President Biden: Trump's $2 trillion tax cut benefited the super wealthy. It was never paid for and completely blew up the federal deficit. We brought that deficit down pic.twitter.com/fOF2SBVWbl
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) January 28, 2024
NOTE: The post just before this is a Pet Rescue Bleg — please go read it. And if you can’t donate, remember that sharing the GoFundMe link on social media is *also* a real help, because algorithms determine how many people will see the original plea!
Our veterans aren’t losers.
The only loser I see is Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/xP6z3W1FV8
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 28, 2024
The Biden campaign’s Twitter feed is more consequential than every press release it puts out from now to November. It’s really good. https://t.co/FMhNYTli3J
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 26, 2024
Biden's CVS-length receipt of achievements is completely ignored in the media b/c of his age. They literally could not care less about all he's done (not to mention the strength of our economy). Covering him is BORING. They hate it. He's a boner killer for their bottom line. https://t.co/21KkFSgguV
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) January 28, 2024
Terminally online white fauxcialists punching air right now pic.twitter.com/Jk0TyUkVY1
— Thee DC Latino | ???? (@DC_Latino_) January 28, 2024
We don’t agonize, we organize for Joe Biden— a leader with great vision, knowledge and empathy for the American people.
Democrats, we will own the ground and get out our vote so that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will again be President and Vice President of the United States! -NP pic.twitter.com/3gi4npUh76
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) January 24, 2024
Baud
Heh.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’m sure the WH Press Corpse will claim Biden’s twitter feed is another example of the sinister nature of a Dem White House attempting an end run around Our Media Betters.
Well, duh.
eclare
@Baud:
I thought that was a good and accurate turn of phrase too.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Suzanne
Biden is boring. I fucken love it. He’s competent and steady.
Children in their twenties need dramatics. I’m #toooldforthatshit
frosty
“CVS-length receipt of ahievements” Great description! Oh … I guess just for us few who still get a printed receipt.
Marmot
This is true, of course. But I wish everyone would stop using this phrase. In legislative contexts, it means “to destroy,” apparently, and here it’s “explosively expand.”
Hell, “explode the deficit” is another ambiguous phrase that should disappear.
/pedantry
Baud
@Marmot:
You don’t blow up balloons?
p.a.
Are most of the usual media suspects (talking MSM, not the reich-wing, fraud media: we all know their role) journalism majors? I can understand nepotism and failing upwards, but WTF are they teaching in journalism school?!?!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
Definitely a sign o’ the times on receipts. Half the time (when dealing with a person) they don’t even ask “Do you want your receipt with that?” So when you ask “May I have my receipt?” they look at you like “WTF you talkin’ about Willis?”
If I come home w/o receipts, there’s hell to pay (I don’t deal with our finances).
frosty
@Marmot: I think blew up and exploded are sufficiently well understood as destroyed that you can put this one on the bottom of the pedantry worries.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
A lot of places email receipts now.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Our favorite small grocery serves the nearby college (so a young clientele & employees), so I’m always dealing with that. If it were available online, I’d be ok giving up the paper receipt. But how otherwise am I supposed to handle the occasional return, or check if they got my member # correct so I get my free sandwich points?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@p.a.:
The first name that came to mind was Kaitlan Collins who is probably typical of that generation of at least cable news people. BA in poly sci and journalism, 2014.
But then somebody like Chris Fucking Cilizza, who’s around 15 years older has a BA in English.
Oh, here’s something I didn’t know, Chuck Fucking Todd went to university for 4 years, technically declared as a poly sci major, never graduated.
I would have looked up more but my head now hurts just thinking about at least those last two.
rikyrah
That CVS length receipts tweet is on point
Have said it repeatedly
The MSM resents the competency of 46 and his Administration
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
The issue with that is you have to then enter your email address, which takes time. Okay, it’s not the amount of time it might take to get thru “Ulysses” but a lifetime of “get receipt, bring home to spouse” isn’t something to be sloughed off overnight.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Not providing receipts is a long-standing method of tax evasion in Greece, to the point where not too long ago, Parliament passed a law stating that if you’re buying something, and they won’t give you a receipt, you’re not obliged to pay.
That’s literally what the signs stated at the cashier stations in a number of places: “If the customer does not receive a receipt, the customer is not obliged to pay.
Link in case anyone thinks this can’t be real.
different-church-lady
@Baud: yes, just what i want: to have to print the damn thing out myself.
different-church-lady
“I JUST GAVE YOU 38 DOLLARS AND YOU CAN’T BE ARSED TO GIVE ME A SCRAP OF PAPER.”
SenyorDave
In the absence of any evidence, it is hard to believe she made these comments:
WASHINGTON, DC: Nancy Pelosi has angered a section of the internet after calling for an FBI investigation into pro-Palestine protesters while claiming that they are receiving financial help from Russia.
I guess she tried to soften it by talking about Palestinian suffering, but this seems pretty unacceptable to call for an FBI investigation. So now people who are protesting are Putin plants?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Only once. In a lot of places, once I’ve used my debit card once they know my email. And probably a lot of other info about me.
Read a scary article on a related subject this weekend. Some guy discovered one of the largest uploaders on his home WiFi was his LG washing machine. In the same article they mentioned that a lot of smart appliance apps ask you to input all kinds of personal info such as DOB to enable them.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@SenyorDave: Probably it’s like she wouldn’t put it past Putin and company to foment civil unrest within the United States, given what they’ve done here and elsewhere in the recent past, and people with duplicitous agendas are likely deliberately misinterpreting Pelosi’s statements, as has happened often in the recent past.
eclare
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Huh. If I can I usually refuse receipts. They are just pieces of paper that are discarded on the floor of my car or at home. The only time I willingly take a receipt is if I buy something at a super-duper sale price, and I want to make sure that I was charged the sale price.
Then I throw the receipt out.
What am I missing about keeping receipts? Asking honestly, not snark.
Soprano2
@Baud: They find his achievements boring, I think that’s why they rarely report on them. They want TFG back because it made their jobs easier and it was more fun for them to report on him. Having a competent government with a lot of achievements doesn’t help their jobs at all – in fact, I think they believe it makes their job harder because they can’t “bothsides” real achievements.
different-church-lady
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: IT’S A GODDAMNED WASHING MACHINE WHY DOES THE GODDAMNED WASHING MACHINE NEED TO SURF FOR ONLINE PORN??!?
artem1s
A person with a big heart and empathy for the American people.
That right there is the choice the voters are faced with. Choose the quiet, organized, empathetic legislator/s or the click bait reality TV clown show. We know what the GOP leadership and the MSM has chosen. The rest of the country has started to speak on the issue in 2018, 2020, and 2022. I don’t think they are done and I think the last few years may have convinced a lot of voters that the chaos isn’t what they want front and center in their lives anymore.
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: It’s also clicks: they’ve figured out bad news generates more clicks than good news.
Suzanne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: So at some stores, like Costco and Target, if you pay with your credit or bank card and you need to return something, they can look it up if you go in and present your card. No receipt required.
Mr. Suzanne will get receipts and leave them strewn about the back of my car, and then I just end up throwing them out anyway.
ETA: He will also snack on oranges and leave little bits of the peel in the center console and door handle. I simply do not understand.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
You don’t have to print it.
Matt McIrvin
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: When I visited Italy in the early 1990s, I remember being warned that getting a receipt for a transaction was actually mandatory for the consumer, and the “financial police” could fine you large amounts of money if they caught you leaving a business establishment with your merchandise without being able to present one. Presumably they were trying to crack down on black-market/organized-crime/tax-evasion activity.
eclare
@different-church-lady:
Hahaha…
Another Scott
@SenyorDave:
NPR.org:
I’d like to see the exact question (context always matters).
She didn’t just discover these issues yesterday. But it’s a distraction that the press is happy to jump on.
(To be clear, I agree with her. The vast majority of the protests are sincere and fine, but there’s no doubt that VVP is trying to take advantage of them as well. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he encouraged Hamas and the Houthis and the folks in Syria / Iraq and Kim in the DPRK to act now to try distract everyone from Ukraine. But proving a connection would be almost impossible. And others always do have agency even if they’re encouraged by a monster.)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
Unified, fired-up Democratic Party = big win in November!
A ‘blue wave’, you might say. =)
Subsole
@SenyorDave:
No. They are useful idiots, getting spun up by Russian plants, Iranian plants, Chinese plants, and other sundry atavists.
And yeah, honestly, I am at the point where I would like to see who is funding a lot of these Leftier-than-thou orgs who always have smoke for democracy, but somehow can’t protest a Republican even by accident.
eclare
@Suzanne:
Thank you! I was beginning to worry about what I was missing. I buy all of my appliances at Lowe’s for that very reason, a record of all of my purchases, no need to keep receipts.
Subsole
@different-church-lady:
BECAUSE IT CAN’T GO TO THE GODDAMN CORNER-STORE AND BUY MAGAZINES, MOM! FUCK!
different-church-lady
@Baud: “Hi Mr Accountant. Please take my computer for a week. You too Mr. tax auditor.”
lowtechcyclist
@different-church-lady: How do you think it gets excited enough to spin like it does, without using a lot of electricity? ;-)
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Matt McIrvin: Somehow I’m not surprised – though putting the onus on the consumer (as in Italy) rather than the merchant (as in Greece) sounds like they were aiming to solve a very different problem.
(Go to a bar or a restaurant in Greece nowadays, and they’re likely to put a receipt on your table as soon as they bring out what you ordered, and keep updating the receipt depending on whether you order more drinks, dessert, etc. Apparently there have been cases of roving tax inspectors popping into a joint, seeing a lack of receipts, and hitting the proprietors with significant fines.)
Baud
@different-church-lady: If your accountant doesn’t take digital files, then ask for a printed receipt at the store if you need it for taxes.
Most people don’t for most purchases.
different-church-lady
@Subsole: Heh.
Wait, they still have magazines?
Soprano2
@p.a.: I think that doesn’t matter, because any employee figures out pretty quickly what their employer rewards, plus they learn from the people who are already there. The older reporters are still stuck on the narrative that R’s are the sober, fiscally responsible father who keeps the flighty female and young D’s in line so that they don’t bankrupt us. It doesn’t seem to matter how much evidence they have that this is not true (if it ever was true, I have my doubts), they still report as if it’s the case.
Matt McIrvin
@eclare: Some people keep independent records of bank transactions (“balancing the checkbook” in old-fashioned terms) and use receipts as a layer of error checking.
I once knew a guy who meticulously kept receipts for every out-of-state transaction he made, down to tiny purchases, so in the new year he could report an accurate total to the state of Massachusetts to pay the correct Massachusetts use tax on them. I think he was the most “lawful good” individual I’ve ever met, in Dungeons & Dragons parlance. (They have a “safe harbor” provision where you can just pay an assumed sum according to your income level, if you don’t want to do this. For certain big things like automobile purchases they’ll getcha at registration time.)
different-church-lady
@Baud: Right. All I’m saying is a physical receipt should be a standard option. I stopped going to Valvoline for my oil changes because they weren’t going to give me a receipt unless I allowed them to spam up my in box. Fuck that shit.
Subsole
@different-church-lady: No idea.
I get mine the same way the washing machine does.It’s been a while since I looked.O. Felix Culpa
@SenyorDave:
Do you evidence that NP said this “in the absence of any evidence?” Since when is Nancy so careless?
And yes, it’s f*cking obvious that Putin has interest in dividing the Democratic coalition and handing the election over to his BFF Trump. Nancy didn’t say *all* the protestors are Putin plants. The Palestinian situation is horrific, which leaves an opening for bad actors to cynically capitalize on it and drive a wedge between left-leaning voters.
Soprano2
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: That’s true, but if it’s the same store you only have to enter it once. I have receipts like Macy’s and Dillard’s e-mailed to me, and I keep them in a folder in my e-mail. Especially for pricer purchases, that way I don’t lose the receipt if I need it later. But yeah, for most stuff I still get printed receipts because I still balance my checkbook the old-fashioned way.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa: I’m so old I can remember when Hillary accused Russia of something that sounded ridiculous at the time…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@eclare:
Per others, physical copies of receipts are handy for audits and just plain handy in a lot of accounting situations.
If you don’t need receipts, great, don’t take em, ask for them, etc. However, many people have a highly refined financial management/accounting process that want physical receipts.
different-church-lady
@Soprano2: You do realize that old people don’t exist anymore, yes?
lowtechcyclist
@different-church-lady:
The local CVS has a bunch of magazines for sale at the pharmacy counter, but they’re all special issues of one sort or another, nothing that would go out of date. (Took a pic of one last year, a National Geographic titled “50 Most Influential Figures of the Bible.” Wonder if they ranked them, was Jesus #1? Did the Holy Spirit make the list, or was it too ephemeral, despite being a member of the Trinity? Didn’t bother to open it and find out.
ETA: No pornzines, of course. No idea whether they still exist somewhere.
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Scott:
Thank you for providing the fuller context to NP’s interview. So, she didn’t offer evidence, which isn’t the same thing as not having evidence.
different-church-lady
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Come rant next to me.
Brachiator
@eclare:
Some people may need a receipt for tax purposes. Otherwise it may just be trash.
I don’t know how modern cash registers are set up to a store’s billing systems. It’s sometimes easier for employees to steal or commit fraud if they don’t give customers receipts. That used to be part of the reason behind it, not just customer service.
H.E.Wolf
I can only speak anecdotally.
I worked freelance in two wildly different specialties for many years, and I kept business-expense receipts as documentation for income tax purposes, for the length of time required in case of audit.
One of my relatives keeps receipts because sales taxes are a deductible expense on their state income tax… though that’s a dedication to record-keeping that I’ve never aspired to. :)
Soprano2
@SenyorDave: Why would it be hard to believe that Russia would try to stir up anger against Biden by using the Israel/Gaza conflict? They wouldn’t hesitate to do this.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
Yeah, funny how it’s so often the ladies who spark outrage and ridicule over what turns out to be correct.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@different-church-lady:
Exactly.
And I simply might not want a store to have my email addy…and that’s coming from somebody who gave up any idea of “privacy” decades ago when I was getting my security clearances as an intel officer.
different-church-lady
@lowtechcyclist: It feels like all the legacy mags are going the way of Life special issues at the checkout aisle. “We have 80 years of content in the can, we can just recycle that endlessly, no need to generate anything new.” Sports Illustrated will probably end up going that way.
Soprano2
@different-church-lady: You’re right, that’s another part of it. If Biden doesn’t give them bad news, they make bad news out of the things he does, like the Afghanistan withdrawal. It’s become conventional wisdom that it was a complete fuck-up, so much so that I’ve heard stories where the reporters matter of factly state that it was (not in those exact words, of course). They created a controversy by agreeing with Republicans in spite of the fact that for the most part it was done as well as could be expected under the circumstances, and it definitely wasn’t Biden’s fault that the Afghanistan government collapsed.
NotMax
FYI.
satby
@Another Scott: Heather Cox Richardson’s post today agrees with you: Behind this story is an even larger geopolitical story involving Iran’s ally Russia. As Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg retorted when Senator Wicker called on Biden to respond to the attack that killed three Americans “swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see”: “Wasn’t funding Ukraine and Israel the first, critical step in deterring Iran? We are in this place now due to the Russian fifth columnists in the Republican Party including Trump who slavishly do Putin’s bidding.”
different-church-lady
So any rate, starting maybe eight years ago there seemed to be a trend where you needed to pitch a fit in order to pry a physical receipt out of vendors, like they had just decided paper was killing the bottom line or something. But lately I’ve noticed the trend is for the cashier to ask automatically, which seems like the right way to approach it. Give the paper to thems that need it, don’t waste it on thems that don’t.
Baud
@satby: Oh, good. I made a similar point in the early morning thread. Glad to see respectable people picking up on it.
zhena gogolia
@O. Felix Culpa: Unfortunately I’m having flashbacks to “Hillary didn’t say all MAGA were deplorable.” Won’t matter.
FWIW, I agree with Pelosi.
FWIW, she is not in any position of great power right now, so she can say what she wants.
eclare
@H.E.Wolf:
If you are self employed and buying things for that business, or have some other tax reason, then sure, get a receipt. Otherwise I don’t see the point.
For the couple of years you were allowed to deduct sales taxes on your tax return, you could keep actual receipts or take a percentage of income for the deduction. I took the percentage of income.
I also stopped balancing my checkbook about thirty years ago. And I’m a CPA.
lowtechcyclist
@different-church-lady:
Bet even that will only last another decade or so, because the market is pretty much limited to people who used to read magazines.
Weird to think that just 30 years ago, my wife and I didn’t own a PC yet.
eclare
@NotMax:
Great news, thanks!
TS
@Soprano2:
My latest checkbook was received 2015 & it is still as pristine as the day I received it. Other than the odd cup coffee I pay everything by card or online. I’ve only received one check in the past 8 years (and it bounced!) Checks are being phased out in Australia – and supposedly will be gone by 2030, with all government payments by check gone by 2028.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
And it’s been all but forgotten that Trump, not Biden, was the President that agreed to a rather quick withdrawal before he left office, and stuck Biden with it.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia:
You’re probably right. The dirtbag left outrage machine is just as bad–that is, as dishonest–as the rightwing version. They share the goal of destroying our coalition and, with it, democracy. Like you, I agree with Nancy and I’m fine that she said it. We can’t be held hostage to every potential distortion that the opposition will gin up. They’ll find a way to do that, regardless.
zhena gogolia
@TS: Terrible news.
Soprano2
That’s what I do. I can’t kick the habit of balancing my checkbook – it would give me too much anxiety. I had a bank once make a $100 error, and not in my favor. I found it because I balance my checkbook, and I got the money back. Made me paranoid. I got $100 of free books, too.
eclare
@TS:
Same. Even the vendors at the farmers’ market near me are equipped to take cards. I keep a $20 in my wallet “just in case.” It has been there a while.
Layer8Problem
@different-church-lady: It’s not that old people don’t exist, it’s that they’re invisible to the younger crowd. This allows tremendous shoplifting opportunities with the side benefit of completely avoiding having to deal with receipts at all.
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
Good for him! About time national Dems started saying this!!
satby
@eclare: Yeah, I don’t even have the ability to offer paper receipts at markets unless they’re handwritten. And in about 10 years, I’ve been asked for one maybe 4 times. My register app can text or email one, but again most people say no thanks to them.
And I don’t even have physical checks any more, used the last one more than 10 years ago. I just monitor my accounts online, daily.
Soprano2
@different-church-lady: Yes, I do. I haven’t had a place refuse to give me a printed receipt yet, but some do ask. I appreciate being able to get e-mailed receipts for credit card purchases, because that way I don’t have to worry about losing them, but for my debit card if I can get them I want a printed receipt. Most of the time if I have a mistake in my checkbook it’s because of an e-mailed receipt I forgot to record. A lot of it is about habits.
TS
@zhena gogolia:
It is to some of my friends who still use checks but they are such a small % of the population – some banks are now charging excessive amounts if you deposit a check via a bank branch – which I guess is to discourage people from using them.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Same. I used to balance my checkbook fanatically, but haven’t done that for years. No need to anymore, with online monitoring.
I also rarely use checks either. My payments are nearly all electronic. I’m happy for paper checks to go away.
trnc
Ask your Trump loving coworkers or uncles which is longer – Biden’s list of accomplishments or DT’s rap sheet.
zhena gogolia
@O. Felix Culpa: God, I do not want this. I don’t want to think about my checking account every day. And I don’t want to trust a computer to be safe.
Brachiator
@p.a.:
Journalism majors are about credentials. In ancient times, a person might write for their high school newspaper and then their college newspaper, and use that practical experience to get a job with a local paper. Credentials sometimes helps with people trying to get into TV.
There’s also a long list of journalists and authors who worked on the Harvard Crimson and Yale Daily News as students, but that is another kettle of fish.
eclare
@satby:
I check my accounts maybe once a week, plus when I know an important payment should post. But since you own your own business, I understand the need for more vigilance.
lowtechcyclist
@eclare:
Most of the vendors at our farmers’ market take plastic, but one of our favorite booths is run by Mennonites, and they don’t.
But on the whole, I rarely pay with cash anymore.
ETA: OTOH, I still write about two dozen checks a year, mostly to the cleaning lady who comes once every four weeks, and to our cat sitter. After that, to the occasional tradesman who charges 3% extra for plastic. I suppose I should ask the cleaning lady if she’s on Zelle.
satby
@Soprano2: My bank once fat fingered an account number and drafted someone else’s mortgage for several thousand dollars out of my very insufficient checking account. I caught it within the hour and had it flagged, correcting it took a few days but it was all fixed, including the reversal of the many subsequent overdraft fees I was charged while it was in process. I wouldn’t have caught it as quickly if I didn’t monitor my account online daily. Edit: and I monitor daily because I’m a “paycheck to paycheck” person, with little room to spare for mistakes that aren’t caught quickly, especially my own miscalculations.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist: Same. Almost no use for cash. I don’t mail too many letters these days either.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia:
It’s really easy and secure, especially with two-factor authentication. I just take a quick peek daily. Less than two minutes tops. Plus you can catch errors, if there are any, much more quickly than waiting for a monthly bank statement to arrive.
Checkbook balancing took a LOT more time each month (and I’m a CPA). The goal is to catch errors and correct them, and if that goal can be met more efficiently through online monitoring, I’m all for it. YMMV. :-)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I keep receipts just long enough to know I won’t need to do an exchange or return. After 43 years of marriage my percentage of getting it right is pretty good, but definitely not 100%.
Betty Cracker
@SenyorDave: Given the FBI’s terrible history with “investigating” civil rights groups, etc., I agree that publicly calling for an investigation is a bad idea. I’m sure it’s true divisions in the Dem coalition gladden Putin’s heart, but that doesn’t mean people should sit down and shut up when they disagree with administration policy. That’s not how it works.
NotMax
Soprano2
@satby: I don’t write that many checks anymore, mostly just to pay bills. I resist going to all online billing because I’m afraid I’ll forget to pay one. I’ve got a system for paying them that works for me, so I figure why mess with it. I do always write a check for my donation to the local family violence center because in MO you get a state tax credit for that donation. The one year I used a card I had to provide a copy of my statement to the state, which was a royal PITA because I had to black out a bunch of info. I can provide a copy of my cancelled check a lot easier.
trnc
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen “blow up” used in a legislative context. Maybe you’re thinking about negotiations between congress and the exec branches, as in “republicans blew up the immigration deal.”
At any rate, I’ve been reading “blow up” as a phrase for “expand” for a long time, so I’d probably let it go at this point.
H.E.Wolf
Yes, exactly! We’re in agreement. One of the nice things about closing my freelance business was that I didn’t have to fill out a Schedule C any longer, and thus didn’t need to save business-related sales receipts. “Let joy be unconfined” was an understatement!
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Christmas and birthday cards are about it for me, and the latter usually only if it’s a round-number birthday. Otherwise I just call.
I pay bills online through my credit union’s bill-pay setup. If the bill is from someone who isn’t on whatever electronic payment system the banks have set up, the credit union will send the check for me. A roll of 100 stamps might last the rest of my lifetime.
Kristine
There’s also an issue with the toxic components in much of the thermal paper used for receipts. Folks who handle receipts regularly, like cashiers, have higher amounts of them in their blood. Minimizing handling of paper containing BPA until the transition to nonthermal paper is one way to avoid contact.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@NotMax:
What’s interesting about this is how many of the quasi-monopoly power companies are moving to renewables but doing so in such a way as to still make them the gatekeepers.
Case in point, Xcel here in CO. Their 2022 energy sources break down like this:
Wind: 35%
Natural Gas: 31%
Coal: 27%
Solar: 5%
Other “carbon free” (hydro): 2%
If you go back 10 years:
Coal: 64.3%
Natural Gas: 20.1%
Wind: 11.2%
Other “non carbon” (hydro): 3.7%
Solar: 0.3%
On the surface, it looks like solar’s made big gains but not really relative to Wind. Xcel keeps blocking measures to make it easier for residential solar to roll out. They’ve been claiming that “we’re saturated” with solar and that the current grid can’t handle more.
It’s a way to make sure that free energy via solar remains minimal whereas they’ll build wind farms like nobody’s bidness b/c they own the wind farms, they don’t own the solar on my roof…which they indicated couldn’t be any more than it is because of the aforementioned “grid is saturated”. I can’t find the numbers this instant, but there’s basically been no growth in solar generation in CO over the last 5 years. And the main reason for that is Xcel.
A buddy in NM is a solar activist and deals with companies like Xcel and their basic regulatory capture all the time.
Marmot
@Baud:
Not with explosives, I don’t.
Baud
@Marmot:
You’ll never be on Mythbusters with that attitude.
satby
@Soprano2: I think whatever system works for you is what you should use 😊 Because that comfort and control matters most.
I was in IT for years and always online anyway, so that worked for me. I do pay everything online, most places send reminders a few days before bills are due. But I don’t do autopays any longer since my moocher SS check date issue fluctuates with the calender.
Marmot
@frosty: I disagree.
Ken
I am reminded of the fad for online quizzes a decade or so ago, where it turned out that a bunch of them were phishing. They had a somewhat surprising success rate; apparently there are people who think an online quiz needs your Social Security number and mother’s maiden name to identify your Hogwarts house.
different-church-lady
@satby: Nothing wrong with handwritten. Totally reasonable compromise in today’s digital world. My problem is when the vendor acts like they never even considered the possibility, like your’e some crazy pain in the ass for even asking.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
I still get my bills in the mail, but I pay them online. Given that I hardly get any snail mail anymore (just one or two pieces of mail most days, and yes, that includes the junk mail), it’s next to impossible for me to overlook a bill if it comes by snail mail, while my email account is a firehose.
But for me at least, it’s easier to pay them by just going to my credit union’s website and clicking on the bill-pay app.
different-church-lady
@Marmot: Your parties must be awfully boring.
wjca
I need more dull in my life! (But then, I have a life….)
NotMax
@NotMax
Oh, and also a paper receipt at an ATM. Twice in the past have been dispensed the incorrect amount of cash (always a lower amount than requested) and it was like pulling teeth to get those debiting errors corrected without that slip of paper.
Bupalos
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: we had a long period with distributed solar where the utilities didn’t see it as any real threat and didn’t fight things like net metering. As solar grows though it’s provoking more of a corporate immune response (see eg. California) and I expect that to grow.
Ultimately to preserve corporate cooperation there may need to be the threat of folks on the grid choosing to go off-grid with storage.
Ken
@lowtechcyclist: @different-church-lady: There’s still plenty of magazines, both in the convenience stores and in bookstores, on a huge variety of subjects. But the demographic for people who buy checkout-lane magazines is pretty clear. Setting aside the tabloids and recipe collections, it’s all “80 Years of The Wizard of Oz“, “Remembering Audrey Hepburn”, “Our Favorite Honeymooners Moments”, and the like.
(I’m sure I’ve posted this observation before, but since I’m part of that demographic I don’t clearly recall.)
snoey
@NotMax: Gas is one thing that you do want a receipt for. Every now and again some gas station screws up and gets diesel or whatever in the regular pumps. If you’re a victim your car gets fixed with a receipt or with a hassle.
satby
I’m loving that the soon-to-be new Spay / Neuter group in the previous post is getting such great jackal assistance! You’re saving lives today, and I know how much it means to them 🤗
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Maintain three separate checking accounts spread across two different banks (all free accounts, one even pays a tiny bit of interest) as a just in case back-up against snafus with a single account
wjca
For me, the critical part is asking for the receipt. It’s a flag, for the small minority who might be so inclined, not to seize the opportunity to slip in a couple more charges. I don’t bother to keep them (unless it’s something expensive that I might want/need to return). I’m just sending a message.
TS
@NotMax:
Near impossible to get payments in my part of the world today without providing your bank details. All govt payments go into your bank account – medical, pensions, (the one-offs during covid) and private health insurance refunds are into your bank or paid directly to the provider.
The problems with digital banking usually relate to the wrong people getting your bank details and it is usually trusting souls who believe their stories or click a link and freely give them access. I’ve been using digital banking for 25 years – lived overseas for a year during that time & didn’t need a bank account in the country we lived on, did it all through card or transfer payments.
I hate mobile phones and “apps” but love online shopping and digital banking.
evodevo
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: AND in case of audit, the IRS doesn’t recognize your email as a valid piece of evidence LOL – they want paper, and they want it now…
NotMax
@snoey
So old can remember when different grades were differently colored and the hose included a glass tube so you could confirm which type of gas was being pumped.
suzanne
As for paying bills online, here is my most recent head-scratcher:
When the Biden Admin announced the new student loan repayment plan SAVE, I registered for it. Submitted all my documentation, then it took some months for the DoE and loan servicer to get it all processed. As soon as that was done, I signed up for autopay. You get some very (very) small discount for paying automatically.
Anyway, they now send me two pieces of physical correspondence every month. One is a “bill” that indicates that I’m signed up for autopay and don’t need to do anything. The second is a statement saying that I paid. (I would like to not get this physical mail and instead take a dollar off my balance.)
THEN I got an email last week titled “An important message about your student loans”. So I got all excited that there was going to be some forgiveness or something. The “important message” was that I am up to date on payments and an exhortation to “Keep up the good work!”.
LOLOLOL.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@NotMax: ATMs have all but disappeared from my life. I rarely use cash and I do all my deposits via mobile app.
ATM used to be our standard way to get around overseas because they gave a market-price exchange rate, but the transaction fees are outrageous and US chip cards are finally compatible with European machines so we just used debit / credit cards everywhere as we do in the US.
i did get some euros because i like the coins, especially the 1 and 2 euro coins.
satby
OT. Just wished a very dear friend IRL a happy 72 birthday. I’ve mentioned her before here, she was discovered to be in heart failure after giving birth at age 43 to her last daughter, and eventually had 3 coronary bypasses over subsequent years for the genetic flaw that causes abnormally high cholesterol levels in the blood. The same genetic glitch that killed her father and brother in their forties, her paternal grandmother when she gave birth to her father, and her nephew in his 20s. She’s outlived everyone in her family with this condition by 30 years or more. Diet and exercise really can help work miracles along with modern medicine.
Sandia Blanca
@eclare: If your employer offers a health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA), you can use pre-tax dollars to pay qualified medical expenses (e.g. medical co-pays, certain over-the-counter drugs, etc.) You usually have to submit your receipts to get reimbursed, or to substantiate the payment made with your HSA or FSA card.
NotMax
@frosty
Petarded.
:)
@TS
Government payments into an account I have minimal complaint about.
For anything else I’ll Fezziwig it.
;)
catclub
@lowtechcyclist: ask them to name a withdrawal that was done better. They are all terrible events.
Marmot
@trnc: Negotiations, yes, that’s what I mean. And if you’ve been reading it to mean “to expand,” you get what I mean when I complain about phrasing like “blow up the immigration deal.”
This might seem trivial, but it’s dumb to introduce ambiguity when the public barely pays attention. And on the part of journalists, it’s malpractice—only partly because it’s a sycophantic adoption of insider jargon.
Also, this thread is concentrating on receipts!
Nelle
@p.a.: Fitting in with corporate America. Signed, Appalled mother of two kids with journalism degrees (one a BA, one an MA). I was stunned at times with what they reported to me. Neither is now a journalist. I’m the granddaughter of a newspaper guy who fled his country after a warning that soldiers were coming to arrest him. I guess my kids thought it was a noble calling. Current reality smacked them both.
Marmot
@different-church-lady: That’s when I talk about what’s on the newsstands!
Layer8Problem
I am a former Information Technology person, now an Information Technology tinkerer/hobbyist. I am also kinda paranoid about personal information, based upon one professional experience twenty-five years ago watching a logging screen in the server room scrolling credit card names, numbers, expirys, and zip codes in the clear, 24/7/365. Things aren’t supposed to be so Wild West anymore, but gee whiz it still happens.
I’ve never trusted helpful companies just wanting me to set up easy automatic extraction out of my accounts, since maybe sometimes I let the account go too low or maybe I think they might accidentally charge my account for the high-roller’s $43,895.65 charge for that complete media room installation.
I still like my bills on paper mailed to the residence, even with the continual “Hi! Don’t you want the convenience and environmental friendliness of emailed billing?” messages in the paper and online. (No, no I don’t, and neither do you, you stupid bank, you just want to throw out your printers and save what amounts to some minuscule fraction of what you collect from your bleeding overdraft fees.)
My health insurance gets a written check posted like clockwork on the monthly. Why? Because online they’d like to charge me a “convenience fee” for the privilege of not needing a back office to deal with my mailed checks and I’m peevish about clever charges.
wjca
On the other hand, I still see a few places which, while they will take credit cards, have a sign noting that they charge 6% extra for those transactions. That being the amount that Visa, et al., charge the vendor for purchases with the card.
Marmot
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Damn. I’ve heard that was happening.
catclub
Just went to a new bank and their online banking is terrible.They could not provide statements ( as pdf’s)!
ACH transfers between your own accounts, but at different banks, have gotten worse. Fortunately all large transfers through vanguard still work without a hitch.
Ken
I see the Kansas City Chiefs won yesterday, which has triggered some of our less-mentally-balanced citizens (such as Vivek Ramaswamy) to mutter about election conspiracies. So far my favorite reaction has been from one “[email protected]”:
catclub
@wjca:
6% !!! wow. I was always aware of 3% for Visa/MC charges to small merchants.
NotMax
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
At the grocery I pay with cash (check at Costco because their register prints the pertinent info on the check for you). In either case 98% of the time the transaction is completed faster than the time it takes those in front of me to fumble with cards or phones.
Zero chance of non-U.S. travel in my future so no concerns there.
Baud
@wjca: The retailer can mark up the charges as much as they want, so the 6% isn’t necessarily what they’re paying to Visa or Mastercard.
Baud
@catclub:
Wow.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
Wow is right. Even my little local credit union provides electronic statements.
satby
@wjca: Yes, that annoys me, because for them it’s a deductible business expense. I tell people I won’t use their services when they do that, and why. Pure greed.
*also, if they’re trying to push you into paying cash, they’re likely trying to evade taxes. fuckem
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@catclub:
When we were running the B&B back in Central Misery, credit card *processors* were the scummiest of the scumbags. They were always looking to extract more “processing fees”. They are the ones that get the money, not Visa/MC.
Quick overview:
https://www.fisglobal.com/en/insights/merchant-solutions-worldpay/article/how-credit-card-processing-works
We would basically every other year change processors b/c if you stay with one for any amount of time, they will continually raise your processing rates.
And yeah, ours always hovered around 3% but only because we changed processors often.
They were the biggest bane of existence until online marketers like bedandbreakfast.com started buying up all the online availability sites and then jacking up their rates to where they’d take 20% of your room rate off the top.
eclare
@satby:
Great news! Happy birthday to your friend.
Bill Clinton said he switched to a vegan diet because no one in his family had lived past 70. He has.
satby
@catclub: it is, see my previous comment.
Geminid
@Ken: When I checked out Tractor Supply’s magazine section last month I think I saw 5 different magazines about raising chickens. That’s a big deal right now.
Frankensteinbeck
@Marmot:
It is being used to mean “Cause lots of damage as if an explosion happened.” The pedantic phrasing error is that they are actually talking about the situation around the deficit, not the deficit itself.
Anyway
@snoey:
Huh, I had no idea. Always choose no receipt at the pump
artem1s
@Another Scott:
Proving a connection would mean revealing classified information and risking the lives of national security assets. Nancy Smash knows better than to name drop like Darth Cheney did. But I trust that she has access to information that leads her to believe an FBI investigation is warranted. This will of course piss off the NY FBI office (again) because they really hate it when they have to get serious about investigating the Russian mob and terrorists. It’s hard and dangerous.
SenyorDave
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: There really isn’t a whole lot to misinterpret in this case. Pelosi is the one who brought up the FBI opening up an investigation. The FBI doesn’t do things halfway, they will open files on individuals, and those files have a very long shelf life.
When they had the Million Woman March I’m sure that Putin was very glad to see a large protest movement in the US, even if it was against his boy Trump. If Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, had called for investigation by the FBI against the groups that put the March together there would have been a huge outcry. But in this case its “our side” that is doing it, so its all right.
Is it possible that the protests occur because at least 15,000+ Palestinians who are not Hamas have died, and most of the homes and infrastructure in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed?
And why the hell did she say this publicly? I’m sure the Republicans will be very happy to support an investigation. While she’s at it, maybe she can ask for an FBI investigation into BLM.
Marmot
@Frankensteinbeck: Finally somebody agrees.
I never realized how sensitive this crowd could be until I suggested that sometimes there’s a better way to say something.
Anyway
@SenyorDave:
Agree. There was no need to bring the FBI into it. Leave it at Putin and Russia
Anyway
@Geminid: raising chix was all the rage ten or so years ago. Some of my friends got into it at the time- building pretty cool coops, ordering chicks from various breeds from all over the country (they arrive in the mail – I thought that was wild), and of course bragging about how super fresh the eggs were. :D
mrmoshpotato
How many coupons come with his list of achievements?
Hahaha! Stealing this.
TriassicSands
I often agree with you, but not here. Apply that same attitude to every House Republican that isn’t part of leadership. Yes, they “can” say whatever they want, but should they? Also, since Pelosi is a former Speaker, she is far more prominent than any other Democratic representative except, maybe, Jeffries.
I agree completely with @Betty Cracker:
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
Preach!
O. Felix Culpa
@Marmot:
I’m shocked, shocked to hear that pedants can be sensitive!
;-)
Another Scott
@Layer8Problem: I too understand why companies want everyone to go electronic (I used to work in a mail room and 50.4¢ – 58.6¢ ea for pre-sorted first class postage adds up) – especially these days.
But I’d be much more sympathetic if, say, BCBS didn’t include about 5 sheets of paper with each “Explanation of Benefits” mailer they send us…
Cheers,
Scott.
Quadrillipede
This is presumably something people used to do before you could just sign in to online banking and see how much money you have?
Geminid
@Anyway: I think it was the Washington Post that had an article, “The Chickens of Silicon Valley.” The coops there can be quite elaborate, some with live cams so tech titans can take breaks watching their hens in between mastering the universe.
One Santa Clara County coop maker sold a modest coop for $10,000.; it was considered the “Range Rover of chicken coops.” Most chicken facilities around here are much less fancy though. It can be an enjoyable, low cost hobby.
rikyrah
RespectisEarnednotGIVEN (@ItsKey_70sbaby) posted at 6:12 AM on Mon, Jan 29, 2024:
This is how you do an interview. She voted NO for those bills however have her hand up FIRST to take credit. This is how the GOP play BOTH sides in DC they vote NO and at home they take credit. Media needs to keep calling them out on their hypocrisy.
Justin Chermol (@justin_chermol) posted at 0:15 PM on Sun, Jan 28, 2024:
WATCH: Rep. @MaElviraSalazar continues to take credit for projects brought to #FL27 made possible by bipartisan legislation she voted against like the CHIPS & Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
When pressed by @CBSMiami, Salazar says she forgot how she voted. https://t.co/ddoVWV5k7u
(https://x.com/justin_chermol/status/1751670329393414229?t=qXzdbfylCIdSOsbf0Nwe-A&s=03)
frosty
@Soprano2: So I’m not the last one balancing the checkbook. Good! I also balance the credit card statements and assign the charges to the right categories.
Amazon is a PITA. Every few months I have to log into our accounts and go through all the orders.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: This is an Arby’s.
rikyrah
Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) posted at 7:43 AM on Mon, Jan 29, 2024:
Ok Nation, Let’s Talk: The “Great Recession” never came. Inflation is down, consumer spending is up. Unemployment continues to drop, the markets keep going up. If Trump were President, he and MAGA and Fox, would be declaring this the greatest economy of all time.
@newsnationam https://t.co/5xT9G9QTxn
(https://x.com/kurtbardella/status/1751964308022407248?t=8oMfMY4uio-b9uYzh4Wriw&s=03)
evodevo
@Layer8Problem:
yes, this…when Mr.Evodevo switched to online payment by credit card for his phone, it lasted for a year, and then AT&T wanted access to his bank acct for direct payment. When he said NO!!, suddenly started charging a fee and dumped our complementary MAX subscription… I continue to pay all our/my bills with a check in the snail mail. I want a paper trail, sorry. I also pay cash at local merchants to save them the credit card vendor fee they pay and they are happy to take it.
rikyrah
Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) posted at 7:42 AM on Mon, Jan 29, 2024:
According to CBS News, after extensive negotiations, there’s potential for a bipartisan agreement in the Senate regarding the southern border, with support from Republicans, Democrats, and President Biden.
However, this emerging compromise faces a challenge as former President Donald Trump has urged his Republican allies to obstruct the deal.
In Eagle Pass, Texas, a significant development is underway in Congress.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is reportedly nearing an agreement with the Biden administration on implementing comprehensive new border controls.
According to three individuals familiar with the discussions, as reported by CBS News, this deal includes the provision to temporarily suspend asylum processing during periods of increased migrant crossings.
(https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/1751964135921709223?t=rHKKDIvKyt7hJoID2S8mdg&s=03)
Soprano2
@satby: I have one $10/month autopay from my checking; all the others are on a credit card that I then pay every month. I don’t want them drafting from my checking account.
rikyrah
Steve Benen (@stevebenen) posted at 1:34 PM on Fri, Jan 26, 2024:
How strong has U.S. economic growth been lately? Strong enough to leave Republicans literally at a loss for words. https://t.co/uR2sz3ly3Z
(https://x.com/stevebenen/status/1750965517840519649?t=oTvaynBWCtaWlXcmWo9k_g&s=03)
rikyrah
TRUTH
Steve Benen (@stevebenen) posted at 3:41 PM on Sun, Jan 28, 2024:
Sensible advice from @EJDionne: “It’s time for everyone, the media especially, to face up to the actual choice: Between constitutional democracy and authoritarianism. Between a normal human being and a self-involved, spiteful madman.”
(https://x.com/stevebenen/status/1751722190083412166?t=ZXbochZyooIzE1SIAizxpA&s=03)
trollhattan
Spring made a welcome and false appearance yesterday, hitting 73. Break out the sunscreen, just don’t put the coats away yet.
Craig
@Suzanne: I get receipts through habit. I have a friend who collects receipts and she’ll sow them together to make fabric. She made me a pair of great lamp shades. As time has gone on they have aged and faded and look fantastic.
artem1s
@O. Felix Culpa:
Me too, I used to balance my checking account every month and keep a detailed excel worksheet to track my spending and forecast for the year. Now I use financial software. I do a monthly reconcile on my accounts in the app so I can generate reports for tax purposes but I haven’t had a checkbook for over 10 years. I generally avoid doing business with vendors and organizations that will only accept checks in person or thru the mail. It’s either cash or electronic transfer or nothing.
Ken
@rikyrah: Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Trump talking about the markets lately. I mean, it’s not like I seek out his word salads, but the media used to be pretty dutiful at reporting his crowing when the DJIA hit a new high.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I set up a separate email account fpr receipts and other business interactions so thattheir emails don’t crowd the inbox I actually use.
Citizen Alan
@p.a.: My theory is that it is not “what are they teaching?l” but rather “who are they letting in?” Journalism schools now serve as the gatekeepers of who becomes a journalist and is allowed to have opinions that see print, And the cost of getting a journalism degree from a top tier school, combined with the necessity of being able to rely on rich family members while you are getting started with unpaid internships, limits the ability of the lower classes to become journalists that get listened to. How many professional journalists working today have ever had to work a minimum wage job at any point in their lives? Do you think the likes of luke russsert or noah baker have ever worried about whether their parents could pay the rent on time?
rikyrah
I follow Jessica Valenti for all the up to date information of what’s going with abortion rights in the country.
The Week in Abortion
1.22.24 – 1.26.24
JESSICA VALENTI
JAN 28
There’s never a dull moment in abortion rights, and this week was no exception. In addition to some key updates on state legislation and ballot measures, we saw quite a few anti-abortion trends pop up over the last few days—all of which are important be paying attention to. So let’s hop into it!
The GOP’s Crisis Pregnancy Center Plan
On Monday, I told you that the GOP is doubling down on anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers—not just by increasing funding so the groups can lie to pregnant women per usual, but as an investment in multiple projects for 2024 and beyond:
Framing funding for crisis pregnancy centers as proof that Republicans “support” women and families;
Helping enact the GOP’s anti-birth control plan;
Pushing the establishment of ‘maternity’ homes;
And using the groups to enact the anti-abortion movement’s plan to pressure and force women to carry doomed pregnancies to term.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: I’m with you! I use my debit card 99% of the time, but I always get a receipt and deduct from my checkbook register. I don’t bank online as I don’t trust it not to get hacked. With all the cybercrime, it would only be a matter of time before it’s my turn. Old fashioned, yes, but that’s one area I’m firm on.
Soprano2
@Quadrillipede: Yes, to make sure the bank didn’t make a mistake. It was especially important if you run your account pretty close.
UncleEbeneezer
@SenyorDave: We know that Putin interfered with the 2016 election. We know that he’s used GRU to infiltrate and impersonate various social justice orgs to try to meddle in our elections. These are crimes and very serious ones. They also undermine our own movements. I care about our elections and our movements so honestly I have no problem the FBI opening investigations if they receive enough evidence, tip-offs etc., to justify them. Just as I was okay with the FBI using the same standards to decide when to open an investigation into Trump with regards to 1/6 and Mar-A-Lago documents. There must be protections in place for free speech and to prevent the politicization/weaponization of the FBI. But the FBI is also responsible for investigating Federal crimes if they have evidence of them. It’s their literal job to do so. We also need to remember that Putin uses these avenues of attack precisely because he knows of our general protection of political speech/movements. Preferably, protestors would be doing some due diligence of their own organizations but they can’t really be relied upon to do so. I want free speech AND to make sure our elections aren’t being fucked with by foreign powers intent on destroying our Democracy. We need both.
Another Scott
@SenyorDave:
I’m no expert, but AFAIK, a congressman or senator asking that the FBI investigate something in a conversation with the press does not mean that the FBI drops everything and starts an investigation.
There’s a process – like does the relevant House or Senate committee have to hold hearings and direct the FBI to do something? Does she have to send a letter to the relevant FBI person demanding an investigation?
E.g. Formal call for GSA to investigate new FBI headquarters selection process.
Surely, someone on the relevant oversight committee can tell Wray the next time he testifies that they want to know if VVP’s potential ties to people funding X,Y,Z are being investigated. Pelosi can draft a formal letter and see how many people are willing to sign-on. And, of course, Congress can do its own investigations in the relevant committees.
AFAIK, Pelosi was expressing her opinion, not directing the FBI to do something with her statement. Yeah, it looks like an opening for distraction and might have been unwise to use those 3 letters in her response. But without seeing a full transcript, who knows.
Corrections welcome.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yarrow
@Suzanne:
I think this is a real branding opportunity for Dems. Democrats are the party of steady, experienced, serious governance. Republicans/TFG/MAGA are the reality show/drama party.
Governing is serious business. Go watch reality shows for your drama. Leave governing to the grown ups.
Eyeroller
@Marmot: Webster’s disagrees with you https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blow%20up
Most of the definitions refer to various senses of “getting larger” or “expanding” (which is sort of what an explosion does to whatever it “blows up”). In context it’s usually pretty clear what is meant.
Yes, I’m a pedant.
Jeffro
I can’t even begin to imagine living like that, paranoid about everything and not just unhappy at seeing a player’s girlfriend happy, but actively mad about it & tying it into some darker ‘plot’.
Just ridiculous people. I’d like to be able to ignore them, but they refuse to quit trying to destroy our country. Sigh.
Aziz, light!
My Quicken record is 34 years old and I absolutely need receipts. I itemize my groceries, and every other transaction, because I want to know from year to year where the money is going, and set some budget limits. I also record all fuel purchases in detail to keep a running tally of my mileage. It drives me nuts when stores now ask me if I want a receipt, or don’t bother to ask.
Jeffro
OMG
Way to go, Biden team!
rikyrah
In case you haven’t done your taxes yet, Don’t be surprised if you owe the government money this year.
I have had a lot of satisfaction, especially on TikTok, with people getting this right about why this is happening.
It’s because of the 2017 GOP Tax Scam. Period.
Someone has to pay for the permanent tax cuts for the rich.
So, if you see someone whining about their tax bill, please spread the word about WHY it’s happening. Hell muthaphuckin’ NO…they’re not gonna get to blame President Biden for this.
Suzanne
@Another Scott:
Holy fucken shit, no lies told here. Just infuriating.
I hate mail! I hate all the junk mail and credit card offers disguised as real mail!
I realize that junk mail basically subsidizes the real mail…. but I hate it. So much waste. So much paper made (consuming water and trees), so much fuel burned to haul it around, so much time to go through it, so much space it takes up in the motherfucken landfill.
Geminid
Sheesh. All it takes is a slow news Monday, and people wanna unleash the pedant hoards.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I keep my pedant hoard in an underground bunker. It’s hell to keep them all fed
Did you, perhaps, mean pedant hordes?
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … TheHill.com:
Good, good.
More, please.
Cheers,
Scott.
dnfree
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: A lot of farmers’ markets and very small businesses use the Square devices for credit cards. Apparently once a long time ago I gave one of them my email address, and now every time my card is swiped by a Square device, I get an emailed receipt. It’s handy in case I wonder where I got that great loaf of bread, and also not so handy to look at the total for a single day in the summer and figure out that I spent $50 or so at the farmers’ market.
dnfree
@Aziz, light!: I am right with you, Quicken since 1989!
ETA: But you’re more detail-oriented. I had a former co-worker who, if he sold me a 32-cent stamp, recorded the transaction in Quicken. Heck, I usually don’t even distinguish between “Grocery” and “Household” transactions that are intermingled. On the other hand, I do distinguish between Tags for my spouse and me so it’s easy to run reports on income or expenses separately or together.
RevRick
@frosty: President Biden has a lengthy list of accomplishments.
Trump has a lengthy list of accomplices.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Can’t we have red this year? I like red. I’m tired of Republicans owning red.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@dnfree: aha, another “old school” as my grandson would say. I even still write the occasional check and yes, Quicken. 😁
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I love accepting checks at work. We process them electronically and hand the check back. It’s like a debit transaction with extra steps.
wjca
I wasn’t watching the game, but I had googled “chiefs vs ravens”, which, when refreshed, got me score updates. It also happened to display, just below, various twitter comments. I was startled (although perhaps I shouldn’t have been) to see the number of tweets saying that the refs were deciding which penalties to call based on who the NFL thought would be the better team to win. Better meaning would generate more money for the league.
Now refs, in all sports, do make mistakes. But to believe there is a pattern of deliberate mistakes is quite a stretch. Frankly, it would be more convincing to argue that (some of) the players had been paid off; there were definitely some boneheaded errors in both games. Perhaps, for those who know history, adding a reference to the Chicago Black Sox — ignoring the vast difference in what players get paid now vs then.
I guess conspiracy theories are a fad these days. If so, I’m hoping a different one comes along soon.
rikyrah
@satby:
Me too. Everyday, beginning and end of the day.
dnfree
@RevRick: Great comparison!
Geminid
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Ain’t no pedant make me tow the line!
Cheryl from Maryland
@satby: That was a great post. I’ve also been impressed with the understanding among President Biden’s security people that national security needs the US to have on-shore manufacturing capacity for drones.
wjca
It might be worth noting that, in a lot of cases, they include those because Federal or in some cases state, law requires them to do so.
Marmot
@Eyeroller:
It’s fine — at least you’re not a jerkwad about it. My complaint is that it’s used in two different contexts by politicians, journalists, etc., meaning either “destroyed” or “enlarged,” and there’s no reason to use it at all
Edit: The dictionary agrees — I’m not saying that “blow up” means just one thing.
Baud
@RevRick:
Heh.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Of course not, where would you bring it?
Barbara
@Baud: So Baud-like that you wished you had said it yourself?
opiejeanne
@NotMax: In the 1990s, when I still paid bills with checks through the mail, our mortgage was purchased by a bank in Texas. After a couple of months we started getting dinged by late charges. The first time it was because there was flooding in Texas, the next time the mail got there two days after the due date. It didn’t matter we mailed that check on the 1st and it was due by the 15th, we got a late fee fine. My husband* was so angry that he started sending the check to them by registered mail, and the late fees stopped immediately. The interesting thing was that we went back to sending the payment on the first of the month (pay day), and they always got it on time, by the 15th.
*He had taken over the bill paying so I could have a break from it.
Layer8Problem
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I go as far as a separate alias pointing to my actual email address for each organization wanting my email as a login ID or ‘required’ part of registration. Yeah, it’s silly but I type fast so not too much effort and I get to see who’s selling my email information. 😁
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Layer8Problem: Fascinating. I wouldn’t even know how to go about setting that up.
Delk
Way to go Pennsylvania!
dnfree
@eclare: I keep receipts for returns, if needed, and for Quicken. I stuff them in a folder. At the end of the year I go through the folder and discard almost all of them. (The ones printed on that special paper at cash registers can’t be recycled.).
But I don’t get receipts at gas stations and fast food places, for example. If I see “McDonald’s” on my credit card statement I know what it was for, and it’s too late to return it.
Baud
@Delk:
👍
Marmot
It’s Monday. Fuck it.
@frosty:
And if that’s the case, then when it’s meant as “expanded,” like with the national debt, you have ambiguity. See?
Barbara
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: In cases of expressions like this, where many use “tow the line” when it’s supposed to be “toe the line,” my view is — never use them in written expressions! They just start disagreements not over what you said but how you said it. When it remains spoken, everyone knows what you meant and is happy to use whatever image works best for them.
Marmot
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Ha! That image has crossed my mind.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Barbara: This is true, but this following this advice does not allow me to make light of the absurdity of an interlocutor’s written statement.
Baud
I will never look at a blow up doll in the same way ever again.
Geminid
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Just stay off of my lawn, please. Strongly requested. Thanks.
Barbara
@opiejeanne: This happened with my student loans. Our first mortgage was sold multiple times in the first few months and the recipient failed to pay property taxes (we had to set up an escrow on the presumption that they were more trustworthy), and a gentleman at our local assessor’s office called me on my home line and told me that I should come in and pay them immediately and get reimbursed later, because they were so late. When I called the mortgagee they apologized and said that they were so busy they had overlooked some tax payments. They did reimburse me for the late fees, but it’s just ridiculous that they can persuade legislators of their superior trustworthiness compared to deadbeat borrowers.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Geminid: Certainly. Where is your lawn? I ask only so that I may stay off of it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: Well there were some product recalls on some of those dolls due to an unfortunate defect, though the manufacturers claimed they were never intended to be used near a candle…
which just reminded me of a hilarious skit I saw at Second City on a long ago trip to Chicago.
Another Scott
@Marmot: Nominated.
Hehe.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@Baud: Yes, well, “blow up” is ambiguous, and many people will say something like the “deficit has ballooned” under Republican administrations, which makes it clearer what they mean. When you say “blew up the process” or “blew up the consensus” then it means it exploded into a lot of tiny pieces and can’t be put back together or something like that.
Marmot
@Baud: Damn. And I’ve been suspicious of abandoned briefcases this whole time!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Our capitalist society assumes the superior trustworthiness of the business over individuals. Borrowers and lenders, employers and employees; doesn’t matter. It’s owners v. motivated bad actors until proven otherwise.
NotMax
@Baud
Ain’t supposed to look at them.
Or so I’ve heard.
;)
cain
@Bruce K in ATH-GR
I am more worried about the drinks. A colleague got roofied while at an establishment. Found himself on the street with stuff stolen or jail not sure which. It was a harrowing experience. This was in Greece.
Geminid
It looks like Maryland will have a younger Congressional delegation next year. Albert “Dutch” Ruppensberger will retire after representing the 2nd CD since 2003. He is 77 years old. Third CD Rep. John Sarbanes will retire at age 61, while 68 year-old David Trone is running for Senator intead of reelection to the 6th District seat.
Quadrillipede
@Soprano2: I think my parents did try to teach me how to balance a chequebook, but I was around 20 at the time and was thus reluctant to waste valuable memory on something that seemed of marginal utility even back in the 80s/90s. My latest CC sends me an email about a minute after every time the balance changes, which serves as a useful confirmation that bills are getting paid etc…
rikyrah
They don’t want to deal with actual POLICY. That would require that they do WORK on said POLICY. They rather want to be stenographers
Ken
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I wonder if that skit influenced the classic Saturday Night LIve “On the Spot” interviews, with Dan Ackroyd as a sleazy manufacturer being interviewed about his company’s toys (“This is literally a bag of broken glass”) and costumes (“Your ‘Johnny Human Torch’ costume is a can of lighter fluid and a matchbook”).
Kathleen
@Subsole: Yes! After what we saw in 2016 and 2021 on January 6th we can’t discount that nefarious players are trying to destroy democracy and specifically Democrats. I believe Pelosi.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
They can do that with less education, less work, and; most importantly; less prestige.
rikyrah
@UncleEbeneezer:
Clap clap clap
NotMax
@Quadrillipede
You mean people bother checking their e-mail more frequently than around once a month (if I remember to do so)?
Gobsmacked, I am.
;)
Kathleen
@different-church-lady: Or referred to “vast right wing conspiracy”, for which she was mocked (of course).
Kathleen
@different-church-lady: I balance my checkbook too, though most of my transactions are via debit card.
Suzanne
@dnfree:
So, after a former colleague became incredibly violently ill and hospitalized with listeria food poisoning, possibly from the restaurant we both ate at for lunch that day, I learned that you can only sue a restaurant if you have a receipt.
Honestly, I have no idea if that’s true. But it does make me think about getting receipts at restaurants.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
One out of every four dollars of our national deficit is from the 2017 GOP Tax Scam.
Kathleen
@satby: That column was a masterpiece.
Steeplejack
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
I suspect that Geminid’s “tow the line” was a joke after his previous gaffe.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Steeplejack: You don’t say…?
Geminid
@Steeplejack: Gaffe, shmaffe, they’re all jokes. And I don’t care how many pedants have been mustard, they’d better stay off my lawn!
frosty
@suzanne: My Medigap provider Highmark does the same damn thing. We’re signed up for autopay and digital notices, but every month they send a letter with an invoice and another one confirming payment. To me and Ms F both. They go straight to trash. What a fucken waste.
Quinerly
@wjca:
And this is why I still carry some cash. I am seeing an extra 6% added on in a lot of restaurants here in Santa Fe and when I travel.
I also prefer to pay small vendors, artists in cash. Especially at flea markets and the likes. Sometimes can get a better deal on a bigger ticket item with cash.
I always tip bartenders, waitstaff, and musicians (tip jars) in cash.
Chief Oshkosh
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Same here. I occasionally look for new solutions as I don’t like Quicken’s newer versions. Do any of you have suggestions for replacement applications that will import decades of old Quicken data?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: No, it was the blow-up doll thing. Specifically, a romantic candlelight dinner with a date who turned out to be a blow-up doll (played, hilariously and very convincingly, by an actual human)
RaflW
Late to this thread, but to Madam Speaker Emerita’s point, I think Dems will own the ground game. Republican state parties are in open internal revolt, going or gone broke, run by crazy-eyed ‘true believers’, etc.
Those state parties are who run a lot of the door knocking, lit drops, and rides to polls. The GOP shitshow is for realz. Democrats can kick their asses.
Quadrillipede
@NotMax: if I make a CC transaction and then literally within a minute see the email notification flash up on my phone, that notification has already taken up space in my short-term memory whether I want it there or not…
dnfree
@Chief Oshkosh: I have not seen any alternatives yet. I pay the annual fee and get monthly updates to Quicken. Most of them don’t make any difference to me, but one I just noticed this month seems to be a game-changer.
I don’t import transactions from credit cards etc. because I don’t think they will categorize and “tag” themselves according to my method. Quicken used to have a “memorize transaction” function that would, for instance, bring up the appropriate split on mortgage or paycheck transactions, and the correct amount on recurring transactions that change from time to time. The “memorize” feature apparently had a limit on the number of entries, and mine were all used up.
So, for instance, many years ago we got gas at a Meijer store on a trip. Now I live near a Meijer and do most of my grocery shopping there. It always popped up as an “auto fuel” transaction and I’d have to change it to “grocery”. Now all of a sudden, instead of going way back to an old memorized transaction, it’s bringing up my most recent Meijer transaction, which is appropriately grocery, so all I have to change is the amount (as would have happened years ago with memorized transactions). This has speeded up the entry process significantly!
Suzanne
@frosty:
See, I get paranoid about putting them in the trash. Not that anyone’s gonna be like, “YAY STUDENT LOANS!”. But I set them aside to shred. But I don’t have a shredder. So it’s just another fucken job. I don’t want any more fucken jobs to do.
dnfree
@Quadrillipede:
You get notifications on your phone of EVERY email you receive? That way seems to lie madness? I’d never see messages I actually needed to see in real time.
jonas
@RaflW: And of course the bigger problem for the GOP is that they are now a fully owned and operated subsidiary of Trump, Inc., for Trump, by Trump, so that if different candidates in swing districts need to pursue somewhat different strategies to get reelected, such as perhaps distancing oneself from a 91x-indicted sex abuser, TS. All funding, strategy, and decision-making go through Trump campaign headquarters and you *will* kneel before Zod.
UncleEbeneezer
From the Senate Intel Report:
Given the Russian history of election-interference, the toxic division around the Isreal/Palestine conflict and the fact that Michigan has a high Muslim population, it’s not unreasonable to assume that Russia is playing a role in pushing the Genocide, CeaseFire and more blatantly anti-Biden sentiment that is utterly dominating Twitter and other social media, to try and hand MI to Trump and make the election close enough for another 2016-like result. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t protest. That doesn’t mean there aren’t legitimate critiques of Biden/Israel. But it is definitely the kind of sudden, overwhelming social media trend that usually has Russian roots/amplification and sinister, anti-democratic and criminal potential.
dnfree
@Quinerly: My daughter who used to wait tables puts a tip on the credit card and ALSO adds some cash. If she leaves no tip on the credit card, only cash, she writes CASH on the tip line so someone won’t post the receipt online and call her a cheapskate who doesn’t tip.
Chief Oshkosh
@dnfree: Thanks for the follow-up. Welp, “fixing” Quicken was on my to-do list for 2024. Sounds like I just need to bite the bullet and migrate all of my old data into their newest version and go on down the road.
Quadrillipede
Fortunately for my ability to function in the real world, no. Just emails from my bank to tell me my card balance changed. (In every case so far, that’s because I just made a purchase on the card, or I paid off the outstanding balance…)
Sister Golden Bear
Haven’t had time to read the whole thread, but in case this hadn’t been posted: PA Supreme Court Rules Abortion Access Is A Right
Also too, in trans genocide news, Texas AG tries to impose the fugitive
slavetrans healthcare act on other states: Paxton Demands Medical Records Of GA Trans Clinic. As I posted about a few days ago, other Republicans were caught saying the quiet part out loud — that the goal is to ban trans healthcare for all trans people regardless of age.Sister Golden Bear
@p.a.:
Valid question, but there also aren’t many actual journalism schools, so many journalists don’t actually have degrees in it.
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: I love the word “pedant.” Because it’s impossible to use the word pedant conversationally without being a pedant yourself. It’s like jejune that way.
jowriter
@Quinerly: Me, too. I want to make sure my servers don’t have to wait on their employers’ honest accounting of the tip portion of a credit card payment.
RaflW
@Sister Golden Bear: I know there’s a sh*t-ton of things for voters to keep track of going into Nov ’24, but for the 99% of the country that is cis gender, we need to be paying really, really close attention to this.
A state attempting to access anyone’s personal medical records in another state, where the care they receive is 100% legal, consensual and provided by licensed practitioners is f**king way, way beyond Orwellian. It’s horrific, and an insanely dangerous precedent if it somehow stands.
Ugh.
Gender care should not be illegal, of course, but for the moment these awful people have managed to get there in some states. That has to get reversed. But for this moment, the message I hope average people hear is that Republicans are reaching into the private medical files of fellow citizens and rampaging around.
catclub
@Geminid:
I will owe you one and toe the lien.
Sister Golden Bear
@RaflW:
If they haven’t already done so, I’m sure Republicans will also start doing with abortion. I know there’s at least two states with bills to make it a serious felony to transport someone out of state to get an abortion.
Something they pioneered with trans healthcare a year or two ago. I.e. making it a crime for someone to leave the state to get trans healthcare, and also a crime for anyone who helped them.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: Paper is one of the most recyclable substances we make. I put all my paper and cardboard (not corrugated, that goes in a different place) in the recycling now.
Soprano2
@jowriter: I don’t know how other establishments do it, but we pay out tips at the end of their shift every time they work. It’s all coded to their name in the POS system. It’s a lot harder to cheat these employees than it used to be with the way POS systems work. Now ask me how the employees can steal from me……
Subsole
@Geminid:
Uhhhh…why are we hoarding pedants, again??
Suzanne
@Soprano2:
Sure, but it still requires a shit-ton of water in its manufacturing process. It’s heavy, and it requires fuel to haul it to a printing press. Then more fuel to a mail house to prepare it for direct mail. Then to the actual post office. Then to my actual city and then my house.
And then I didn’t fucken want it anyway, so I throw it in my recycle bin,, and then there’s more fuel spent hauling it back to a recycling center. And energy spent recycling it!
AAAAHHHHHH.
NotMax
@Suzanne
It’s the circle of strife.
;)
Suzanne
@NotMax: The whole saying is REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
Reducing is literally the preferred option! The first and best thing! Why are we shipping literal garbage around the country?!
FunWWords
@Frankensteinbeck: maybe it’s the perfect wording because the deficit both expanded under T666p tax cuts AND also too was damaging & destructive … an expanding explosion of deficit damage
@Frankensteinbeck:
dnfree
@Soprano2: When my daughter waited tables in downtown Chicago, a long time ago, the waitstaff would change clothes, from black slacks and a white shirt to jeans, before taking the El home. Someone in black slacks late at night was vulnerable to being robbed because of the assumption they might be carrying cash.