|
So this is hitting national news sources. PBS Newshour was tweeting about it last night and NPR has it as part of their top of the hour news update. AP had stories up yesterday as well. Just checking google news I can see sources from all over the world reporting on the story, even if it’s just a Reuters or AP summary.
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 16:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 23:26 |
|
|
The pernicious quality to blaming Russia for being “actually” behind the fracturing of American society or loss of faith in our institutions and so on is that it completely ignores how a foreign intelligence service wouldn’t be able to get people to kill each other and attempt to collapse their own country if conditions weren’t such that people already do those things. I don’t think Russia’s been shown to have done much more than post on Facebook, but even if some American fascists got money from the fsb to destroy a power grid somewhere, that’s not the relevant part of what happened. The cia tried to collapse Cuba for 50 years but couldn’t do it because there wasn’t a critical mass of desperate people primed by psychotic racism and conspiracy theories to give bombs to. Am I wrong about this?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:13
|
|
|
I don't think so. Russia's strategy has been to expose faults that were already there. Russia might push the nutjobs along the road to fascism a bit faster than they might go on their own, but that's it; they were already on the road, Russia didn't do that. And they'd not do as well if material conditions were much better here.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:21
|
|
|
I AM GRANDO posted:I don’t think Russia’s been shown to have done much more than post on Facebook, but even if some American fascists got money from the fsb to destroy a power grid somewhere, that’s not the relevant part of what happened. Other people were referencing the DNC hack, so you think that was another actor?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:23
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:The reason I asked is because two things can be true at the same time: Russia makes an effort to undermine faith in democracy and promote certain candidates and causes towards that end, and homegrown American fascists and bigots are doing their thing, and supporting many of the same people and causes. Show me the metrics that prove anything Russia did was effective. I don’t think those stats exist, because if they did Russiaphobes would never shut up about them. All I’m looking for is the baseline KPIs, until then I think it’s safe to assume they were about as effective as the extremely dorky pro-US social media the US tried to set up in Cuba. That Russia tries something isn’t surprising, we tried to train members of the armed forces to be psychics.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:26
|
|
|
The Russia stuff is also a quick rabbit hole down to assigning blame to a single, organised boogeyman that supposedly can be fought, ignoring the realities of stochastic terrorism and American society to imagine epic but shadowy battles with dastardly supervillains. Russiagate gets called 'Liberal Qanon' for a reason. Like the right wing's idea of Antifa, up to the level of their leaders, being utterly convinced it is a structured organisation with a hierarchy and payrolls, in literal reheated War On Terror rhetoric. The call is coming from inside the house, in about every sense imaginable.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:34
|
|
|
Here’s another fun thing I learned about railroad strike negotiations: you literally can’t leave the job if you’re close to retirement and want any benefits: https://twitter.com/saidthegadfly/status/1599497875582423041?s=46&t=_iHr0EElHkqdZU3nqy63Gw So if I am reading this correctly: 1. You can’t strike unless the people the bosses bribe say it’s ok 2. If you do strike you will be fined or jailed for using your rights to free speech and free association 3. You are kept in a parallel retirement system that fucks you over if you try to get a better or even just a different job How would anybody defend this status quo outside of “we won the election”?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:44
|
|
|
I think linking domestic energy infra terrorism to russia is absolutely bonkers without evidence. Straight up inventing things to fret over Besides that, it's putting the cart before the horse - the acute and indirect effects of knocking out a city's worth of peoples' access to light, refrigeration, and communication are of a far greater concern than Russia's theoretical and abstracted geopolitical benefit
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:51
|
|
|
selec posted:Here’s another fun thing I learned about railroad strike negotiations: you literally can’t leave the job if you’re close to retirement and want any benefits: The retirement system is just a pension that works the same as every other pension. It has the downside that many pensions do of having "vesting cliffs" where you get a lot more money from your pension if you serve for 30 years than if you serve for 27. You get vested in the pension after working for 5 years, but full vested benefits require 30 years of service or at least 5 years + being age 65. Your pension vesting is usually conditional on death or retirement from the industry as well. That's why very good pensions are often called "golden handcuffs." Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Dec 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 17:57
|
|
|
selec posted:Here’s another fun thing I learned about railroad strike negotiations: you literally can’t leave the job if you’re close to retirement and want any benefits: California does this for firefighters as well It's really common and really lovely
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:05
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:Russiagate gets called 'Liberal Qanon' for a reason. Like the right wing's idea of Antifa, up to the level of their leaders, being utterly convinced it is a structured organisation with a hierarchy and payrolls, in literal reheated War On Terror rhetoric. What exactly are you referring to as Russiagate and who exactly are you claiming refers to it as "liberal Qanon"?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:10
|
|
|
selec posted:Show me the metrics that prove anything Russia did was effective. I don’t think those stats exist, because if they did Russiaphobes would never shut up about them. All I’m looking for is the baseline KPIs, until then I think it’s safe to assume they were about as effective as the extremely dorky pro-US social media the US tried to set up in Cuba. I don't think those stats exist either, because I don't know how you'd quantify the effectiveness of a propaganda campaign sufficiently to prove it was effective. Even if it is. It isn't like you can re-run the 2016 campaign without interference and see how it would have played out. I do think that the Russian hack of the DNC has a significant effect on the 2016 election. But that's based on watching the election play out and my impression of how the information from the hack influenced things. If you have proof it doesn't matter at all, I'd love to see it. I'm heartened to hear that US propaganda efforts in Cuba are dorky though.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:13
|
|
|
DeadlyMuffin posted:I don't think those stats exist either, because I don't know how you'd quantify the effectiveness of a propaganda campaign sufficiently to prove it was effective. Even if it is. I see it in the same light as I do complaints about foreign money in US elections. In theory, I guess that’s bad, but from a practical perspective, it’s laughable, it’s suchd a waste of time it might be considered disinformation from how out of proportion it is to the threat to our nation from our own domestic oligarchs maintaining a stranglehold on our political system and our organs of discourse. The Saudis are bad, sure, but are fumbling, incoherent toddlers when it comes to manipulating this country compared to our own homegrown aristocracy. And they’re probably more effective than Russia.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:18
|
|
|
Heck Yes! Loam! posted:California does this for firefighters as well The Windfall Provision Act also prevents "double dipping" so there are people who got their 40 quarters and their pension but the federal government says gently caress you to certain state workers. Not sure if this is true of railroad workers too.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:29
|
|
|
This is also done on teacher pensions.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:41
|
|
|
selec posted:Here’s another fun thing I learned about railroad strike negotiations: you literally can’t leave the job if you’re close to retirement and want any benefits: As far as I can tell, it's not correct. An employee covered by the Railway Retirement Act does have some limitations involved in breaking their connection to the rail industry, but they keep their age-related and service-related benefits (including retirement) even if they take a job outside the industry. According to the Railway Retirement Board itself, it's only a problem for disability annuities and supplemental annuities. And as far as I can tell, the supplemental annuity is fairly minor (the RRB says the supplemental annuity is $20-40 a month). The reason for the parallel retirement system, incidentally, is that the push to create a federal railway retirement system predated Social Security, with the original Railway Retirement Act passed the year before Social Security, although legislative and judicial wrestling meant that the railway-specific system didn't come into effect until later. At the time, the railway retirement system was tailored to the specific needs of railway employees; in the current day, as far as I can tell, it's generally more generous with its payouts and looser with its disability requirements than Social Security is.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:47
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:Russiagate gets called 'Liberal Qanon' for a reason. While this is true, the reason is "Because some people want to draw a false equivalence between something that's highly exaggerated but based on actual evidence with adenochrome cannibal cults and JFK Jr."
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:50
|
|
|
Main Paineframe posted:As far as I can tell, it's not correct. An employee covered by the Railway Retirement Act does have some limitations involved in breaking their connection to the rail industry, but they keep their age-related and service-related benefits (including retirement) even if they take a job outside the industry. According to the Railway Retirement Board itself, it's only a problem for disability annuities and supplemental annuities. And as far as I can tell, the supplemental annuity is fairly minor (the RRB says the supplemental annuity is $20-40 a month). This parenthetical seems to mean that if you paid into RRA but get moved over to SSA your RRA payments don’t count, am I reading this right? This is for survivorship: “As a general rule, where survivor benefits are paid by the RRB because a current connection was maintained, the survivors receive a larger monthly payment than would be payable by SSA” Edit: Wait a second, quote:
That seems to support what the railroad person thought? selec fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Dec 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:50
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:He's also creating a new position in government called "The Office of New York City Rat Czar." It turns out the reason Adams cares so much about the War On Rats is... it's personal quote:Adams, who’s made no secret of his hatred for rodents and is actively seeking a rat czar to eradicate New York City’s growing problem, has an unpaid summons since May for a rat infestation at the Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, rowhouse he owns.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 18:56
|
|
|
I went to the SSA site (god save us all) and it has a thorough explanation of the RRA system, but the crux here is this quote:
So based on that you do lose your railroad pension if you work outside the railroad, and are stuck down to SSA benefits. It seems like that worker does understand their own benefits structure. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v68n2/v68n2p41.html Edit: they stand to lose thousands per month https://rrb.gov/Newsroom/NewsReleases/RetirementBenefitsRisein2023
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 19:01
|
|
|
selec posted:I went to the SSA site (god save us all) and it has a thorough explanation of the RRA system, but the crux here is this That's not how I read that at all. Looks like Tier 1 benefits are equivalent to or possibly mildly better than social security, but if you leave RR work you will be eligible for that social security benefit. The $43 dollar a month supplementary annuity looks like the only part of it that you completely surrender if you leave your railroad position.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 19:10
|
|
|
Baronash posted:That's not how I read that at all. Looks like Tier 1 benefits are equivalent to or possibly mildly better than social security, but if you leave RR work you will be eligible for that social security benefit. The $43 dollar a month supplementary annuity looks like the only part of it that you completely surrender if you leave your railroad position. Where are you seeing 43 bucks here: https://rrb.gov/Newsroom/NewsReleases/RetirementBenefitsRisein2023 Strong recommendation: An interview with two railroad union local leaders and a labor journalist. They want to see it nationalized, and don’t trust leadership, and have huge worries about safety and talk about the failures of private management https://on.soundcloud.com/nTHAiyXu5TgE3hqK6 selec fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Dec 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 19:11
|
|
|
Mooseontheloose posted:Not sure if this is true of railroad workers too. Yes, and its very complicated. Congress has set up special rules for how social security works specifically with the Railroad Pension. To boil it down, the Railroad Pension has "Tier 1" benefits, and "Tier 2" benefits. Tier 1 is designed to be almost identical to social security with a few weird exceptions and the rule is for each dollar you get in social security, your tier 1 railroad Pension is reduced by that amount. So for example, if your tier 1 railroad benefit is 10,000 per year, and you also have a little social security of 6,000 from some other odd non-railroad job you worked, your 10,000 tier 1 railroad benefit is reduced to 4,000. You are only allowed to get the higher of your social security benefit or your tier 1 railroad benefit, and thats how they do it. So, if you get a railroad pension, there's really no social security-related reason to work some other job, if you can still work you may as well work on the railroad job if you can. Tier 2 benefits are not impacted by social security, it was designed to be an extra pension to entice older workers to stick it out in their hard grueling job and work the railroad as long as they can, and yes as mentioned earlier, if you are an older worker, they have designed this so that you *REALLY* want to get to either 30 years or retirement age so that you can cash in on this benefit that you've been sacrificing your body for. The railroad pension is fantastic compared to social security. (Note to any evil railroad bosses reading this, that pension benefit is not a justification to screw over your workers who might need to call in sick, you assholes) edit: things also get complicated if you work the railroad and some other job that also doesn't pay into social security. Like... I dunno, say you worked on the railroad when you were young, but then you changed jobs to work for the Federal government as some kind of railroad inspector or something that also doesn't pay into social security. Then, your railroad benefits can be reduced if the Feds also have a good pension above social security, but it can't be reduced to zero because there's a minimum guarantee, and it all reads like some messy congressional political compromise hashed out between people wanting to curb those evil double-dippers vs people going "wait, why do you want to screw railroad workers who have the energy to earn a second great pension". Rigel fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Dec 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 19:12
|
|
|
selec posted:Where are you seeing 43 bucks here: In your quote from the SSA website. I think we're getting pretty far afield from the point. You don't give up your right to SS retirement benefits just because you once worked at a railroad. You do give up certain additional retirement benefits. If this surprises you or you think it is some unique fluke then, uh... welcome to pensions, I guess? Baronash fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Dec 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 19:12
|
|
|
selec posted:This parenthetical seems to mean that if you paid into RRA but get moved over to SSA your RRA payments don’t count, am I reading this right? This is for survivorship: The important part is right at the very top (emphasis mine): quote:Under the Railroad Retirement Act (RRA), a “current connection with the railroad industry” is one of the eligibility requirements for both the occupational disability and supplemental annuities payable by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB). A current connection is not required for any other type of railroad retirement benefit payable to railroad employees, or for purposes of Medicare coverage. However, a current connection is also a factor in determining which agency, the RRB or the Social Security Administration (SSA), will pay monthly benefits to the survivors of a railroad employee. (As a general rule, where survivor benefits are paid by the RRB because a current connection was maintained, the survivors receive a larger monthly payment than would be payable by SSA.) The rest of the page goes into what defines that "current connection", but it states right up front that the "current connection" is only relevant to the disability, supplemental annuities, and how survivor's benefits are handled. As for the supplemental annuities, the other page I linked goes into specifics about them (again, emphasis mine): quote:1. How do the average monthly railroad retirement and social security benefits paid to retired employees and spouses compare?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 19:26
|
|
|
Real ID for air travel has become the new Medicare provider cuts - they just get delayed every single year for decades. The law was first passed in 2005. South Carolina and Maine refused to issue real ID compliant driver's licenses for about 10 years and they just kept kicking back the deadline because they didn't want to punish people who happened to be from S.C. or Maine. As of 2021, SC and Maine both folded and now every state ID is real ID compliant. I'm guessing they are going to keep delaying it another 5 to 10 years to make sure everyone cycles through their old IDs. Still really silly that we have to do all this crazy stuff just because some people think having your ID issued by the federal government is the mark of the beast, but the state government is not in league with Satan and their IDs are fine. Instead, in the U.S. we have to give the guy who works at the cell phone store and our internet provider the number that is used to access our pension and fill out every major financial form because there is no other way to verify identity in the country. https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1599787376745783299 Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Dec 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 20:04
|
|
|
Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Real ID for air travel has become the new Medicare provider cuts - they just get delayed every single year for decades.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 20:16
|
|
|
Jesus III posted:If federal ID is the number of the beast, hail Satan! I'm even will to be barcoded. One card, one pic, all handled by one entity. Literally my travelling dream. I bet bouncers would love it, too. It is pretty bonkers that, in the global superpower with the largest GDP in the world and the NSA, you need to give your social security number to the kid who works at the Verizon store to get a cell phone because there is literally no way to identify who you are if you step across state lines unless you give every job you apply for, every landlord you apply to, and every retail employee the one number that you need to commit massive identify fraud with. But, that same incredibly insecure number is not considered valid ID by anyone else in the world, so you need a third set of ID (that is issued by the federal government) just to get it accepted in every other country on earth. Real ID is a wonky workaround to that problem, but there are people resisting it for 17 years because "driver's license by state, social security number by feds, and passport by feds = good" and "one ID issued by feds = Satan's attempt to claim the believers with his brand."
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 20:22
|
|
|
haveblue posted:It turns out the reason Adams cares so much about the War On Rats is... it's personal It kind of owns that the mayor of NYC is giving out quests for level 1 adventurers.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 20:23
|
|
|
The largest single recipient of Covid relief funds in 2020 was the Chinese government. https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1599787696871841792 quote:As soon as state governments began disbursing Covid unemployment funds in 2020, cybercriminals began to siphon off a significant percentage. quote:By the time Covid relief funds appeared as a target of opportunity in 2020, APT41, which emerged more than a decade ago, had already become the “workhorse” of cyberespionage operations that benefit the Chinese government, according to cyber experts and current and former officials from multiple agencies. The Secret Service said in a statement that it considers APT41 a “Chinese state-sponsored, cyberthreat group that is highly adept at conducting espionage missions and financial crimes for personal gain.”
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 20:52
|
|
|
New Hampshire and Iowa Democratic politicians are boycotting all White House social events for the next year in protest of removing Iowa from the early states in the 2024 primaries and making New Hampshire no longer the "first primary" of the calendar (they share it with Nevada now and Nevada is doing a primary instead of a caucus). https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1599845049604444186
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 20:58
|
|
|
Isn't it literally state law in New Hampshire that they have to be the first primary?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:02
|
|
|
I’m in the industry and I have no idea where these estimates of fraud in the hundreds of billions of dollars of unemployment fraud are coming from besides “someone made it up.” I can’t say/prove why I think that’s ridiculous without getting fired, but it’s a ridiculous overestimate. Does not surprise me that the heritage foundation is a source there. What do you know, they say unemployment is largely fraudulent.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:03
|
|
|
haveblue posted:Isn't it literally state law in New Hampshire that they have to be the first primary?
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:04
|
|
|
looking forward to an arms race until the first primary of the 2026 cycle is on Wednesday, 6 November 2024
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:07
|
|
|
haveblue posted:Isn't it literally state law in New Hampshire that they have to be the first primary? Yes. I have no idea what they are actually planning to do about it, though. The DNC is requiring NH to overhaul their voting laws to allow them to be second and they haven't confirmed whether they will or not. The state legislature and Governor are both Republicans. The DNC says they will kick them back to Super Tuesday and remove all of their delegates if they don't have it done by early 2023. quote:When a key panel of the Democratic National Committee voted Friday for South Carolina to hold the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, members also voted for New Hampshire to share a second primary date with Nevada. https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2022/12/05/as-new-hampshire-vows-to-hold-first-primary-the-consequences-could-be-steep/
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:09
|
|
|
The DNC isn't actually a federal institution in any law making sense (I don't think) so I guess we'll find out what happens if the DNC says the primary happens on Nevada day and the state says it happens on Nevada Day -7? I guess its the NH Electoral Commission that actually brings out the poll machines and certs the election but then the DNC might not accept their delegate assignment until the day they say it happened or something? Very confusing situation.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:13
|
|
|
projecthalaxy posted:I guess its the NH Electoral Commission that actually brings out the poll machines and certs the election but then the DNC might not accept their delegate assignment until the day they say it happened or something? The DNC doesn't have to accept their delegate assignment at all. That's the nuclear option- there is no law hanging over the national DNC organization that says the results of the NH primary have to mean anything. NH cannot bind the non-NH parts of the DNC. There will just be that many fewer delegates in the mix and winning the NH primary won't contribute to winning the DNC nomination.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:20
|
|
|
projecthalaxy posted:The DNC isn't actually a federal institution in any law making sense (I don't think) so I guess we'll find out what happens if the DNC says the primary happens on Nevada day and the state says it happens on Nevada Day -7? I guess its the NH Electoral Commission that actually brings out the poll machines and certs the election but then the DNC might not accept their delegate assignment until the day they say it happened or something? NH can hold the primary whenever they want, but the DNC won't recognize their delegates if they don't have it on the appointed day. Similar to what happened in 2008 with Michigan and Florida.
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 23:26 |
|
|
The real fun will be when states that could deliver for one candidate vs another are having delegates tossed and how/who will make those decisions
|
|
#
?
Dec 5, 2022 21:24
|
|