Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

i'm in the same self-employed position but have only applied two weeks ago. i've called the number several dozen times, it does not connect with a person.

Texas attempting to reopen lots of businesses at low capacity starting Friday. Oh joy.

Texas is taking its role as a "laboratory of democracy" seriously, although in this case it would be specifically a laboratory for the study of infectious disease.

The frustrating thing is Austin seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping things under control. I hope this doesn't fuck that up.

yeah, SA too. honestly the only reason why tx's numbers are low are bc the major cities (and their dem/dem-adjacent mayors) were proactive about shelter-in-place, and of course the gov is using that as justification to...do what? 25% capacity movie theaters? which film studios are pushing out big movies rn anyway when only a few states are doing this? dumb as hell. we'll get an uptick and cases and have to go right back to tighter restrictions.

Alamo Drafthouse already said they're not reopening, and have heard other chains are following suit.

So many people I know are losing their businesses, out of work, etc.

Good thing the Los Angeles Lakers got $4.6MM in PPP money...well, until someone ratted them out and now they are "giving it back". That whole assistance program has been a giant, tragic shitshow.

This is so fucking interesting and so fucking depressing (in re why we may wind up with food shortages in spite of having enough "food"):
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/04/24/opinions/united-shades-of-america-family-farms-kamau-bell-opinion/index.html?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR1qlYkpL1gBAQcUKBl1AFW1hv6dxfksYMY87IZIdJ-WqgQ_75x6quv0z1k

Presuming this is mostly about being able to deny benefits to the massive number of new unemployment claims in Texas since March.

Probably

That's pretty much what is everywhere this is happening.

This is so fucking interesting and so fucking depressing: fbclid=IwAR1qlYkpL1gBAQcUKBl1AFW1hv6dxfksYMY87IZIdJ-WqgQ_75x6quv0z1k

he's not wrong

schtic

(Even though I gave up my ownership stake I do the day to day managing of a small business...) This is fucking awful. We have to reopen (though with limited hours) to not look out of business but there's not going to be enough business to worth opening. I want to require masks on customers but that will probably result in a bunch of psychos protesting. Trying to research how to spread hours around to benefit the most people where they can keep their $600 extra and partial UI. It's shitty and dangerous for workers and doesn't benefit most actual small businesses.

Also, no PPP or EIDL as of yet so it may be a moot point very soon.

schtic

Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus

unions need to step up. surely this is what they're for!

This rules

Good read on the woes of the "upper crust" of the gig-economy: the Airbnb entrepreneurs who bought mini-empires of homes to lease short term. Now they have no income and mounting mortgage bills.

https://t.co/jPLPlKcRWz

— Eliot Brown (@eliotwb) April 28, 2020

Pobrecitos!

yeah i've been thinking about that. these guys are going to get completely wiped out, right? the centre of lisbon might start feeling like it used to. except emptier, obviously.

the unemployment fiasco in FL is about to become an outright crisis. they closed the site down for a weekend to help get caught up on claims, and now.....somehow, 260,000 people (about 40% of the applicants) have been denied.

Some of whom are applying as contractors, self-employed, and did so before it was enabled online, so that accounts for some of it. Some people were denied without reason, denied for not seeking jobs (which was waived by Desantis and should not be a criterion for denial), or informed they didn't make enough wages in the previous base period (which is $3,400, which most all continuously employed part-timers make). Many of the people denied claimed they met all of the criteria, and some indicated a reason wasn't even given.

The appeal process requires a hearing to be scheduled - how are they going to schedule 260,000 hearings? and most people can't get through to the site or phone to appeal, and can only get a paper copy of the form.

I am fortunate enough to be able to cover my mother's expenses while she waits for her claim to be processed (she hasn't been denied yet), and SOME friends have gotten their federal and state, but there are a lot of people who might be homeless or foodless very soon. Only state Representative Anna Eskamani has been any beacon of hope, Desantis keeps admitting there are problems but he's reactive rather than proactive.

The claims will be retroactive back as far back as March 9th when approved, but some people might not make it that far.

any Floridians reading this thread, read: https://medium.com/@annavishkaeeeskamani/what-to-do-if-youre-ineligible-in-connect-79ac811810bb

there are millions of people who are literally not going to be able to put food on the table because of the shambolic response of the Trump administration, Republicans in congress, and Republicans in state legislatures. i really don't think it's wishful thinking that it's quite possible an entire of generation of people - working-class people, particularly - both 'essential workers' and the entire cohort of people whose jobs have vanished - will simply never forgive them for it. kind of a 'Thatcher moment' for the American working class.

it’s just too hard to know what death cultists will do

people have been pretty quick to forget the '00s so my hopes are low

yes and in my more cynical moments i agree, but now is not then

as long as there's fox news etc out there, people will decide they hate the other "radical communist" party more.

there are millions of people who are literally not going to be able to put food on the table because of the shambolic response of the Trump administration, Republicans in congress, and Republicans in state legislatures.

Democrats have not remotely positioned themselves as having a better answer for those people, so no, not gonna happen. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming away from their horniness for means testing and tax credits, still have not collectively offered up a vision and policy proposal to help the working class.

I literally only go outside once a week, to the supermarket at the end of the road (usually) to do my shopping, so I'm only outside my flat for like 30 minutes a week but that 30 minutes is almost always enough to make me hate this stupid city and the stupid cunts that live in it - except it usually takes less than that. Like today, I'm queueing on the pavement to get in to the supermarket, some guy walks up to me and asks me for a light and when I tell him to fuck off, he's all attitude, "You watch your mouth bruv" etc etc - GET OUT OF MY FUCKING FACE... LITERALLY! Next thing, I've managed to progress to the entrance part of the supermarket, some fucking clown shows up with a megaphone covered in Extinction Rebellion stickers, stands right across from me and starts haranguing the queue with stuff about the government giving the police powers to remove people they suspect of having COVID-19 from their homes, and gets all wanky and supercilious and self-righteous when a poor stressed security guard tries to get him to shut up. Then he gets into an argument with me when I tell him to shut the fuck up, "Do you think it's right that the goverment can burn down your house?" (WTF?) "I hope they do burn down your house" "Oh that's nice, do you normally want people's houses to get burned down?" "No, just yours" "People don't have to listen to what I'm saying" "Yes we do, you've got a fucking megaphone". And I'm still not even in the supermarket yet!

hope you find some peace today, that is terrible. i am trying to tell fewer ppl, who deserve it, to fuck off. will update if conditions improve.

has anyone else had people you assumed you'd never speak to again come out of the woodwork to check in cause I feel like this has been A Thing

not yet, but oddly, i thought of doing it! then i thought much more clearly and did not.

the thought process to the impulse was like *big pic feels* “that person...that person was important, how? i wonder how she is? i may never. i could just reach out and do a thing...”*specific stuff memories* “NOPE.”

lol I almost added "or have you been one of those people to someone else" to my question

not people, but I am getting spam from all sorts of companies that I have never had anything to do with! What is GDPR again? I've never been an O2 customer, why the fuck are they spamming me about what they are doing during this difficult time?

and that was on my work email!

I said it upthread but I am getting virtually no spam at all, my Junk Email folder currently has two emails in it, one of which dates back to the 20th of April.

I no longer receive scam phone calls - haven't gotten one in at least two weeks.

Yes, I've not had one of them in over a month.

My local supermarket queue has been very well-behaved, but then again it's off the street and round a sizeable car park. Up on Green Lanes the other day though and it's significantly busier than a few weeks ago there. Seems a lot of people are getting the message that restrictions are loosening, and NOT getting the message that actually they're not.

The spam calls ramped back up, significantly, for me this week. I hadn't seen any in about a month, but I've had at least four a day this week so far.

my roommates are now all with family, so some part of this feels like a monkey's paw fulfillment of me wishing I had an apartment to myself

also xp -- I feel like I've been that person, although to be fair it's less "assumed I'd never speak to again" so much as "hadn't spoken to in a while." the thought process was basically "I really hope they're not, like, dead"

My local supermarket queue has been very well-behaved, but then again it's off the street and round a sizeable car park. Up on Green Lanes the other day though and it's significantly busier than a few weeks ago there. Seems a lot of people are getting the message that restrictions are loosening, and NOT getting the message that actually they're not.

I actually do think it's the area I live in that's the problem.

A friend told me that more well-off neighborhoods ie Park Slope are silent; streets are empty. But in the more working class/immigrant neighborhoods where ppl are still going to work, she says the stores are still bustling and ppl are not distancing, that it's crowded and "normal" and no precautions taken. It's been freaking her out.

I was just in Bed-Stuy briefly and ppl were moving around the block but in very small numbers, distancing from each other. A lot of my neighbors have their own yards & stoops so they can go outside at least a little. Ppl have conversations from across the street or in their cars. It's very grounding to see each other even if we can't get close or hug.

One of the elders on my block passed away, I think just from old age, and the block association had a ceremony outside his house w distanced ppl in masks singing & doing readings in his honor.

35 calls to nyc unemployment this morning, finally got past the part where they hang up on you instantaneously and have been on hod for 58 minutes and counting

jesus that sucks

uly, did you submit your claim online already? They're supposed to be doing a call-back system now but sorry, idk if your situation is special. My bf got two follow-up calls from DOL but since then his claim has been "pending" for a couple of weeks now. I'm curious whether anyone is getting the PUA yet as I suspect NYS has not started paying out for that category of worker, because there's no existing system for verifying employment or salaries or whatever they need to know.

i need to stop going to white city sainsburys because whilst the customers in there are keeping their distance, the staff don't appear to care much. they have notices all over the place, tape on the floor, but they just push past.

(doesn't help that they time their deliveries to my visits (i tend to go early to avoid crowds, so maybe i'm the problem))

they are the ones at risk, i don't understand why they aren't more careful, i guess.

xps i put my claim in online as of the 21st and then got a call back the next day from somebody who clearly had just been hired but who said she had all the info she needed to process in the next few days. Since then, I'm still getting the dreaded "you will need to speak with a claims specialist to provide additional information about your claim" note on the website. I'm self employed/run my own business so that's likely the problem. Still on hold, 1 hour 34 minutes. If I can get through and get this shit worked out, I'd be plenty happy. It's really a question of me trying to figure out what the hell my monthly budget looks like... I have a bit of savings but I got no income for at least the next few months so I don't quite know how to make that work.