tempus est umbra in mente
watching this senate testimony... Tim Kaine is really pissing me off right now as he's trying to lead the witness into bashing Trump's handling of the situation, and he isn't letting the medical professionals actually answer the claims he's making. He didn't even let Fauci explain what the fundamental difference is between the outbreak in South Korea and the US, and literally cut him off. I get that everyone's trying to politicize this, but let the medical professionals speak please?
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^^ Agree. Warren did better. Kaine was a disaster.
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60 Minutes has been doing a decent job with virus coverage. They had Amazon's director of operations on Sunday & he was squirming pretty good about the difference between what Amazon is saying & what Amazon is doing in regards to protecting their employees.
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House Democrats have released their plan for the second stimulus. There's a good summary in the article, but the key points that would most likely be of immediate impact for the average American would be a second round of $1200 checks and extending the $600 / week UI benefit to January (instead of July as currently scheduled). Looks doubtful that this will pass if it makes it to the senate though.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/12/coro...lief-bill.html
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Also includes a bailout for the Postal Service. Guarantees the orange babboon won't sign it even if it makes it through congress.Originally Posted by theimage13
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not sure why we couldn't just do what Canada did and give out a monthly payment to everyone. you want to stimulate the economy by putting money in people's hands? that's how you do it.
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Because we're Americans, not welfare queens.
(extremely heavy /s)
But seriously - the notion of an extra ~$2k a month (post tax) for the rest of the year would be an absolute game changer for millions and millions of people. The literal difference between being homeless (or just months behind and buried in debt) and being able to get by. For people struggling with food, medical bills, or the mental health issues that come with poverty, $2k a month could be the difference between life or death.
But nah, let's shut this down because it's more important to creation legislation that says employees can't sue their employers for unsafe work conditions (GOP wants corporations to be liability-free. Oh, you got the virus because we told you to come work in poor conditions with a bunch of sick people or lose your job? Tough shit, not our fault.)
Last edited by theimage13; 05-12-2020 at 07:15 PM.
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Unemployed Americans will get their full paychecks plus $600 plus the $1,200 / $2,400 stimulus. Extended through January. Which is actually better.
Many Republicans, of course, are against this because they think it means people will want to stay home and collect unemployment instead of going back to work, and this will cost American taxpayers money. You know, like all the rich corporate socialism already does. Never mind that it's SAFER to stay home. Republicans want you to work and DIE.
Vote in November, people!
The new House bill includes:
- About $200 billion for hazard pay for essential workers who face heightened health risks during the crisis
- $175 billion in rent, mortgage and utility assistance
- Subsidies and a special Affordable Care Act enrollment period to people who lose their employer-sponsored health coverage
- More money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, including a 15% increase in the maximum benefit
- Measures designed to buoy small businesses and help them keep employees on payroll, such as $10 billion in emergency disaster assistance grants and a strengthened employee retention tax credit
- Money for election safety during the pandemic and provisions to make voting by mail easier
Last edited by allegro; 05-12-2020 at 07:56 PM.
God is an American
Reminder that the Northern Republican-wannabes up here are carping and moaning about the same shit. Ridiculous.
Oh and the $2000/month Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit? It's actually pre-tax, go figure.
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We can’t let the postal service fail, no matter what the Orange Moron thinks. Even though he’s afraid that mail-in ballots will sink him.
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Wait what? I think I missed something...
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Yeah I think I missed something in the new bill, too. It’s just the same as the old bill. Unemployment, plus $600. Plus the stimulus money.
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Aw man, you got my hopes up for nothing :P
Just kidding, the bill's not going to pass anyway. I'm mildly optimistic that some additional form of relief that actually helps the average Jane and Joe will be passed before this whole thing is over, but it's anyone's guess as to when that will happen and what it will actually include.
tempus est umbra in mente
Just watched a supercut of Fox news hosts bashing Fauci, pointing out that he "wasn't elected."
Why? Because he actually told the truth? This is dangerous and irresponsible. Fauci started working in the WH under Reagan. He's not a partisan shill. He's not saying things because he's trying to hurt Trump's election odds. This is so crazy. History better bury these fuckers.
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the other side of that coin is I keep seeing posts on twitter about how 'political' he is. pick a message guys.
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No, he wasn’t; he’s an unbiased scientist, that’s why what he is saying is important. God, these people are stupid.
tempus est umbra in mente
Are they, or are they just aware that the audience they're talking to is generally stupid enough to believe whatever they say?
More than one host ran with that "he wasn't elected" talking point. Is Tucker Carlson really stupid enough to believe that this is a good analysis? It sounds like they're just delivering on orders to spin it a certain way.
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here's something pertinent to what i was ranting about the other day:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...street-997342/
Taibbi is a pretty good writer, IMO
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Trumpy and his cronies are going to throw as many people under the bus as they can. The second you stop towing the line, you're under the wheels.
tempus est umbra in mente
Wow, clearly it's now knives out for Fauci.
Thanks a lot Fox. They own the president. What the fuck they think they're doing here, I don't know, but it's completely insane. Fauci says that the death toll is an underestimate, and guess how Trump responds? There's a new study to determine that it's an overestimate, and it has Fauci being framed like he's a pessimist and it's mystifying why!!!! AAAAAAAARRRG..
Trump has now called Fauci's advice on re-opening schools "not acceptable." I hate this guy so much. It's "not acceptable?!" Sorry, it's an informed opinion, and if we start finding informed opinions "unacceptable" and it becomes (ironically) acceptable for the president to say this sort of thing... in the middle of a national emergency...
Last edited by Jinsai; 05-13-2020 at 05:10 PM.
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There's stupid as in "you are, objectively, an uneducated and ignorant person" and there's stupid as in "you're a horrible, evil, manipulative asshole, and that's a stupid thing to be".
It's easier to just say "stupid" and let people figure out which kind you mean.
Last edited by theimage13; 05-13-2020 at 06:20 PM.
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But if they re-open schools, there’s a distinct possibility that parents will refuse to send their kids to school.
Covid is now showing signs of leading to Kawasaki’s disease in kids within weeks.
If Trump wants kids in schools, send his kid and his grandchildren. Go right ahead.
Same thing with all these other “re-opening” plans. Until instant testing is in every workplace, daily, most people aren’t going back to life as usual. They’re going to start suing the government. We shouldn’t force people to choose between death and the economy. We can tax the 1% and corporations and get through this.
Patrick Henry didn’t say “Give me an economy or give me death.”
The Government should be bailing out all Americans just like it’s been bailing out all these corporations and banks and lobbying groups.
Last edited by allegro; 05-13-2020 at 08:47 PM.
tempus est umbra in mente
there's no chance in hell that if I had a grade-school age kid that I'd send them back to get that last month of education before summer break. It's absurd.
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as a teacher (I think there's a few of us here) , I would NOT feel comfortable going back in September, at all. It would be a grave mistake, especially if this new strain/whatever it may be is effecting children. It's essentially game over if the kids death toll start to rise. To top it off, I'll find out within the next two days if I'm getting laid off, because the budget of my local district was a clusterfuck even before this happened, and now they're hurting 10 times more. But how can you lay off 100+ teachers at a time when you need all hands on deck when school eventually resumes? The average classroom size in my building is between 25 to 30 kids. The rooms are not large. There's around 900 kids in the school.
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And Trump wants college kids to go back to school.
Yeah sorry I don’t see adjunct professors risking their lives to work in a Petri dish and get shit pay, either.
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Partner of an adjunct here - and an immunocompromised one at that. Last week they had a day full of web meetings wherein the higher ups talked about the various plans and options being discussed for the fall, and there was a pretty heavy emphasis on "we want to be able to open up the campus". By the end of the first call my partner burst into the room I was in and collapsed into me, heaving and sobbing, because this was basically "choose between your already meager paycheck or possibly dying a horrible death".
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This is a great article on nine different way schools might re-open this fall. If you work in a school or have school-age kids, check this out.
Last edited by GulDukat; 05-14-2020 at 07:19 AM.
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FOX News:
I wonder if legally FOX News could have their licence pulled by the FCC for spreading misinformation and causing death.
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I think the only thing you can't really do is show female nipples.
So unless Hannity starts doing the show topless, I think they'll stay on air.
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I read it and while some of those ideas sound like they'd be ok, they're just that- ideas. In reality, I don't forsee much of that happening in my school district. We have broken bathrooms and broken sinks, usually don't have soap. We can't even afford pencils for our students. Class sizes less than 12? That'd be hard to figure out with a class of 40 students. And again, when you start to spread out, some of these rooms are literally old closets so there's no space. (yes, imagine 20 kids sitting in groups in a room the size of medium sized walk in closet. Now try to space out 10 of those kids. You can't.) There will certainly be a need for mental health help, but our district recently cut counselors and mental health workers, with no intention (or money) to hire them back. Not sure how half-day schedules or alternating day schedules will work for parents. Not to mention, every inch of every school will have to be completely sanitized at the end of every day (which again, isn't cheap....and can't be done without the manpower to do it) .
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