nightshiftmel

[nightshiftmel]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #39

October 18-25 2024.

President Biden issued the first presidential apology on behalf of the federal government to America's Native American population for the Indian boarding school policy. For 150 years the federal government operated a system of schools which aimed to destroy Native culture through the forced assimilation of native children. At these schools students faced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and close to 1,000 died. The Biden-Harris Administration has been historic for Native and Tribal rights. From the appointment of the first ever Native American cabinet member, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, to the investment of $46 billion dollars on tribal land, to 200 new co-stewardship agreements. The last 4 years have seen a historic investment in and expansion of tribal rights.

The Biden-Harris Administration proposed a new rule which would make contraceptive medication (the pill) free over the counter with most Insurance. The new rule would ban cost sharing for contraception products, including the pill, condoms, and emergency contraception. On top of over the counter medications, the new rule will also strength protections for prescribed contraception without cost sharing as well.

The EPA announced its finalized rule strengthening standards for lead paint dust in pre-1978 housing and child care facilities. There is no safe level of exposure to lead particularly for children who can suffer long term developmental consequences from lead exposure. The new standards set the lowest level of lead particle that can be identified by a lab as the standard for lead abatement. It's estimated 31 million homes built before the ban on lead paint in 1978 have lead paint and 3.8 million of those have one or more children under the age of 6. The new rule will mean 1.2 million fewer people, including over 300,000 children will not be exposed to lead particles every year. This comes after the Biden-Harris Administration announced its goal to remove and replace all lead pipes in America by the end of the decade.

The Department of Transportation announced a $50 million dollar fine against American Airlines for its treatment of disabled passengers and their wheelchairs. The fine stems from a number of incidences of humiliating and unfair treatment of passages between 2019 and 2023, as well as video documented evidence of mishandling wheelchairs and damaging them. Half the fine will go to replacing such damaged wheelchairs. The Biden administration has leveled a historic number of fines against the airlines ($225 million) for their failures. It also published a Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights, passed a new rule accessible lavatories on aircraft, and is working on a rule to require airlines to replace lost or damaged wheelchairs with equal equipment at once.

The Department of Energy announced $430 million dollars to help boost domestic clean energy manufacturing in former coal communities. This invests in projects in 15 different communities, in places like Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Michigan. The plan will bring about 1,900 new jobs in communities struggling with the loss of coal. Projects include making insulation out of recycled cardboard, low carbon cement production, and industrial fiber hemp processing.

The Department of Transportation announced $4.2 billion in new infrastructure investment. The money will go to 44 projects across the country. For example the MBTA will get $400 million to replace the 92 year old Draw 1 bridge and renovate North Station.

The Department of Transportation announced nearly $200 million to replace aging natural gas pipes. Leaking gas lines represent a serious public health risk and also cost costumers. Planned replacements in Georgia and North Carolina for example will save the average costumer there over $900 on their gas bill a year. Replacing leaking lines will also remove 1,000 metric tons of methane pollution, annually.

The Department of the Interior announced $244 million to address legacy pollution in Pennsylvania coal country. This comes on top of $400 million invested earlier this year. This investment will help close dangerous mine shafts, reclaim unstable slopes, improve water quality by treating acid mine drainage, and restore water supplies damaged by mining.

Data shows that President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (passed with Vice-President Harris' tie breaking vote) has saved seniors $1 billion dollars on out-of-pocket drug costs. Seniors with certain high priced drugs saw their yearly out of pocket costs capped at $3,500 for 2024. In 2024 all seniors using Medicare Part D will see their out of pocket costs capped at $2,000 for the year. It's estimated if the $2,000 cap had been in effect this year 4.6 million seniors would have hit it by June and not have had to pay any more for medication for the rest of the year.

The Department of Education announced a new proposed rule to bring student debt relief for 8 million struggling borrowers. The Biden-Harris Administration has managed despite road blocks from Republicans in Congress, the courts and law suits from Republican states to bring student loan forgiveness to 5 million Americans so far through different programs. This latest rule would take into account many financial hardships faced by people to determine if they qualify to have their student loans forgiven. The final rule cannot be finalized before 2025 meaning its fate will be decided at the election.

The Department of Agriculture announced $1.5 billion in 92 partner-driven conservation projects. These projects aim at making farming more susceptible and environmental friendly, 16 projects are about water conservation in the West, 6 support use of innovative technologies to reduce enteric methane emissions in livestock. $100 million has been earmarked for Tribal-led projects.

[nightshiftmel]

Is there any plan for after Harris loses (which seems inevitable at this point)? People are pointedly not talking about after, so I assume that Trump winning really does mean everything is Over in a very final way.

...

Both of those assertions are wrong.

Polls are notoriously unreliable (and getting less reliable), and things are close. I honestly have no idea who's going to win. But right now, fivethirtyeight.com (which is the best overall politics predictor in the US, and has been for the last several election cycles) has Harris ahead by 1.3 points. So, no, Trump winning is not inevitable.

But especially with things this close and the election this close, this is the least likely time for people to be publicly talking about contingency plans for a Trump win. The more people think Trump is going to win, the less likely Harris voters are to show up at the polls ... which means that Trump is more likely to win. Talking about how awful a Trump presidency would be if he got elected can motivate people to vote, when paired with "but voting for Harris can help prevent that!" Talking about what to do after he wins (if he does) is much more concrete and much more likely to convince people that there's no point in voting, we need to move on to the next step of preparing for the inevitable. But it isn't inevitable! Not even close!

Organizations at all levels--political groups, advocacy groups, charities, legal aid groups, etc.--have been preparing all along. But the more you talk about those contingencies in public, the more likely you are to actually need them.

And the thing is, we know a Trump win would be bad. How bad, and in what way exactly ... depends on a lot of factors. His first term was bad, but he was prevented from achieving his goals because he is incapable of keeping competent people around, and nobody knew how to make the bureaucracy of government do what they wanted it to do. He may have fixed that problem, he may not. We know what his goals are and those of his closest allies. What we don't know is, would he be better able to carry those goals out this time if he wins, and if so, how many of them he will be able to enact. And what we, as leftists, can do in the event of a Trump presidencey depends on all of those things!

So it's much better to point out that the odds are in Harris' favor right now (even if not by much) and we need to go out and make sure they stay in Harris' favor.

[nightshiftmel]

Was disappointed by a similar themed list. made my own https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7qxodmTBzW4rsFiC9HhwBU?si=c4f947a3eef54ef0

[nightshiftmel]

You asked for more Hephaestus

Hephaestus: *walks into bathroom and flips light switch*

*bulb is dead*

Hephaestus: *sigh*

*goes to closet and gets new lightbulb*

*shelf falls down because of loose screws*

Hephaestus: * s i g h *

*opens drawer to get a screwdriver*

*drawer is squeaky*

Hephaestus: grrr

*goes to garage and gets WD-40*

*can is empty*

Hephaestus: GRRR.

*gets in truck to go to hardware store*

*engine won’t start*

Hephaestus: GRRR!!!

Aphrodite: Hephaestus, could you change out the lightbulb in the bathroom? 

Hephaestus: *looks up from under the hood covered in motor oil*

Hephaestus: What do you think I’m doing!?

[nightshiftmel]

one thing i have been trying to teach myself lately is that i am enough whenever. i am always, all the time enough. i am enough when i don’t like myself, i am enough when i don’t look presentable, i am enough when i’m not ready to face my demons. you don’t have to do certain things such as working out 5x a week, journal and meditate every night or be good at school to be enough and worthy of love. whatever state you are in right now is enough. you are deserving of a relationship, a good life and everything else at any given time.

[nightshiftmel]

Being an adult and trying to find a new apartment suddenly makes people refusing to move out of their new haunted house in movies very realistic

[nightshiftmel]

How many separate times has self-propelled flight evolved?

it depends on how you define "evolved"!

if we're using the term to mean "developed the ability due to natural adaptations gained through millions of years of natural selection, using its own body", then powered flight has evolved FOUR TIMES. (shown in order)

(may they rest in peace) <art src: Heinrich Harder>

however, if we're using the term "evolved" to mean a "developed the ability due to natural adaptations gained through millions of years of natural selection" WITHOUT the "using its own body" caveat, then powered flight has actually evolved....

FIVE TIMES.

(surprise?)

[nightshiftmel]

i know ur here for the laughs but sometimes we just gotta be real 

[nightshiftmel]

Not opinions but facts(via)

[nightshiftmel]

holy shit please stop giving movies One Word Titles, ya’ll are fucking with my search results

[nightshiftmel]

In our campaign last night we found an illithid space ship which is basically a living nautilus.  We spent most of the session figuring out how the ship worked, and discovered it is powered by flesh.

Our DM was apparently pleased, believing the awesome power of the ship was balanced by the limiting factor of having to provide fuel for it.  Then our rogue asks:

“Does it have to be raw flesh, or is cooked okay?”

The DM thinks. “Sure, I can’t think of any reason cooked flesh wouldn’t work.”

Rogue: “Great, we have unlimited fuel!”

And then the DM suddenly remembers that several weeks ago, he granted our fighter the seemingly harmless wish of an item that produces endless brisket.  And he did lament.

[nightshiftmel]

I mean, to be completely fair to the folks who wrote the series finale for Two and a Half Men, if the actor playing one of your three main characters left the show in the midst of a cataclysmic cocaine bender that culminated in them claiming to be a god on national TV, and the season after that, another actor playing one of your three main characters converted to Seventh Day Adventism and publicly denounced their past involvement with the show as immoral and inconsistent with Christian values, obliging you to stagger through an entire season short two-thirds of your core cast, you’d probably burn that fucker to the ground, too.

[nightshiftmel]

dewey reflects on his showdown with don karnage

[nightshiftmel]

He really do look like Mario

[nightshiftmel]