What is being done in alot of Asian countries that have (for the moment) locked the virus down is so far and away more than what we do here. They have special isolation housing for those that are sick. They are completely taken out of interaction with anyone. Their family members take mutiple temperature checks a day. The systems in place are rigid, non-negotiable, and highly effective. They seek to isolate every single case of the virus that can be found. They already went through SARS and MERS. They were ready for this because they've done it before.
What is being done in alot of Asian countries that have (for the moment) locked the virus down is so far and away more than what we do here. They have special isolation housing for those that are sick. They are completely taken out of interaction with anyone. Their family members take mutiple temperature checks a day. The systems in place are rigid, non-negotiable, and highly effective. They seek to isolate every single case of the virus that can be found. They already went through SARS and MERS. They were ready for this because they've done it before.
Even the most liberal countries in Europe won't do anything like that for this virus. Maybe something more virulent, but not even then would they do it in time. This is an East/West culture difference that isn't likely to change. There isn't one Western country that responded the way you're talking about. Even marginally Westernized Japan fumbled the ball. India is likely going to be the next nightmare. They're on the East /West dividing line but I'm betting that the poverty and caste system there is going to rear it's ugly head.
In fairness, as long as he doesn't do the batshit insane thing that was going to kill enormous amounts of people, I very much don't care why he didn't do the batshit insane thing that was going to kill enormous amounts of people.
Indeed, the hero worship some people have of Trump may even prove helpful now as they hopefully will pivot right along with him.
What is being done in alot of Asian countries that have (for the moment) locked the virus down is so far and away more than what we do here. They have special isolation housing for those that are sick. They are completely taken out of interaction with anyone. Their family members take mutiple temperature checks a day. The systems in place are rigid, non-negotiable, and highly effective. They seek to isolate every single case of the virus that can be found. They already went through SARS and MERS. They were ready for this because they've done it before.
Even the most liberal countries in Europe won't do anything like that for this virus. Maybe something more virulent, but not even then would they do it in time. This is an East/West culture difference that isn't likely to change. There isn't one Western country that responded the way you're talking about. Even marginally Westernized Japan fumbled the ball. India is likely going to be the next nightmare. They're on the East /West dividing line but I'm betting that the poverty and caste system there is going to rear it's ugly head.
I agree the situation in India looks pretty horrific. However, I think there will be more change in Europe than you're suggesting. Governments may not have acted fast enough (and had enough testing capability) to make contact tracing a viable strategy in the first wave of the epidemic. However, the restrictions now in place in liberal countries like France and Italy are pretty extreme - so I don't think the failure to act is a cultural inevitability. Those quarantine measures though are designed to be relatively short-term and, if they are successful in suppressing Covid-19, the obvious next step would be to introduce a tracing & testing regime.
Doing that at the same time as gradually relaxing the quarantine arrangements would potentially allow the disease to be kept at a relatively low level. However, experience in Singapore shows just how difficult it is to implement this strategy successfully. I suspect therefore that most countries will either keep some form of quarantine arrangements in place all the time or, more probably, use those on a cyclical basis to keep infection levels manageable until effective vaccines are available.
Such measures will provide a challenge to the EU, whose founding principles include the four freedoms (movement of people, capital, goods and services). Experience to date though suggests nearly all countries have already implicitly accepted there will need to be some level of continuing restrictions for the short to medium term.
Trump sent 170 ventilators to LA and they were all broken. That's not nearly enough for the city with the second most Americans in the country but they were also all broken.
There was some discussion a while ago about the danger of undemocratic actions being taken in the guise of responding to Covid-19. A real example of that looks to be unfolding in Hungary at the moment. The President there, Viktor Orban, has always been a supporter of authoritarian government and I've posted before about the potential for conflict with the EU in several policy areas (the EU requires member countries to follow liberal and democratic policies).
A new law has just been passed there which allows the government to rule by decree rather than passing laws in the normal fashion. The rationale for that is partly to address the difficulty of legislating when movement is restricted and partly to allow quick responses to a fast-moving crisis. However, aspects of the emergency law, such as the ability to imprison journalists, have raised warning flags - particularly given the way the government has been attacking and taking over independent media for many years now (see here for example). I would say the biggest red flag of all is that there is no time limit on the emergency powers. Given Orban's history, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a restoration of democracy in the country.
There was some discussion a while ago about the danger of undemocratic actions being taken in the guise of responding to Covid-19. A real example of that looks to be unfolding in Hungary at the moment. The President there, Viktor Orban, has always been a supporter of authoritarian government and I've posted before about the potential for conflict with the EU in several policy areas (the EU requires member countries to follow liberal and democratic policies).
A new law has just been passed there which allows the government to rule by decree rather than passing laws in the normal fashion. The rationale for that is partly to address the difficulty of legislating when movement is restricted and partly to allow quick responses to a fast-moving crisis. However, aspects of the emergency law, such as the ability to imprison journalists, have raised warning flags - particularly given the way the government has been attacking and taking over independent media for many years now (see here for example). I would say the biggest red flag of all is that there is no time limit on the emergency powers. Given Orban's history, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a restoration of democracy in the country.
Trump says GOP would never win again if people are able to vote.
Wonder why that is. Must be GOP policies are narrowly tailored and based on unpopular positions tailored to the elites.
He's almost certainly actually implying that Democrats would use it to cheat, allow illegal immigrants to vote, etc. Just like the fictitious two million extra votes Hillary supposedly got.
Trump says GOP would never win again if people are able to vote.
Wonder why that is. Must be GOP policies are narrowly tailored and based on unpopular positions tailored to the elites.
He's almost certainly actually implying that Democrats would use it to cheat, allow illegal immigrants to vote, etc. Just like the fictitious two million extra votes Hillary supposedly got.
He lies.
You don't need to interpret his nonsense for him.
What he's saying is that if people vote, Republicans can't win.
There was some discussion a while ago about the danger of undemocratic actions being taken in the guise of responding to Covid-19. A real example of that looks to be unfolding in Hungary at the moment. The President there, Viktor Orban, has always been a supporter of authoritarian government and I've posted before about the potential for conflict with the EU in several policy areas (the EU requires member countries to follow liberal and democratic policies).
A new law has just been passed there which allows the government to rule by decree rather than passing laws in the normal fashion. The rationale for that is partly to address the difficulty of legislating when movement is restricted and partly to allow quick responses to a fast-moving crisis. However, aspects of the emergency law, such as the ability to imprison journalists, have raised warning flags - particularly given the way the government has been attacking and taking over independent media for many years now (see here for example). I would say the biggest red flag of all is that there is no time limit on the emergency powers. Given Orban's history, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a restoration of democracy in the country.
Just as a follow-up to this, the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has today warned against the overuse of emergency powers:
"It is of utmost importance that emergency measures are not at the expense of our fundamental principles and values."
"Democracy cannot work without free and independent media."
She said emergency measures "must be limited to what is necessary and strictly proportionate".
"They must not last indefinitely," she added. "Governments must make sure that such measures are subject to regular scrutiny."
Hungary and Poland have been on a very gentle collision course with the EU for several years now over attitudes to things like the independence of the judiciary and media. Tensions were ratcheted up by the refugee crisis and actions to combat Covid-19 just increase that tension further - putting a real question over whether the EU will be able to continue in the longer term without any adjustments to its internal rules.
Discussions on Brexit are pretty much on hold at the moment as a result of Covid-19 (apart from anything else lead negotiators on both sides had positive tests for that during March). When those recommence, it will be interesting to see in future months whether the EU will be able to maintain the pretty solid common position they've had to date between the 27 countries. The discussions cover much more than just trade and areas such as cooperation over security, intelligence and foreign policy offer plenty of scope for potential disagreements between EU countries as well as between the EU and UK.
So here's an interesting story: my aunt texts me yesterday morning. Since her salon is shut down, she was there doing some painting. A wealthy customer (ignoring the sign on the door explaining the situation) walks in and offers my aunt $100 to do her hair. My aunt, completely taken aback says "#1, my granddaughter is going through cancer treatment, #2, I could lose my license for two years if I do this and #3, what kind of precedent is that going to set for the rest of the town if I do??" The woman was......not happy, to say the least. Point being, this woman thought she could buy her way into making my aunt break the law to get her hair done.
Now the metric the Administration has set for "success" is 250,000 deaths. This is up from 200,000 yesterday. This is also equal to 4 or 5 Vietnam Wars and 83 9/11s. Must be nice to set your own curve. NO other country is going to come close to those numbers. Maybe one should ask why. Trump, coward that he is, won't even say the numbers himself, instead making Birx and Fauci do it for him. This is one the heels of the leaked audio from yesterday after the Governor of Montana tells him he has NO tests, and Trump says he hasn't heard anything negative about testing capacity for weeks:
This is Trump's ultimate attempt at gaslighting. The fuck-ups and his own statements are beyond well documented for the last 3 months. If he can erase this, divert blame for this, he can erase anything.
What he's saying is that if people vote, Republicans can't win.
So you're saying that's a lie? Because I'm pretty certain you're saying the opposite, in fact - that he let slip an inadvertant truth.
Yes he told the truth. You interpreted it to fit his lies (the 'logic' of the stories he tells (which is not based on reality)).
He creates a false reality with buzzwords and dog whistles. "Democrat Hoax"or whatever. You were kinda taking his statement and attaching it to one of his alternative realities to make it sound more plausible or as if there was more to it.
Now the metric the Administration has set for "success" is 250,000 deaths. This is up from 200,000 yesterday. This is also equal to 4 or 5 Vietnam Wars and 83 9/11s. Must be nice to set your own curve. NO other country is going to come close to those numbers. Maybe one should ask why. Trump, coward that he is, won't even say the numbers himself, instead making Birx and Fauci do it for him. This is one the heels of the leaked audio from yesterday after the Governor of Montana tells him he has NO tests, and Trump says he hasn't heard anything negative about testing capacity for weeks:
This is Trump's ultimate attempt at gaslighting. The fuck-ups and his own statements are beyond well documented for the last 3 months. If he can erase this, divert blame for this, he can erase anything.
Yes, he's behaved appallingly. However, if he's finally prepared to accept that experts are a better guide than his 'gut instincts' and act on their advice, that's still a good thing.
I imagine that Democrats will be working pretty hard to help people remember the real sequence of events ...
Now the metric the Administration has set for "success" is 250,000 deaths. This is up from 200,000 yesterday. This is also equal to 4 or 5 Vietnam Wars and 83 9/11s. Must be nice to set your own curve. NO other country is going to come close to those numbers. Maybe one should ask why. Trump, coward that he is, won't even say the numbers himself, instead making Birx and Fauci do it for him. This is one the heels of the leaked audio from yesterday after the Governor of Montana tells him he has NO tests, and Trump says he hasn't heard anything negative about testing capacity for weeks:
This is Trump's ultimate attempt at gaslighting. The fuck-ups and his own statements are beyond well documented for the last 3 months. If he can erase this, divert blame for this, he can erase anything.
Yes, he's behaved appallingly. However, if he's finally prepared to accept that experts are a better guide than his 'gut instincts' and act on their advice, that's still a good thing.
I imagine that Democrats will be working pretty hard to help people remember the real sequence of events ...
He'll already be on to the next lie before Democrats can tie the last ones to him.
One of the features you've probably noted from the Covid-19 pandemic is sharp drops in pollution across the world. Apart from the impact on climate change, a major reason for switching to electric vehicles is to improve air quality and Covid-19 will help in assessing how much of a benefit that will be - this article provides a bit of information about that in the UK.
Unlike the impact of new things, there are major killers in our societies that almost no-one thinks about because they're so used to them. Air pollution is one of those - that is reckoned to cause about 30,000 deaths annually in the UK. One silver lining from the current shutdown is that it will provide a much better evidence base for the future impact of electric vehicles on pollution.
One of the things I've seen at work over the last year or two is a gradual move towards taking account of the impact on pollution and climate change when doing project appraisals. I suspect that Covid-19 will help accelerate that trend, both through improving the available evidence used for that and through reminding people that things you can't see are still important.
This shit is also happening everywhere. Besides the fact that the federal government is causing a mass shortage of PPE equipment everywhere in the country by making 50 states bid against each other like an eBay auction, nurses are being disciplined and fired for trying to wear their own personal equipment, even though they aren't being offered any at work. It isn't just Kaiser. I have seen dozens of anecdotal accounts about this. Hospital administrators (or whoever they answer to) are also blood-sucking vultures. Our nurses and doctors are being abandoned. And their bosses are telling them to suck it up:
It won't, because it will rise after all this like a fetid corpse in a zombie film, but American capitalism as it has been functioning should be killed and buried, and then the land over the grave should be burned and salted over. We've learned that the only thing of value is actual labor. And that these titans of industry are nothing without the employees they exploit.
This shit is also happening everywhere. Besides the fact that the federal government is causing a mass shortage of PPE equipment everywhere in the country by making 50 states bid against each other like an eBay auction, nurses are being disciplined and fired for trying to wear their own personal equipment, even though they aren't being offered any at work. It isn't just Kaiser. I have seen dozens of anecdotal accounts about this. Hospital administrators (or whoever they answer to) are also blood-sucking vultures. Our nurses and doctors are being abandoned. And their bosses are telling them to suck it up:
It won't, because it will rise after all this like a fetid corpse in a zombie film, but American capitalism as it has been functioning should be killed and buried, and then the land over the grave should be burned and salted over. We've learned that the only thing of value is actual labor. And that these titans of industry are nothing without the employees they exploit.
Our litigious society, exacerbated by the left is also a contributer to this shit. Companies can't take the chance that these 'personal masks' are adequate. They'd get their asses sued if anything bad happened because of a faulty, unauthorized 'personal mask'. You know it's true. There's plenty of blame to go around for our current situation...
This shit is also happening everywhere. Besides the fact that the federal government is causing a mass shortage of PPE equipment everywhere in the country by making 50 states bid against each other like an eBay auction, nurses are being disciplined and fired for trying to wear their own personal equipment, even though they aren't being offered any at work. It isn't just Kaiser. I have seen dozens of anecdotal accounts about this. Hospital administrators (or whoever they answer to) are also blood-sucking vultures. Our nurses and doctors are being abandoned. And their bosses are telling them to suck it up:
It won't, because it will rise after all this like a fetid corpse in a zombie film, but American capitalism as it has been functioning should be killed and buried, and then the land over the grave should be burned and salted over. We've learned that the only thing of value is actual labor. And that these titans of industry are nothing without the employees they exploit.
FWIW - a very close member of my family is a hospital administrator. She routinely gets into scrubs and goes into all the wings of the hospital in order to figure out what everyone wants/needs. There are plenty of people trying to do the right thing that dont have an "M.D" next to their name.
Actually, one of the more interesting things I've seen come out of all this is building-wide rent strikes. On a landlord focused Reddit last week, one of them was absolutely beside himself that not just one resident was doing it, but his entire property. Complaining that he "didn't have any other income". Huh, neither do the people who can't pay you. Guess you should have thought of that before you put all your eggs in the basket of making money off the work of other people. He attempted to leverage his situation by saying he wouldn't provide any maintenance for the building. The representative of the tenants told him "that's fine, we have three construction workers here who will do it for free, we don't need you." That's called solidarity, and it's why it works. By the way, the "stimulus" of $1200 is basically going to go directly into the pockets of......yep, landlords, overwhelmingly. Now I'm gonna go get some catharsis and listen to the Dead Kennedys.
Actually, one of the more interesting things I've seen come out of all this is building-wide rent strikes. On a landlord focused Reddit last week, one of them was absolutely beside himself that not just one resident was doing it, but his entire property. Complaining that he "didn't have any other income". Huh, neither do the people who can't pay you. Guess you should have thought of that before you put all your eggs in the basket of making money off the work of other people. He attempted to leverage his situation by saying he wouldn't provide any maintenance for the building. The representative of the tenants told him "that's fine, we have three construction workers here who will do it for free, we don't need you." That's called solidarity, and it's why it works. By the way, the "stimulus" of $1200 is basically going to go directly into the pockets of......yep, landlords, overwhelmingly. Now I'm gonna go get some catharsis and listen to the Dead Kennedys.
Except once this is over, that solidarity is over as he will be able to evict anyone who doesn’t pay rent, up to the entire building and those who could actually pay their rent the entire time are just going to shrug when everyone else is shown the curb.
As for no maintenance, let’s just hope a water heater or furnace doesn’t blow or the roof begins to leak. Those 3 “construction” workers will be over their head, not to mention any unauthorized work they do do to a building may come back to bite them, or the tenant they did the work goes head.
It always amuses me that people think just owning a property is all that’s needed for a quick income flow and things like maintenance and property tax don’t exist. Are there shitty landlords? Yes. But I can point to a lot more shitty tenants with entitlement issues.
I’m not working atm, but I can still afford to pay my rent. I don’t have to, there is no consequences to it (can’t be evicted and I can enter another payment agreement with the building once this is over) and I can look at it as I am living in a building owned by a faceless corporation, but I do know that corporation still has to to pay for the cleaners that come in and do the hallways and elevators and stairwells, the landscapers who have to the yards, the snow removal trucks for the parking lot, the countless maintenance men and people who run the renting office. Those are all jobs my rent help pay for and I’d rather pay instead of watching them get laid off because I am taking advantage of pandemic.
Looks like Netanyahu will end up staying on as Israel's PM. The main opposition party (Blue and White) signed on for a "unity" government with Likud. Although it's being called a Unity government, it appears as though Likud will remain largely in charge. Gantz (Head of the former Blue and White) essentially set his coalition on fire by agreeing to become a part of the Netanyahu coalition - meaning his negotiating power as part of that government will be weakened.
Netanyahu - perhaps one of most corrupt democratically elected leaders in the world, will remain a fixture in Israeli politics for a loooooong time to come.
(Edit - for every American who thinks that multi-party Parliamentary style elections would be a panacea for all their electoral woes, please look at Israel. Every political system has issues).
Actually, one of the more interesting things I've seen come out of all this is building-wide rent strikes. On a landlord focused Reddit last week, one of them was absolutely beside himself that not just one resident was doing it, but his entire property. Complaining that he "didn't have any other income". Huh, neither do the people who can't pay you. Guess you should have thought of that before you put all your eggs in the basket of making money off the work of other people. He attempted to leverage his situation by saying he wouldn't provide any maintenance for the building. The representative of the tenants told him "that's fine, we have three construction workers here who will do it for free, we don't need you." That's called solidarity, and it's why it works. By the way, the "stimulus" of $1200 is basically going to go directly into the pockets of......yep, landlords, overwhelmingly. Now I'm gonna go get some catharsis and listen to the Dead Kennedys.
Except once this is over, that solidarity is over as he will be able to evict anyone who doesn’t pay rent, up to the entire building and those who could actually pay their rent the entire time are just going to shrug when everyone else is shown the curb.
As for no maintenance, let’s just hope a water heater or furnace doesn’t blow or the roof begins to leak. Those 3 “construction” workers will be over their head, not to mention any unauthorized work they do do to a building may come back to bite them, or the tenant they did the work goes head.
It always amuses me that people think just owning a property is all that’s needed for a quick income flow and things like maintenance and property tax don’t exist. Are there shitty landlords? Yes. But I can point to a lot more shitty tenants with entitlement issues.
I’m not working atm, but I can still afford to pay my rent. I don’t have to, there is no consequences to it (can’t be evicted and I can enter another payment agreement with the building once this is over) and I can look at it as I am living in a building owned by a faceless corporation, but I do know that corporation still has to to pay for the cleaners that come in and do the hallways and elevators and stairwells, the landscapers who have to the yards, the snow removal trucks for the parking lot, the countless maintenance men and people who run the renting office. Those are all jobs my rent help pay for and I’d rather pay instead of watching them get laid off because I am taking advantage of pandemic.
All well and good. I can afford to pay mine as well and will. But you've clearly had more luck with landlords than most. Take mine. The letter we all got by email basically consisted of this (paraphrasing):
1.) Stay away from our offices
2.) Only emergency maintenance will be completed
3.) Rent is still due as normal.
Now, I have a bathroom sink that is draining slowly. I have no problem leaving it that way for 2 or 3 months. I don't want them coming in anyway. Unless the roof caves in, I'm not gonna fret about it. But since they AREN'T providing normal services I pay for, why am I paying my full amount?? I am willing to put off minor maintenance. But are they willing to knock $20.00-40.00 dollars off the rent while that is what the situation is?? No, of course not. The "give" in this "give and take" is only taking place on one side. And don't even get me started on the time I paid them in the official drop-box by money order, which they then applied to the wrong account, but I still ended up with a "pay or vacate letter" on my door three days later. Large-scale landlords are merciless. I'd venture to guess most of the good ones only own a single building or a couple units.
And of course, as I have mentioned before, every normal person is just expected to "weather the storm" by any means necessary. And if they can't, it's their fault for not planning for this. Yet this logic doesn't apply in ANY situation to corporations or rental organizations who didn't "anticipate" the current situation. The burden is always put on the poor first, and almost exclusively. The fed has been pumping trillions into banks for weeks. They aren't going anywhere.
Mine was only emergency calls as well. It was regulated at the province level that no one can be evicted for not paying rent and the payment agreement I mentioned early isn’t just for the pandemic, it’s for any life occurrences that may set you back but rent is still due as normal and yes, the office is telecommunications only with, I think, only one person working there at a time (usually it’s two or three).
And emergency calls only is what it should be. Social distancing and everything. Do you really want a handyman coming into your apartment after going into 6 or 7 others to fix a sink? Does that handyman want to expose himself like that?
This is the entitlement I was talking about. “My bathroom tile is cracked and you haven’t fixed it, I deserve free rent until it is” bs and if you don’t think idiots aren’t doing this during the pandemic (they don’t care about the handyman’s health and if the tenant gets sick, they’ll just blame the building for it) you really do not know any actual property managers or some of the bs they have to put up with monthly, if not daily.
All those minor calls that are piling up are still going to be addressed after this is over to the point that they are either going to have to pay maintenance overtime or hire more to fill the quotas - which of course, costs more money. So no, dropping people’s rent isn’t in the equation because the building owners are still going to lose money in the long term.
And IMO, it is usually the opposite. People who only own one or two properties don’t know what the hell they are doing and always thought it was easy money. They are the worst and after my first couple of rentals, I stay as far away from them as possible. People who own, or corporations that own more property got that way for a reason mainly because they invested properly into the maintenance of the buildings that they don’t have to fix crap everyday allowing them to invest in more properties to rent out.
Mine was only emergency calls as well. It was regulated at the province level that no one can be evicted for not paying rent and the payment agreement I mentioned early isn’t just for the pandemic, it’s for any life occurrences that may set you back but rent is still due as normal and yes, the office is telecommunications only with, I think, only one person working there at a time (usually it’s two or three).
And emergency calls only is what it should be. Social distancing and everything. Do you really want a handyman coming into your apartment after going into 6 or 7 others to fix a sink? Does that handyman want to expose himself like that?
This is the entitlement I was talking about. “My bathroom tile is cracked and you haven’t fixed it, I deserve free rent until it is” bs and if you don’t think idiots aren’t doing this during the pandemic (they don’t care about the handyman’s health and if the tenant gets sick, they’ll just blame the building for it) you really do not know any actual property managers or some of the bs they have to put up with monthly, if not daily.
All those minor calls that are piling up are still going to be addressed after this is over to the point that they are either going to have to pay maintenance overtime or hire more to fill the quotas - which of course, costs more money. So no, dropping people’s rent isn’t in the equation because the building owners are still going to lose money in the long term.
And IMO, it is usually the opposite. People who only own one or two properties don’t know what the hell they are doing and always thought it was easy money. They are the worst and after my first couple of rentals, I stay as far away from them as possible. People who own, or corporations that own more property got that way for a reason mainly because they invested properly into the maintenance of the buildings that they don’t have to fix crap everyday allowing them to invest in more properties to rent out.
I mean, you're basically just ignoring everything I said. I said I didn't want them to come fix it and I WON'T call. But that is, frankly, a service that isn't being provided. I am entitled to it if I am paying my full price. If we've decided mutually (which we seem to have done) that this particular service is not taking place, then my "give" is not asking to have maintenance done. Their give is apparently......nothing, I didn't ask for "free rent" even in my hypothetical. I asked for what would amount to less than a 5% discount.
Juxtapose this to my 24-hour gym. They are shut down as well. We have every right in our agreement to suspend payments at this time. They asked us, very nicely in a letter sent out, that if we are able, to continue our membership as is so they can stay afloat as a small business. I had no problem making the decision to do so the instant I read it. It's almost like treating people like human beings rather than a disposable money spigot makes a difference in how you are viewed.
My point being, the rental office letter basically came off as " we are not doing this, this, this and this, but YOU are going to keep doing this no matter what" and the gym letter was "we're having a tough time, please consider helping us". There is a difference.
Well you ignored everything I said and still think you are entitled - even using that exact word.
Maintenance is still going to be done. Just not now. If they refuse to do that maintenance, or do not do it in a timely manner once this passes, then yes that is when you can bring it to a tenant board to see if a rent reduction can be applied until that maintenance is done because that’s how these things are settled. You are expecting a reduction in rent, even after I said they are going to take a greater financial hit as this situation continues. I for one care about the corporate health of the place I live. I’ve heard of enough scenerios where as the corporate health of a property suffered so to did the tenants.
But that letter you received is to prevent idiots from expecting minor crap to be done during a pandemic, all while not having to pay their rent because they are not working. You are not the only person who received it.
This is the letter posted outside our elevator:
That’s my experience with my rental unit. Who knows what yours said, but these measures were put in place not because the building didn’t want to provide the service, but because it was recommended that they do not.
And that story about a broken tile and expecting free rent is a true story. Here in my building there was an idiot who taped flyers to every door today about a noise from the roof only he can hear and expecting people to rally to his cause. My roommate came in annoyed that this idiot went to every apartment spreading his germs to handing out the flyers. No construction company is going to come to the building even if there is something loose on the roof banging. As long as the roof isn’t leaking, the building can’t do anything about it - yet - this idiot thinks he is so entitled to something, because he only thinks of himself, that everyone should bend over backwards to appease his wants just because he pays for a place to live monthly. This isn’t how things work.
This shit is also happening everywhere. Besides the fact that the federal government is causing a mass shortage of PPE equipment everywhere in the country by making 50 states bid against each other like an eBay auction, nurses are being disciplined and fired for trying to wear their own personal equipment, even though they aren't being offered any at work. It isn't just Kaiser. I have seen dozens of anecdotal accounts about this. Hospital administrators (or whoever they answer to) are also blood-sucking vultures. Our nurses and doctors are being abandoned. And their bosses are telling them to suck it up:
It won't, because it will rise after all this like a fetid corpse in a zombie film, but American capitalism as it has been functioning should be killed and buried, and then the land over the grave should be burned and salted over. We've learned that the only thing of value is actual labor. And that these titans of industry are nothing without the employees they exploit.
Our litigious society, exacerbated by the left is also a contributer to this shit. Companies can't take the chance that these 'personal masks' are adequate. They'd get their asses sued if anything bad happened because of a faulty, unauthorized 'personal mask'. You know it's true. There's plenty of blame to go around for our current situation...
Lawyers and lawsuits are not "the left". Perhaps you've heard of a dozen million lawsuits launched by "the right" over nonsense like Citizens United and all the dipshit stuff red states do like trying to take away voting rights?
But I agree there's definitely cases of "the left" I guess particularly environmental and blame to go around.
Comments
Time to quarantine them like they did those idiots in South Korea.
Even the most liberal countries in Europe won't do anything like that for this virus. Maybe something more virulent, but not even then would they do it in time. This is an East/West culture difference that isn't likely to change. There isn't one Western country that responded the way you're talking about. Even marginally Westernized Japan fumbled the ball. India is likely going to be the next nightmare. They're on the East /West dividing line but I'm betting that the poverty and caste system there is going to rear it's ugly head.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/india-coronavirus-covid19-narendra-modi/608896/
In fairness, as long as he doesn't do the batshit insane thing that was going to kill enormous amounts of people, I very much don't care why he didn't do the batshit insane thing that was going to kill enormous amounts of people.
Indeed, the hero worship some people have of Trump may even prove helpful now as they hopefully will pivot right along with him.
I agree the situation in India looks pretty horrific. However, I think there will be more change in Europe than you're suggesting. Governments may not have acted fast enough (and had enough testing capability) to make contact tracing a viable strategy in the first wave of the epidemic. However, the restrictions now in place in liberal countries like France and Italy are pretty extreme - so I don't think the failure to act is a cultural inevitability. Those quarantine measures though are designed to be relatively short-term and, if they are successful in suppressing Covid-19, the obvious next step would be to introduce a tracing & testing regime.
Doing that at the same time as gradually relaxing the quarantine arrangements would potentially allow the disease to be kept at a relatively low level. However, experience in Singapore shows just how difficult it is to implement this strategy successfully. I suspect therefore that most countries will either keep some form of quarantine arrangements in place all the time or, more probably, use those on a cyclical basis to keep infection levels manageable until effective vaccines are available.
Such measures will provide a challenge to the EU, whose founding principles include the four freedoms (movement of people, capital, goods and services). Experience to date though suggests nearly all countries have already implicitly accepted there will need to be some level of continuing restrictions for the short to medium term.
What a dickhead.
https://www.businessinsider.com/california-governor-says-us-government-sent-170-broken-ventilators-2020-3
A new law has just been passed there which allows the government to rule by decree rather than passing laws in the normal fashion. The rationale for that is partly to address the difficulty of legislating when movement is restricted and partly to allow quick responses to a fast-moving crisis. However, aspects of the emergency law, such as the ability to imprison journalists, have raised warning flags - particularly given the way the government has been attacking and taking over independent media for many years now (see here for example). I would say the biggest red flag of all is that there is no time limit on the emergency powers. Given Orban's history, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for a restoration of democracy in the country.
This isn't going to be the only example of this.
Wonder why that is. Must be GOP policies are narrowly tailored and based on unpopular positions tailored to the elites.
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/trump-says-gop-would-never-win-again-if-democrats-voting-provisions-made-it-into-stimulus-bill/
He's almost certainly actually implying that Democrats would use it to cheat, allow illegal immigrants to vote, etc. Just like the fictitious two million extra votes Hillary supposedly got.
He lies.
You don't need to interpret his nonsense for him.
What he's saying is that if people vote, Republicans can't win.
Just as a follow-up to this, the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has today warned against the overuse of emergency powers:
"It is of utmost importance that emergency measures are not at the expense of our fundamental principles and values."
"Democracy cannot work without free and independent media."
She said emergency measures "must be limited to what is necessary and strictly proportionate".
"They must not last indefinitely," she added. "Governments must make sure that such measures are subject to regular scrutiny."
Hungary and Poland have been on a very gentle collision course with the EU for several years now over attitudes to things like the independence of the judiciary and media. Tensions were ratcheted up by the refugee crisis and actions to combat Covid-19 just increase that tension further - putting a real question over whether the EU will be able to continue in the longer term without any adjustments to its internal rules.
Discussions on Brexit are pretty much on hold at the moment as a result of Covid-19 (apart from anything else lead negotiators on both sides had positive tests for that during March). When those recommence, it will be interesting to see in future months whether the EU will be able to maintain the pretty solid common position they've had to date between the 27 countries. The discussions cover much more than just trade and areas such as cooperation over security, intelligence and foreign policy offer plenty of scope for potential disagreements between EU countries as well as between the EU and UK.
This is Trump's ultimate attempt at gaslighting. The fuck-ups and his own statements are beyond well documented for the last 3 months. If he can erase this, divert blame for this, he can erase anything.
So you're saying that's a lie? Because I'm pretty certain you're saying the opposite, in fact - that he let slip an inadvertant truth.
Yes he told the truth. You interpreted it to fit his lies (the 'logic' of the stories he tells (which is not based on reality)).
He creates a false reality with buzzwords and dog whistles. "Democrat Hoax"or whatever. You were kinda taking his statement and attaching it to one of his alternative realities to make it sound more plausible or as if there was more to it.
Yes, he's behaved appallingly. However, if he's finally prepared to accept that experts are a better guide than his 'gut instincts' and act on their advice, that's still a good thing.
I imagine that Democrats will be working pretty hard to help people remember the real sequence of events ...
He'll already be on to the next lie before Democrats can tie the last ones to him.
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood
Unlike the impact of new things, there are major killers in our societies that almost no-one thinks about because they're so used to them. Air pollution is one of those - that is reckoned to cause about 30,000 deaths annually in the UK. One silver lining from the current shutdown is that it will provide a much better evidence base for the future impact of electric vehicles on pollution.
One of the things I've seen at work over the last year or two is a gradual move towards taking account of the impact on pollution and climate change when doing project appraisals. I suspect that Covid-19 will help accelerate that trend, both through improving the available evidence used for that and through reminding people that things you can't see are still important.
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/kaiser-permanente-nurses-coronavirus/
It won't, because it will rise after all this like a fetid corpse in a zombie film, but American capitalism as it has been functioning should be killed and buried, and then the land over the grave should be burned and salted over. We've learned that the only thing of value is actual labor. And that these titans of industry are nothing without the employees they exploit.
Our litigious society, exacerbated by the left is also a contributer to this shit. Companies can't take the chance that these 'personal masks' are adequate. They'd get their asses sued if anything bad happened because of a faulty, unauthorized 'personal mask'. You know it's true. There's plenty of blame to go around for our current situation...
FWIW - a very close member of my family is a hospital administrator. She routinely gets into scrubs and goes into all the wings of the hospital in order to figure out what everyone wants/needs. There are plenty of people trying to do the right thing that dont have an "M.D" next to their name.
Except once this is over, that solidarity is over as he will be able to evict anyone who doesn’t pay rent, up to the entire building and those who could actually pay their rent the entire time are just going to shrug when everyone else is shown the curb.
As for no maintenance, let’s just hope a water heater or furnace doesn’t blow or the roof begins to leak. Those 3 “construction” workers will be over their head, not to mention any unauthorized work they do do to a building may come back to bite them, or the tenant they did the work goes head.
It always amuses me that people think just owning a property is all that’s needed for a quick income flow and things like maintenance and property tax don’t exist. Are there shitty landlords? Yes. But I can point to a lot more shitty tenants with entitlement issues.
I’m not working atm, but I can still afford to pay my rent. I don’t have to, there is no consequences to it (can’t be evicted and I can enter another payment agreement with the building once this is over) and I can look at it as I am living in a building owned by a faceless corporation, but I do know that corporation still has to to pay for the cleaners that come in and do the hallways and elevators and stairwells, the landscapers who have to the yards, the snow removal trucks for the parking lot, the countless maintenance men and people who run the renting office. Those are all jobs my rent help pay for and I’d rather pay instead of watching them get laid off because I am taking advantage of pandemic.
Looks like Netanyahu will end up staying on as Israel's PM. The main opposition party (Blue and White) signed on for a "unity" government with Likud. Although it's being called a Unity government, it appears as though Likud will remain largely in charge. Gantz (Head of the former Blue and White) essentially set his coalition on fire by agreeing to become a part of the Netanyahu coalition - meaning his negotiating power as part of that government will be weakened.
Netanyahu - perhaps one of most corrupt democratically elected leaders in the world, will remain a fixture in Israeli politics for a loooooong time to come.
(Edit - for every American who thinks that multi-party Parliamentary style elections would be a panacea for all their electoral woes, please look at Israel. Every political system has issues).
All well and good. I can afford to pay mine as well and will. But you've clearly had more luck with landlords than most. Take mine. The letter we all got by email basically consisted of this (paraphrasing):
1.) Stay away from our offices
2.) Only emergency maintenance will be completed
3.) Rent is still due as normal.
Now, I have a bathroom sink that is draining slowly. I have no problem leaving it that way for 2 or 3 months. I don't want them coming in anyway. Unless the roof caves in, I'm not gonna fret about it. But since they AREN'T providing normal services I pay for, why am I paying my full amount?? I am willing to put off minor maintenance. But are they willing to knock $20.00-40.00 dollars off the rent while that is what the situation is?? No, of course not. The "give" in this "give and take" is only taking place on one side. And don't even get me started on the time I paid them in the official drop-box by money order, which they then applied to the wrong account, but I still ended up with a "pay or vacate letter" on my door three days later. Large-scale landlords are merciless. I'd venture to guess most of the good ones only own a single building or a couple units.
And of course, as I have mentioned before, every normal person is just expected to "weather the storm" by any means necessary. And if they can't, it's their fault for not planning for this. Yet this logic doesn't apply in ANY situation to corporations or rental organizations who didn't "anticipate" the current situation. The burden is always put on the poor first, and almost exclusively. The fed has been pumping trillions into banks for weeks. They aren't going anywhere.
And emergency calls only is what it should be. Social distancing and everything. Do you really want a handyman coming into your apartment after going into 6 or 7 others to fix a sink? Does that handyman want to expose himself like that?
This is the entitlement I was talking about. “My bathroom tile is cracked and you haven’t fixed it, I deserve free rent until it is” bs and if you don’t think idiots aren’t doing this during the pandemic (they don’t care about the handyman’s health and if the tenant gets sick, they’ll just blame the building for it) you really do not know any actual property managers or some of the bs they have to put up with monthly, if not daily.
All those minor calls that are piling up are still going to be addressed after this is over to the point that they are either going to have to pay maintenance overtime or hire more to fill the quotas - which of course, costs more money. So no, dropping people’s rent isn’t in the equation because the building owners are still going to lose money in the long term.
And IMO, it is usually the opposite. People who only own one or two properties don’t know what the hell they are doing and always thought it was easy money. They are the worst and after my first couple of rentals, I stay as far away from them as possible. People who own, or corporations that own more property got that way for a reason mainly because they invested properly into the maintenance of the buildings that they don’t have to fix crap everyday allowing them to invest in more properties to rent out.
I mean, you're basically just ignoring everything I said. I said I didn't want them to come fix it and I WON'T call. But that is, frankly, a service that isn't being provided. I am entitled to it if I am paying my full price. If we've decided mutually (which we seem to have done) that this particular service is not taking place, then my "give" is not asking to have maintenance done. Their give is apparently......nothing, I didn't ask for "free rent" even in my hypothetical. I asked for what would amount to less than a 5% discount.
Juxtapose this to my 24-hour gym. They are shut down as well. We have every right in our agreement to suspend payments at this time. They asked us, very nicely in a letter sent out, that if we are able, to continue our membership as is so they can stay afloat as a small business. I had no problem making the decision to do so the instant I read it. It's almost like treating people like human beings rather than a disposable money spigot makes a difference in how you are viewed.
My point being, the rental office letter basically came off as " we are not doing this, this, this and this, but YOU are going to keep doing this no matter what" and the gym letter was "we're having a tough time, please consider helping us". There is a difference.
Maintenance is still going to be done. Just not now. If they refuse to do that maintenance, or do not do it in a timely manner once this passes, then yes that is when you can bring it to a tenant board to see if a rent reduction can be applied until that maintenance is done because that’s how these things are settled. You are expecting a reduction in rent, even after I said they are going to take a greater financial hit as this situation continues. I for one care about the corporate health of the place I live. I’ve heard of enough scenerios where as the corporate health of a property suffered so to did the tenants.
But that letter you received is to prevent idiots from expecting minor crap to be done during a pandemic, all while not having to pay their rent because they are not working. You are not the only person who received it.
This is the letter posted outside our elevator:
That’s my experience with my rental unit. Who knows what yours said, but these measures were put in place not because the building didn’t want to provide the service, but because it was recommended that they do not.
And that story about a broken tile and expecting free rent is a true story. Here in my building there was an idiot who taped flyers to every door today about a noise from the roof only he can hear and expecting people to rally to his cause. My roommate came in annoyed that this idiot went to every apartment spreading his germs to handing out the flyers. No construction company is going to come to the building even if there is something loose on the roof banging. As long as the roof isn’t leaking, the building can’t do anything about it - yet - this idiot thinks he is so entitled to something, because he only thinks of himself, that everyone should bend over backwards to appease his wants just because he pays for a place to live monthly. This isn’t how things work.
Lawyers and lawsuits are not "the left". Perhaps you've heard of a dozen million lawsuits launched by "the right" over nonsense like Citizens United and all the dipshit stuff red states do like trying to take away voting rights?
But I agree there's definitely cases of "the left" I guess particularly environmental and blame to go around.