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[Lord Shonus]

A huge part of the trouble in the region is Saudi Arabia doing whatever the fuck Saudi Arabia wants to do. The US doesn't control them - the US has more influence over the behavior of Britain than they do SA.

[scriver]

I think you are vastly misrepresenting the Saudi-US power balance. Saudi-Arabia gets their military power through US support, sure. But if they were a puppet state the middle East would be a much, much better place. As it is now, they're more likely to force the US to dance to their pipe than the other way around.

It would be a much better place if the parts of the US calling the shots on that front gave a single flying fuck about making it one. Which they demonstrably don't, see the last several decades of U.S. action in the middle east for reference. We are not a good faith actor when it comes to stability in the middle east, at fucking all.

Yes, the US is not a good faith actor when it comes to stability in the middle east. Saudi Arabia is a much, much worse faith actor when it comes to stability in the middle east than the US is. The US gives not a single shit about the middle east's populace -- Saudi Arabia literally wants to genocide the majority of it.

[Doomblade187]

FAQ for the new Coronavirus relief package for benefits.

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/UC%20FAQ%20CARES%20Act.pdf

[McTraveller]

FAQ for the new Coronavirus relief package for benefits.

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/UC%20FAQ%20CARES%20Act.pdf

That's annoying. I'm not laid off but got 75% of my pay for March, am getting 20% of my pay for April, and scheduled for 50% of my pay in May.  According to the FAQ, nobody in my company gets anything directly from this bill - only indirectly from the delayed collapse of society.

[Dostoevsky]

You're SOL for the unemployment aid, yeah. Theoretically the company is incentivized to get an SBA loan (assuming you work for a sub-500 employee company) which in turn heavily incentivizes them to give full payroll (edit: and rehire recent layoffs), but since SBA is probably going to be pretty overwhelmed with requests and (from what I've heard) isn't the easiest process to navigate at the best of times, not sure I'd count on it.

There's also the $1200 individual check. The administration is saying those will go out by early April, but in reality it may take a few months (IRS is a starved agency right now).

[McTraveller]

Yeah my company is looking at SBA stuff (we've got I think ~60 employees), but no details on how that is going.

I guess I never heard any formal details about the "individual checks"... I didn't have the mental fortitude to wade through the media to understand if that bill had been passed, hadn't passed, etc.

[misko27]

Yes it turns out gutting federal agencies has issues when you rely on these agencies to do the things you want them to do, who could have guessed such a thing. Well, evidently not Trump because his ability to think long-term has been shown throughout this crisis to be on-par with small children taking the marshmallow test.

Yes $1200 is coming at some point in the future if the agencies involved can resist collapsing for long enough to do so. I foresee people complaining they didn't get theirs to become a running theme throughout this year, starting in a few weeks.

[sluissa]

As far as I can tell, the $1200 per person will be coming based on 2018/2019 tax returns. Anyone who made under 75k individual or 150k married will be getting the full amount with it being a lesser amount for people who made over that up until about 100k/200k where it will decrease to nothing. I think the formula is for every $100 over 75k you made, they reduce the amount by $5. There's also additional money for children dependents, but I paid less attention to that as I have none.

Theoretically if you fall somewhere in the "above 75k/150k" area, you might be able to game the system a little by either not filing your 2019 returns until after you get the check if you did better in 2019 than 2018, or making sure you file now if you did worse in 2019.

As far as I can tell there is no lower limit on the $1200 like there has been on some previous programs, all you need to do is have filed your taxes for either 2018 or 2019. They say they're attempting to figure out something to offer to people who have not filed taxes, but I have not heard anything specific.

Most clear info I can find at the moment: https://www.wpri.com/health/coronavirus/qa-heres-how-your-federal-coronavirus-relief-check-will-work/

EDIT: Apparently the full amount will be based on your 2020 income though, where if you miss out on some by doing better in 2018/2019 than you did in 2020, it will come back as a rebate on your 2020 taxes. But it says if they pay you too much because you did better in 2020 than previously, you wouldn't have to pay it back.

[Dostoevsky]

They (thankfully) got rid of the lower limit, at least by my read of the bill, and made it apply much more broadly. There also is a vague way to get it if you haven't filed, as you say.

The House just passed it a few moments ago; I imagine Trump will be signing it shortly. If you want to wade into the final text, here's a link.

I can probably help pinpoint some sections most of interest later today, but a bit tied up at the moment.

[Iduno]

To me, the problem seems to be the attempt by publishers and governments to create authoritative and comprehensive history textbooks in the first place, which invariably erase or ignore controversy and present the idea of history itself in a misleadingly bland and apathetic light to avoid stepping on toes (as you mentioned earlier with the need to be marketable in Texas influencing the national market). It would make more sense to me for state curriculums to have students read secondary and primary sources instead, to at least ensure a level of quality and academic integrity and avoid the process getting bogged down with a gigantic tome that's impossible to practically review. There still will invariably be some political process to select the content, but at least the text itself would be the real work of historians rather than the product of a questionable commercial-government process.

Ah, that's the idea of standardized testing. To punish students and teachers who try to learn facts instead of what they were told. And also, the poor, because America.

[Reelya]

Ironically, here in Australia under a right-wing government they're giving almost all the stimulus money to people on welfare / pensions, whereas we had a left-wing government back during the GFC and they gave all the stimulus money as tax breaks for working people similar to what your guys are doing now.

I guess our left-wingers didn't want to be perceived as throwing working people under the bus and our right-wingers didn't want to be perceived as throwing welfare recipients / pensioners under the bus.

[Il Palazzo]

And it's not because the Land Down Under is all topsy-turvy like?

[Naturegirl1999]

I think Australia is mostly flat, Reelia, please correct me if I’m wrong

[Trolldefender99]

I think Australia is mostly flat, Reelia, please correct me if I’m wrong

If you get to the edge of it, then you just fall off australia

Okay I'll see myself out

[Naturegirl1999]

I think Australia is mostly flat, Reelia, please correct me if I’m wrong

If you get to the edge of it, then you just fall off australia

Okay I'll see myself out

(I know this was a joke) Topography