No its not, that's an out of context part of the quote. Quote the full uninterrupted quote, the full sentence. Cherrypicking a fraction of a sentence to twist its meaning is intellectually very dishonest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
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No its not, that's an out of context part of the quote. Quote the full uninterrupted quote, the full sentence. Cherrypicking a fraction of a sentence to twist its meaning is intellectually very dishonest.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Rumours at work today that the local council is this far *holds up thumb and finger close together* from closing all schools for 8 weeks, so that should be a laugh.
Italy is in a complete lock down.
There's now a ban in my region on gatherings of more than 250 people. This virus is going to be a great opportunity for any country that wants to quietly switch into being a police state like China.
Speaking of intellectual dishonestyQuote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Trump bans all flights between the US and the EU.
Lucky EU.
We have our first school closing of the area. Disney groups are losing their god damn minds over the travel ban and directive to self quarantine when returning from over seas trips; trying to predict when the parks will close. All these people bragging about snagging cheap flights for minivacations seem to be the new anti-vaxxers. And to top it off the GOP blocked a bill that would provide for sick leave because that's how fucked up our workers rights are.
Trump’s Speech Shows He Has No Idea What to Do About the Coronavirus
The lies and anti-intellectualism in the rest of the sentence dont change anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Please quote the full, uninterrupted sentence and tell me where the "lies" or "anti-intellectualism" is.
Shit has officially hit the fan, Cracker Barrel has removed all checker and peg games from their restaurants. :mad:
Government has temporarily extended sick pay rights (normally only get sick pay from 4th day of illness, changed to first day onwards) and said that the Government will refund all SSP paid by small businesses (<250 employees) to employees for 14 days per employee. Very good move IMO.
If we're asking people to self-isolate for 14 days then it makes sense to pay them - and it makes sense for the government to shoulder that cost from businesses.
Insurance Industry Corrects Trump: Actually, We're Only Waiving Copays for Coronavirus Testing, Not Treatment
https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...ys-coronavirus
and testing is still such a pain to get approved that patients are still being put through a battery of tests to rule out other illnesses and that is resulting in hundreds or thousands of dollars in charges. Never put it past american healthcare to bankrupt as many people as possible.
What part of the bit about prompt testing and isolation causing fewer people to get infected does the US administration still not get?
Spot On:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...crisis/607867/
Quote:
The Worst Outcome
If somebody other than Donald Trump were in the White House, the coronavirus crisis would not be unfolding this way.
-David Frum
At every turn, President Trump’s policy regarding coronavirus has unfolded as if guided by one rule: How can I make this crisis worse?
Presidents are not all-powerful, especially not in the case of pandemic disease. There are limits to what they can do, for good or ill. But within those limits, at every juncture, Trump’s actions have ensured the worst possible outcomes. The worst outcome for public health. The worst outcome for the American economy. The worst outcome for American global leadership.
Trump’s Oval Office speech of March 11 was the worst action yet in a string of bad actions.
Here are the things the president did not do in that speech.
He offered no guidance or policy on how to prevent the spread of the disease inside the United States. Should your town cancel its St. Patrick’s Day parade? What about theatrical productions and sporting events? Classes at schools and colleges? Nothing.
He offered no explanation of what went wrong with the U.S. testing system, nor any assurance of when testing would become more widely available. His own previous promises of testing for anyone who needs it have been exploded as false. So what is true? Nothing.
Layoffs are coming, probably on a very large scale, as travel collapses and people hunker down at home. Any word for those about to lose their jobs? Only the vaguest indication that something might be announced sometime soon.
It’s good to hear that there will be no co-pays on the tests nobody seems able to get. What about other health-care coverage? Any word on that? Nothing.
The financial markets have plunged into a 2008-style crash, auguring a recession, perhaps a severe one. The Trump administration has had almost two months to think about this crisis. It has trial-ballooned some ideas. But, of course, fiscal policy would require assent from the House of Representatives. Trump is still pouting at Speaker Nancy Pelosi. So—aside from some preposterously unconvincing happy talk about the economy—again: nothing.
There was one something in the speech: a ban on travel from Europe, but not the United Kingdom. It’s a classic Trump formulation. It seeks to protect America by erecting a wall against the world, without thinking very hard how or whether the wall can work. The disease is already here. The numbers only look low because of our prior failure to provide adequate testing. They will not look low even four days from now. And those infected with the virus can travel from other countries and on other routes. Trump himself has already met some.
The travel ban is an act of panic. Financial futures began crashing even as Trump was talking, perhaps shocked by his lack of an economic plan, perhaps aghast at his latest attack on world trade. (The speech seemed to suggest an embargo on European-sourced cargo as well, but that looks more like a mental lapse of Trump’s than a real policy announcement. The ban on cargo was retracted by a post-speech tweet, although the ban remains in the posted transcript of the speech.) Among other things, the ban represents one more refutation by Trump of any idea of collective security against collective threats. While China offers medical assistance to Italy, he wants to sever ties to former friends—isolating America and abandoning the world.
This crisis is not of Trump’s making. What he is responsible for is his failure to respond promptly, and then his perverse and counterproductive choice of how to respond when action could be avoided no longer. Trump, in his speech, pleaded for an end to finger-pointing. It’s a strange thing for this president of all presidents to say. No American president, and precious few American politicians, have ever pointed so many fingers or hurled so much abuse as Donald Trump. What he means, of course, is: Don’t hold me to account for the things I did.
But he did do them, and he owns responsibility for those things. He cannot escape it, and he will not escape it.
More people will get sick because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge. More people will suffer the financial hardship of sickness because of his presidency than if somebody else were in charge. The medical crisis will arrive faster and last longer than if somebody else were in charge. So, too, the economic crisis. More people will lose their jobs than if somebody else were in charge. More businesses will be pushed into bankruptcy than if somebody else were in charge. More savers will lose more savings than if somebody else were in charge. The damage to America’s global leadership will be greater than if somebody else were in charge.
There is always something malign in Trump’s incompetence. He has no care or concern for others; he cannot absorb the trouble and suffering of others as real. He monotones his way through words of love and compassion, but those words plainly have no content or meaning for him. The only thing that is real is his squalid vanity. This virus threatens to pierce that vanity, so he denied it as long as he could. What he refuses to acknowledge cannot be real, can it?
And even now that he has acknowledged the crisis, he still cannot act, because he does not know what to do. His only goal now is to shove blame onto others. Americans have to face the fact that in the grip of this pandemic, the Oval Office is for all practical purposes as empty as the glazed eyes of the man who spoke from that office tonight.
Alexander is right, why should employers (many of whom are struggling more than their employees are) foot the bill for a pandemic? The government should.
This is something the government should do and I don't care about principles of small governance, pandemics are an exception to the norm.
We finally are getting some directions from the government that actually may help to mitigate this crisis
* self isolate with any symptoms of cold or flu
* work at home unless this is impossible
* all gatherings of more than 100 people are canceled
* schools stay open
So the NBA season is on hold. Oh and this guy legit has the virus
Twitter Link
The Republicans can introduce their own bill to do exactly that any time they like.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Just whenever they're ready.
At any point... now.
Now?
*crickets*
Also:
Fuck off, lolQuote:
(many of whom are struggling more than their employees are)
That presupposes Alexander isn't just reaching for a convenient excuse and the GOP in the Senate wouldn't block a bill with such general sick-leave provisions even when the government would be underwriting them. The GOP being the way it is, it would block such a bill even harder. The only such bill they'd be willing to pass is one addressing this specific outbreak only, and then probably only with reluctance.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
His address to the nation was a hot mess. His European travel ban had to be walked back -- who the hell wrote that speech? And it just doesn't make sense to give exemptions to the UK (didn't their Health Minister test positive?) as if the virus can differentiate between 'certain' people. :bulb:Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
Collective security against collective threats? Ha, we don't have a NHS like the UK. Our healthcare infrastructure is based on private insurance and for-profit entities, and some 30 million people routinely fall thru the cracks, millions more during a crisis. Now Trump is talking about "possible" travel restrictions within US "hot spots".
He exempted the UK to protect his own financial interests, see below. As usual, he's not concerned about the nation as much as about himself. And really, what the fuck is banning travel from Europe supposed to accomplish anyway?Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/0...resorts-126808Quote:
Trump’s travel ban sidesteps his own European resorts
Bit surprised there aren't a lot of diagrams of the age-structure of Congress floating around right now.
The local school that was closed today played basketball against my daughter's school last night.
"Social distancing" is about as clear as mud.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/w...irus-news.html
Days after being with Trump and Pence, Brazilian official tests positive for the virus, reports say.
I hope Pelosi's been more careful, because if those two idiots get sick, she's the new president.Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
And she'll be 80 yrs old soon :eek:
I'm not backing the GOP here. I before that link was posted said how pleased I was that the government here was improving Sick Pay and footing the bill for it for small businesses. I 100% think the Federal US Government should do the same thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy
Having a good point is not justification to do nothing.
I specifically in that post said that this is something the government should do!
Re. Lewk"myheadisstuckupmyass"owski's recent question about why we're treating Trump so unfairly when he's doing everything any other alternative leader would've needed to do:
Twitter Link
As one person pointed out, this was a long, televised speech, read from a teleprompter.
Rand, the GOP (the Trump Party) has spent the last few years deconstructing the administrative state, demonizing teh federal government, denying science, and de-legitimizing experts. That includes public health. They're not going to upscale massive "free" testing -- they're still planning on cutting food assistance programs to the working poor, and Medicaid expansion.
*cough* Freeee Markets :donkey:
State of emergency declared in Latvia. Schools are closed, public events with attendance >200 people cancelled, international travel restricted, among other things.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN20Y2LM
Exclusive: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - sources
Just goes to show how being dependent on the government to get things right doesn't work out too well. :0 And I STILL think we are in overreaction mode and that the China Corona-virus will kill less people in America than the flu will this year. Gonna be a hella annoyed if a couple of events I wanted to get to this year get cancelled.
Meanwhile, US legislators are hard at work "negotiating" a covid19 stimulus response.....
https://www.rollcall.com/2020/03/12/...pects-changes/
"A senior administration official said the White House had "serious concerns" with the House bill, including the fact that coverage reimbursements don't reference the so-called Hyde amendment, which prevents the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. The administration also doesn't like the bill's 8 percentage-point increase in Medicaid matching funds."
:picard:
Is that based on gov't collected data or just your "hunch"? :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski
Twitter Link
No one is allowed to say 'but how will we afford it' ever again
We're all Socialists now lol
Twitter Link
Almost waiting for them to walk this back or make sure the people who need to know never find out.
It's a loan tbh but yeah.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Glint
Since we all know that the degree to which Lewk cares about something is heavily dependent by how much it affects him and his or those identical to him and his, I'm going to guess. . . his grandparents have all died already and his parents, if they're still alive, are not yet of an age or possessing negative health factors which place them in a high risk group.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski