Board 8 > Politics Containment Topic 365: Get those Checks in our Balances

(+) Yeah! (+)

Conservatives really have no idea how to attack Joe Biden.

https://twitter.com/abughazalehkat/status/1361846831374884865?s=19

Yes, a 44 year marriage with public displays of affection are shams but 14 year third marriages with where they barely hold hands are the paragons of love.

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masterplum posted...

because honestly, who among us if we were multi-millionaires wouldn't fly to cancun when a giant blizzard was coming?

probably me

But then maybe that's because I live in the Northeast so snow isn't anything that unusual to me (and consequently the infrastructure is better suited to deal with it) even if I swear the severity of snow has tanked here over the last decade-plus. Like this may be the first year in ages where "omg snowstorm" didn't translate into not even sticking to the ground. Felt like 6+ inch events were fairly common in the earlier half of my life and now like 3 inches has me going "Huh, at least the local weather hype machine didn't totally whiff this time"

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masterplum posted...

The funny thing is flying to cancun is really a proxy complaint against the badly managed power grid, because honestly, who among us if we were multi-millionaires wouldn't fly to cancun when a giant blizzard was coming? It seems kind of obvious. Snow birds are a thing.

So that action would be a complete nothing story if nothing bad happened.

Weird take since actions exist in context

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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Weird take since actions exist in context

Not really. My guess is he planned the trip well before the state completely lost power

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Normally I'd assume this wouldn't matter but I think this is the rare kind of action that can haunt a politician. Shades of that Christie photo on the beach, though Cruz was "caught" before that damning a picture emerged.

I mean, ideally terrible policy and rhetoric would stick to politicians but =/

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xp1337 posted...

Normally I'd assume this wouldn't matter but I think this is the rare kind of action that can haunt a politician. Shades of that Christie photo on the beach, though Cruz was "caught" before that damning a picture emerged.

I mean, ideally terrible policy and rhetoric would stick to politicians but =/

Oh for sure. Im sure millions of dollars of campaign ads against him will bring it up. I just think its funny that unlike the Christie beach where an event happened, and then he did something obviously stupid, this is backwards where Cruz did something that although classist, is no different from 90% of politicians and then an event happened which makes his action look horrific.

So really it is voters being tricked into voting for policy decisions by proxy

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masterplum posted...

Not really. My guess is he planned the trip well before the state completely lost power

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt before that you were simply pointing out that this only blew up because of how catastrophic Texas's power grid problems were and that no one would care if it was just a snowstorm that didn't cause any really major disruptions but this is just a really bad take IMO.

Even if Cruz planned this trip well in advance - when your job is literally to represent the interests and concerns of your constituents... you cancel that trip when it turns out people across your state are losing power and having their pipes burst. Like the one thing you can not do in this situation is go on vacation. You especially don't go on vacation to a place known for its warm weather.

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I mean, I dont know the timeline of events and I dont really care

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Also uhhh we are still in a global pandemic. The trip was just a bad idea all around.

And he just essentially blamed his daughters. So yeah, not a good look.

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masterplum posted...

I mean, I dont know the timeline of events and I dont really care

He didn't actually leave until last night.

That's why it looks so bad.

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Sorozone posted...

And he just essentially blamed his daughters. So yeah, not a good look.

Well this is the guy who licks the boots of the guy who insulted his wife.

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I like how he's like, "Yes, I flew to Cancun with my family, but I was always going to return immediately, I swear!" Yeah, right.

How often do people fly WITH their family to a destination and then fly right back? Like maybe if there was like little kids going by themselves you might travel with them, but their mother was there!

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Willingly subjecting yourself to multiple hours of recycled air during a pandemic for no reason isn't that much better of a look, really.

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didn't it turn out that the recycled air from airplanes wasn't as much of a transmission hotspot as people thought it would be simply due the the way the air is circulated and filtered?

Which is to say that unnecessary travel is still F***ing stupid. You still have to go through airports which can be crowded, and it creates more lines of connections between different people in different places who would otherwise be insulated from each other. So absolutely do not travel if it isn't actually vital.

But I think the actual airplane air itself was safer from a COVID perspective than people assumed it would be.

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Grand Kirby posted...

I like how he's like, "Yes, I flew to Cancun with my family, but I was always going to return immediately, I swear!" Yeah, right.

How often do people fly WITH their family to a destination and then fly right back? Like maybe if there was like little kids going by themselves you might travel with them, but their mother was there!

It's also public record that his original return date was Saturday and he bought a new ticket for today, so the excuse literally doesn't work.

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https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1362480754677153794?s=21

Corriks dream candidate failing to reach out
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I remember there being a study that tried to make it seem like air travel was perfectly safe because the recirculated air didn't transmit the virus or something, but it completely ignored every other factor that could spread infection, including the idea that being in a confined space seated nearby other people is generally not a good idea during a pandemic. Like, during the study they had mannequins simply sitting in their seats, facing forward and not moving about at all for the entire duration and were like, "Yup, that's human people do when they travel by air. They sit motionlessly for several hours straight. Plane travel is perfectly safe."

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At what point should we not have to pay taxes for these politicians who just refuse to actually help people and can't get anything done?

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https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/1362465690389798914?s=21

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I bet he really wishes that Saturday return date wasn't public.

I doubt he ever even acknowledges it, though.

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I also cant get over Im just trying to be a good dad taking my kids on vacation during a pandemic

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

At what point should we not have to pay taxes for these politicians who just refuse to actually help people and can't get anything done?

When you move to another country?

Their salary is a very tiny portion of the taxes you pay.

I can't be the only one who had to do a double take because Biden looked like a floating torso in this picture at first glance.

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1362536116197470210?s=09

GHOST IN THE WHITE HOUSE

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https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1362548720449908738

lmao

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Blaming his daughters for the idea was bad enough when it was possible they suggested it, it still would have been in incredibly poor taste. But now it seems like they had nothing to do with it at all. That's hilariously so much worse. What a piece of shit; he just randomly pinned it on his children for no good reason.

Also, I'm loving imagining someone in that group chat or whatever leaking the messages and what drama must be unfolding in there right now.

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https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-rejects-50000-student-loan-forgiveness-plan-faces/story?id=75954082&cid=social_twitter_abcn

Good to see Dems pushing Biden on this one.

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I wonder how possible it is well get the checks before this topic is over..

I am apparently getting a check from MD tomorrow.

yeahhhhh gas money

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PerfectChaosZ posted...

I wonder how possible it is well get the checks before this topic is over..

No chance we GET them by then

Hopefully theyre in the process of preparing to send them out by then
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I don't think final passage and signing is expected until the first week of March so I'm going to say "not likely"

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I've heard rumblings of a bill to fund the IRS and direct audits towards high earners and large companies. I'm fairly excited about the idea, stats show it's almost certain to bring in significantly more money than it costs, and it's not a tax increase so there will be much less public backlash.

Shame I have no faith that anything is going to get passed these days, let alone in a timely manner.

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Yeah we've neglected making sure big companies/people pay their fair share to the point that increasing funding to the IRS is still a net increase to funding available.

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xp1337 posted...

I don't think final passage and signing is expected until the first week of March so I'm going to say "not likely"

lol, I remember sharing a tweet saying sources didnt expect checks until March and someone made a point to say whoever I shared it from was anti-Democrat

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More good news re: Uber...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/19/uber-drivers-workers-uk-supreme-court-rules-rights

Looks like Uber drivers and similar being classed as workers is becoming a trend. Really goes to show how badly California messed up. Especially when you consider that unlike these other countries there it also affects healthcare. Just disgusting.

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I'm concerned Ubers misuse of freelance work is going to kill freelance work.

I made several thousand dollars over a few years doing user testing and I'm worried there would be an overreaction killing jobs that are obviously not full time jobs unlike working for Uber

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I really don't think Uber was intended to be a full time job either

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LordoftheMorons posted...

I really don't think Uber was intended to be a full time job either

Uber was just meant to be a scummy service that passes vehicle costs and maintenance off to the employee while pushing consumers away from taxis and other modes of transportation.

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1362595095489429505?s=20
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LordoftheMorons posted...

I really don't think Uber was intended to be a full time job either

Intended by whom?

I dont buy that the creators didnt realize a service that basically replaces taxis would have full time drivers.
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I thought the focal argument re: Uber was in the classification of employee vs independent contractor. A part-time employee is still an employee (this is what Uber fought against).

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Uber is just trying to buy time until self driving cars are viable imo. However, it is hard to argue strippers aren't employees also.

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MoogleKupo141 posted...

Intended by whom?

I dont buy that the creators didnt realize a service that basically replaces taxis would have full time drivers.

By Uber etc. And I don't mean they that they didn't think they'd have any full time drivers, but if you're a taxi driver you need to buy a medallion (which it wouldn't make any sense to do if you're only driving part time) whereas driving for Uber for like 10 hours a week to make some extra cash does make sense and I believe was how they originally pitched the job.

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

I thought the focal argument re: Uber was in the classification of employee vs independent contractor. A part-time employee is still an employee (this is what Uber fought against).

Yeah, you're right (though I think the full-timers are the ones more likely to want to be classified as employees and more of the part timers want to remain contractors)

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To my understanding the original pitch was "uber is an awesome side hustle you can use to make as little or as much as you want" so it's only natural that some would choose to do it full time.

It's up to Uber to establish different tiers of their drivers if they want to impose the type of restrictions that would classify them as non-employees.

"You are a brand new uber driver, as such you are only allowed to work via the app for 5 hours a week during peak hours"

And then after X weeks their status as an uber driver levels up which unlocks the ability to put in 10 or 15 hours instead.

And then after X more weeks their status as a driver levels up again which unlocks the apply to apply for an independent contract to perform full time work.

We live in an age of technology, they could have used that to their advantage to set clear limitations on the work being performed from the outset. But they did not and so they clearly have many people being treated as full time employees who are not receiving full time employee levels of benefits.

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There are plenty of people who do full time work as independent contractors too in other fields.

I do agree that working full time for a ridesharing company is probably not a great gig, but at the same time I both dont think theres anything wrong with their business model as it applies to people in the part-time scenario, and mandating employee status at X hours would make the obvious choice for Uber to cap hours below that, which also helps no one.

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LordoftheMorons posted...

mandating employee status at X hours would make the obvious choice for Uber to cap hours below that, which also helps no one.

It helps them conform to labor standards which is important too.


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Not that I disagree with the idea, but it would upend traditional labor law. Uber has no business telling an independent contractor how much they can work - if they put in restrictions on when/how much they can work, that looks a lot like an employer/employee relationship. You can't write a law that only targets 2 companies so it would be a major project to make this change without causing a lot of unintended consequences.

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That's because this isn't a position that is conducive to the rules of independent contractors.

Which is why their employees should be treated as employees.

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I am not sure if the Uber people aren't contractors idea really works tbqh. What exactly makes them employees.

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The only argument that would keep them contractors is if EVERY SINGLE ride and fare they accept is it's own micro-contract.

Which is ludicrous.

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