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For days, news outlets have been reporting on the Coronavirus Relief bill, AKA Covid Stimulus, etc. Sometimes described as a 5,000 page or 6,000 page bill (it’s 5,593 pages), reports focus on $600 payments to individuals, but the bill also includes extended unemployment payments, another $284B of Paycheck Protection Payments, and $25B of rental assistance, among other things.

Except there is no such thing as a Coronavirus Relief bill. These payments are earmarks in the annual government funding bill called the Consolidated Appropriations Act (2021) which is why it’s 5,600 pages long.

And what happens when Congress decides it cannot agree on the Coronavirus stimulus? The government shuts down.

Stop voting. It doesn’t work.

What’s the difference between a Trump Detractor and a Trump Supporter?

Detractors are afraid Trump will use fascist tactics to take control of the country – Supporters are counting on it.

Now the fun part:

In the sentence above, replace 'Trump' with 'Obama' and replace 'fascist' with 'Marxist'.

The more things change …

Pfizer's SARS-CoV-2 vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization on December 11.

By December 17, Pfizer had shipped 2.9 million doses.

Those Pesky Russians

NATO published a report today that says "until 2030, Russia is likely to remain the main military threat to the North Atlantic Alliance".

Pay no-never-mind to the fact that without a belligerent Russia, there is no NATO.

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Every year, the Christmas merchandising and music seem to arrive just a smidge earlier and every year the "It's too early for Christmas" kranks sound the klaxons.

However, I don't see the Christmas Kranks arriving with a library of beloved Thanksgiving classics.

Gerry Wondering

Why is the twenty-billion-dollar U.S.S. Gerald Ford – the most expensive warship in the history of humanity – named after a president who did absolutely nothing, including not get elected to the presidency or the vice presidency?

The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, was introduced as a concept item at ComDex in 1992 before hitting the market in 1994. In addition to telephone and PDA features, it could receive faxes.

Why can't today's smartphones receive faxes? After fifty years, faxes are still more secure than email!

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