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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#273201: Mar 1st 2019 at 9:35:02 AM

Can't wait for Linkara to review it once its out

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#273202: Mar 1st 2019 at 9:36:57 AM

"Josh Blaylock, the founder of Devil’s Due Comics, told ABC News that the comic book will be an anthology, telling a wide range of stories.

"I have a really, really nice, sweet one that's just like a pleasant commentary on just being excited about things.

There are some completely absurd, irreverent ones that are really like just cathartic venting about, you know, the current climate that we’re living in," Blaylock said. "Some are more just like a narrative, educational overview."

Apparently it was brought on because AOC made a Watchmen reference.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#273203: Mar 1st 2019 at 9:44:43 AM

Comic fans really latch on the most ridiculous of things, don't they?

Soban Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
#273204: Mar 1st 2019 at 9:54:45 AM

You know, I don't agree with AOC about much, but making a comic book for her would present a interesting challenge that I think I'd enjoy. How to represent her views and what she does as a congresswoman in a way that is both accurate and interesting. Often accurate loses out to interesting. It would also depend on if the comic book is about her journey to where she is or about what is happening at the moment.

Oruka Since: Dec, 2018
#273205: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:14:25 AM

[up]Here's a really good one about the history of Economics. It's so well-written and digestible, I got the knowledge equivalent of brain freeze from just getting too much info into my head too fast with no effort. That guy has mastered comic fluency.

Here's AOC's quote:

First time I hear of this. My reaction.

"That took off like wildfire in the comic book world and on comic book social media and I knew that now the clock was ticking. If we didn't move forward with this right away somebody else was going to beat us to the punch," Blaylock said.

You don't say.

My first real politician comic was a Spider-Man/Bloomberg crossover.

I had mixed feelings about it.

Edited by Oruka on Mar 1st 2019 at 11:16:40 AM

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#273206: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:38:30 AM

[up][up][up]

It's not just comic fans - we have an entire trope dedicated to spotlighting the nerdy public figures who wear their nerdiness openly.

And with the question about "Why cut public services?" a few pages back, the rationale boils down to "We're coddling them, and if they're comfortable with what pittance they get, that means they'll never get off public aid!" This has brought about some very unflattering comparisons, such as this one from 2010, in which South Carolina Lt. Gov Andre Bauer compared the poor to animals.

"Why shouldn't you have to do something?" Bauer asked of people receiving food stamps, free school lunches and public housing. "In government, we are too often giving a handout instead of a hand up."

Friday, Bauer said giving food to needy people means encouraging dependence. It also gives the recipients a license to have children who will also be dependent on public aid, he said.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals," Bauer told a Greenville-area crowd. "You know why? Because they breed.

"You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Edited by ironballs16 on Mar 1st 2019 at 2:38:44 PM

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#273207: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:41:24 AM

Jesus Christ that quote is horrific. Jesus Christ.

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#273208: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:51:14 AM

What's sad is that I've heard that same argument from people who were receiving government aid.

For some reason their food stamps and free school lunches don't apply.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#273209: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:52:29 AM

[up][up][up]I wish I was more shocked with that kind of attitude, but it is so bloody common where I live that I find it difficult to muster the outrage.

Edited by HailMuffins on Mar 1st 2019 at 4:53:10 PM

unknowing from somewhere.. Since: Mar, 2014
#273210: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:55:26 AM

No only is horrific, it surprise me how they dont see that when the wealthy are in crisis, they dont really mind a hand up....or two, and when they can they leach the state and poor people to feed their hunger for money.

is despicable.

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#273211: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:55:29 AM

SNAP (food) benefits for a single adult are about $120 a month. Housing assistance is nearly impossible to get; 74% of those who qualify aren’t getting help because of frozen waiting lists and lack of funding. And there’s a lot of strings attached, and if you’ve ever been evicted, you probably don’t qualify. Evictions are a MASSIVE issue in the US; 2.3 million people are evicted per year, and being evicted once makes it highly likely that your finances, health, employment, and housing will spiral and get worse for several years.

Oh, and our definition of poverty for a single person? It’s set nationally at $12,490 a year. Or 1,040 a month before taxes. So, if you make $13,000 a year, congrats! You’re not in poverty! I’m sure $1,083 a month is enough for food, shelter, transportation, and healthcare.

For reference, if you work full time (standard is 8 hours a day, 261 working days a year) on minimum wage, you’ll make $15,138 a year before taxes, or $1,261.50 a month.

That’s if you can find full time hours. Oh, and it’s almost impossible to find housing under $600 a month, even in rural areas and bad neighborhoods. And if you’re in a bad neighborhood, your landlord is likely not keeping the unit up to code, so you’ll likely have to deal with mold, or heating and plumbing issues, or cracked windows, or lack of appliances, or bugs and rats, or a combo thereof. And complaining could get you evicted because landlords know the law and courts better than the tenants, and the tenants often don’t know their rights.

[down] Country and conversion to US dollars would be helpful, as would average housing costs for frame of reference.

Edited by wisewillow on Mar 1st 2019 at 3:05:41 PM

Medinoc from France (Before Recorded History)
#273212: Mar 1st 2019 at 11:59:22 AM

For comparison, minimum wage where I live is about 1500€ a month.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#273213: Mar 1st 2019 at 12:50:15 PM

https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/03/01/day-771/

    Day 771: Alarming 
1/ Otto Warmbier's family blamed Kim Jong Un for the death of their son a day after Trump said he took Kim "at his word" that the North Korean dictator was not responsible. Fred and Cindy Warmbier called Kim's "evil regime" is "responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity" that resulted in Warmbier death in 2017. Warmbier was arrested for taking a propaganda banner from a hotel in Pyongyang in January 2016 and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was released in a coma after 17 months and died days later. (NBC News / CNN / Washington Post)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/politics/otto-warmbier-family-trump-north-korea/index.html

The North Korean delegation to the Trump-Kim summit disputed Trump's claim that Kim demanded that the U.S. lift all sanctions in order for North Korea to move forward with denuclearization. "Basically," Trump said yesterday, "they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn't do that. We had to walk away from that." Hours later, two top officials from the North Korean delegation told reporters Kim had only asked for partial sanctions relief in exchange for shutting down their main nuclear complex. An anonymous senior U.S. official acknowledged that Kim only wanted the U.N. Security Council to lift the sanctions imposed since March 2016, and did not include sanctions from the previous decade. (Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/85250b96c38b4a238139e753302d9742

2/ Michael Cohen and Felix Sater will both testify before the House Intelligence Committee on March 14 to testify about Trump's effort to build a skyscraper in Russia. Cohen interviewed with the House Intelligence Committee for more than seven hours yesterday. Sater is a Russian-born Trump Organization executive who worked on the Trump Tower Moscow project with Cohen. (CNN / Associated Press)

https://apnews.com/9d88f2059f9d4f69b4e0f66fa108099a

Trump attacked Cohen's credibility and accused him of perjury. Trump tweeted that his former personal attorney's proposed "Book is exact opposite of his fake testimony, which now is a lie!" Trump also referenced a description of Cohen's book as a "love letter to Trump." (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lambastes-cohen-pointing-to-reportedly-favorable-book-written-by-his-former-lawyer/2019/03/01/65f77998-3c23-11e9-a2cd-307b06d0257b_story.html

Who is Felix Sater and what's his role in Michael Cohen's plea deal? (CBS News)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-is-felix-sater-and-whats-his-role-in-michael-cohens-plea-deal/

3/ Robert Mueller is expected to need five to eight days for Roger Stone's trial for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice. The anticipated trial length does not account for any witnesses that Stone's lawyers plan to call in his defense. (Politico)

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/01/mueller-roger-stone-trial-1198526

poll/ A majority of Americans favor government action to help reduce the cost of prescription medication in the U.S. 86% of respondents support having Medicare negotiate directly with drug companies to get lower prices, something Medicare is currently barred from doing. 80% believe drug company profits are a major factor in the high price of prescription drugs, and 65% support tying the price that Medicare pays for medication to the prices paid by the health services of other countries. (Kaiser Family Foundation / NPR)

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/03/01/699086303/poll-americans-support-government-action-to-curb-prescription-drug-prices

    Notables 
More than 1,000 TSA employees have not received all of the back-pay they are owed for work during the shutdown, which lasted from December 22 until January 25. (CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/01/politics/tsa-back-pay-shutdown/index.html

Trump reiterated his plans to veto the House-passed resolution that would end his national emergency declaration. "We'll be fine," Trump told Sean Hannity. When Hannity suggested that Trump would veto the resolution and that Congress would not be able to overturn the veto, Trump said, "Yeah." The Senate is required to vote on the House-passed measure within 18 days of its passage, and only four GOP senators need to vote with the Democrats in order for it to pass. Three Republicans have already indicated that they will back the resolution. (NBC News)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-says-he-will-veto-resolution-terminating-national-emergency-n977991

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data show more undocumented immigrants are choosing to cross the border illegally instead of waiting in line to claim asylum at legal U.S. ports of entry as a result of the Trump administration's policies at the southern border. As CBP has cracked down on the number of migrants who can be processed at ports of entry, the number of migrants caught crossing illegally has gone up by 10 percent over the same period since last year. (NBC News)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-restricted-flow-border-more-migrants-trying-sneak-through-undetected-n976356

Three high-profile immigrant rights organizations sent a joint letter to DHS accusing ICE of detaining an "alarming" number of infants at a Texas detention center without providing the legally-required level of care. The letter claims that at least nine infants younger than a year old are being held in ICE custody at the South Texas Family Residential Center. One of the infants is alleged to have been detained for more than 20 days. The letter also expressed "grave concern" about the lack of specialized medical care available to families who are being held at the facility. (Newsweek)

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-detaining-alarming-number-infants-young-5-years-old-immigration-groups-1348648

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he is running for president, centering his campaign around climate change, calling it "the most urgent challenge of our time." (NBC News / CNN / Politico)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/washington-gov-inslee-enters-presidential-race-climate-change-his-focus-n977981

Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#273214: Mar 1st 2019 at 2:28:27 PM

[up][up]&[up][up][up] Here in the Netherlands it's about 1300€ ($1500 American. 1500€ works out to about $1700 American per month).

The average rent for a decent size privately rented single bedroom apartment is about 400-600€ ($450-$700), for a two bedroom house it's over 1000€ ($1100). Per month, of course.

But anything under 790€ (+/-$900) per month qualifies for government rent assistance and there's a system of non-profit housing cooperatives that rent out apartments and houses of similar quality for much less to those who can't afford privately rented housing. People on minimum wage qualify. They're similar to British 'Council housing' except not built and owned by local government and, consequently, far less vulnerable to intentional mismanagement or neglect from total bastards'fiscally conservative' local government.

My own apartment costs about 300€ ($340) per month, but with rent assistance, I personally pay about 130€ ($150) of that. I'm on full disability, which is 70% of the minimum wage, so I'm relatively comfortable most of the time except when anything expensive of mine breaks at which point it's either living hand to mouth for the rest of the month or dipping into my savings. I would be able to be comfortable all of the time if the Liberals hadn't pushed through the privatisation of Healthcare insurance, public transport and utilities, which massively inflated prices for all of those.

[down] Edited in now.

Edited by Robrecht on Mar 1st 2019 at 11:53:25 AM

Angry gets shit done.
wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#273215: Mar 1st 2019 at 2:29:49 PM

What’s the average rent? That’s a good reference point for how far income goes.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#273216: Mar 1st 2019 at 2:43:51 PM

Here in Brazil it's 998 BRL, and the average rent is about 700 or so for anything even remotely decent.

And while we have welfare programs, trust me, they're not nearly enough, and the same arguments parroted about by the asshole in the quote above is parroted about by pretty much everyone from the middle-class above, here.

Kayeka (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#273217: Mar 1st 2019 at 2:49:36 PM

[up][up]Well, I can't say much about the average rent, but I personally got a pretty decent two-room-kitchen-bathroom apartment in Amsterdam for 600 euros a month. Not exactly ideal for raising a family, but more than a bachelor needs.

wisewillow She/her Since: May, 2011
She/her
#273218: Mar 1st 2019 at 4:12:47 PM

For reference, studies have shown that rent should be no more than 25% of monthly income.

Yeahhhh. I’ll be sobbing in a corner if anyone needs me.

DeMarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#273219: Mar 1st 2019 at 5:36:02 PM

I own some houses which I rent out. My rents are all between $700-$800/month for a house that has two bedrooms, one bath, approx 900 sq feet. They are in working class suburbs of Detroit.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#273220: Mar 1st 2019 at 5:57:10 PM

One-bedroom condos in Mississauga (one of the component cities of the Greater Toronto Area) is renting for $2000 Cdn. I have no idea how anyone can afford to live here.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#273221: Mar 1st 2019 at 8:20:35 PM

This is big

WASHINGTON — The top tax-writing committee in the House is readying a request for years of President Donald Trump’s personal tax returns that is expected to land at the Internal Revenue Service as early as the next few weeks, according to congressional aides involved in the process. And Democrats are prepared to "take all necessary steps," including litigation, in order to obtain them.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has asked the committee’s attorneys to prepare the request, according to two aides involved in the process. Neal has also contacted the chairs of several other House investigative committees, including Oversight and Government Reform, Financial Services, Intelligence and Judiciary, asking them to provide detailed arguments for why they need the president’s tax returns to conduct their probes.

"Every day the American people and Congress learn more about President Trump’s improprieties, from conflicts of interest to influence peddling, potential tax evasion and violations of the Constitution — all roads leading back to President Trump’s finances," said Ashley Etienne, spokeswoman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"These improprieties, and the lack of transparency around them, give the House legitimate legislative, oversight and legal reasons to review the President’s tax returns. We will take all necessary steps, including litigation, if necessary, to obtain them." Etienne confirmed that the committees are working together to "ensure the House is able to present the strongest possible case."

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 1st 2019 at 11:21:22 AM

BearyScary Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: You spin me right round, baby
Grafite Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: Less than three
#273223: Mar 2nd 2019 at 12:41:08 AM

Shoutout to sgamer: Republicans in Idaho vote to keep child marriage legal in the state. Their reasoning: government shouldn't get involved in marriages, it would give it too much power. I wonder if they said the same thing for same-sex cerimonies.

Life is unfair...
PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#273225: Mar 2nd 2019 at 12:56:58 AM

Republicans are the vilest group of hypocrites in the world.


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