The Current Events, News, and Politics Thread
04-29-2020, 07:39 PM
Orange man be scamming.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...rbpGcT1EwvKLrM
"But Trump entered settlement talks days after the 2016 election, agreeing to pay the millions under terms that let him admit no wrongdoing.
Trump University was not an actual university but a for-profit seminar series, and former students waged a years-long battle claiming the course misled them with claims of teaching real estate success. The program ended in 2010. Some elderly plaintiffs who paid $20,000-plus in tuition died waiting to receive their checks from the settlement.
"
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...rbpGcT1EwvKLrM
"But Trump entered settlement talks days after the 2016 election, agreeing to pay the millions under terms that let him admit no wrongdoing.
Trump University was not an actual university but a for-profit seminar series, and former students waged a years-long battle claiming the course misled them with claims of teaching real estate success. The program ended in 2010. Some elderly plaintiffs who paid $20,000-plus in tuition died waiting to receive their checks from the settlement.
"
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04-29-2020, 09:31 PM
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The COVID-19 problem has not turned into a mass-casualty situation. Does this mean that the drastic measures taken to slow its spread were wasted?
Opinions here seem to be divided along political lines.
A few months ago, the President and his cabinet were being criticized for inaction. Today, they're being criticized for over-reaction. That's how the far-left sees it.
The far-right seem content to ignore science as usual.
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04-29-2020, 10:31 PM
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(people singing and dancing)
Watching this video makes me a bit sad, actually.
I attended Charlotte High from 90-'95. But the whole campus was completely obliterated by Hurricane Charley in 2004. Like, leveled to the ground. To be fair, the buildings were old, badly constructed, and it wasn't a glamorous place.
When they re-built it, the "three story building" (the building in the first shot) was constructed with an outward facade which is identical in every detail to the original building, but literally everything behind that facade is a lie. The CHS I remember didn't have elevators, or ADA-compliant anything, or even lights that worked all the time. The classrooms in the main building didn't even have numbers. There were no freshman classes in it, and by the time you were a sophomore, you were expected to just know where things were.
I'm not saying that the new campus isn't immeasurably better than the one I knew in every way. It completely is. It just makes me think about all of the little individual moments which were singularly unique that dreary, mold-filled and lizard-infested place that give me and my friends warm memories to this day, which Tarpons forevermore will never know.
EDIT: Also, Jesus, that place is freaking huge now.
EDIT II:
That frame gives me feels.
The Blackwell - Artman Media Center.
Terry Blackwell and George Artman were two of the coolest high school teachers ever to walk* the earth. Like, Mr. Holland levels of cool, in a southern redneck sort of way. Ok, so Mr. Artman was objectively weird as hell, and smelled really bad, but he was astonishingly engaging. That old man made bored metalheads INTERESTED in US history. Truthfully, I think that my interest in constitutional law was sparked in his drafty, asbestos-lined classsrom.
I knew that Artman died many years ago. I had no idea that Blackwell was gone until I saw this.
* = ok, Blackwell was actually a paraplegic, but you know what I mean.
EDIT III: At 9:00, the TV guy in my couldn't help but be a little let down, thinking "Man, if it would have been amazing if it turned out that the camera op had been carrying a drone this whole time, and at this exact moment, it powered up and flew over the whole crowd."
Last edited by Joe Perez; 04-29-2020 at 11:14 PM.
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04-29-2020, 11:05 PM
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And I also can't help but think that their choice of music makes me feel... old. Unlike this earlier and very similar performance at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, which I visited briefly about ten years ago while living in Papenberg, Germany on work assignment, which features one of the best feel-good pieces of music ever recorded.
And yet I gotta had it to the Tarpons. Their video is so much grander and more energetic. Possibly the best example I have seen of the genre in that regard. And I don't say that lightly. As an early member of the then-fledgling media department at CHS (editor of the very first video yearbook, and other massively nerdy creds), I'm humbled and honored to see how far they've come.
And yet I gotta had it to the Tarpons. Their video is so much grander and more energetic. Possibly the best example I have seen of the genre in that regard. And I don't say that lightly. As an early member of the then-fledgling media department at CHS (editor of the very first video yearbook, and other massively nerdy creds), I'm humbled and honored to see how far they've come.
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04-30-2020, 12:58 PM
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Random people in Spain have a bad case of listening to things the US President never said:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europ...q21YHbPm64psUk
Zahara de los Atunes, near Cadiz, used tractors to spray more than 2km (1.2 miles) of beach with a bleach solution a day before Spain allowed children out of lockdown for the first time.
Environmentalists say the move caused "brutal damage" to the local ecosystem.
Spain has been badly affected by the coronavirus, with 23,800 deaths.
It recently announced a four-phase plan to lift its stringent lockdown measures and return to a "new normality" by the end of June.
María Dolores Iglesias, who heads an environmental volunteer group in the Cadiz region, said she had visited the beach at Zahara de los Atunes and seen the damage for herself.
She said the bleach "killed everything on the ground, nothing is seen, not even insects".
The beach and its dunes are protected breeding and nesting places for migratory birds and Ms Iglesias said she had seen at least one nest with eggs destroyed by the tractors.
...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europ...q21YHbPm64psUk
Coronavirus: Outcry as Spanish beach sprayed with bleach
Authorities in a Spanish coastal resort have apologised after spraying a beach with bleach in an attempt to protect children from coronavirus.Zahara de los Atunes, near Cadiz, used tractors to spray more than 2km (1.2 miles) of beach with a bleach solution a day before Spain allowed children out of lockdown for the first time.
Environmentalists say the move caused "brutal damage" to the local ecosystem.
Spain has been badly affected by the coronavirus, with 23,800 deaths.
It recently announced a four-phase plan to lift its stringent lockdown measures and return to a "new normality" by the end of June.
María Dolores Iglesias, who heads an environmental volunteer group in the Cadiz region, said she had visited the beach at Zahara de los Atunes and seen the damage for herself.
She said the bleach "killed everything on the ground, nothing is seen, not even insects".
The beach and its dunes are protected breeding and nesting places for migratory birds and Ms Iglesias said she had seen at least one nest with eggs destroyed by the tractors.
...
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04-30-2020, 01:37 PM
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Liberals: "Republicans think that people who are able should have to work for a living. Those monsters."
By
Tony Romm
April 30, 2020 at 7:08 a.m. CDT
Iowa, Oklahoma and other states reopening soon amid the coronavirus outbreak are issuing early warnings to their worried workers: Return to your jobs or risk losing unemployment benefits.
The threats have been loudest among Republican leaders in recent days, reflecting their anxious attempts to jump-start local economic recovery roughly two months after most businesses shut their doors. In Iowa, for example, state officials even have posted a public call for companies to get in touch if an “employee refuses to return to work.”
For some states, the concern is that residents who are offered their old jobs back simply may not accept them, choosing instead to continue tapping historically generous unemployment aid. The $2 trillion congressional coronavirus relief package signed by President Trump in March greatly added to weekly benefit checks for out-of-work Americans, and some people may be earning more than they did previously.
Business leaders say they desperately need workers to return to stores, restaurants and other operations to stay afloat financially. Labor activists, however, contend the reality is far more complicated: Some now-unemployed Americans weren’t making much money in the first place, so they may not want to risk their safety just to return to underpaid old gigs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...yment-benefits
The story ain't lying. For weeks, I've been dealing with the problem of folks who are per-diems telling me that unless I can guarantee them 5 full days per week of work, it's not worth their time to come in, as working only 3-4 days breaks their unemployment benefits for the week, and they'll earn more doing anothing. And this ain't minimum-wage stuff. I'm paying union engineer wages.
Republican-led states signal they could strip workers’ unemployment benefits if they don’t return to work
By
Tony Romm
April 30, 2020 at 7:08 a.m. CDT
Iowa, Oklahoma and other states reopening soon amid the coronavirus outbreak are issuing early warnings to their worried workers: Return to your jobs or risk losing unemployment benefits.
The threats have been loudest among Republican leaders in recent days, reflecting their anxious attempts to jump-start local economic recovery roughly two months after most businesses shut their doors. In Iowa, for example, state officials even have posted a public call for companies to get in touch if an “employee refuses to return to work.”
For some states, the concern is that residents who are offered their old jobs back simply may not accept them, choosing instead to continue tapping historically generous unemployment aid. The $2 trillion congressional coronavirus relief package signed by President Trump in March greatly added to weekly benefit checks for out-of-work Americans, and some people may be earning more than they did previously.
Business leaders say they desperately need workers to return to stores, restaurants and other operations to stay afloat financially. Labor activists, however, contend the reality is far more complicated: Some now-unemployed Americans weren’t making much money in the first place, so they may not want to risk their safety just to return to underpaid old gigs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...yment-benefits
The story ain't lying. For weeks, I've been dealing with the problem of folks who are per-diems telling me that unless I can guarantee them 5 full days per week of work, it's not worth their time to come in, as working only 3-4 days breaks their unemployment benefits for the week, and they'll earn more doing anothing. And this ain't minimum-wage stuff. I'm paying union engineer wages.
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04-30-2020, 02:30 PM
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Something that is just now coming out with regard to the Coronavirus is solid confirmation of the percentage of illness based on exposure rate and the real death rate to the exposure rate percentage.
The difficulty is that all the numbers which came out early on appear in hind sight to be greatly exaggerated (see post 17726 as an example).
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt that had some of the crew come down sick is about the only closed environment that I can think of which might give an accurate picture.
As of yesterday only 1 death has been attributed to the virus amongst the crew.
That is correct, only ONE so far.
Here are the official numbers from a news article discussing the situation;
"General Hyten said with almost all of the Roosevelt's crew of 4,865 now tested, 416 tested positive — nearly 9% — and 3,170 tested negative, while the results for another 1,164 were still pending. Of those testing positive, he said 229 — more than half — showed no symptoms of the disease."
Unless somebody else dies, that appears to indicate that the death rate amongst healthy individuals without preexisting conditions is something less than 1 out of every 500.
That does not give an accurate picture for the US population as a whole because in general we are old, fat, pop guzzling, lazy group of complaining Americans.
It does tell us why the Spring Breakers were not too worried and why most of the (older) politicians are scared shitless.
Seld preservation, pure and simple.
The difficulty is that all the numbers which came out early on appear in hind sight to be greatly exaggerated (see post 17726 as an example).
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt that had some of the crew come down sick is about the only closed environment that I can think of which might give an accurate picture.
As of yesterday only 1 death has been attributed to the virus amongst the crew.
That is correct, only ONE so far.
Here are the official numbers from a news article discussing the situation;
"General Hyten said with almost all of the Roosevelt's crew of 4,865 now tested, 416 tested positive — nearly 9% — and 3,170 tested negative, while the results for another 1,164 were still pending. Of those testing positive, he said 229 — more than half — showed no symptoms of the disease."
Unless somebody else dies, that appears to indicate that the death rate amongst healthy individuals without preexisting conditions is something less than 1 out of every 500.
That does not give an accurate picture for the US population as a whole because in general we are old, fat, pop guzzling, lazy group of complaining Americans.
It does tell us why the Spring Breakers were not too worried and why most of the (older) politicians are scared shitless.
Seld preservation, pure and simple.
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04-30-2020, 03:09 PM
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It's not as though active-duty members of the US Armed Forces are, as a broad generalization, much younger and fitter than the average of the population, and also have better access to healthcare.
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04-30-2020, 03:22 PM
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The point is that the crew of the aircraft carrier (18-40 year old healthy) personnel have given a very good benchmark for all the other people who fall in that particular demographics.
The rest of us old fat Americans don't have any such example to give us an idea how likely it is for us to die after being exposed to the virus.
The rest of us old fat Americans don't have any such example to give us an idea how likely it is for us to die after being exposed to the virus.
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04-30-2020, 03:29 PM
There's always the prison system to consider:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN2270RX
"April 25, 2020 / 11:01 AM / 4 days ago
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN2270RX
"April 25, 2020 / 11:01 AM / 4 days ago
In four U.S. state prisons, nearly 3,300 inmates test positive for coronavirus -- 96% without symptoms
"
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04-30-2020, 03:38 PM
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There you go,
We are starting to get a feel for how various control groups react to the virus with he ensuing illness & death rates outside of the official charts and estimates.
Nursing homes are a place where the sick old people end up dying of the virus at a very high percentage if the news media can be believed.
That said, I live just a couple of blocks from a Nursing Home and it gets lots of emergency vehicular traffic to and from it.
It can be confirmed because my dog loves to howl along with the sirens so my attention gets drawn multiple times a day.
Low for young & healthy,
high for old and fat and sick.
We are starting to get a feel for how various control groups react to the virus with he ensuing illness & death rates outside of the official charts and estimates.
Nursing homes are a place where the sick old people end up dying of the virus at a very high percentage if the news media can be believed.
That said, I live just a couple of blocks from a Nursing Home and it gets lots of emergency vehicular traffic to and from it.
It can be confirmed because my dog loves to howl along with the sirens so my attention gets drawn multiple times a day.
Low for young & healthy,
high for old and fat and sick.
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04-30-2020, 03:53 PM
There you go,
We are starting to get a feel for how various control groups react to the virus with he ensuing illness & death rates outside of the official charts and estimates.
Nursing homes are a place where the sick old people end up dying of the virus at a very high percentage if the news media can be believed.
That said, I live just a couple of blocks from a Nursing Home and it gets lots of emergency vehicular traffic to and from it.
It can be confirmed because my dog loves to howl along with the sirens so my attention gets drawn multiple times a day.
Low for young & healthy,
high for old and fat and sick.
We are starting to get a feel for how various control groups react to the virus with he ensuing illness & death rates outside of the official charts and estimates.
Nursing homes are a place where the sick old people end up dying of the virus at a very high percentage if the news media can be believed.
That said, I live just a couple of blocks from a Nursing Home and it gets lots of emergency vehicular traffic to and from it.
It can be confirmed because my dog loves to howl along with the sirens so my attention gets drawn multiple times a day.
Low for young & healthy,
high for old and fat and sick.
...
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04-30-2020, 04:06 PM
Boost Czar
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There you go,
We are starting to get a feel for how various control groups react to the virus with he ensuing illness & death rates outside of the official charts and estimates.
Nursing homes are a place where the sick old people end up dying of the virus at a very high percentage if the news media can be believed.
That said, I live just a couple of blocks from a Nursing Home and it gets lots of emergency vehicular traffic to and from it.
It can be confirmed because my dog loves to howl along with the sirens so my attention gets drawn multiple times a day.
Low for young & healthy,
high for old and fat and sick.
We are starting to get a feel for how various control groups react to the virus with he ensuing illness & death rates outside of the official charts and estimates.
Nursing homes are a place where the sick old people end up dying of the virus at a very high percentage if the news media can be believed.
That said, I live just a couple of blocks from a Nursing Home and it gets lots of emergency vehicular traffic to and from it.
It can be confirmed because my dog loves to howl along with the sirens so my attention gets drawn multiple times a day.
Low for young & healthy,
high for old and fat and sick.
An NYC nursing home forced to take coronavirus patients was also sent a supply of body bags for when they died
- An executive at an unnamed Queens, New York nursing home told the New York Post on Thursday how officials sent them body bags when they were forced to admit coronavirus patients last month.
- Thirty residents at the previously virus-free facility went on to die from the disease.
- It's the latest in a series of concerning incidents to happen in the city during the outbreak, including hospitals leaving bodies out on the street and patients across the city dying at home.
https://nypost.com/2020/04/26/cuomo-...nursing-homes/
Cuomo doubles down on ordering nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients
Gov. Cuomo doubled down Sunday on the state’s controversial directive ordering nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients.The governor — who himself has described nursing homes as a “feeding frenzy’’ for the deadly coronavirus — said that the facilities can’t challenge a state regulation forcing them to admit patients with the contagion.
But he insisted that nursing homes could transfer those ill with the virus to another facility if the centers lacked such things as quarantine space, proper protective equipment and staff.
Asked by a reporter at his daily briefing Sunday if there was anything contradictory about his statements, the governor replied, “No.”
“A nursing home can only provide care for a patient who they believe they can provide adequate care for,’’ Cuomo said. “If they cannot provide adequate care for a patient, they must transfer that patient.”
He said that if the nursing home can’t find another adequate facility, it should call the state Department of Health.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-yor...lp-11587673540
New York City Nursing Home With Dozens of Deaths During Coronavirus Outbreak Says It Got Little Help
At a Brooklyn nursing home where at least 50 people have died who were suspected of being infected with the new coronavirus, a top administrator says his center had to go it alone for weeks during the outbreak, with little support from the state or other authorities.Cobble Hill Health Center Chief Executive Donny Tuchman said some staff wore garbage bags for protection. Some worked 16-hour shifts. And at times, patients were dying so quickly that the center’s refrigerated storage was beyond capacity, forcing workers to rotate...
https://www.democratandchronicle.com...te/3011279001/
Coronavirus: New York to investigate nursing homes, who point finger back at state
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday launched an investigation into nursing homes' conduct during the COVID-19 outbreak, which has left more than 3,500 residents of long-term care facilities dead since the start of March.The state Department of Health and Attorney General Letitia James will co-lead the investigation, which will focus on whether nursing homes and adult-care facilities appropriately followed state law and regulation as the coronavirus went on its torrid spread in New York.
But nursing home operators say it was the state that took a bad situation and made it worse, citing a controversial March 25 advisory that they say may have helped introduce the virus into some of their elderly-care facilities in an effort to free up hospital beds.
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