Government Response to Coronavirus 3: Locked Down

[fraurosena]

39 minutes ago, Italiangirl said:

but we will probably start to reopen some buisness around Easter

Shhh!!! Don't tell Trump!

Edited March 30, 2020 by fraurosena
freaking merged posts again!

[fraurosena]

Today, to the consternation of the European Council, The European Parliament and human rights organisations,  the Hungarian parliament voted 137 - 53 for a bill that gives Viktor Orbán unlimited power. Orbán says this is necessary to be able to combat the corona virus. The state of emergency in the country has been indefinitely prolonged and the elections have been cancelled. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Virginia and Maryland are now under stay at home orders. The governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, announced that people who violate the order are subject to being charged with a misdemeanor. I can't see how they will be able to enforce it.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Virginia and Maryland are now under stay at home orders. The governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, announced that people who violate the order are subject to being charged with a misdemeanor. I can't see how they will be able to enforce it.

This may be one of those times that the threat is effective in and of itself for some.

For the people who want to obey and have bosses who are being unreasonable even though they could work from home this is their ticket - few companies are going to go on record ordering employees to break the law.

And they can enforce it when people are gathering and being jackasses and at least cut down on some of it.  

[clueliss]

DC is also under stay at home

And the Girl Scouts are offering cookies online

Spoiler

 

Parts of Russia on lockdown

Quote

 

Missouri has over 1000 cases.  13 deaths.  And a governor still unwilling to go state wide lockdown - but did say, hey hunker down for 2-3 months.

Spoiler

 

Ford/GM set to produce 50k ventilators in 100 days

 

[Ozlsn]

Our PM has announced a "Jobkeeper" stimulus to pay people whose employers want to keep them on but who currently have no work to be able to do so. This is a huge relief for my friends who have small businesses, as they don't want to lose the staff they have. The cynical part of me wonders if this was because the outrage over the unliveability of Newstart (now rebranded "Jobseeker" - our unemployment benefit) and how crap the system is - even more so while it was being flooded in a predictable way by people who had lost their jobs - was getting to a level where change to raise the allowance might actually happen. Jobkeeper is a higher payment than Job seeker, so those who were already on the dole, or whose employers don't want/can't keep them even with the payment, are still being utterly screwed over.

Meanwhile the number of confirmed cases in my local area is 35. People still think that this means that that is the total number of cases, and miss the word confirmed. The actual number is anyone's guess - I've seen estimates from 3-10 times as many. To get tested here you need to have been in contact with a confirmed case, have travelled from an infected area overseas, be in a facility or remote community with two cases, or turn up to hospital in respiratory distress. Healthcare workers get high priority testing (thank God), but it still means that there are potentially a lot of people who have been exposed and/or are infectious out there - and some of them have headed off on holiday to the coast or mountains, oblivious to the fact that the nearest hospital with a HDU is now over 100km away. Because they're healthy and won't need it! *headdesk*

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Ozlsn

[WiseGirl]

Not big city but the superintendent of the city I work in just did a robocall about staying in small groups, keeping your kids home, no parties, etc.  Ffs we will be the next big area to be hit in my state. Just stay home!

[47of74]

Thanks a fucking lot Massie 

Quote

WASHINGTON - New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat who attended Friday's House session to pass a $2 trillion rescue package, says Monday in a statement that she has a presumed coronavirus infection.

Velazquez, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, stood within feet of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic and Republican leaders at a signing ceremony after the bill was passed.

If I was a rep in Congress I’d be demanding that fuck Massie be expelled right about now. 

[Smee]

Australia:

- 4250 cases

- 18 deaths

- majority still from overseas travel 

- People are being fined for having house parties etc, since the government has told us no more than 2 people gathering from outside the same household.

- Latest stimulus announced yesterday called “jobkeeper” payments, where the government will basically pay people’s wages up to $1500/fortnight, but rather than doing so through the welfare system they’re paying the businesses who then pass it on (checks in place to make sure the full amount goes to the worker). The idea is to keep people employed so when this is over the people go back to work in the same workplaces, keep their cumulative leave entitlements etc. I don’t like our government but I do think this is a very good move and will help many people I know who lost jobs. More info here: https://www.google.com.au/amp/amp.abc.net.au/article/12103108

 

oh, sorry, I didn’t see I’d cross-posted with ozlsn 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Smee

[Ozlsn]

29 minutes ago, Smee said:

oh, sorry, I didn’t see I’d cross-posted with ozlsn 

Your explanation is better. Mine is more politically cynical. I agree on balance it is a good, if amazingly unprecedented (3 stimulus packages! In a row! By the LNP!! It is indeed the end times) thing and will hopefully help us return to normal - but I'd like that normal to recognise that Newstart is unliveable and that we have a social housing shortage etc. So normal, but with positive change.  In the short term I just want the testing to be ramped up quicker so we know what is going on outside the severe cases, and can start working on better targeted prevention of transmission. 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Ozlsn

[Cartmann99]

On 3/28/2020 at 9:44 PM, 47of74 said:

I have never been in Texas in my entire fornicating life.

Due to two car accidents last fall, we temporarily ended up with rental cars with out of state plates while our insurance company was settling the claims on the totaled vehicles. Anyhoo, one of my deceased relatives would have dusted off the nickname they came up with for me when I lived the Texas panhandle because we had New York and Minnesota plates on two of the cars. Also, too, and by the way, I've never been to Iowa, so we're even now.

In local news, even though we had some folks playing that cute little game of 'We don't live in a big city, and we love Trump and the Baby Jesus, so there's no way the virus is gonna hop I-35* and get to us!', cases are now spreading throughout the western part of the state. Our mayor is making noises about a modified shelter-in-place order, and the usual suspects are throwing hissy fits about that.

One of the doctors at a local hospital is using social media to organize an sewing circle to make masks for our healthcare workers, because the handwriting is glowing on the damn wall that we're gonna run out of masks for everybody and something is better than nothing.

While some residents are staying at home as much as possible like our governor has asked us to do, I live a couple of blocks from the busiest street in town, and I can hear the traffic zooming by if my kitchen window is open, or I step out into the backyard. The kids were drag racing on Friday and Saturday night, which is what happens every weekend, so there you go. My neighbors two houses down threw a party Friday night, and were out in their backyard drunk as as bunch of skunks singing George Strait songs well into Saturday morning. In other words, more people are going to die because of the folks who refuse to use the brain that the good Lord Rufus gave them.

On a more humorous note, our cats are now making special guest appearances on camera during Mr. Cartmann99's virtual office hours and in videos of him working out the solutions for homework problems.

*I don't expect non-Texans to have intimate knowledge of the highway system in Texas. If you tell me XYZ is happening along route whatever-the-hell in a state I don't live in, Google is my friend. Anyway, when you hear about places in Texas on the news, it's probably either along I-35 or east of it because the only place west of I-35 with a population of 500,000 or more is El Paso. In between El Paso and I-35, it's all smaller cities and towns, and a whole bunch of places where the livestock outnumbers the human population. 

For those enjoy visual aids, I-35 is in red in the map below.

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Dandruff]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Virginia and Maryland are now under stay at home orders. The governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, announced that people who violate the order are subject to being charged with a misdemeanor. I can't see how they will be able to enforce it.

I was grocery shopping (finally!) when that happened.  Coming home, there seemed to be noticeably fewer people wandering around than there have been.  OTOH, I keep hearing about folks who are doing things they shouldn't, so I hope there are a few legit, publicized arrests to help violators get the message.

I'm so glad to have more food but between the precautions, sanitizing, and physical effort I'm wiped.  I've showered and my clothes are soaking in a mild bleach solution.  I'm going to be sore for days...if I'm lucky.  Not fun, at all.  But I don't think I'll need to shop again for a good, long while.  Have lots of protein foods.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

OEN just asked Trump if he approves of states putting corona victims over the children killed by their mothers in elective abortions every day and gave stats.

He pivoted back to corona.  

Is he medicated or does someone have him under a spell as he's very subdued and far more human seeming in affect than normal.

[Smee]

1 minute ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

OEN just asked Trump if he approves of states putting corona victims over the children killed by their mothers in elective abortions every day and gave stats.

A question like that deserves a slap across the face. 

[Ozlsn]

46 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

The kids were drag racing on Friday and Saturday night,

Judging by the increase in skid marks on the local streets our local hoons are taking advantage of everyone staying home to do burnouts everywhere.

Don't think they realised the cops are still out...  

[GreyhoundFan]

31 minutes ago, Smee said:

A question like that deserves a slap across the face. 

Or, if a male reporter, a kick in the nuts.

[apple1]

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Or, if a male reporter, a kick in the nuts.

It was a woman.

I saw only bits and pieces of this, partly because of doing other things and checking in between, partly because POTUS was getting on my last nerve, partly because my channel of choice is CNN and thankfully they cut away from much of the advertising, once Lindell (my pillow guy) started in on his spiel. Then CNN went back I guess when the Q&A started. I heard the abortion question.

Anyway - I was wondering what outlet that woman was representing. I don't think I even knew OEN existed.

I quit listening again when POTUS started in on Jim Acosta and CNN.

 

[fraurosena]

Wait... OEN isn’t a typo, but an actual acronym? Oh my deer Rufus, that’s hilarious! 

The word oen means idiot in Dutch.

How appropriate.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

1 minute ago, fraurosena said:

Wait... OEN isn’t a typo, but an actual acronym? Oh my deer Rufus, that’s hilarious! 

The word oen means idiot in Dutch.

How appropriate.

It sounded like OEN to me, but I just double checked and it's OAN.  

Sorry for the confusion - but they are still idiots.

[thoughtful]

I looked it up because I didn't know what it stood for, and saw the Dutch translation.

Are you sure it wasn't OAN, though, @HerNameIsBuffy?

 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

4 minutes ago, thoughtful said:

I looked it up because I didn't know what it stood for, and saw the Dutch translation.

Are you sure it wasn't OAN, though, @HerNameIsBuffy?

 

 

You're right, see my post above.  

I need a mea culpa response icon.

[GreyhoundFan]

I can't stand OAN, they're even worse than Faux. I'm very careful at work about not saying anything political, but one day I was on a one-on-one call with my manager. He's in a rather red state. He mentioned how Faux is just "too liberal" and recommended that I start watching OAN. I was so taken aback, I was able to choke out a good generic, "you don't say". I really wanted to tell him I'd rather have a root canal without anesthesia than watch that crap.

[thoughtful]

9 minutes ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

You're right, see my post above.  

Oops, missed that.

Mea culpa, now.

[Cartmann99]

OAN is the network that launched Tomi Lahren's career.

[Howl]

44 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

OAN is the network that launched Tomi Lahren's career.

I don't quite have words to respond to that, although I would put career in quotes: "career"

So glad to see you posting again, @Cartmann99.  I was worried something had happened to you or maybe you're following the political forum and I haven't been posting there.  

We drove through West Texas on I 10 on the last day of Feb and came back a week later and stayed in Van Horn by chance coming and going.  What an odd little town.  I was gobsmacked to learn that Jeff Bezos has bought 290,000 acres (not a typo) just north of  Van Horn for some space tourism development and the 10,000 Year Clock.   Van Horn is not close to anything; it's an old railroad town with the original remodeled railroad hotel (El Capitan) and a nice restaurant, although I doubt the train stops there anymore.  Numerous motels and not many signs of prosperity.  I did see a sign for a Christ-centered motel, B.A.S.I.C. Lodgings.  The letters stand for Brothers and Sisters in Christ. 

Now, where was I? Hillsborough County (Tampa) is having none of it with this megachurch continuing to hold services; church lawyers claim religious discrimination: 

Police arrest Florida pastor for holding church services despite stay-at-home order

Edited March 31, 2020 by Howl