US Politics: Testing, Testing, T... Te.. Testing

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

Many states need to grow a backbone and issue lockdown orders now, if it's a possibility that is under consideration.  There is no point in waiting until you have tens of thousands infected in your state, and then issuing the lockdown. 

I get the sense that Cuomo and the other governors think that their gradual approach to social distancing is going to be sufficient.  They are just wasting precious time.  If the subway system in NYC is still crowded and most people aren't wearing some sort of covering over their noses and mouths, then it's going to be a disaster if they don't shut it down soon.  Same thing for grocery stores, which were crowded Iast weekend.  We can't continue to half ass our mitigation strategy.  

The number of infected is doubling every two to three days and we are around 15k confirmed infected, so each day of delay in acting now will result in thousands to tens of thousands of additional infected that could have been avoided.  If we wait another week or two, it will be tens or hundreds of thousands additional infected.

Yup. This social physical distancing crap isn’t going to work. My boss just yelled at me for being within six feet of a coworker as she was within six feet of two other managers who were talking face to face. We’re good at judging other’s behaviors, but we’re bad at gauging our own. That’s why every other person is saying “I didn’t realize I touched my face this much.”

We need to go on full lock down and have the national guard distributing food. And we need to do away with these euphemisms. Call it a god damn quarantine so the reality hits people.

[Mudguard]

11 minutes ago, Fez said:

To some extent I think they are trying to avoid a panic. When Italy locked down Lombardy, a whole lot of people fled the area that night before the restrictions went into place; and probably helped further spread the virus throughout the country.

California is under a lockdown now, albeit it's a soft lockdown.  There is no panic here as far as I'm aware.  Most people can't just up and leave their home.  Really, the main people that could leave are visitors, which was probably the case in Italy, and these people would have left soon anyway.  I think New York will soon be in lockdown.  The question is how long will Cuomo resist.  New York will have 20k infected next week, and over 50k the following week.

[Fez]

15 minutes ago, Mudguard said:

California is under a lockdown now, albeit it's a soft lockdown.  There is no panic here as far as I'm aware.  Most people can't just up and leave their home.  Really, the main people that could leave are visitors, which was probably the case in Italy, and these people would have left soon anyway.  I think New York will soon be in lockdown.  The question is how long will Cuomo resist.  New York will have 20k infected next week, and over 50k the following week.

I got the sense that in Italy there were a lot of people leaving to go stay with relatives, but I don't know for sure. And, functionally, I'm not sure how different California's soft lockdown is from what's going on New York. Californians can still go out for "essential purposes" which is broad enough to include going outside for walks and exercise. And there's very little open in New York that is closed in California.

 

In other news, the senate is moving at warp speed on what may end up being the most expensive bill in US history.

The biggest thing Democrats need to do is get Republicans to drop the issue with the checks to Americans where people with tax liability under $50,000 start getting smaller checks; all the way down to $600 instead of the base $1,200. I think they should also get rid of the means testing for higher incomes, which is way to convoluted and will slow down the process of getting checks out the door. Also, supposedly its based off of 2018 tax filings. There's definitely some people who earned more than $100,000 in 2018 who desperately need that check now. Yes that's probably because of poor planning on their part, but we should be trying to help everyone now.

The other huge piece of the bill, the Collins-Rubio program for small/medium businesses is shockingly generous and Democrats should probably just go along with it. Businesses of up to 500 employees would be able to get loans of up to $10 million to cover payroll for up to 4 months. If they don't lay off anyone in that time, the loans convert to grants and don't need to be repaid. Add some protections there about not dramatically slashing hours for non-salaried workers but not technically laying them off, and you've got a hell of an emergency assistance program.

[Rhom]

And people say bipartisanship is dead!

[Larry of the Lawn]

NYS now on lockdown.  

In Cuomo's address he's also asking businesses that don't make masks and ppe gowns to look into it and that financial incentives will be available to manufacture them for the state.  NYS also manufacturing hand sanitizer.  

Asking people not to visit relatives.

Can go outside to exercise but hike or jog, don't play basketball. Will be a civil fine for not social distancing when in public.  

 

[mcbigski]

13 minutes ago, Rhom said:

And people say bipartisanship is dead!

But the narrative!!

[Frey family reunion]

Assuming that it can be proven that any of these politicians who had inside information on the severity of the virus and used this information to sell stocks, is this not insider trading?  Should they not be prosecuted?

Or does that only extend to people who had inside information on a particular company?  Not sure.

[Larry of the Lawn]

3 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

But the narrative!!

Who cares who it is?  Give them all the boot and confiscate all their money save like say, $600, and put it towards non-means tested outbreak UBI.  And make them work their states minimum wage at a grocery store for the next 2 months.

[Larry of the Lawn]

1 minute ago, Frey family reunion said:

Assuming that it can be proven that any of these politicians who had inside information on the severity of the virus and used this information to sell stocks, is this not insider trading?  Should they not be prosecuted?

I say bet they will be punished 100 times as much as the perpetrators of the GFC.

 

100 x 0 is 0.

[sologdin]

god damn quarantine so the reality hits people.

etymology tells the story:

Quote

quarantine (n.)
1660s, "period a ship suspected of carrying disease is kept in isolation," from Italian quaranta giorni, literally "space of forty days," from quaranta "forty," from Latin quadraginta"forty," which is related to quattuor "four" (from PIE root *kwetwer- "four"). So called from the Venetian policy (first enforced in 1377) of keeping ships from plague-stricken countries waiting off its port for 40 days to assure that no latent cases were aboard.

and that story points us in the right direction, insofar as scripture marks 40 days on the ark, 40 days on the mountain, 40 days in the wilderness--symbolic periods of isolation that are not only traumatic, but transformative therefor. trump voters must accordingly accept that they partake in a scriptural event.

[Larry of the Lawn]

Just now, sologdin said:

god damn quarantine so the reality hits people.

etymology tells the story:

and that story points us in the right direction, insofar as scripture marks 40 days on the ark, 40 days on the mountain, 40 days in the wilderness--symbolic periods of isolation that are not only traumatic, but transformative therefor. trump voters must aqccordingly accept that they partake in a scriptural event.

40 days probably better for public health than the Jane's Addiction's quintessential "Three Days" which violates many of the core principles of social distancing:

Quote

At this moment, you should be with us
Feeling like we do
Like you love to
But never will again
I miss you my dear, Ziola
I prepared the room tonight
With Christmas lights
A city of candles
Fresh

Three days was the morning
My focus three days old
My head, it landed
To the sounds of cricket bows

I am proud man anyway
Covered now by three days

Three ways was the morning
Three lovers, in three ways
We knew when she landed
Three days she'd stay

I am a proud man anyway
Covered now by three days

We saw shadows of the morning light
The shadows of the evening sun
Till the shadows and the light were one

Shadows of the morning light
Shadows of the evening sun
Till the shadows and the light were one

True hunting is over
No herd to follow
Without game, men prey on each other
The family weakens by the bite we swallow, oh

True leaders gone
Of land and people
We choose no kin but adopted strangers
The family weakens by the length we travel, oj

All of us with wings, oh
All of us with wings, oh
All of us with wings
All of us with wings
All of us with wings
All of us with wings

Erotic Jesus lays with his Mary's
Loves his Mary's
Bits of puzzle
Fitting each other

All now with wings

Oh my Mary's
Never wonder
Night is shelter
For nudity's shiver

All now with wings

 

[sologdin]

as an incidental, that's my favorite song of all time. as much as having drug-addled orgies for a long weekend may be desirable, it is dreadfully bad public health advice. or perhaps i am too coronaphobic?

[Zorral]

Diane Feinstein, through her husband, also participated in this insider sell-off and buy.

Governor live: Effective Sunday: quarantine -- not "shelter in place." Nobody over 70 to go out, except alone, for exercise, must wear a mask when attempting to get groceries.  THERE ARE NO MASKS though. Everybody else except essential workers is supposed to stay in. No picnics in parks, nothing. This is mandatory, not voluntary.

The Saboteur in Chief to NY -- Drop Dead!

They won't even take de Blasio or Cuomo's calls.

We have the largest number of cases in the country. No masks, sanitizer or gloves available.

 

[Fragile Bird]

33 minutes ago, mcbigski said:

But the narrative!!

Oh, please, I sold off some of my stocks weeks ago, the ones I figured would get demolished. I considered selling everything but decided against it. And I didn't get any intel briefings.

The only one I regret not selling is Suncor, because I did not expect the Saudis to go on a campaign to destroy all the oil producers in the world. That did not have anything to do with coronavirus.

[Fragile Bird]

22 minutes ago, sologdin said:

god damn quarantine so the reality hits people.

etymology tells the story:

and that story points us in the right direction, insofar as scripture marks 40 days on the ark, 40 days on the mountain, 40 days in the wilderness--symbolic periods of isolation that are not only traumatic, but transformative therefor. trump voters must accordingly accept that they partake in a scriptural event.

Cool!

[Larry of the Lawn]

17 minutes ago, sologdin said:

as an incidental, that's my favorite song of all time. as much as having drug-addled orgies for a long weekend may be desirable, it is dreadfully bad public health advice. or perhaps i am too coronaphobic?

The drug addled orgy would have been fine if not for the implied air travel that brought one of the participants to the debauchery 

POTUS needs to put a mandatory minimum 14 day duration for all orgies.

[Larry of the Lawn]

3 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Oh, please, I sold off some of my stocks weeks ago, the ones I figured would get demolished. I considered selling everything but decided against it. And I didn't get any intel briefings.

The only one I regret not selling is Suncor, because I did not expect the Saudis to go on a campaign to destroy all the oil producers in the world. That did not have anything to do with coronavirus.

Yeah but did you give public statements saying everything was fine and the economy wouldn't be affected while unloading stock and chickenlittling in private?  Are you an elected representative?

[Frey family reunion]

34 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

I say bet they will be punished 100 times as much as the perpetrators of the GFC.

 

100 x 0 is 0.

I don’t have any illusions that they will be prosecuted, I’m just idly wondering if there was a legal basis where they could be.

[Larry of the Lawn]

2 minutes ago, Frey family reunion said:

I don’t have any illusions that they will be prosecuted, I’m just idly wondering if there was a legal basis where they could be.

oh gotcha. Yeah some SEC violation?

[Fragile Bird]

3 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Yeah but did you give public statements saying everything was fine and the economy wouldn't be affected while unloading stock and chickenlittling in private?  Are you an elected representative?

That is true, but I admit it. But all through January and February, every single day, people on CNBC were saying why are people ignoring coronavirus? Fund managers were saying they were selling things to have cash ready. People always ignore the warning signs that are plain as the nose on your face, in retrospect.