U.S. government to shut down today unless last-minute deal reached

Senate is back in session… let’s see how this goes…

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All the best to our American chums.

Edit so that the comments makes sense.

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5 hours is a very long time for gratuitous debating.

Setting the alarm.

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… I’ll be honest; the few payday loan places I’ve had the (dis)pleasure of interacting with were no-nonsense and brutally efficient with doing their job, and not allowing one iota of leeway- they’d either run the nation slightly better, or worse than the most corrupt fascist dictatorship ever. (YMMV)

I had a similar experience recently dealing with a repo place in regards to getting a friend’s crap out of their repo’d vehicle; all I can really say on that is “Avoid title loans like the fucking plague.”

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We just let a “ruthless capitalist” - in reality, a fucking predatory grifter, which isn’t too far off what a payday loan or title pawn place actually is - run the place for a while, and it was less than optimal, to put it mildly.

Government is not a business and should not be run as such. The sooner we accept that, the better off we’re all gonna be. Government should be about solving large scale problems that we can’t solve as individuals… hence the focus on democratic practices and understanding that the most effective government is one that is made up of active citizens interested in solving problems that we all face.

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Absolutely nothing has to be profitable.

Economics isn’t an underlying part of the functioning of the universe. It doesn’t have to be anything.

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Never turn your back on the surf.

Also, never bring furniture into the surf.

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Saoirse Ronan Bingo GIF by A24

And now someone is giving a speech about Dianne Feinstein… :thinking:

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Image allegedly from the Capitol Police of Rep. Bowman pulling the fire alarm. I can’t imagine what he was thinking.

As per @KathyPartdeux’s link it looks like Bowman is full of shit. Pity, we were so close to getting through the day with the Republicans being the only ones looking like poorly behaved children.

Bowman’s office said it was an accident, and the congressman told reporters later Saturday: “I was trying to get to a door. I thought the alarm would open the door and I pulled the fire alarm to open the door by accident.”

No functioning adult would mix up a clearly marked wall-mounted fire alarm trigger with a door handle. And if they somehow did then the responsible thing to do would be to immediately own up to it instead of waiting until they were identified by security footage.

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Yes yes yes!

Case in point: here in Oz, we have a roughly 50/50 split of public and private hospitals. Before the birth of a kid, we were talking to a family friend who is a doctor (GP). She said that for her kids’ births, she went to public hospitals, very much on purpose. In her view, private hospitals are businesses, and will cater to mainstream problems. Think of the 80/20 rule, or the Pareto principle. As a business, it’s hard to make a profit catering to smaller markets, such as unusual birth complications.

So if a birth at a private hospital gets complicated, the in-labour mother will likely have to be transported to a nearby public hospital, where they aren’t focused on being efficient or profitable. The private hospital had warned us as much, but with much glossier words (until you got to the legal fine print).

There is (arguably) nothing wrong with running a shoe store like a business. There is plenty of experience to show that there is a lot wrong with running an essential service like a business.

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Jada Pinkett Smith Periodt GIF by Red Table Talk

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Looks like a senator (is it Michael Bennett CO maybe?) is speaking on his objection to the house bill, which is the lack of funding for Ukraine… They apparently all need to agree to get the bill to a vote, so one dude can hold it up

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A reasonable objection, but of course Ukraine doesn’t get funding if there’s a shutdown either.

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Right and it is a stopgap for 45 days, so that will be back up for debate in the coming days.

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Yeah I hate to see a Democrat holding this up at the 11th hour. I get it. I share his concern, but it’s time to get this done for now.

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Yup. Unless this Senator is offering a plausible way to secure funding for Ukraine in the next (checks watch) not enough fucking time for that then I don’t want to hear it today. Fight like hell for it on Monday.

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They are doing a roll-call vote and NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE SHOWED UP TO GET A QUORUM, WHATTHEFUCKAREPEOPLEDOING… Do your JOBS assholes!!!

Angry The Office GIF

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Real Housewives Table Flip GIF

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These out of touch people on the hill still don’t get cameras do they?

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