the piece. Amanda really wanted us to get a photo with him and the piece. When we confirmed with her that the piece had been safely delivered and sent her the photos she asked if he consented to the pictures being taken. I hadn’t thought to ask for permission to post the picture and regretted not keeping consent at the forefront of my practice. 

[orbemnews]

Seven Infrastructure Problems in Urgent Need of Fixing Engineers say that when infrastructure works, most people do not even think about it. But they recognize it when they turn on a faucet and water does not come out, when they see levees eroding or when they inch through traffic, the driver’s awareness of the highway growing mile after creeping mile. President Biden has announced an ambitious $2 trillion infrastructure plan that would pump huge sums of money into improving the nation’s bridges, roads, public transportation, railways, ports and airports. The plan faces opposition from Republicans and business groups, who point to the enormous cost and the higher corporate taxes that Mr. Biden has proposed to pay for it. Still, leaders in both parties have long seen infrastructure as a possible unifying issue. Urban and rural communities, red and blue states, the coasts and the middle of the country: All are confronting weak and faltering infrastructure. “It’s a dire need,” said Greg DiLoreto, a former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which publishes an extensive report card on the subject every four years. The 2020 report gave the country a grade of C-minus, a slight improvement after two decades of Ds. Far more needs to be done, Mr. DiLoreto said: “It’s a terrible report card to take home to your folks.” Roadways and bridges are still in use decades after the end of their projected life spans. Sewer and water systems are aged and decaying. And a changing climate threatens to worsen old vulnerabilities and expose new ones. In the broad contours of the plan released by the Biden administration, specific proposals and figures are given for some of these infrastructure needs. The plan, for instance, proposes an extra $115 billion to modernize bridges, highways and roads that are in “most critical need of repair.” But other projects, such as levee systems, are not explicitly mentioned, and it is unclear how they might factor into the proposal. We took a look at seven examples of urgent infrastructure vulnerabilities across the country, ranging from specific projects to broader problems. Deteriorating rail tunnels under the Hudson River Connecting New York City to New Jersey The 111-year-old tunnels used by commuter trains and Amtrak have deteriorated rapidly since Hurricane Sandy flooded them with salt water in 2012. Officials in New York and New Jersey have beseeched federal officials for years to help build new tunnels, arguing that the failure of one could have a devastating economic impact far beyond the region. The Trump administration resisted their appeals. Riders have been plagued by delays and cancellations, with similar problems affecting railways along the Northeast Corridor. Passenger railways across the country have struggled with a lack of federal funding, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers report card, creating a repair backlog of $45.2 billion. The Biden administration says its plan would replace buses and rail cars and expand transit and rail into new communities; it is unclear how the Hudson River tunnels might be involved. The creaky Brent Spence Bridge Crossing the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Ky. President Barack Obama stood at the base of this bridge in 2011, describing legislation that would help improve it. In 2016, President Donald J. Trump also made assurances to replace the structure. Yet the bridge has remained a source of frustration. Rusty and creaky, it has been listed as “functionally obsolete” in the federal bridge inventory since the 1990s, and it has a history of bottlenecks and crashes. There is a $2.5 billion plan to fix the bridge and build a new one alongside it, but in Covington, Ky., some have expressed worries about the proposal. The mayor told The Cincinnati Enquirer that it was an “existential threat,” citing the size of the proposed bridge (some traffic would still cross over the old one, as well). Mr. Biden’s plan vows to fix the nation’s 10 most economically significant bridges but has not specified which ones those are. “If there is any project eligible, this would be it,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, told local reporters at a news conference on Wednesday. “Hopefully somewhere in the bowels of this multitrillion bill, there’s a solution.” Crumbling schools vulnerable to earthquakes Puerto Rico While children around the world have been going to school remotely since the coronavirus pandemic struck last year, many students in Puerto Rico had been out of class months earlier. That was because a school in southern Puerto Rico had crashed to pieces after a serious earthquake on Jan. 7. The collapse brought attention to the more than 600 schools on the island that shared a “short column” architectural design, which makes them vulnerable to tremors. Teachers and parents were wary of reopening, and the schools with that design risk remain closed. Children who had gone to them are still learning remotely. In addition, nearly 60 schools were closed after inspections following the earthquakes showed structural deficiencies. About 25 had “persistent” problems that predated the earthquake and its aftershocks, Puerto Rico’s education secretary told The New York Times last year. Government officials recently acknowledged that in the year the schools were closed for the pandemic, no repairs had been made on any of the hundreds of vulnerable schools. Hundreds of rural bridges, all closed Across the country Major bridges that carry tens of thousands of cars and eighteen-wheelers are not the only ones showing their age. So are smaller bridges in rural areas, which have much less traffic but are no less vital to a community’s ability to function. (In Mississippi alone, officials list 355 bridges that have been closed because of their age or dilapidation.) Under the president’s infrastructure plan, 10,000 of these bridges would be fixed. Of the nation’s bridges, 71 percent are rural. They make up 79 percent of the bridges rated as poor or structurally unsound, according to Trip, a transportation research nonprofit group. Advocates for rural communities say the problems with bridges are indicative of a wider lack of connectivity — by roadways and through broadband internet. (The president’s plan also says it will deliver access to reliable high-speed internet to the 35 percent of residents of rural communities without it.) Rural roads and bridges have a $211 billion backlog in improvements. Some of these projects, such as adding guardrails and widening lanes, could make it safer to drive on rural, noninterstate roads, which account for a disproportionately high number of the country’s traffic deaths. Water crisis in Mississippi Jackson, Miss. Many vulnerabilities in infrastructure were exposed when a powerful winter storm swept through Texas and into the Southeast in February. One of them was the water system in Jackson, Miss., the state capital, where residents went weeks with a boil notice in place. The water crisis inflamed enduring tensions in Jackson, ones that grip many communities where white residents have fled and tax bases have evaporated. The city has old and broken pipes. It does not have the funding to repair them. City officials estimated that modernizing Jackson’s water infrastructure could cost $2 billion. The storm also caused power failures for millions of people across Texas, which has prompted lawmakers there to weigh an overhaul of the state’s electric infrastructure. At least 111 people died as a result of the storm, according to state officials, and it also caused widespread property damage and left some residents to face huge electric bills. Under Mr. Biden’s plan, lead pipes and service lines would be eliminated, and more transmission lines for electricity would be installed. Dams increasingly battered by climate change Michigan and many other states When Michigan state officials investigated what had led to the collapse of the Edenville and Sanford dams last year, which caused thousands to evacuate and inundated hundreds of homes and businesses, the conclusions were stark: A historic flooding event had caught up with years of underfunding and neglect. The country has roughly 91,000 dams, a majority of which are more than 50 years old, and many are an exceptional rainfall away from potential disaster. As dams have aged, the weather has grown more severe, rendering old building standards outdated and creating conditions that few considered when many of the dams were built. Residential development has also steadily spread into once rural areas that lie downstream from the weakening infrastructure. According to the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, about 15,600 dams in the country would most likely cause death and extensive property damage if they failed. Of those, more than 2,330 are considered deficient, the group said. While the Biden plan mentions “dam safety,” it gives no details. Levees that can no longer consistently hold Across the country The country has tens of thousands of miles of levees, which safeguard millions of people and trillions of dollars’ worth of property. The United States Army Corps of Engineers operates a small fraction of the nation’s levees, while the rest are maintained by a patchwork of levee districts, local governments and private owners. But floodwaters care little about who is in charge of maintenance, as the catastrophic 2019 floods in the Midwest showed. When record-breaking rains fell, levees were breached or overtopped across the region, drenching farmland, inundating homes and causing billions of dollars in damage. The rainfall is not likely to let up soon, given new weather patterns driven by climate change. And some of the officials whose towns and cities were most affected by the 2019 floods are adamant: Simply refurbishing levees is not going to work anymore. “Levees aren’t going to do it,” said Colin Wellenkamp, the executive director of Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative, an association of 100 mayors along the Mississippi River. His group presented a plan to the White House last month detailing a “systemic solution” to flooding. It includes replacing wetlands, reconnecting backwaters to the main river and opening up areas for natural flooding. A plan that simply replaces infrastructure, rather than rethinking what it encompasses, will be ineffective and ultimately unaffordable, Mr. Wellenkamp said. He is not sure whether his group’s proposals have been folded into the Biden plan. But he sees little choice. “This is a losing game unless we incorporate other, larger solutions,” he said. Campbell Robertson and Frances Robles contributed reporting. Source link Orbem News #fixing #infrastructure #problems #Urgent

[yourreddancer]

from Bernie Sanders about the recent stimulus bill

Late last night, Congress passed a $908 billion COVID relief bill that will extend unemployment benefits through the early spring, provide support for small businesses, schools, health care, nutrition, rental assistance, childcare, broadband, and the Postal Service, as well as funding to help distribute vaccines.

This legislation also includes, importantly, a $600 direct payment for every working class American earning less than $75,000 a year or $150,000 for a couple — plus $600 for each child. Let me be clear: this provision was not in the bill just two weeks ago. And, given the enormous economic desperation that so many working families are now experiencing, it is nowhere near enough as to what is needed. But, given the strong opposition of the Republican leadership in Congress and a number of Democrats, it’s no stretch to say that it would not have happened at all without our efforts, the hard work of progressive members in the U.S. House and grassroots progressives throughout the country. Republican Senator Josh Hawley also played an important role.

But let me state the obvious. The total funding in this bill was not even close to good enough, and my fear is that by reaching this agreement we are setting a bad precedent and setting the stage for a return to austerity politics now that Joe Biden is set to take office.

Remember, way back in May, the House passed a $3.4 trillion HEROES Act, which was a very serious effort to address the enormous health and economic crises facing our country. Two months later, the House passed another version of that bill for $2.2 trillion.

That same month, Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a $1.1 trillion piece of legislation that included a $1,200 direct payment for every working class American.

Months later, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, negotiating on behalf of President Donald Trump, proposed a COVID relief plan with Speaker Pelosi for $1.8 trillion that also included a $1,200 direct payment.

And yet, after months of bi-partisan negotiations by the so-called Gang of 8, we ended up with a bill of just $908 billion that includes $560 billion in unused money from the previously passed CARES Act �� a worse deal than was previously proposed by Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.

So we went from $3.4 trillion, to $2.2 trillion, to $1.8 trillion from Trump and $1.1 trillion from Mitch McConnell to just $348 billion in new money — roughly 10 percent of what Democrats thought was originally needed and half of what Trump and McConnell offered in direct payments.

This is not good negotiating. This is a collapse.

It is also no coincidence that as it became clear Joe Biden would become the next president of the United States, we started to hear a lot of talk from my Senate colleagues in the Republican Party about their old friend the deficit.

We couldn’t afford $1,200 for every working class American and $500 for their children because of the deficit.

We couldn’t afford to support state and local governments struggling during the middle of this health and economic crisis because of the deficit.

We couldn’t afford more meaningful and robust unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs during the middle of this pandemic because of the deficit.

Yet, this is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that they passed a $1.9 trillion tax bill benefiting some of the richest people and largest corporations in this country.

This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that they, just last week, pushed through the largest defense spending bill in the history of this country, a total of $740 billion. This is more money than the next 10 nations combined spend in their defense budgets.

This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that they spent trillions of dollars on war over the past two decades.

This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that it gives hundreds of billions of dollars in giveaways to oil, gas and coal companies that exacerbate the climate crisis.

This is the same Republican Party so concerned about the deficit that it provides huge amounts of corporate welfare to companies like Walmart that pay their workers starvation wages and provide them meager benefits that must be supplemented by taxpayer-supported programs.

And during any of these debates, do you recall any of my Republican colleagues asking how these proposals were going to be paid for? I don’t. So forgive me for thinking their sudden display of concern for the deficit seems a bit insincere. More to the point: it’s total hypocrisy!

And our concern at this moment is that no matter what happens in Georgia next month, and which party controls the Senate, we cannot allow this type of inadequate negotiation again on major legislation. Yes. The deficit is important, but it is not the most important thing. At this unprecedented moment in American history, with a growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, and when many millions of Americans are suffering, Democrats in Congress must stand up for the working families of our country. No more caving in.

Today, half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, one out of four workers are either unemployed or making less than $20,000 a year, more than 90 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, tens of millions of people face eviction, and hunger in America is exploding. Tragically, there is more economic desperation in our country today than at any point since the Great Depression.

We have a responsibility to the struggling families of our country.

And let's be honest: if we allow Republicans to set the parameters of the debate going forward, like they did in this current COVID relief bill, the next two to four years are going to be a disaster.

Want to expand health care? Where’s the money going to come from?

Want to rebuild our infrastructure? Where’s the money going to come from?

Want a Green New Deal, or even support for Joe Biden’s more modest climate proposal? Where’s the money going to come from?

So the fundamental political question of our time is: are we going to allow Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and corporate America to return us to austerity politics, or are we going to build a dynamic economy that works for everyone?

My fear is that this COVID relief bill sets a very dangerous precedent for when Joe Biden takes office next month. And we cannot allow that to happen.

Going forward, Democrats must have an aggressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class in this country, income and wealth inequality, health care, climate change, education, racial justice, immigration reform and so many other vitally important issues. And in that struggle, we all have a role to play. So please, make your voice heard in the weeks and months ahead. Call your members of Congress, post your thoughts on social media, encourage progressives in your community to run for office, and volunteer and contribute to those who will fight for a government that will work for all of us, and not just the 1 percent and wealthy campaign contributors in this country.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

[stephenmccull]

Dialysis Industry Spends Millions, Emerges as Power Player in California Politics

SACRAMENTO — The nation’s dialysis industry has poured $233 million into California campaigns over the past four years, establishing its leading companies as a formidable political force eager to protect their bottom line and influence state policy.

This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. It can be republished for free.

Most of the money the industry spent from Jan. 1, 2017, through Nov. 30, 2020, funded the defeat of two union-backed ballot measures that would have regulated dialysis clinics — and eaten into their profits. But the companies and their trade association also stepped up their offense, dedicating about $16.4 million to lobbying and political contributions during the same period, a California Healthline analysis of state campaign finance records shows.

Nearly every member of the legislature, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and his predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democratic and Republican parties, and dozens of political campaigns — including some local school board and city council races — received a contribution from a dialysis company.

“These are very large, very profitable companies,” said Mark Stephens, founder of Prima Health Analytics, a health economics research and consulting firm. “They have a lot to lose. The fear would be that if some of this stuff passed in California, the union would certainly try to get similar measures on the ballot or in the legislatures in other states. The stakes are higher than just California for them.”

Staking Ground in Sacramento

California has about 600 dialysis clinics, which are visited by an estimated 80,000 patients each month, typically three times a week. At the clinics, patients are hooked up to machines that filter toxins and remove excess fluid from their blood because their kidneys can no longer do the job.

Medicare, which covers most dialysis patients, pays a base rate of $239.33 for each dialysis treatment.

DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care North America are the largest dialysis providers in the state and country, operating roughly 80% of clinics nationwide. Last year, DaVita reported $811 million in net income, on revenue of $11.4 billion. Fresenius posted $2 billion in operating income on revenue of $13.6 billion.

DaVita was responsible for about $143 million — or more than three-fifths — of the political spending in the past four years, and Fresenius gave about $68 million.

Until four years ago, the dialysis industry’s political spending was relatively modest compared with that of the hospital, physician and other health care associations so well known in Sacramento. In those days, dialysis lobbyists focused on regulatory issues and health care reimbursement rates, and companies gave minimal campaign contributions.

The industry’s transformation into one of the biggest spenders in California politics began in 2017, the first of four years in which it faced ballot or legislative threats. In 2017, a Democratic lawmaker introduced a bill that would have set strict staff ratios at dialysis clinics. The bill, SB-349, which failed, had faced opposition from the California Hospital Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and the dialysis industry.

The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West union (SEIU-UHW) followed the next year with Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that would have capped industry profits.

DaVita and Fresenius were forced to defend their huge profits and allegations of subpar patient care, turning the competitors into allies — at least in politics.

The industry spent $111 million to successfully defeat the measure, breaking the record for spending by one side on an initiative.

“I think it’s very natural for these private chains to spend millions to make billions of profits,” said Ryan McDevitt, associate professor of economics at Duke University. “They’re lobbying to protect their profits.”

Last year, the industry fought AB-290, a bill that aimed to stop a billing practice dialysis companies use to get higher insurance reimbursements for some low-income patients. But the legislature wasn’t swayed, and Newsom signed the bill into law, which is now tied up in federal court.

And this year, the industry spent $105 million to block Proposition 23, which would have required every clinic have a physician on site and institute other patient safety protocols.

Kent Thiry, the former chairman and CEO of DaVita, said the industry had no choice but to spend heavily to defeat the ballot measures, which he said would have increased costs and harmed patient care.

“When someone does that, you have to use some of your money to defend yourself, your patients and your teammates,” Thiry said in an interview with KHN, which publishes California Healthline. “It forces companies to allocate precious resources to do something that never should have been brought up to start with.”

In an emailed statement, DaVita said it would continue to work to “educate lawmakers and defend against policy measures that are harmful to our patients.” Fresenius also defended its advocacy, saying the company needs to protect itself against special interests intent on abusing the political system. The company will “continue to support legislation that improves access to quality care and improves patient outcomes,” said Brad Puffer, a company spokesperson.

By comparison, SEIU-UHW, which sponsored the ballot measures, spent about $25 million to advocate for the initiatives, and $7.8 million on lobbying and political contributions. The union lobbies lawmakers on a wide array of health care issues

“They’ve got tons of money. We understand that,” said Dave Regan, the union’s president. “We’ve seen them spend a quarter of a billion dollars in a very short period of time. I hope they’re prepared to spend another quarter of a billion dollars, because we’re not going to go away until there’s legitimate commonsense reforms to this industry.”

From Defense to Offense

While most of dialysis companies’ political spending in California has been used to defeat ballot measures, several of the largest companies also dedicated about $16.4 million to lobbying and political contributions over the past four years.

The companies and their trade association, the California Dialysis Council, put almost three-fourths of that — nearly $12 million — into hiring veteran lobbyists to advocate for dialysis companies when lawmakers consider legislation that could affect the industry.

For instance, when Newsom took office in 2019, both DaVita and Fresenius added Axiom Advisors to their lobbying teams, paying it $737,500 since then. One of the firm’s partners is Newsom’s longtime friend Jason Kinney, whose close relationship with the governor was highlighted by the recent French Laundry dinner fiasco. Newsom came under intense criticism for attending the early November dinner at the exclusive restaurant, held to celebrate Kinney’s birthday, because he and his administration were asking Californians not to gather.

The industry has also given at least $4.6 million in contributions to political candidates and committees, both directly and to entities on behalf of a lawmaker or candidate.

All but five state senators and Assembly members who served during the 2019-20 legislative session received a direct contribution from at least one of the companies or the California Dialysis Council.

Most of the donations to individuals went to state lawmakers, but DaVita dipped into local races, too. For instance, it contributed $10,000 to a Glendale city council candidate in February, $7,700 to an El Monte school board candidate in October and $3,500 to a Signal Hill city council candidate last year.

Dialysis companies also gave to the state Democratic and Republican parties.

“They’re spreading it out. They’re doing the full gambit,” said Bob Stern, former general counsel for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces state political campaign and lobbying laws.

Legal Loopholes

State law limits how much a company or person can give to a political candidate in an election, but there are legal loopholes that allow individuals and corporate interests to give more. The dialysis industry has taken advantage of them.

Under state campaign finance rules, lawmakers can accept only $4,700 from any one person or company per election.

But some lawmakers operate “ballot measure committees” so they can accept unlimited contributions. These committees are supposed to advocate for a ballot measure, but lawmakers often use them to pay for political consultants and marketing, and to contribute to state and local initiatives they support. Candidates can also get unlimited help from donors who independently pay for campaign costs, such as mailings and digital campaign ads.

For instance, DaVita chipped in $93,505 to help pay for a direct mail campaign on behalf of state Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) in this year’s primary election. Glazer also received $55,600 from DaVita, Fresenius and the California Dialysis Council in contributions to himself and his ballot committee, Citizens for a Better California.

In some cases, lawmakers such as Glazer who netted some of the biggest contributions from dialysis companies voted with the industry. That was the case last year when the legislature approved AB-290, the bill limiting the dialysis billing practice.

Glazer voted no, as did Assembly member Adam Gray (D-Merced), whose Valley Solutions ballot measure committee had received $112,500 from DaVita and Fresenius since 2017. Gray also received $36,900 in direct contributions from Fresenius, DaVita and U.S. Renal Care.

Gray issued a statement saying campaign contributions play “zero role” in how he represents his district. Glazer did not respond to a request for comment.

Targeting Legislative Adversaries

Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer’s 84-year-old mother is on dialysis. The Los Angeles Democrat and SEIU-UHW member has called for improved staffing ratios at dialysis clinics and has voted repeatedly to regulate them.

DaVita wrote a $249,000 check in October to a political committee supporting Jones-Sawyer’s opponent, Efren Martinez, another Democrat, but one the industry considered more friendly. DaVita followed up with a $15,000 check the week before the election.

Jones-Sawyer, who won the race, said he’s frustrated dialysis companies aren’t willing to make changes to improve patient safety on their own, saying it would cost them far less than the nearly quarter-billion dollars they have spent on political contributions. So for now, he said, he will continue to push to improve conditions at dialysis clinics from the Capitol, despite the industry’s growing political clout.

“I think dialysis is saying, ‘Look, we can be the 800-pound gorilla now,’” Sawyer said. “It’s not just influence for a day; it’s longevity.”

Rae Ellen Bichell and Elizabeth Lucas of KHN contributed to this report.

Methodology

How California Healthline compiled data about dialysis companies’ political spending

Among the ways dialysis companies exert influence on the political process is by contributing money to campaigns; hiring lobbyists; and paying for advertising and marketing on behalf of candidates.

Opposition to ballot measures: Using the California secretary of state’s website, California Healthline downloaded the contributions made by DaVita, Fresenius Medical Care North America, U.S. Renal Care, Satellite Healthcare, Dialysis Clinic Inc. and American Renal Management to the campaign committees formed to defeat Propositions 8 and 23. This includes some non-monetary contributions.

Lobbying: We created a spreadsheet of expenses reported on lobbying disclosure forms, also available on the secretary of state’s website, by DaVita, Fresenius, U.S. Renal Care, Satellite Healthcare and the California Dialysis Council. We found details about how much the industry paid lobbying firms, what agencies it lobbied and which bills it tracked.

Political contributions: DaVita, Fresenius, U.S. Renal Care and the California Dialysis Council made direct contributions to more than 100 candidates, which we compiled from the secretary of state’s website. DaVita and Fresenius made other contributions, often large, to Democratic and Republican committees, and ballot measure committees led by lawmakers. The two companies also made contributions known as “independent expenditures” that benefited candidates’ campaigns and “behested payments,” which are donations to nonprofit organizations and charities in lawmakers’ names. Behested payments are disclosed on the California Fair Political Practices Commission website.

The SEIU-United Health Care West union uses two political committees for its giving. Its PAC contributes mostly to lawmakers and county and state Democratic parties while its Issues Committee gives to local hospital ballot measures. We did not tally spending for local hospital ballot measures for this story, but we did include contributions made by the Issues Committee to the California Democratic Party, which helps state lawmakers.

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Dialysis Industry Spends Millions, Emerges as Power Player in California Politics published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Dialysis Industry Spends Millions, Emerges as Power Player in California Politics

SACRAMENTO — The nation’s dialysis industry has poured $233 million into California campaigns over the past four years, establishing its leading companies as a formidable political force eager to protect their bottom line and influence state policy.

This story also ran on Los Angeles Times. It can be republished for free.

Most of the money the industry spent from Jan. 1, 2017, through Nov. 30, 2020, funded the defeat of two union-backed ballot measures that would have regulated dialysis clinics — and eaten into their profits. But the companies and their trade association also stepped up their offense, dedicating about $16.4 million to lobbying and political contributions during the same period, a California Healthline analysis of state campaign finance records shows.

Nearly every member of the legislature, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and his predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democratic and Republican parties, and dozens of political campaigns — including some local school board and city council races — received a contribution from a dialysis company.

“These are very large, very profitable companies,” said Mark Stephens, founder of Prima Health Analytics, a health economics research and consulting firm. “They have a lot to lose. The fear would be that if some of this stuff passed in California, the union would certainly try to get similar measures on the ballot or in the legislatures in other states. The stakes are higher than just California for them.”

Staking Ground in Sacramento

California has about 600 dialysis clinics, which are visited by an estimated 80,000 patients each month, typically three times a week. At the clinics, patients are hooked up to machines that filter toxins and remove excess fluid from their blood because their kidneys can no longer do the job.

Medicare, which covers most dialysis patients, pays a base rate of $239.33 for each dialysis treatment.

DaVita and Fresenius Medical Care North America are the largest dialysis providers in the state and country, operating roughly 80% of clinics nationwide. Last year, DaVita reported $811 million in net income, on revenue of $11.4 billion. Fresenius posted $2 billion in operating income on revenue of $13.6 billion.

DaVita was responsible for about $143 million — or more than three-fifths — of the political spending in the past four years, and Fresenius gave about $68 million.

Until four years ago, the dialysis industry’s political spending was relatively modest compared with that of the hospital, physician and other health care associations so well known in Sacramento. In those days, dialysis lobbyists focused on regulatory issues and health care reimbursement rates, and companies gave minimal campaign contributions.

The industry’s transformation into one of the biggest spenders in California politics began in 2017, the first of four years in which it faced ballot or legislative threats. In 2017, a Democratic lawmaker introduced a bill that would have set strict staff ratios at dialysis clinics. The bill, SB-349, which failed, had faced opposition from the California Hospital Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and the dialysis industry.

The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West union (SEIU-UHW) followed the next year with Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that would have capped industry profits.

DaVita and Fresenius were forced to defend their huge profits and allegations of subpar patient care, turning the competitors into allies — at least in politics.

The industry spent $111 million to successfully defeat the measure, breaking the record for spending by one side on an initiative.

“I think it’s very natural for these private chains to spend millions to make billions of profits,” said Ryan McDevitt, associate professor of economics at Duke University. “They’re lobbying to protect their profits.”

Last year, the industry fought AB-290, a bill that aimed to stop a billing practice dialysis companies use to get higher insurance reimbursements for some low-income patients. But the legislature wasn’t swayed, and Newsom signed the bill into law, which is now tied up in federal court.

And this year, the industry spent $105 million to block Proposition 23, which would have required every clinic have a physician on site and institute other patient safety protocols.

Kent Thiry, the former chairman and CEO of DaVita, said the industry had no choice but to spend heavily to defeat the ballot measures, which he said would have increased costs and harmed patient care.

“When someone does that, you have to use some of your money to defend yourself, your patients and your teammates,” Thiry said in an interview with KHN, which publishes California Healthline. “It forces companies to allocate precious resources to do something that never should have been brought up to start with.”

In an emailed statement, DaVita said it would continue to work to “educate lawmakers and defend against policy measures that are harmful to our patients.” Fresenius also defended its advocacy, saying the company needs to protect itself against special interests intent on abusing the political system. The company will “continue to support legislation that improves access to quality care and improves patient outcomes,” said Brad Puffer, a company spokesperson.

By comparison, SEIU-UHW, which sponsored the ballot measures, spent about $25 million to advocate for the initiatives, and $7.8 million on lobbying and political contributions. The union lobbies lawmakers on a wide array of health care issues

“They’ve got tons of money. We understand that,” said Dave Regan, the union’s president. “We’ve seen them spend a quarter of a billion dollars in a very short period of time. I hope they’re prepared to spend another quarter of a billion dollars, because we’re not going to go away until there’s legitimate commonsense reforms to this industry.”

From Defense to Offense

While most of dialysis companies’ political spending in California has been used to defeat ballot measures, several of the largest companies also dedicated about $16.4 million to lobbying and political contributions over the past four years.

The companies and their trade association, the California Dialysis Council, put almost three-fourths of that — nearly $12 million — into hiring veteran lobbyists to advocate for dialysis companies when lawmakers consider legislation that could affect the industry.

For instance, when Newsom took office in 2019, both DaVita and Fresenius added Axiom Advisors to their lobbying teams, paying it $737,500 since then. One of the firm’s partners is Newsom’s longtime friend Jason Kinney, whose close relationship with the governor was highlighted by the recent French Laundry dinner fiasco. Newsom came under intense criticism for attending the early November dinner at the exclusive restaurant, held to celebrate Kinney’s birthday, because he and his administration were asking Californians not to gather.

The industry has also given at least $4.6 million in contributions to political candidates and committees, both directly and to entities on behalf of a lawmaker or candidate.

All but five state senators and Assembly members who served during the 2019-20 legislative session received a direct contribution from at least one of the companies or the California Dialysis Council.

Most of the donations to individuals went to state lawmakers, but DaVita dipped into local races, too. For instance, it contributed $10,000 to a Glendale city council candidate in February, $7,700 to an El Monte school board candidate in October and $3,500 to a Signal Hill city council candidate last year.

Dialysis companies also gave to the state Democratic and Republican parties.

“They’re spreading it out. They’re doing the full gambit,” said Bob Stern, former general counsel for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces state political campaign and lobbying laws.

Legal Loopholes

State law limits how much a company or person can give to a political candidate in an election, but there are legal loopholes that allow individuals and corporate interests to give more. The dialysis industry has taken advantage of them.

Under state campaign finance rules, lawmakers can accept only $4,700 from any one person or company per election.

But some lawmakers operate “ballot measure committees” so they can accept unlimited contributions. These committees are supposed to advocate for a ballot measure, but lawmakers often use them to pay for political consultants and marketing, and to contribute to state and local initiatives they support. Candidates can also get unlimited help from donors who independently pay for campaign costs, such as mailings and digital campaign ads.

For instance, DaVita chipped in $93,505 to help pay for a direct mail campaign on behalf of state Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) in this year’s primary election. Glazer also received $55,600 from DaVita, Fresenius and the California Dialysis Council in contributions to himself and his ballot committee, Citizens for a Better California.

In some cases, lawmakers such as Glazer who netted some of the biggest contributions from dialysis companies voted with the industry. That was the case last year when the legislature approved AB-290, the bill limiting the dialysis billing practice.

Glazer voted no, as did Assembly member Adam Gray (D-Merced), whose Valley Solutions ballot measure committee had received $112,500 from DaVita and Fresenius since 2017. Gray also received $36,900 in direct contributions from Fresenius, DaVita and U.S. Renal Care.

Gray issued a statement saying campaign contributions play “zero role” in how he represents his district. Glazer did not respond to a request for comment.

Targeting Legislative Adversaries

Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer’s 84-year-old mother is on dialysis. The Los Angeles Democrat and SEIU-UHW member has called for improved staffing ratios at dialysis clinics and has voted repeatedly to regulate them.

DaVita wrote a $249,000 check in October to a political committee supporting Jones-Sawyer’s opponent, Efren Martinez, another Democrat, but one the industry considered more friendly. DaVita followed up with a $15,000 check the week before the election.

Jones-Sawyer, who won the race, said he’s frustrated dialysis companies aren’t willing to make changes to improve patient safety on their own, saying it would cost them far less than the nearly quarter-billion dollars they have spent on political contributions. So for now, he said, he will continue to push to improve conditions at dialysis clinics from the Capitol, despite the industry’s growing political clout.

“I think dialysis is saying, ‘Look, we can be the 800-pound gorilla now,’” Sawyer said. “It’s not just influence for a day; it’s longevity.”

Rae Ellen Bichell and Elizabeth Lucas of KHN contributed to this report.

Methodology

How California Healthline compiled data about dialysis companies’ political spending

Among the ways dialysis companies exert influence on the political process is by contributing money to campaigns; hiring lobbyists; and paying for advertising and marketing on behalf of candidates.

Opposition to ballot measures: Using the California secretary of state’s website, California Healthline downloaded the contributions made by DaVita, Fresenius Medical Care North America, U.S. Renal Care, Satellite Healthcare, Dialysis Clinic Inc. and American Renal Management to the campaign committees formed to defeat Propositions 8 and 23. This includes some non-monetary contributions.

Lobbying: We created a spreadsheet of expenses reported on lobbying disclosure forms, also available on the secretary of state’s website, by DaVita, Fresenius, U.S. Renal Care, Satellite Healthcare and the California Dialysis Council. We found details about how much the industry paid lobbying firms, what agencies it lobbied and which bills it tracked.

Political contributions: DaVita, Fresenius, U.S. Renal Care and the California Dialysis Council made direct contributions to more than 100 candidates, which we compiled from the secretary of state’s website. DaVita and Fresenius made other contributions, often large, to Democratic and Republican committees, and ballot measure committees led by lawmakers. The two companies also made contributions known as “independent expenditures” that benefited candidates’ campaigns and “behested payments,” which are donations to nonprofit organizations and charities in lawmakers’ names. Behested payments are disclosed on the California Fair Political Practices Commission website.

The SEIU-United Health Care West union uses two political committees for its giving. Its PAC contributes mostly to lawmakers and county and state Democratic parties while its Issues Committee gives to local hospital ballot measures. We did not tally spending for local hospital ballot measures for this story, but we did include contributions made by the Issues Committee to the California Democratic Party, which helps state lawmakers.

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Dialysis Industry Spends Millions, Emerges as Power Player in California Politics published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[workingontruth]

Our 2 Kings 7 Kind of Life

Don’t you love it when God shows up?

Have you ever missed it when God showed up?

What about now?

Today, opinions are a dime a dozen. Talk to a dozen people, and you’ll get a dozen different angles on any of a dozen subjects. But in spite of our differences of opinion on any of a wide range of topics, I think we all agree on one thing these days; had I interrupted your Christmas celebration this past December (whether or not I were wearing camel’s hair and in need of a good flossing to extract locust legs from between my teeth), telling you the following list of things would all come true in less than 90 days, you would have labeled me a complete crazy man and would’ve told me to go back beneath the rock from which I had come.

“In less than 90 days,…”

1.       You, over there in the Free Enterprise motor coach pullover (that would’ve been me) … you will be returning to the University of Indianapolis with the Men’s Lacrosse team from South Carolina before playing the final game of your trip–but oddly enough, both teams will be fully healthy, the weather will be ideal, and the trip will have been coasting along without a hitch. Oh, and the university’s administration will also require the other eight remaining U Indy teams, participating in their various collegiate sporting events from Florida to California and everywhere in between, to immediately return to campus as well. And, once you return, your entire fleet of buses will be emptied of fuel, removed from insurance plans, and put out of service–though all machines are mechanically sound and all drivers are healthy and available to drive.

2.       And you, in the red Community Hospital valet shirt (that would’ve be my wife) … you will be in your new role in the front office of the Center for Genetic Health. But having been asked not to congregate with your co-workers in the perfectly suited and newly designed office space the hospital had just finished, you and all of your co-workers will be working from home to reschedule all patient appointments sixty days or more into the future–unless they are willing to conduct their appointment over the phone or via video-chat.

3.       The NBA post-season will never happen, and the balance of the season itself will be stopped cold in its tracks at half-time of a game in the Mountain Time Zone on Wednesday, March 11th.

4.       All NCAA spring athletic events will be cancelled for the remainder of the school year and March Madness won’t happen.

5.       There will be no date set to begin the MLB season.

6.       Grocery stores will have been unable to keep chicken, ground beef, bread and toilet paper on their shelves.

7.       Gasoline will, in some places, be under a dollar a gallon, but few will be filling up.

8.       The nation’s restaurants will be closed for all dine-in experiences while the fortunate will try to stay in business by doing carry-out or drive-through business only.

9.       All shopping malls, strip malls, barber shops and hair and nail salons will be closed.

10.   The Federal Government will be sending $1,200 tax-free cash gifts to the vast majority of American citizens.

11.   The world will have a drastic shortage of personal protective equipment.

12.   The Down Jones Industrial Average will suffer 3 of its worst days since the “Black Monday” market crash in 1987 in the span of less than a week, losing roughly one-third of its value in a matter of about eight days.

13.   State governors will be requesting their citizens “shelter in place” by remaining home but for essential trips for food or health-related emergencies, while in some states it will be a finable offense to travel anywhere but to secure such.

14.   The President and VP of the United States will be holding daily, 2-hour press briefings for weeks on end.

15.   Frequent air travel will be little but a memory, international travel banned, airfares costing less than a good meal out (which will no longer be happening).

16.   The President will sign a presidential memorandum that will require the likes of General Motors to begin manufacturing respiratory ventilators.

17.   Dozens of privately held companies like Michael Lindell’s “My Pillow,” will be transformed into N-95 facemask factories.

18.   Samaritan’s Purse will have set up and be running a fully-functioning hospital in the middle of New York City’s Central Park.

19.   The United States Naval Hospital Ship “Comfort” will have been deployed to New York to help in the cause.

20.   Most people will be wearing PPE masks everywhere they go.

21.   All public concerts world-wide will be on hold.

22.   Churches will be asked not to meet, and nearly all will comply without resistance.

23.   Employees representing nearly every U.S. industry will be furloughed, let go or kept on payrolls with forgivable loans from the Fed.

24.   People will be asked to stand in lines outside Lowe’s stores at six-foot intervals to ensure active shopper customer quotas are kept while both one-way entries and exits are monitored.

25.   Many stores will be required to close down public access to much of their merchandise not deemed “essential,” to help support the cause.

26.   Pork, chicken and other meat packing plants in the U.S. will be closing down.

27.   U.S. unemployment will be at the highest rate since the Great Depression as new weekly filing claims will be counted not in the hundreds of thousands, but in the millions.

28.   The nation’s, and most of the world’s movie theaters, will be closed.

29.   People without facemasks will be shunned and avoided by “mask-wearers.”

30.   Neighbors will be sitting in their driveways and on FRONT porches again.

31.   College students will be home with their families, taking part in online classwork since all university campuses will be closed prior to semesters’ end.

32.   In lieu of our celebrating athletes and Hollywood types, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers will be the new heroes.

33.   People in some industries will be earning more to stay at home than while working full time.

34.   The Fed will be paying the unemployed an additional $600/week over and above the state provisions.

35.   All elective surgeries will be halted while hospital ORs remain unused.

36.   Online church “attendance” will skyrocket, leading to thousands and thousands of new believers.

37.   American celebrity musicians will be holding online “Global Citizen” concerts to raise millions of dollars to give to the World Health Organization which is being held liable for its part in enabling the death of hundreds of thousands in nearly 200 countries world-wide.

Would any of these things been plausible just a few months ago?

Obviously, this is only a partial list, and one to which most of us could quickly add another dozen. And NOTE they’re not all bad! Isn’t it just like God to orchestrate blessing in the face of difficulty? 

But in my mind, these “90-days-ago incomprehensible occurrences” are not unlike the similarly baffling predictions that Elisha, in 2 Kings Chapter 7, was revealing to the king and his officer.

Here’s the short version:  

Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah [probably about 7 lbs] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” 

The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

The officer was utterly confounded. “Really? How could this be?” And to be sure, there is no way, given their circumstance at the time, they could have concocted such an unlikely series of events.

(Read verses 3-13 to learn how this mystifying prophecy actually took place.)

But then, the verdict is recorded in the later verses...

“So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.”

Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” ...but your officer will not eat any of it.

What’s my point?

God often does things in ways no man would ever script. What we deem impossible is a drop in the bucket of God’s immeasurable and endless power and insight. After all, He knows the future!  

But here’s what WE do.

If told of how the above-mentioned improbables would come true by late-March, we would have responded, “Oh I see. What a tragic series of events. But I understand now how that will happen. It all makes sense.”

And because it “makes sense” in hindsight, we disregard the overriding variable of the supernatural God into the equation and chalk up the now-plausible circumstance as nothing more than the “natural” occurrence of things.  

No matter how crazy things get, when viewing world events on merely the natural plane, most won’t need a God to “see it.” It will all make logical, cause-and-effect sense.

In the same way, I believe much of what will lead up to Revelation 12 and is told us in Daniel 11:31 and following, will likewise “make good sense” to the mind of mankind at the time. Going so far as to think of the Anti-Christ to come, we have to assume he will not come into power forcefully, but peaceably, with the full support of a global community…one that is now forming rapidly. Yes, it will all “make perfect sense,” for the answers and charismatic leadership of the one we know is to come will help to solve what will have become the world’s most pressing and previously unsolvable complexities. And the world community will give him his prominent role. 

Still, for those in Christ, let me be clear that these can be days of amazing intrigue and anticipation, not fear and worry. 

But, you see, my point is that this is how God usually chooses to bring about his plans, through a course of events that will be laced in the common sense of man … so much so that even the elect would be deceived were it possible (Matthew 24:24).

BUT, He gives light to the eyes of his children. Our great and unshakeable God has let us in on his plans. We are his friends if we do what He commands (John 15:14). And as friends of the Son of God, the Son has made known us to his agenda (John 15:15).

Now, my intention is not to insinuate we are absolutely on the cusp of the rapture of the Church, or teetering at the edge of the Tribulation–though I’m also not saying that we couldn’t be, for the Father alone only knows the day of Jesus’ return for his children (Matthew 24:30-42).

What I am saying is that if we can learn anything from history, and from an acquaintance with the scriptures, we can assume that the initial events predicted in the Bible will likely “make sense” in the moment to the mind of unregenerate man.

So, one last question. 

Given our current sermon series at my home church, Northview Church, I am wondering if you are listening, watching and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit living inside you? It’s something about which I wrote in great length as well in SET FREE. 

Do you know the mind of Christ? Do you have the mind of Christ? 

If not, it’s time to change that. If not, you may be missing that God himself is showing up right now on planet Earth.

Place your trust in Jesus Christ. He is ready to open your eyes.

Maybe it’s time you learn more about the God who is doing something incredible right now in the midst of this unprecedented time. Maybe it’s time you gain in you the Resource that dispells anxiety and replaces it with a calm assurance the world will never understand. 

You can learn more about having a relationship with Jesus here. Or, reach out to a pastor at Northview Church by texting “NEXT” to 85379 and selecting Option 2.

God is showing up right now. Don’t miss him in the details.

Keep watching.

[ibilenews]

Why this remote town in Lebanon has become a coronavirus hot spot

Beirut, Lebanon - When Nicolas Tawk saw cases of coronavirus multiplying in Beirut last month, he left the city for his native Bsharre, some two hours' drive away.

The town of about 5,500 residents is nestled on the edge of a deep chasm in the rugged green mountains of north Lebanon, 1,500 metres above sea level. Bsharre is famed for its ancient cedar forest, of which only a sliver remains due to deforestation, and its picturesque red-roofed houses that become covered with snow in the winter months.

It was a perfect getaway for the freelance photographer. "My mind is at ease up there - alone with the camera and nature," Tawk said. "I see no one and no one sees me."

But over the past two weeks, almost 10 percent of Lebanon's total coronavirus cases have been recorded there - some 60 out of 663. Roughly 1 percent of the town's inhabitants have been infected. A two-week total lockdown came into effect on April 10 and soldiers now patrol the streets.

"We were surprised by the scale," Bsharre Mayor Freddy Keyrouz said.

He said authorities were unable to trace the source of the town's outbreak, though he suspected that some of those who came to the town from urban areas as the country went into lockdown in mid-March may have brought it with them.

Dr Antoine Geagea, the CEO of Bsharreh Government Hospital, said that close ties between residents and family members - many of whom live by the dozen in the same building - facilitated the virus's rapid spread.

In an attempt to identify and contain the outbreak in the town, the hospital implemented widespread testing for the virus among residents, and has carried out some 600 tests.

"We have implemented the German protocol - massive testing, random testing, following every case. With this system, we are not in danger," Geagea said.

He said the policy of widespread testing in Bsharreh could serve as a lesson for the rest of Lebanon, where testing rates are relatively lower. Some 18,115 tests have been carried out across the population of more than six million, according to the information ministry.

"If you did the amount of testing we are doing across Lebanon, you would find the real numbers are certainly higher," Geagea said.

Hidden numbers

Lebanon recorded its first case of coronavirus on February 21 and numbers steadily increased until a national lockdown was announced on March 15, supplemented by an overnight curfew 11 days later. Of the 663 cases recorded so far, there have been 21 deaths and 85 recoveries according to the information ministry.

But experts say the official numbers do not reveal the real scale of the outbreak. Only about 500 tests have been carried out each day, amounting to roughly 2,500 tests per million people.

Those nations that have won international plaudits for their response to containing the global pandemic, such as Germany and South Korea, have tested at a rate of about 10,000 tests per million and 20,000 tests per million respectively.

But limited resources in Lebanon have made that difficult. The country's healthcare system was already struggling under the weight of years of austerity, coupled with the worst dual economic and financial crisis in the country's history that came to a head late last year.

Moreover, the government owes years of dues totalling hundreds of millions of dollars to many private hospitals, which have, in turn, cut services and failed to pay staff. Sleiman Haroun, the head of the syndicate of private hospital owners, said earlier this week that 15 hospitals would soon close if the state failed to pay them. The cabinet on Thursday allocated the equivalent of some $150m to pay private hospitals money owed, although the hospitals claimed last year they were owed more than one billion dollars.

In an attempt to increase its financial capabilities, the government has sought the help of the World Bank, the United Nations, and individual countries, including China. But the nationwide lockdown is seen as the government's only real way of preventing even a relatively small surge in cases that could quickly overwhelm hospitals.

Bsharre's outsized standing

The large-scale testing in Bsharre is an exception, made possible by the small town's outsized standing in Lebanon and abroad.

It is a stronghold of the Lebanese Forces party, a large Christian group whose leader, Samir Geagea, along with his wife Sethrida Geagea, are both natives.

Lebanon's establishment parties - each of which claims to represent one of the country's religious communities - have traditionally secured support by providing services that are usually the prerogative of the state. This crisis is no different.

According to Dr Geagea, area MPs and former LF-affiliated ministers, including former Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani, have made donations of money and equipment to Bsharre Government Hospital.

He said that donations have also poured in from Australia, where the Lebanese Forces has many loyal supporters, part of a large Lebanese diaspora community that spans the world.

These resources have enabled Bsharre to test more than 10 percent of the town's population. Geagea said they discovered that 25 percent of those infected showed no symptoms.

"Its a very big number. These are the people who spread it without knowing." Those cases, he said, showed precisely why large-scale testing is vital to controlling the pandemic in Lebanon. "If this is a race, we are trying to run in front of the virus and catch it."

[long-dramatic-sigh]

You honestly think minimum wage isn’t the issue? Oh, hon.

Every time they raise the minimum wage, it’s just a cover to make us distracted while they raise the prices of everything else.

I work in a grocery store. Last week alone I watched the tissues go from being about 6.99 to 14.99, and you don’t think they do that on purpose? That’s just one example. Produce is ridiculously expensive. I’ve seen milk go for over 10.99.

You think we don’t struggle? I’ve been dealing with mental health issues and severe depression literally my whole life. I can barely afford my medication. My dad left us and my siblings and I all had to leave our own lives to pay for the mortgage and food and electricity that shouldn’t have been our responsibility. By the way, I was 15. Not 18, FIFTEEN. My oldest brother wasn’t even living in the house and yet he was paying. I got kicked out because my mom couldn’t afford to keep me with her. My brothers had to go work in the wood mills because they couldn’t afford their one bedroom basement rentals with a 9-5 job, working overtime and weekends.

9-5 job. With overtime. And weekends. My one brother was promised a raise for over a year before he finally ran out of savings and had to leave. He never got his raise. Instead, he got to work harder, with more responsibilities, and no money to compensate for it. And, on top of it, he had a job shoveling snow in the dead of night. So, no sleep, no healthcare, no money for anything but rent and gas and cheap ramen, and he still couldn’t afford to live. So fuck you for saying we don’t struggle.

I said I work in a grocery store. I get two shifts a week with my availability wide open. You know why they don’t give us more? When you reach 1000 hours of work, you get a pay increase. I’ve been there about 9 months and I’m still only in the 400-600 range. They do it on purpose. If they can avoid paying us more, they will. We don’t get discounts. We don’t get coupons. We’re lucky if we get 200$ a pay check and that’s not an exaggeration. I’ve had pay checks less than that, even. So 200, that’s 400$ a month. Saving 100$ every two weeks and having only 100 for the other two weeks? Almost impossible. I haven’t had a haircut in over a year because I can’t afford it. I can’t afford to buy myself food because even just a burger and drink is roughly 10$ now. One day, one meal, and you’re already down to 90. 13 days to go. Sure, it’s not impossible to save, but sue me, I like treating myself with slurpees when it’s hot out. I like coffee. And damnit, if I want a haircut? That’s about 50-60$ gone in one day, just because I’m a woman and not a man (who’s haircut costs maybe 20$). Still, 13 days left and now you’re down to your last two 20’s. Good luck making it through 2 weeks with 40$. And medication? Oh, that’s 60$. Now your savings are gone too.

Fifteen years ago is a lifetime in the span of the economy. The cost of living has only increased. They are fooling you into believing the lie that minimum wage keeps up with the cost of everything around us. A dollar more for a wage does not equate with the 4.00 that gets added to everything else.

Also, one more thing? In my entire career of working at this grocery store, I have never once seen a millennial lie to get something for free. It’s always the older generation who think they deserve something for free just because you looked at the old flyer and now the sale is gone.

Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’re wiser. Just because you’re richer doesn’t mean I am too. And just because you think we’re entitled doesn’t mean we’re not grinding our asses to the fucking stone just to scrape by with our legs dangling over the edge.

Phone-friendly movie theaters for millennials are coming

AMC Entertainment’s new CEO Adam Aron wants to appeal to more to millennials by letting them use their phones in theaters.

“When you tell a 22-year-old to turn off the phone, don’t ruin the movie, they hear ‘please cut off your left arm above the elbow,’” Aron tells Variety. “You can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cellphone. That’s not how they live their life.” Aron believes that AMC needs “to reshape our product in some concrete ways so that millennials go to movie theaters with the same degree of intensity as baby boomers went to movie theaters throughout their lives.”

The CEO is aware that his company is “going to have to figure out a way to do it that doesn’t disturb today’s audiences.” When asked whether there might be certain sections that allow texting, Aron replies “That’s one possibility. What may be more likely is we take specific auditoriums and make them more texting-friendly.”