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Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #15

April 19-26 2024

President Biden appeared along side Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senators Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders to announce major climate action. Biden announced a program, Solar For All, 7 billion dollars aimed at supporting low income house holds install solar power in their homes. The program will support 900,000 households across the country getting solar. Lower the average energy bill for a family by $400 a month and avoid more than 30 million metric tons of carbon pollution over the next 25 years. The boost in solar installation will help create 200,000 new jobs across the country. The President also announced the launch of the Climate Conservation Crops. modeled on FDR's Civilian Civilian Conservation Corps and JFK's Peace Corps, Biden's Climate Conservation Crops will be a program where young people can connect with climate projects across the country and be paid to help protect the planet. The Corps will be 20,000 strong, with 2,000 openings listed right now on their webpage across 36 states DC and Puerto Rico.

The Department of Labor finalized a new rule on overtime. Currently employers are only required to pay overtime to workers making under $35,568. Under the new ruling that will be raised to workers making $43,888, and in January 2025 raised again to workers making $58,656 and under. This will bring overtime pay to 4 million more workers and transfer $1.5 billion from the pockets of companies to workers. It also fixes to raise the level with inflation every 3 years starting in 2027.

The EPA announced a $1 billion dollar program to help replace heavily duty vehicles with clean energy versions. There are currently 3 million class 6 and 7 vehicles, school buses, box trucks dump trucks, street sweepers, delivery trucks, bucket trucks, and utility trucks, in use. 70% of the funds will go to replacing School Buses with Clean energy buses and the remaining 30% will go to replacing Vocational Vehicles like dump trucks and street sweepers. Heavy Duty vehicles on top of green house cases release harmful nitrogen oxide and fine particulate matter and replacing them will not only combat climate change but improve public health.

The Department of Interior took actions to protect 13 million acres of Alaska wild land is protected and to secure the livelihood of Alaska Native peoples who rely on this land. The Administration refused oil and mining rights on the vast areas of Alaska land as well as a 210 miles road through the northern wildernesses. This area represents valuable habitat for caribou and endangered polar bears, as well as millions of migrating birds.

The Department of Transportation announced finalized rules requiring airlines to give automatic cash refunds for canceled flights and other inconvenience. The refunds will be automatic meaning passengers will not have apply for them, prompt the airlines are required to refund a credit card purchase in 7 days, and require repayment in full and in kind, airlines can not substitute travel vouchers for cash. The DOT also announced new rules to protect airline travelers from junk fees, airlines and ticket agents must now clearly tell travelers upfront about all fees so no one is surprised by a hidden fee.

The EPA announced finalized rules on emissions standards for fuel burning power plants. The new rules include a tightening of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, requiring a 70% reduction in mercury. It also had rules protecting ground water, new rules will require coal powered plants to remove 660 million pounds per year of pollutants discharged through wastewater, and for the first time federally regulates the dumping of coal ash, requiring safe dump sites that will not leak into ground water. Finalized rules require coal fired and new natural gas-fired power plants to capture up to 90% of their carbon pollution

Security of Transportation Pete Buttigieg attended the ground breaking of a new high speed rail project to connect Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Biden Administration announced 3 billion to support the project 5 months ago. At 218 of all electric green rail the project promises to be the fastest way to get from LA to Las Vegas. Planned to open in 2028 just in time for the LA Olympics it is the first of many planned high speed rail projects. The Biden Administration has promised $66 billion for high speed rail and the largest single investment in Amtrak ever.

The FCC announced a new rule restoring Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality requires internet service pervaders to treat all websites equally and not slow certain ones now or speed others. In 2015 under Obama the FCC passed a rule requiring Net Neutrality. However in 2017, the FCC spread headed by Trump appointed Chair Ajit Pai repealed the rules. A patchwork of Democratic controlled states, lead by California passed state level laws requiring Net Neutrality forcing ISPs to de facto keep it in place. Late last year President Biden got the opportunity to replace Pai on the FCC, giving the FCC a 3 to 2 Democratic majority which voted this week to return to the Obama era rules and protect Net Neutrality nationwide.

The FTC passed finalized regulations to ban noncompete agreements in nearly all cases. These agreements, which cover 18% of American workers, about 30 million people, prohibit workers from joining or creating competing companies for a certain period of time. The FTC estimates that workers will earn an average of $524 dollars a year more and up to 8,500 new businesses will be created each year. The new rule will still allow noncompete for senior executives who make up less than 1% of the work force. Like with the FCC, two out of the 3 FTC commissioners who voted for the new rules are Biden appointees.

The Departments of Health and Human Services and Interior have announced a joint, $1 billion project to connect tribal communities to safe drinking water. Roughly half of Tribal households lack access to clean drinking water or adequate sanitation.

At the White House The Biden Administration announced plans to protect, restore and reconnect 8 million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of rivers and streams. This effort will include state, local and tribal government as well as private efforts along with the federal government to protect and restore the nations freshwater environments.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new rule boosting privacy protection for abortions. Republicans in states like Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma and Idaho have tried to make it a crime to leave the state to seek an abortion in a state where it is legal. The new federal rule would make it illegal for health information to be shared in these cases

Vice-President Harris announced a new rule requiring staffing standards at Nursing Homes across the country. The new rules will require registered nurses on duty 24 hours, seven days a week. This represents the first time the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have required specific numbers of nurses and aides in Nursing Homes that get Medicare and Medicaid funding.

The Biden Administration Announced a $6 billion deal with tech giant Micron to bring high tech manufacturing to New York. The deal is expected to see Micron invest $100 billion in Syracuse New York area as well as build a factory in Boise, Idaho. The deal will create 70,000 new jobs. It is part of the Biden Administration's effort to bring high tech chip manufacturing to America.

The Department of Education finalized the most comprehensive federal protections for Trans and other Queer students in the nation's history. The rules also overturn Trump era rules on how colleges should handle sexual assault and harassment.

When my cat lays down in loaf position, is she leavened or unleavened? Is my cat kosher for Passover?

i just pointed out in my judaism class that it’s interesting to me that when asked God’s name, God did respond with the ineffable name (the tetragrammaton) but put a much greater emphasis on who they are the God OF (I’m the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, etc.).

and my teacher said she feels a kinship with that because she remembers the joy that came with the first time she was called “(son’s name)’s mom”, and how beautiful it feels be named for who you love. and i almost burst into tears

here is matchbox giving her best, most FEROCIOUS roar (which may have been a yawn… but don’t tell her I told you that)

and here she is at more docile times

look how pretty she is! her fur catches sunlight! her roar is heard across the jungles!

image id: some cartoon dinosaurs are putting together a Seder plate. the text reads chag Pesach sameach

And onto the reason I started this Stanley and His Monster read:

Find the Foglio fan out there who isn't looking at this and cackling. Oh Phil. Oh Phil. You have such a very specific art style and concept of how you want to put a story together.

#the place is called heck btw #disco heck #and there's a non-zero chance this all happened because peter david wanted to send the kids to actual hell #because he was told he need to participate in a crossover event where the stated actual premise was 'hell is freezing over #and he was already writing a character in this series who's a sentient hellportal #(and also Supergirl who was at the time part angel) #so this should've been a slam-dunk opportunity for a crossover with actual relevance to the characters #BUT #the book was aimed at children #so the editors told him he wasn't allowed to use the word hell #in the actual crossover issue the creative team is INCREDIBLY passive-aggressive about the whole 'heckin' thing and it's hilarious [tags via soleminisanction]

Rereading Young Justice 1998 and I always forget that there's an arc where, in order to escape government agents trying to capture them, they use their magic sentient motorcycle to phase down into the earth's crust

and while they're down there they find a strange dark cavernous space filled with flames and lava and tiny demons that feed on suffering, and also there are disco balls and people wearing bellbottoms

and Robin recognizes everyone there as scumbags and murderers that he's investigated or heard of at one time or another

and it's all run by a guy named Dante, because this is his (disco) Inferno

and the joke is, of course, that Hell looks like the 70s (and/or the 70s are worse than hell)

EXCEPT

it's literally not hell

Dante is just SOME GUY who FOUND A CAVE filled with FLAMES AND LAVA and TINY DEMONS that FEED ON SUFFERING!!

literally just some guy! Who went "Man, y'know what would be neat? If I kidnapped CEOs and murderers, tricked them into thinking they died, and set up a 70s themed prison for them. And told them it was Hell! And fed their suffering to all these tiny demons!"

and then stole all the CEOs' assets in order to finance his underground 70s-themed fake-hell prison where he feeds the prisoners' suffering to his tiny demons

batman secret files: clownhunter

[ID: a low detailed panel of Bao Pham as he holds his batarang-bat over his shoulder in preparation to swing it at someone. END ID]

no more cold and calculating i want warm and calculating. i want characters who use deductive reasoning to figure out whether their friend would like a wool or cotton quilt based off of their lifestyle, career, hobbies, and habits. i want "your nails are often chipped because you work for a law firm as a typist for this company which notoriously underbudgets their IT department, so ive bought you a keyboard cover that will not only prevent manicure damage but is also sensory friendly because I know you dislike certain clicking noises". i want characters who figure out their friends entire schedules and social battery levels just by examining who only use that info to know when the best time is to hang out with them. i want characters who create elaborate, supervillain level schemes just to get their hands on some collectible they know their best friend wants. most of all i want characters who do not use intelligence and reasoning skills as a reason to be cruel but as a means to be kind

Reblog so everyone can hear what they need.

an incomplete list of potential tim futures based on things i vaguely remember (poorly cited bc i cba to spend time actually looking for the sources)

still heroic and robin in the our worlds at war event in the future where they don't stave off the bad guys

good, comes out of retirement to become batman beyond for a bit in futures end

there's one where bruce gets injured and tim comes back to take over at batman (really wish i could remember the source for this)

there's one where he becomes batman and takes a different bruce son as his robin isn't there? (also wish i could remember the source for this. i do think i remember seeing panels and this wasn't just a fever dream. i don't think this is the same as prev)

good but retired in nightwing the new order

solo 'the batt' imagines a future where he becomes a good batman. he also is trying to confess his feelings for cass, but this was in 2006 so. before people saw tim and cass as siblings. that is not the point tho, the point is an envisioned good batman future for tim.

batman annual vol 3 #2 tim is good and shows up at bruce's deathbed

he did become joker junior in batman beyond, but hush beyond showed that after he was cured of that he stayed a good guy and is going to extensive lengths to make sure joker is gone

gun batman from tt03, which i count as once instance because it's the same gun batman who keeps trying to come back

gun batman from rebirth/a lonely place of living and beyond

in conclusion: tim does have some bad futures, yes. those are *far* outpaced by good futures and aren't at a necessarily higher rate than anyone else in the batfamily, let alone the superhero community as a whole. tim having canons where he becomes corrupted and decides to start killing is not some unique phenomenon to him. exploring the dark mirror/bad future is something that literally almost everyone goes through. quite frequently. honestly tim might go bad at a less frequent rate than superman does.

Transmission: -- confirm. JLA were enveloped by the event -- Oracle: Okay, okay, hold on, I -- Oracle: Oracle: Oracle: No. The JLA have not been lost. Oracle: Because I'm still here. -- JLA: Classified #14

Oracle is the most important member of the JLA, actually. I don't make the rules.

Chiune Sugihara. This man saved 6000 Jews. He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania. When the Nazis began rounding up Jews, Sugihara risked his life to start issuing unlawful travel visas to Jews. He hand-wrote them 18 hrs a day. The day his consulate closed and he had to evacuate, witnesses claim he was STILL writing visas and throwing from the train as he pulled away. He saved 6000 lives. The world didn’t know what he’d done until Israel honored him in 1985, the year before he died.

The yuzuru hanyu-fication of Timothy Drake

(Aka figure skater au Tim Drake as referenced from yuzuru hanyu bc I have an unhealthy obsession with both of them)

Just a quick sketch bc the amount of figure skating au content in this fandom is disparagingly low 😔