US Politics, March 2020 — There’s a very good chance you’re not going to die.

it means four straight fade routes from Eli.

So far, every single coronavirus fatality in Milwaukee has been a black person. The racist structure of our society means that coronavirus will hit poor, black communities the hardest.

Keep that in mind when white people try to downplay this crisis.

— Tom 🌹 (@TomHansberger) March 24, 2020

Just said to someone in a text: The virus makes so physical and real what has always been true: That privilege is being able to push exposure to risk onto other people. Just now it's literal infection/contamination risk instead of every other kind there is. (Or along with every other kind, because it's not like they've stopped happening either.)

if the FULL paid furlough salary piece is true, it leads to a hilarious personal situation: i would make more money if i got furloughed. my company is furloughing a bunch of people and imposing a 20% salary cut on everyone who is left. i have been selected to remain with the 80% essential staff. if i got furloughed, i'm assuming the government would base my full salary on my taxes from last year, or at least one of my paychecks from earlier this year. so if i got furloughed, i'd still be making 100% of what i was making back before my company decided to fuck us all over

Trump says people can go to work and clean their hands five times more than usual, and not shake hands, "and things will happen," but this situation can't go on. "You're going to have suicides by the thousands."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 24, 2020

is it dumb to consider writing a sternly worded to my management, a few layers up, framing it as a morale problem among staff that i'm seeing at the ground level? as a middle manager doofus, perhaps i have my ears a bit more closely to the ground than the people that are making the decisions about cutting pay.

but perhaps i'm unaware of their legitimate business situation and this is all that's keeping them from going under. but...won't the federal government bail them out, like maybe even this afternoon?

xp honestly i do think there will be a bump in suicides

but sadly it's still better than the alternative: many more thousands of preventable coronavirus deaths, with a correlated rise in suicides in that situation as well

privilege is being able to push exposure to risk onto other people.

Absolutely. I have been feeling my extreme social privilege very intensely this past month. All I can do in return is try not to create any extra burden on others, apart from just continuing to breathe and eat.

Good luck, Mississippi.

jesus christ

congrats on...not being China, I guess? fuck.

wonder how good "not being Chinese" is gonna feel when bodies start piling up on your eastern border

Mississippi: 230
Louisiana: 1,172

four months is nothing, during the great recession people were unemployed for years and their careers were curtailed probably for the rest of their lives

you'll never catch me defending this place
― the presidential candidate inside me (WmC), Thursday, June 30, 2011

re: mississippi

like, suppose someone loses their job. suppose they have 30-40 years left to live (assuming, of course, losing their job doesn't shorten that, which is a big assumption). they get 4 months of salary! great! what about the other 360-480?

i understand the criticism, but did you really think legislation would pass which guaranteed someone their previous income for the rest of their lives?

no, but that doesn't mean I can't find it half-assed

or, proportionally, about 1% assed

sadly, that's more of an -assed than i assumed we'd get out of schumer

Yeah really

Tens of thousands of suicides in 1918-1919. There's simply no metric, including economic, in which letting Covid-19 go endemic and killing millions, isn't worse than 2 months of lockdown (with financial safety nets).

Sorry, I know it doesn't fix all of the problems we're facing or are likely to face, but four months full salary for furloughed workers is a pretty huge win if they're able to pull it off, and way more than I ever would've expected to occur in the US.

(Not that we aren't technically capable of much more but, again, the US.)

The hope is that we'll be "on the other side" in 4 mos and the lost jobs will come back

Yeah, I mean, there are all kinds of potential downsides down the road, but if in the short term it means people can securely lockdown for an extended period of time without having to worry about how they're going to buy food and pay rent...it seems to be what's basically necessary to keep this from becoming a true catastrophe.

xp as a private business owner who relies on contracts with live entertainment venues and festivals, i fucking well hope so. shit is scary at the moment.

BREAKING: Colorado is now the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty and Gov. Jared Polis commuted the sentences of the three men on death row. https://t.co/po2B8si3Pv

— The Denver Post (@denverpost) March 23, 2020

excellent news, thank you for posting that

"In almost every case and on every question, Democrats wanted to spend more and do more than Republicans did...there is simply no question about which party wants to move more aggressively to confront these crises."

Exactly right, from @paulwaldman1:https://t.co/2p5pFz3rUV

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 24, 2020

one infuriating inevitability of this whole fucking thing is that deaths are going to be so disproportionatly concetrated in densely populated areas that will transpose very neatly over "blue" districts—on the one hand reinforcing for millions the classic fundie "God's punishment" narrative, and on the other inhibiting future preparedness legislation because "only happens to city folk"

even now when Governor Jackass is talking abt sacrificing old people for the sake of the economy, he doesn't mean "old Kansans." He means old libtards and brown people who don't know any better

abolish the senate

otm

Yeah, I mean, there are all kinds of potential downsides down the road, but if in the short term it means people can securely lockdown for an extended period of time without having to worry about how they're going to buy food and pay rent...it seems to be what's basically necessary to keep this from becoming a true catastrophe.

― Unparalleled Elegance (Old Lunch), Tuesday, March 24, 2020 2:20 PM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm. I think it's obvious that people behaving themselves and remaining inside for the next few months will obviously become increasingly contingent on their not having to worry about paying for basic necessities.

That said, call me cynical, but the idea of walking to my mailbox and receiving even a one-time no-strings-attached check from the government for 1-2k seems like a pipe dream

one infuriating inevitability

not entirely so. the medical support system in rural areas is so thin that those who contract severe cases will die at a higher rate than the city folk do. in which case the narrative will be one of rural victimization compared to those privileged city elites.

Is that how this is playing out elsewhere globally? I really don't know

whatever the case I imagine they'll keep the canard anyway if it means keeping fed dollars from the coastal unsaved

I think Aimless is correct tbh, the cities are better equipped to deal with this

(broadly speaking)

Native American communities def not equipped. Read there's only like 15 ICU beds for the entire Indian Health Service, which uh doesn't seem like enough even during normal times. Navajo Nation alone already has that many confirmed covid-19 cases.

yes, it seems unclear which factor outweighs the other at this point (preparedness/supplies in rural areas vs density and more serious governmental response for cities)

the very last place I would want to be right now is the middle of nowhere

^^ reminds me of the Dylan line, "Didn't know whether to duck or run, so I ran."

I think Aimless is correct tbh, the cities are better equipped to deal with this

Also blue areas are, one hopes, comparatively free of "it's a liberal media hoax" / "God wants us to keep going to megachurches" / "Trump says everything is fine" denialism.

GALLUP: Donald Trump's job approval rating is 49%, the highest ever in his presidency.

It rose by five points between 3/2-3/13 and 3/12-3/22.https://t.co/YodNzOyYHj

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 24, 2020

even 538 agrees, this is the most popular he's ever been

The idea of him dying in agony is also pretty popular tbf

The notion that the clearly-terrified and completely out of his depth Donald Trump, the one who's currently exposing himself regularly to the world as someone more concerned with the health of the stock market than the health of the American people, is the most popular version of Donald Trump...well, you'll have to excuse me for a moment while I have a series of debilitating strokes.

I'm so angry I can't even make the obvious masturbation joke

let's hope he exposes himself thoroughly

Presume it's "rallying" effect, but also some people just straight up like the guy. Which boggles me, but there it demonstrably is.

If you dig into the story, yes, rallying has a lot to do with it.