@jon-nyc said in Kasich on the $1.9T relief bill:

I would have loved to have seen something much more targeted.

Like federal employees?

While millions of parents struggle to work from home with kids who are enrolled in shuttered or partially shuttered schools, and millions more left the workforce or lost jobs to care for their at-home children, evidently parents in the federal bureaucracy need their own, personal Covid-19 bailout.

Buried on page 305 of the House bill released late last Friday night (included after the bailout details for states and localities), is a new Treasury Department fund called the “Emergency Federal Employee Leave Fund.”

$570 million in the new fund is available through September 30. Federal employees caring for others due to Covid-19 are eligible for paid leave. Among those eligible are those who are “unable to work” because they are caring for school-aged children not physically in school full time “due to Covid-19 precautions[.]”

The new Fund allows a federal employee “caring for a son or daughter” to qualify for the paid leave, specifically:

“if the school or place of care of the son or daughter has been closed, if the school of such son or daughter requires or makes optional a virtual learning instruction model or requires or makes optional a hybrid of in-person and virtual learning instruction models, or the child care provider of such son or daughter is unavailable, due to Covid-19 precautions;”

Under the bill as currently drafted, full-time federal employees can take up to 600 hours in paid leave until September 30, up to $35 an hour and $1,400 a week. That’s 15 weeks for a 40-hour employee. Part-time and “seasonal” employees are eligible, too, with equivalent hours established by their agency.

Gummint gotta care for its own, I guess.

@axtremus said in Murderous Dognapping:

“Two days after thieves shot the singer's dogwalker and abducted Lady Gaga's beloved dogs Koji and Gustav, the animals were recovered unharmed Friday, Los Angeles police confirmed to the Associated Press.”

Oh, good. Just as good: the dog walker is expected to make a full recovery. Happy happy joy joy all around.

Amazon Prime has it.

Isn’t she wonderful?

@taiwan_girl said in So much for “Coattails without a coat”:

@horace said in So much for “Coattails without a coat”:

@taiwan_girl said in So much for “Coattails without a coat”:

I guess I was more surprised at how much split there was a while ago.

I think today, most people are going to say, "I am going to vote for a (Republic/Democrat) all the way. Does not matter who is on the ballot!"

Are they wrong to think that way? Or are they just coming to terms with the huge differences in the platforms?

I think that it shows generally that people will vote for a party name rather than what the person says.

Depends on the voter - if they think party is more important than what the person stands for.

When the party platforms diverge to a certain extent, it makes total sense to vote party lines in national elections. Local elections can definitely get more granular. This is an idea I've been attempting to teach TNCR for a very long time.

@taiwan_girl said in US military strike on Iran-backed militias in Syria (2021 Feb.):

General question - I assume that the president of the US can do this "on his own", or does he have to have some sort of approval from Congress?

In what cases, does he or doesn't he need approval?

That’s the question.

@jolly "Never let a crisis...."

Ewwww

@aqua-letifer said in Not your mom's Lipton.:

@brenda said in Not your mom's Lipton.:

@aqua-letifer said in Not your mom's Lipton.:

@jon-nyc said in Not your mom's Lipton.:

Did you get the green tea starter kit when you ordered your manbun?

Yeah, it came with a fair-trade coffee mug and a coupon code for 10% off fucking your sister.

Aqua, I'm sure it was just a simple typing error, but the two words before sister are in the wrong order.

I suppose that's true!

Just yanking your manbun a bit. However, it is true I read your every word. Cross my heart. 😇

3/4 13:00

@aqua-letifer said in Office Pranks:

All excellent.

I could see you doing so many of them ("I lick all my pens...").

Headlines from 1918:

alt text

@mik said in Quarrel in the annals of music theory:

Being able to hear and appreciate that music is a very new development.

One of the points that Greenberg makes in his music courses is that, until the early 20th century, the ONLY ways that one could hear music was to either attend a performance, or make it yourself.

@aqua-letifer said in Today's Tim Question:

I suppose that if I ever wrote my TNCR memoirs, "The Life Aquatic" would be a pretty good title.

Perfection.

@copper said in I need a scorecard...:

Remember that thread about mental disease?

It would be ok with me if the state protected the child from it.

Could you imagine?

Brain-damaged beyond repair...

@jolly said in $70,000:

Hadn't read this one...

https://thebl.com/us-news/cnn-and-nbc-paid-70000-to-antifa-extremist-who-shot-video-of-capitol-riots.html

LD beat you by a few days.

@catseye3 said in Liberalism is a mental disease after all !?:

@horace said in Liberalism is a mental disease after all !?:

Wow. And I thought I could be condescending towards the political opposition.

Obviously my approach was wrong. My greater point is that one mindset cannot validly draw sweeping conclusions about an entire other mindset and hope to reach any useful truths. I laid my post out to demonstrate how fucking foolish it is to even try.

Actually one thing we do have some scientific data on is that people who self-identify as liberal tend to have conceptions of the political opposition more divorced from reality than do conservatives regarding their opposition. The people who's understanding of the opposition is most divorced from reality, are in fact high status liberals. We've discussed that study here before.

@rainman said in Hey, Aqua.:

Aqua:
"And because my thing is so weird, I need someone who's willing to explain this shit to me."

Well, without boasting, that would be me.

But, I'm willing to let others chime in first, that's just the type of guy I am.

I've had iritis, so I am an expert too. I always have those eye drops at hand, even if on vacation. My entire life is just one blissful vacation. Life is grand, just a wonderful dream, one after another, living the dream when somewhere near cognizant. Eye drops are fine, as long as I have only two eyes.

Seriously, seems you're getting some good advice and answers, sorry you had to go through so much crap to just get an honest and realistic assessment for what's going on.

Just be aware of closed-angle glaucoma.