All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (11 Viewers)

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    Maxp

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    I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?
     
    DaveXA said:
    Virginia has ridiculously narrow definition and rules to qualify for unemployment benefits. When I applied, they said I didn't qualify and gave no explanation. Wife has applied a few times, finally 6 months after she applied, she got a letter notifying her that she qualified, then 2 days later got a letter that she actually didn't qualify. No state benefit, and no $600/week she was supposed to get. I hate Virginia's unemployment benefits setup. It's stupid and doesn't work.
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    "Sorry sir, we see here you are still *adjusts glasses* an 'SR mod', and do not qualify"
     
    superchuck500 said:
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    When I saw something about this earlier I couldn't have even imagined that we were talking about 900 invitees. Not sure why it's surprising considering the size of the State Dept. but it still is. Is there no regulatory agency that can prevent this kind of stupidity? Until this thing is contained I seriously wouldn't mind something like the "CDC Police" to prevent these kinds of things and/or arrest people who put on these kinds of things.

    It's a shame that people would need to be saved from themselves but if there has ever been a possible "superspreader" event, an indoor Christmas party with over a thousand people attending would qualify.
     
    insidejob said:
    When I saw something about this earlier I couldn't have even imagined that we were talking about 900 invitees. Not sure why it's surprising considering the size of the State Dept. but it still is. Is there no regulatory agency that can prevent this kind of stupidity? Until this thing is contained I seriously wouldn't mind something like the "CDC Police" to prevent these kinds of things and/or arrest people who put on these kinds of things.

    It's a shame that people would need to be saved from themselves but if there has ever been a possible "superspreader" event, an indoor Christmas party with over a thousand people attending would qualify.
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    It's a good question, of course the answer is that there is no practical way for any authority to try to stop it. There's no federal authority that says the meeting is prohibited (the CDC has only issued guidance and there are no statutes or regulations that prohibit it). I'm sure it violates State's own building policies but they probably allow for exception and the Secretary of State controls that. So there's no federal law for federal law enforcement to enforce. It violates DC law, but DC isn't going to to try to have that fight. The building is rented by State from GSA and I suspect there might be a provision or two that would give GSA grounds to tell State that the event would violate the lease, but GSA isn't going to do that and even if it did, State could just say "so what are you gonna do about it?". The answer would be nothing.
     
    insidejob said:
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    I don't claim to know what the breaking/balance point is, or have an answer, and this is very high level/abstract, but you have to consider what happens when small/big businesses start filling for bankruptcy/shutting down en masse.
     
    insidejob said:
    Absolutely not but that doesn't make the situation any less awful and the damage that could and should have been prevented any less permanent. The fact that the stock market is setting records while unemployment, homelessness, credit scores for millions of people being ruined, food banks running out of food, etc. being currently accepted as American as apple pie is a pretty bleak fact. Individual people and families are the ones hurting because the corporations aren't and that's beyond forked up, IMO.
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    Someone said it on NPR, but I can't find the interview.

    Once White male unemployment dropped back to something reasonable, suddenly the Senate, or McConnel, couldn't be bothered.

    This is just by race, not gender. White males are even better. But, as you'll see, around July White unemployment was back to about 7%.. crisis over kids.

    1606970285393.png
     
    Found it.. I think this is the transcript.



    GARCIA: And our final jobs Friday expert is Benga Ajilore. He is a senior economist at the Center for American Progress, and here is the indicator that he has pulled out of the jobs report.

    BENGA AJILORE: This might surprise a lot of people who know me, but my indicator is the unemployment rate for white men, which is 5.8%.

    GARCIA: The unemployment rate for white men has fallen from a peak of about 12.5% back in April down to 5.8%. And Benga says the reason he singles out the unemployment rate for white men is precisely because it is so much lower than the unemployment rate for other groups.

    AJILORE: So for Black men, it's 11.5%, which is the lowest it has been during this pandemic. For Black women, it's 9.2%, so this is the first month that they've dropped below double digits. And for Latinas, it's down to 9%, also dropped down below 10%. But again, we're looking at almost double the rate of white men.

    GARCIA: And what Benga worries about is that the low unemployment rate for white men will lead policymakers to assume that the labor market is almost in fine shape and that, therefore, they don't need to do any more to stimulate the economy and get people back to work.

    AJILORE: And one of the things in my work is I always try to focus on the labor market disparities - what's happening with African American men, Black women, Latinas. I even try to do Asian Americans or people with disabilities. And the numbers throughout this pandemic has shown that they are still in trouble, that they are still struggling. And I was very curious of why we don't see any policy. So then I turned it around and said, well, let's look at what's happening with white men. And if you look at the indicators for white men and seeing that their numbers are actually pretty good relative to other groups, to me, that kind of explains why we haven't seen any sort of fiscal relief since March or April of this year.
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    SystemShock said:
    I don't claim to know what the breaking/balance point is, or have an answer, and this is very high level/abstract, but you have to consider what happens when small/big businesses start filling for bankruptcy/shutting down en masse.
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    This is the supply side versus demand side argument. If people who are unemployed, reduced hours and receive stimulus the money gets pumped back into the economy. The programs that allowed small businesses to pay their employees when shuttered or with reduced times in turn helped the economy because the money went right back into the economy.
     
    Nebaghead said:
    This is the supply side versus demand side argument. If people who are unemployed, reduced hours and receive stimulus the money gets pumped back into the economy. The programs that allowed small businesses to pay their employees when shuttered or with reduced times in turn helped the economy because the money went right back into the economy.
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    But not equally throughout the economy.


    You need a bit of both. Because if I'm flush with cash, I'm not going to the bars or on a cruise.

    Those industries need a prop. Especially if we see late spring early summer as an end point.
     
    Devildog said:
    Me, too, but you know the MAGAs are going to say GWB is a fake Republican anyway.
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    And it's going to be met with conspiracists alleging it was staged to dupe the sheep...

    I do think it's going to be important for influencers of every kind to show support for a vaccine to help encourage public participation.

    I heard an idea that I think is at least interesting on the surface; tying a financial stimulus to getting the vaccine. Bribery is the American way! But if it encourages people to get vaccinated, who might not have wanted to, and pumps billions into the economy at the consumer level (yay, vaccinated, going to get plastered at the local bar!) then I think there's merit to the idea.
     
    SCOTUS basically steps in and grants an injunction while the state appeal is still pending ("cert before judgment") to rule that CA's Covid restrictions on church gatherings also violate the First Amendment:


     
    Nebaghead said:
    This is the supply side versus demand side argument. If people who are unemployed, reduced hours and receive stimulus the money gets pumped back into the economy. The programs that allowed small businesses to pay their employees when shuttered or with reduced times in turn helped the economy because the money went right back into the economy.
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    There is more to the capitalistic system we live in; and pumping money into the economy via consumer spending will not solve all problems. Remember that corporations live and die not only by consumer spending, but also by investor confidence. A publicly held corporation may not survive investors losing confidence in it, and an injection of cash from the government goes a long way in giving investors the feel their money is safe.

    And I know some people don't care if they see a corporation fail, but they don't understand the ramifications of it, especially when it comes to corporations like banks and airlines.

    And I am not saying all the money should go to corporations, just that there needs to be a balance.
     
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