2,650 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2018
    1. In the end, the Allam cycle is only slightly more efficient than typical combined-cycle systems. But it has the major added benefit of capturing all potential carbon dioxide emissions essentially for free.

      I don't understand how this is free

    1. When asked this summer by Univision whether he had any regrets about the way he’d conducted himself, Arpaio responded that he had nothing to apologize for and insisted that “the Hispanics” didn’t actually hate him despite his program of racially profiling them.

      jfc

    1. They’d say they don’t know where their home country is, so let them go there and spend six months, because it might take that long to do paperwork to get them here legally and let them see their home country and see what it's really like

      Or 6 years more like

    2. Arpaio suggested he could support some form of legalization of participants in the since discontinued Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program that protected illegal immigrants brought in as children from deportation.

      yeah right

  2. Dec 2017
    1. Republican demands to gut the ACA also declined after Congress effectively eliminated the individual mandate by zeroing out the tax penalty in Obamacare as part of the tax bill approved this week.

      which will dramatically raise premiums

    1. The CRA is a relatively new tool that allows Congress to reverse regulatory actions within 60 legislative days of their enactment.

      pretty sure it's been around since the Clinton era, Congress just didn't use it that much

    1. Enactment of the final tax legislation could mean tax cuts for many people in those states, but also big drops in state tax revenue

      this did not work out well for Kansas

    2. The change, if enacted, would be expected to decrease the percentage of taxpayers who itemize their tax deductions, such as donations to alumni funds, from about 30 percent of filers to just 5 percent.

      holy shit

    3. The provision limiting the deduction for state and local taxes paid would put pressure on states to constrain their own spending in areas such as higher education, says a report by Moody’s Investors Service, which counts the tax bill as a possible negative for the higher-education sector.

      Cause educated people tend to vote more liberal

    4. Another provision would prohibit colleges from using a loss in one unrelated business to offset a gain in a different such business, potentially increasing their overall tax burden. Unrelated businesses are those not directly connected to their academic mission, such as recreation or fitness centers, sports camps, facility rentals, and golf courses.

      FFS

    5. “seat-license fees” paid to buy tickets to sporting events — a major revenue stream to big-time college-sports programs.

      huh, I didn't realize you could write those off

    6. he bill would impose a 21-percent tax on annual compensation in excess of $1 million paid to any of a nonprofit organization’s five highest-paid employees

      to non-profits? WTF for?

    7. proposed an exemption from the tax for colleges that decline to accept federal funds, a plan seen as helping a single institution, Michigan’s Hillsdale College, the beneficiary of many conservative donors. The “Hillsdale Carve-Out,” as it came to be known, was rejected in the Senate’s final bill.

      Good

    8. A small change in this section states that the tax applies only to “institutions more than 50 percent of the tuition paying students of which are located in the United States.”

      what

    9. laws in many states require their tax rates to change with federal rates, a pattern that could lead to steep state-budget shortfalls as tax revenues decline

      well shit

    1. When adopted the entire Downtown district had a total assessed value of $7,560,528.  Today, that value stands at $38, 137,660.

      Are these numbers both in 2017 dollars?

    1. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end to indicate the end of the pause

      I thought commas weren't supposed to be used to indicate pauses? Or is that only verbal pauses?

    1. Advocates believe a law will make net neutrality more durable. But ISPs are betting they’ll be able to write the bill — because they’ve paid for the opportunity.

      yup

    1. where lawmakers discussed how having the gambling issue on the general election ballot would bring out more black voters and hurt the GOP’s chances of ending Democrats’ 136 years of legislative dominance.

      in Alabama????? Wow.

    1. but a federal judge ruled this summer that the state is not required to inform people with convictions who couldn’t vote under the old law that they may now register to vote.

      wtf???

    1. The mall owner said it would be hit much harder financially by the closures than Starbucks would be if it were forced to keep its stores open until their leases expired

      WTF

    2. Simon had argued that the closure of Teavana stores could trigger additional store closures in its malls at a time when shopping centers are under pressure from falling foot traffic and widespread retail bankruptcies.

      WELP, THEMS THE BREAKS.

    1. The other universe created by Pierce is the Circle Universe aka The Emelanese Universe. The two universes are completely separate and there is no overlap at all

      i remain skeptical

  3. Nov 2017
    1. telecom companies, which surged 2.7% to lead all sectors — a reversal of their futility so far in 2017, having dropped 12% year-to-date.

      yeah I don't think this is the tax bill, seems like it would be more related to repealing net neutrality to me

  4. tamorapierce.wikia.com tamorapierce.wikia.com
    1. Alanna convinced Daine that Daine should let the animals fight because they would be protecting their home as well.

      this was Onua Chamtong. Alanna was off fighting ogres

    1. Ross “recuses himself from any matters focused on transoceanic shipping vessels, but has been generally supportive of the administration’s sanctions of Russian and Venezuelan entities,” a spokesman said

      mmmhmmm

    2. Most of the more than 13.4 million documents, which were analyzed by a group of more than 380 journalists in 67 countries, are from Bermudan law firm Appleby

      man, how are these documents getting leaked???

    1. he sitting lieutenant governor upset the latter last week when he said he would be willing to sign a bill banning so-called sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants.

      FFS

    1. t was announced that Salman had replaced his half-brother Muqrin with his nephew,  Interior Minister Moahammed Bin Nayef, as crown prince. Salman’s son, Defense Minister Moahammed bin Salman, is now deputy crown prince and second in line for the throne.

      hmm, so what happened to Bin Nayef?

    1. the Russians have been balking at flight requests and imposing flight ranges significantly less than the treaty specify, in addition to using superior digital cameras and getting more out of the spy missions than the Americans are.

      the superior digital cameras issue sounds like a personal problem to me

    2. In 2014, Russia placed a 500-kilometer (310 mile) limit on flights over Kaliningrad despite treaty language establishing a maximum flight distance of 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles).

      I'm not sure why these two numbers are related

    3. the eventual American withdrawal from Open Skies. (Despite the widely-accepted perception, Open Skies is not a bilateral treaty between the U.S. and Russia, but a rather large, multilateral treaty between 34 nations.)

      this is a bad idea

    1. a significant increase for facilities restoration and modernization.  Additionally, the proposal increases funding for facilities restoration and modernization by $1.4 billion.

      aren't these two statements redundant?

    2. testified that less than 50% of its planes were combat ready, while the Navy and Marine Corps had just over 50% of aircraft necessary for training and operations. In total, only 3 of the Army’s 50 Brigade Combat Teams are ready.

      How is that possible?? They've received over 500 BILLION dollars a year! Sounds like the military needs to re-visit their funding allocation priorities.

    3. H.R. 2810 authorizes funds to increase the size of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Army Guard and Reserve, Naval and Air Reserve, and Air Guard. In addition, the bill full funds the 2.4% pay raise troops are entitled to under law, and blocks the President’s ability to reduce troop pay while extending special pay and bonuses for service-members. Any reduction of inpatient care for military Medical Treatment facilities locations outside the U.S. is prohibited.

      I dislike increasing the size of the military branches. I do like the bill fully funding the 2.4% raise to the troops and extending special pay and bonuses. Basically I like everything except for increasing the size of the branches.

    4. The bill authorizes $613.8 billion in base funding, including a $28.5 billion increase above the President’s budget for essential readiness recovery. Further, the bill authorizes an additional $10 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations fund (OCO) for base requirements, and an additional $64.6 billion in the OCO fund to cover contingency operations. When factoring in $7.5 billion for mandatory defense spending, a total of $695.9 billion is authorized to be appropriated.[1]

      yikes

    1. Such funding shall be further increased through 2019 for both territories if Puerto Rico takes specified actions to improve its Medicaid program.

      Why is the USVI funding contingent on Puerto Rico funding?

    1. abortion would be banned “in cases where a fetal heartbeat is detectable” or in situations where doctors intend to move forward “without determining whether the fetus has a detectable heartbeat.”

      wat

    1. Never apply eyeliner between your lashes and your eye. Apply eyeliner only on the portion of your lashes that is well away from your eye

      no waterline eyeliner then. SAD.

    1. Weber said, “most of the archives were stored on metal shelving in archival quality folders inside damage-resistant archival boxes in a secure building with a sprinkler system.” He called those steps standard practice for archival collections, and later added that they met or exceeded guidelines set by the United Nations and the Library of Congress.

      uh foam retardant is way better than sprinklers. And widespread archival practice is also a reality of little funding. Keysight shouldn't have had that problem.

    1. none of us maintain a personal archive; instead, we rely on access to online digital libraries for the final, published version of our research.

      ...have you heard of institutional repositories?

    1. The legislation has not yet passed both houses. The new policy enables "us to put the principles of this bill into practice," Smith said.

      has it passed either house?

    1. American political ads, and Russian money, rubles. How could you not connect those two dots?”

      they weren't looking for it. They're only looking for data they can sell and use to grow their user base so they have more data to sell.

  5. Oct 2017
    1. the government withdrew from a deal to create an egalitarian prayer section at the Western Wall, and the Knesset passed a law allowing non-Orthodox Jews to be barred from state mikvahs, or ritual baths

      wtf

    2. “We can’t have someone walking around wrongly thinking he’s a Jew, and his family and friends believing it,” he said. “I understand people’s need to be part of the Jewish collective in Israel, but there are rules, and if we don’t obey the rules we undermine halacha.

      WTF. So even if you convert you're screwed?

    3. almost all of them immigrants with Jewish heritage, on lists that prevent them from marrying Jews. The courts argue that they are acting to preserve the coherence of the Jewish people.

      wtf

    1. Gates was unceremoniously bounced from the group as speculation over his involvement with Manafort’s overseas adventures increased.

      this feels like a half-finished article

    1. whom they were told was bringing them negative information on Clinton as part of a secret Russian government plot to help Trump

      were they told about the secret Russian plot? I don't remember that in the coverage about this meeting.

    1. The Clinton campaign and the DNC, through the law firm, continued to fund Fusion GPS’s research through the end of October 2016, days before Election Day

      so it was opposition research

    1. When preparing to respond to a FOIA request, employees must provide all responsive communications pertaining to university business to the unit processing the request, regardless of where the document or account is stored

      what is a responsive communication? A message that they responded to in writing somehow?

    2. As a result of Executive Order 15-09, those employees required to file a Statement of Economic Interests form must also file a Supplemental Statement of Economic Interests form with the EEC

      why can't the EEC just get this info from the Statement of Economic Interests or at least have the SEI form go to both the Office of the Secretary of State AND the EEC?

    1. “Yes, we have been involved and this is a short-term deal because we think ultimately block grants going to the states is going to be the answer,” said Trump, referring to a Republican push to block grant health-care funding individually to states.

      jfc

    1. Russia has been known to work with North Korea, and Sunday, it bolstered North Korea's cyber infrastructure by routing its data through TransTeleCom.

      is TransTeleCom a Russian company?

    1.  L’Oreal claim to “no longer test[s] on animals any of its products or any of its ingredients, anywhere in the world. Nor does L’Oréal delegate this task to others.” However, I don’t really want to put them on the list of available brands because they have a terrible track record and I don’t really trust them. Not yet, anyway!

      Say whaaaaat

    1. vague and unsubstantiated reports of a secret meeting last year at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington between Sergey I. Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador, and Jeff Sessions, then a senator and now the attorney general.

      mm.

    1. though ClearGov lists the city’s population at 60 in 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau put it at 113 that year.

      I wonder where the error on ClearGov's side came from?

    1. no study has explained why gun deaths were falling, or why they might be expected to continue to fall.” That poses difficulty in trying to definitively determine the impact of the law, they write.

      how can this type of study be done?

    2. “The number of homicide incidents involving a firearm decreased by 57 percent between 1989-90 and 2013-14,” the government crime trends report says. “Firearms were used in 13 percent of homicide incidents (n=32) in 2013-14. In 1989-90 it was 24 percent (n=75) of incidents.”

      what about 1996?

    1. Toomey got the endorsement of a gun-control group, Everytown for Gun Safety, which ran ads supporting Toomey. But with the NRA not spending any money in the race, it’s a stretch to call that race a loss for the NRA (especially given McGinty’s “F” rating).

      wow, why didn't the gun-control group endorse McGinty???

    1. Krieg, who is also a member of the Plattsburgh City School Board of Education, recently switched to the Democratic Party because of his frustration with GOP lawmakers, The Watertown Daily Times reported.

      so he's not a real Dem, ok

    2. "I have been accused of being sexist for calling Elise a little girl, and I probably deserve to be called a sexist," he said. "I think most of us, if we admit it, have some of a sexist in us, some of a racist within us. It's something if we're decent people, we recognize in ourselves and we struggle with it all of our lives."

      you're not struggling with it

    3. "I recognize her -- I'm not going to say a little girl -- I recognize her as a child, and it has nothing to do with her age. I see her as a child because she's a child. She thinks like a child. She has people set things up for her. She has people put their words in her mouth and she happily repeats them," Krieg said Tuesday

      You could have called her a puppet. Which is the same thing but without the sexism

    1. A Democratic House candidate in New York called sitting Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik a "child" in the process of (semi-)apologizing for previous comments in which he'd called her a "little girl."

      jfc dude

    1. What Sinha finds particularly interesting is that Coates will develop his own take based on his reading, making him as much an active participant in the historicizing process as the people he reads.

      Doesn't everyone do this?

    1. A disproportionate share of America’s violent offenders are African-American males, but not because they are black. It is because America has failed its black communities, and those of the vulnerable more generally, for decades.

      Yes, this is true. Good job.

    2. olice are already conducting work to identify and re-train or fire the demonstrably small number of its ranks who behave inappropriately

      BECAUSE OF THE PUBLIC OUTCRY, INCLUDING THAT OF THE WASHINGTON POST.

    3. Further, more than half of the unarmed people killed by police suffered from mental-health issues, drug intoxication, physical disability, or some combination of them. That’s something public-health policies can address head-on.

      Yes, and BLACK PEOPLE SUFFERING IN THESE STATES ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE KILLED BY WHITE ONES. ALSO POLICE SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE, HIGH PEOPLE, AND DISABLED PEOPLE WITHOUT KILLING THEM.

    4. reporting the suspect.

      oh because someone called the cops to report something means the person was doing something wrong? Also, where your receipts for these numbers?

    5. “In 74 percent of all fatal police shootings, the individuals had already fired shots, brandished a gun or attacked a person with a weapon or their bare hands,” the paper reported in 2015. “Another 16 percent of the shootings came after incidents that did not involve firearms or active attacks but featured other potentially dangerous threats.”

      But the cops manage to take VIOLENT WHITE CRIMINALS down alive, so

    1. they also plan more stringent enforcement of a provision in the Affordable Care Act that prohibits federal subsidies from being used for insurance policies that cover abortion. The agency will issue guidelines for insurers Friday on how they have to charge women who want abortion coverage at least $12 a year more for such a policy, and they have to keep that money in a separate fund to be used only to pay for abortions.

      FOR FUCK'S SAKE

    2. maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families.

      Your religious beliefs only apply to YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

    3. women who work for Hobby Lobby or the religious group may no longer have access to birth control coverage through the Obama-era workaround.

      This is fucking bullshit

    4. nd then, last year, the court issued a split ruling in the Little Sisters case, saying the government shouldn't fine the nuns but ordering the two sides to work out an arrangement that accommodates their religious beliefs.

      THE EXISTING EXEMPTION SHOULD ALREADY DO THIS. THEY JUST DON'T WANT ANYONE TO HAVE ANY BIRTH CONTROL.

    5. The new rules are being published Friday in the Federal Register and go into effect immediately.

      Uh, ALL NEW RULES ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE A PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT.

    6. he expects that most companies will continue to provide coverage for birth control and that the changes will only affect a tiny percentage of U.S. women.

      oh yeah, except for all the ones who suddenly become morally opposed to birth control in order to cut costs.

    7. "This provides an exemption, and it's a limited one," said Roger Severino, director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights. "We should have space for organizations to live out their religious identity and not face discrimination.

      THERE'S ALREADY AN EXEMPTION

    8. According to senior officials with the Department of Health and Human Services, the goal of the new rule is to allow any company or nonprofit group to exclude the coverage for contraception if it has a religious or moral objection.

      THEY COULD LITERALLY ALREADY DO THIS. THEY DON'T PAY FOR THE BIRTH CONTROL THAT THESE EMPLOYEES THEN GET FROM ANOTHER FUND.

    1. The decision on whether the death penalty will be sought is in the hands of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

      Since Christensen is white, I'm sure Sessions will think he's a "nice kid".

    1. The city council also voted Tuesday to allow the use of eminent domain and "quick-take" for some properties where the city and landlord couldn't agree on a sale price. "Quick-take" "is the statutory method to obtain early possession of property in a condemnation action," according to a city council memo. Eminent domain and quick-take were already used once before for Bristol properties and are scheduled to be used again in the future.

      Wow. That sucks. So they're using condemnation as an excuse even though the buildings may be up to code?

    2. Vouchers will go to those who are employed or receiving education or training, unless they're seniors or disabled

      People who are able-bodied, unemployed, and not in school or training ALSO deserve affordable housing.

    3. Projected rent and utilities costs, as of May 25, show that Bristol will have 41 two-bedroom units at $852, 43 three-bedroom units at $953 and six four-bedroom units at $1,172.

      These are not affordable housing prices

    1. However, the project was criticized during the planning staged by those who accused the city of trying to gentrify a primarily African-American neighborhood.

      well isn't this what they're doing?

    2. The city is going ahead with eminent domain proceedings on other structures.

      That's sad. I wonder what the demographics of the people they're forcing out are? Why not promise them a new home in the new development?

  6. Sep 2017
    1. including checks to make sure there is no gender bias in these decisions,” she said in a statement to the Guardian.

      clearly these checks by most likely primarily white men, are not working.

    1. “He pushed these ideas forward during the campaign and they were rejected, not just by America but by Democrats,” she said. “He didn't make it through the primary, he didn't make it into the Oval. I think that's a pretty clear indication of what Americans want to see and it's not single-payer.”

      I was with her up until the last sentence

    2. but if billions of people across this country stand up, get involved in the political process and fight back, I have no doubt — none whatsoever — that this nation, sooner than people believe, will in fact pass a ‘Medicare for all’ single-payer system, and finally, finally, health care will be a right for all in the United States of America.”

      we don't have a billion people

    1. Tolia tells me. “People will feel like, ‘Oh, [Nextdoor,] that’s that place where people are racist.’”

      and that can also tell you that your neighbors are racist IRL too

    1. The bill has 16 co-sponsors, which is a big turnaround when he introduced a similar bill in 2013 without a single co-sponsor.

      or when John Conyers introduced it every year for the past 10 years

    1. which was posted online by the White House on Monday, Lott will suggest that people hoping to cast a ballot go through the same federal background check that gun purchasers do—a process that screens people for criminal backgrounds, dishonorably military discharges, and a history of mental health issues or substance abuse. 

      what the fuck

    2. Legal filings revealed that commission members are using personal emails to conduct government work—the very transgression for which Republicans excoriated Hillary Clinton

      Gee I wonder why most news media isn't covering this

    1. he first daughter said she only wants to be judged on the policy issues she has decided to tackle herself, like gender equality in the workplace.

      *gender equality for white women

    2. the president’s eldest daughter rebuffed the assumption that she holds much power of persuasion over her father, despite the innumerable reports claiming that she is often the one to convince him of something or attempt to change his mind.

      then what is the point of you

    1. he’s worried that the name Bodega might come off as culturally insensitive. Not really. “I’m not particularly concerned about it,” he says.

      Oh well, in that case. Which Latin American community? Also what about the Asian or Middle-Eastern communities?

    2. replacing that beloved institution seems explicit in the very name of McDonald’s venture, a Spanish term synonymous with the tiny stores that dot urban landscapes and are commonly run by people originally from Latin America or Asia. Some might bristle at the idea of a Silicon Valley executive appropriating the term “bodega” for a project that could well put lots of immigrants out of work. (One of my coworkers even referred to it as “Bro-dega” to illustrate the disconnect.)

      Love iiiiit. They will forever be called Brodegas now.

    3. McDonald unveils 50 new Bodega locations on the West Coast, and plans to quickly go national. By the end of 2018, he hopes to have more than a thousand.

      remind me to never use one of these

    1. whether SB 5 should be enjoined — as opposed to whether it remedies SB 14’s ills — was not an issue before the district court on remand."

      She still said it didn't remedy SB14's problem.

    2. qualifying photo ID to cast regular ballots by executing a declaration that they face a reasonable impediment to obtaining qualifying photo ID.

      if it does, why were people without ID only allowed to cast provisional ballots?