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primorcoin · 1 year

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Dogecoin, Bonk and Shiba Inu Combine for $25 Billion in Monthly Trading Volume

To say dog-themed cryptocurrencies are popular is a bit of an understatement—in terms of just how prevalent they’ve become ever since Tesla founder Elon Musk first tweeted about Dogecoin in 2019.

The now-owner of Twitter famously said, “Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency.” Years later, hundreds of dog-themed tokens are now vying for similar attention.

As one Reddit user recently pointed out, nearly all of the top 10 tokens under CoinGecko’s so-called meme section make some reference to man’s best friend, whether that’s coins like Dogelon Mars or Doge Killer.

Dogecoin might be my fav cryptocurrency. It’s pretty cool.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2019

While Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are undoubtedly leaders in this category, the recent rise and fall of Solana-based Bonk Inu (BONK) has captivated many crypto traders, accompanied by a line of BONK NFTs and kicking off a surge in the price of Solana itself.

Even though BONK launched on Dec. 25, the three tokens—DOGE, SHIB, and BONK—have accounted for around $25.6 billion in trading volume over the past month, according to data from CoinGecko. By comparison, Bitcoin has accounted for $618.7 billion worth of trading volume.

For the time being, Dogecoin remains the top dog among a cadre of canine-themed coins, with $17.5 billion in trading volume over the past month compared to $7.2 billion for Shiba Inu and $885 million for BONK since launch.

It’s hard to say whether any meme token will ever come close to Dogecoin’s meteoric rise of reaching 73 cents, a price it achieved in May of 2021 just before Musk made an appearance on the comedic television show Saturday Night Live, where he called the coin a “hustle,” and Dogecoin then plummeted 20% in a single hour.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are currently down upwards of 86% from their all-time highs, and Bonk Inu is already 76% below its highest price of $0.00000487, set just 14 days ago.

Yet, many tokens out there seek to emulate Dogecoin by leaning heavily on the token’s name. There are at least 169 cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko that include some variation of Doge in their name, and they have seen over $323 million in trading volume in the past month.

While it did not draw inspiration directly from the token’s name, Shiba Inu is an Ethereum-based riff on Dogecoin that launched in 2020, adopting the same dog breed as Dogecoin as the network’s mascot and moniker. This leads to Bonk Inu, itself a riff on Shiba Inu, but built on Solana, a network designed to compete with Ethereum.

One of the key differences between Bonk Inu and Shiba Inu compared to their Musk-touted predecessor is that the two newer tokens operate on existing proof-of-stake networks. But Dogecoin, like Bitcoin, is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency that is mined and operates on its own blockchain.

Shiba Inu also has its fair share of copycats, with 112 coins mentioning Shiba in their name, which saw over $224 million in trading volume over the past month.

Over the past day, Shiba Inu’s price had risen 6.1% to $0.00001137 as of this writing, following an announcement from the coin’s development team that a layer-2 upgrade would soon launch and implement a burn mechanism, among other improvements.

Even the creation of Bonk, which also recently announced a token burn, has spawned a handful of imposters so far, such as Dogebonk, Shibonk, and Catbonk. Five coins that contain Bonk in their name have totaled around $253 million in trading volume since the token launched, according to data from CoinGecko.

Many of these copycat coins are even more volatile than the meme tokens they’re based on or could be outright scams. On Tuesday, blockchain security firm PeckShiled alerted that a copy of BONK built on Ethereum sidechain Polygon had plunged nearly 97% out of the blue.

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#Blockchain #Crypto #CryptoNews #DOGE #DogeCoin #ElonMusk #SHIB #Shibaswap #ShibaToken #TraedndingCrypto

#Blockchain #Crypto #CryptoNews #DOGE #DogeCoin #ElonMusk #SHIB #Shibaswap #ShibaToken #TraedndingCrypto #CryptoPress #Trending Cryptos

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lokiodinson · 3 years

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guys i do not know how to make it any clearer to you that the “women under 5′7 are minor coded” rp advice twitter account is so very obviously a troll just tweeting a series of purposely inflammatory bits of “advice” and the 5′7 one is just the one that took off can we stop falling for trollbait for one single day i am so tired

#hannah talks sometimes #they made their account april 2021 and had like 20 followers before that tweet #their other hot takes include 'never rp violence even in a violent universe'#and 'hannibal lecter is a bad villain bc he's not sympathetic and has no clear cause'#but ig the 5'7 one was too irresistible for people chomping at the bit to argue more abt anti/proship stuff #so thats the one that has thousands of retweets and notes #'boomers are so dumb i'd never fall for fake news' you could and you do if this is any indication

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 years

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 10, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

A poll today by the Associated Press (AP) and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) shows that President Joe Biden’s administration is gaining positive traction. Sixty-three percent of Americans approve of how he is handling his job as president. Seventy-one percent approve of how he is handling the coronavirus pandemic; 62% percent approve of how he is handling health care. Fifty-seven percent approve of how he is handling the economy; 54% approve of how he is handling foreign affairs.

Fifty-four percent of Americans think the country is going in the right direction. This is the highest number since 2017, but it is split by party: 84% of Democrats like the country’s direction, while only 20% of Republicans do.

Biden’s weak spots are in immigration, where 43% approve and 54% disapprove, and gun policy, where 48% approve and 49% disapprove.

And yet, Biden’s people have been working to address the influx of migrant children; White House Secretary Jen Psaki noted last week that “At the end of March, there were more than 5,000 children in Customs and Border Protection Patrol stations. Today, that number is approximately 600…. The amount of time children spend in CBP facilities is down by 75 percent — from 131 hours at the end of March to under 30 hours now.”

The administration has backed that short-term work with a long-term initiative. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris met virtually with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leader of the left of center populist nationalist coalition party MORENA, to talk about finding ways to promote economic development to address the root causes prompting the flight of refugees from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and southern Mexico. They also talked about working together to protect human rights and dismantle the criminal networks that smuggle migrants. She will travel to Guatemala and Mexico in June, where she will meet with their leaders.

Disapproval of Biden’s gun policies might well reflect a desire for a stronger stance. In April, a Morning Consult/Politico poll showed that 64% of registered voters supported stricter gun control laws. We have had an average of ten mass shootings a week in 2021, 194 in all. (A mass shooting is one in which four people are killed or wounded.)

This week, Biden will be meeting with bipartisan groups of leaders, including Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), to begin to hammer out an infrastructure measure based on his American Jobs Plan. He will also meet with Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), who have proposed their own $568 billion proposal without corporate tax hikes.

As the good news from the administration is starting to filter into the media, bad news from the Trump wing of the Republican Party is also starting to get traction. On Saturday, we learned that at retreats in March and April, staff for the National Republican Congressional Committee refused to tell lawmakers how badly Trump is polling in core battleground districts, where 54% see Biden favorably while only 41% still favor Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, and the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan are all more popular in those districts than the former president.

Indeed, it is more than a little odd that party leaders are bending over backward to tie their party to a former president who, after all, never broke 50% favorability ratings—the first time in polling history that had happened—and who lost both the White House and Congress.

Another set of data from Catalist, a voter database company in Washington, D.C., shows that the 2020 election was the most diverse ever, with Latino and Asian voters turning out in bigger numbers than ever before. Black voting increased substantially, while Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters had a decisive increase in turnout. The electorate was 72% white, down 2% from 2016 and 5% from 2008. Thirty-nine percent of Biden-Harris voters were people of color (61% were white); only 15% of Trump-Pence voters were POC (85% were white).

This demographic trend is behind the new voter suppression bills in Republican states. But the racial breakdown of the 2020 vote is not the only problem for the current Republican Party. The biggest turnout gains in 2020 were among young voters, 18 to 40 years old, who now make up 31% of voters, while those over 55 have dropped to only 44% of the electorate. Younger voters skew heavily toward the Democrats. Also notable was that women break heavily toward Democrats by a 10 point gap—79% of women of color support Democrats; 58% of white women voted for Biden-Harris—and women make up 54% of the electorate overall.

News out of the private “recount” in Arizona by Cyber Ninjas, a company without experience in election recounts and whose owner has already gone on record as believing that rigged voting machines in Arizona cost Trump victory, continues to be embarrassing as well. Although the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which has a Republican majority, said the count was fair and opposed a recount, sixteen Republicans in the state senate voted to give the ballots for Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, to the company for a private recount. The count has been plagued by conspiracy theories—one observer claimed they are examining the ballots for signs of bamboo in the paper to show that tens of thousands of ballots were flown in from Asia—and it turned out that one of the people recounting the ballots had been at the January 6 riot at the Capitol. Now the “recount” is running so far behind it appears it won’t be done until August, rather than May 14 as the company promised.

State senator Paul Boyer, who voted for the “audit,” told New York Times reporter Michael Wines: “It makes us look like idiots…. Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous. It’s embarrassing to be a state senator at this point.”

And then, this morning, the Washington Post dropped a long, investigative story by reporters Emma Brown, Aaron C. Davis, Jon Swaine, and Josh Dawsey revealing that the arguments former president Trump has grabbed to “prove” the election was stolen from him were part of a long conspiracy theory hatched in 2018 by Russell J. Ramsland, Jr., “a Republican businessman who has sold everything from Tex-Mex food in London to a wellness technology that beams light into the human bloodstream.” The story follows how Ramsland’s theories, which were debunked as “bat-s**t insane” by White House lawyers, got pumped into the media by Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, among others, and how Trump came to embrace them.

While Republican leaders are still standing behind those theories, and the former president, opponents of the party’s direction are pushing back not just against Trump but also against those leaders supporting him. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) tweeted this morning: “A few days before Jan 6, our GOP members had a conference call. I told Kevin [McCarthy] that his words and our party’s actions would lead to violence on January 6th. Kevin dismissively responded with ‘ok Adam, operator next question.’ And we got violence.”

Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) has narrated a video distributed by the Republican Accountability Project recalling the violence of January 6, blaming Trump for spreading lies about the election, and reminding viewers that more than 60 lawsuits disproved his claims that the election was stolen. The video says “we are the party of Lincoln. We are not the party of QAnon” (showing an image of Jacob Chansley, the so-called “QAnon Shaman,” who wore a horned headdress during the Capitol insurrection) “or white supremacy” (showing an image of Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson). “We cannot embrace insurrection” (showing a picture of Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene). “President Trump provoked an attack on the United States Capitol which resulted in five people dying. That is a person who does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward.” The video features an image of McCarthy standing with Trump. Cheney made it clear she was not about to shut up.

This afternoon, McCarthy released a statement calling for Cheney’s ouster as conference chair, featuring the line: “[u]nlike the left, we embrace free thought and debate.” (References to George Orwell, who famously wrote about how fascists used language to rewrite history, were all over Twitter.) McCarthy and other Trump loyalists have suggested that Cheney needs to go because she keeps talking about the past, but Allan Smith of NBC News points out that Trump himself seems to be the one who cannot stop talking about the past.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#political #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP #January 6 2021 #insurrection #Liz Cheney #Biden Administration #Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American

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annazverina · 3 years

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2020 Letter to the World

In 2015, I began writing annual Letters to the World to reflect on what I learned during the year. I shared my first one publicly in 2018, and since then I discuss certain topics that were relevant during the year and what they taught me. Enjoy.

***

I typically don’t start writing my annual Letter to the World until October or November at the earliest, but this year has already been a huge whirlwind for the entire world. I started writing this in April and edited it until the day it was posted. At that point, we had been in isolation for a month. A few weeks later, yet another revolution sparked within the United States. As soon as the riots and protests started, I knew this would be the hardest letter I’ve ever written.

This year I will discuss coronavirus, racism, social media, and the importance of face to face communication.

Around the time I finished writing last year’s letter, a new illness was taking over Wuhan, China. This new, mysterious strain of coronavirus was infecting people left and right. But like any other American, I didn’t worry about it, though I kept track of it on Twitter. I remember the time when there were only 600 cases, and it hadn’t spread outside of Wuhan yet. Man, those were the days. It’s amazing how much the world changed within a month, a week, and a few days.

A month before isolation, my friends and I drove down to San Antonio for the TMEA convention. Tens of thousands of music educators in the same building. At that same time, San Antonio had its first cases of COVID-19. Less than a month later, SXSW was cancelled. That’s when I realized that this was becoming a big deal. The same day the WHO declared the pandemic, my university announced it was moving to online instruction for what would eventually be the rest 2020. My first day of quarantine was 14 March. I began vlogging occasionally to document the experience.

I barely left the house during quarantine. For the first five months, the only reasons I left were to go walking, move out of the dorm, or to pick up food. My family took a trip to Colorado right before I left for school, which was our first time eating at a restaurant in 150 days. None of my family or our friends officially tested positive. At school, my roommate did, which led to a two week isolation for me. It really bothered me that those who could stay home weren’t. I get that the United States was founded with freedom in mind (even though we’re not free yet), but I don’t understand why people weren’t willing to give up a little bit of freedom and wear a piece of cloth on their face. Sometimes, you have to give up freedom for the sake of the big picture. I learned that many Americans don’t understand that. The United States shut down too late and reopened too early. Those above us care too much about money. The economy is important, but so are people. Human lives matter, including Black lives.

We all know what happened.

Every January in elementary school, we learned about the Civil Rights Movement. However, they did not mention that racism was still an ongoing problem. They implied that it was a thing of the past. God, I wish it was. I don’t think it ever will be, but the things we can do to eliminate it as much as possible are promoting anti-racism and teaching those who come after us that no matter where someone comes from, they can’t form any opinions about them until they know what’s in their heart.

That entire week after the murder was very overwhelming. It made me wonder what kind of families racist people grew up in to think that it’s okay to not be good to everyone. I live my life with one thing in mind all the time: be good to myself and others. And I think everyone else, regardless of socioeconomic background, race, religion, whatever, should do the same. And we must teach those who come after to follow those footsteps.

There was never a class in school dedicated to being good citizens. They just yelled at the students doing bad things to stop, but never explained why it was bad, nor did they tell them how to be better. Common human decency is something that should be taught K-12, and I honestly think it’s more important than STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). We cannot force the students to rely on their parents for something like this, because some parents are uneducated, some are not good people, some suck at parenting, and way too many children in the world don’t even have parents. Schools are the ones that need to teach kids how to be good… all the way through.

WE MUST BE THE CHANGE. Those currently in power appear to not be doing anything, so those who want change must RISE UP. For us civilians, signing petitions and donating is great, and being good, like I mentioned above, is also something we should do. We must change our behavior for the better. We cannot rely on other people to do stuff for us. We must do it ourselves. Change is not a process that can happen over night. So far it’s taken decades/centuries of work, but someday we will be there. Even if we don’t live to see it, the work we do now will help our future descendants.

After George Floyd’s murder and the explosion of social media, I was super overwhelmed with everything I was reading. I decided to take the month of June off of Twitter, and man, I’m glad I did. Social media in general is a toxic place to be, and cutting out Twitter and Facebook was healthy for me. In terms of toxicity, Twitter and Facebook, in my opinion, are the worst platforms. On Twitter, it’s hard to control what you see in your feed. Most of the tweets in my feed are from people I don’t follow. They’re tweets I never signed up to see, and they flood my feed with posts that sometimes feel like propaganda. Sometimes I feel like celebrities are worshipped like a deity. I often feel like I’m not allowed to have my own personal beliefs on Twitter, rather I have to conform to what the loudmouthed users believe. If I don’t, I’m racist, misogynistic, homophobic, etc. Facebook is similar, but most of the people I follow are my friends or family, so I can’t unfollow them.

Surprisingly, I like Instagram. Reposting is very uncommon, and posting more than once a day is unofficially considered spam, therefore people have to put all their politics into one single post, which I can scroll past and never see again. You never see posts from people you don’t follow, (except for the occasional advert) and overall I think people use it mostly to share photos of their lives. Most of the flaws that come from Instagram are the people who use it, but it’s easy to avoid them.

My brother shared some statistics with me recently. Only about 10 percent of Twitter users tweet on a normal basis. About 40 percent of people in the United States have a Twitter account. With that in mind, theoretically, the loud mouthed Twitter users only make up about 4 percent of the U.S. population. Or… something like that. I don’t know how accurate these statistics are, nor do I know where my brother got them from. Regardless, social media does not represent everyone in the world. Not even close.

The nice thing about living in a world of social media is being able to keep in touch with friends and family while quarantined. This whole quarantine process made me ever so grateful for face to face meetings. Some people believe no one will ever want to work again once everything ends. That’s not true. I think most people like working. Being able to leave the house every day and do something, even if it’s something you don’t like, is what keeps us sane. When it came time to return to school, I was initially really mad due to COVID. I ended up being okay with it. My school did a fantastic job at keeping COVID cases down for the entire semester (we only had an average of 20 cases a week, compared to some schools who had hundreds). Not only that, but I was able to see my family away from home again. Even though we wore masks and social distanced most of the time, things felt somewhat normal.

If you are the kind of person who could care less if you see your friends and coworkers in person, don’t forget that most people don’t feel that way. It’s hard to have group conversations on Zoom. You certainly can’t have a party where multiple conversations happen. Don’t assume everyone feels the same way about something. Let people have their social gatherings when it’s acceptable again, and don’t belittle people who feel different from you.

Everyone must do the right thing… all the time. Even when no one is watching. It’s our job to develop the habit of being good to ourselves and to others regardless. If we do that, we’ll be able to go back to a normal-ish life sooner. Lin-Manuel Miranda called America a “great unfinished symphony” in Hamilton. America, you great unfinished symphony, we still have unfinished business to take care of. The change we need won’t come tomorrow. The amount of work we have before we reach the double bar line will take generations to get to. We cannot allow a repeat sign. We must start today. May 2021 be a year of healing.

#2020 #just reflecting #reflections #fandom #lams #destiel #phan #johnlock #important #healing #beautiful #covid #fuck covid #blacklivesmatter #acceptance #respect #quarantine #zoom #2021

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, January 8, 2021

Spending the pandemic talking to yourself? If you live alone, you’re not alone (Washington Post) One bleak pandemic day in November, Aisha Tyler caught herself vacuuming the inside of her freezer. Then she scolded herself. Yes, out loud. Sometimes the Los Angeles-based actress will tell herself to “snap out of it.” On brighter days, she’ll congratulate herself on what a good job she’s doing and call for a celebration. Humans leave little unspoken, and this past year, as many of us have avoided social events and worked from home alone, we’ve been forced to talk out loud to the only person still around to listen: ourselves. Sure, it may take the form of bantering with our pets, scolding the politicians on TV or cajoling our malfunctioning printers, but that’s really just another way of hearing our own voice, helping us discern what exactly is going on inside that head of ours. What’s going on here? Charles Fernyhough, a psychology professor at Durham University and author of “The Voices Within: The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves,” says research shows people talk out loud more when under stress or facing cognitive challenges. It was praying aloud that kept 44-year-old April Harris going during her 32 days in quarantine with a deep cough at the California Institution for Women in Chino, Calif.—not just self-encouragements like “I can do this” and “You got this, April,” but repeated declarations like “by His stripes, I am healed.” “I would pray for our country and for a cure to this virus,” she says in an email from the prison, where she has spent 24 years but had never previously talked out loud to herself. “Now I pray that I am covered by His blood, not wanting to endure that again. I pray for the women who are in isolation now.”

Here’s Why Car Thefts Are Soaring (Hint: Check Your Cup Holder) (NYT) After years of declines, car thefts appear to be surging in cities and suburbs all over the country. The spree, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, does not appear to be the work of sophisticated crime rings, the police say. Instead, this new wave of car thefts seems to stem from a combination of simple carelessness and the same technological advancement that once made stealing cars nearly impossible: the key fob. The broad adoption of keyless ignitions that began in the late 1990s ushered in a dark era for car thieves. New cars had engine immobilizers that only a microchip in the key fob could unlock, and vehicle thefts quickly plummeted. Technology, it seemed, had largely solved the problem of stolen vehicles. Until people started leaving their fobs sitting in their cup holders. Now, the police say forgotten fobs and keyless technology have contributed to soaring stolen car cases. In Hartford, the police have traced the surge to teenagers joyriding in from the suburbs. In Los Angeles, stolen cars reappear so frequently that the police believe thieves are using them like Ubers. And in New York City, a related but different problem has emerged as more drivers leave their cars running to make pit stops and deliveries during the pandemic, making their cars easy targets for thieves who can simply drive away, even without a fob.

Canadian compensation (CBC) Based on companies that trade on the TSX, in 2019 the average total compensation for the 100 best-paid CEOs of Canadian corporations was $10.8 million, while the average annual salary for a worker in Canada was $53,482 the same year. That means top CEO pay is about 202 times that of the average Canadian worker, which is actually down from the 227 observed the previous year. It also means that at 11:17 a.m. on Monday, the average CEO had already made the annual salary of a typical worker.

An unimaginable moment in America (AP) To see it unspool—to watch the jumbled images ricochet, live, across the world’s endless screens—was, as an American, a struggle to believe your eyes. But there it was, in the capital city of the United States in early January 2021: a real-time breaking and entering the likes of which the republic has never seen. The U.S. Capitol was overrun by violent supporters of Donald Trump, who exhorted them to march on the domed building as lawmakers inside carried out their constitutional duty by certifying his electoral defeat. The proceedings were quickly abandoned as the selfie-snapping mob smashed windows, marched through hallways and rummaged through lawmakers’ desks. Fourteen days before Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated on the very same site, elected officials sheltered in place in their own building. Agents barricaded themselves inside congressional chambers, guns drawn. The stars and stripes—soaring over public property—was lowered, then replaced as a blue Trump flag ascended. In one of the day’s most indelible images, a hoodie-clad trespasser sat in a chair overlooking the Senate floor—minutes after it had been vacated by Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence—waving his fist in front of a thick, ornate curtain designed to summon the trappings of democracy. The United States on Wednesday seemed at risk of becoming the very kind of country it has so often insisted it was helping: a fragile democracy.

World reacts to US mob (AP) Amid the global outrage at the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by angry supporters of President Donald Trump was a persistent strain of glee from those who have long resented the perceived American tendency to chastise other countries for less-than-perfect adherence to democratic ideals. In China, which has had constant friction with the Trump administration over trade, military and political issues, people were scathing in their criticism of Trump and his supporters, citing both his failure to control the coronavirus pandemic and the mob action in Washington. The Communist Youth League ran a photo montage of the violence at the Capitol on its Twitter-like Weibo microblog with the caption: “On the sixth, the U.S. Congress, a most beautiful site to behold.” That appeared to mock House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her June 2019 comments in praise of sometimes violent antigovernment protests in Hong Kong. Iran, another country that faces routine U.S. criticism over violations of human rights and democratic values, jumped on the insurrection as proof of American hypocrisy. The semiofficial Fars news agency called the United States a “fragmented democracy,” while Iran’s pro-government Twitter accounts gloated, circulating photos of the mobs with hashtags that included #DownfalloftheUS. “The beauty of democracy?” with a shrug emoji was the reaction tweeted by Bashir Ahmad, a personal assistant to the president of Nigeria, which has seen several coups since independence—including one led decades ago by President Muhammadu Buhari, who most recently entered the office via a vote. Venezuela, which is under U.S. sanctions, said the events in Washington show that the U.S. “is suffering what it has generated in other countries with its politics of aggression.” Several countries, both allies and antagonists of America, issued travel warnings to their citizens.

America the exceptional? (Foreign Policy) It’s not easy to say how much the storming of the Capitol will contribute to the decline in the reputation of the United States abroad. That’s because that decline has already been so steep: A Gallup poll of 29 countries in 2020 found that 20 already had approval ratings of U.S. leadership that are at new lows or that tie the previous record lows.

‘The power of life and death is in the tongue,’ Senate chaplain says (NYT) “We deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life, and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy.” Those words, spoken by Barry C. Black, the Senate chaplain, resounded through the government chamber in the early hours of Thursday, as he declaratively closed a joint session of Congress marred by violence with a prayer. A Seventh-day Adventist minister and former Navy rear admiral known for his penchant for brightly colored bow ties, Mr. Black has been the Senate’s official clergyman for nearly two decades. His prayers in the chambers have long been laced with rebukes for the infighting of the lawmakers surrounding him, and his words have often served as a conscience check for those on both sides of the aisle. That was never more true than on Thursday morning, as he warned lawmakers that their words could have great consequences. “These tragedies have reminded us that words matter, and that the power of life and death is in the tongue,” he said. “We have been warned that eternal vigilance continues to be freedom’s price.” His prayer also urged new unity in the face of the deep divisions among lawmakers and within the country, driving home a need to “see in each other a common humanity.”

Twitter, Facebook muzzle Trump amid Capitol violence (AP) In an unprecedented step, Facebook and Twitter suspended President Donald Trump from posting to their platforms Wednesday following the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Twitter locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and said that future violations by Trump could result in a permanent suspension. The company required the removal of three of Trump’s tweets. Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, followed up in the evening, announcing that Trump wouldn’t be able to post for 24 hours following two violations of its policies. Facebook later said that Trump would be banned indefinitely.

Indian farmers take to their tractors (Quartz) On the other side of the world, a protest of a different kind is taking place in Delhi, as farmers who oppose India’s newly passed agricultural laws plan to march into the city with 2,500 tractor trolleys today. It’s the latest action in nearly two months of demonstrations that have grabbed headlines globally for their scale, but also for their inventiveness—some of the tractors have previously doubled as screens for movie viewing as protesters dug in for the long haul. The latest round of talks between the government and farmers is scheduled for tomorrow. If the two sides can’t agree on a path forward, farmers’ union leaders say a tractor rally and nationwide protests will start on Jan. 26, when the country celebrates Republic Day.

With Mass Arrests, Beijing Exerts an Increasingly Heavy Hand in Hong Kong (NYT) They descended before dawn, 1,000 police officers fanning out across Hong Kong to the homes and offices of opposition lawmakers, activists and lawyers. They whisked many off in police cars, often without telling relatives or friends where they were being taken. Within a few hours on Wednesday, the Hong Kong police had arrested 53 people, searched 76 places and frozen $200,000 of assets in connection with an informal primary for the pro-democracy camp—all under the auspices of Beijing’s new national security law. In one swoop, the authorities rounded up not only some of the most aggressive critics of the Hong Kong government but also little-known figures who had campaigned on far less political issues, in one of the most forceful shows of power in the Chinese Communist Party’s continuing crackdown on the city. The message was clear: Beijing is in charge. The mass arrests signaled that the central Chinese government, which once wielded its power over Hong Kong with a degree of discretion, is increasingly determined to openly impose its will on the city. In the months since the law took effect, Beijing and the Beijing-backed Hong Kong leadership have moved quickly to stamp out even the smallest hint of opposition in the Chinese territory, where the streets once surged with huge anti-government protests. And they have shattered any pretense of democracy in Hong Kong’s political system.

Japan declares emergency for Tokyo area as cases spike (AP) Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three nearby areas on Thursday as coronavirus cases continue to surge, hitting a daily record of 2,447 in the capital. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga issued the declaration at the government task force for the coronavirus. It lasts from Friday until Feb. 7, and centers around asking restaurants and bars to close at 8 p.m. and people to stay home and not mingle in crowds.

The next catastrophe has already been predicted (Les Echos via Worldcrunch) The epidemic surprised us, but it was predictable. In the risk report regularly published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for its annual Davos summit, infectious diseases were listed every year as one of the 10 biggest threats. The report’s description of a virus spreading uncontrolled around the world was exactly what played out in 2020. There were frequent discussions at Davos about this type of danger. For example, in 2016, after the damage caused by Ebola, the general director of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, sounded the alarm about the next pandemic. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, drew a parallel with the Spanish Flu, evoking the risk of an illness that killed 30 million people. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft-cum-health philanthropist, insisted on the necessity of training teams in public health management and logistics. If this health crisis is causing so much suffering, it’s because we refused to seriously prepare for it. We didn’t follow the advice of the philosopher and engineer Jean-Pierre Dupuy, who pushes us to think about catastrophe to prevent it from happening. The time has therefore come to think about the next global catastrophes—the less predictable ones.

#headlines #news

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orbemnews · 3 years

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France kept classrooms open 'at all costs.' At a school where 20 pupils lost loved ones, some say the price was too high “I told him I loved him, and I would always do my best,” Grace said.    This would be the last promise she ever made to her father, as he lay intubated in an ICU unit for Covid-19 patients. He died the next day, on April 9 of last year, at the peak of the first wave in France.  Grace’s world was shattered. She told CNN she dreaded going back to school in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb northeast of Paris that was hit hard by the pandemic, last September. When she returned, it was still the school she remembered. But for Grace — who did not want her last name published to protect her family — nothing was the same. She worried the other students would treat her differently, and was surprised when one of her classmates confided in her that she too had lost her father to Covid-19. In all, at least 20 students from her high school, Eugene Delacroix, in nearby Drancy, lost a relative to the virus in 2020, according to the town hall. Nothing suggests these deaths were caused by infections at the school. But CNN has spoken with students at Eugene Delacroix who say they share a common burden: The fear of bringing Covid-19 home and infecting a loved one.   Open schools policy Aside from a brief closure near the start of the pandemic, France has made its open schools policy a point of pride in the name of both reopening the economy and delivering a social service, with some parents relying on school meals to feed their children. The government’s stated conviction is that the benefits of opening schools far outweigh the cost.  “Let’s not forget what makes us proud. No other country in the European Union has left its schools open as much as France has,” France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, tweeted this past March, a day before Italy shuttered its schools again due to rising infections.  France has only closed its schools for a total of 10 weeks since the beginning of the pandemic — one of the lowest rates in Europe, according to figures from UNESCO, compared to 35 weeks for Italy, 28 for Germany and 27 weeks for the UK.  During the first wave of the pandemic last spring, the government shuttered schools in March, before gradually reopening them in May and June. “We need the children to go back to class because there’s a danger they’ll be left behind, learning gaps will appear and educational inequalities are exacerbated,” French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists during a visit to a school in a suburb northwest of Paris in May last year. In September, it became mandatory for the more than 12 million schoolchildren in France to return to class. Those aged 11 and over had to wear masks, classrooms needed to be ventilated and social distancing was imposed in corridors and canteens.  Not all schools were able to respect the safety protocols, especially those in poor neighborhoods. Colleen Brown, who teaches English at Eugene Delacroix to classrooms packed with 30 children, said the restrictions were impossible to implement at the start of the school year. Windows wouldn’t open, she said, some children removed their masks, they lacked cleaning staff and there was hardly any testing for the virus.  “France may be exceptional in that they’ve kept the schools open at all costs, but they have not been exceptional in funding the schools so that they can do that safely,” Brown said. Despite Brown’s pleas and daily fear of going into the building, she said little was done in terms of protective measures; complaints she and other teachers eventually made to school officials in January fell on deaf ears.  CNN contacted the Creteil school board, which oversees Eugene Delacroix, but has not received a response.  Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told CNN he acknowledged that the policies put in place were not perfect. Calls for closures Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, most children were being taught from home after the government imposed a national lockdown and schools were closed as the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in that country, raged. When that variant made its way over to France and its schools, the “Stylos Rouge” (Red Pens) grassroots movement, made up of 72,000 education workers, sued Blanquer. In March they accused him of failing to protect teaching staff in close contact with children “who spread the virus.”  And nowhere was that spread felt more acutely than in Seine-Saint Denis, then the worst-hit region in France, according to the health ministry.  At the height of the third wave, as virus cases began to spike at Eugene Delacroix, a total of 22 classes had to close after students and teachers tested positive for Covid-19, according to the teachers’ union. The government’s policy had been that three students needed to test positive before a class had to quarantine. That was cut down to one student by March 2021.  The teachers’ union sent an open letter to Macron and Blanquer decrying the current situation and calling for the “immediate and temporary closure of the high school.” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who is eyeing a bid for the presidency in 2022, echoed their call and asked for schools across the capital to close to rein in the spread of the virus, but no action was taken.  Blanquer defended his open schools policy to CNN. He said he made a choice in favor of the children and their future.  “It was necessary for children to go to school, not only because of the education and learning, but also for interactions with others and for psychological and health reasons,” Blanquer said.  “It’s in the crisis that you show your true values and what is really important for us is school. That’s why this crisis can be a (huge) challenge for all of us because there is a lot of inconvenience for the future but it’s also an opportunity to be more conscious of what is really important.” This strategy is reflected in Macron’s decision to hold off on a strict lockdown at the start of 2021. He said the country needed to consider the impact on mental health and the economy in devising a balanced response to the third wave. But between January and March, the fear of catching Covid-19 became part of school life for the 2,400 pupils at Eugene Delacroix, some students said.  After losing her father, Grace feared she would bring the virus home. “We weren’t worried about catching it, but what if we caught it and then brought it home and passed it on to a cousin or nephew? You’d feel terrible even though it would not be your fault,” she said.  Maëlle Benzimera, 17, who attends Eugene Delacroix and lives at home with her parents, brother and sister, said she was also anxious about contaminating her loved ones.   “I know that if I catch the virus, I will be a little bit sick, but I won’t be sick enough to go to the hospital. Whereas if my parents or grandparents have the virus, I know that they could die or could go to the hospital,” Benzimera said. “I’ve been really scared since September.”  Vaccines for teachers It wasn’t until April — when faced with soaring infections, the rampant spread of the variant first detected in the UK and warnings from hospitals they may have to triage patients — that Macron announced a partial lockdown across France.  The President also ordered schools to close for three to four weeks, essentially extending the Easter holidays. Infection rates among those aged under 20 dropped nationwide in the following weeks, according to figures from the health ministry. Officials now say they are doing everything in their power so schools can reopen safely, including rolling out saliva-based testing and vaccines for teachers over 55 — which accounts for only 16% of all teachers, according to health ministry figures. Primary schools and kindergartens reopened on April 26 and high schools and middle schools on May 3.  More than 15 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine, about 29% of France’s adult population, according to the health ministry. Macron vowed “a specific strategy” would be implemented for teachers to get vaccinated in April, but those under 55 won’t get priority until June.  Some epidemiologists and scientists have questioned the government’s policy of keeping schools open as transmission rates increased. They pointed to the fact that children were clearly a vector for transmission and that closing classes when a positive case emerged was not enough. To stop the spread, the entire school needed to be shut down. Epidemiologist Catherine Hill argues that without large-scale testing, there’s no way of knowing the level of Covid-19 transmission in schools.  “It’s like trying to empty your bathtub with a strainer. It doesn’t work. That’s not at all a solution,” Hill explained. “You close down the classes where there is one positive child, but the other kids can become positive any time so you would have to do it again, and if you do 250,000 kids per week out of a population of 6.6 million [in primary schools], you’re going nowhere.” With about 5,000 people currently being treated in Covid-19 ICUs across the country, teachers believe a return to school will only mean one thing: Infection rates will pick up – and they are still not protected.  Blanquer admits that the situation in schools “has not been perfect,” but says that ultimately giving children an education is a long-term goal that the government wasn’t ready to compromise on.   Antonella Francini contributed to this report. Source link Orbem News #classrooms #costs #France #high #Lost #loved #Open #price #pupils #school

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stone-man-warrior · 3 years

Text

April 20, 2021: 6:28 pm:

==============================================

Please send help to Josephine county Oregon.

Please send medical services.

Please send US Military, read this account to learn why that is necessary,

Bring your own hospital, all of the medical providers are occupied and controlled by the British/SAG/Canadian terror army, US citizens are killed at the hospitals and clinics.

===================

This happened in my inbox from the idiot SAG terror operative who is trying to discount what I am reporting, this note came from the same anonymous asshole who mentioned the Knights Templar yesterday.

My response to that yesterday is a good explanation, covers the basic things that are in place, and took place over time, to attack USA and other parts of the world.

==============

I decided not to go the Pain Specialists to verify weather or not the call about having been banned from medical treatment there that I received yesterday. The way the phones are hijacked by the terror army here in southern Oregon, there is no way to be certain that the calls people receive are originated from the phone number shown on the caller ID, and, there is no way to be certain that outgoing calls actually reach the numbers dialed. Actors in special terror call centers interfere and manipulate all of the communications of all kinds. That’s why no one in Oregon was able to reach help when the slaughter was at it’s height years ago. There still is no way to reach helpful people.

I decided at about 3:00 am not to go, as the situation has become too dangerous, the caller said my appointment had been cancelled because “the Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon don‘t want to be held liable for my leg condition.” That is an counter intuitive statement, as I really need life saving antibiotic medicine. Even though the place is a front for terror activities at the SAG leadership levels, the fake doctors there still do prescriptions, so, now I have absolutely zero optimism about finding life saving antibiotic medicine. At 3:00 am this morning, I was having the most painful reaction to the poison injection attack so far, I have not slept in a number of days, only rested my eyes, but the pain is too intense for sleep, so, that is when I decided I could not endure the ride to Medford to go to my appointment, or be turned away at the front door, as those were the possibilities, without consideration of what kind of physical attack plan they may have had in mind at Pain Center of Southern Oregon.

Currently, I am experiencing pain levels in my right leg and foot that are nearly comparable to the spinal cord tear that I experienced in 2012 when the terror army ran me over with a truck, and the Sheriff refused to come question the driver when I called 911 and then called the sheriff office. The driver of the truck parked and stayed at the Philips residence for many hours, in view, after running me over that day.

The poison is very painful. Extreme pain.

Right now, a ten day supply of Amoxicillin, or other suitable antibiotic, is what would save my life. Without some antibiotics, I think there is a good chance I will die of infection, as the poisons are not leaving my body, the sores remain open wounds, and the small amount of infection is growing rapidly. It’s become too painful to try to massage wound areas for moving blood in anticipation of healing as a result.

There are no antibiotic medications available in USA without a doctors prescription. An antibiotic would begin to lessen the pain with the first dose.

Something to relieve swelling would also be helpful, but some antibiotics are required at this point in my post poison attack injury, more than two months without remedy or improvement.

The medical professions have the antibiotics locked up tighter than a bulls ass in fly season. There is no way to get anywhere near them without a doctor.

This:

The poison that was injected, remains inside my leg, is saturated into the muscle tissue. I have hydrogen peroxide, and so far I have used about 4 quarts in the two months in effort to eliminate infection with daily, sometimes hourly rinsing of the wounds with peroxide.

The wounds are such that the peroxide does not readily penetrate the scab area, so, I gently use my fingers to move the peroxide around, to get it to go into the sores, and that activity of using my fingers to move the peroxide makes a very big froth of foamy white material, it’s nothing like the usual peroxide result where some infection bubbles out of a wound, this that happens as I explained is a lot like shave cream sort of amounts of foam froth.

It’s not the way it’s supposed to be.

So, if I continue to push that foamy froth around, or add more peroxide and use my fingers to gently rub that into the wound, then, tiny particles of skin are coming off of my leg around the wound where the frothy peroxide is at. The tiny skin particles are very small, about 1/32 inch square-ish. When that happens, it’s as if the peroxide has become foamy paint remover, and my skin is the paint.

That, buuuurrrrrrrnnnnnsssss.... real bad, add expletives here.

The burning sensation from the skin coming off has prevented me from using the peroxide some of the time, however, the peroxide is all that I have available for fighting against the infection, so, I just have to accept that it’s going to hurt, and try not to use my fingers to rub the peroxide, not even a gentle touch is tolerable once the skin starts to peel away.

So, maybe that information will help someone else. I am not the only person who has been attacked with this kind of COVID Corona poison attack. It’s clear to me that the terror army developed the poison combination to achieve maximum pain, and minimize what can be done to stop the advance of infection.

As it is, the toes feel ice cold, so, apply some heat to warm them up, then, even a tiny bit of warm radiated heat that gets close to the shin produces pain that is not bearable.

Warm the frozen toes, suffer of burning fire at the shin.

I say the bastards tested different poisons on kidnapped US citizens and recorded the results based on how the kidnapped prisoners responded to a verity of different poisons. I am convinced for many reasons that the terror bastards torture US Citizens in effort to produce the most painful poison attack substance combination that they were able to, and are likely continuing to torture victims to find even more painful poisons that can be injected on an attack, where diagnosis and identification of the substances is increasingly more difficult.

Screen Actor Guild rock stars doing experimental torture with injected poisons on the children they are kidnapping.

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I suppose I will make a comment about the Derick Chauvin trial outcome:

I have not been interested in any of it. To me, none of that trial or the man the is said to have been killed is real, it all looks like it was produced by Lester Holt’s production team to me at nbc/Universal/Comcast, all of it from the time that Mr. Floyd was taken into custody and kneeled on, the trial charade, and later tomorrow and in the coming days we will see yet more of the nbc/Universal/Comcast production directed by Lester Holt. There are numerous indications that the Floyd Death/Chavin Trial were directed and produced by Lester Holt specifically. With interview of interested national security personnel I could show many subtle places where Mr. Holt was sort of... saluted ... by other Twitter news media personalities over the course of the trial. And, now that I have seen those “salutes” during the trial, I think more similar communication can be found in the video presentations of the time when the Floyd murder was still fresh, “demonstrations” happening everywhere. Find some tweets today that feature someone saying “Let me clear my throat”, and there you have a clue to other “salutes” that can be found. Another place is Sean Hannity and the Trump interview, where Hannity’s voice is not quite right, seems like someone else did a voice over for parts of Hannity’s speaking ... there is a “salute” sort of vibe going on with that, the way I am reading the information. There is a lot more of those little indicators that add up, but mean nothing in aggregate.

If Mr. Floyd was a real person, and really was killed the way we are told, then, it happened before 2008, and so did the trial. Real, or fake, I say all of that happened before 2008, the murder and the trial, and was already presented on Beta Twitter once before, the whole thing.

The only thing I care to point out in absence of a national security interview to talk about potential connection to personal details in Oregon, is about the Judge, and about his instructions to the jury at the time they were sequestered.

The Judge pointed out, specified, that “This trial is a very important one” etc, and so on, when he instructed the jurors about the rules they were to follow.

That statement about the importance of that particular trial was made as if other trials are less important.

That is not acceptable from a Judge.

That, and, the statement draws attention of the jurors to activity occurring outside of their sequestered, isolated positions.

All trials are equally important, as are the people involved in them.

I would further point out that the Dereck Chauvin trial is exemplary of good reasons why there should never be televised coverage from within an ongoing trial. The results could have been explosive ones. nothing good has ever resulted of televised coverage of trials from within the court hearings.

=====================================

9:01 pm:

Other:

I suppose this is a good a time as any that I should document more about my visit to the Walmart the other day:

What I did not mention, is that I was attacked by three people while at the Walmart. The attack was different than any other attack I have experienced there, as it happened in the store aisles, rather than at the checkout area. I don’t recall having been attacked in the store aisles in more than fifteen years, and back then, attack at the Walmart had no limits, they were killing people everywhere in the store back then.

I mentioned that I used a restroom, it was the one in the back of the store, at the end of the cat food aisle. When I came out, I encountered a Walmart Blue Vest who was entering the restroom as I was exiting. Then, I pushed my shopping cart toward the checkout, I was done shopping, and in the cat food aisle there were two people releasing a lot of nitrous oxide in the aisle, a man and a woman. I lit my lighter and those two launched away, one went in the direction of the hardware department, and the other went towards the dairy area. Over the store PA system, I overheard an immediate call for evac: “Evac to hardware...” there was more said, was inaudible, sounded like “Evac to hardware frame” so, I don’t know what that means beyond hardware department. I did not hear mention of evac for the other one that went towards the dairy department.

In the main aisle that is perpendicular to the cat food aisle across the width of the store, were many pallets of products all in the aisle and stacked in a not so tidy fashion, the items were stacked tall in some places, many cardboard boxes, many on pallets, all there in the aisle that leads from Auto Service to Grocery departments. More stuff than is usual, and what was strange about those items in the aisle that day was that there was no one doing store inventory work. That is what makes the items on pallets different than other times, when they stack items in the aisle, there is usually many Walmart Blue Vests doing restocking of the shelves, but those people were not there while I was at the store.

There, in that long aisle where the items on pallets were at, as I walked there through the cat food aisle, a man appeared from behind the shelf, then saw me, and quickly turned around and went back in the direction he had come from. Another person came into the aisle, and said loudly: “I want my chair Rick”. to that I responded: “I don‘t think they sell furniture here” as the person was close to me when she spoke.

The man who turned around also spoke as he walked out of view, He said: “I’m his nurse” to someone else, maybe over a communication device, I did not see who he may have been speaking to.

I went on my way towards the checkout, and in that aisle where all of those pallets of goods was at, that man who turned around came back, attacked me so fast that I have almost no recollection of what happened. I defended with my trusty fingernail clippers, and as I recall, the man had a hammer in his hand, was trying to strike my foot with the hammer as I began to defend.

The man was decapitated in defense.

That man, was wearing a disguise. He may have been wearing a Pixel Suite inside of the Walmart. The attack was a blur in the midst of all of those boxes in the aisle.

I suspect the man was Paul Leppert of Pain Specialists of Southern Oregon, and is the real reason that I was refused service, my appointment cancelled.

Paul Leppert: WM, about 70 years old, bald, about 5′ 10″, 150 pounds.

Paul Leppert has an interest in WWII, Vietnam, Korean War details. He often has anecdotes about his experience in war, talks a lot about his “Flack Jacket” and things that happened when he was wearing one, and times when he was not wearing one. He tells about war stories while I am in the exam room trying to get some medical attention. Paul Leppert should have a number of scars on him where he was ran through with his own sword, in defense, while in the exam room for a doctors appointment, perhaps as many as five such scars that healed, each wound from different appointments, each time, Leppert entered the exam room with the sword. I was able to take the sword, and turn it around many times. Leppert has his own hospital there at the Pain Specialists and he gets the very best medical services there are, so, he keeps coming back to life every time I fight him, like a cockroach.

Leppert and other terror soldiers often use a “third arm”, it’s a sling that looks like an arm, the weapon is held behind the back with the real arm, while the “third arm” fake one is held in front, usually has a clip board or other prop attached for drawing attention before the assailant swings the sword. (see photos of Secret Service, or, of a Cheech Marin movie where he used the third arm also)

So, there ya go.

That’s what happened.

0 notes

elizabethcariasa · 4 years

Text

July 15 tax filing and payment deadline Q&A

youtube

We're in what during normal times would be the annual tax season's big push to the end (or an extension). But these are not normal times. Instead, it feels more and more like we're living in a tax version of Bill Murray's classic "Groundhog Day."

That's because for the second time in three days the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service have moved the deadlines for filing and paying taxes.

Friday, March 20, morning Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin decided that an earlier decision that split the usual April 15 deadline for tax filing and paying should be changed. So he announced, via Tweet, that those two tax tasks would be reunited, pushing the due date for paying and now filing returns to July 15.

Later that day, the IRS tried to clear things up (again) by issuing guidance in Notice 2020-18 about 2020's new July 15 Tax Day. Naturally, that makes July 15 this week's By the Numbers honoree.

And since my tax deadlines questions and answers post the first time the IRS did this (way back on March 18) was so popular, here's a new Q&A for the latest and we hope last Tax Day changes.

When do I have to send my Form 1040 to the IRS? Wednesday, July 15 is the new deadline to e-file (by midnight your time) or snail mail (so that the envelope has a 7/15 postmark) your 2019 tax year return. Treasury and the IRS shifted it from April 15 to July 15 to align it with their earlier move of the just-tax-payment deadline. As many (many, many, many) folks noted, this division had the potential to be more confusing that the actual filing itself, so kudos to Treasury and the IRS for granting us 90 extras days to finish our tax forms and pay what we owe.

When do I have to pay any tax I owe? Again, this due date remains July 15. That gives you three more months to come up with the money or make payment arrangements with the IRS.

Does the July 15 deadline apply to all taxpayers? Yes. The IRS reiterated in its latest notice that the July 15 tax filing and payment deferment applies to all taxpayers. This includes individuals, trusts and estates, corporations and other non-corporate tax filers, as well as entrepreneurs who pay self-employment tax.

Does it matter how big my tax bill is? This is a change from the earlier iteration of the new 90-days-later Tax Day. In the first shifting of tax deadlines, the option to pay taxes as late as July 15 applied only to certain individual taxpayers and businesses that met caps on the amount of tax owed. Those tax bill limits are gone. All taxpayers now can postpone paying their due federal income tax until July 15, regardless of the amount owed.

Will the IRS slap me with extra charges for using this July 15 deadline? No. Taxpayers can make their 2019 federal income tax payments as late as July 15 and not face penalties or interest. Note, however, that if you don't pay any tax due by the July deadline, penalties, interest or any other additional fees for failure to file or pay will start adding up on July 16.

What if I still can't make the new, later July 15 deadline? The later Tax Day date is automatic, so there's no need to mess with filing an extension request by April 15. If, however, mid-summer arrives and you still can't complete your 1040, not to worry. The existing Oct. 15 extended filing deadline is still around.

In an news release issued today, March 21, the IRS notes that individual taxpayers who need additional time to file beyond the July 15 deadline can request a filing extension by submitting Form 4868 and automatically get even more time to file. Businesses that need additional time beyond July 15 can by that date send the IRS Form 7007.

You can file Form 4868 electronically or download the paper form and snail mail it. That form, however, might need to be tweaked, too, since it usually is connected to paying any tax you owe. There's also some thought that since this usually is six-month filing extension, the final deadline might be pushed from Oct. 15 to Jan. 15, 2021. (It's always something with taxes.)

Remember, though, that the extra time afford by filing Forms 4868 or 7007 is for finishing up your tax forms only. You still have to pay any tax due by the deadline, which this year is July 15.

What about other tax deadlines? The annual April tax deadline normally applies to more than just your prior year's tax return and any amounts owed. It's also the due date for some other taxes and tax-related moves. This includes the first estimated tax payment for 2020 that's due on April 15, as well as the ability to put money into tax-favored health savings accounts and IRAs.

Those other tax filings are not covered by the new July 15 deadlines. According to Notice 2020-18 (I added the bold type):

"The relief provided in this section III is available solely with respect to Federal income tax payments (including payments of tax on self-employment income) and Federal income tax returns due on April 15, 2020, in respect of an Affected Taxpayer’s 2019 taxable year, and Federal estimated income tax payments (including payments of tax on self-employment income) due on April 15, 2020, for an Affected Taxpayer’s 2020 taxable year."

This is the same stance as the IRS took in the first separate filing/payment deadline change. It's a curious position since two estimated tax deadlines fall within this April-to-July time period, but only one, the 1040-ES due on April 15, is given the added July 15 grace period.

Again, why IRS? Why are you making us pay the second quarter estimated tax due on June 15 BEFORE we have to pay our first estimated tax for 2020 by July 15? What's another month wait at this point? You need to take a look at the proposal in the Senate's coronavirus relief bill.

The Upper Chamber's Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or as it's being called the CARES bill, makes changes to various tax filing and payment due dates (discussed in a Twitter exchange about the bill).

As for estimated tax deadlines, the CARES Act would delay the April, June and September estimated tax payment deadlines (shown in red in the table below) for the 2020 tax year until Oct. 15.

Estimated Tax Payment Periods and Due Dates

Payment #

Due Date*

For income received in

April 15

Jan. 1 through March 31

June 15

April 1 through May 31

Sept. 15

June 1 through Aug. 31

Jan. 15 of the next year

Sept. 1 through Dec. 31

*If the 15th is on weekend or federal holiday, the estimated payment is due the next business day

CARES says "all such [estimated tax] installments shall be treated as one installment due on such date."

As for the contributions to IRAs and HSAs that can be made for the prior tax year as late as April 15, it appears that the April deadline is still in force. Notice 2020-18 expressly states:

"No extension is provided in this notice for the payment or deposit of any other type of Federal tax, or for the filing of any Federal information return."

However, some tax pros think this latest extension notice implies that these deadlines also will be extended. Some cite Tax Code Section 301.7508A-1 - Postponement of certain tax-related deadlines by reasons of a federally declared disaster or terroristic or military action.

Personally, I'd like the IRS to give us some more explicit clarification here. C'mon man, don't make us argue among ourselves and have to second guess what y'all at 1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W. are thinking!

Will the same payment delay apply to my state taxes? Most of the 43 states and District of Columbia where some sort of income tax is collected tend to follow the IRS when it comes to things like filing deadlines. When that's been changed in the past, these state tax departments tended to follow.

But payments are different. Many states were facing budget difficulties before they, too, saw their economies whacked by the coronavirus outbreak. So they might not be as willing or able to forgo revenue collection even for a relatively brief period.

Gail Cole has a state tax action segment in her new coronavirus tax relief roundup at the Avalara blog. Tripp Baltz and Michael J. Bologna, staff correspondents with BloombergTax, also note that Some States Auto-Match IRS Tax Delay; Others in Flux. And the AICPA has a handy table of State Tax Filing Guidance for Coronavirus Pandemic.

My best advice here is for you to be pro-active. Pay attention to your local news, which should alert you to local and state tax changes, and periodically check in with your state tax officials. You can find links to them in the ol' blog's state tax directory.

What does all this messing with tax calendars really mean? For taxpayers, it's generally a good thing. As we deal with the COVID-19 disruptions in our personal lives, we at least don't have the added stress of an impending tax deadline. And the extra time gives those who owe more time to come up with the cash due Uncle Sam.

Tax professionals also are breathing sighs of relief — from their appropriately social/physical distances of at least 6 feet, of course. They don't have to deal with a lot of frantic clients all pressuring them seemingly simultaneously to get their returns done. They should be able to space out the workflow a bit to take some pressure off themselves and their staff.

It should help the IRS, too. The delay could help the agency cope with the added stressor that the pandemic has created for the agency, which in addition to dealing with taxpayers has to think about its thousands of worried and possible ill employees across the country. Now they get more time and don't have to worry about keeping track of two separate Tax Day deadlines.

Logistically, the IRS would like all of us who can file before July to do so. That would help the agency spread the work out more, rather than having a big crush of returns in mid-summer.

"Even with the filing deadline extended, we urge taxpayers who are owed refunds to file as soon as possible and file electronically," said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. "Although we are curtailing some operations during this period, the IRS is continuing with mission-critical operations to support the nation, and that includes accepting tax returns and sending refunds."

Rettig also reassures us that refunds are going out as soon as they are processed. And he's asking that we cut his agency and employees some slack in what he notes is a challenging and "very rapidly changing environment."

"As a federal agency vital to the overall operations of our country, we ask for your personal support, your understanding – and your patience," said Rettig. He also encouraged folks to check out the agency's special coronavirus page at IRS.gov where it posts updates on tax matters affected by the pandemic.

I'm inclined to give the IRS some leeway here. It's crazy and scary for us all. I appreciate everyone who's doing the best jobs they can under the circumstances.

Finally, take care of yourselves and families first, especially now that you have some added time to take care of your taxes.

You also might find these items of interest:

Businesses get tax relief in House-passed coronavirus bill

Stop smoking to reduce health risks & possibly your taxes

Obamacare tax forms in the time of coronavirus