Government Response to Coronavirus 2: It's Not A Hoax

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[clueliss]

Missouri is now at 15.  Greene is up to 4.  Cole picked up 1, BOONE has one now (Columbia and home of the university of Missouri) Jackson had 1, cases has 2.  Plus whatever I said earlie4 for St Louis.  Some of the new ones are private labs.  

[GreyhoundFan]

Because of course: "As much of America takes drastic action, some Republicans remain skeptical of the severity of the coronavirus pandemic"

Spoiler

Over the weekend, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a leading ally of President Trump, dismissed concerns about the novel coronavirus pandemic and said on Fox News that “it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant.”

And former New York City police commissioner Bernard B. Kerik, a Trump supporter who was pardoned last month, tweeted that “this hysteria is being created to destabilize the country and destroy” Trump.

But from Italy, where there is a national quarantine to try to slow the devastating effects of the coronavirus, Newt Gingrich offered a different perspective. The former House speaker wrote an opinion piece seeking to convince his fellow Republicans that not only was the pandemic very real, it required urgent action.

Inside the Republican Party and the conservative movement that Trump commands, there is now a deep divide as the nation confronts the coronavirus. For weeks, many on the right, including Trump, minimized the virus, if they considered it at all. Even in recent days, as much of the world shuts down to try to stop its spread, some Republicans mocked what they saw as a media-generated frenzy.

Their reaction reflected how the American right has evolved under Trump, moving from a bloc of small-government advocates to a grievance coalition highly skeptical of government, science, the news and federal warnings.

Their conspiratorial unrest is particularly acute within right-wing media, where Fox Business removed a prime-time anchor for casting the coronavirus as “another attempt to impeach the president.” Other right-wing personalities continue to call the coronavirus a “hoax” or falsely blame George Soros, the billionaire investor and liberal donor, for causing it.

But conservatives and Republicans now face an undeniable reality as the pandemic’s death count here and abroad climbs — and the worldwide reach of the coronavirus defies the bounds of political debate.

“It’s damn clear that this is no hoax and should be taken seriously,” said Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign adviser who co-hosts a podcast with former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon called “War Room: Pandemic,” which has documented the economic and health fallout of the coronavirus for weeks.

“The right underestimated this and thought the media was beating up on Trump again,” added GOP strategist Ed Rollins, who chairs a pro-Trump super PAC. “That was yesterday. Today is, ‘Life in America is changing before our eyes.’ ”

Trump has suddenly and markedly recalibrated his own approach, after weeks of blasé comments about the virus that spurred some of his allies to dismiss the danger of the pandemic.

When asked Monday about Nunes’s comment to Fox News, Trump did not echo him. Instead, Trump said he had not heard about the remarks, but would “disagree” with anyone calling on Americans to congregate in restaurants.

“I think it’s probably better that you don’t,” Trump told reporters.

Hours later, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said, “I’m pleased that the president and the public-health officials seem to now be on the same page. I think there was a gap in the early days.”

A turning point for Trump came last week when Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whom the president regularly calls, said in his opening monologue, “This is real.”

“People you trust — people you probably voted for — have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” Carlson said.

Carlson’s riff caught Trump’s attention and was one of the factors that led the president to start to reconsider his position, according to two White House officials who requested anonymity to speak frankly.

“The conservative media echo-sphere was playing to the president’s worst tendencies, but you can almost time his turnaround publicly to how Breitbart and Tucker Carlson have been covering coronavirus,” said Sam Nunberg, who advised Trump on media in the run-up to his 2016 campaign.

Several top Republicans, including Oklahama Gov. Kevin Stitt, have faced backlash for breaking with public-health experts and shrugging off the call for social distancing, offering discordant messages to Americans who are looking to the government for clarity and guidance.

Dark conspiracy theories have also made their way into the forefront of conservative discussions about the pandemic.

David A. Clarke Jr., the former Milwaukee County sheriff and Trump booster, suggested on Sunday that the global panic about the coronavirus was being pushed by Soros — a common subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — and urged people to take to the streets.

“Not ONE media outlet has asked about George Soros’s involvement in this FLU panic,” Clarke said. “He is SOMEWHERE involved in this.”

Twitter took down those tweets on Monday, citing its policy against “encouraging self-harm.”

Breitbart, a website which was once led by Bannon, has blanketed its pages in recent days with the coronavirus coverage. “War Room: Pandemic,” broadcasting out of Bannon’s home, has become another gathering place for conservatives who see the crisis as a defining test for the nation and for Trump.

Several Republican governors have contrasted with the politically charged response in Washington as they have dealt firsthand with the coronavirus and its impact. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has been a pacesetter, moving rapidly to close down schools and some businesses, as has Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, among others.

The virus has affected some of Trump’s biggest supporters. Days after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) wore an enormous gas mask during a House floor vote on an emergency funding package for the coronavirus response, the congressman announced that he would self-quarantine for 14 days after encountering someone at the Conservative Political Action Conference who tested positive.

Other Republican lawmakers who attended that conference, such as Rep. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Rep. Douglas A. Collins (Ga.), announced they would self-quarantine even though they weren’t feeling symptoms.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), meanwhile, has joined a right-wing clamor that has largely blamed China for unleashing “this plague on the entire world through their dishonesty and their lack of transparency and corruption.” His efforts come as other conservatives push to define the virus as “Chinese” rather than solely in medical terms, even as Americans with Chinese heritage face xenophobia and growing challenges.

“We’re shutting down our country because of the cold virus, which is what coronaviruses are,” Rush Limbaugh told his national radio audience last week. “You think the Chinese are not laughing themselves silly over how easy this has been?” He later added, “The Chi-Coms run this scam on some sort of virus, and the Americans do this?”

During this year’s State of the Union address, Trump awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom “in recognition of all that you have done for our nation, the millions of people a day that you speak to and that you inspire.”

Historian Douglas Brinkley said Trump fueled Limbaugh and others with his early response to the coronavirus, which included sweeping travel restrictions on China as well as political shots at his critics.

“He lit up the conservative movement, which followed his lead,” Brinkley said. “They knew what to do when he intimated it might be a hoax — and they have seen him belittle institutions of government for years, from the CIA to the State Department to the FBI. That has had a corrosive effect on the country.”

Brinkley added that fierce partisanship, loyalty to Trump and a conservative media complex that is inclined to play up turbulence around Trump as unfair or “fake” has left the nation divided and on edge.

An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday showed Republicans far less likely to be worried about the coronavirus, with 40 percent of Republicans sensing “the worst is yet to come” compared to 79 percent of Democrats. And 81 percent of Republicans approved of Trump’s efforts compared to 13 percent of Democrats.

Gingrich said in a phone interview from Rome — where his wife, Callista, is the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See — that many conservatives were initially prone to be dubious about the threat of the coronavirus due to “classic conservative distrust of big government” and “the bias and hostility they see in news coverage about the president that makes them assume that it’s one more lie.”

But, Gingrich said, those assumptions have started to fall away as headlines about the pandemic grip the nation.

“Facts matter,” Gingrich said. “It took a little longer for people to believe it, but they watched what happened in Italy and saw that it was not unique to China. That cut through and became real.”

 

[clueliss]

Oh and Kansas announced that schools are closed for the rest of the school year.  

[JMarie]

8 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A turning point for Trump came last week when Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whom the president regularly calls, said in his opening monologue, “This is real.”

“People you trust — people you probably voted for — have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” Carlson said.

Carlson’s riff caught Trump’s attention and was one of the factors that led the president to start to reconsider his position, according to two White House officials who requested anonymity to speak frankly.

“The conservative media echo-sphere was playing to the president’s worst tendencies, but you can almost time his turnaround publicly to how Breitbart and Tucker Carlson have been covering coronavirus,” said Sam Nunberg, who advised Trump on media in the run-up to his 2016 campaign.

As-interesting-as-an-unsalted-saltine Tucker Carlson is the one who finally changed the president's mind about the pandemic??????????

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

My school just cancelled commencement.  I told both the President and dean of students through voice and email that they had better goddamn well plan on letting any student who wants to walk do so at a time of their choosing as they said they fucking would. 

My BFF is upset because it's likely her son's university commencement, scheduled for early May, will be postponed or cancelled. I reminded her that even if they didn't postpone or cancel, the grandparents would be ill-advised to attend -- there are four grandparents in the picture, one of whom is 96 with cancer, the other three are 76+ and have assorted health issues.  I'm sure the school will do all they can to make it right for the graduates.

[Vivi_music]

I'm so scared of how things are evolving in the US. I can't believe the Canadian government is closing the border except for US citizens. Why?

 

[47of74]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

My BFF is upset because it's likely her son's university commencement, scheduled for early May, will be postponed or cancelled. I reminded her that even if they didn't postpone or cancel, the grandparents would be ill-advised to attend -- there are four grandparents in the picture, one of whom is 96 with cancer, the other three are 76+ and have assorted health issues.  I'm sure the school will do all they can to make it right for the graduates.

My grandparents didn’t come to my undergrad. I was glad they didn’t because even though they were all in good health at the time I think the place would have been too much for them. It was held in the university gym where it was hot and stuffy and they were relying on industrial fans to cool everyone down and move air.  Not all that well either. I’m surprised people didn’t pass out. A couple years later the school started using an event venue but now that they have nicer facilities they’ve the ceremonies back on to campus.  

Lots of schools will do right by their graduates. But others will not and expect the May 2020 students to be satisfied with a shitty web streaming conference call and then quietly go away until it’s time to hit them up for money.  
 

[Smee]

Australian schools are staying open. “As a father” the PM is happy to send his kids and reiterates how the virus behaves differently in kids. Completely ignores the existence of older or at-risk teachers and other staff.
I appreciate that decisions are made in line with expert advice but I wish I had some (any) confidence that their experts have actually considered teachers as humans too.

33 minutes ago, Vivi_music said:

I'm so scared of how things are evolving in the US. I can't believe the Canadian government is closing the border except for US citizens. Why?

 

I doubt it’s ACTUALLY the reason, but - compassion? They’re not going to get adequate healthcare in the US, so maybe...

[clueliss]

MO governor Parsons says they’re ramping up.  Uhhhhh Duuuuuuuude we're over a week after the first case here and you’re just now ramping up.  (Reminder, we actually elected Greitens who stepped down after repeated Scandals including AG Hawley, now in The US Senate, and from the same party, going after him.  Parsons is up for re-election this year)

St Louis has already started drive up testing. MU Health starts it today in Columbia (Jefferson City is close enough to be covered by this one).  Absolutely zero mention of Springfield (Greene county has four cases as of last night) or the Missouri side of metro KC (and there are cases of unknown origin across the state lime in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.  It’s not like this will stop at the state line).  
 

someone save us from this nitwit,  

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "Trump’s late conversion to reality leaves out his supporters"

Spoiler

Behold, the perils of the Pinocchio presidency.

For three years, President Trump told his supporters that the federal government perpetrates hoaxes and frauds, that the media produces fake news and that nothing is on the level except for his tweets. He did the same with the novel coronavirus, portraying it as an ordinary flu that would “disappear” and accusing Democrats of a hoax and the media of exaggerating.

Belatedly, Trump has begun to speak the truth about the virus, which by some estimates could kill more than 2 million Americans without attempts to control it. After an abrupt change of tone Monday afternoon, Trump continued to say the right things, using the same word on Tuesday that former vice president Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron have used: war.

“We have to get rid of this, we have to win this war, and ideally quickly,” he said in the White House briefing room. “Because the longer it takes — it’s not a good situation. And I’m not even talking about the economy, I’m talking about the lives of a lot of people.”

But Trump’s late conversion to reality has left behind one group of Americans that will be difficult to convince: his own supporters. Their alternative-facts diet has left them intolerant of anything the government and the media feed them.

An alarming new poll from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist shows that the number of Republicans who believe the virus is a real threat has actually fallen over the past month, from 72 percent in February to just 40 percent now. A majority of Republicans now say the threat has been blown out of proportion — more than double the 23 percent who said so last month.

Naturally, they’re not so inclined to cooperate with efforts to slow the virus’s spread. Only 30 percent of Republicans plan to avoid large gatherings (vs. 61 percent of Democrats), a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found just before Trump proposed such limits. Republicans were half as likely to say they were rescheduling travel and a third as likely to stop eating out at restaurants.

Key Trump allies aren’t cooperating, either. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) recommended on Monday: “If you want to go to Bob Evans and eat, go to Bob Evans and eat.”

Also Monday, Ron Paul, the former presidential candidate and father of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), said, “People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus ‘pandemic’ could be a big hoax, with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated.”

On Sunday, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik — recently pardoned by Trump — speculated that “this hysteria is being created” to “destroy” Trump’s economic success. And Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a key Trump ally, said “it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant. … Go to your local pub.” (He later tried awkwardly to recant that advice.)

Then there’s Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), who tweeted (and later deleted) a photo of him and his children at a “packed” food hall (Trump expressed his disagreement); Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), tweeting a photo of a freshly poured Corona beer at a restaurant and the message “Be smart. Don’t Panic”; and former Milwaukee County, Wis., sheriff David Clarke, once considered for a senior Trump administration job, who speculated that George Soros may be behind the virus panic and suggested: “GO INTO THE STREETS FOLKS. Visit bars, restaurants, shopping malls … ”

After weeks of false reassurances and disinformation, Trump abruptly shifted this week. At Tuesday’s briefing, he lavishly praised the government scientists and public health experts he had until lately been contradicting, and he celebrated recent bipartisanship. Though he let slip an occasional shot at Democrats and the media, he made the rare admission that “we’ve done a poor job in terms of press relationship.”

For once, he put his priority where it should be: on the human toll. “For the markets, for everything, it’s a very simple, very simple solution. We want to get rid of it. We want to have as few deaths as possible.”

He spoke to those inclined toward vacation travel: “I would recommend that they just enjoy their living room.”

And he admonished those not following social-distancing guidelines: “I’m not happy with those people.”

There can be no doubt who “those people” are: Fox-News viewing Trump supporters who, until this week, had been encouraged to believe Trump’s claims that the virus was well under control.

At one point Tuesday, Fox News’s John Roberts asked Trump to move closer to the microphone so the “people at home” could hear him.

“You’re right, those are very important people,” Trump said to Roberts. “Especially your people.”

He’s got that right. After encouraging his Fox fan base for weeks to scoff at the virus, Trump now finds that his presidency, the U.S. economy and countless lives depend on him convincing them otherwise.

 

[JMarie]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Also Monday, Ron Paul, the former presidential candidate and father of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), said, “People should ask themselves whether this coronavirus ‘pandemic’ could be a big hoax, with the actual danger of the disease massively exaggerated.”

This one's especially scary, because he's an MD. He should know better.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Bars learn the hard way that ‘shut-it-down’ for coronavirus means exactly that"

Spoiler

Minutes after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) announced Sunday that he was shutting down all of the state’s bars and restaurants, the owner of Snappers Bar & Grill had already made his decision: He was staying open.

“How am I supposed to pay my employees and utilities and everything else if we are closed?” owner Joe Sartie said in an interview with the Bloomington Pantagraph. “I may lose this battle, but I run a business. I need to be open.”

So, late into Monday night, drinks were served and the jukebox was booming. Located in Clinton, a town of about 7,000 in central Illinois, Snappers was open for business — but not for long.

Angry comments poured in on the bar’s since-deleted Facebook post from those alarmed by a defiant owner, who said he’d still be open even if he got arrested and had to bail out. “I’ll run this place on my own if I have to,” Sartie told the Daily Beast on Tuesday.

Eventually, the criticism became too much. By Tuesday evening, Snappers said it would follow the governor’s orders and be open for take-out-only. In a post on the bar’s Facebook page, Sartie’s 19-year-old daughter said she understood “where he went wrong,” but pleaded that the hateful comments directed at her father come to an end. (Sartie did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.)

“I see both sides of the issue, I truly do,” Jenna Sartie wrote. “I also wish you others would see the side of the issue where it’s sad to tell your employees that they have no income, that you have no income, and amongst other things.”

More than a dozen states and the District have ordered bars and restaurants to close because of the covid-19 pandemic. There were scattered reports of resistance and in some cases, law enforcement has had to step in.

In Cincinnati, police showed up at the Queen City Lounge on Monday night to find 40 people inside with some eating from a full buffet, according to WLWT. The bar had already received a warning on Sunday night, but put up a sign on the door that said “members only” in an apparent attempt to skirt the law, police said. That plan failed.

So there would be no mistake that the bar was closed, police and a handyman boarded up the door with plywood on Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Cincinnati Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate, WLWT reported. “I understand that people want to get out. But we’re just like everybody else. We’re staying at home and abiding by what the governor put out.”

Elsewhere, it didn’t help that Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. At the Rainbow Cafe in Pendleton, Ore., Irish coffees and green beers were served all around as jigs blared through the speakers, the East Oregonian reported Tuesday. Then the state liquor commission got word and gave the bar a call.

The owner, Joanne McGee, returned to customers teary-eyed after hanging up, the East Oregonian reported.

“They’re going to have to come and physically shut me down,” she said.

By 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, everyone in the bar was gone. The Oregon State Police said they would be coming to shut it down by 5, the paper reported.

Other bar and restaurant owners threatened defiance, only to begrudgingly, and quickly, comply after mass blowback. That was the case for Steve Smith, the owner of Tootsies Orchid Lounge and Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock 'n’ Roll Steakhouse in Nashville, who initially called the mayor’s restrictions “unconstitutional” before relenting on Monday.

The owner of the Wok About Grill in Washington state also said he would defy the order of Gov. Jay Inslee (D) before changing his mind.

“I will not comply,” Wok About Grill owner Shon Smith wrote on the business’s since-deleted Facebook page, according to KREM. “Families are at risk. Help will not come fast enough to keep the wolves at bay."

As in the case of Snappers Bar & Grill, the backlash and threats piled up. Wok About Grill got a phone call from the sheriff. And by Monday afternoon, the owner reversed course. Because of the threats, he told the Wenatchee World that his concerns had shifted to his employees’ safety, which he said “is more important than the almighty dollar.”

“We really appreciate that he decided to do the right thing,” Chelan-Douglas Health District Administrator Barry Kling told the newspaper.

 

[JMarie]

10 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

At least Fox had the decency to remove Trish Regan.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trish-regan-coronavirus-impeachment-scam-fox-business-network-benches-hiatus

Quote

The Fox Business Network anchor Trish Regan has been removed from her prime time slot indefinitely following a troubling monologue earlier this week in which she asserted that the reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was “yet another attempt to impeach the President.”

“Trish Regan Primetime” is “on hiatus until further notice,” Fox Business Network said in a statement shared with TPM. The New York Times first reported the news.

 

[Vivi_music]

11 hours ago, Smee said:

Australian schools are staying open. “As a father” the PM is happy to send his kids and reiterates how the virus behaves differently in kids. Completely ignores the existence of older or at-risk teachers and other staff.
I appreciate that decisions are made in line with expert advice but I wish I had some (any) confidence that their experts have actually considered teachers as humans too.

I doubt it’s ACTUALLY the reason, but - compassion? They’re not going to get adequate healthcare in the US, so maybe...

So people could come get healthcare in Canada? I mean, in a normal situation, I wouldn't mind if a US citizen would wish to come get any kind of treatment here (and pay for it of course).

But in the present situation of a pandemic, we here in Canada are also affected by this. The respond to the virus has been different from province to province (considering health care and education for example are provincial jurisdictions). But in my province, our provincial government has responded quite fast and drastically to the crisis by shuting almost everything down - even faster than some province that had way more cases. The main goal is to ''flatten the curve''. The idea is to give the healthcare system time. By isolating everyone, we don't expect the virus to NOT spread at all. But it will spread during a longer span of time and that way the healthcare system won't be overwhelmed with patients coming in at the same time. That way there will be enough beds to treat people who need treatment.

So people coming in from another country and wishing treatment here, while we are doing tons of sacrifice to help OUR healthcare system? Hmmmm? (Believe me, I don't want to appear selfish. I feel for everyone in the US. There are a lot of shortcoming to the american healthcare system, and it is not the population's fault. In fact, they are victims more than anything.)

And update about the border: Trump confirms Canada-U.S. border closing, ahead of Trudeau address

It seems the border will close, but only trading goods will be allowed. Finally.

[Alisamer]

So my boss is already hinting that while he's going to try to keep open, he may have to let everyone go so we can apply for unemployment. Everyone is working very reduced hours, because the majority of our customers are closed or minimally open. He's actually hoping for "shelter in place" orders or mandatory closing, as that makes it more likely for us to be able to get assistance. 

Any help from the government may come too late for us as a company. If I could get immediate unemployment and the money coming to individuals comes through, AND I can get a break on my bills from the banks I might be able to get through this. 

If it wasn't for the money issue, I'd be thrilled to have a few weeks off work. But as it is? I might be researching bankruptcy. 

(Also, my sister is in quarantine - she has COVID symptoms and tests negative for flu and strep, so until she can get a coronavirus test she's quarantined as a precaution. It may be a few days until she can get a test, however.)

[Caskett4ever]

This has all been insane. I was in Ireland on a school trip when things really took a turn for the worst. I don't think I'll ever forget the image of my classmate pounding on my door at 1:30 in the morning, telling me that Trump had issued an EU travel ban and we needed to get the hell out of there, nor the craziness that followed as we woke our other classmates up, tried to find last minute flights that didn't cost a fortune, and try to figure out what exactly this ban applied to. By the time we realized that it didn't apply to US citizens and that Ireland wasn't included in the initial ban, half of my classmates had already booked flights home.

The rest of us spent the next few days barely leaving the hotel because our professor didn't want us exposed. The day we did leave (Sunday) was insane. We got to the airport six hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. We spent three hours checking in, going through security, and going through customs. During this process, they gave us a form to fill out about where we had recently traveled to and if we had any symptoms, but no one actually looked at it (one of my classmates even asked the customs agent if he needed to have the form and he didn't know anything about the form). Perhaps it would have been different if we had recently traveled to one of the countries where the ban had taken affect (it didn't apply to Ireland or the UK until Monday). We waited a few hours at the gate, boarded on time, and then waited on the plane for four hours because so many people were still going through customs. Even with that, fifty people missed the flight. When we touched down in the states, we were able to grab our bags and go. While we were very glad to be able to get out of there, we also thought it was a bit concerning that we had gone through no health screenings whatsoever.

Now I've been staying at home, only leaving the house to walk the dog. Online classes start next week and they will go through the rest of the semester. Graduation is cancelled, which I'm pretty bummed about, though I feel worse for the seniors who will never get to walk at college graduation (I'm graduating with my Masters so I've already walked once). There's a petition going around for them to postpone it later into the summer instead.

It certainly will be an interesting few months.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

16 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

So my boss is already hinting that while he's going to try to keep open, he may have to let everyone go so we can apply for unemployment. Everyone is working very reduced hours, because the majority of our customers are closed or minimally open. He's actually hoping for "shelter in place" orders or mandatory closing, as that makes it more likely for us to be able to get assistance. 

Any help from the government may come too late for us as a company. If I could get immediate unemployment and the money coming to individuals comes through, AND I can get a break on my bills from the banks I might be able to get through this. 

If it wasn't for the money issue, I'd be thrilled to have a few weeks off work. But as it is? I might be researching bankruptcy. 

(Also, my sister is in quarantine - she has COVID symptoms and tests negative for flu and strep, so until she can get a coronavirus test she's quarantined as a precaution. It may be a few days until she can get a test, however.)

I am so sorry things are rough for you.  I really hope the government can get it's shit together and put policies in place to keep things afloat for people who need it (and the businesses who employ them.)

Sending good thoughts to your sister - I can't imagine how nervous she (and your family) must be.

[elliha]

My region got their first "mystery case" where there is no clear path for where the virus comes from so we might soon have an established free spread here too. The bigger city regions are getting worse but new units for care are being established and still we have relatively few people in critical condition. They say that they expect a peak late this week or early next week for Stockholm but how big is not clear yet. It is scary but I still feel like life goes on. We still only have 20 known cases here which is much lower than the big city regions so I don't feel scared going outside or anything like that. 

Daughter is recovered and will of God is good go to school tomorrow and I will either work from home for another day or go to work. I am recovered now but I might just wait one more day just to make sure. If no more mystery illness presents itself I will go to work on Friday.

We have 10 dead now, still all of the people who have died are elderly. I am not saying that like the elderly do not matter, it is an indication that we are still early in the development which I guess is both scary and good because that means that there are still many more peaks to come but still hope of keeping the numbers of dead as low as possible. We have had a first spead in an home for the elderly, four were infected and one died. The other elderly appearently had mild cases. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by elliha

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Another brutal and effective ad from the Lincoln Project:

 

[zeebaneighba]

22 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I was just getting dressed to go out and vote.  My son and I spoke about hand sanitizer, leaving if crowded, etc.

I will make sure I do early voting for the general.  But for the primary...I don't know after reading this.  I don't know if my Biden by default vote is worth venturing out.  

My first day working from home didn't go as well as I'd planned.  I was thinking of scrapping and going in as usual tomorrow...I have my own office and can sequester.  But then I spoke to @Destiny who, nicely, reminded me not to be foolish and gave me some tips about being productive working from home.

My son works in a nursing home, I'd never forgive myself if I brought the virus home and he carried it to work.  I just made up my mind about voting....Joe is going to have to take this one without me.

The Kansas Democratic party switched from caucusing to a ranked-choice primary this year.  Because of that, they already had plans to mail a mail-in ballot the every registered Democrat in the state.  IDK if the polls will still be open on primary day, but through an incredibly fortunate bit of pre-planning, everyone will get a chance to vote.

Not that it will matter.  We don't vote until May.  As it will most certainly be a foregone conclusion by then, I'm going to vote for who I would have voted for had everyone still been in the race.  I'm a liberal in Kansas; I'm used to my vote not counting for shit.

 

[clueliss]

Missouri election in early april moved to June 2.  This isn't the presidential primary.  This is local and judicial election.  

[47of74]

4 hours ago, Caskett4ever said:

Graduation is cancelled, which I'm pretty bummed about, though I feel worse for the seniors who will never get to walk at college graduation (I'm graduating with my Masters so I've already walked once). There's a petition going around for them to postpone it later into the summer instead.

I hope your school listens and postpones or lets people walk at a future commencement.  

As I said my law school called off our commencement but has committed to letting us May graduates walk sometime - they'll either try to reschedule to sometime later this year or let us walk at a future event.    

I think all schools need to look at either postponing or giving students the opportunity to walk at a future event if they want.  Especially if the students invested a lot of time and money in their educations.    

1 hour ago, zeebaneighba said:

The Kansas Democratic party switched from caucusing to a ranked-choice primary this year.  Because of that, they already had plans to mail a mail-in ballot the every registered Democrat in the state.  IDK if the polls will still be open on primary day, but through an incredibly fortunate bit of pre-planning, everyone will get a chance to vote.

Not that it will matter.  We don't vote until May.  As it will most certainly be a foregone conclusion by then, I'm going to vote for who I would have voted for had everyone still been in the race.  I'm a liberal in Kansas; I'm used to my vote not counting for shit.

 

One of the reasons Iowa's caucus was such a giant cluster fuck with barbed wire and rusty railroad spikes on top was that we did the ranked choice voting too in the caucuses.  I decided after wasting 2.5 hours of my life I'll never get back at that fucking thing it was the last caucus I'll ever attend.  Iowa and the whole country need a better system.