Politics And Current Events

[count2infinity]

Honest question, was Biden being briefed on the virus by the intelligence community?

By March 10 most knew about the situation we were finding ourselves in. I was in Chicago the first week of March for a conference which debated canceling (and had super low attendance) due to the outbreak. Everything canceled after that event. Joe’s staff certainly should have known better.

[Morkle]

Everyone should be held accountable. No idea how you do it, fine or whatever but all of politics is scumbag central.

[AuthorTony]

Trump now says he was aware of the potential loss of life and seriousness of the virus all along but that he tried to stay positive in public to keep morale up. If this is true (which considering the source, who knows) it's nauseating because it means the admin completely dropped the ball on preparation (testing, vents, ppe) and because Trump's continual public assertions that it was no big deal and that it was going to go away soon led the public to not take the threat seriously, to continue with their lives as usual, and for state governments to follow the federal lead and not put restrictions in place sooner.

This is a mistake of absolutely epic proportions.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Birx and Fauci both make it clear that the government's response outside of Trump's dithering would have been a lot different if China was telling the truth back at the first of the year.

[Shyster]

Everyone egregiously screwed this up: we did, the EU nations did, everyone did. The number of countries that have had a competent response to this disease can probably be counted on one hand with fingers left over.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Things happen when you move fast.

[AuthorTony]

Agree 100%. And to have the POTUS come out and basically say, "I knew it would be this terrible but didn't want to scare everyone" is a disgrace.

[willeyeam]

okay a few things to unpack there:

1) Should obviously be a solution as to being able to report they were offered employment.

2) Anyway jokes on them eventually when benefits run out

3) Oh no my low-interest rate isn't going to be totally forgiven! Come on now.

4) Maybe pay them a bit more to come back then if you need them?

[Gaucho]

But he's numer 1 on facebook, which is nice.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Here is a good example of WHO flat lying for the Chinese government.

[Kaiser]

Loud and proud.

[AuthorTony]

Everyone who isn't being paid off knows China and the WHO screwed the world on this. But as early as Jan 8 the CDC was telling clinicians to be on the look out for people with respiratory issues who had been to China. The US knew what might be coming and acted too late. Just like virtually every other country in the world.

[willeyeam]

okay a few things to unpack there:

1) Should obviously be a solution as to being able to report they were offered employment.

2) Anyway jokes on them eventually when benefits run out

3) Oh no my low-interest rate isn't going to be totally forgiven! Come on now.

4) Maybe pay them a bit more to come back then if you need them?

Also more thoughts on Freddy's tweet. No one has gotten this loan yet, applications start Friday. So it's not as if he got some funds and is getting screwed.

Also, it's called the Payroll Protection Program. It's pretty much meant just for payroll. So if you spend your proceeds on payroll, it gets forgiven at the end. So if you don't have payroll costs to cover, what do you need it for? Because non-payroll use of the proceeds would be paid back anyway. So that guys just full of grade A dog sht.

[Morkle]

okay a few things to unpack there:

1) Should obviously be a solution as to being able to report they were offered employment.

2) Anyway jokes on them eventually when benefits run out

3) Oh no my low-interest rate isn't going to be totally forgiven! Come on now.

4) Maybe pay them a bit more to come back then if you need them?

Point 4 being the important one. That’s great you have a small business, pay them better than unemployment rates and you’re fine.

[faftorial]

Things happen when you move fast.

I thought if you were called back from a layoff or furlough and refused you lose unemployment compensation?

[faftorial]

According to this you can't turn down going back to the same job and still collect:

Unemployment insurance rules require recipients to actively look for jobs and accept suitable work offers. If you turn down a job, prepare to defend your decision to your state unemployment agency. Read and understand your state's rules so that you don't jeopardize your unemployment benefits.

https://work.chron.com/happens-refuse-j ... 10976.html

[Kaiser]

If we weren't being held in the dark ages it wouldn't matter.

[willeyeam]

According to this you can't turn down going back to the same job and still collect:

Unemployment insurance rules require recipients to actively look for jobs and accept suitable work offers. If you turn down a job, prepare to defend your decision to your state unemployment agency. Read and understand your state's rules so that you don't jeopardize your unemployment benefits.

https://work.chron.com/happens-refuse-j ... 10976.html

Yeah I think that tweet was just to drum up some unemployment rates are too high talking points

[tifosi77]

Honest question, was Biden being briefed on the virus by the intelligence community?

By March 10 most knew about the situation we were finding ourselves in. I was in Chicago the first week of March for a conference which debated canceling (and had super low attendance) due to the outbreak. Everything canceled after that event. Joe’s staff certainly should have known better.

Starting in early March, CDC guidance re large gatherings was discretionary and aimed largely at encouraging older people to self-sort out of such assemblies. (Shoot, 2/29 and 3/1 we were at a concert and frickin' Disneyland) On 3/12 they published guidelines for whether or not a gathering should be canceled, then a few days later, 3/15, they changed the guidance to "do not hold mass gatherings". Mrs Tif's employer is a Fortune 150 biotech company with over 5,500 employees at her campus; they didn't suspend international travel until March 6th, and as of the 11th (her birthday) they had not yet begun WFH.

[count2infinity]

It’s not a matter of following some sort of organization’s guidance. It’s a matter of being a responsible person/organization. ACS canceled their conference well before those guidances were sent out.

[tifosi77]

"Some sort of organization" I don't even know what to say to that.

Also, it's quite a different thing imo when you're talking about a destination convention event nearly a month out with travel planning and associated logistics and whatnot, vs a town crowd. I think the two pose very different levels of risk of spread.

[count2infinity]

It’s fine if you want to absolve him of any wrong doing. I get it. But he was wrong to do it. Period.

[tifosi77]

It's not a matter of absolution, it's wanting to avoid 20/20 hindsight and retconning this period. Go back and read this thread from March 7th - 10th; the only reference I can even find of that particular rally is Freddy shared a tweet (shock!) showing the rally was crashed by environmental protests. No one commented on it. No one said, "Wait, he's having a rally.... today, amidst this public health emergency?????" It was completely unremarkable and not noteworthy at the time.

That's more a change in how quickly this thing has deepened than any nod to Wise Joe.

[count2infinity]

It’s not really hindsight though. The week before the 10th there were plenty of organizations that were voluntarily canceling events. And it was shorty after the 10th that everyone and anyone started closing up shop.

[Kaiser]

Just say it never happened. It's fine.