I’m assuming not too many people who read my humble substack are Moderna executives or public health authorities, but if anyone got rich in a hopefully ethical manner, do tell!
On the financial issue, the company I had worked for for eight years shut down during the lockdown and then made it permanent. Things were okay while I could get Unemployment, but with that run out and hardly any jobs in my tiny and very isolated community, I'm barely surviving. Of course all this is completely By Design to make people desperate and Compliant. Easier to get the population to accept all their Great Reset B.S., except what they are really going to do is push Americans into a civil war. Which is also what the Globalists want, and they expect to establish their "New World Order" out of the chaos. But, realistically, I think they quite underestimate us. I think there are plenty of ex-military and other brave, capable, and patriotic souls who are going to mount a serious counter-attack and go after those damn Satanic motherf**kers and "string them up by the neck until dead"!!!!! Klaus Schwab and his buddies want immortality? They probably don't believe in an Afterlife or they wouldn't have their insane ideas about wanting their "consciousness" to be uploaded into computers to merge with A.I. Well, let's hope they get "sent on their way" very soon so they can meet GOD and get set straight!
I had a four year job (twice my record time for tolerating wage slavery for any single company) when the lockdowns went into effect.
About three years ago, I was lucky enough that there was sufficient demand for me to take a third shift by myself with very minimal customer service requirements, just a majority of time spent doing diagnostics and repairs.
Was laid off for a month after lockdown initiation (march 2020) due to the drop in apple repair demand. (certified independent repair shop, not apple corporate.)
Got Bernie Sanders unemployment pay greater than my normal salary. After the month passed, I was told they'd gotten busy again and I'd have to return to work and give up the unemployment or be fired.
I got two weeks of full time hours catching up the backlog, and then my workload dropped to half time. Was told I could clean and organize the shop and create procedural documents for extra time, but, ugh, gross, and even if I had there wasn't more than a month worth of that busywork in total anyway.
Two years I toughed it out with 20-25 hours a week of what used to be a 35-40 hour job.
Over the 6 years before I quit, I lost over $4000 out of pocket to cover defective apple parts that failed diagnostics after repair or flat out physically broke while using proprietary apple tools for removal. Apple has some seriously predatory policies for authorized service providers like techs are responsible for full cost of any apple defective garbage which fails before the end of a repair, and their 2018 onwards MacBooks are designed to fail. My last month, every penny of my reduced wages went to cover two defective topcase/keyboard/trackpad/battery modules which failed diagnostics during unrelated display replacements (not one connector for the topcase was removed during those repairs and I was grounded as required during every step.) That was the last straw and I quit this April.
All my savings went to pay off the back "debt" the business had already paid to apple so I could walk away clean.
It's been really tight making ends meet since that and I've built up bad debt and maxed my credit with a couple cards being deactivated as a result.
Too bad, since the job aligned so well with my hobby skills that I could literally do repairs on autopilot.
Since the Never Ending State of Emergency was implemented, I also had to put up with BS comments about my well researched views on the dangers of vaccination in general and especially the toxic inoculations du jour, which greatly reduced the good parts of working there as well. When they pushed me to get shots I made it clear in no uncertain terms that if they did, they'd have to fire me first. Since I was apparently their best tech, they backed off, but I was still forced to wear a mask even though nobody else worked my hours. I had bought a serious p500 with enhanced airflow filters to exceed the n95 recommendation even though they only wanted the cloth or flimsy paper masks, so I could lie and say I was protecting myself as well as possible against droplet transmission while they ignored every piece of evidence that respiratory viruses are not stopped by anything short of a HAZMAT suit.
Even though my finances are shaky relying on online remote work, my mindset is more pleasant what with not having to deal with blind idiocy regarding masks and injections and especially not fearing financial liability for every machine I touched for diagnostics or repair.
Amy, contact your elected representative under constituent services - they can raise it with IRS and you'll get the stimulus.
For visa - you'll have to file I-601 waiver with USCIS to get exemption for COVID shot. You can get that even before immigrant visa interview as far as I know. Lots of immigrants were able to get it successfully. For other shots, you just need paperwork from your doctor on shots received - titers will work too. Chickenpox - most people had it - you just tell the doctor when you had it.
I looked into the 601 waiver thank you on that. It's worth noting my husband has had no shots, or at least he claims this, ever. With his epilepsy I do not think he should have any though titers are acceptable. I had been looking into medical exempt but as I said money has been pretty bad. I'll check into that angle on the IRS I never thought of that!
Even better - do a religious exemption though medical examiner can and does mark not age appropriate on shots - I had to get no shots but that was years ago. Titers show immunity from prior infections too - chickenpox, measles, rubella. You can exempt them all. People do gofund me or other fundraising sites for various things - I'd certainly contribute for your I-601 waiver.
I was thinking he would be eligible on religious exempt because he has never had shots and wants none, but Covid was medical exempt only at least for airplanes and immigration which was maddening! It got confusing because a sympathetic doctor might medically exempt him on his epilepsy but he thankfully hasn't had a seizure in over a year, but an unsympathetic doctor going by exact guidelines might not. Some of them seem to think the only valid medical exemption is if you're already dead from a ab...
The IRS is and has been backed up since March of 2020. In the ensuing months, dozens of tractor trailer loads of documents were sitting to be processed. The backup at the IRS is and has been an issue for over a year and widely talked about among accountants, the number of returns to process about a year ago was in the tens of millions. I have a tax client who waited 9 months to get his 2020 refund. Contacting the IRS is even more problematic. My client DID contact his representative....not sure how or if that helped. I wish I had better news to report.
Basically they make face masks that look like they're doing something but actually have very little effect on air flow. It makes it look like you're wearing a real functional mask. They even make one that looks like a N-95 mask, which they call the UN-95.
I hate regular masks, but these I can wear and hardly notice. The one called the Sport mask feels like I'm wearing nothing on my face.
Thanks for the link I thought about the before. I wore a sheer scarf that covered above my eyes when I was forced to one a delta LAS to LAX flight in 2020. I'm hoping that madness goes away but I still worry about layovers in say Japan..
Great idea, for those who are forced to wear them. Regrettably, though, wearing any mask at all tends to normalize them, IMO, especially as a sign of total compliance with ridiculous mandates, and may add more time to the tyranny of making us wear them. Just a thought.
Since you own land in Thailand, and Thailand is open to some tourists (vaxxed), why not put up some simple tents on your land and offer them on Airbnb? If you look on Airbnb, you'll see people are charging real money to live in tents and RVs. It's called glamping, glamour camping. It can't be much worse than some of the Airbnbs I've stayed in. Also, Mexico lets in everyone, regardless of vax status, you and your family can all get in easily and rent a place in the country. The popular cities are expensive, but you can still get a good deal in some areas, and you, as an American citizen, can literally walk into San Diego to handle your government and banking issues in person.
Sorry I just noticed your comment about Thais needing paperwork for Mexico. I'm shocked, they're so permissive with Americans. Well, just recently, so many countries have dropped all restrictions. If it weren't for the war in Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia might have worked for you. But things have really opened up in many other countries.
The land in Phuket is not ours, so it unfortunately wouldn't work here, unless I pitched a tent and told the landlord it was for my dear close friends. He has some bungalows in the area for rent and has even asked if I had any farang friends who might be interested but that would be more of an I get a cut or finders fee. The land up North is ours chanote title and all but it's so far off the beaten path I'm not sure it would get too much interest. It's an idea if I ever fixed up the RV parked on the side of our Las Vegas house though...
I got laid off from a job I loved in March of 2020; our whole division was abruptly closed, so my 10 coworkers and bosses all lost their jobs, too. On the surface, it was because of Covid, but we later found out that there had been some long-standing animosity, lousy financial planning (not on our part) and political machinations involved. The parent corporation wanted to get rid of us and Covid became the perfect excuse. I had been there a little less than four years, so the severance I got wasn’t much. But I was able to get state unemployment, and that, coupled with the stimulus, helped tide us over. My hubby is self-employed and he was holding his own as well, although he hated working from home during the lockdowns. He eventually also got a remote job, which helped for a while, until they laid him off from it. I was not so lucky hunting for a job to replace the one I lost, as every place I applied was under a hiring freeze. I eventually got a part-time retail job, where I still am now. I'm not really keen on it, but I try to look for the positive skills that I will be able to carry with me when I leave. Hubby ended up getting another remote job which is super demanding on him and doesn’t leave him any time for his own clients. He is pressing me to find full-time work so he can go back to them. I can see the mental toll the job is taking on him.
But the biggest thing that this whole debacle has done to me is to shatter my confidence in myself and my abilities. I have to solve that problem somehow, and I will. I keep thinking that I’ve found a way around other obstacles, and I’ll find a way around this one, too.
For the places I have applied, I now have to make sure they don’t require the vax, because I am not getting one, ever. And I won’t participate in the silliness of having to be tested and/or wearing a mask for a religious exemption. What’s the point of it then? Besides, I had Covid, and I’ll put my natural immunity up against the shots any day.
This has tested me and made me realize how extreme my aversion is to asking anyone for help, ever. I always worked and always paid my own way. I could never even stand the idea of a guy who had financial leverage. It just seemed too controlling. I've been slowly accepting that FactSet's slow motion crash is psychologically damaging to me: I'm just another cog in a corporate wheel, ready to be replaced by the next leap in AI that renders my job obsolete. Which has me meditating a great deal on what value I have in the world, intrinsically, as a human being. That should be understood as the consciousness within us that is sacred and passes through all life. That always brings me back to the whole "Sure you have talent but get a day job to support yourself" path that I always chose, every time, because I needed the money of course. I am willing to do a lot of things as long as they are not morally incongruent: no jabs, no masks. Serving, fixing or building in some way is acceptable...
Looking back on my career, I guess I've been lucky in that I have been able to work as a graphic designer for a couple different companies, when what I always heard growing up was; "How are you going to make any money painting?" After I stopped laughing, I would tell the person who posed that question that I wasn't the least bit interested in painting, or if I was, it was something to do *after* my regular job. I wanted to work at an ad agency, magazine, newspaper or large printing company, or even a corporate entity with a marketing and communications department. I ended up at a couple small regional newspapers which are still operating (except for the last one), unlike lots of others nationwide that have closed and left their local communities without a source of local news. Then again, I reflect that every job I've had - at three newspapers and a part-time art academy teaching job - I've lost because of various circumstances, long before Covid. There was also a consolidation of newspaper editions and a very nasty divorce in the case of the art academy. Which leads me to recall Richard Nelson Bolles's (of "What Color is Your Parachute?" fame) idea that every job is temporary and a job seeker's task is to adapt their skills in whatever way they can.
With the Middle Class in western countries/economies rapidly shrinking, by design, as the Globalist takeover and take-down project proceeds, it seems like everyone who is not part of their "club" is hurting. Your situation is a little unusual because of your husband's immigration status. Have you considered an alternative strategy if you can't get a visa for him soon? Like getting him into Mexico and "proceeding" from there? Two million "undocumenteds" have crossed the border since Biden took office. Obviously the Administration WANTS people to come in THAT way instead of through proper channels!
Also, on a side note since you are a writer:
"Me' is an Object and "I" is a Subject. You wouldn't say:
"Me . . . had talked about getting checked out . . . ".
Of course you would say:
"I . . . had talked about getting checked out . . .
So the grammatically correct (and conventional word order) sentence would read:
" My husband and I had talked about getting checked out . . . "
LOL I didn't proofread enough before I posted. I'm even an editor! Yes I have had several people suggest Mexico. The problem there is he needs a visa from Thailand to get to Mexico to (From Mexican Embassy) and why is he going, exactly? The land border crossing sounds a little odd in our case but I have considered it. Sometimes when they make legal immigration impossible they make the other kind probable...
Isn't the U.N. flying thousands of "immigrants" into to Mexico for the purpose of invading the United States across the southern border? Maybe they can help! (It is all part of the Globalist plan!)
how about looking into seeing if some of that philanthropath money could filter down to you and the fam? not suggesting that you design propaganda memes, but just as one example does PEN have a program for expats? i say this because a dear friend of mine just won a big prize for a novel whose translation i edited (patting self on shoulder) and your work is just as world-class as hers. helps that she won the award before, but just a thought...
maybe do a serial novel on stack for members only? auction off some signed original artwork?
i was depersoned by klaus and cuomo here in nyc because the arts and those who work in them aren't essential. stockdale situation: couldn't imagine that the pols would allow the economy to flatline for so long until i realized that was the game plan. had i been smarter i would have bought a van and headed straight for south dakota (florida wasn't "open" yet) while i had the cash. blew though what by a lot of people's standards was a modest amount but it was all i had. successfully resisted the lure of trump money because it was obvious that was just a ploy to get me on the books.
am banned at every single one of the venues i used to work at, which still exist. not only for the obvious reason but because i dared question muzzlemania, summer of 2020 (i have the same issue with the muzzle as you do - nobody knows). lost my apartment of almost 10 years at the end of last year. the new digs are, um, rustic and cozy, in real estate-speak.
miraculously, around thanksgiving, a friend sent an email from someone looking to hire someone in a field i've never worked in - zoom economy thing - and in a moment of panic i decided to apply. not my skillset - until march 2020 i had no problem getting gigs anywhere, in fact i had to juggle work to keep possible sources of income in the pipeline. long story short, new boss loved my "audition" and enthusiastically offered me the job. feeling the power, i gingerly asked him if he'd be willing to do it over the web instead of evil intrusive spycam zoom, and as it turned out, he hates zoom as much as i do!
I'm hoping it is indeed darkest before the dawn. I put some gigs on Fiverr and Upwork but really got zero traction. Much like my books I seem to sit in some dark forbidden corner of the Internet where nobody ever sees my stuff, and substack has been the sole thing I have done that has gotten any traction or visibility. For that I am eternally grateful. Good luck with it!
My husband has been unemployed for the past 3 years and 24 days. But who’s counting??? The lay off wasn’t covid related, obviously but covid sure didn’t help him get a job more quickly. He’s recently been employed but has yet to work a day, nor draw a paycheck. That should happen in mid-late Oct.! Meanwhile, I’m self employed after taking off for 2.5 decades to raise our kids. My wedding planning and floral business was sketchy during covid bc many had to postpone for flight/lockdown reasons and some decided to postpone just because they didn’t want pics of guests dancing wearing stupid masks. Fortunately, I didn’t have to refund any brides, just postpone them, BUT it still cost me a fair amount of $$, just having to WAIT another year to get the balance, and also having basically 2 dates “taken” for substantial amounts of time, plus many not booking at all. I could not look at myself in the mirror had I not gone on with postponed weddings at zero extra cost, though many venues actually made brides put down the deposit AGAIN. So yes, covid and the stupid policies put a big dent in our income, or helped prolonged the recovery of my husband’s job, for certain. All in all, I’d say it cost us at least $70,000?! Hard to pinpoint…
OH, he also didn’t get MOST of his unemployment $$!! They paid it for awhile, then he got some check in Jan. from his former company bc they all got a percentage bonus, so even though he was laid off in Aug., he got a check in Jan., which the unemployment people somehow took as employment and stopped payments! He called them at LEAST 20 times, sometimes on hold for up to 4 HOURS, telling his story to several people who passed the buck and then he’d get cut off. A recording said there were fewer people working and most working from home so your wait times would be prolonged. I’ll say!! I can’t even tell you how many times I listened to his phone on speaker with the stupid message repeating and the annoying MUZAK… As far as I know, he never received most of his checks. *SIGH*
Unemployment was a total mess for me too. At first it was denied because I supposedly had worked in Utah, not Nevada, so I needed to apply to the state of Utah. This was a real head scratcher because I HAVE NEVER LIVED OR WORKED in the state of Utah. But I live on a Utah Ave in Las Vegas so some idiot decided to deny and delay on this basis. I remember the music and the long wait times...ugh..
It's hard for me to pinpoint on us either. Going with lost opportunity costs and concrete things like the 6K spent on quarantine hotels and sky high airfare I'd put it in the 20 to 30K range. I still wonder if FactSet went away because of Covid, or if they just opportunistically used the pandemic to wind down contract work they wanted to get rid of anyways...
In 2004 my wife came down with Breast cancer so I stopped working to take care of her--I had a little savings and SS.She passed in 2006.We were living on credit cards and it took most of my SS to live.Well last year I decided to stop paying them except two of them--I think i had about 15,000 in debt to them.I guess there is not much they can do!! I don't answer their calls and throw the mail in the trash.
It killed my credit score but I can still use the two credit cards I have.Also Capitol one sent me a credit card with a 500 dollar limit so go figure.
I hope you can figure things out. Why don't you do a go fund me?? I am on eight social media sites and would be glad to promote it and donate!!
I'm considering the GoFundme route you are the second comment regarding it. I've heard so many horror stories about campaigns being taken down I worried about that angle: my husband and I won't take the jab ad this is how it screwed up our lives et cetera. Perhaps that's a better angle now than it was before and people who are involved in immigration issues tend to be close knit and supportive and sympathetic. They don't make it easy
I can recommend you contact the Taxpayer Advocate's office in your US region. They have often been helpful sorting thru what might be holding up your refund.
One of my husband's friends had just dumped everything he had into a new business about a month the 1st lockdown began, (2 weeks to flatten the curve, which turned out to be for as long as the dems needed to rig elections). He killed himself. Left behind a wife and 2 children.
It's horrible. My brother Andy worked for a long time friend of the family as a limousine driver for his small business. He had just taken out a loan on a big party bus. He didn't kill himself, but he lost his business. My brother works for Amazon now delivering packages...
On the financial issue, the company I had worked for for eight years shut down during the lockdown and then made it permanent. Things were okay while I could get Unemployment, but with that run out and hardly any jobs in my tiny and very isolated community, I'm barely surviving. Of course all this is completely By Design to make people desperate and Compliant. Easier to get the population to accept all their Great Reset B.S., except what they are really going to do is push Americans into a civil war. Which is also what the Globalists want, and they expect to establish their "New World Order" out of the chaos. But, realistically, I think they quite underestimate us. I think there are plenty of ex-military and other brave, capable, and patriotic souls who are going to mount a serious counter-attack and go after those damn Satanic motherf**kers and "string them up by the neck until dead"!!!!! Klaus Schwab and his buddies want immortality? They probably don't believe in an Afterlife or they wouldn't have their insane ideas about wanting their "consciousness" to be uploaded into computers to merge with A.I. Well, let's hope they get "sent on their way" very soon so they can meet GOD and get set straight!
Here’s to hoping their asbestos underpants FAIL. It’s gonna be HOT where they wind up. 🔥🔥🔥
I had a four year job (twice my record time for tolerating wage slavery for any single company) when the lockdowns went into effect.
About three years ago, I was lucky enough that there was sufficient demand for me to take a third shift by myself with very minimal customer service requirements, just a majority of time spent doing diagnostics and repairs.
Was laid off for a month after lockdown initiation (march 2020) due to the drop in apple repair demand. (certified independent repair shop, not apple corporate.)
Got Bernie Sanders unemployment pay greater than my normal salary. After the month passed, I was told they'd gotten busy again and I'd have to return to work and give up the unemployment or be fired.
I got two weeks of full time hours catching up the backlog, and then my workload dropped to half time. Was told I could clean and organize the shop and create procedural documents for extra time, but, ugh, gross, and even if I had there wasn't more than a month worth of that busywork in total anyway.
Two years I toughed it out with 20-25 hours a week of what used to be a 35-40 hour job.
Over the 6 years before I quit, I lost over $4000 out of pocket to cover defective apple parts that failed diagnostics after repair or flat out physically broke while using proprietary apple tools for removal. Apple has some seriously predatory policies for authorized service providers like techs are responsible for full cost of any apple defective garbage which fails before the end of a repair, and their 2018 onwards MacBooks are designed to fail. My last month, every penny of my reduced wages went to cover two defective topcase/keyboard/trackpad/battery modules which failed diagnostics during unrelated display replacements (not one connector for the topcase was removed during those repairs and I was grounded as required during every step.) That was the last straw and I quit this April.
All my savings went to pay off the back "debt" the business had already paid to apple so I could walk away clean.
It's been really tight making ends meet since that and I've built up bad debt and maxed my credit with a couple cards being deactivated as a result.
Too bad, since the job aligned so well with my hobby skills that I could literally do repairs on autopilot.
Since the Never Ending State of Emergency was implemented, I also had to put up with BS comments about my well researched views on the dangers of vaccination in general and especially the toxic inoculations du jour, which greatly reduced the good parts of working there as well. When they pushed me to get shots I made it clear in no uncertain terms that if they did, they'd have to fire me first. Since I was apparently their best tech, they backed off, but I was still forced to wear a mask even though nobody else worked my hours. I had bought a serious p500 with enhanced airflow filters to exceed the n95 recommendation even though they only wanted the cloth or flimsy paper masks, so I could lie and say I was protecting myself as well as possible against droplet transmission while they ignored every piece of evidence that respiratory viruses are not stopped by anything short of a HAZMAT suit.
Even though my finances are shaky relying on online remote work, my mindset is more pleasant what with not having to deal with blind idiocy regarding masks and injections and especially not fearing financial liability for every machine I touched for diagnostics or repair.
Amy, contact your elected representative under constituent services - they can raise it with IRS and you'll get the stimulus.
For visa - you'll have to file I-601 waiver with USCIS to get exemption for COVID shot. You can get that even before immigrant visa interview as far as I know. Lots of immigrants were able to get it successfully. For other shots, you just need paperwork from your doctor on shots received - titers will work too. Chickenpox - most people had it - you just tell the doctor when you had it.
https://omb.report/icr/202207-1405-004
I looked into the 601 waiver thank you on that. It's worth noting my husband has had no shots, or at least he claims this, ever. With his epilepsy I do not think he should have any though titers are acceptable. I had been looking into medical exempt but as I said money has been pretty bad. I'll check into that angle on the IRS I never thought of that!
Even better - do a religious exemption though medical examiner can and does mark not age appropriate on shots - I had to get no shots but that was years ago. Titers show immunity from prior infections too - chickenpox, measles, rubella. You can exempt them all. People do gofund me or other fundraising sites for various things - I'd certainly contribute for your I-601 waiver.
I was thinking he would be eligible on religious exempt because he has never had shots and wants none, but Covid was medical exempt only at least for airplanes and immigration which was maddening! It got confusing because a sympathetic doctor might medically exempt him on his epilepsy but he thankfully hasn't had a seizure in over a year, but an unsympathetic doctor going by exact guidelines might not. Some of them seem to think the only valid medical exemption is if you're already dead from a ab...
The IRS is and has been backed up since March of 2020. In the ensuing months, dozens of tractor trailer loads of documents were sitting to be processed. The backup at the IRS is and has been an issue for over a year and widely talked about among accountants, the number of returns to process about a year ago was in the tens of millions. I have a tax client who waited 9 months to get his 2020 refund. Contacting the IRS is even more problematic. My client DID contact his representative....not sure how or if that helped. I wish I had better news to report.
This comment isn't related to your main point; it's about masks.
You may want to be aware of this company, named UnMask.
https://getunmask.com/
Basically they make face masks that look like they're doing something but actually have very little effect on air flow. It makes it look like you're wearing a real functional mask. They even make one that looks like a N-95 mask, which they call the UN-95.
I hate regular masks, but these I can wear and hardly notice. The one called the Sport mask feels like I'm wearing nothing on my face.
Thanks for the link I thought about the before. I wore a sheer scarf that covered above my eyes when I was forced to one a delta LAS to LAX flight in 2020. I'm hoping that madness goes away but I still worry about layovers in say Japan..
Great idea, for those who are forced to wear them. Regrettably, though, wearing any mask at all tends to normalize them, IMO, especially as a sign of total compliance with ridiculous mandates, and may add more time to the tyranny of making us wear them. Just a thought.
Since you own land in Thailand, and Thailand is open to some tourists (vaxxed), why not put up some simple tents on your land and offer them on Airbnb? If you look on Airbnb, you'll see people are charging real money to live in tents and RVs. It's called glamping, glamour camping. It can't be much worse than some of the Airbnbs I've stayed in. Also, Mexico lets in everyone, regardless of vax status, you and your family can all get in easily and rent a place in the country. The popular cities are expensive, but you can still get a good deal in some areas, and you, as an American citizen, can literally walk into San Diego to handle your government and banking issues in person.
Sorry I just noticed your comment about Thais needing paperwork for Mexico. I'm shocked, they're so permissive with Americans. Well, just recently, so many countries have dropped all restrictions. If it weren't for the war in Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia might have worked for you. But things have really opened up in many other countries.
The land in Phuket is not ours, so it unfortunately wouldn't work here, unless I pitched a tent and told the landlord it was for my dear close friends. He has some bungalows in the area for rent and has even asked if I had any farang friends who might be interested but that would be more of an I get a cut or finders fee. The land up North is ours chanote title and all but it's so far off the beaten path I'm not sure it would get too much interest. It's an idea if I ever fixed up the RV parked on the side of our Las Vegas house though...
I got laid off from a job I loved in March of 2020; our whole division was abruptly closed, so my 10 coworkers and bosses all lost their jobs, too. On the surface, it was because of Covid, but we later found out that there had been some long-standing animosity, lousy financial planning (not on our part) and political machinations involved. The parent corporation wanted to get rid of us and Covid became the perfect excuse. I had been there a little less than four years, so the severance I got wasn’t much. But I was able to get state unemployment, and that, coupled with the stimulus, helped tide us over. My hubby is self-employed and he was holding his own as well, although he hated working from home during the lockdowns. He eventually also got a remote job, which helped for a while, until they laid him off from it. I was not so lucky hunting for a job to replace the one I lost, as every place I applied was under a hiring freeze. I eventually got a part-time retail job, where I still am now. I'm not really keen on it, but I try to look for the positive skills that I will be able to carry with me when I leave. Hubby ended up getting another remote job which is super demanding on him and doesn’t leave him any time for his own clients. He is pressing me to find full-time work so he can go back to them. I can see the mental toll the job is taking on him.
But the biggest thing that this whole debacle has done to me is to shatter my confidence in myself and my abilities. I have to solve that problem somehow, and I will. I keep thinking that I’ve found a way around other obstacles, and I’ll find a way around this one, too.
For the places I have applied, I now have to make sure they don’t require the vax, because I am not getting one, ever. And I won’t participate in the silliness of having to be tested and/or wearing a mask for a religious exemption. What’s the point of it then? Besides, I had Covid, and I’ll put my natural immunity up against the shots any day.
This has tested me and made me realize how extreme my aversion is to asking anyone for help, ever. I always worked and always paid my own way. I could never even stand the idea of a guy who had financial leverage. It just seemed too controlling. I've been slowly accepting that FactSet's slow motion crash is psychologically damaging to me: I'm just another cog in a corporate wheel, ready to be replaced by the next leap in AI that renders my job obsolete. Which has me meditating a great deal on what value I have in the world, intrinsically, as a human being. That should be understood as the consciousness within us that is sacred and passes through all life. That always brings me back to the whole "Sure you have talent but get a day job to support yourself" path that I always chose, every time, because I needed the money of course. I am willing to do a lot of things as long as they are not morally incongruent: no jabs, no masks. Serving, fixing or building in some way is acceptable...
Looking back on my career, I guess I've been lucky in that I have been able to work as a graphic designer for a couple different companies, when what I always heard growing up was; "How are you going to make any money painting?" After I stopped laughing, I would tell the person who posed that question that I wasn't the least bit interested in painting, or if I was, it was something to do *after* my regular job. I wanted to work at an ad agency, magazine, newspaper or large printing company, or even a corporate entity with a marketing and communications department. I ended up at a couple small regional newspapers which are still operating (except for the last one), unlike lots of others nationwide that have closed and left their local communities without a source of local news. Then again, I reflect that every job I've had - at three newspapers and a part-time art academy teaching job - I've lost because of various circumstances, long before Covid. There was also a consolidation of newspaper editions and a very nasty divorce in the case of the art academy. Which leads me to recall Richard Nelson Bolles's (of "What Color is Your Parachute?" fame) idea that every job is temporary and a job seeker's task is to adapt their skills in whatever way they can.
Hi Amy!
With the Middle Class in western countries/economies rapidly shrinking, by design, as the Globalist takeover and take-down project proceeds, it seems like everyone who is not part of their "club" is hurting. Your situation is a little unusual because of your husband's immigration status. Have you considered an alternative strategy if you can't get a visa for him soon? Like getting him into Mexico and "proceeding" from there? Two million "undocumenteds" have crossed the border since Biden took office. Obviously the Administration WANTS people to come in THAT way instead of through proper channels!
Also, on a side note since you are a writer:
"Me' is an Object and "I" is a Subject. You wouldn't say:
"Me . . . had talked about getting checked out . . . ".
Of course you would say:
"I . . . had talked about getting checked out . . .
So the grammatically correct (and conventional word order) sentence would read:
" My husband and I had talked about getting checked out . . . "
Keep up the good work! Cheers!
LOL I didn't proofread enough before I posted. I'm even an editor! Yes I have had several people suggest Mexico. The problem there is he needs a visa from Thailand to get to Mexico to (From Mexican Embassy) and why is he going, exactly? The land border crossing sounds a little odd in our case but I have considered it. Sometimes when they make legal immigration impossible they make the other kind probable...
Isn't the U.N. flying thousands of "immigrants" into to Mexico for the purpose of invading the United States across the southern border? Maybe they can help! (It is all part of the Globalist plan!)
LOL! I should ask the UN!
how about looking into seeing if some of that philanthropath money could filter down to you and the fam? not suggesting that you design propaganda memes, but just as one example does PEN have a program for expats? i say this because a dear friend of mine just won a big prize for a novel whose translation i edited (patting self on shoulder) and your work is just as world-class as hers. helps that she won the award before, but just a thought...
maybe do a serial novel on stack for members only? auction off some signed original artwork?
i was depersoned by klaus and cuomo here in nyc because the arts and those who work in them aren't essential. stockdale situation: couldn't imagine that the pols would allow the economy to flatline for so long until i realized that was the game plan. had i been smarter i would have bought a van and headed straight for south dakota (florida wasn't "open" yet) while i had the cash. blew though what by a lot of people's standards was a modest amount but it was all i had. successfully resisted the lure of trump money because it was obvious that was just a ploy to get me on the books.
am banned at every single one of the venues i used to work at, which still exist. not only for the obvious reason but because i dared question muzzlemania, summer of 2020 (i have the same issue with the muzzle as you do - nobody knows). lost my apartment of almost 10 years at the end of last year. the new digs are, um, rustic and cozy, in real estate-speak.
miraculously, around thanksgiving, a friend sent an email from someone looking to hire someone in a field i've never worked in - zoom economy thing - and in a moment of panic i decided to apply. not my skillset - until march 2020 i had no problem getting gigs anywhere, in fact i had to juggle work to keep possible sources of income in the pipeline. long story short, new boss loved my "audition" and enthusiastically offered me the job. feeling the power, i gingerly asked him if he'd be willing to do it over the web instead of evil intrusive spycam zoom, and as it turned out, he hates zoom as much as i do!
darkest hour before the dawn.
I'm hoping it is indeed darkest before the dawn. I put some gigs on Fiverr and Upwork but really got zero traction. Much like my books I seem to sit in some dark forbidden corner of the Internet where nobody ever sees my stuff, and substack has been the sole thing I have done that has gotten any traction or visibility. For that I am eternally grateful. Good luck with it!
maybe you can sing for turfseer? he has a rotating cast: https://soundcloud.com/turfseer/sets/scamdemic-collection
My husband has been unemployed for the past 3 years and 24 days. But who’s counting??? The lay off wasn’t covid related, obviously but covid sure didn’t help him get a job more quickly. He’s recently been employed but has yet to work a day, nor draw a paycheck. That should happen in mid-late Oct.! Meanwhile, I’m self employed after taking off for 2.5 decades to raise our kids. My wedding planning and floral business was sketchy during covid bc many had to postpone for flight/lockdown reasons and some decided to postpone just because they didn’t want pics of guests dancing wearing stupid masks. Fortunately, I didn’t have to refund any brides, just postpone them, BUT it still cost me a fair amount of $$, just having to WAIT another year to get the balance, and also having basically 2 dates “taken” for substantial amounts of time, plus many not booking at all. I could not look at myself in the mirror had I not gone on with postponed weddings at zero extra cost, though many venues actually made brides put down the deposit AGAIN. So yes, covid and the stupid policies put a big dent in our income, or helped prolonged the recovery of my husband’s job, for certain. All in all, I’d say it cost us at least $70,000?! Hard to pinpoint…
OH, he also didn’t get MOST of his unemployment $$!! They paid it for awhile, then he got some check in Jan. from his former company bc they all got a percentage bonus, so even though he was laid off in Aug., he got a check in Jan., which the unemployment people somehow took as employment and stopped payments! He called them at LEAST 20 times, sometimes on hold for up to 4 HOURS, telling his story to several people who passed the buck and then he’d get cut off. A recording said there were fewer people working and most working from home so your wait times would be prolonged. I’ll say!! I can’t even tell you how many times I listened to his phone on speaker with the stupid message repeating and the annoying MUZAK… As far as I know, he never received most of his checks. *SIGH*
Unemployment was a total mess for me too. At first it was denied because I supposedly had worked in Utah, not Nevada, so I needed to apply to the state of Utah. This was a real head scratcher because I HAVE NEVER LIVED OR WORKED in the state of Utah. But I live on a Utah Ave in Las Vegas so some idiot decided to deny and delay on this basis. I remember the music and the long wait times...ugh..
It's hard for me to pinpoint on us either. Going with lost opportunity costs and concrete things like the 6K spent on quarantine hotels and sky high airfare I'd put it in the 20 to 30K range. I still wonder if FactSet went away because of Covid, or if they just opportunistically used the pandemic to wind down contract work they wanted to get rid of anyways...
In 2004 my wife came down with Breast cancer so I stopped working to take care of her--I had a little savings and SS.She passed in 2006.We were living on credit cards and it took most of my SS to live.Well last year I decided to stop paying them except two of them--I think i had about 15,000 in debt to them.I guess there is not much they can do!! I don't answer their calls and throw the mail in the trash.
It killed my credit score but I can still use the two credit cards I have.Also Capitol one sent me a credit card with a 500 dollar limit so go figure.
I hope you can figure things out. Why don't you do a go fund me?? I am on eight social media sites and would be glad to promote it and donate!!
Condolences on your wife..
I'm considering the GoFundme route you are the second comment regarding it. I've heard so many horror stories about campaigns being taken down I worried about that angle: my husband and I won't take the jab ad this is how it screwed up our lives et cetera. Perhaps that's a better angle now than it was before and people who are involved in immigration issues tend to be close knit and supportive and sympathetic. They don't make it easy
I can recommend you contact the Taxpayer Advocate's office in your US region. They have often been helpful sorting thru what might be holding up your refund.
I'm going to look this up thanks!
One of my husband's friends had just dumped everything he had into a new business about a month the 1st lockdown began, (2 weeks to flatten the curve, which turned out to be for as long as the dems needed to rig elections). He killed himself. Left behind a wife and 2 children.
It's horrible. My brother Andy worked for a long time friend of the family as a limousine driver for his small business. He had just taken out a loan on a big party bus. He didn't kill himself, but he lost his business. My brother works for Amazon now delivering packages...