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Upstate NY Banter and General Discussion..


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Whew, things are getting ugly in my old state of Michigan. As usual, both parties are acting obnoxiously. I personally find it just as immature all of the Nazi posts relating to Whitmer from Republicans as I do the democrats and Trump haters and all their names for him.

I wish wish wish people could discuss their points without being childish with names, biting sarcasm, and patronizing tones.

Checking out the signs people "made for Whitmer" all I could do was shake my head. They really think silly signs are going to change something?

I think many of them have good points. Small businesses are really going through a rough time right now. Much of Michigan is similar to New York state in that most of the cases are in very specific areas of the state...not the whole state as a whole. So many towns are sitting there thinking....we could still be doing business right now.

I have wondered how Upstate New Yorkers have seemed to come across as much more patient about reopening when compared to Michigan. From comments from friends there, it seems like New York state did a better job at making quick plans. Schools in Michigan are STILL not doing anything for their students. (P.S. same for my family in Tennessee. My nieces and nephew have been sitting there twiddling their thumbs.)

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1 hour ago, vortmax said:

Here's my take on what really happened: China has been trying to become a leader in virology (along with viral weaponizing) and have multiple research labs around the country testing all sorts of germs. Unfortunately, they don't have the proper safety protocols in these labs and someone contracted COVID-19 (patient zero) and started shedding it before symptoms were present. As it spread, the Chinese government was made aware and attempted to contain it quickly, however, there were local doctors who were aware and knew what was happening. They tried to convey, but were quickly silenced - as it would be a VERY bad look to the rest of the world (that China was out-of-control with this thing). So, they decided to continue trying to contain, but soon realized there was no stopping it, within China. At that point, they knew it was going to disrupt their economy, and I believe THAT was the time the Chinese leadership decided to let thing virus out (by stalling) so that the rest of the world's economies would be at parity dealing with it. To them, it's worth the 200k+ lives lost in other countries, to save their own economy in order to reach their Made in China 2025 plan. 

This. China. can. not. be. trusted. And that's no xenophobic post...

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This is a Long Read  but IMO thought provoking reading for thinking people.  Fear not, the failures are institutional, not solely a matter of Left or Right politics.

...Snip....

First, the people die; then, the stories.

The human toll of COVID-19 is unlikely to approach even a mean fraction of the pain visited on humanity in the first quarter of the 20th century. But what about the stories we tell about our global institutions, our shared values, and our own orthodoxies and authorities?

Those stories are dying. They are dying because the institutions built on those stories failed us all, and all at once.

First, the people die; then, the stories.

The failures of these institutions were not simple mistakes, evidence of wrongness of one kind or another. The failures of these institutions were failures of narrative, devastating revelations of each institution’s fundamental inability to do what they said they would do. Revelations that their purpose was something other than the story they told about themselves. In various ways they each held power over us through those stories, told using the language of our needs and values and beliefs. In a single event, the world proved those stories false on their faces.

...Snip...

Today, America is moving quickly on a path to frame COVID-19 as a domestic political matter, the result of failures that will be solved in the voting booth.

This is a mistake.

If we would not yield our birthright, we must first choose never to forget the full scope of our betrayal.

...End Snip...

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6 minutes ago, Syrmax said:

This is a Long Read  but IMO thought provoking reading for thinking people. 

...Snip....

First, the people die; then, the stories.

The human toll of COVID-19 is unlikely to approach even a mean fraction of the pain visited on humanity in the first quarter of the 20th century. But what about the stories we tell about our global institutions, our shared values, and our own orthodoxies and authorities?

Those stories are dying. They are dying because the institutions built on those stories failed us all, and all at once.

First, the people die; then, the stories.

The failures of these institutions were not simple mistakes, evidence of wrongness of one kind or another. The failures of these institutions were failures of narrative, devastating revelations of each institution’s fundamental inability to do what they said they would do. Revelations that their purpose was something other than the story they told about themselves. In various ways they each held power over us through those stories, told using the language of our needs and values and beliefs. In a single event, the world proved those stories false on their faces.

...End Snip...

Oh my word, is that a long read! lol

I just watched an interview with Melinda and Bill Gates and they are very eagerly supporting the WHO and encouraging others to do so. So it was interesting to read about the WHO in this light.

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26 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

Oh my word, is that a long read! lol

I just watched an interview with Melinda and Bill Gates and they are very eagerly supporting the WHO and encouraging others to do so. So it was interesting to read about the WHO in this light.

Its super long...but a lot of Shibboleths are slain.  And yeah, the WHO are a pile of sh*t. Just one of many...

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...The Fed’s actions represent a gross inequity, the rough equivalent of dropping a trillion dollars from a blimp into a stadium full of billionaires, and then saying, “Well, how else are we going to get money into the hands of store owners and workers?”

...Whatever we decide tomorrow will look like, we must not forget how Wall Street has not represented our interests.

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Congress

Today, everybody knows that everybody knows that Congress can’t even pass an historic, once-in-a-lifetime emergency bill for a global pandemic without inserting into it every possible personal cause, special interest or political ambition.

Frankly, in context of most government actions, you could even make the argument that the CARES Act is a decent bill. Relatively speaking, anyway. It contains a lot of direct aid to Americans, through direct payments, unemployment extensions, small business lending and temporary (he said, tentatively) expansions of various social safety net programs.

Along with a bunch of other ridiculous shit.

There’s $17 billion for “businesses critical to maintaining national security”, which is regulation-speak for bailing out Boeing shareholders for management’s disastrous execution of the 737 Max, and pretending it had anything to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.

There’s a provision that prohibits use of funding for a wall with Mexico.

There’s a provision that prevents recipients of loans to take actions in response to labor union formation.

There’s a provision that squeezed in shortened approval processes for drugs that have nothing to do with COVID-19. Oh, and also sunscreen. The FDA is now required from congress not to review a particular sunscreen ingredient.

It was important to the nation’s healing from COVID-19 to permit the use of HSA funds to purchase menstrual care products.

There’s the usual ag stuff, because no bill from US Congress is complete and no congressman from Iowa electable without it.

Oh, and nothing says, “Let’s urgently help businesses and families recover from this pandemic” like a fully funded abstinence program.

Or a rousing performance at the newly funded Kennedy Center, which responded to its windfall by proceeding to furlough just about everybody left on staff.

That’s just the nonsense that got into the bill.

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The White House

Perhaps you found it conspicuous that the US presidency and Donald Trump didn’t show up until the end of this list. The White House is here in part because many of the institutional failures and mistakes described above are also effectively the institutional failures and mistakes of the White House. The FDA and CDC are both part of President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services. So, too, are the Surgeon General and the United States Public Health Service, which we have so far let off the hook for their brazen participation in the nudging state behavior surrounding the use of masks by citizens.

Perhaps you also found it conspicuous that this example isn’t getting the same clever little device that the others did. You know, where we would say that the White House told us a story about who it was, but then a lot of people died and now that story is dead?

I didn’t say that…because the story isn’t dead. The narrative of the US Presidency is alive and well.

And that’s a problem...

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On 4/15/2020 at 9:04 PM, cleetussnow said:

Russia gate needs a dirt nap.  It’s over.  Did the Russian f@#$ with our heads?  Why yes they did.  They have been doing that since Stalin.  Notably financing the anti war movement in the 60s and the global anti nuclear weapons movement in the 70s and 80s.  Even green peace got their money. Old fashioned f$ckery.  When the kremlin archives were opened in the 90s all this stuff was exposed.  Joe McCarthy was an ass but he turned out to be right.  More recently, in 2016 they financed pro trump AND pro Clinton rallies on the same day in NYC to stir things up.  Their strategy is fomenting civil war in this country, and the plan has met with success at every turn.  Sun Tsu would be proud.

However, NONE of their other efforts to date has been as successful as Russiagate, which ironically they had nothing to do with.  They want us to beat ourselves to death and we are doing it. We are bickering on a weather board about it, in a thread about a virus.  Amazing success for them, and we didn’t even need Russia’s help!  

Now, did Russian pay Trump?  No.  Did they pay other politicians?  YES.  The one who trump ran against, and beat.  When Clinton approved the sale of nuclear fuel to Russia as Secretary of State, the Clinton foundation got a fat check.  25 million I think?  Also, billy (the husband) got $500,000 for a speech in Russia.  Yes it all happened.  It could be, and appears to me, that Russia has got the entire situation firmly in hand and we do not.  I do not wonder why Putin is so popular.

You are delusional. Did you even bother with the Mueller report? And yet your take is that Clinton is guilty? Lol

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The beaches and parks will be open for essential activities only, which per Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R) executive order include walking, biking, hiking, fishing, running, swimming and surfing as long as social distancing guidelines are followed

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/493288-beaches-parks-to-reopen-in-jacksonville-fla-on-friday

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3 minutes ago, TugHillMatt said:

Right now, China could just kill any random person they want...because they can...and then add it to the Covid death toll. But this sudden jump is obviously them "coming out" that this was a bigger deal than they lead on.

I don't think I'd trust any # Beijing comes up with at this point. It's just a Blizzard of Bullshit.

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14 minutes ago, BuffaloWeather said:

That total isn't showing up here. 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Not sure what's more accurate. I saw the same article this morning about the 4000+ deaths yesterday on this morning news from Apple News from the Wall Street Journal. However I'm reluctant to believe it as Worldometers has been the most accurate count to date so far, and that number of deaths would be nearly double the previous record of 2500 set earlier this week. If it is true it's staggering but I'm not sure where they are getting that number from..

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Remember that "wonderful" tax law jammed through a couple of years ago?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2020/04/14/why-are-rich-americans-getting-17-million-stimulus-checks/#120d5a9665b4

“For those earning $1 million annually, a tax break buried in the recent coronavirus relief legislation is so generous that its total cost is more than total new funding for all hospitals in America and more than the total provided to all state and local governments,” said Doggett. “Someone wrongly seized on this health emergency to reward ultrarich beneficiaries, likely including the Trump family, with a tax loophole not available to middle class families. This net operating loss loophole is a loser that should be repealed.” 

Trump and his entire family (and basically the entire GOP, especially the sh*tbags in the Senate) are criminals. You Trump supporters are dumb sheep. In fact, Trump's behavior reminds me a lot of Congel when he was building Destiny USA...not to mention how he used to refuse to pay contractors after the work was done. But yes - lets blame immigrants, people on welfare, the Chinese, the deep state, Hillary and Obama. While we have crisis after crisis, the real issue is these criminals in the GOP keep sneaking in these tax windfalls for the ultra rich, weakening the government response apparatus, and hollowing out 40 years of environmental laws for our air and water. Shouldn't surprise me when all his supporters watch Fox "news" 24 hours a day

 

clowns.JPG

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My timeline has always been around Memorial day / June 1 for NYC.  Upstate might open a little earlier.

If we all open at the end of May, we will be in phase 1 which would take about 2 weeks to get into the next phase. That would take us to mid June.

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1 minute ago, MJO812 said:

My timeline has always been around Memorial day / June 1 for NYC.  Upstate might open a little earlier.

If we all open at the end of May, we will be in phase 1 which would take about 2 weeks to get into the next phase. That would take us to mid June.

Mark polancarz says upstate is 2-3 weeks behind New York City. If anything we are opening up later. 

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12 minutes ago, champy said:

Remember that "wonderful" tax law jammed through a couple of years ago?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2020/04/14/why-are-rich-americans-getting-17-million-stimulus-checks/#120d5a9665b4

“For those earning $1 million annually, a tax break buried in the recent coronavirus relief legislation is so generous that its total cost is more than total new funding for all hospitals in America and more than the total provided to all state and local governments,” said Doggett. “Someone wrongly seized on this health emergency to reward ultrarich beneficiaries, likely including the Trump family, with a tax loophole not available to middle class families. This net operating loss loophole is a loser that should be repealed.” 

Trump and his entire family (and basically the entire GOP, especially the sh*tbags in the Senate) are criminals. You Trump supporters are dumb sheep. In fact, Trump's behavior reminds me a lot of Congel when he was building Destiny USA...not to mention how he used to refuse to pay contractors after the work was done. But yes - lets blame immigrants, people on welfare, the Chinese, the deep state, Hillary and Obama. While we have crisis after crisis, the real issue is these criminals in the GOP keep sneaking in these tax windfalls for the ultra rich, weakening the government response apparatus, and hollowing out 40 years of environmental laws for our air and water. Shouldn't surprise me when all his supporters watch Fox "news" 24 hours a day

 

clowns.JPG

When the republicans realize trickle down economics doesn’t work is when they will have finally got it right. 

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