... let's see what's in it shall we?






Thomas Massie got all that **** for objecting to voting on the final coronavirus stimulus package by simple voice vote and requiring members of Congress to come back to DC and vote on it. I knew the final bill was distributed so late that nobody could have possibly read it. Sure enough there's a bunch of turds in the punch bowl:

- If as a private business you take a stimulus loan, you are required by law to "remain neutral in any union organizing effort for the term of the loan."
- $200m for the National Endowment for the Arts (Pelosi wanted $1.1b) ... more than 80% of those grants go to "well heeled" artist groups with over $1m in assets.
- More than doubling the budget of the Institute of Museum and Library Services ... an agency that is tiny and doesn't even have an inspector general.
- $75m in free money to NPR (bet you'll still be hearing donor drives)
- $8m in free money to the Smithsonian Institute ... hey at least that one is genuinely educational ... but those ***** have a channel on basic cable is that really necessary?

Stuff that Pelosi wanted that didn't make it to the final bill that was part of the source of the bickering behind closed doors over it for days:

- $25b in free money to the USPS
- $1.2b in mandated purchases of "renewable" JP-5 jet fuel to private aviation companies getting bailed out ... as though fuckin unicorns took over down at the crude oil refinery
- Collective bargaining rights for federal employees (a bridge even F.D.R. wouldn't cross)
- Per a quick Search using my browser, the original Pelosi bill text had the word "diversity" no less than 32 times in it and "inclusion" 14 times.
- --- It also had outright language regarding corporate board rooms and "diversity".
- --- It tried to require all federal agencies to use minority banks (isn't this racist and/or outright illegal?)


This is all just from me skimming in about 10-15m. If you want to delve into the full horrors yourself, the PATRIOT Act “Take Responsibility For Workers and Family’s Act” is HR 6379, and that is Pelosi's bill in the House. The ultimate final passed act is the other PATRIOT Act attempt CARES Act – Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, HR 748. Pelosi's bill is almost 1,500 pages and was dropped on the US House within hours of the vote on it. The final passed bill is almost 900 pages and was given to Congress minutes before the vote.



Anytime you see huge bipartisan popular spending, even if $1,200 is coming for you, grab your wallet and hold it tight.

As somebody who runs a private business, the most flagrant in here to me was "If as a private business you take a stimulus loan, you are rquired by law to "remain neutral in any union organizing effort for the term of the loan". The government ***** on small business owners every turn of the way. Enjoy seeing the full freight no-employer help cost of your healthcare. And after the ACA we're going to make it 3-5 times more expensive for shittier coverage for you. And we're going to put you on the hook for unemployment benefits should you fire anybody, because nobody ever hires bad employees right? And we expect your taxes up front in four quarterly installments. Oh — we shut down the entire economy and you'd like a loan from us now? Let's talk about how you need to dance for us on that too....

A few more I found while killing time:

- $900m for low income heating assistance .... in April.
- $12b in housing and public housing
- $37m for the Forestry Service

I suppose the logic here is that the coronavirus will jump hosts to houses soon and kill houses. We'll enlist the forestry service to cull massive amounts of new timber for new public housing. Problem solved!

just to summarize the past few weeks of stink's posts...

#sigline4

#unnecessary

#sheeple

(03-30-2020 01:00 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  As somebody who runs a private business, the most flagrant in here to me was "If as a private business you take a stimulus loan, you are rquired by law to "remain neutral in any union organizing effort for the term of the loan". The government ***** on small business owners every turn of the way. Enjoy seeing the full freight no-employer help cost of your healthcare. And after the ACA we're going to make it 3-5 times more expensive for shittier coverage for you. And we're going to put you on the hook for unemployment benefits should you fire anybody, because nobody ever hires bad employees right? And we expect your taxes up front in four quarterly installments. Oh — we shut down the entire economy and you'd like a loan from us now? Let's talk about how you need to dance for us on that too....

That's a complete Bull$#!t requirement. I imagine the intent from the right was welfare for lawyers to handle all the inevitable lawsuits from this garbage.

The debt is just an arbitrary number at this point, and sweating is honestly pretty cringeworthy. Nothing is ever going to change, and you're just screaming into a void.

Oh, Pelosi just enriched her friends again? She sure did, and you aren't going to do anything about it.

Even if you were right to be concerned, which country/economic bloc that we could wipe off the face of the earth 50 times over is the world going to switch to as the new reserve currency? Assuming that they aren't in even more "debt" than we are.

(03-31-2020 01:49 PM)Kronke Wrote:  The debt is just an arbitrary number at this point, and sweating is honestly pretty cringeworthy. Nothing is ever going to change, and you're just screaming into a void.

Oh, Pelosi just enriched her friends again? She sure did, and you aren't going to do anything about it.

Even if you were right to be concerned, which country/economic bloc that we could wipe off the face of the earth 50 times over is the world going to switch to as the new reserve currency? Assuming that they aren't in even more "debt" than we are.

If we lose the 'reserve currency' designation, what will happen here after that will make what we're enduring right now look like child's play.

(03-31-2020 02:01 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 01:49 PM)Kronke Wrote:  The debt is just an arbitrary number at this point, and sweating is honestly pretty cringeworthy. Nothing is ever going to change, and you're just screaming into a void.

Oh, Pelosi just enriched her friends again? She sure did, and you aren't going to do anything about it.

Even if you were right to be concerned, which country/economic bloc that we could wipe off the face of the earth 50 times over is the world going to switch to as the new reserve currency? Assuming that they aren't in even more "debt" than we are.

If we lose the 'reserve currency' designation, what will happen here after that will make what we're enduring right now look like child's play.

This.

There are no good alternatives on the global market right now. That's a function of a few things:
- Petrodollars are too volatile to ever be used again in our lifetimes thanks to the fracking based explosion in supply and deliberate dumping by the Saudis and Russians.
- There are no commodity backed currencies in the world right now that are easily traded. The last one was the Swiss Franc which use to be redeemable for silver on deposit but as the US got printing press happy over the last 20 years they couldn't handle the foreign demand to buy their currency and broke the link ... they literally couldn't buy enough silver to cope with global demand.
- Gold can be panic volatile but more seriously it is unreliable as a domestic store of wealth since FDR confiscated it illegally and got away with it.
- The biggest rival currencies in the world are even more structurally flawed and run by even bigger cheats: Russia, China. Cryptocurrency is too volatile, too subject to swings in political opinion, and too difficult to use for the average person.

Having said that .... we are certainly motivating the rest of the world to get its act together.

(03-31-2020 01:49 PM)Kronke Wrote:  The debt is just an arbitrary number at this point, and sweating is honestly pretty cringeworthy.

That is the most Dick Cheney-esk thing I've ever read on this board.

(03-31-2020 04:10 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 01:49 PM)Kronke Wrote:  The debt is just an arbitrary number at this point, and sweating is honestly pretty cringeworthy.

That is the most Dick Cheney-esk thing I've ever read on this board.

It’s true.

(03-31-2020 04:11 PM)Kronke Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 04:10 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 01:49 PM)Kronke Wrote:  The debt is just an arbitrary number at this point, and sweating is honestly pretty cringeworthy.

That is the most Dick Cheney-esk thing I've ever read on this board.

It’s true.

The debt always matters. The world's reserve currency belonging to a debtor nation is the EXCEPTION in world history, NOT the norm. Anytime somebody tells you we can have free money without consequence you're being fed a comfortable lie by somebody dreadfully ignorant of economics and world history or someone equally dreadfully short-sighted. And when I say dreafully short-sighted imagine a CEO that mandates longer unpaid hours to fully stock warehouses in Q1 and Q2, lays off huge numbers of the workforce in Q3, then coasts on warehouse inventory through Q4 to show an enormous profit and use that as a springboard to get a golden parachute CEO job. If you're the one in on the graft, sure, I bet "free money" works great for you all the time. For the people out there not looking to live off the theft of others, it's the exact opposite of what you want.

It was originally meant to be a clean bill. The Democrats were the ones who had to put all the non-essential pork in it.

Let's phrase this differently to bring in similar economic distortions:

If a $15/hr minimum wage is a great idea that will lead to higher standards of living, well why don't we just go for a $50/hr minimum wage and end all poverty nationally?

If the debt doesn't matter and $2.2T is no big deal, well why don't we just give every single American $100,000 and have most explosive economy in world history?

(03-31-2020 04:21 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  If the debt doesn't matter and $2.2T is no big deal, well why don't we just give every single American $100,000 and have most explosive economy in world history?

Between social security, medicare, medicaid, and other entitlements, we basically already do. $1,000/month UBI will eventually be added to that, as well, once AI takes over.

We've heard these arguments for the last 30 years, and nothing ever happens. The "debt" will probably be $100 trillion by 2100.

We remain the reserve currency because of our superior military strength and because in the past assets here were never in danger of being seized by the government.

(03-31-2020 04:42 PM)Claw Wrote:  We remain the reserve currency because of our superior military strength and because in the past assets here were never in danger of being seized by the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act

(03-31-2020 04:46 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 04:42 PM)Claw Wrote:  We remain the reserve currency because of our superior military strength and because in the past assets here were never in danger of being seized by the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act

Technically purchased, not seized.

(03-31-2020 08:52 PM)banker Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 04:46 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(03-31-2020 04:42 PM)Claw Wrote:  We remain the reserve currency because of our superior military strength and because in the past assets here were never in danger of being seized by the government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Reserve_Act

Technically purchased, not seized.

If you think pennies on the dollar makes it a purchase, sure.

Oh, I know. I argue (and easily win) a simple statement of fact, gas today is substantially cheaper now than it was in the 1920s. In the 1920s gas ranged from $0.21 to $0.30 per gallon, but it was purchased with 2-3 90% silver dimes or a 90% silver quarter. The amount of silver in either scenario is over $3.00 today.

I like my money to have actual value. I have some pre-1933 gold coins and a bunch (hundreds) of pre-1965 silver coins. I haven't even spent a copper penny (pre-1982) in years since they have $0.02 worth of copper in them. Someday they will allow you sell them for scrap value, I have hundreds of pounds of them.

Trump is a failure - I simply cannot believe that did not squeeze wall funding into that bill...........

FAILURE!