Here are some of the topics that have caught my attention as I’ve been browsing the internet:
IRS Advises People in 22 States to Wait to File their Taxes
If you live in California or 21 other states that provided a stimulus payment or refund last year, you now have an excuse to delay working on your taxes. The Washington Post’s Jacob Bogage explains why:
“The Internal Revenue Service is telling taxpayers — including more than 16 million in California — to hold off filing their taxes until the agency can issue guidance on state-issued inflation payments.
Dozens of states distributed stimulus-like payments or tax rebates in 2022 to counter inflation, which reached a 40-year high in 2022. The IRS on Tuesday said it needed more time to determine which of those payments are federally taxable and told taxpayers not to submit returns until it finalizes those rules.”
It looks like it will come down to how the state laws enacting the stimulus payments categorized them.
“The tax status of those payments will vary by state, and depends on the program’s stated purpose, tax professionals say.
If the payments were for pandemic relief, for example, they should be exempt from federal tax because they fall under disaster relief. If they were for inflation or other economic relief, they’re probably taxable.”
The word “probably” appears to be doing a lot of work in that sentence. It wasn’t a secret that these payments were going out, so I hope we can have a serious conversation about why there was a delay.
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Climate Emergency Disappointments
The New York Times’ David Wallace-Wells interviews climate activist Greta Thunberg about her work. They discuss why we should not be satisfied only with better rhetoric about the issue from our elected officials when action is required. She also explains why it may have been a mistake to frame the need for action around our shared global fate rather than how the impact of the climate emergency will disproportionately impact some groups.
Wallace-Wells introduces their conversation: “There is genuinely no precedent in the modern history of geopolitics for the climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Four and a half years ago, she began “striking” outside of Swedish parliament — a single teenager with a single sign. She was 15. In just a few months, she had made her mark at the United Nations climate conference in Poland: “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is,” she told the assembled diplomats and negotiators, “even that burden you leave to us children.”
By the time she spoke at Davos that January, excoriating the world — “I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is” — she had become the face of the global climate movement, giving it an entirely new generational life and scale. She led weekly marches across the globe that drew millions of people through 2019 and helped force the world’s most powerful people to at least pay lip service to what they now called a climate crisis.
I first met Thunberg in the middle of that maelstrom, when she came to New York in 2019 by boat to help stage two large climate strikes as bookends to the U.N.’s climate week. A lot has changed since then, and then again, a whole lot hasn’t. Thunberg is 20 now. Countries accounting for almost 90 percent of the world’s emissions and G.D.P. have made net-zero pledges. Renewable energy is skyrocketing, though fossil fuel use has only plateaued — perhaps even peaked — but it is a long way down from 40 gigatons (50 if you include methane) to zero. Current policies still point to a global average temperature rise above three degrees Celsius this century, more than double the more ambitious goals enshrined by the Paris agreement in 2015. And now Thunberg has published her third book, called “The Climate Book,” a curated tour of the state of the emergency and how to think about it from more than 100 contributors. (I wrote an essay for it drawing lessons from the experience of the pandemic.)”
The fact that the five largest oil companies could publicize more than $200 billion in profits last year while facing some harsh words but no real consequences—like a windfall profits tax—indicates how much work we still have to do.
Abortion, Every Day
Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day recaps the news from across the country regarding reproductive freedom and sexual and reproductive health care.
She highlights how a new bill in Idaho represents one of the ways Republican legislators will try to restrict the travel of women and people who can become pregnant without instituting a travel ban. The situation will just get more and more difficult.
“And in Idaho, Republicans are pushing new legislation that would classify anyone who takes a minor across state lines for an abortion as a ‘human trafficker’. That means that if a beloved aunt or grandmother took a teenager for care, they could be punished with five years in prison. There is no language in the bill about teenagers who are being abused at home, perhaps by their legal guardian; nor is there language specifying if only one parent’s consent is necessary to bring a minor out-of-state for an abortion, or if both parents must be notified and give permission. I’ve said this before, but this is exactly how we’re going to see women start to be limited from leaving the state for care—it will be a slow chipping away process. First they’ll make rules about minors and parental consent, next they’ll pass a rule saying that minors can’t leave even with parental consent. Mark my words—it’s coming.”
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An Analysis of the California Budget Situation
The California Budget and Policy Center has released a Q&A explaining the state budget situation. The report explains why there is a projected deficit and what it means for activists and policymakers as legislators consider eliminating the projected deficit through cuts in spending, increases in revenues, and using the state’s reserve funds.
“This Q&A explains why California faces a budget problem, highlights the challenges with estimating revenues this year, outlines state leaders’ options for addressing the budget gap — including using reserves — and describes how advocates can advance their policy priorities and lay the groundwork for building a more equitable California even in a tough budget year.”
The Q&A makes some suggestions to advocates about how they can be most influential in the budget process.
“Advocating for policies and the funding to support them is clearly more challenging when the state faces a budget shortfall, like it does this year. In particular, proposals that call for new spending will face greater scrutiny — and higher hurdles — compared to years when state revenues are stronger.
One option for advocates in a tough budget year is to focus on protecting recent policy gains and funding commitments. These include investments in child care, housing, health care, assistance for older adults and people with disabilities, and many other critical services — any of which could be at risk if the budget gap grows. State leaders also have prioritized several policies for implementation in 2024-25 — if revenues are sufficient to support them. These policies include boosting CalWORKs grants and cutting red tape in the Medi-Cal program so that young kids can be continuously enrolled in health coverage. These pending policies could be threatened if revenues further weaken over the coming months.
Furthermore, advocates can continue to make the case for new state investments to help Californians be healthy and thrive. Advocates should educate state leaders about Californians’ ongoing needs, highlight policy solutions, and seek allies to help advance their proposals — using both the policy bill process and the budget process. These actions can lay the groundwork for policy wins and expanded funding when revenues rebound.
Faster progress also is possible. For example, state leaders may be open to adopting an ambitious policy change, but may also delay implementation until funding is provided in a future budget. This approach keeps the issue on the state’s “front burner” and puts advocates in a good position to argue for the needed resources in a future state budget cycle.”
176 Books Banned in Duval County, Florida
PEN America shares a list of the 176 books removed from Duval County, Florida classrooms.
“The removed titles were part of the Essential Voices Classroom Libraries Collection, purchased by the district in 2021. This collection “features characters representing a variety of ethnicities, religious affiliations, and gender identities,” and includes children’s picture books such asSulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin, and Berenstain Bears and the Big Question by Stan and Jan Berenstain.”
Cup of Coffee’s Craig Calcaterra noted that Duval County schools also removed books about baseball legends Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente. He is correct to be unhappy with this result.
“So it makes total sense that Duval County, Florida has banned two children’s books about Aaron and Clemente: Henry Aaron’s Dream by Matt Tavares and Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates by Jonah Winter. Why? The author of the Aaron book could only speculate that it was because the book acknowledges that racism exists. Here’s the same author, speculating about the Clemente book:
“There’s a tiny bit about racism, but it’s mostly about how much everyone in Pittsburgh adored Clemente. So maybe they just don’t like inspiring stories about people who aren’t white? The whole thing is moronic.”
The “tiny bit about racism” is all that matters, I suspect, because what’s going on in Florida is pure, Orwellian reality-creation. It’s part of a Republican campaign to stoke delusions of persecution among white people and to erase America’s history of white supremacy from the public record. They clearly believe that the best way to do that is to ban Black history of any kind. I mean, they even banned a children book about Rosa Parks.
Does a book about Henry Aaron harm anyone? Of course not. But you can’t lie about American history or justify the ratcheting-back or repeal of measures aimed at combatting racism if you acknowledge that racism is an actual thing, so his story, Clemente’s story, Rosa Parks’ story, and the story of the Black experience in general must be scrubbed from the record. It’s evil. It’s odious. It’s racist. It’s fascist. It’s par for the course for Florida and, increasingly, anyplace else where Republicans are in charge.”
Calcaterra also notes that Major League Baseball has two franchises in Florida, nearly half of its teams are about to start spring training there, and the state is hosting key games in the World Baseball Classic. Shouldn’t MLB use its platform to protect the legacy of such key players?
Nah, Commissioner Rob Manfred rarely misses an opportunity to avoid taking a stand on a fundamental issue if it might cost him and the owners a few dollars. He has his priorities.
Will International Soccer Sell Out (Again)
Before he gets to the preview of this weekend’s English Premiere League fixtures, Men in Blazers Roger Bennett describes how we have reached a significant pivot point for the history of soccer in England, Europe, and internationally.
“We will break it all down below, but on a more serious note, I feel like I need to begin by saying this, after a week of stunning news across the sport we love: This feels like a true Rubicon moment for football. A crossroads. The major off-the-field storylines are a moral crescendo. Manchester City is being investigated for over 100 violations of its economic regulations – an unprecedented charge by a league against its most successful club. At the very same time, just across town, the Qatari head of State, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is descending upon Manchester United. Simultaneously, news has broken that Saudi Arabia is offering to underwrite Egypt and Greece’s World Cup hosting costs so it can buy its way into hosting the 2030 World Cup, all the while FIFA are floating the idea of Saudi Arabia’s tourist board sponsoring the Women’s World Cup. The throughline of all of these stories is the same: The attempt by nation states to buy global football and repurpose it as a deafening megaphone through which to airbrush out human rights abuses that pockmark their global images.”
It is a dire picture. The fact that I am rooting for a petrochemical company billionaire—even though I think every billionaire signals a policy failure by the government—to purchase Manchester United just because he happens to be a lifelong fan of the team indicates how fraught the situation has become.
Putin Connected to Shootdown of Flight MH17
Even before Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine last year, there were many indications that his activities there had deadly consequences.
The Associated Press’ Mike Corder explains how an international group of investigators has connected Putin to the 2014 missile shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which killed all 298 people on the plane.
“An international team of investigators said Wednesday it found “strong indications” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the supply of heavy anti-aircraft weapons to Ukrainian separatists who shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 with a Russian missile.
However, members of the Joint Investigation Team said they had insufficient evidence to prosecute Putin or any other suspects and they suspended their 8½-year inquiry into the shooting down that killed all 298 people on board the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Russia has always denied any involvement in the downing of the flight over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, and refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Dutch prosecutors said that “there are strong indications that the Russian president decided on supplying” a Buk missile system — the weapon that downed MH17 — to Ukrainian separatists.”
Quick Pitches
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shares a thoughtful essay describing his feelings after seeing LeBron James break his NBA career scoring record. “I begin everything I write with a lot of apprehension because I know how hard it is to translate complex thoughts and intense emotions into the exact words that accurately express those thoughts and emotions. But this article I approach with even more trepidation because I really want to get this right. It’s important to me, to basketball fans, and to the legacy of a great player (not me).” (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Substack)
“On the 436th anniversary of her execution, a team of international codebreakers has uncovered some of the secret, coded letters written by Mary Stuart (aka Mary, Queen of Scots) while she was imprisoned in England.” (Laura Baias, Popular Science)
“The two broadcasters, purportedly anchors for a news outlet called Wolf News, are not real people. They are computer-generated avatars created by artificial intelligence software. And late last year, videos of them were distributed by pro-China bot accounts on Facebook and Twitter, in the first known instance of “deepfake” video technology being used to create fictitious people as part of a state-aligned information campaign.” (Adam Satariano and Paul Mozur, The New York Times)
Here are lists of the movies featuring the most profanities and the actors who have sworn the most. The Wolf of Wall Street and Jonah Hill are our current leaders in the clubhouse. (Buzz Bingo)
Why one of this century’s most critical job skills may prove to be the ability to write prompts to engage artificial intelligence programs. (Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic)
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