Houston is still underwater and recovery from Hurricane Harvey will likely take years. But while people are still escaping their flooded homes, House Republicans are looking to cut nearly $1 BILLION from disaster relief funding to pay for Trump’s idiotic and immoral border wall.
House Republicans have done a lot of stupid, tone-deaf things, but this has to be one of the worst. Call your members of Congress and tell them: Don’t cut funding for disaster relief!
Here’s your script: “Hi, my name is [Your Name] and I’m a constituent from [Your Town]. I’m calling because I’m very concerned about the Houses’ proposed omnibus spending bill, which cuts nearly a billion dollars from disaster aid. With so many people displaced by Hurricane Harvey, we shouldn’t be taking away money to help them recover. I hope [Representative So-and-so] will vote against any bill that reduces disaster funding. Thank you.”
House Democrats have introduced a resolution to censure Trump for his comments after Charlottesville.The resolution is a formal, public rebuke of Trump’s defense of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Both Republicans and Democrats have spoken out against Trump’s comments, so they should all be willing to condemn them officially.
Here’s your script: “Hi, my name is [your name] and I’m a constituent from [your town]. I’m calling to ask Representative So-and-so to co-sponsor the resolution to censure Trump for his remarks about Charlottesville. If Representative so-and-so really believes that it’s wrong to defend white supremacists and neo-Nazis, he should should support the resolution to send a clear, public message that the President’s rhetoric is unacceptable. Thank you.”
After some legal trouble, Trump’s “Commission on Voter Integrity” is taking another stab at requesting voter information from the states. Kris Kobach, who’s leading the commission, is the “king of voter suppression” - he’s even been sued by the ACLU FOUR TIMES for suppressing the vote in his home state of Kansas.
Your state’s Attorney General shouldn’t hand over voter information to someone with that kind of anti-voter track record. The incredible folks at Indivisible have scripts to call your state and demand they stand up to the Kobach commission.
“what do we do about people who fake disabilities to get ssi” we throw them a fucking party for pulling off the most difficult and unrewarding grift of all time. literally i don’t care
i wholeheartedly embrace the fuck-the-systemness solidarity of this and therefore have to make sure i understand both sides … so we’re saying ‘fakes’ do not hurt the ppl with true disabilities who have to fight tooth and nail for benefits?
sadly i have firsthand work experience in this area, via medical office with FT social worker, and i promise, the folks ‘faking’ would be the last people you’d want to party with…thankfully our docs were EXTREMELY rigid about identifying said grifters. honorable mentions, 100% real:
• 40 yo M: “can you just give me disability, i need time away from work to pursue acting career. they don’t give us FMLA or anything”
• mid-aged couple: sentenced to community service by local court, requesting SSID status to exempt them from having to fulfill. the task what assembling mailers
•45 yo F: “i just want the placard for better parking spots at work. can’t you just get the doctor to say i’m disabled?”
•50 yo M: orthopedic injuries presented to obtain opioids and SSID benefits, MD reviews all MRIs and CTs, clean. patient denied both requests. storms out of office, throwing his cervical collar down in waiting area on way out as limp magically disappears
i’ll open myself to critique here, suffice to say, i cannot help but think such characters have not contributed to the current screening state of this program. and anyone not getting what they actually need bc of it is anything short of infuriating for me. it’s super fucked, thinking about every single actually disabled person denied for every person faking that has been approved. not who that limited pool of collected public funds is for.
The grifters you have mentioned are painfullyeasy to identify. Many of the literally told you that they were faking it. They do not nearly justify the incredible difficulty involved in the process of actually getting approved.
You can be fully, provably disabled and you will get denied. People who judge your case often ignore evidence collected from everyone from family members to doctors to deny people. The reasons they give that you can keep working display a stunning amount of ignorance to how disabilities actually work or are intentionally attempting to deny people the tiny pittance of money given to people who desperately need it for basic survival.
The average approval time in my state is 21 months. Nearly two years going without what you desperately need to survive. If you try to earn some money in that time just to keep yourself alive it will be used as evidence against your case. No matter how damaging that work is or how unsustainable it is in the long term. For this reason many disabled people are forced into illegal and dangerous work simply because they cannot survive for two fucking years without any help, such as sex work. If they get caught trying to survive it will be used to deny the claim.
Now one might think that you could maybe save up before hand and make it through the process that way. Not so. With only a few exceptions, if you have at any time in the process more than 2000 dollars to your name it will be used as evidence against you. This 2000 limit will continue indefinitely as long as you are receiving benefits, and the government will monitor your bank account at all times so if it goes over your benefits will be canceled.
They will frequently demand for you to justify how you survived in the intervening period. How did you pay rent? How did you buy food? They will use your answer against you when they make your decision.
The amount of pointless, redundant, and difficult paperwork involved is another major barrier. Of course while they may take upwards of 6 to 9 months each step of the way, but you might receive a piece of mail that you have to respond to within days or it will be used against your case, or your case may be denied outright.
The form I had to initially fill out was 21 pages long. My wife and I both had to fill out another 14 page long document. I had to fill out details on the make and model of my car, because apparently people are worried that I might be driving a sports car. If you car is too nice they will use it against you. You are only allowed one car ever even if practically you really need two.
I attempted to apply for disability a few years ago. I messed up a couple questions because I did not understand them and it was used to deny my claim. I had to start from scratch, including resetting that 21 month waiting period.
The fact that I am a stay at home mom taking care of my daughter best I can is used against me.
The entire process is so strict and difficult to navigate that there are successful businesses called “disability advocates” that are practically required for a successful case. Fortunately their are laws that say they can only get paid if the claim is successful, and there is a cap on how much they cost so its nothing to lose. Of course this involves filling out even more paperwork, communicating with people, more work and more effort.
You need medical professionals to back up your claim or it will almost certainly be denied. Only Doctors are good enough. Mentally disabled and can’t afford several weeks of sessions? Physically disabled but you can’t afford a specialist doctor? Your chances of approval just dropped like a rock.
If at any time you act in such a way that isn’t stereotypically disabled there is a significant chance it will be used against you. The minimum capabilities required to go through the process are practically evidence against your case as well - for example, being capable of a coherent explanation of your symptoms and difficulties, Even if you broke down crying during the interview for a half hour because it is so difficult, is seen as proof that you are “capable of communication”, which was the exact reason given for my last denial. In the minds of the people making the determination I was capable of communication, which meant there had to be some job somewhere I was capable of performing.
If you have good days that fact will be used against you. If you go to an interview and don’t show glaringly obvious symptoms there is a good chance it will mean you will be denied.
The entire process is designed to discourage attempts. It is split into three stages. The first stage has only a 30% approval rate. The people you are talking about above never get far enough to even count against that approval rate. There is evidence in the form of leaked documents that people who do qualify are rejected instead simply to lengthen their approval process and discourage people to get them to drop out of their attempt. The first appeal has around a 10% approval rate. Only at the third stage, an actual court hearing with a judge, is there an approval rate in your favor at just over 50%. These three stages each may last between 6 and 9 months, which is why the approval process takes nearly two years.
At every step you will have to fill out more redundant paper work.
Those approval stats, by the way, are assuming you got one of those disability advocates. If you didn’t your chances drop significantly at every stage.
Almost all of these things are so strict in the name of “catching frauds” who may not absolutely need it.
The process is extremely difficult, humiliating, is difficult to survive, and is likely to fail. Almost no one gets approved their first time attempting the process, even if they plainly on the face of it absolutely need the benefits , because the process is so difficult. So a fraud would have to go through that entire painful process and succeed. So what do they get?
It will be around 700 to 800 dollars a month at most. Not enough to really live on, your going to be making hard choices between medicine, food, and shelter. You wont ever have nice things or live comfortably. And it comes with major restrictions that will force you into poverty and keep you there as long as you are part of the program. Any reasonable attempt you might make to better your own situation will be used to take your benefits away, you are not allowed to lift yourself out of a painful, difficult life of poverty. Many disabled individuals have to continue dangerous and illegal work, like sex work, in order to make ends meet.
By the way, if someone is doing sex work on the side and is caught, that will be reported as “fraudulent” abuse of the system. There are a good deal of other types of “fraud” claims used to deny benefits to people who need them and inflate the reported fraud numbers to justify these harsh screening methods.
This is what is meant by the original post. The screening process is so impossibly over the top and the benefits so little that the idea that fraud is a real problem on any scale is laughable. But it continues to be something people are obsessed over. Obviously we would not like actual frauds, but the entire structure of disability benefits is built around the obsessive attempt to prevent even one fraudulent case no matter how many actual disabled people suffer and die for it. “Fraud” is first and foremost an excuse to deny disabled people the tiny amount of help they desperate need just to survive.
So if somehow in some extremely rare case a person actually goes through that entire extremely difficult process just so they can live in poverty and pain with a pittance of survival money then I literally do not give a single fuck and neither should you. Stop obsessing over the minuscule chance of fraud and start recognizing that the insane screening process and laws in place are not due to supposed fraud attempts, it’s due to a desire from those who put those laws and screening process in place for us to just die because they see us as nothing but a drain on society.
Statistically speaking your “extremely rigid” docs are most likely denying tons of legitimate cases because they do not understand disabilities, which is extremelycommon (far more common than not), and using these honorable mention cases as justification for how good they are at clocking ‘fakes’. They are the reason we have to perform humiliating stereotypes of disability at every turn or be denied. They are virtually certainly one of the biggest parts of the problem.
the thing that strikes me about this latest wave of anti-trans hate and legislation in the U.S. is that it feels like it’s *kind of* about trans people but really about a fear fundamental to all conservatives that a day will one day come when they will no longer be able to completely control their children
american conservatism is a death cult. trump made this incredibly obvious but it’s been trending that way for a while. it is spiteful, bigoted, cruel, morally bankrupt, and all evidence in support of it has either been fabricated, forged, deceptively edited, or disproven. being conservative goes against a fundamental human desire to be kind to those around you and I think on some level conservatives know this, and thus, they know that the only reason children would subscribe to these values is if they are indoctrinated into them with cult-like single-mindedness
Conservatives have been pushing for homeschooling for decades, they’ve been raising concerns about teaching evolution in schools since the early 20th century, they’ve made wedge issues out of sex ed, history textbooks, and now gay and trans teachers. They want a world in which children are taught to be conservative from birth and any attempt to teach them anything else is a literal crime. They want this because they know, deep down inside, that most children would not agree with them unless they were literally brainwashed into it.
also worth pointing out that most child abuse (sexual or otherwise) takes place within a “traditional” family structure or a “traditional” religious institution and I have to wonder if people who want to abuse kids have a fundamental investment in preserving strict hierarchies in which adult men have unquestioned authority over children
Like I’m not saying *every* conservative is like this but perhpas their emphasis on “groomers” is a wee bit of projection
Anyway abolish the family trans rights are human rights institute fully automated luxury gay space communism now
in light of the texas abortion ban here’s a reminder to stop debating what counts as a human, baby, or life with pro-lifers because that is not a debate you can win. you can not win a philosophical debate about what counts as a person, and you will not change their minds.
what can be proven is that in no situation under united states law is an individual legally obligated to lend their body or organs for the sake of another life.
4.5 million people each year are in need of blood transfusion, the entire process of donating blood takes a little over an hour, it’s free, and a single pint of blood can save up to 3 peoples lives, but there is no legal obligation or requirement to donate blood in place.
it is illegal to take organs from deceased peoples’ bodies without permission. CORPSES. bodily integrity is prioritized by law, even after death.
it doesn’t fucking matter whether a fetus is a person, whether a fetus is alive, whether a fetus has a soul. it literally doesn’t matter. pro-lifers set up the argument through that lens (hence their name) to evoke empathy and pity and take the focus away from the actual process of pregnancy, which changes a person’s body FOREVER. that is not an exaggeration. whether the pregnancy is complicated and high-risk or totally smooth sailing, the birthing person will physically never be the same. if they’re lucky, they’ll come out of it with weight gain, differently shaped breasts, and changes to the cervix/vagina. if they aren’t, there’s a fucking laundry list of potential complications that could arise, that may eventually fix themselves, need surgical or therapeutic intervention, or never go away, like varicose veins, separation of the abdominal muscles, incontinence, prolapse, diabetes, postpartum depression, and chronic pain, just off the top of my head. and this makes no mention of the very real possibility of income disruption, as well as the financial cost of giving birth, and the chance of fucking death, which is even higher for underserved communities like black women.
there is no basis for a governing body forcing an individual to lend their body or organs for the sake of another life. that is the argument. period the end.
Look obviously it’s virtually impossible to change peoples’ minds on this one but I have to say if you think “WELL AKTUALLY IT’S ILLEGAL TO MAKE SOMEONE DONATE ORGANS” is your winning argument you’re batty.
They believe, firmly, that a fucking zygote is a person. Therefore they believe abortion is murder of a TINY BABY. You’re not going to convince them that it’s okay to MURDER A BABY just because it’s not legal to harvest organs from people.
They believe they are respecting the bodily rights OF A BABY. They will not think that this argument makes the tiniest bit of sense. If you actually fucking say “if they’re lucky, they’ll come out of it with weight gain, differently shaped breasts, and changes to the cervix/vagina” like this post does they’ll say “OH I’M SO SORRY YOUR BOOBS MIGHT HAVE SAGGED, I GUESS IT’S OKAY TO MURDER BABIES IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR PERKY TITS” which yes - I know - misses the entire point of what the above post is saying (reminder that I am staunchly pro-choice and not the tiniest bit religious).
They think it’s murder, they think they are speaking for tiny babies that cannot speak for themselves, and so bringing up “income disruption” sounds absolutely ghoulish. It is mind-blowing that you think this is an argument that’s going to suddenly make them change their minds. Ridiculous.
And I know. I know. I probably can’t succeed at convincing them it’s not a baby, either. My argument is ALSO doomed. But I hold out hope that I’ll reach one of the many people that has been lied to about the medical facts and make them realize that there’s something shady going on, that no that’s not an accurate representation of a fetus their priest handed them, that no it doesn’t make sense to count a twitching heart cell as a “heartbeat”, etc.
But the argument in the post above won’t just fail - it will make them double down, and “prove” to them that we’re evil. Which… eh. I mean they think that anyway, I guess. I don’t know. I’m just tired and frustrated.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would strip “woke corporations like Disney” of special protections enabling companies to hold copyright material for decades.
The Copyright Clause Restoration Act would limit copyrighted material to 56 years and apply the new rule retroactively, meaning Disney and other companies could immediately lose some copyright protections if the law were passed.
The measure is the latest Republican attack on Disney, which last month was stripped of its self-governing status at its amusement park in Orlando, Fla., after Gov. Ron DeSantis took issue with the media company for speaking out against the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
Hawley’s bill goes after Disney’s long-running list of iconic characters stretching from Mickey Mouse to Marvel superheroes.
Hawley said in a press release that “the age of Republican handouts to Big Business is over.”
All this, because Disney did the bare minimum of performative tolerance, after their previous republican support hurt the bottom line…
Okay so, is this a good thing, a bad thing, or some mix of the two?
Limiting copyrights held by corporations: Good. Unquestionably.
Limiting copyrights generally: Depends. The Tolkien and Doyle estates are pulling one sort of fuckery; the sheer volume of decades-old art that’s difficult to preserve and impossible to make publicly accessible on account of the copyright holder being unknown or uncontactable is itself another kind of fuckery; but making it so an individual creator who’s lucky enough to get consistent income from their work still can throughout their life, and their family still can after their death, is not itself fuckery, and changing that really could be.
Limiting copyrights to punish corporations generally: Um. On board with the concept, got some questions about mechanism.
Limiting copyrights to punish Disney specifically: There’s a reason the most recent copyright term extension is in law nicknamed the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act, and that reason is it was mostly pushed for by Disney, who is also one of the biggest beneficiaries. That extra twenty years of copyright protection certainly hasn’t been helping individual creators any.
Limiting copyrights to punish Disney specifically for pausing political donations to Florida legislators who support hideously bigoted legislation? Not even stopping, just pausing? Fuck off.
Admitting the reasoning is to end government handouts to Big Business? Raise your voice a little, Senator Hawley, I don’t think I quite heard the quiet part you’re shouting…
the best thing that we can do right now to fight for abortion rights is donating to your local abortion fund, especially in states with “trigger laws” or laws that will immediately take harsh measures to shut down abortion rights as soon as roe is overturned. If you don’t know your local abortion fund or states with trigger laws, here’s one in Texas,one in Louisiana,one in Georgia,one in West Virginiaandone in Mississippi (all states with such “trigger laws”). There’s so many more beyond the handful i just listed here but times like these are the time to donate and support the incredible work that these organizations do for their communities.
wow it’s almost like there should have been some sort of stipulation in our government that precludes the possibility for christian fascism like some sort of separation of church and state
The Supernatural fandom is buzzing about tonight’s SPN Fights On event. But what’s supposed to happen, exactly? Should you tune in to watch? Here’s what we know.
The Cast: Though the entire guest list has not been released, there will be confirmed appearances from Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padelecki, the show’s creator Eric Kripke, and Stacey Abrams, creator of Fair Fight.
The Cost: Entry is a pick your price donation to Fair Fight. Currently admission is only open to American citizens, but Misha Collins has posted on twitter that he’s working on a way to open it up to international viewers. Updates to follow.
When: The event will start at 9pm ET.
The Experience: From the SPNFightsOn page, “The event will feature discussion about the show and live performances from the cast… We’ll also be offering some incentives: top contributors and trivia question winners will get exclusive Supernatural memorabilia straight from the cast & crew.” These incentives include meet and greets with the cast (including virtual ASL lesson with Shoshannah Stern and a guitar lesson from Rob Benedict), exclusive SPN crew clothing, a piece of one of the Impalas, and much more, which are all listed on the website.
About Fair Fight: Fromtheir website, “Fair Fight brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in other voter education programs and communications.”
Okay, USA followers, you know how we all hate bank fees? I mean, you overdraw your account by $1.23 and you get charged $25.00? That’s evil.
As of Jan 26, 2022, the Biden Administration CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) is bringing the hammer down on junk fees. This is more than just bank fees - this is going after the junk fees on things like prepaid cards, loans, bank transfers, credit card late fees, even closing costs on a mortgage.
The CFPB needs public comments, like the opinions of real people who are affected by these fees, to build a case about telling financial organizations that THEY CAN’T CHARGE THEM ANYMORE.
The CFPB says it’s particularly interested in hearing from older and lower-income consumers, students, service members and people of color.
There’s some good detail about the comments in this investopedia article. The easiest way to comment is to send an email to FederalRegisterComments@cfpb.gov. Include Docket No. CFPB-2022-0003 in the subject line of the message.
Note that these are public comments. They will be published online through the CFPB website. Don’t include account numbers, social security numbers, or full names. Tell a story - tell about the time you overdrew your account by $1.23 and the bank took $35. Tell about how you signed up for a credit card and the company charged you a bunch of fees you didn’t even know about. Tell about how you transferred money from your savings account to a checking account and the bank charged you $2.50.
These junk fees are a slap in the face of ordinary people who can’t refuse to pay, and the CFBP is taking aim at the banks that charge them. To read what CFPB director Rohit Chopra had to say about this call to action, click here.
You have until March 31, 2022 to submit comments.
YES!!!!
FUCKING YES!!!!!!
Y'all know the hole I just asked your help digging me out of like, literally last week?
THAT HOLE WOULD NOT HAVE EXISTED WITHOUT PREDATORY FEES LIKE THIS
THIS WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR SO MANY PEOPLE
DATES:Comments must be received on or before March 31, 2022.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CFPB-2022-0003, by any of the following methods:
•Email: [email protected]. Include Docket No. CFPB-2022-0003 in the subject line of the message.
•Mail/Hand Delivery/Courier: Comment Intake —Fee Assessment, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 1700 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20552. Please note that due to circumstances associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the CFPB discourages the submission of comments by hand delivery, mail, or courier.
Instructions: The CFPB encourages the early submission of comments. All submissions should include document title and docket number. Because paper mail in the Washington, DC area and at the CFPB is subject to delay, commenters are encouraged to submit comments electronically. In general, all comments received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov.
Hey guys. I’m a federal employee. I write regulations. I personally go through every single one of thousands of comments.
Unlike Congress, where sometimes your call or email about a policy goes into the void, every single comment about a regulation is individually read and tallied.
When a regulation is written it will say something like “The CFPB adopted X because it received 5,284 comments telling us to do that.”
Write your comments.
It can be short. It can be long. It can go into detail about your experiences or your background. It can simply be an email saying “overdraft fees suck and should be illegal.”
And it will affect policy.
Note, however, that comments are generally public record, so even though you’re encouraged to give your name, don’t give personally identifiable information.
Federal register comments are one of the least known yet most powerful ways to influence public policy.
