This Is Fine - 2019-02-18

« first day (545 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1894 days later) »

12:33 AM

The tone of the interview is that it’s totally outlandish that Rosenstein or anyone in the DOJ would so much as mention the 25th Amendment. The immediately afterward you get this. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/andrew-mccabe-60-minutes-interview-full-transcript-watch-acting-fbi-director-trump-investigation-james-comey-russia-investigation-2019-02-17/

Tweeted by nycsouthpaw on February 18, 2019 at 12:30 AM

McCabe says Trump called him asking him what is it like for your wife to be a loser. asked him twice

Tweeted by lrozen on February 18, 2019 at 12:30 AM

12:57 AM

@TimStone unsurprising but still wtf

@TimStone wat

@TimStone is this parody?

1:22 AM

It is not

> Andrew McCabe: "What was it like when your wife lost her race for state senate? It must have been really tough to lose." And I said, "Well, it's tough to lose anything. But my wife has refocused her efforts on her career. And he then said, "Ask her what it was like to lose. It must be tough to be a loser."

The CBS link up there has the full transcript

2:13 AM

@GodEmperorDune what annoys me more than the conspiracy theorizing is that these people see autism as something worse than the potential harm caused by and on the child not being vaccinated (which includes death)

a part of me imagines the thought process being "well my child could die from a preventable disease but at least they get to live a normal life" to which i would say fuck that, aside from personal experience there is also this

Woman becomes first openly autistic person to ever practice law in Florida http://hill.cm/7woYiMx

Tweeted by thehill on February 18, 2019 at 12:41 AM

@Memor-X yeah its a really fucked up move to assume that your child would be better off dead than autistic

2:39 AM

it's essentially the autism speaks line

as a reminder to not support that wretched organization

3:12 AM

BREAKING Australia's major political parties have been hacked by a "sophisticated state actor." Full statement by the PM to parliament:

Tweeted by stephendziedzic on February 18, 2019 at 1:07 AM

I think the important thing here is that we definitely go along with their attempt to get backdoors into all encryption systems

3:48 AM

@TimStone yep my first thought was "these are the same tech savvy geniuses who wanted to legislate weak crypto"

7 hours later…

10:39 AM

#LabourSplit is trending on Twitter right now. Dare I click through and find out why?

Seven MPs leave Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn's leadership bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47278902

Well that is something

2 hours later…

12:20 PM

@PrivatePansy huh, was expecting it to be all Brexit

Feels like Brexit was a big part of that story too

12:45 PM

7 feels like a rather small number to be calling a split but ok

12:56 PM

I don't know how many MPs labour has, and none of the articles mention that

@Kevin Not enough for a majority. The more interesting question is if this independent block will vote with the conservatives (which is also quite unlikely)

Because the Tories have a very slim majority, and has to form a coalition with the more conservative DUP

1:19 PM

@Kevin 255

I don't know if that's current or a ", now 248"

it sounds like they want to form lib dems 2.0?

idk

that'll, succeed

The most embarrassing thing won't be the launch, the most embarrassing thing will be months worths of articles from Guardian columnist forcing themselves to pretend that this represents a popular, dynamic force bringing fresh new ideas into UK politics

Tweeted by huwlemmey on February 18, 2019 at 11:22 AM

Two former Derg officials have been living in the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa, #Ethiopia for 28 years. https://www.ethiopiaobserver.com/2019/02/17/twenty-eight-years-holed-up-in-italian-embassy/

Tweeted by JDevermont on February 18, 2019 at 11:29 AM

lol Assange doesn't even get the distinction of being the most overstayed embassy guest

1:37 PM

@Unionhawk oooh, yeah then 7 is a bit awkward to call a split. Maybe a splinter or something

Ha. When I tried to create a Bitly link for the new #ScarfolkAnnual, I was told I couldn't use 'http://bit.ly/scarfolk ' because it was already taken. This is what it links to:

Tweeted by richard_littler on February 18, 2019 at 1:25 PM

@fredley I kinda wanna star that, but it's not really news

@Nzall I don't even care if he was the one that made the link

The United States thanks the Government of Colombia for hosting thousands of Venezuelan refugees and for boldly standing behind Juan Guaido. It is time for the rest of the world to demonstrate the same generosity and support.

Tweeted by AmbJohnBolton on February 17, 2019 at 6:47 PM

🤔🤔🤔

I don't think he made it, otherwise he'd be aware it's already used

1:39 PM

@TimStone by rest of the world he means everyone else but the US

1:50 PM

it's time for the rest of the world to support our coup look we're sending aid (historical note: smuggling arms as "humanitarian aid" has been a US tactic for many decades)

@fredley I noticed from the thread that they had published a book, so I looked it up on Amazon

user image

I kinda wished the Social Justice Kitten calendar was algorithmically generated, and I kinda wished it wasn't

@Nzall The UK Government has accidentally included Scarfolk in official publications, which is probably peak hilariou/depressing

2:07 PM

@fredley that the one about killing your kids to prevent the spread of rabies?

@Nzall That's the one

2:32 PM

If you want an example of UK electoral law loopholes: The Independent Group, which looks/swims/quacks a lot like a political party and is asking for donations, is actually a private company. So it isn't subject to electoral law rules requiring them to declare financial backers.

Tweeted by jimwaterson on February 18, 2019 at 12:34 PM

lmao

2:47 PM

Another car company pulls out of the UK

bbc.co.uk/news/business-47282603

What's Scarfolk?

@SaintWacko A fictional town stuck perpetually in the 1970s. Like a British version of Welcome to Night Vale.

@PrivatePansy Ah, okay

Its story is told through public information posters, leaflets and broadcasts

The thing is, unlike WtNV, Scarfolk is horrifyingly close to reality in some ways

#OnThisDay 1973: Nationwide covered the Goathland Plough Stot ceremony. Scarfolk is real. https://t.co/m4i0KwEiUy

Tweeted by BBCArchive on January 12, 2019 at 6:00 PM

The video on that Twitter post is not a parody, it's 100% a real thing

2:55 PM

it's like the british black mirror

wait

3:17 PM

Man this whole account is pure Scarfolk

@BBCArchive, London

Official Twitter presence of the @BBC Archive. Unless otherwise stated images are ©BBC.

11.4k tweets, 131k followers, following 7.3k users

3:34 PM

Brace yourselves, I'll be replying to stuff up to 10 days old :P

Error: User '@stuff up to 10 days old' not found.

4:03 PM

@GodEmperorDune No, entire VA GOP ready for the boost in base support that comes after the release of past blackface pictures.

@Yuuki ^_^

4:48 PM

@TimStone They're mimicking the effectiveness of real border walls as they face the US.

@GodEmperorDune This is America though, we speak English here.

5:10 PM

> NC-9: Elections Board Director Calls Absentee Ballot Scheme 'Coordinated, Unlawful'

5:21 PM

@GodEmperorDune How often does your wife usually stay in a given job?

5:34 PM

cc @GodEmperorDune "Aquaman, Khal Drogo actor may play Duncan Idaho in new Dune film"

I thought Duncan was described as somewhat thin and agile?

Jason Momoa is many things but "thin" is not one of them.

Dune's cast looks pretty stacked though.

@puzzlepiece87 dammit

@Yuuki yeah he’s like Raphael from soul calibur

@GodEmperorDune The entire cast looks pretty amazing though.

Timothee Chalamet, Stellan Skarsgard, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, etc.

I wonder what kind of CG they’re going to do given the release date and that they haven’t started shooting yet

Arrival and the blade runner sequel were good though

5:51 PM

I'm only very slightly concerned about whether Greig Fraser and Villeneuve will clash on cinematography.

I don't think Fraser's worked with Villeneuve before and Villeneueve's films have really strong cinematography.

@GodEmperorDune #NeverTooSexy

@puzzlepiece87 sexy but a jerk :(

@GodEmperorDune Oh sorry, I didn't know that :(

6:07 PM

@puzzlepiece87 yeah he allegedly ripped pages out of amber heard’s books to force her to talk to him when they were filming aquaman

@GodEmperorDune Indeed just found that when searching "Jason Momoa jerk"

Disgusting behavior

7:00 PM

@GodEmperorDune Jeez, and after what happened with Johnny Depp...

I think maybe we skipped over the kid arrested for not reciting the pledge?

An 11-year old refused to recite Pledge of Allegiance, saying it's racist. Teacher asked why he didn't go live elsewhere. The kid was arrested for becoming disruptive, taken to juvenile detention center, & charged with misdemeanor. https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/boy-11-arrested-refusing-recite-racist-pledge-allegiance-194843816.html?guccounter=1 https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2019/02/14/mother-upset-after-son-kicked-out-of-class-over-pledge-of-allegiance#

Tweeted by Taniel on February 17, 2019 at 6:37 PM

I had seen it earlier but I hadn't seen what he said to the teacher and mah gawd

"resisting arrest without violence" sounds 1000% more made up than resisting arrest

Right?

like what did you politely ask "come with me", he said "no", and that's now a second crime?

arresting the child seems like a vast overreaction in any case. I couldn't imagine the police doing that here

7:11 PM

Also the flag is the feds, it checks out

@MadScientist chuckles in American We're a sick society

it's not like they had to call for external police they probably had an officer in the school whose job is to do this shit

I don't think you can arrest an 11 year old in Germany.

Lawyer stages elaborate fake trial to propose to attorney girlfriend https://nyp.st/2DSlQzp

Tweeted by nypost on February 18, 2019 at 4:02 PM

:|

Roger Stone now directly attacking the federal judge presiding over his case and posting a pic of her head beside crosshairs

Tweeted by jonswaine on February 18, 2019 at 7:12 PM

@TimStone uhhhhhhh

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I can't see how this legal strategy could possibly fail

7:18 PM

> Defendant: "So... do I just go home now?"

Luckily it was a fake defendant but it's still pretty crazy they orchestrated all this!

An important clarification because given that this was Florida there was a non-zero chance they just roped some random defendant in and then were like "Nah jk your court date is actually next week"

@TimStone >Deep State hitman

Do you think they realize how deranged they sound?

Deranged is his brand

@TimStone Seems foul play not expected but a portable toilet caught on fire and also the guy was on fire and then he died

@vkamluk These cameras have been disabled on our aircraft, and there are no plans to develop any features using the cameras. Thank you. (2/2)

Tweeted by SingaporeAir on February 17, 2019 at 1:23 PM in reply to vkamluk

🤔

Presumably the vendor has developed some feature for some airline though? Seems weird, like who would want to video call someone from a plane?

7:34 PM

I believe Delta tells you to please not use their wifi for calls

it probably doesn't have the bandwidth for it anyway, but

I just can't think of another feature?

yeah idk

except like MAYBE in a delta one suite etc

but in any class below that, the person next to you would probably start stabbing if you engaged in a whole ass video conference

meanwhile though, it sounds like we may be getting jeff newsroom 2.0 which,

@TimStone a new kind of mile high club

@Unionhawk record and sell that stabbing for additional profit

“You won’t believe what happened next!”

Yeah, it seems that Panasonic just sells the screens with cameras in them but at no point do they explain what the functionality is

It's just a HD camera, for some reason

Yeah I honestly do believe them that it's probably not plugged into anything

7:44 PM

Well, it probably is plugged in since it's part of the unit, it's just not technically doing anything, which is fine because you wouldn't know either way

I wonder if it was a theoretical way to replace the call button?

According to the press release though only the first class units have a microphone despite them all having a camera 🤔

if you're speaking loud enough for a seat-back microphone to pick up your voice clearly, you need to shut the fuck up

you're on an airplane for godssake

On the flip side though planes being long term investments I guess maybe they just thought "let's stick it in there just in case" since it's probably not a huge cost per unit

if this is what business people do in First or Business such that hey what if we allowed people to do video calling seemed like it could ever be a want, then please just keep giving me exit row seats instead of first or business

also because economy basic cannot be put on the upgrade list lol

First class is very nice tbh except on short flights where it's dumb as hell

Which is where the upgrade list comes in because I will never pay for first

I'll occasionally pay for comfort+ or economy extra

7:52 PM

Yeah that's how I did it

"Oh no we overbooked this international flight if you stay an extra day we'll give you a voucher and upgrade you to first class all the way"

If I wasn't economy basic on my most recent flight my upgrade chances would have been pretty good

apparently the gate agent was moving people all around that empty plane for weight and balance purposes or something

so I just saw the standby list like me: BASIC, everyone else: COMFORT+

@Unionhawk rekt

it was still an empty plane and I got kind of an exit (it was an aisle next to the rear door with nobody in the middle)

I am kind of annoyed that my best flight (if I do a flight) for dsa convention will be frontier it looks like

the bag situation is fine I can do a weekend in a personal item only but no recline seats

I do also see a 1 stop option to which I say, why the fuck would you ever do a 1 stop to atlanta

oh man or I can do a company called linear air taxi for a whole seven thousand dollars to get a private plane. but also consider: absolutely not

8:13 PM

He is so full of bullshit. Where he got the pic. https://twitter.com/bungdan/status/1097584812401946624?s=21 https://twitter.com/c_sommerfeldt/status/1097588578681581569

Tweeted by maddezmom on February 18, 2019 at 8:12 PM

8:58 PM

Roger Stone texts me this in response to my inquiry about his Instagram post of Judge Amy Berman Jackson that featured crosshairs in the background:

Tweeted by kathrynw5 on February 18, 2019 at 8:29 PM

Paging Miss Interpretation, Miss Interpretation you're needed in the deranged man's Instagram feed

9:27 PM

user image

"I almost fell out of my chair. I could not believe it," said Beth Callori of Long Island. "I voted for Trump. I thought he was going to be good for this country, but when I got that phone call [about the taxes I owed], that's it, I'm done." https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tax-refunds-gop-law_n_5c671dcee4b033a799429900

Tweeted by kylegriffin1 on February 18, 2019 at 12:30 PM

Apparently, the US tax changes aren't as positive for everyone

A lot of people didn't get their paperwork in order, it seems, and are owing a lot more than expected to the IRS

looooooooool

I mean the general position of owing the IRS money is bad and it's unfortunate that she was swayed by an extra $90 per paycheck

But this:

> The bigger reason is that her employer withheld too little from her paycheck. The extra $90 she received should have been added to the amount that gets automatically socked away to cover the federal income tax. Like most people, however, Callori did not fill out a worksheet and submit a new Form W-4 to her employer at the beginning of last year.

They issued new guidance! Surely the company should have done this themselves

So that will be pretty incredible if this year tanks because everyone else didn't play ball when it was set up to advantage the largest group of people the first year to distract them from it being worse later on

> “Smaller refunds mean that people are withholding appropriately based on their tax liability, which is positive news for taxpayers,” a spokesperson said in an email

This is true! Unfortunately we've allowed the tax lobby to pretend they're doing a huge service to the average taxpayer so most people will not see it this way

@TimStone how do taxes on $90 per month result in $5000 total?

@MadScientist I think it's actually 90/w

or per 2 weeks

as a lot of Americans are paid bimonthly

@MadScientist I think the article is making a bad claim here in suggesting that was the larger factor

It seems a lot easier for the SALT deduction cap to have impacted that than an extra $90/w

Unless they're saying that the entirety of the $90 should have been withheld?

But that doesn't make sense either, it would be ~$4700 though

9:43 PM

I think I get a refund still this year, we'll see

the maybe isn't tax law for me though

This person also somehow usually owes the government $1k

Which is also weird for someone who doesn't pay estimated taxes

> But the Trump administration decided not to make major changes to the withholding tables that employers are required to use to make sure everybody is paying the right amount of tax

Ohhhhhhhhhh, lmao

I wonder if that's where most of the lift in people's paycheck came from

I mean I suppose it obviously was, nobody got an actual raise due to the corporate rate

my annual increase was highly regular

> Kromm had already indicated on the Form W-4 documents he’d previously submitted to his employer that he was married and wanted zero allowances

And they ended up owing $4k

My god

why would you say zero if you make more than

what

You can technically specify on the W-4 to withhold extra money but that's really off into the weeds

9:50 PM

this country is dumb

pin it

> Beth Callori, for her part, said she had also previously chosen zero allowances ― plus she had an extra $130 withheld from each paycheck

She even did that!

And somehow still ended up with a $5k bill

What is allowance again in this context?

Of course, not mentioned is how much these people are making to begin with

@Nzall Employers withhold a certain percentage of your wages for tax purposes and if you know in advance you qualify for certain deductions you can let your employer know ahead of time and they will reduce the amount they withhold on the basis that at tax time you wouldn't owe that money

So the "allowance" is just "the deductions I'll get"

Usually related to filing status and/or children

So wanting 0 allowances is just saying "I don't want anything deducted from the taxes I pay in advance out of my paycheck"?

Correct

Basically saying you're sure the IRS will want all the money the company is taking out of your paycheck

9:57 PM

And then if the IRS says it's too much, they pay the difference back, right? Then how do people who paid the full amount still have 5K tax bills?

Is that the withholding tables part they messed up?

Yep, the tables. Some people also have other taxable things that can influence the final number

(oh I was thinking zero was "I know for certain I'll pay no tax")

Right yeah, the other way. By default they take the maximum which is why so many people get refunds

somehow this works mostly automatically here

And there's a disconnect where no one realises that that's already their money so it seems cool to get like $1,2,3k or whatever

(with an exception for very low earners who receive an actual credit which can be refunded past the taxes paid in)

Which I guess is also how the ACA works?

Which is obviously quite dumb because people who can't afford healthcare easily also can't afford to wait until April to get recouped idk

10:02 PM

So did Trump raise or lower income tax people had to pay? I'm not really aware of what happened on that end

Like, I understand he shifted taxes, but I'm not sure how

He lowered it, but primarily for people making a lot of money already

The change also impacted what sort of deductions people qualify for, so some people end up paying more now

And how do those withholding tables come into play?

because if people have lower income tax, and then also have zero allowance and extra withholdings, how do they still end up having to pay more?

@Nzall oh, i read the tweet and thought it was implying that non-rich Trump voters expected to not have to pay tax any more if he got in

@Nzall Yeah, that's a good question. I'm looking now

@TimStone Could you mention me when you found it? I'm going to bed, I'm tired

10:10 PM

Sure

@Nzall Removing state deductions factors into it, I'm pretty sure.

Correction, I think a cap to state deductions was added.

Yeah, it was a cap

Although I think most people just take the standard deduction and don't itemize.

Well you do if you live in a place where you pay a lot of SALT, but not anymore since the standard deduction was raised and the SALT deduction was capped

@TimStone Like California, IIRC.

10:22 PM

Yeah, CA, NY, NJ, etc

10:38 PM

Hmm yeah, I don't even know

Yeah I just do standard plus the full 1099-E credit

Or adjustment or whatever

This lady is also the director of HR at this company so who knows how much she was making to begin with

Suppose it depends on how big the company is.

10:54 PM

@TimStone In other foxes guarding hen house news, Apple in-house enforcer for insider trading arrested for insider trading himself.

user image

^ This never gets old.

President Trump: "Maduro is not a Venezuelan patriot. He is a Cuban puppet." http://hill.cm/F0RCpql https://t.co/4pZlpzcaBd

Tweeted by thehill on February 18, 2019 at 11:00 PM

Wait what?

Oh and that's just a live stream, gross

But yeah not sure what the Cubans have to do with this specifically?

11:13 PM

cuba is on the list of nations that don't recognize the american coup

also communism

« first day (545 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1894 days later) »

Transcript for

Feb '1918

This Is Fine

The news discussion offshoot of the Bridge. Stars reserved for...

eternal-2016 -gaming politics

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile