COVID-19 Megathread 4: Grandma Got Run Over by the Dow Jones

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U.S. dairy farmers dump milk

Such a waste!

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The idea that investments to stop pandemics are seen as unprofitable spending towards public health is a major reason why we are in this mess

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Turning central park into a graveyard seems like something out of a SciFi movie.  Surely they can find something to do with the bodies that's less damaging to morale?

Well they could use private facilities, but that would either require paying massive rent to the landlords or possessing the space without paying an insane amount. The former would be unwise during a recession while the latter would be decried as socialism and thus rejected by the handlers of NYC, NY State, the US, and beyond. They’re really stuck in a jar of cowardice.

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Turning central park into a graveyard seems like something out of a SciFi movie.  Surely they can find something to do with the bodies that's less damaging to morale?

Well they could use private facilities, but that would either require paying massive rent to the landlords or possessing the space without paying an insane amount. The former would be unwise during a recession while the latter would be decried as socialism and thus rejected by the handlers of NYC, NY State, the US, and beyond. They’re really stuck in a jar of cowardice.

They'd probably use Hart Island (which is already where unclaimed corpses are buried in NYC) if it came to it. "Burying bodies in parks" is a stupid way to describe that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_Island_(Bronx)

They probably will in the end, but they’ll be stuck in the same conundrum once the bodies overflow there. I wonder if we could see large cremation operations going underway, with and without consent.

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United States deports Haitians despite coronavirus fears

Some U.S. lawmakers, immigration advocates and Haitian human rights activists said it was irresponsible for the United States to continue deportations to Haiti, which is ill-equipped to contain any outbreak of disease due to inadequate sanitation infrastructure and healthcare services.

The densely populated country last month closed its borders after detecting its first two cases of the novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory illness COVID-19, a tally that has since risen to 25 compared to more than 380,000 in the United States.

None of the deportees on Tuesday had any symptoms before boarding the flight, although they had not been tested for the virus and could be asymptomatic, Haiti’s foreign minister, Claude Joseph, told a virtual news conference.

There is no other characterization of this act other then being one borne out of pure maliciousness.

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The MTA’s COVID19 Response Is Killing NYC Workers

As the Coronavirus crisis worsens, massive numbers of workers who cannot afford to isolate themselves are forced to ride packed NYC subway cars, with untold numbers becoming ill from the overcrowding. This is a result of the massive cuts to the city’s mass transit service, which were made despite the need for social distancing. City transit workers are finally getting some protective gear, but it is far too little too late for the 41 workers who have already died and the more than 1,100 who have contracted the virus. And there is no protective gear supplied to the people who have to keep riding the trains during the pandemic.

As early as March 19, it was publicly announced that 23 MTA workers — who work in the city and in the broader metropolitan area — had tested positive for the Coronavirus. At least three of those workers were stationed at the Fresh Pond Bus Depot in Queens. The workers’ union, TWU local 100, called on the MTA to “arrange for expedited testing of its front-line employees and to consider taking additional aggressive steps to protect them.”  The MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foyle replied that the employees who had been in direct contact with the three Fresh Pond workers were in quarantine and that workplaces would be “immediately and aggressively disinfected,” assuring the workers that more tests would be made available.

Yet an MTA memo issued the same day posted in a Brooklyn bus depot bluntly stated: “Attn Bus Operators: As per AGM [name redacted], facemasks are not to be issued to you.”

How many more people have to die before realization and change are to be made that the insistence on following the business friendly solution is not one favorable to the public, that there are mechanisms and institutions in place that should not be run to be maximized to the benefit of the few elite of this nation, much less New York.

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The MTA’s COVID19 Response Is Killing NYC Workers

As the Coronavirus crisis worsens, massive numbers of workers who cannot afford to isolate themselves are forced to ride packed NYC subway cars, with untold numbers becoming ill from the overcrowding. This is a result of the massive cuts to the city’s mass transit service, which were made despite the need for social distancing. City transit workers are finally getting some protective gear, but it is far too little too late for the 41 workers who have already died and the more than 1,100 who have contracted the virus. And there is no protective gear supplied to the people who have to keep riding the trains during the pandemic.

As early as March 19, it was publicly announced that 23 MTA workers — who work in the city and in the broader metropolitan area — had tested positive for the Coronavirus. At least three of those workers were stationed at the Fresh Pond Bus Depot in Queens. The workers’ union, TWU local 100, called on the MTA to “arrange for expedited testing of its front-line employees and to consider taking additional aggressive steps to protect them.”  The MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foyle replied that the employees who had been in direct contact with the three Fresh Pond workers were in quarantine and that workplaces would be “immediately and aggressively disinfected,” assuring the workers that more tests would be made available.

Yet an MTA memo issued the same day posted in a Brooklyn bus depot bluntly stated: “Attn Bus Operators: As per AGM [name redacted], facemasks are not to be issued to you.”

How many more people have to die before realization and change are to be made that the insistence on following the business friendly solution is not one favorable to the public, that there are mechanisms and institutions in place that should not be run to be maximized to the benefit of the few elite of this nation, much less New York.

The MTA is run to the benefit of the few elite in this nation?  when 55% of New York households don't have a car?

I’m saying that the people running it are not looking out for the users of it.

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For one; the MTA should listen to TWU 100’s suggestions of providing PPE to the conductors and to enforce standards and regulations to lessen the spread of transmission.

The virus doesn’t kill that many people, we should reopen the economy because otherwise millions of people will die. Covid-19 is not that bad of a disease.

Dear god, it sounds just like them. I’m actually f•••in’ scared that these people have more sway in society then most of us here.

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Furthermore from a liability standpoint. How can you hold a concert, or a business conference in a world without the stay at home orders? You couldn't even begin to cover that liability, no insurance company on earth would cover that risk. No business would want to risk being sued into oblivion by people once they get infected.

Is this really the case?  I understand there are some OSHA-type requirements for employees, but could stadiums/convention centers really be held liable for transmission happening on their premises among the general public?  I don't think there's any legal precedent for this type of liability. 

There, in no question at this point, should be under these circumstances.

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Furthermore from a liability standpoint. How can you hold a concert, or a business conference in a world without the stay at home orders? You couldn't even begin to cover that liability, no insurance company on earth would cover that risk. No business would want to risk being sued into oblivion by people once they get infected.

Is this really the case?  I understand there are some OSHA-type requirements for employees, but could stadiums/convention centers really be held liable for transmission happening on their premises among the general public?  I don't think there's any legal precedent for this type of liability. 

There, in no question at this point, should be under these circumstances.

"Duty of Care" is the appropriate legal framework to think about this.  Do private businesses have to adhere to a standard of reasonable care while performing acts that could foreseeably harm others (that harm being potential infection with Coronavirus)?

In circumstances like this, yes.

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Furthermore from a liability standpoint. How can you hold a concert, or a business conference in a world without the stay at home orders? You couldn't even begin to cover that liability, no insurance company on earth would cover that risk. No business would want to risk being sued into oblivion by people once they get infected.

Is this really the case?  I understand there are some OSHA-type requirements for employees, but could stadiums/convention centers really be held liable for transmission happening on their premises among the general public?  I don't think there's any legal precedent for this type of liability. 

There, in no question at this point, should be under these circumstances.

"Duty of Care" is the appropriate legal framework to think about this.  Do private businesses have to adhere to a standard of reasonable care while performing acts that could foreseeably harm others (that harm being potential infection with Coronavirus)?

In circumstances like this, yes.

I agree that a duty of care exists when there's stay-at-home orders or social distancing requirements in place at the state/local level, but absent those I can't imagine a successful case being made. 

The existing orders are what establish any liability for private businesses, and state legislatures would be smart to pass new laws limiting business' liability for disease transmission once all this passes. 

By all means, these businesses are liable in any deaths or injuries in situations like this. The law may not recognize this, but the effects do not lie.

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What can I say, I made an attempt to warn you guys about the swine.

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Kansas’ high court rules for governor on religious services

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Saturday that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it tried to overturn the Democratic governor’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision letting Gov. Laura Kelly’s order stand came after the justices heard oral arguments one day before Easter, which is typically the busiest day on the Christian calendar in terms of church attendance. The Saturday hearing was the court’s first conducted completely via video conferencing.

The court ruled that legislative action designed to give the legislative leadership panel the ability to overrule Kelly’s executive orders was flawed and didn’t legally accomplish that.

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Oh no, time to back off quarantine orders, Republican donors are bankrolling astroturf campai.... - Wait, I mean, legitimate grassroots protests against big gubmint!

Gretchen Whitmer who looks like a ghoul...

Was attacking her appearance really necessary?

He is a Republican, so yeah.

Well I'm a republican and I think she's hot.

Begone Coomer

Anyway...
UPDATE 1-Fed's Bostic: Small business may need up to $500 bln monthly in support through crisis

...

That “baseline” figure derived from staff analysis, he said, would be a starting point for discussions about how to expand a $350 billion small business lending program that was exhausted in about two weeks.

“Using that as a benchmark might give us some guidance. ... It would not be good to lose them,” Bostic said of the country’s millions of businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

...

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can we not

impossible now, we’ve already crossed that line and back before the pandemic.

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CEO of Trader Joe’s Uses Coronavirus to Union-Bust
The letter in question:
https://m.facebook.com/LeftVoice.org/photos/a.1674933402742734/2633524440216954/?type=3&theater

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Ilhan Omar unveils bill to cancel rent and mortgage payments amid pandemic

The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has unveiled a bill that would cancel rent and mortgage payments for millions of Americans struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the legislation announced on Friday, landlords and mortgage holders would be able to have losses covered by the federal government. The program would extend for a month beyond the end of the national emergency, which was declared on 13 March, and would be made retroactive to cover April payment.

The proposal comes amid an unprecedented housing crisis: 31% of Americans in rental accommodation could not pay rent at the beginning of this month. Millions have lost their jobs since.

Even thinking about the poor landlords too? Love you girl 

'Huge environmental waste' as US airlines fly near-empty planes

The coronavirus outbreak has provoked a string of unsettling sights, such as the sudden widespread use of masks, shuttered businesses and deserted streets. Another unusual phenomenon is also playing out in the skies – near-empty airplanes flying through the air.

Widespread travel restrictions around the world have slashed demand for air travel, with more than eight in 10 flights canceled. But there is a disparity in the US – while the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has reported a 96% slump in passenger volume, to a level not seen since 1954, this hasn’t been matched by the number of flights being scrapped.

Slightly more than half the flights within the US have been canceled, leading to a slew of near-empty flights. Less than one in 10 seats on domestic flights were filled by passengers last week, according to an estimate by Dan Rutherford, aviation director at the International Council on Clean Transportation.

I see that resources are being allocated efficiently during this crisis by the market ran by these private businesses.


Edit: and now look at who is being evicted in California;the sick, elderly, and pregnant

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Ilhan Omar unveils bill to cancel rent and mortgage payments amid pandemic

The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has unveiled a bill that would cancel rent and mortgage payments for millions of Americans struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the legislation announced on Friday, landlords and mortgage holders would be able to have losses covered by the federal government. The program would extend for a month beyond the end of the national emergency, which was declared on 13 March, and would be made retroactive to cover April payment.

The proposal comes amid an unprecedented housing crisis: 31% of Americans in rental accommodation could not pay rent at the beginning of this month. Millions have lost their jobs since.

Even thinking about the poor landlords too? Love you girl 💕

She's a queen and I stan her... when she doesn't open her mouth about Israel.

You shouldn’t be like that to her when she tells the truth about Israel, Saudi Arabia, or anything for that matter.

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Agreed. Say Calthrina, what is your take on the other stories? Namely the union busting in Trader Joe’s, empty airplane flights, and evictions of namely Californian renters during this crisis?

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Agreed. Say Calthrina, what is your take on the other stories? Namely the union busting in Trader Joe’s, empty airplane flights, and evictions of namely Californian renters during this crisis?

I've indicated elsewhere my views on this, namely the economic devastation that this crisis has wrought.

Could you direct me to them or paraphrase them once more?

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Florida beaches set to re-open in a few hours, will only be open for 5 morning hours and 4 evening hours every day.

The Ron DeSantis Clown Show continues.

Florida has a decent testing situation so I'm not in arms about this.

BRUH

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The Trump Administration is deporting sick people to Guatemala

Real appropriate priorities during a time of a pandemic, I see.

Edit:Tribes sue over distribution of coronavirus relief funding

Several Native American tribes sued the federal government Friday, seeking to keep any of the $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief for tribes kept out of the hands of for-profit Alaska Native corporations.

The U.S. Treasury Department is tasked with doling out the money by April 26 to help tribes nationwide stay afloat, respond to the virus and recover after having to shut down casinos, tourism operations and other businesses that serve as their main moneymakers.

The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians in Maine, and the Akiak Native Community, Asa’carsarmiut Tribe and Aleut Community of St. Paul Island in Alaska filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Treasury Department, named as the defendant, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Already, tribes had raised questions about the distribution of the funding.

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That’s the type of Ad that will win this election.