The CDC website in regards to tracking cases and testing hasn't been updated in nearly 3 days and the information contained there is woefully inaccurate. A group of citizens volunteering their time are doing a FAR better job of this at the COVID-19 Tracking Project:
Not all states update every day. Indeed, it appears at least 19 states didn't report today (Sunday) at all. We still easily surpassed 30,000 cases, a day earlier than I estimated we would a week ago. When tomorrow's numbers come in from the states that didn't report, plus the new Monday numbers, we could easily be seeing 45,000. There doesn't seem to be any scenario where there isn't at last 150,000 by this time next week.
Unless the internet suddenly gets interrupted...
(I'm only partially kidding.)
Besides food, electricity and medicine, I can't think of a single thing more important at this moment that making sure internet access is maintained. Aside from being responsible for information and access to the jobs that aren't disappearing, it's the only thing that is going to keep people from going nuts inside. Broadband repair technicians are absolute an essential service.
The CDC website in regards to tracking cases and testing hasn't been updated in nearly 3 days and the information contained there is woefully inaccurate. A group of citizens volunteering their time are doing a FAR better job of this at the COVID-19 Tracking Project:
Not all states update every day. Indeed, it appears at least 19 states didn't report today (Sunday) at all. We still easily surpassed 30,000 cases, a day earlier than I estimated we would a week ago. When tomorrow's numbers come in from the states that didn't report, plus the new Monday numbers, we could easily be seeing 45,000. There doesn't seem to be any scenario where there isn't at last 150,000 by this time next week.
Unless the internet suddenly gets interrupted...
(I'm only partially kidding.)
Besides food, electricity and medicine, I can't think of a single thing more important at this moment that making sure internet access is maintained.
Yeah, politics would have no bearing on something essential like that.
I lasted 25 seconds. Once he started with securing both the northern and southern border, it showed he is a complete idiot that doesn’t grasp the difference between shutting the border down due to a pandemic and shutting the border down because brown people bad. Starting with a New York Post opinion headline almost made me stop at 10 seconds, but I decided to give him a second chance.
Nothing, not one thing Trump had done leading up to this pandemic can be accounted for him planning ahead for it. Anything else is revisionist history.
Tim Pool is a bad propagandist. He's not a good source for news, especially for news without a right-leaning bias.
His primary value is to the far right as a means to funnel people to them, as shown in the past year.
Well, I guess it didn't take long for my worst-case paranoid fantasy I typed out last night to come to fruition. This is the President of the United States advocating the "therapeutic nihilism" I talked about less than 24 hours ago. I mean, I saw the signs, but I didn't know it was going to go into overdrive THIS fast. There is only one way to read this, which is that the MARKETS are dictating our policy, not public health. And go ahead and read the comments below his tweet talking about putting trust in "God". I have nothing else to add:
This both sides of the fence shit is going to get thousands of people killed, no hyperbole. For his press conferences, he likes to pretend to be taking it seriously. At all other times, he and his conservative media goons are telling every single one of their supporters/viewers that it's not only no big deal, but a plot to bring down his roaring economy. And THIS, more than any other reason, is why I saw people standing right next to each other like any other normal time when I walked to the grocery store this morning. If my cousin's daughter or my GF get this, I'm holding this piece of shit and the Republican Party personally responsible. There are those of us taking all the precautions the experts advise. And he's doing this making it utterly pointless. He's a monster. He's been a monster from day one and every day since. And for the record, FOX News was pushing this EXACT narrative tonight on a show called the The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton. This is not a coincidence. Ignore the power of the right-wing propaganda machine at your own peril. Because it's taking us right to the abyss. This is capitalism as a death cult. He's about a half-step away from sounding like Jim Jones after the Congressman was shot at the airstrip.
So the GOP got together and created a slush fund "coronavirus" bill targeted at corporations. The colluded together, as usual, and wrote the bill all by themselves and are now demanding Dems sign it.
Never waste an opportunity to grift I guess.
It's not at all a bipartisan bill but they are demanding Dems sign it because oh my, we believe in bipartisanship.
Dems initially said hell no because this bill is ridiculous and full of pork barrel bullshit that you get out of the GOP (including a 500 billion unaccountable fund to prop up whatever businesses the GOP decides are important).
Senator Palpatine er McConnell.. Senator McConnell decided that a way to put pressure on Dems to vote for this one sided bill aimed at corporations is to schedule a vote after the markets open on Monday. McConnell is like "THINK OF THE STOCK MARKETS! THE STOCK MARKETS!" Oh no not the stock markets! That's what's important to Mitch McConnell. Not people being laid off and regular people problems.
I hope Dems don't cave but with Schumer it would be a minor miracle if he doesn't.
So the GOP got together and created a slush fund "coronavirus" bill targeted at corporations. The colluded together, as usual, and wrote the bill all by themselves and are now demanding Dems sign it.
Never waste an opportunity to grift I guess.
It's not at all a bipartisan bill but they are demanding Dems sign it because oh my, we believe in bipartisanship.
Dems initially said hell no because this bill is ridiculous and full of pork barrel bullshit that you get out of the GOP (including a 500 billion unaccountable fund to prop up whatever businesses the GOP decides are important).
Senator Palpatine er McConnell.. Senator McConnell decided that a way to put pressure on Dems to vote for this one sided bill aimed at corporations is to schedule a vote after the markets open on Monday. McConnell is like "THINK OF THE STOCK MARKETS! THE STOCK MARKETS!" Oh no not the stock markets! That's what's important to Mitch McConnell. Not people being laid off and regular people problems.
I hope Dems don't cave but with Schumer it would be a minor miracle if he doesn't.
The bill they wrote literally has a provision in it that allows Steve Mnuchin to personally dole out 500 billion dollars to whatever companies he deems necessary. But that's just the appetizer. The main course is that there is ALSO a provision that doesn't require WHO those companies are and HOW much money they got to be revealed for 6 months. What possible reasoning could there be for such a thing that isn't 100% nefarious?? Even Joe f'n Manchin was appalled by the bill. But this is what they are going to do. Tie any checks normal people are going to get to a massive corporate slush fund with absolutely NO accountability attached to it, and if Democrats object, they are against the common worker, who frankly gets absolutely hosed by the GOP bill compared to what the House Financial Committee came up with. It's hostage-taking. We'll shoot the average worker in the head if you don't give the CEO of Delta and Boeing $50 billion each. While we're at it, let's bail out the cruise ship industry. And how much of this money would go to Trump himself?? Well, that's the point of the bill, we wouldn't know til.......late October. Right before the election. How convenient. Read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine". This is disaster capitalism in real-time.
United is the worst. Remember when they dragged that doctor off the plane when he would not voluntarily give up his seat. He was like stunned and bleeding and missing teeth iirc.
Stock buybacks should be made illegal, forever, starting as soon as possible. In fact, they were illegal until 1982. It's flat-out manipulation. The reason these airlines need money is because they have been engaging in this practice to boost their stock price. This is basically the bulk of what corporate America did with the Trump tax cut. Like Matthew McConaughey's character said in "Wolf of Wall Street", it's fairy dust, it doesn't exist. What are we finding out now in the last two weeks?? That people who have been labeled "low skill" are the most essential people in the country besides doctors and nurses. I'm talking about people who work at grocery stores. Labor has actual value. Wall Street and corporate America is engaged in imaginary bullshit. But they're the ones with all the money. And now they want a trillion more. If they don't get it, the rest of us can apparently rot as far as they are concerned.
Even in the 90 minutes I have been up this morning, I have seen this narrative spread in conservative media almost as fast as the virus. It's not only one of the talking points, it is THE talking point. I'm seeing phrases ranging from "we are going to have to make difficult choices" to "the people most likely to die are the most expensive to take care of anyway". It's arrived. It didn't even take 48 hours.
What I'm talking about is a concerted effort in a well-oiled media apparatus that has a complete monopoly on the radio waves and an entire cable channel which is basically a visual version of the former. We have gone (in less than two weeks time) from "It's a hoax, it's just the flu" to "It's Chinese" to "Cull the herd". The conservative media (and anyone who gets their arguments from it) has literally taken 3 separate positions on the subject in less than 14 days. Now they are all melding together in some kind of sociopathic blender. They still believe it's a conspiracy or hoax, but they seem to acknowledge that lots of people will die, but fuck 'em because I want to go to the mall and get an Orange Julius. And if I see an Asian-American on the way there, I'll be sure to tell them to stay away from me and go back where they came from.
People that are going out to the beach and congregating in crowds arent explicitly ideological. They're just people.
That said, what @jjstraka34 is referring to is that Conservatives (that is: Conservative politicians and conservative media) are starting to float the idea that the economic harm from social distancing and lockdowns are becoming too significant.
It's hard not be cynical about this approach from them because A - Since the GOP has the white house and the senate, it's the GOP that's likely to suffer significantly in elections due to a depression (and their incredibly bad response to the virus in the first place), and because B - the GOP has always been more responsive to Corporate America's suffering than Democrats. See Lindsay Graham's quotes on why they needed to get the Trump Tax cuts passed (Paraphrasing - "They (meaning, the rich) wouldnt donate money to us anymore if we dont").
In essence: There's a negotiation going on right now. The more we lockdown and attempt to flatten the curve of Covid 19, the more damage it will do to the economy. It will also save more lives. The GOP is putting out feelers for taking a position that we've over calibrated, and less economic harm for more loss of life will be acceptable.
Even in the 90 minutes I have been up this morning, I have seen this narrative spread in conservative media almost as fast as the virus. It's not only one of the talking points, it is THE talking point. I'm seeing phrases ranging from "we are going to have to make difficult choices" to "the people most likely to die are the most expensive to take care of anyway". It's arrived. It didn't even take 48 hours.
They’ll push through the ‘stimulus’ package first so that Trump can dole out money to whoever he pleases (himself) and then cancel the cheques for everyone else because everyone is back to work.
Once this whole thing is over, the economy is going to rebound by itself anyway. Some industries (hotels) are going to feel a short term pinch, others may implode because how they handled the virus (Cruise Ships) but everything else should snap back immediately.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Not only does he want everyone to run around and infect each other, Trump refused to order Coronavirus supplies because big business complained. It's like he thinks we're worthless and he's trying to get us killed.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I totally understand it has started in many places, but MUCH of the country is still just sorta waking up to what this is going to be. The monetary problems are inescapable. Those monetary problems are going to exist ANYWAY if we don't stay locked down and half the goddamn country is calling in sick, and another 5-10% of it is in an ICU. The only solution to this is to do what the UK and Denmark are doing, which is paying for 90% and 75% (respectively) of the salaries of those who are laid off. We are nowhere close to this, and where you and I DO agree is that the United States is UNIQUELY unfit to tackle this crisis, for reasons that it's almost impossible to fully address in forum. I consider myself lucky in the fact that I don't see any way my job will be eliminated in the near future due to what it's function will be in this crisis. I am a little pissed we haven't been moved to work from home yet, though I am quite sure it is happening soon. I tell myself that if doctors and nurses can do what they are doing, I have to have the fortitude to leave the house to go to my job. I am and have been prepared. I'm just waiting for everyone I see around me to take it more seriously, even though our area has only one confirmed case.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I feel for ya. I'm lucky in that my day job is pretty secure and I can work from home.
This is why I hope congress passes a stimulus bill. I dont need the money, but plenty of people either need it now or will start to need it soon enough.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I feel for ya. I'm lucky in that my day job is pretty secure and I can work from home.
This is why I hope congress passes a stimulus bill. I dont need the money, but plenty of people either need it now or will start to need it soon enough.
Yeah, but what do you do when that stimulus bill is being tied to a basically endless, unaccountable corporate slush fund?? Do you bite the bullet to get what you can, or do you fight to make it better for average people when time is of the essence??
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
That's the thing, a week or even a month probably will be nowhere near enough. We need months. The infectious period is closer to one month. People can walk around without symptoms but spreading the virus for TWO weeks.
Yes people will need help. So the coronabailout should not be a handout to corporations and a one time check for $1k but should be something like Bernie is saying - 2k per family per month because people need to stay home or our shitty healthcare system will be overwhelmed and bodies will be dropping in the streets. People will die who don't need to die like in Italy.
Trump needs to step aside and let someone competent take charge. We need to start ordering medical equipment for the country. He's not doing jack squat that is actually helpful. Calling it the "china virus" is not in any way helpful and that's one of the few concrete things he's done.
He's only worrying about the market & his re-election. He's determined to squeeze us peons to build up wealth for others when there's deadly virus out there. It's your life and the lives of your loved ones he's gambling with.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I feel for ya. I'm lucky in that my day job is pretty secure and I can work from home.
This is why I hope congress passes a stimulus bill. I dont need the money, but plenty of people either need it now or will start to need it soon enough.
They didn't pass it, Democrats blocked it because it gives money to buisnesses along with people.
Look, I don't like corporate handouts, but neither do I care about them more than helping people. The bill gives 1,200 per adult and 500 per children. It's fine. Pass it, because people need help now. I said I wouldn't vote for a Republican again if they blocked it. I guess I'll never vote for a Democrat.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I feel for ya. I'm lucky in that my day job is pretty secure and I can work from home.
This is why I hope congress passes a stimulus bill. I dont need the money, but plenty of people either need it now or will start to need it soon enough.
They didn't pass it, Democrats blocked it because it gives money to buisnesses along with people.
Look, I don't like corporate handouts, but neither do I care about them more than helping people. The bill gives 1,200 per adult and 500 per children. It's fine. Pass it, because people need help now. I said I wouldn't vote for a Republican again if they blocked it. I guess I'll never vote for a Democrat.
I think there's a competing bill in the House of Representatives being worked on. So the GOP will have a chance to vote for (or against, tacitly by not even bringing it up for a vote) relatively shortly. You may get the opportunity to never vote for a Republican or Democrat again...
IIRC, that House bill also aims to mandate that absentee and mail only balloting is possible, given the very real chance of a so called "second wave" in the fall of 2020.
While I think it's important to do this quickly, I dont think waiting a day or two to make we're maximizing the money to those who need it is such a bad deal.
The idea that social distancing and lockdowns have gone on too long and become too significant is the really frightening part. Because it's barely started at all. In certain parts of the country it's not even really taking place yet. Now, ALL over social media, you are seeing an arbitrary 15 day number that is being passed around like gospel, totally divorced from any facts on the ground or exponential spread. For many people, a date has now been set in stone. Nevermind the fact that in two weeks we may be looking at half a million cases.
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I feel for ya. I'm lucky in that my day job is pretty secure and I can work from home.
This is why I hope congress passes a stimulus bill. I dont need the money, but plenty of people either need it now or will start to need it soon enough.
They didn't pass it, Democrats blocked it because it gives money to buisnesses along with people.
Look, I don't like corporate handouts, but neither do I care about them more than helping people. The bill gives 1,200 per adult and 500 per children. It's fine. Pass it, because people need help now. I said I wouldn't vote for a Republican again if they blocked it. I guess I'll never vote for a Democrat.
Like I said, it's hostage taking. You are basically admitting it's hostage taking but that it doesn't matter. What possible reason could there be for having a provision in the bill that keeps who gets what money a secret for six months?? And that turns over all discretion over how it gets distributed to the Treasury Secretary?? Where did the money we gave them in 2008 go?? Where did their Trump tax cut go?? It went to stock buybacks and adding wings to the houses of executives. And since they apparently aren't required to be liquid beyond 7 days, they need BILLIONS more to stay afloat. They're parasites feeding the rest of the 99% of the population. They are exactly what they accuse poor people of being.
Comments
Besides food, electricity and medicine, I can't think of a single thing more important at this moment that making sure internet access is maintained. Aside from being responsible for information and access to the jobs that aren't disappearing, it's the only thing that is going to keep people from going nuts inside. Broadband repair technicians are absolute an essential service.
Yeah, politics would have no bearing on something essential like that.
Are you talking about the paper lady or the hooker?
Tim Pool is a bad propagandist. He's not a good source for news, especially for news without a right-leaning bias.
His primary value is to the far right as a means to funnel people to them, as shown in the past year.
I was talking about the paper lady, but now that you mention it, I am divorced...
I have no moral objection, but this is a bad time to be soliciting prostitutes.......
Spoilsport!
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/perspectives/saudi-arabia-oil-market/index.html
This both sides of the fence shit is going to get thousands of people killed, no hyperbole. For his press conferences, he likes to pretend to be taking it seriously. At all other times, he and his conservative media goons are telling every single one of their supporters/viewers that it's not only no big deal, but a plot to bring down his roaring economy. And THIS, more than any other reason, is why I saw people standing right next to each other like any other normal time when I walked to the grocery store this morning. If my cousin's daughter or my GF get this, I'm holding this piece of shit and the Republican Party personally responsible. There are those of us taking all the precautions the experts advise. And he's doing this making it utterly pointless. He's a monster. He's been a monster from day one and every day since. And for the record, FOX News was pushing this EXACT narrative tonight on a show called the The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton. This is not a coincidence. Ignore the power of the right-wing propaganda machine at your own peril. Because it's taking us right to the abyss. This is capitalism as a death cult. He's about a half-step away from sounding like Jim Jones after the Congressman was shot at the airstrip.
Never waste an opportunity to grift I guess.
It's not at all a bipartisan bill but they are demanding Dems sign it because oh my, we believe in bipartisanship.
Dems initially said hell no because this bill is ridiculous and full of pork barrel bullshit that you get out of the GOP (including a 500 billion unaccountable fund to prop up whatever businesses the GOP decides are important).
Senator Palpatine er McConnell.. Senator McConnell decided that a way to put pressure on Dems to vote for this one sided bill aimed at corporations is to schedule a vote after the markets open on Monday. McConnell is like "THINK OF THE STOCK MARKETS! THE STOCK MARKETS!" Oh no not the stock markets! That's what's important to Mitch McConnell. Not people being laid off and regular people problems.
I hope Dems don't cave but with Schumer it would be a minor miracle if he doesn't.
The bill they wrote literally has a provision in it that allows Steve Mnuchin to personally dole out 500 billion dollars to whatever companies he deems necessary. But that's just the appetizer. The main course is that there is ALSO a provision that doesn't require WHO those companies are and HOW much money they got to be revealed for 6 months. What possible reasoning could there be for such a thing that isn't 100% nefarious?? Even Joe f'n Manchin was appalled by the bill. But this is what they are going to do. Tie any checks normal people are going to get to a massive corporate slush fund with absolutely NO accountability attached to it, and if Democrats object, they are against the common worker, who frankly gets absolutely hosed by the GOP bill compared to what the House Financial Committee came up with. It's hostage-taking. We'll shoot the average worker in the head if you don't give the CEO of Delta and Boeing $50 billion each. While we're at it, let's bail out the cruise ship industry. And how much of this money would go to Trump himself?? Well, that's the point of the bill, we wouldn't know til.......late October. Right before the election. How convenient. Read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine". This is disaster capitalism in real-time.
United is the worst. Remember when they dragged that doctor off the plane when he would not voluntarily give up his seat. He was like stunned and bleeding and missing teeth iirc.
and there it is. No, I didn't just project something onto his tweet:
Even in the 90 minutes I have been up this morning, I have seen this narrative spread in conservative media almost as fast as the virus. It's not only one of the talking points, it is THE talking point. I'm seeing phrases ranging from "we are going to have to make difficult choices" to "the people most likely to die are the most expensive to take care of anyway". It's arrived. It didn't even take 48 hours.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/23/us/california-stay-at-home-beach-goers/index.html
What I'm talking about is a concerted effort in a well-oiled media apparatus that has a complete monopoly on the radio waves and an entire cable channel which is basically a visual version of the former. We have gone (in less than two weeks time) from "It's a hoax, it's just the flu" to "It's Chinese" to "Cull the herd". The conservative media (and anyone who gets their arguments from it) has literally taken 3 separate positions on the subject in less than 14 days. Now they are all melding together in some kind of sociopathic blender. They still believe it's a conspiracy or hoax, but they seem to acknowledge that lots of people will die, but fuck 'em because I want to go to the mall and get an Orange Julius. And if I see an Asian-American on the way there, I'll be sure to tell them to stay away from me and go back where they came from.
People that are going out to the beach and congregating in crowds arent explicitly ideological. They're just people.
That said, what @jjstraka34 is referring to is that Conservatives (that is: Conservative politicians and conservative media) are starting to float the idea that the economic harm from social distancing and lockdowns are becoming too significant.
It's hard not be cynical about this approach from them because A - Since the GOP has the white house and the senate, it's the GOP that's likely to suffer significantly in elections due to a depression (and their incredibly bad response to the virus in the first place), and because B - the GOP has always been more responsive to Corporate America's suffering than Democrats. See Lindsay Graham's quotes on why they needed to get the Trump Tax cuts passed (Paraphrasing - "They (meaning, the rich) wouldnt donate money to us anymore if we dont").
In essence: There's a negotiation going on right now. The more we lockdown and attempt to flatten the curve of Covid 19, the more damage it will do to the economy. It will also save more lives. The GOP is putting out feelers for taking a position that we've over calibrated, and less economic harm for more loss of life will be acceptable.
Needless to say, that's awful.
They’ll push through the ‘stimulus’ package first so that Trump can dole out money to whoever he pleases (himself) and then cancel the cheques for everyone else because everyone is back to work.
Once this whole thing is over, the economy is going to rebound by itself anyway. Some industries (hotels) are going to feel a short term pinch, others may implode because how they handled the virus (Cruise Ships) but everything else should snap back immediately.
Your point stands but FWIW There's more conservatives in California than in many red states combined.
Not only does he want everyone to run around and infect each other, Trump refused to order Coronavirus supplies because big business complained. It's like he thinks we're worthless and he's trying to get us killed.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/defense-production-act-coronavirus-trump-respirators-masks-ventilators.html
Maybe it's barely started for some of you, but my county has been on lockdown almost a week now. I'm a bartender, so I make my money day by day. It's been refreshing to have all this free time, I started a Druid/Mage run through BG I've been putting off, but I didn't exactly plan for several weeks of no work in my budget. I do think it will, and should, go on longer though.
If you haven't yet, and you still can, definitely be prepared for an extended lockdown when and if it occurs in your area.
I totally understand it has started in many places, but MUCH of the country is still just sorta waking up to what this is going to be. The monetary problems are inescapable. Those monetary problems are going to exist ANYWAY if we don't stay locked down and half the goddamn country is calling in sick, and another 5-10% of it is in an ICU. The only solution to this is to do what the UK and Denmark are doing, which is paying for 90% and 75% (respectively) of the salaries of those who are laid off. We are nowhere close to this, and where you and I DO agree is that the United States is UNIQUELY unfit to tackle this crisis, for reasons that it's almost impossible to fully address in forum. I consider myself lucky in the fact that I don't see any way my job will be eliminated in the near future due to what it's function will be in this crisis. I am a little pissed we haven't been moved to work from home yet, though I am quite sure it is happening soon. I tell myself that if doctors and nurses can do what they are doing, I have to have the fortitude to leave the house to go to my job. I am and have been prepared. I'm just waiting for everyone I see around me to take it more seriously, even though our area has only one confirmed case.
I feel for ya. I'm lucky in that my day job is pretty secure and I can work from home.
This is why I hope congress passes a stimulus bill. I dont need the money, but plenty of people either need it now or will start to need it soon enough.
Yeah, but what do you do when that stimulus bill is being tied to a basically endless, unaccountable corporate slush fund?? Do you bite the bullet to get what you can, or do you fight to make it better for average people when time is of the essence??
That's the thing, a week or even a month probably will be nowhere near enough. We need months. The infectious period is closer to one month. People can walk around without symptoms but spreading the virus for TWO weeks.
Yes people will need help. So the coronabailout should not be a handout to corporations and a one time check for $1k but should be something like Bernie is saying - 2k per family per month because people need to stay home or our shitty healthcare system will be overwhelmed and bodies will be dropping in the streets. People will die who don't need to die like in Italy.
Trump needs to step aside and let someone competent take charge. We need to start ordering medical equipment for the country. He's not doing jack squat that is actually helpful. Calling it the "china virus" is not in any way helpful and that's one of the few concrete things he's done.
He's only worrying about the market & his re-election. He's determined to squeeze us peons to build up wealth for others when there's deadly virus out there. It's your life and the lives of your loved ones he's gambling with.
They didn't pass it, Democrats blocked it because it gives money to buisnesses along with people.
Look, I don't like corporate handouts, but neither do I care about them more than helping people. The bill gives 1,200 per adult and 500 per children. It's fine. Pass it, because people need help now. I said I wouldn't vote for a Republican again if they blocked it. I guess I'll never vote for a Democrat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/03/23/trump-coronavirus-senate-economic-stimulus/
Yeah. I saw that they havent passed it.
I think there's a competing bill in the House of Representatives being worked on. So the GOP will have a chance to vote for (or against, tacitly by not even bringing it up for a vote) relatively shortly. You may get the opportunity to never vote for a Republican or Democrat again...
IIRC, that House bill also aims to mandate that absentee and mail only balloting is possible, given the very real chance of a so called "second wave" in the fall of 2020.
While I think it's important to do this quickly, I dont think waiting a day or two to make we're maximizing the money to those who need it is such a bad deal.
Like I said, it's hostage taking. You are basically admitting it's hostage taking but that it doesn't matter. What possible reason could there be for having a provision in the bill that keeps who gets what money a secret for six months?? And that turns over all discretion over how it gets distributed to the Treasury Secretary?? Where did the money we gave them in 2008 go?? Where did their Trump tax cut go?? It went to stock buybacks and adding wings to the houses of executives. And since they apparently aren't required to be liquid beyond 7 days, they need BILLIONS more to stay afloat. They're parasites feeding the rest of the 99% of the population. They are exactly what they accuse poor people of being.