quoththeraven

Paging @Gar1eth, who hasn't been around since mid-November (then again I've been gone since February or so): this year's Maccabeats Hanukkah song is a cover/parody of BTS' Dynamite. Cover: Original: Live performance of original for NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Yes, this is the same group I've been annoying you about for years and no, not planning on stopping anytime soon, not even if they win the Grammy for best duo or group pop performance for Dynamite. (Yes, they were nominated and I fully expect them to be invited to perform it at the Grammys.)

So in other words gig workers get a flat $600 without having to prove income. About the tax returns, they can't use 2019 because a) most of those returns aren't filed yet and b) the filing deadline has already been postponed. I haven't checked but I assume this includes postponing the payment requirement, or at least waiving penalties and interest for failure to pay by April 15th.

I took advantage of a 30 day free trial offer from Acorn because they have Midsomer Murders, which Netflix lost the rights to, but I plan on cancelling before the free trial runs out. So I'm binging the two seasons of Midsomer Murders I hadn't already seen.

Other than maybe spending more time on Twitter than usual, my daily routine is no different. (And honestly I don't really have a routine anymore.) But I have had sleep problems - at first I wasn't feeling sleepy enough early enough, and now getting back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom is a problem. I practice social distancing most of the time anyway, but I went out twice in the past week: once to replace a charger for my cell phone and tablets, and once to go grocery shopping.

Because we don't need that level of detail.

Lol, "jazz."

Unemployment is supposed to apply to gig workers and the self-employed, yes, although that's a separate issue from the $1200 stimulus checks. As I understand it, people like me who don't have to file tax returns will have to file one to get the $1200 payment, and it will take four months to get a check if the IRS doesn't have direct deposit information on file. I didn't file or have to file in 2018, and the same would be true this year and going forward. Moreover, I've changed bank accounts twice since I last got a refund. Taxing those payments would be contrary to the point of making them. They also shouldn't count for means-tested benefits, either.

I went grocery shopping Sunday morning and they had tape up preventing entry into the produce section directly from the entrance and directing traffic around the adjacent bakery, deli and cheese sections in order to corral everyone checking out into a single line for checkout along one wall far away from the cash registers. There were no explanations, so I thought they were limiting entry (even though no one was monitoring it) until I saw that a line had formed and there was an employee directing people to cashiers. Fortunately by the time I was done there was no line, and it turned out the employee managing the flow of customers was also checking to see if you had more than one item that was being rationed. There was absolutely no toilet paper despite signs limiting purchases (fortunately I'd bought some early in the month and didn't need any) and very little bottled water, but what got me the most was that the 18 pack of large store brand eggs I normally buy for $2 or thereabouts was completely out. I bought the least expensive eggs I saw, which were a dozen store brand brown cage free organic for $2.50. Unsurprisingly, egg purchases were also limited to one per customer along with bread and milk (there were adequate supplies of both, but I use lactose free milk, so I don't know about regular milk). I can already tell I'm going to need more bread, though. The store wasn't crowded, but people weren't always staying the recommended six feet away. (And in some cases it was impossible - the aisles aren't that wide.) If I'm already stopped to get something, please don't stop within six feet of me, for crying out loud!

Parasite won! \o/ And received the most Oscars of any movie this year (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature). Now if only Bangtan Sonyeondan could get a Grammy nomination...

I believe that was after he'd become exasperated that they weren't listening. And he wasn't the only one with expressed doubts. Furthermore, he was right - it was a fraud, and a fraud in the way he thought was most likely (a Ponzi scheme rather than using front-running, which was the other possibility), its track record as reported in quarterly statements was impossible given market conditions, and the congressional panel he testified before after the arrest didn't treat him as a crank in this regard.

This was the most helpful information in the entire thread. I am a little surprised that there would even be a prison dialysis unit, though. That seems a lot less cost effective than sending him to a nearby hospital outpatient dialysis unit. Or are dialysis machines portable enough and inexpensive enough to rent to be installed in prison infirmaries on an as needed basis?

Sorry, that was confusing. Only the first paragraph was a response to you, more specifically the last sentence. The rest was mostly a response to @BnaC.

Asking for a lawyer would only have postponed the inevitable. Also it was whistleblowing by one or both sons that brought law enforcement to his door. Why yes, I just spent time reading the Wikipedia entry on Madoff and reacquainting myself with what happened, as well as learning some things I didn't know before.

Part of the reason some avoided Madoff's funds was the inability to do due diligence. Their accounting firm was small and they refused to provide documentation of the underlying investments.

I don't know about any investors, but a financial advisor in Boston, Harry Markopolos, went to the SEC starting in 2001 (Madoff was arrested late in 2008) and sounded the alarm about the unrealistically high and consistent rates of return. (Especially that even in down markets the returns hardly ever showed losses of value.) Because Madoff was well-connected and had a good reputation from his sales ability and from having been instrumental in forming NASDAQ and having sat on its Board of Governors and been its chairman, the SEC didn't take the allegations seriously. In addition, his niece, his firm's in-house attorney, dated an SEC supervisor and later married him after he left the SEC.