Coronavirus

[The Thriller]

I’m going to vote D but I find a massive insensitivity and ignorance by those who criticize those who want to go back to work. It’s very easy for me or any educator or anyone else who works from home to say, wtf, people are so dumb to want to resume life.

People need to survive. Unfortunately, money is a necessary element in order to do so.

working and getting paid (but risk getting sick)

vs

Not working to avoid getting sick but going bankrupt is a false dichotomy.

Our federal government can and should do much more. I feel like forcing people back to work is not only a mistake both economically and health wise, but takes the pressure of our federal government. Our government should be stepping up testing and tracing. Our government should be providing paychecks to those who cannot work. Our government should be building a much more robust safety net.

But forcing people back to work and letting the virus, "wash over us" causes completely unnecessary suffering and takes all the pressure off the federal government and places it on individuals, minorities in particular. The type of suffering that the rest of the industrialized world would find abhorrent.

 

[Miggs]

working and getting paid (but risk getting sick)

vs

Not working to avoid getting sick but going bankrupt is a false dichotomy.

Our federal government can and should do much more. I feel like forcing people back to work is not only a mistake both economically and health wise, but takes the pressure of our federal government.

Except they might not do much more. Or haven’t yet. So the thought is nice but unless that happens, people get angry and rightfully so.

 

[The Thriller]

I’m going to vote D but I find a massive insensitivity and ignorance by those who criticize those who want to go back to work. It’s very easy for me or any educator or anyone else who works from home to say, wtf, people are so dumb to want to resume life.

People need to survive. Unfortunately, money is a necessary element in order to do so.

There's a difference between people wanting to work out of economic necessity and polling that it's safe to eat in restaurants, go to hair salons, and otherwise live a normal life. Clearly, that's who I was addressing with that poll and not people who must work out of economic desperation. Plenty of Democrats need to work out of economic desperation too. Remember that now.

 

[RandyForRubio]

It's pretty amazing how out of touch Thriller is. If only everything was as simple as "the government will fix it".

The money has to come from somewhere.

 

[The Thriller]

Except they might not do much more. Or haven’t yet. So the thought is nice but unless that happens, people get angry and rightfully so.

They should and must. Literally, every other industrialized nation has and is doing more. Our testing levels are getting better but still lag behind. We have no national tracing.

Even our neighbors to the north are providing their citizens with $2,000 dollars per month. We give... $1,200 for 10 weeks.

But hey, at least cruise lines and Donald's resorts got billions.

The sense of defeatism is just ridiculous in our country right now.

Just embarrassing. I'm not sure if we would've beaten Japan in World War II if we had had the same attitude back then. Come on. Our government can and should do much more. Lets make them do it rather than take the pressure of and bear it all (unnecessarily) on ourselves

 

[The Thriller]

It's pretty amazing how out of touch Thriller is. If only everything was as simple as "the government will fix it".

The money has to come from somewhere.

where was this concern for 3.5 years?

 

[RandyForRubio]

where was this concern for 3.5 years?

Some of us never lost the concern.

This may be shocking to you, being the partisan that you are, but I don't support everything that Trump, or the Republicans do.

 

[The Thriller]

Some of us never lost the concern.

This may be shocking to you, being the partisan that you are, but I don't support everything that Trump, or the Republicans do.

I performed a quick search on this site about your speaking out over deficits under Trump. Haven't found anything yet. You didn't even make a peep about the spending over the past two months which gave billions to cruise lines and Trump resorts. So I reiterate, it didn't seem to be a concern for you over the past 3.5 years.

At the end of the day, it's your party that clearly lost that "deficit concern." So I don't want to hear suddenly that they're concerned over deficits (as Moscow Mitch as indicated). Republicans have no problem spending on corporate welfare but suddenly become squeamish when we talk about welfare for citizens.

Our government can and should spend much more. This is the exact time where we need drastic spending to keep the economy afloat and to help Americans survive this pandemic.

 

[RandyForRubio]

I performed a quick search on this site about your speaking out over deficits under Trump. Haven't found anything yet. You didn't even make a peep about the spending over the past two months which gave billions to cruise lines and Trump resorts. So I reiterate, it didn't seem to be a concern for you over the past 3.5 years.

At the end of the day, it's your party that clearly lost that "deficit concern." So I don't want to hear suddenly that they're concerned over deficits (as Moscow Mitch as indicated). Republicans have no problem spending on corporate welfare but suddenly become squeamish when we talk about welfare for citizens.

Our government can and should spend much more. This is the exact time where we need drastic spending to keep the economy afloat and to help Americans survive this pandemic.

My thoughts and beliefs are not limited to what I post here. Shocking, I know. Even you can't be that dense.

There's a lot of things over the past few months I haven't made a peep about. I don't post very much anymore.

 

[infection]

The money has to come from somewhere.

 

[candrew]

@candrew

Took a drive with the baby because my wife really had to get work done.

Avon.

View attachment 9224

I assume the parking spaces weren’t blocked like that when you came down? Every single town from Asbury to Sea Girt was like this other than Bradley Beach and Sea Girt. I just parked in BB for a bit to take in the sites before I head home. Crazy world we’re living in now. I’m curious how many people file for unemployment tomorrow and weeks thereafter, what this summer is going to look like, and when we can resume some sort of normalcy. I hate to say it but there’s some truth to the statement that we aren’t built for this. People have to work. We’ll be relatively okay through August 1st from what I understand about unemployment. After that, who knows.

I gotta say, all the talk of professional sports leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I LOVE my sports but I just don’t see how sports with fans make any sense. Or how certain sports like football and basketball where close contact is nonstop.

Just a rambling as I sit here. Feels good to “get out.”

When I was at Ocean Grove on April 25 you can park right up to the boardwalk - there weren't any cones blocking the spots. We got there early and walked the beach for about an hour, when we walked back to the boardwalk there were hundreds of people. So we spent the rest of our time there in the car. I figured this would be the last time we'll be there for a while so not a surprise by the picture you took.

I've been staying away from the politics and instead listening almost exclusively to folks who have been studying stuff like this for years like Michael Osterholm and Ashish Jha and I'm not optimistic. I don't think we're going to see any football or basketball for the rest of the year at a minimum. When you think of outbreaks of staff infections and mersa spreading in football locker rooms - just think what this will do. One positive test will shut down the entire league. No one is going to invest the time and money to sustain a league with that small a margin of error.

 

[RandyForRubio]

Fwiw, I'm in a state with a small population, but a large amount of travelers.

We haven't had a new covid case in two weeks. Only one death in the county. Within reason of course, why shouldn't we open up?

We shut down not prevent infections, but to flatten the curve. We all still have to be safe, but staying shut down for much longer just isn't realistic imo.

 

[The Thriller]

Isn't this what liberals in particular, have been talking about for years? Spend during difficult times, raise taxes and pay off debts during good times? That's what President Obama did. Trump then reversed that by giving a corporate giveaway for a quick sugar rush. I mean, we warned you all when you were throwing money around at an already bloated military budget, or giving tax cuts to billionaires and corporations during good economic times, or spending billions on a wall that Mexico was supposedly going to pay for. We warned you.

This is why raising taxes, not cutting them, should've been done back in 2017. This is why Medicaid needed to be expanded for the working poor. This is why liberals have been advocating for stronger safety nets. This is why income inequality needs to be addressed. But we weren't listened to.

Now, Republicans refuse to step up because a) their corporate donors don't want a stronger social safety net and b) doing so would be an admitting that we were right all along.

I think we find ourselves in a painful fork in the road. Republicans appear to be so stubborn that they're willing to subject thousands of Americans to premature death and suffering to maintain their corporate donations. Corporations and billionaires will repay them by continuing their propaganda blitz on Fox News and Facebook (see this article). @RandyForRubio won't read it. But those of you curious about who's behind these protests probably will.

Republicans will continue to repay corporations and billionaires by refusing to expand our testing, safety net, and through slashing public services (police, fire, public education). In a way, this pandemic is serving these interests the most, as they've been wanting to slash public services for years. Now, they finally have a reason to slash public education. @Wes Mantooth. Without increased federal spending, your state will most likely have to slash public spending. Are you okay with teachers seeing pay cuts or layoffs because Mitch McConnell values giving bribes to his donors over funding public education? He wants your public education system to look like Kentucky's. Are you fine with that?

If government spending shouldn't increase during a pandemic and economic recession, when should it? When should we build a robust social safety net than right now, when people need it the most?

 

[RandyForRubio]

This whole "republicans are evil" and "democrats are evil" thing gets really old.

 

[The Thriller]

This whole "republicans are evil" and "democrats are evil" thing gets really old.

How else would you describe the party that puts kids in cages to try to discourage immigration?

The party that refuses to do anything to make our schools safer?

The party which is still trying to wreck Obamacare during a pandemic?

The party makes it harder to vote?

The party that worships Trump?

The party which condoned using foreign aid for ukraine to help Trump personally?

The party who’s demanding people get back to work and die without adequate testing or a safety net so billionaires and the stock market and make a few extra pennies?

I like conservatives and actually agree a lot with many of them. But this Republican Party today isn’t conservative. Nothing about it is. It’s the party of Trump. It’s extremist, nationalistic, and evil. It needs a drastic reform.

 

[sahlensguy]

I’m going to vote D but I find a massive insensitivity and ignorance by those who criticize those who want to go back to work. It’s very easy for me or any educator or anyone else who works from home to say, wtf, people are so dumb to want to resume life.

People need to survive. Unfortunately, money is a necessary element in order to do so.

I have a feeling that the numbers of those who want to get back to work are being greatly exaggerated. I doubt there are many who qualify for a weekly unemployment benefit plus the $600 per week want to. Few of the frontline workers making less than that while putting their health at risk will want to. My guess that most of the get back to work smoke is coming from consumers who want their convenient way of life to resume as quickly as possible, and or from business owners and their white collar staff who wont meet their quotas until the working stiffs get back on the front lines. IDK though. ..

 

[The Thriller]

I have a feeling that the numbers of those who want to get back to work are being greatly exaggerated. I doubt there are many who qualify for a weekly unemployment benefit plus the $600 per week want to. Few of the frontline workers making less than that while putting their health at risk will want to. My guess that most of the get back to work smoke is coming from consumers who want their convenient way of life to resume as quickly as possible, and or from business owners and their white collar staff who wont meet their quotas until the working stiffs get back on the front lines. IDK though. ..

you're correct. The Wash Post reported that these AstroTurf protests are being organized by some of the richest in America. Robert Mercer in particular. He funded Breitbart and is known for his desire to wreck the current American safety net.

the ads on Facebook sounded populist and passionate: “The people are rising up against these insane shutdowns,” they said. “We’re fighting back to demand that our elected officials reopen America.”

But the posts, funded by an initiative called Convention of States, were not the product of a grass-roots uprising alone. Instead, they represented one salvo in a wide-ranging and well-
financed conservative campaign to undermine restrictions that medical experts say are necessary to contain the coronavirus — but that protesters call overkill and whose economic fallout could damage President Trump’s political prospects.

A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by nimble online outfits, has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country. The activism is often organic and the frustration deeply felt, but it is also being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.

The Convention of States project launched in 2015 with a high-dollar donation from the family foundation of Robert Mercer, a billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican patron.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...75c81e-83fe-11ea-a3eb-e9fc93160703_story.html

And many of those protesting in Michigan were reported to be angry over not being able to visit their second homes and not being able to waterski. So clearly, not exactly the working poor desperate to just be able to pay the bills.

Furthermore, you’re right. Most people don’t believe we should be opening up right now.

All the polling I've seen shows that public support is overwhelmingly in favor of waiting to open things up. Just like this Michigan poll indicates:



This poll, sadly, explains a lot:

 

[Miggs]

No, obviously I don’t want it. But I think we have short memories and find most things cyclic. Maybe they’ll cut spending for 1-3 years but teacher shortages can be a real thing and once that comes and education suffers, money will be thrown back at education. Especially if D’s have any sort of power.

 

[Miggs]

I have a feeling that the numbers of those who want to get back to work are being greatly exaggerated. I doubt there are many who qualify for a weekly unemployment benefit plus the $600 per week want to. Few of the frontline workers making less than that while putting their health at risk will want to. My guess that most of the get back to work smoke is coming from consumers who want their convenient way of life to resume as quickly as possible, and or from business owners and their white collar staff who wont meet their quotas until the working stiffs get back on the front lines. IDK though. ..

There might be some truth to what you’re saying. Maybe a lot of truth. But when business go under, jobs are lost. Period. And many, many, MANY businesses will be folding if they haven’t already which means a ton of job losses.

In short, the market will be overly saturated with candidates for jobs that no longer exist.

 

[Archie Moses]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/06/dallas-salon-owner-jailed-coronavirus/

Yeah, **** that judge and the headline from the Washington Post. Lol

The judge said, if she'd apologize, she wouldn't go to jail. Mind you, when I first read an article about this, I thought the lady was an idiot. Then I listened to her comments to the judge and explanation. What a tone deaf judge.

The irony is salon's and barber shops open up in TX on Friday and she's still gonna be in jail.

Gawd damn it.


Watch at 1:40.
Which one of you douchebags are gonna have a problem with her reasoning and say throw the books at her.

The land of the free.