COVID-19/Coronavirus thread

[southsider2k5]

35 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

Things are looking better in NYC but worse in the rest of the US:

 

Meanwhile, the White House is explicitly saying that "blue states" shouldn't get any federal money and are relying on 'models' like this:

 

 

If your government is completely incapable of responding to internal or external challenges, how functional is the state?

 

edit: and at the state level:

 

Wow, this is a great news dump.   I would love to bet anyone who is willing to bet  that we will not be at zero deaths nationally in 10 days.

Secondly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is meeting and voting REMOTELY.  If they really believe that there isn't a problem, get back in session and open up to the public.

[GoSox05]

16 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

It's the path we're heading down at an accelerating pace.

The conservatives on the WI Supreme Court just made very clear that they don't value the life of the working class in the least, and they compared Evers' SAH order to Japanese internment and tyranny. They will be striking down Wisconsin's order, which means that state will be completely "open" soon. People will be forced to choose either their health (as well as the health of their family) or economic destitution as they'll be ineligible for UI. Small Businesses are still going to be in rough shape as they won't be back to the same revenue levels they were at before. State and local payrolls and services are going to be devestated in next year's budgets. Our federal leadership is largely choosing to just wash their hands of any responsibility for responding to this.

We can't come together as a society when one portion doesn't place any value on the lives of the other, but that's where we are.

Lucky for us, both parties hate us!

[greg775]

5 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

The only thing you have in life is your fucking life. 

This whole trade off for the greater good by saving the economy is fucking laughable.

Money is not real. Economies are artificial. We are on this planet to do one thing - live. Why you think you, or any government entity, has the right to deprive someone of the most basic right and opportunity is laughable and embarrassing.

The rich in this country has only gotten richer in this pandemic and you think people should make sacrifices to assure their wealth continues to grow at the trade of being human life? What a joke.

It's not a joke because there are about to be meat shortages, food shortages. We have to have people go to work or by Christmas we will be one of the poorest countries on earth and easy pickings for China to invade and take over as world power. Can you imagine what the Chinese will do to us if they take over here? We need somebody to start manufacturing suicide pills in case we need them.

Yes the rich are getting richer no doubt. But we little guys and gals need to work or we are going to starve and die.

[southsider2k5]

1 minute ago, greg775 said:

It's not a joke because there are about to be meat shortages, food shortages. We have to have people go to work or by Christmas we will be one of the poorest countries on earth and easy pickings for China to invade and take over as world power. Can you imagine what the Chinese will do to us if they take over here? We need somebody to start manufacturing suicide pills in case we need them.

Yes the rich are getting richer no doubt. But we little guys and gals need to work or we are going to starve and die.

If our economy is so fragile that it is going to collapse that quickly while Chinas does not after similar problems,  that should be a red flag right there.

[Dick Allen]

1 hour ago, southsider2k5 said:

Wow, this is a great news dump.   I would love to bet anyone who is willing to bet  that we will not be at zero deaths nationally in 10 days.

Secondly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is meeting and voting REMOTELY.  If they really believe that there isn't a problem, get back in session and open up to the public.

IDK, Dr. Trump said one day it would magically dissappear, maybe that date is May 15th. 

[Kyyle23]

17 minutes ago, greg775 said:

It's not a joke because there are about to be meat shortages, food shortages. We have to have people go to work or by Christmas we will be one of the poorest countries on earth and easy pickings for China to invade and take over as world power. Can you imagine what the Chinese will do to us if they take over here? We need somebody to start manufacturing suicide pills in case we need them.

Yes the rich are getting richer no doubt. But we little guys and gals need to work or we are going to starve and die.

This is not anything that anybody should be talking about 

[Dick Allen]

Rumors out there the Coronavirus Task Force is being disbanded. 

[Texsox]

19 minutes ago, greg775 said:

It's not a joke because there are about to be meat shortages, food shortages. We have to have people go to work or by Christmas we will be one of the poorest countries on earth and easy pickings for China to invade and take over as world power. Can you imagine what the Chinese will do to us if they take over here? We need somebody to start manufacturing suicide pills in case we need them.

Yes the rich are getting richer no doubt. But we little guys and gals need to work or we are going to starve and die.

I'm glad I live near Mexico and still have my papers to work in Mexico. Countries like Vietnam, Mexico, Honduras will zoom past us as we become one of the poorest countries on earth in less than a year. At least I have a few guns here to help me. 

[Texsox]

28 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

If our economy is so fragile that it is going to collapse that quickly while Chinas does not after similar problems,  that should be a red flag right there.

Nice reference there. 

[southsider2k5]

Like I said, step one will be to eliminate information so that the stats can't be accurately tracked and easily disavowed.

 

[StrangeSox]

53 minutes ago, greg775 said:

It's not a joke because there are about to be meat shortages, food shortages.

This actually highlights the false choice pretty well, accidentally.

The biggest hotspots in the country right now are prisons and...meat processing/packing facilities. Forcing low-wage workers back to work in these conditions (while simulatneously giving their megacorp employers lots of money + legal immunity!) is causing these outbreaks to worsen, which means the plants have to throttle back or shut down because a huge percentage of their workforce is now sick, some probably dead. The kicker of course is that these workers almost definitely don't have health insurance, either, or still face 5-figure bills if they get hospitalized.

And this process will repeat itself over and over and over again as we "open up the economy!" Because it's not a choice we can actually make right now. We can't just decide, "eh, a few hundred thousand dead people is worth it" because we won't be getting a functional economy out of that trade-off. 

[greg775]

51 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

This is not anything that anybody should be talking about 

Not right now. I can kill my post if you wish.

[caulfield12]

18 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Like I said, step one will be to eliminate information so that the stats can't be accurately tracked and easily disavowed.

 

The document carries the seal of both the Health and Human Services Department and the Homeland Security Department.

The projection contains a range of estimates. The forecast of 200,000 new cases and 2,500 deaths per day are around the middle of the range. The documents are labeled “for official use only.”

The slide deck is labeled a “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Situation Update” but a CDC spokeswoman, Ana Toro, said the projections were “incorrectly attributed” to the agency. She didn’t say where it came from, referring further questions to a spokeswoman at the Federal Emergency Management Agency who didn’t respond to an email.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-04/white-house-disclaims-projection-showing-surge-in-virus-outbreak

 

Right there alone, you have four government agencies who are on the “outs” with Trump but still attempting to fulfill their missions...it’s a wonder even more Americans haven’t died.  

Then you have Jared “It’s Our Stockpile” Kushner actively working with US military leaders to seize critical PPE supplies, to the point where GOP (MA, OH, IN, MD) and Dem governors were forced together into regional coalitions to combat this...the closest the government response actually is to a wartime footing is fighting against each other and bidding up the price of supplies (leading to further state budgetary issues.)

Additional resources spent by NPS to make Trump look even smaller by being in closer physical proximity to the Lincoln Memorial for a Fox Town Hall (instead of outside on the steps).

The same week, attacks by the Lincoln Project (conservative ”traitors” like George Conway) so offending Trump with a brutal oppo campaign ad that he has to stay up all night tweeting about it.

Stephen Miller using every chance he gets to tie the Covid response into immigration broadsides that appease the base...while simultaneous undermining suddenly more and more critical aspects of the economy disproportionately worked by immigrants like farming, “last mile delivery,” nurses, gig workers, grocery store employees and meat processing plants.  Essential workers are now being treated like the least among us, except for just 4 1/2 minutes of generic mentions in task force briefings over an entire month.  As of today, they were also the only ones to actually be ordered to do anything by the Defense Production Act.  Which was to sacrifice themselves for the good of the country while corporate liability was removed from their overlords. 

 

[caulfield12]

39 minutes ago, greg775 said:

Not right now. I can kill my post if you wish.

You somehow managed to make the follow-up worse than the original.  I know my 92 year old uncle who lives in a nursing home in Texas and just was diagnosed with Covid yesterday would never think this way, thankfully.  He can’t see, he can hardly hear, he’s stubborn and ornery as a mule yet is whip-smart at the same time...the thought of suicide by any of those from that Great Depression/World War II generation, well, it would just never cross their mind to do anything but fight for their lives until the very end.  

Almost all of them learned in Sunday School it was one of the worst, most selfish sins one could possibly commit. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by caulfield12

[NWINFan]

1 hour ago, Dick Allen said:

Rumors out there the Coronavirus Task Force is being disbanded. 

Will we miss it? Can we do without it? Everything is getting crazier, and more importantly, scarier by the day. Democrats and Republicans who are not Mitch McConnell need to do something. I hate to see where we are heading.

[Quin]

And now, whistleblower round 2

[Texsox]

11 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

You somehow managed to make the follow-up worse than the original.  I know my 92 year old uncle who lives in a nursing home in Texas and just was diagnosed with Covid yesterday would never think this way, thankfully.  He can’t see, he can hardly hear, he’s stubborn and ornery as a mule yet is whip-smart at the same time...the thought of suicide by any of those from that Great Depression/World War II generation, well, it would just never cross their mind to do anything but fight for their lives until the very end.  

Almost all of them learned in Sunday School it was one of the worst, most selfish sins one could possibly commit. 

I hope your uncle recovers quickly. 

[caulfield12]

7 minutes ago, Quin said:

And now, whistleblower round 2

In addition to Dr. Rick Bright, you have a MI GOP Congressman suing Gretchen Whitmer...and comparing it to the freaking American Revolution and her actions parallel to those of King George the 2nd.

 

Mitchell describes Whitmer's executive order as autocratic, saying keeping Michigan "on lockdown indefinitely" is "in all material respects, the same kind of government from which we declared out (our) independence 244 years ago."

"The Governor's orders lack objective criteria by which to measure when the 'emergency' is over. In this regard, the Governor has stated that she alone will decide when the emergency will end," the court documents say.

The congressman also alleges that the executive orders violate his right to interstate travel and his right to obtain medical care for his osteoarthritis in another state. The orders also interfere with his property rights because he couldn't obtain lumber or hire workers to build a new barn and he couldn't get home improvements or necessary repairs done at his second home.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/politics/michigan-congressman-lawsuit-whitmer-coronavirus-order/index.html

Edited May 5, 2020 by caulfield12

[southsider2k5]

Its all about the cash.

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/ousted-hhs-official-files-whistleblower-complaint-on-coronavirus-response-83050053767?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_ma&fbclid=IwAR2rJ-ozGluePDplxWD_fwyaPIObAX1eBtw7lrtyCDanTEhGRRv5KUhHico

[caulfield12]

5 minutes ago, Texsox said:

I hope your uncle recovers quickly. 

Thanks!  He’s tough as they come, he’s got that working in his favor.  He’s already made it through getting hit by a car walking on a residential street in Plano about five years ago, and smoked cigarettes and pipe tobacco for sixty some years as well.

[Balta1701]

Quote

“How do we know reopening businesses won’t result in faster spread of more cases of COVID-19?” Abbott asked during a Friday afternoon phone call with members of the state legislature and Congress. “Listen, the fact of the matter is pretty much every scientific and medical report shows that whenever you have a reopening—whether you want to call it a reopening of businesses or of just a reopening of society—in the aftermath of something like this, it actually will lead to an increase and spread. It’s almost ipso facto.”

“The more that you have people out there, the greater the possibility is for transmission,” Abbott said on the call, which a spokesperson confirmed was authentic on Tuesday. “The goal never has been to get transmission down to zero.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-governor-greg-abbott-admits-dangers-of-reopening-state-on-private-call-with-lawmakers/

And now we're opening hair salons and gyms next week.

[StrangeSox]

They don't care if you die, Balta.

 

We're finding out what they're doing with the ppe they're stealing from states:

 

[caulfield12]

51 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

They don't care if you die, Balta.

 

We're finding out what they're doing with the ppe they're stealing from states:

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8259203/FEMA-seized-5MILLION-face-masks-ordered-veterans-VA-official-says.html
 

You go though all these stories, it just gets worse and worse.  I was trying to find the one about the White House seizing 3600 masks out of a donation from Taiwan to the national stockpile to keep just for themselves, but instead discovered that FEMA was preventing masks from getting through to the VA as well.   After all that lip service that Trump pays to veterans?    Of course, when MD Governor Larry Hogan used his wife’s connections to bring in a shipment directly from South Korea, Trump laid into him.  Further irony, the MD National Guard had to protect it from Federal seizure in a Baltimore shipyards scene reminiscent of Frank Sobotka’s reign as union boss in The Wire.

 

[The Beast]

Alright Illinoisans, I’ve seen a lot of posts with people pissed off about this:

Are people more pissed about “their rights” being trimmed, not having things to do or about their economic situations? I have seen lots of posts but no such solutions from those whining. Please keep in mind I am open to different ideas and approaches but am annoyed with whining without solutions on social media, even though the problem might be that social media is the platform.

[caulfield12]

1 hour ago, The Beast said:

Alright Illinoisans, I’ve seen a lot of posts with people pissed off about this:

Are people more pissed about “their rights” being trimmed, not having things to do or about their economic situations? I have seen lots of posts but no such solutions from those whining. Please keep in mind I am open to different ideas and approaches but am annoyed with whining without solutions on social media, even though the problem might be that social media is the platform.

I can’t even remember what plan the Tea Party had back in the day...other than complaining about the government takeover of health care.  Unsurprisingly, no viable solution from the conservative side of the aisle has arisen in over a decade’s worth of time to consider the problem.   In that sense, no different from Occupy Wall Street.    Well, THEN WHAT?  

Perhaps they can hire Elizabeth Warren, she has a plan for everything.

In this particular case, it’s going to be we attempted to reopen the economy, went off or lost unemployment benefits...but are still much worse off than we were in late February or early March.  

Who will be to blame then?