“Did you buy a new house with your stimulus check too?”

In an article about there not being enough workers for all of these businesses that are looking to hire more people, the Associated Press asserts that Americans are flush with cash, buying houses and cars, “thanks in part” to the $1,400 stimulus checks.

AP:

With viral cases declining, consumers spending again and more businesses easing restrictions, America’s employers likely delivered another month of robust hiring in April, reinforcing the economy’s steady rebound from the pandemic recession.

Economists have forecast that the nation added 975,000 jobs last month, according to a survey by FactSet, after adding 916,000 in March, and that the unemployment rate slipped from 6% to 5.8%. The size of such job gains was essentially unheard-of before the pandemic.

The government will issue the April jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.

Yet most of the hiring represents a bounce-back after tens of millions of jobs were lost when the pandemic flattened the economy 14 months ago. Even if economists’ estimate for April hiring proves accurate, the economy would remain about 7 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.

At the same time, optimism about a sustained recovery is rising. Americans are, on average, flush with cash, thanks in part to $1,400 stimulus checks that have gone to most adults and to savings that many affluent households managed to build up during the pandemic. Fueled by that extra money, Americans are buying more homes and cars, boosting restaurant and retail sales and filling more airline seats.

And most economists expect outsize job growth to continue in the coming months as vaccinations are widely administered and trillions in government aid spreads through the economy. Even if another uptick in COVID-19 cases were to occur, analysts don’t expect most states and cities to reimpose tough business restrictions. Oxford Economics, a consulting firm, predicts that a total of 8 million jobs will be added this year, reducing the unemployment rate to a low 4.3% by the final three months of 2021.

“We do believe that the jobs recovery will remain robust throughout the rest of this year,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist for payroll provider ADP.

…

Still, one unusual factor might have kept a lid on job growth in April: Some employers would have hired more workers, if only they could find them. There have been complaints from businesses — notably restaurants, bars and hotels as well as some manufacturing and construction companies — that the economy is recovering so fast that there aren’t enough applicants to fill their open jobs. One government report last week showed that wages and benefits rose at a solid pace in the first quarter, suggesting that some companies are having to pay more to attract and keep employees.

The number of open jobs is now significantly above pre-pandemic levels, though the size of the labor force — the number of Americans either working or looking for work — is still smaller by about 4 million people.

Are there not enough workers because you scared everyone to death, telling that there was a dangerous virus that could kill them if they interacted with other humans?

No problem! Just call Central America and ask for a caravan.

You can watch the uncensored video here.

Them niggas gotta get dat money.

Independent:

A mailwoman in Michigan was badly beaten by two women who allegedly were trying to get hold of stimulus checks.

Social media footage of the attack shows the USPS worker being beaten over the head as she’s dragged across the ground. Steps away, a USPS truck with a large dent in the front of the van can be seen.

The voice of the man who seemingly recorded the incident can be heard saying that they were “trying to get that stimulus”.

I ain’t know why them niggas be think they can get that stimulus do.

Y’all know that ain’t cash in dos envelopes.

When the coronavirus hoax first started coming down, there were people on forums and so on – ostensibly right-wingers – saying that this would be good for white people, as it would force the government to pay them not to work.

I have no idea what kind of white person doesn’t want to work. Actually, I do have some idea.

It’s not a good scene.

Regardless, I said: “Even if you think it is good for white people not to work, you must understand that they’re not going to give us anything, right? You must surely understand that?”

And here we are.

Nine months after beginning the process of shutting down your business, taking your job from you – they’re giggling, giving you $600.

AP:

The House easily passed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Monday night that would finally deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Lawmakers tacked on a $1.4 trillion catchall spending bill and thousands of pages of other end-of-session business in a massive bundle of bipartisan legislation as Capitol Hill prepared to close the books on the year.

The lopsided 359-53 vote was a bipartisan coda to months of partisanship, politicking as lawmakers wrangled over the relief question, a logjam that broke after President-elect Joe Biden urged his party to accept a compromise with top Republicans that is smaller than many Democrats would have liked.

The relief package, unveiled Monday afternoon, sped through the House in a matter of hours. A Senate vote that would send the bill to President Donald Trump appeared likely to follow soon.

The bill combines coronavirus-fighting funds with financial relief for individuals and businesses. It would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans, along with a new round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses, restaurants, and theaters and money for schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction.

The 5,593-page legislation — by far the longest bill ever — came together Sunday after months of battling, posturing and postelection negotiating that reined in a number of Democratic demands as the end of the congressional session approached. President-elect Joe Biden was eager for a deal to deliver long-awaited help to suffering people and a boost to the economy, even though it was less than half the size that Democrats wanted in the fall.

“This deal is not everything I want — not by a long shot,” said Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, R-Mass., a longstanding voice in the party’s old-school liberal wing. “The choice before us is simple. It’s about whether we help families or not. It’s about whether we help small businesses and restaurants or not. It’s about whether we boost (food stamp) benefits and strengthen anti-hunger programs or not. And whether we help those dealing with a job loss or not. To me, this is not a tough call.”

Yeah, they need to hit up those anti-hunger programs.

Because soon enough, we’re going to be entering the hunger zone, hardcore.

The Senate was also on track to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown at midnight and give Trump time to sign the sweeping legislation.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a key negotiator, said on CNBC Monday morning that the direct payments would begin arriving in bank accounts next week.

Democrats promised more aid to come once Biden takes office, but Republicans were signaling a wait-and-see approach.

The measure would fund the government through September, wrapping a year’s worth of action on annual spending bills into a single package that never saw Senate committee or floor debate.

The legislation followed a tortured path. Democrats played hardball up until Election Day, amid accusations that they wanted to deny Trump a victory that might help him prevail. Democrats denied that, but their demands indeed became more realistic after Trump’s loss and as Biden made it clear that half a loaf was better than none.

The final bill bore ample resemblance to a $1 trillion package put together by Senate Republican leaders in July, a proposal that at the time was scoffed at by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as way too little.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took a victory lap after blocking far more ambitious legislation from reaching the Senate floor. He said the pragmatic approach of Biden was key.

“A few days ago, with a new president-elect of their own party, everything changed. Democrats suddenly came around to our position that we should find consensus, make law where we agree, and get urgent help out the door,” McConnell said.

On direct payments, the bill provides $600 to individuals making up to $75,000 per year and $1,200 to couples making up to $150,000, with payments phased out for higher incomes. An additional $600 payment will be made per dependent child, similar to the last round of relief payments in the spring.

The $300 per week bonus jobless benefit was half the supplemental federal unemployment benefit provided under the $1.8 billion CARES Act in March. That more generous benefit and would be limited to 11 weeks instead of 16 weeks. The direct $600 stimulus payment was also half the March payment.

Yes, unemployment is now half of what it was.

There isn’t more employment – there’s just less money for you.

From here on out, this just keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse.

Just try to understand this: blacks get sometimes $1200 a month in peacetime. They have been living on this for decades. They’re still getting that money now.

Family members of unauthorized immigrants are now eligible to get stimulus checks under the $900 billion deal reached last night. That eligibility is retroactive, so adults excluded last time could get up to $1800 now https://t.co/UEyVqvPd4f

— Michelle Hackman (@MHackman) December 21, 2020

Israel was given $38 billion this year. Their population is 9 million. That’s over $4000 each.

You are not going to get anything because you’re white, and whites are expected to work. If whites can’t work, because the government closed down your business, well then – hit the food bank, I guess.

Josh Hawley is clearly being groomed as a placid figure to control part of the right-wing in a post-Trump era. They are aware that anyone under the age of 50 probably isn’t into Libertarianism, given that even the softest dope has realized that this doesn’t benefit normal people, so they come out with this guy.

CNBC:

A second set of stimulus checks could be in the works for millions of Americans, based on Congress’ ongoing negotiations for more coronavirus relief legislation.

But a fight is brewing over the amount that will be written on those checks.

Currently, those talks point to new direct payments to Americans of $600 per individual and $600 per child. In contrast, the first stimulus checks sent earlier this year were for $1,200 per adult and $500 per child under 17.

Now, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., plans to go on the Senate floor on Friday to try to push for those checks to be increased to $1,200 per individual and $2,400 for married couples who file jointly.

“Tomorrow I will go to the Senate floor to ask for an up or down vote on my bill to provide a direct payment of $1,200 to working Americans, $2,400 for couples, $500 for kids,” Hawley tweeted on Thursday. “This is the Covid relief working families need.”

Last week, Hawley introduced the bill for second $1,200 direct payments to Americans. At the time, he said he intended to ask for an up or down vote on the proposal if needed.

Hawley has also teamed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to come up with an amendment for $1,200 checks that could be included in the legislation Washington lawmakers are working on.

Teaming up with Bernie! Edgy!

Giving people $1200 checks in response to what they’ve done with this coronavirus lockdown is like if someone tells you they’re starving and you vomit in their face and say “bon appetit.”

People have had their entire lives destroyed by this lockdown. Many or even most people have lost businesses and careers that they spent their entire adult lives building. Imagine working for decades to carve out a small business, then having it ruined over this hoax. A lot of you reading this don’t have to imagine it – you’re living it.

What’s actually even worse than that – because yes, it is even worse than that – is that people have no ability to rebuild. All of this wealth has been transferred to the ruling elite. The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, has almost doubled his wealth, adding more than $70 billion, and that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of just how much has been looted. This is government policy designed to transfer the wealth to the elite, and once they have it, it is no longer moving around among the people. It is permanently out of our reach.

Money is a game, but it symbolizes real values – property, primarily. The coronavirus hoax gives the elite the opportunity to use money to transfer what will end up being virtually all property from the people to them. That then sets the stage for a totally new society, where the peasants are truly landless.

The dollar is being collapsed, and that is going to steal even more from people. Most working class people, and a good portion of the middle class, bought into the idiocy they teach you in school that saving dollars is a good idea, and all that wealth will be stolen from them. The rich will be able to pay off their debt for pennies on the dollar, with the wealth they’ve gained from your bank account. That is, the value that you created with your blood and sweat, and kept in dollars, changes hands when the dollar becomes useless and all the debt they have disappears.

What is a man who’s lost everything supposed to do with $1200? What does $1200 buy? Two weeks’ worth of groceries for a family? It’s nothing. It’s a joke.

Obviously, it’s better that they give it than not. But it’s also all part of the plan. Things are going to get really bad, you’re not going to have anything, then they’re going to swoop in and give you an apartment in a high rise condo and a monthly allowance in the form of credits transferred to a computer chip in your hand, and you’re going to say “thank you, sir” or you’re going to go to a camp.

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That is the plan, at least.

The GOP is going to send out people to keep you hoping that democracy will work. I don’t necessarily disagree with anything I’ve seen from Josh Hawley (other than the standard anti-China nonsense), but it is clear that he’s being groomed to take a role in trying to make people believe that there is some future for change through national politics. Assuming Joe Biden assumes office, there isn’t any future in politics. That will be the end of it.

Just don’t get caught back up in this. It will be easy to get caught up in it. It’s comforting. But it’s not real.

This is like if you’re a child and some guy breaks into your home and slits your parents’ throats in front of you and then his partner comes in and is like “shhh, don’t worry – you’re parents are just sleeping, and when they wake up, they’re going to take you to get a brand new puppy. For now, you can have this bag of Reese’s Pieces.”