SARS-2-CoV (COVID-19)

[Garufa]

20 minutes ago, FUJIMO said:

The version I heard was ran under the guise that we need never to be caught like this again. So we should apparently keep 1 of everything on hand for each member of the population. 

With each passing day I get the feeling the government thinks it's our new helicopter mom

Should the government keep stockpiles of essential materials, especially medical equipment?  Absolutely.  

The government also needs to keep people employed that can cut through the bull#### of manufacturers and their claims of expiration dates and “use by” warnings.  Think N95 masks.  The only thing wrong with old ones is the elastic has rotted.  Half the women in this country that sew are sewing  on new elastic bands for them.

Bam!  Problem solved.

This entire country needs to rethink how things are done and how to get by.

Now, back to the Infrastructure bill.  That was one of Trump’s campaign platforms and now as he says with zero interest rates it’s time.  I’m no tin-foil-hatter but some dominoes are falling into place.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Garufa

[Garufa]

3 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Trump made a good point about this being a good time with interest rates being so low. But holy sh*t guys. Can we take a pause for a minute? We've not even seen what the first $2T is gonna do.

It's like saying, well we've already screwed up the budget, we might as well go on a shopping spree... Toss in some new bridges here, a few dams there, maybe a new aircraft carrier. And the dems with sprinkle it with student loan forgiveness during checkout. 

Simply repairing what is already in place will burn through that money as soon as the bill is signed.

[gregintenn]

47 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

Heck, there’s a lot more Democrats these days.  At least the way it’s colloquially defined, right?

I mean, y’all are all sitting at home. No one’s working.  Everyone’s waiting for the government to send them their check.

Haven’t missed a day of work here boss.

[Garufa]

Just now, gregintenn said:

Haven’t missed a day of work here boss.

Me neither.  I just walk down the hall instead of driving downtown.  Saving a ton on gas.

[MacGyver]

He’s not gotten an infrastructure bill passed yet - we’ll see if the eleventh time is the charm.

On the plus side - interest rates are low. On the harder side - Congress has to borrow that money. Ostensibly by offering treasury bills.  There’s probably not a lack of demand - but at some point the well has to go dry.

Also in the plus side - in theory there’s a bunch of jobs to be created there. 

On the negative side - here’s a $4 trillion dollar whale.  Fraudsters will come out of the woodwork.  We don’t currently have an IG to run point on investigating corruption.

So there’s that.  

[gregintenn]

Sounds like more overtime for those of us in the road building trade.

I ain’t ever gonna get to fish.

Edited April 1, 2020 by gregintenn

[FUJIMO]

2 minutes ago, Garufa said:

Should the government keep stockpiles of essential materials, especially medical equipment?  Absolutely.  

The government also needs to keep people employed that can cut through the bull#### of manufacturers and their claims of expiration dates and “use by” warnings.  Think N95 masks.  The only thing wrong with old ones is the elastic has rotted.  Half the women in this country that sew are sewing  on new elastic bands for them.

Bam!  Problem solved.

This entire country needs to rethink how things are done and how to get by.

Now, back to the Infrastructure bill.  That was one of Trump’s campaign platforms and now as he says with zero interest rates it’s time.  I’m no tin-foil-hatter but some dominoes are falling into place.

I never said we shouldnt have more equipment and be well prepared but even with enough to cover every single human in North America you will not save them all. People die. And whether it's Trump or someone else that stockpile will be pirated for some BS disaster in another country and not get replenished.

Reminds me of the wheel tax in my county we got in 1975 to build a school. Then last year they asked for 60 million to build a new school. When asked where all that money was from the wheel tax 45 years ago they said "well that was a long time ago blah blah blah" and now here we are. Or it goes the other way and we have an excess of katrina fema trailers you can't give away.

Point is you can tag whatever headline on it you want to get the money but we will be right back in this spot next pandemic and the money will be gone. Just like what Cuomo supposedly done when given a choice in 2015

[FUJIMO]

15 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

Trump made a good point about this being a good time with interest rates being so low. But holy sh*t guys. Can we take a pause for a minute? We've not even seen what the first $2T is gonna do.

It's like saying, well we've already screwed up the budget, we might as well go on a shopping spree... Toss in some new bridges here, a few dams there, maybe a new aircraft carrier. And the dems with sprinkle it with student loan forgiveness during checkout. 

I thought it was just me when I heard this giant suck noise but it turns out its just the economy going down the drain for the next decade

[deerslayer]

7 hours ago, Snaveba said:

However, I do think she would have approached the pandemic head on and not tried to down-play the possible threat and put out constant rosy picture at the beginning. She also would have had ALL her cabinet positions filled with people who she with whom she would have been working with for 3 years, not a constant revolving door of the “yes-men of the moment”.

the Pandemic Committee would not have been disbanded last year, out imbedded CDC rep in China would have been there when the epidemic started in China and we would have had a better “head start”.

Maybe Clinton would have done better, maybe not.  Her email habits and her handling of Benghazi don't exactly inspire confidence.  Also, the Pandemic Committee didn't get disbanded.  It got combined with another committee in an effort to streamline and de-beurocratize it.  And if we did have a CDC rep in Wuhan?  We probably never would have heard from him again.  

 

7 hours ago, Snaveba said:

Trump has said repeatedly that “no one could have seen this coming” which may be one of his biggest lies to date. Not only did his transition team go through this scenario before taking office, there were other “war games” run in the last year that directly addressed the EXACT scenario we are facing. And the Trump Administration not only ignored the recommendations but did not care about them. 

Yeah I wish the Trump administration had paid more attention to that.  Maybe he was distracted by Russia BS, Ukraine BS, impeachment BS, media constantly attacking him BS, etc.  Now Schiff is talking about a 9-11 style investigation of Trump.  Imaaaaagine that.  

[deerslayer]

51 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

Haven’t missed a day of work here boss.

Same here, and I'm not working from home.

[bud]

.

Edited June 9, 2020 by bud

[Ronald_55]

12 minutes ago, deerslayer said:

Same here, and I'm not working from home.

Going in every day here.

[FUJIMO]

1 minute ago, Ronald_55 said:

Going in every day here.

+1. Out in it everyday. I found carrying a 3' foot club helps with social distancing. Its 3 and not 6 because I expect everyone else to do their share . 

[RED333]

On the cutting pay thing.

TN is a right to work state, salary can and has been cut. Hourly can not be cut unless the person is laid off or fired, than rehired at a lesser pay.

Yesterday we just had a round of "furloughs", some of the hourly and salary people were furloughed. The company will pay for their health insurance till the person is called back. the money has to paid back at some point.

The owner took a 120 days of no pay, after that a 30% pay cut and no bonus for 2020. Upper management took a 20% cut and no bonus. middle and bottom management took a 10% cut and no bonus.

Us that are payed hourly do not get any over time, we are cut off at 40 hours. If there is no work we go home early or stay home and no bonus.

We lost 1 salary office person and 4 service hourly guys in our office. We all believe this is not all that will be furloughed. I am still working, but the next few days, weeks, months will not be fun. On top of all that we have to worry about getting sick!!!

Any one heard if getting the virus at work is covered under works comp?

Edited April 2, 2020 by RED333
Because I can

[Raoul]

Then there's us antisocial self employed jackwagons...

[Erik88]

3.7 million NICS background checks last month. An all time high. 

https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-_month_year.pdf/view

[No_0ne]

1 hour ago, Erik88 said:

Trump made a good point about this being a good time with interest rates being so low. But holy sh*t guys. Can we take a pause for a minute? We've not even seen what the first $2T is gonna do.

It's like saying, well we've already screwed up the budget, we might as well go on a shopping spree... Toss in some new bridges here, a few dams there, maybe a new aircraft carrier. And the dems with sprinkle it with student loan forgiveness during checkout. 

Both parties will use the current crisis to push through their want-list of big ticket items prior to the election.  If you have been paying any attention over the last several decades, the only time either party shows any concern over fiscal responsibility or deficits is when the other is in power.  With the economy in freefall, both sides will use that as an excuse for a new spending splurge in a bid to reward their constituencies and buy a few seats in Congress ...

[peejman]

11 hours ago, Ronald_55 said:

Going in every day here.

And here. 

[MacGyver]

6.6 million new first time unemployment claims this week.  Add to the 3.3 last week, and 10 million people have lost their jobs in the last two weeks.

To put it in perspective, that was the peak of unemployment during the Great Recession.

Man, prayers for everyone. Be graceful with yourselves of those around you.  

[MacGyver]

Domestic movie theaters brought in $5,179 last week. That’s down 99.98% from the $204 million they brought in during the same week last year.

It’s been years since I’ve been in a theater - but I’m guessing one screen at the megaplex up the street does better than that on a good Friday night.  

[Lumber_Jack]

1 hour ago, MacGyver said:

6.6 million new first time unemployment claims this week.  Add to the 3.3 last week, and 10 million people have lost their jobs in the last two weeks.

To put it in perspective, that was the peak of unemployment during the Great Recession.

Man, prayers for everyone. Be graceful with yourselves of those around you.  

its a shocking number for sure.  I'm holding on to hope that a majority of those are temporary and will go back to work once the smoke clears but the realist in me knows there will probably be a lingering high number regardless.  

[Refleks]

I have to admit, this one kinda chaps my ass.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/fauci-mask-recommendation-coronavirus-157476

Dr Fauci admits that the reluctance to recommend masks for all was driven by an effort to prevent panic buying rather than them actually not being potentially helpful.

If there wasn't a shortage, hypothetically, if we were just swimming in PPE, would officials recommend masks for those who do go out (in addition to social distancing and proper hand hygiene), out of an abundance of caution? If yes, then it was disingenuous for them to say masks don't help as a technique to reduce panic buying. The panic buying occurred anyway.  Lying to the populace in an effort to manipulate their actions through game theory is something an authoritarian country would do, that's conduct unbecoming in the west at least ostensibly.

Again, masks aren't a panacea, there are some caveats but as part of a comprehensive strategy to mitigate risks they have their place.  The point is, you don't lie about the potential efficacy of an intervention that could mitigate risks for unrelated reasons, like the fear that we aren't responsible enough to handle the truth: that we shouldn't get them, not because they don't help, but because healthcare workers need them more.

That destroys the public trust. People may not be doctors but they're not stupid, they know when something doesn't add up.  Like when public officials say "coughing into your arm helps, and a masks for those with a medical license helps" but implying nothing in between is effective.

Edited April 2, 2020 by Refleks

[MacGyver]

28 minutes ago, Lumber_Jack said:

its a shocking number for sure.  I'm holding on to hope that a majority of those are temporary and will go back to work once the smoke clears but the realist in me knows there will probably be a lingering high number regardless.  

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Great Recession - some of it's self-motivated as a small business owner to think about how we made it through last time.

I'm sure others here can weigh in - but in the '08 recession, it almost made it look like there were two economies.  If you were in the upper middle class, if you worked in a professional capacity, or maybe in an IT relatated job somewhere - it's almost like the last recession didn't really affect you that much.  Maybe it affected your home value.

But, for other swaths of the economy - it decimated them - and it what we had left coming out would never look the same again - manufacturing, automotive, etc.

There's a school that hopes that the strength of the economy leading into this will give us more of a V-shaped recession - a steep decline and steep gains on the way out. The more I watch though, I'm wondering if it won't be the same L-shaped recovery as last time with steep losses up front and long, slow periods of growth on the way out.

I think it's probably way too soon to tell - but they hopes for a V-shaped recovery probably grow dimmer by the day.

[xsubsailor]

Went to the gas station today wearing my Covid-19 mask that the government recommends and the cashier got extremely nervous.  

 

[btq96r]

26 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

I think it's probably way too soon to tell - but they hopes for a V-shaped recovery probably grow dimmer by the day.

Our system isn't configured to enable the V-shaped recovery you mention for all working classes.  Everything about our markets and the financial system behind them is geared towards capital recovery through locking in reductions, automation/AI doing more, and businesses somehow just using inertia from growth periods instead of a good operating rhythm. 

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by btq96r