U.S. Politics: End Testing, Make Schools Safe Again!

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

8 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

My brother-in-law in Delaware works at a tire shop and he said they can't hire anybody because the weekly rate is about $500 and nobody is interested

So capitalism isn't winning? 

[GrimTuesday]

34 minutes ago, DMC said:

Eh, speaking as someone who is unemployed, I'd be fine with a $400 a week boost rather than $600 a week boost in unemployment benefits - if I could actually receive unemployment benefits.

I think that 400 is ok. If it were me on full unemployment i would be making almost exactly the same as I would be in my current job, but the enormity of what we would be giving to get a concession like that makes me nervous.

sucks that you weren't able to get in on it, I was using it as a way to build my savings because we had to furlough once a week at work but because because we have a shared work program (basically partial employment so people keep their benifits and most of their income) and because of Washington's unemployment laws even if you only get 1 dollar's with of UI, you got the 600. It was a pretty sweet gig there for a month or so. I feel kind of gross just saying that, but doing that for a month looks to have saved my entire department from having to lay off a significant number of people for at least a year and nobody except those who make a shit load of money already lost any pay over it. If the feds aren't going to help the states, the states gotta help themselves.

ETA: Before anyone gets concerned about fraud or something like that, this was all above board and the state made absolutely no secret that this was the way it worked.

[Fragile Bird]

48 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Gods we live in the stupidest timeline

 

 

Bah, the better one was this one:  Trump as US nears 150,000 deaths: "Nobody likes me"

eta: the folks at CNN who write the chyrons have been rocking it!

[Larry of the Lawn]

51 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

I think that $400 would be fine personally.  The conservative boogeyman of "people will not look for a job if they get paid more not to work" is an actual thing in this case.  My brother-in-law in Delaware works at a tire shop and he said they can't hire anybody because the weekly rate is about $500 and nobody is interested (note: $2,000 a month goes a LOT further in Delaware than most places).  I'm sure in an ideal world, pay would increase for the tire shop guys, but that is a small, independent tire shop, and they aren't exactly in a financial position to give out a bunch of raises.  At the moment, they're just giving lots of hours to the couple of guys who are still around.  

The government needs to do a lot of things to help people and UI is just one of them.  Going from $600 to $400 isn't that big a deal IF (and only if) other support is there to fill in the gaps.  

That probably would've been a good thing, at least in places that are opening up too soon.  This guy I know has a cabinet shop in upstate NY and when his guys wouldn't come back he called the NY Dept of Labor.  According to him, they said they aren't enforcing the 'must return to work if offered'.  I've heard a lot of business owners around here running into the same problem.  Maybe it will make people re-examine the value of someone else's labor, and at the same time keep the virus from spreading.  If they had just paid everyone to stay home initially for two months we'd probably be in a different situation.

Agree on the $400 number, I'd call that a win.  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

35 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

"Nobody likes me"

It's worth noting, this is actually something that both drives him and drives him crazy. 

[Martell Spy]

1 hour ago, DMC said:

You are not reading that wrong.  To be fair, I only applied a couple weeks ago.  I expected not to be "working" over the summer even before covid as I finished my diss.  And then, I had hoped to find a teaching job up in the fall.  Wasn't til a couple weeks ago I gave up and acknowledged my situation.  I don't like asking the government for money.

I applied April 10th and it has not been ruled on. In late May the status changed to abjudication and it has not changed since. I went back to work, but they still owe me a ton of money. Now I know what it is liked to live in Florida.

[Fragile Bird]

I assume Gohmert, who was supposed to travel with Trump on AF1 to Texas this morning, had a ‘rapid test’, since that’s what the Trump team has been using. Those tests can have a 50% failure rate, so he may not have Covid-19 at all.

On the other hand, I hope the WH finally switched to a more reliable test manufacturer, with only a 5% failure rate.

[Fragile Bird]

Wow, Trump stokes racist fires with a tweet today! He rescinded provisions of the Fair Housing Act that helped PoC purchase homes, and tweeted that people in the suburbs should be happy now because minorities are being kept out and their house values will go up. An hour ago:

Quote

I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood...

...Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!.

 

[DanteGabriel]

8 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Wow, Trump stokes racist fires with a tweet today! He rescinded provisions of the Fair Housing Act that helped PoC purchase homes, and tweeted that people in the suburbs should be happy now because minorities are being kept out and their house values will go up. An hour ago:

 

He's been hemmorhaging suburban voters, so this is quite a play for them. I wonder if it will work.

[DireWolfSpirit]

3 hours ago, DMC said:

You are not reading that wrong.  To be fair, I only applied a couple weeks ago.  I expected not to be "working" over the summer even before covid as I finished my diss.  And then, I had hoped to find a teaching job up in the fall.  Wasn't til a couple weeks ago I gave up and acknowledged my situation.  I don't like asking the government for money.

I have heard that sentiment from relatives before.

In the future think of it as collecting on insurance that you have paid into. That's really what it is after all.

It's a pandemic, a severe recession, people should be able to collect on insurance at a bare minimum without guilt pangs.

In other news, another huge asshole goes down- 

Texas congressman, who often refuses to wear a mask, tests positive for Covid-19 at White House

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/politics/louie-gohmert-tests-positive-coronavirus/index.html

[DanteGabriel]

Here is an astounding email sent to a reporter from a Gohmert staffer:

Quote

"JAKE, THANK YOU for letting our office know Louie tested positive for the Coronavirus. When you write your story, can you include the fact that Louie requires full staff to be in the office, including three interns, so that ‘we could be an example to America on how to open up safely.’ When probing the office, you might want to ask how often were people berated for wearing masks.”

Louie Gohmert let his own staff find out from the press that he was infected.

I guess working for an amoral, science-rejecting dumbass has its drawbacks.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2020/07/29/why-the-capitol-needs-testing-489917

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

26 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Here is an astounding email sent to a reporter from a Gohmert staffer:

Louie Gohmert let his own staff find out from the press that he was infected.

I guess working for an amoral, science-rejecting dumbass has its drawbacks.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2020/07/29/why-the-capitol-needs-testing-489917

First, as a former political staffer, fuck him. None of my bosses would ever dream of doing such a thing.

Second, I still can't figure out which is stranger, that he got a law degree from a decent school or that he was said school's class president.

How?

[Fragile Bird]

53 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Here is an astounding email sent to a reporter from a Gohmert staffer:

Louie Gohmert let his own staff find out from the press that he was infected.

I guess working for an amoral, science-rejecting dumbass has its drawbacks.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2020/07/29/why-the-capitol-needs-testing-489917

Weird. I’d swear I heard on CNN that after he heard he tested positive, he returned to his office and personally told his staff. 

[TrackerNeil]

2 hours ago, DanteGabriel said:

He's been hemmorhaging suburban voters, so this is quite a play for them. I wonder if it will work.

I doubt it. No amount of "messaging" is going to make people forget that 150,000 Americans have died from a virus that yet stalks the nation, with no end in sight. 

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, DanteGabriel said:

Here is an astounding email sent to a reporter from a Gohmert staffer:

Louie Gohmert let his own staff find out from the press that he was infected.

I guess working for an amoral, science-rejecting dumbass has its drawbacks.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm/2020/07/29/why-the-capitol-needs-testing-489917

Sorry for the double quote, but when you read further down in that article you see that it says he went to the office to personaly tell the staff about the test. I'm not sure what the email from the staffer means, that they were not in the office at the time, or are they merely thanking them for a call or an e-mail from the Politico reporter telling them something they already knew? But at least Gohmert wasn't like Trump National Security Adviser O'Brien who just walked out of the office.

[Kalbear]

43 minutes ago, TrackerNeil said:

I doubt it. No amount of "messaging" is going to make people forget that 150,000 Americans have died from a virus that yet stalks the nation, with no end in sight. 

It's okay, they're mostly black and latino people who were working shitty jobs who are dying. 

[Fragile Bird]

6 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

It's okay, they're mostly black and latino people who were working shitty jobs who are dying. 

Honestly, I often wonder if this is at the root of the problem.

[Zorral]

Except those dead and sick people are the very people that keep you and yours alive-O.  Including the teachers.  When they're all dead and / or incapacitated, and no immigration!, whatcha gonna do then?  Highly trained medical personnel and caregivers and teachers are not an infinite resource, and they are getting sick and utterly worn out in enormous numbers.

What would be supremely ironic is if, then, the US begs for Cuban medical people to help out (as they have to great effect and gratitude in many places, particularly Italy) and Cuba refuses.

It's really been interesting, the conversations I've had in the last months with a variety of medical personnel, and how in awe they are of the Cuban system of training and treatment and the incredible skills the Cubans bring to EVERYTHING.

 

 

[Kalbear]

Just now, Fragile Bird said:

Honestly, I often wonder if this is at the root of the problem.

There's definitely something there. A lot of Trump supporters aren't being super impacted by this because they're fairly rural, and even in rural counties the people who are affected are people who work in things like meat packing and agriculture - which is, again, largely minority dominated. They're even blaming them - saying they live in multigenerational houses, they live in close proximity, they are unclean - all typical dogwhistle purity bullshit. 

It's also a Really Big Number now, and that is a lot harder to deal with. 150,000 deaths is an absurd amount for people to think about - someone said it is the equivalent of a packed airliner crashing twice every single day for the last 4 months. But people just are resigned and don't care. 

Another issue is the same issue as climate change - humans suck at dealing with non-proximate causal issues. If you didn't wear a mask and you got, like, a zombie outbreak right away? People would wear them all the time. But no, it takes 2-3 weeks or more, it might not be that you or that other person didn't wear the mask, and at that time you seem just fine. This is something that humans just need to be told to do, repeatedly, and shamed for not doing it because they won't do it otherwise. And the US simply does not give any amount of shit about it.

[Kalbear]

1 minute ago, Zorral said:

Except those dead and sick people are the very people that keep you and yours alive-O.  Including the teachers.  When they're all dead and / or incapacitated, and no immigration!, whatcha gonna do then?  Highly trained medical personnel and caregivers and teachers are not an infinite resource, and they are getting sick and utterly worn out in enormous numbers.

Trump doesn't care,

1 minute ago, Zorral said:

What would be supremely ironic is if, then, the US begs for Cuban medical people to help out (as they have to great effect and gratitude in many places, particularly Italy) and Cuba refuses.

Trump doesn't care. Cities dying? Fuck 'em, they weren't nice enough to him. States suffering? Fuck 'em. Atlanta suffering? Houston? They don't like him anyway. Unless people demonstrate that they like Trump, Trump does not actually care and wants them to suffer. And the only reason he doesn't want someone to suffer is if they show him affection. 

This is what a narcissist is. They will actively want people who don't like them to suffer harm, and be happy if it happens.