StrangeSox

Alabama finally issues a SAH order, Iowa Governor is still refusing. The recent Georgia and Florida statewide orders override any local orders, so e.g. in Georgia it's actually opening beaches back up.

Glad I have a pile of gloves and N95 masks laying around from various house projects. This On The Media segment is from mid-March talking about cultural markings of wearing masks in public and how that's quickly shifting. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/masks-symbols-on-the-media

Yeah historically that led to a pretty quick death of Reconstruction and then nearly a century of brutal Jim Crow rule over the South. Pretty good example of where placating and playing nice can lead to much worse outcomes, if anything.

In the spirit of "both sides have their share of incompetent idiots," here's NYC mayor: Ron Howard narrator voice: We had known for weeks and months

Criticizing ongoing failures isn't "being shitty." It isn't being a baby to ask the federal government to actually do its job and use the vast resources at its disposal (Trump still hasn't used the DPA to request GE to build ventilators, despite claiming he has). Just stop with this "both sides" nonsense. Democratic governors aren't withholding aide from Republican counties whose leaders don't praise them. They aren't pretending over and over that it's all a hoax. They aren't continually and substantially failing to recognize and address the magnitude of this situation. One party controls the current administration, and they are the ones that continue to fail and continue to doom Americans to needless death and suffering. You know what should really get governors to stop? If the Trump administration actually stepped up and took responsibility, recognized any of their failures in any way instead of insisting that they've been perfect, and actually started marshaling the resources to help states rather than claiming that New York is lying about needing ventilators. Get someone who is actually competent and capable of leading this in charge instead of the failson-in-law Kushner. Don't go out there and lie every single day in press briefings about what's going on and what you've done and will be doing. Once again, Trump's ego is going to kill thousands of Americans. That's it. That's the shitty, baby behavior, not the people that dare to criticize his incompetence. edit: We can't fix the failures of the past if we cannot even recognize them as failures. We can't fix the ongoing failures if pointing them out leads to your state being deprived of resources. You're right, this SHOULDN'T be partisan. The man at the top ensures that it is. edit 2: I guess more fundamentally is that I'm not sure what the various governors pleading with the federal government to do its job are supposed to have done wrong here in the first place. To my knowledge, they are mainly out there asking for supplies and changes they need to be made, like using the DPA to get production ramped up quickly or having the federal government act as a single broker for supplies rather than 50 states + feds competing to buy the resources. If they point these things out, Trump's likely to slam them and kill their citizens through deprivation of aides and supplies.

They can't put the failures of the federal government and its leadership behind them because the failures are widespread, ongoing, and causing death and suffering in their states right now. Today. I guess this needs to be said again: Trump withholding federal aid and resources from governors who don't praise him is itself a political act. He is trying to cover up his failures, and holding the states hostage to do so. Governors are going along with the game rather than having their citizens die. That's not Trump stepping up.

If there was a bully on the playground who was taking everyone's lunch money if they didn't praise him as the greatest person ever and my kid finally had enough and popped him in the jaw? I'd be immensely proud. The irony is that Trump hurting anyone who isn't sufficiently praising him is itself a political move. If many governors are out there pointing out the substantial and ongoing federal failures, it damages him politically. If they're all out there praising what a good boy he is (like many of his administration members do in cabinet meetings and these daily briefings, including the medical experts), it makes him look like a strong, competent, capable leader. Let me just say that again, for clarity: President Trump is causing Americans to suffer and die by withholding much-needed aid during a pandemic if their states' governors are critical of him. That is monstrous. edit: caulfield, kids and multiple family members who are hospital nurses. I don't want them to be deprived of much-needed PPE because Pritzker dared to criticize the Trump administration's ongoing failures or their original failure to prepare for this in any way.

I do not think it's actually a good thing that governors need to placate the toddler in charge with kind words or risk him deliberately depriving their state's residents of crucial aid during a pandemic. In fact, I think that is an extremely terrible thing and a core part of why the federal government continues to mismanage this thing so horribly. Let me be blunt: Trump's mishandling is going to cause thousands of unnecessary American deaths. His fragile ego is causing suffering in multiple states across the nation. He and his failed administration deserves every bit of criticism they've gotten for this and more. That some governors correctly recognize that the person at the top of the federal government is so unfit to lead that they need to shower him with praise or risk his wrath is a damning indictment. I understand the tough position that Trump's malfeasance puts people like Newsome in, so I get why they are choosing the placate the toddler so he doesn't block medical supplies. But the problem is still inherently political and it still points to damning failures in one particular direction. This isn't the "golden rule" at play here. It's the head of the federal government very clearly putting American lives at risk if he doesn't get the flattery he wants. Failures in leadership and management, especially those with such dire consequences, should never be immune from criticism.

Yeah, he's playing nice because he knows you've got appease the toddler's ego or he will make you and your state suffer fatal consequences. Edit: you can't really ignore politics here. It's an inherently political situation controlled largely by politicians. Politicians who have failed massively and continue to fail deserve criticism, not praise for a delicate ego. We need to care about "who started what" because these same people who are responsible for such an egregious early failure are still largely in charge and continue to make substantial failures. Pretending that doesn't matter won't fix things. Pretending that there isn't a deeply political core to the problem or that it can simply be ignored misses how this entire thing, from the lack of testing to taking the problem seriously to getting supplies to the Congressional response, is to miss most of the story.

This is good news, though. Illinois testing rates continue to climb steadily. edit2: this is not so good news:

Perhaps cutting government to the bone is not actually the best idea

Uninsured Americans could be facing nearly $75,000 in medical bills if hospitalized for coronavirus Those who are hospitalized with coronavirus can expect to pay anywhere from $42,486 to $74,310 if they are uninsured or if they receive care that's deemed out-of-network by their insurance company, according to recent analysis by independent nonprofit FAIR Health. For those with insurance who are using in-network providers, out-of-pocket costs will be a portion of $21,936 to $38,755, depending on the cost-sharing provisions of their health plan. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/04/01/covid-19-hospital-bills-could-cost-uninsured-americans-up-to-75000.html?__twitter_impression=true We can have a better society if we choose. I'm hopeful that's one of the lasting outcomes of this.

Seems like we should be doing something about this

Yeah, as mqr put it, we're probably looking at major Amazonification coming out the other side of this. Fewer and fewer megacorps merging with each other and owning everything. edit: Media is going to be eviscerated by this. We've already seen journalist positions dwindle at papers and news orgs across the country in the past decade as there are more and more mergers and fewer and fewer revenue streams. This is going to kill off a lot more. 22nd Century Media who does a number of local weekly papers in the suburbs, announced today they're suspending operations indefinitely.

Yes, we're still definitely undercounting this.

There are a whole lotta people, with and without legal status, who are in the complex chain that gets a meal on to your table. Most of those people are paid and treated poorly.

Right, I don't disagree with that. I think the criticism isn't of the Fed itself and it's actions, it's the government's willingness to let the Fed do it's thing to help businesses but the government isn't moving quick at all to truly address the scale and scope of this crisis. Also some calling out hypocrisy of the people who protested very very loudly for years about the Fed doing anything during a deep recession who now don't seem to mind at all. Maybe it's just more visceral distaste/reaction to stuff like this: Seeing stock prices rebound quickly, which has little or no impact on the average American (even if you have a nice 401k/IRA, you aren't touching for years), while you have to wait for a small one-time check for possibly months on end just isn't going to sit well with a lot of people. It's not an accurate picture or understand, but people hear "banks got $2T overnight!" and then think "and I'm waiting for my $1200 for weeks when I can't pay my rent?" It's not entirely the Fed, either (hundreds of billions for business in the Phase 3 bill), but it'll all get conflated together in many peoples' minds.

I'm hoping that as a society, we change the way we view the importance of so many working class jobs. How many "unskilled" workers are putting their health on the line right now for little pay and no sick leave or job security while most of us work from home? Perhaps we should recognize them as essential and important always, and above all as people equally worthy of dignity and respect and living wages. I hope too we recognize the importance of making our society more resilient to these sorts of crises in the future. We could have been much better prepared and equipped to deal with this, and we will need to deal with more global warming induced crises in the near future.

Oh I'm not saying liquidity is bad right now. We don't want tons of businesses cratering due to completely uncontrollable circumstances. But that's why the stock market goes up on a day we announce 6.6 million unemployment claims. The subtext there is that we're still doing far, far too little for actual everyday people as rent and mortgages come due, and floating SALT deduction rollbacks as your next big policy idea is just shockingly inadequate. The next wave is going to be tens of millions losing insurance because their jobs evaporated combined with severe state and local austerity as tax receipts collapse, leading to more unemployment. Congress appears to be completely incapable of even conceiving of ways to address this crisis right now let alone put them into action.

The stock market has been unmoored from the real economy for awhile now. Today's Number Go Up is because the Fed promised infinite money to prop up businesses/shareholder value.

We went to Big Bend via Midland-Odessa in December. Can confirm that there is approximately nothing for 300 miles there, and then a boom town of....70 permanent residents.

Rip, buddy

We are doomed (We've known this for months)

Istm that having your health insurance tied to your job in the midst of a pandemic causing mass unemployment is a particularly bad system that we should maybe reconsider.