Odd, there are correct answers in other countries that are doing exponentially better that America.
Trump has no correct answer. FTFT

If it's a state issue, why are Trump and Devos trying to force them to open no matter what states say?

By no one you mean Trump. Fauchi knew, CDC officials knew, doctors knew, basically anyone with an average IQ knew. Only nobodies DIDN'T know, and you all are willfully ignorant, not honestly questioning professionals but obstinately backing an ignorant moron's dangerous and inconsistent "plan".

Dual shifts?! Are you fucking kidding? Your plan is make overworked underpaid teachers work twice as long, doubling their exposure and workload?! They'll walk week one.

Open to varying work south? Are you suggesting we outsource teaching to Mexicans? What?

Fuck you asshole, you said you work from home less than two weeks ago, or did you forget? Fucking liar.


Again, your plan is to let up to >5% of Americans die and 10% be permanently disabled....not to mention the insane medical costs, most not covered by insurance....all to avoid social distancing.

Your anti American sentiment is showing, your suggestions amount to 15 million dead Americans and 30 million more disabled is way better than wearing a mask and distancing. Only America's enemies would consider such a thing....comrade.

America is in for a serious wake up call when schools don't reopen, because spoiler alert. They're not reopening. And guess what, there's no alternative child care that will be available. Really. None. This is fine for the upper middle class and the wealthy, they can afford it, but the middle and lower class are going to be absolutely destroyed. Having a child unable to return to school means they can't work.

Don't believe me? here's what's going to happen. Currently in my state there's already a shortage of substitutes. They've cancelled classes numerous times because they simply can't find a sub when a teacher is sick. Now imagine what happens when a school has an outbreak and 30 or 40 students and staff gets sick. It's going to completely destroy the school, and the morale of teachers who are still there will be in the toilet. The classes they do continue are going to be absolutely worthless. The teachers will be miserable, and so will the kids. Now imagine the fact that school districts in Republican counties will refuse to shut down.You think these teachers are going to continue going to work and risking their lives? Nope. Not for what they get paid. So eventually the teachers union is going to stand up for the working conditions, and if they don't go online, they're going to strike. This will effectively shut down public schools across the entire US and costs billions and billions of dollars. But here's the worst part, all these schools that follow Betsy Devos' advice, and are taking the Republican approach of "stay in school no matter what!" are going to have zero alternate plans. You think it was bad back in march when schools were closing and didn't know what the fuck to do, take that times ten. Now, we've got another complication on top of everything else, and that's that parents are already fucking crazy about their kids education. They're not only going to be losing their shit because their kids will have to stay home, and they can't work, but their kids also won't be getting educated. Think of the gathering of the juggalos, and imagine it's Karens at a school board meeting. That's where we're headed. It's going to be an absolute shit show, and all because Americans are too fucking dumb and arrogant to simply wear a mask, and social distance for a few weeks. really, we could have this behind us like the rest of the world, but we've got to sit in time out and watch 100s of thousands die because we're acting like toddlers.

I would encourage everyonw to watch the latest interview with Betsy Devos. When asked what should be done when there's an outbreak at schools she said "we need to reopen schools", when asked again, she just repeated herself. They literally have no alternate plan. None. When the outbreaks happen, these schools are going to close, and the schools will have no contingency plans. Because the leadership in the US has been so abysmal, and the rich people making decisions have nothing to worry about. Fuck the poor, make them bring their kids to work, that's where we're at.

Sorry, 1.5-2m is not really a safe distance without a mask, it's the average distance infectious droplets travel from normal speaking. Coughs and sneezes can spray infectious droplets 23-27 ft before they evaporate. The distancing guidelines are based on older studies of bacterial meningitis, not Covid 19. Bacteria are way easier to kill than viruses.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-why-6-feet-may-not-be-enough-social-distance

Sneeze on every one of these assholes.
If not for self centered morons like these, the epidemic would be over with under 1/10 of the current infection and death numbers.

I'm so happy they are starting to get pepper sprayed, it's totally the correct response. Self defense is an excuse to use it, and anyone without a mask under 20 ft from you (the 6 ft distance is bullshit, you aren't safe under the distance a sneeze travels) is assaulting you.

This is so fucking weird for a number of reasons:

- Even the dudes handing out the masks don't seem to use them correctly - you need to cover your nose

- Arguably, wearing a mask on a beach or outside is not really that important as long as you stick to social distancing (1.5 to 2m). It's when you enter crowded or often-frequented places (stores, subways, etc) when they become a factor

Is this whole thing really that politicized atm? Scary...

Social! Distancing!

The alligator must not have received the memo...

Lol. Facts are always BS to you Trump Chumps....

https://www.sciencealert.com/starting-isolation-two-weeks-sooner-could-have-saved-9-out-of-10-us-coronavirus-deaths

https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-deaths-us-could-avoided-by-social-distancing-sooner-experts-2020-4

Real fact is that at this point it's closer to 95% because he is pretty much solely responsible for the resurgence of phase one thanks to his urging his cultists to deny science and make not wearing a mask and ignoring social distancing an exercise of freedom, causing much of the resurgence, and has done nothing to prepare for round two, so that number is guaranteed to rise.

Newt,

This is in response to your comment on my statement about Biden needing to lose in '20.

I recently wrote this as a reply to one of my readers (I write under a number of different names in other places).:

Dear <name>,

>I took some time to absorb what you wrote. It's a lot to juggle. The Atlantic has an article in the July-August issue on the worst and best case scenario in CLO defaults. I'll read more.

I read the article you mentioned, and while it's certainly good, it also misses a very important point that explains the mess we're in: the collapse of Lehman and Bear-Stearns, while catastrophic in their own ways, were not the nightmare that caused the Fed to freak out in 2008 -- AIG was. Had AIG gone under and the counterparty default contracts triggered, we'd be on the barter system right now. We came within hours of not having an economy in the western world. The $700b ($.7t) the Fed coughed up to stop this from happening calmed the panic, but did nothing to resolve the underlying issues. These issues continued to compound during the 2011-2020 stock run-up and now we're at the point where the Fed is throwing trillions of dollars at every piece of bad debt they can find just to keep the whole thing from imploding into an economic black hole. It is important to note that in September '19, the credit markets started freezing because of the debt that was already on the books then, -before- CV-19 started rolling, and it took $3t just to get them unlocked again. Absolutely nothing has gotten better since then, and I would argue things have gotten dangerously worse.

In an odd coincidence, the NYT ran an article today about the looming bankruptcy crisis. They're calling for 30-60 days before things start imploding, but I'll stick to my estimate of ~90 days. There's some talk about extending the $600 benefits (we'll see) and chatter about another stimulus check, but that's kicking the can as well as telegraphing how bad things really are. When the Republicans are getting behind free money, you know we're in some uncharted territory. For all intents and purposes, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) -- the reason the Fed is backstopping debt and printing money like crazy -- is the hill the US economy will live or die on. Should the US dollar come unpegged as the world's de facto currency or should inflation begin (and there's already worrying signs this is happening), that's game over.

Please don't take anything I say as the Word of God; please do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Everything I've said is an opinion based on my education, experience and way of thinking. Your mileage may vary.

Here is the article I mentioned: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/business/corporate-bankruptcy-coronavirus.html -- might be paywalled, but clear your cookies for the NYT and you should be able to read it.


>Frankly, it's the physical danger in my area of the States that concerns me. There are the guns and bullying. During some BLM demonstrations in the Midwest, locals were standing around with semi-automatics. I drive a Prius for the fuel efficiency. Pick up trucks enjoy tailgating, trying to intimidate me. This behavior isn't going to change with a change of President but will get worse is we don't change. This ideological push to takeover the country instead of ruling by compromise started around the same time we came to the US in 1981, Reagan's first year. I was so shocked when I heard talk radio for the first time; this wasn't the country I had left in the 1970s.


And now we come to the giant pile of sweaty dynamite that's just waiting for the right shock to set it off. I could give you a prolonged lecture about how this all started in 1978 with California's Proposition 13, or how David Stockman's tragically prescient warnings were blatantly ignored, but Haynes Johnson does a far better job at this than I ever could in his 1991 book "Sleepwalking Through History", as does Kevin Phillips in 2006's "American Theocracy". Honestly, at this point, the prelude is academic. The reality of the situation is that a large swath of adult Americans are appalling ill-educated, innumerate and devoid of even the most basic critical-thinking skills. These people are now locked out of the Information Economy. They lack the most basic skills required to compete in the 21st century job market and thus will watch their standard of living sink into the abyss. These people are not blind to this fact because they're living with the reality of their situation every single day. They're totally without hope, cut off from all avenues of control over their own lives and they feel utterly abandoned by the very people who're supposed to be helping them. The reason you're seeing bullying and behavior like that is because these same people are totally removed from any avenues of recourse and the only people they can take their anger out on are people like you and me. Their anger is being stoked on a daily basis. FOX News and the GOP are experts at this and have a host of boogeymen to keep the anger from being pointed their way: ANTIFA, BLM (black Americans have always made a perfect target), "coastal elites" and, of course, Liberals.

Trump's election was a warning, not an outlier. Trump was the primal scream of these people and Liberals and the Democrats as a whole chose not to listen because they found the sound so abhorrent. The rage will only get worse and the number of people enveloped by this rage will only grow as economic conditions worsen. At this point, it no longer matters who wins in '20. Winning the election will be like winning the deed to the World Trade Center one second after the first jet hit. The damage has already been done and no steps are being taken to repair it; if anything, people are actively making it worse either through ideological blindness, deliberate malfeasance or outright stupidity. It took almost 50 years to get to this point and the endemic issues will not be undone in a single generation, much less a single election. Until the people who voted for Trump feel a sense of real hope, a sense of control over their lives and a genuine expectation of recourse for their grievances, they will keep right on voting for Trump, or people like him.

My unfortunate suspicion is that this country will rip itself to shreds long before those reforms are enacted.

Side note: the fundamental difference between the United States and Europe is that European history has forced the nations of Europe to live with the consequences of their actions. Not so the United States. Europe has suffered for her sins. Not so the United States. The two bloodiest wars in human history were fought on European soil. Not so the United States. The United States has never faced true suffering, nor has it ever had to live with the ramifications of its own actions. Both these facts are about to change and a nation whose character is built on a mythology of individual action and violence is going to have to face reality. The people of this nation are not prepared for this and they will not like it.

Second side note: many people are erroneously comparing the current situation to the Wiemar Republic. This is a lack of historical understanding. A more apt comparison would be to Spain in late 1935.


>As for re-opening, we could have gotten some control if the "leader" had simply donned a mask and used realistic thinking. People could go back to work more safely, wash hands, stay a certain distance. But his hubris led the way, so now we'll have a roller coaster for months and years that will affect the economy even more. France is a good comparison because they were unprepared also, having slashed the public healthcare budget for the last twenty years. But when they laid down the rules, troops patrolled the streets to be sure they were followed. So far, they've flattened the curve (for now), and used different economic incentives, such as paying part of employees' salaries to keep them employed.

At this point, the pace of re-opening is a difference between very bad and much worse. Had $3t been used to pay the yearly salary of every American, we could have saved lives and the economy, but we didn't. The history of 2020 will be littered with "what-ifs". However, the first thing you learn when studying history is that what-ifs are useless because things are what they are and you can't change that. It's already obvious we're going into a second wave. If previous pandemics are any indication of what's to come, this second wave will be many times worse than the first. The wait for a vaccine is indeterminate, but if we're going for herd immunity, ~70% of Americans will need to catch the virus. To date, ~1.5% have. If the US population is ~330 million, ~230 million will need to catch the virus. Call the mortality rate 2%, that means ~4.6 million Americans will die. That's a lot of dead Americans and grieving families.

Take care,

(my actual name)

They are practicing social distancing from where humans cross.

Any math teacher I've ever had would fail you for that. The only reason to remove units is to hide how ridiculous your measurements are....but fine, let's just use ratios...you still fall flat.

Then your trig and measurements suck, because your measurements put the stage floor at a minimum of 4.5' and the ramp a maximum length of 23.5', both of which are obviously excessively wrong.
The SS at the corners of the stage are waist high to the stage floor....are they 9' tall SS? When on stage, two stripes are waist high to Trump, is he 9' tall? I guess to save Trump, you say yes.
The stage segments are at least 10' long, using Trump as a 6'+ measuring stick....is Trump now only 3.5' tall? The ramp covers 3 segments (one slightly short with a podium) then continues for 5-8' beyond the stage (more if I use your breitbart photo)....sure, it's only 23'...that makes sense. *facepalm

Measuring on a curved screen is useless....which you have proven. Measuring based on a photo is also useless unless it's a top down long distance shot, as perspective skews the image. I guess all your college math classes omitted the concept of perspective? Just for giggles, I did it anyway, and still got a slope under 7 degrees, higher than reality thanks to skewed perspective.
It's clear you must insist your measurements are perfect but our eyes lie. Very Trumpian of you, congratulations, and bye. Enjoy your perfectly healthy, not obese and demented president and your near vertical ramps that are suddenly everywhere. Don't come to my house, my ramp is nearly 3 times the slope of the one you claim is 11 degrees, it should be impossible to climb (oddly it's not).

Trump has done a great job of clearing a fire break around America over the last few years (maybe he's been raking the forest floors?). Even close allies of over 80yrs have already distanced themselves from the dumpster fire.

Glaciers that end in seas calve regardless of the effects of global warming. That is just what happens when they meet sea water.

The entertainment is mostly the result of the boats not being at a particularly safe distance. People enjoy doing something stupid and surviving.

Also big moving things awe us. I would definitely be entertained seeing this from up close. Could not help myself.

My take from this is that "holy shit" is slightly more entertainment than "oh my god". Amused to death.

Am I the only one disturbed and concerned by the underlying cause of the calving than repeatedly yelling "Oh my God woohoo!" like I'm watching a blockbuster disaster CGI movie? It's not "entertaining"...

And reading up Glacier calving on wikipedia, the boats not even at a particularly safe distance?

Lol.

Do you really think people respect your opinion on this?

Do you really think your dishonest far right wing propaganda is convincing to people who don't already believe that nonsense and are only looking for any confirmation of their ignorant opinions?

Do you not understand you look so incredibly wrong at every single turn that if you suddenly started saying Trump is a bad man unfit to lead, we would second guess our assessments?

The only benefit your opinion offers is a stepping off point for learning just how ignorant and backwards the right has become and how much better lackluster candidates like Biden are than you claim, or by comparison.

You and your ilk making accusations HELPS Biden. You are that toxic. Keep it up.

But not to worry, Trump is proud of his 8% approval rating with blacks. Too bad for you it's in the low 30's overall now, and dropping.

Even Republican senators have distanced themselves, now not mentioning Trump or his record at all in their commercials because he's so toxic.

Enjoy your second red tsunami, I know I will.

Lyrics in case you want to sing along

Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, run them, fuck the slow mo

Fashion slave, you protestin' to get in a fuckin' look book
Everything I scribble's like The Anarchist Cookbook
(Look good, posing in a centerfold of Crook Book)
Black on black on black with a ski mask, that is my crook look
How you like my stylin', bruh? Ain't nobody stylin', bruh
'Bout to turn this mothafucka up like Riker's Island, bruh
Where my thuggers and my cripples and my blooders and my brothers?
When you niggas gon' unite and kill the police, mothafuckas?
Or take over a jail, give those COs hell
The burnin' of the sulfur, God damn I love the smell
Blankets and pillow torchin', where the fuck the warden?
And when you find him, we don't kill him, we just waterboard him
We killin' 'em for freedom cause they tortured us for boredom
And even if some good ones die, fuck it, the Lord'll sort 'em

We out of order, your honor, you're out of order
This whole court is unimportant, you fuckers are walkin' corpses
I'm a flip wig synonym, livin' within distortion
I'll bite into a cyanide molar before you whores win
I'm a New Yorkian, I fuck for the jump
I wear my Yankee so tilted I actually walk with a hunch
Look at Mikey, I think he likey, we are sinister sons
(Aye, we the type to beat the preacher with a grin and a gun)

Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them

A wise man once said, ("We all dead, fuck it")
Just spit it disgusting youngin', and hold your nuts while you're gunnin'
I listened, tatted a sentence on my dick last summer
Now I'll never get that phrase off my brain, it's no wonder
I'm here to buy hearts, I got hundreds, honey
The cheaper the parts, the better buy for the money
I'm trained in vagina whisperin', glistenin'
Waitin' for their christenin', I know the neighbors can't help but listen in
A dirty boy who come down on a side of dissonance
I can't even relax without sirens off in the distances
Not shittin' you, little buddy, this fuckin' island's a prison
The only solace I have is the act of conjugal visitin'

My solitary condition's preventin' conjugal visits
Go mane and missin' my misses, they keepin' me from my children
Conditions create a villain, the villain is givin' vision
The vision becomes a vow to seek vengeance on all the vicious
Liars and politicians, profiteers of the prisons
The forehead engravers, enslavers of men and women
Includin' members of clergy that rule on you through religion
(So strippin' kids to the nude and then tell 'em God'll forgive 'em)

Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them

It's De La on the cut, liftin' 6 on your stitchy crew
I'm miles ahead of you, you can sip my bitches brew
My battle status is burnin' mansions from Dallas to Malibu
Check my résumé, your residence is residue
Call her a skin job and my honey dip'll backflip for you
You playin', God your eye sockets, she gon' rip in two
We sick of bleedin' out a trace, spray a victim, you
Done dyin', Phillip AK Dickin' you
With clips in the bottom, we dippin' from Gotham
Yes eclipsed by the shadows, a dark dance to the coffin
I'm a fellow with melanin, suspect of a felony
Ripped like Rakim Allah, feds is checkin' my melody
Yes aggressively tested we'll bump stretchers and penalties
Dump cases with face and the cop pleas when we seizing a pump
With reason to dump on you global grand dragons
Still pilin' fast, plus Afghani toe taggin'
Now they trackin' me and we bustin' back, see
The only thing that close quicker than our caskets be the factories

Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them