All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[numberthirty]

Seems Ohio is upping the stakes for reopening, setting up a website for employers to report any runaway serfs, er, employees who don't come back because they feel unsafe so benefits can be cut.

Worth pointing out that single payer healthcare coverage would solve one of the problems facing said "Serfs"/"Employees" completely.

Not "Well, We Worked Out A Deal Where We Can Cover Eighty Percent Of Those Serfs..." All of those serfs.

[Gray Lensman]

Worth pointing out that single payer healthcare coverage would solve one of the problems facing said "Serfs"/"Employees" completely.

Not "Well, We Worked Out A Deal Where We Can Cover Eighty Percent Of Those Serfs..." All of those serfs.

The system in this country isn't built for what you are demanding. Cover more now, try to get the rest later, is the only way that is likely to change. You can insist on everything now, but you'll only get nothing for the trouble.

Never let perfect become the enemy of good.

[sammy_hansen]

The system in this country isn't built for what you are demanding. Cover more now, try to get the rest later, is the only way that is likely to change. You can insist on everything now, but you'll only get nothing for the trouble.

Never let perfect become the enemy of good.

Universal health care should be a basic right, never mind this perfect or good nonsense. It seems very strange to me when even left-leaning folks can’t see this.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

A security guard is shot and killed after telling customer to put on a face mask

Without even reading the article, I knew almost immediately the offenders were black when I saw the line, “disrespecting his wife”. Only blacks are ready to fight and kill over nonsense like that. As a black man, I can call out my people when **** like that leads to senseless violence and death. Meanwhile, I’m surprised there haven’t been other incidents where stupid people refuse to follow orders about wearing masks in stores, leading to confrontations with security personnel. Or perhaps I just haven’t heard of them.

[Tami]

This is why I thank the heavens that he is no longer governor.

Chris Christie pushes to reopen country despite dire Covid-19 projections: 'There are going to be deaths'

(CNN)Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that the country needs to reopen, despite separate key coronavirus models forecasting that thousands may die daily in the United States from Covid-19 and that more than 100,000 may die in total.

"Of course, everybody wants to save every life they can -- but the question is, towards what end, ultimately?" Christie, a Republican tapped to lead President Donald Trump's presidential transition team in 2016, told CNN's Dana Bash on The Daily DC Podcast. "Are there ways that we can... thread the middle here to allow that there are going to be deaths, and there are going to be deaths no matter what?"

Christie told Bash that "we've got to let some of these folks get back to work, because if we don't, we're going to destroy the American way of life in these families -- and it will be years and years before we can recover." His comments Monday echoed similar characterizations by other Republicans -- including President Donald Trump -- that the economic impact of coronavirus is just as devastating to the nation as the virus itself.

When Bash pressed Christie on whether people would be able to accept reopening in light of news of a Trump administration model projecting a rise up to about 3,000 daily US deaths from coronavirus by June 1, Christie responded, "They're gonna have to."

[Tami]

Key coronavirus model doubles projected US deaths to 134,000 as social distancing fades

(CNN)An influential coronavirus model often cited by the White House has doubled its projections for US deaths, now forecasting that more than 134,000 people will die from Covid-19 by August.

The researchers who designed the model changed their methodology to account for an increasingly restless population and moves in many states to ease restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

This "effect of premature relaxation of social distancing, which has a substantial effect in some states," will lead to more cases and more deaths, said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, which built the model.

"There have been many, many states where mobility is starting to go up, even before the social distancing mandates are coming off," Murray said, citing data from Facebook and Google. "This rise of mobility in the last week or 10 days is likely leading to some increased transmission."

In Georgia, for example, the model shows that mobility has risen steadily since the beginning of April. But it predicts a spike in movement in May, just as the state begins to relax social distancing measures.
Nearly 3,000 more people are now expected to die in Georgia from now through August, under the updated model. Illinois is projected to see an additional 4,000 deaths, and the model has added 5,200 new deaths for Indiana.

In New York, an additional 7,800 people are now expected to die, and the model is projecting an additional 8,800 deaths in New Jersey. The increases stem in part from longer "peaks," with deaths declining more slowly than expected in many states.

[Gray Lensman]

Universal health care should be a basic right, never mind this perfect or good nonsense. It seems very strange to me when even left-leaning folks can’t see this.

We can see it, but we can also do math. If there is enough support in Congress to pass a law that significantly increases coverage, but not enough support to pass a law for universal coverage, there are two options.

1 - take what you can get, improve the lives of some people but not all of them.

2 - insist on what you can't get, improve the lives of ZERO people, or perhaps I should word it as throw away the chance you had to improve some lives.

That's what it means to allow perfect to become the enemy of good. I'd love it if we could get everything we want, but realistically, in the system we have, that isn't happening no matter how much you insist it should be.

[Malvolio]

We can see it, but we can also do math. If there is enough support in Congress to pass a law that significantly increases coverage, but not enough support to pass a law for universal coverage, there are two options.

1 - take what you can get, improve the lives of some people but not all of them.

2 - insist on what you can't get, improve the lives of ZERO people, or perhaps I should word it as throw away the chance you had to improve some lives.

That's what it means to allow perfect to become the enemy of good. I'd love it if we could get everything we want, but realistically, in the system we have, that isn't happening no matter how much you insist it should be.

This. I keep saying it, but it bears repeating: Those who demand all or nothing, usually get nothing.

[Steel Inquisitor]

This. I keep saying it, but it bears repeating: Those who demand all or nothing, usually get nothing.

In the case of tankies this is what they want. The more desperate people are the more they think they'll turn to the tankies for the glorious revolution. The goal fails when people think the Democrats are a party worth supporting.

[Tendrin]

Fauci: No evidence that Coronavirus came from Chinese lab.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...inese-lab-cvd/

France was unknowingly treating Corona virus in December:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN22G20L

PARIS (Reuters) - A French hospital which has retested old samples from pneumonia patients discovered that it treated a man who had COVID-19 as early as Dec. 27, nearly a month before the French government confirmed its first cases.

meanwhile, I'm seeing the usual assortment of nonsense from rose twitter about Tara Reade and Biden.

[Tendrin]

Meanwhile, the news out of Venezuela is *insane*.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of “mercenaries” on Monday, a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled.
Maduro held up a pair of blue U.S. passports, reading off the names and birth dates on them in a nationwide broadcast on state television. He showed images of the fishing boats the alleged attackers rode in on and equipment like walkie-talkies and night-vision glasses collected in what Maduro called an “intense” couple of days. He blamed the attacks on the Trump administration and neighboring Colombia, both of which have denied involvement.
“The United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid,” Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep netting the “professional American mercenaries.”
Before dawn on Sunday, officials say the first attack started on a beach near Venezuela’s port city of La Guaira, when security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others attempting to make a landing by speedboats.

https://apnews.com/fb3b0e84b1d58cb876fd38c7a9493fd5

[sammy_hansen]

We can see it, but we can also do math. If there is enough support in Congress to pass a law that significantly increases coverage, but not enough support to pass a law for universal coverage, there are two options.

1 - take what you can get, improve the lives of some people but not all of them.

2 - insist on what you can't get, improve the lives of ZERO people, or perhaps I should word it as throw away the chance you had to improve some lives.

That's what it means to allow perfect to become the enemy of good. I'd love it if we could get everything we want, but realistically, in the system we have, that isn't happening no matter how much you insist it should be.

I guess that leads me to ask this question: what do you actually want?

If it is universal health care, why would you campaign for anything less than that? Why would you allow any opening for Republicans to chip away at? If 95% of elected Democrats and Democrat supporters are in favor of universal health care, do you realize how much of a better position that puts you in to do the math?

Look at guns. I don’t think there’s a coherent Democratic policy. As a result, you can’t even get a law that requires a background check for mentally ill people, let alone getting machine guns off the streets.

To me it smacks of defeatism, certainly as a starting point. I’m not against negotiating when it gets to the nitty gritty. But starting from the strongest, most coherent and fair position seems reasonable to me.

In the case of tankies this is what they want. The more desperate people are the more they think they'll turn to the tankies for the glorious revolution. The goal fails when people think the Democrats are a party worth supporting.

Dude, calm down. Not everyone who isn’t a centrist is a communist.

[Steel Inquisitor]

Dude, calm down. Not everyone who isn’t a centrist is a communist.

Exactly. Which is why I categorised the Leftists who do as I described as "tankies," not the Left.

[jetengine]

Its almost like theres a subgenre of leftists who are telling people not to vote out of a disturbing desire to see people hurt so badly they'll HAVE to see it their way.

[sammy_hansen]

Exactly. Which is why I categorised the Leftists who do as I described as "tankies," not the Left.

I read it as implying I am a communist. If that’s not your intent, then I’ll accept that. But you were responding to someone here who was saying “Those who demand all or nothing usually get nothing.” And that I just can’t agree with.

Even politicians of the conservative party in my country support universal health care. It’s not an extreme position.

USA really needs preferential voting.