My cousin's wedding for April 4th just got cancelled

Things can change fast. I think if people don't need it, they can save it at least for a rainy day.

This is sort of unprecedented territory for us. People who have comfortable jobs they feel are recession-proof might not in 6 months.

In past crises senators & congressmen have revealed themselves to be woefully inept at understanding how the common American lives, and I imagine that will be an issue when they're trying to figure out these relief packages. For example payroll/social security tax relief wouldn't help laid off hourly service workers in the slightest.

Here's the report that apparently got the White House to change its tune.

READ: The Alarming Report That Seems To Have Jump-Started Trump’s COVID Response | Talking Points Memo

EU closes external borders.


https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/17/coro...e-borders.html

That's fair, and yeah, if we get a check it'll just go to charity and our emergency fund.


But it seems weird to give us taxpayer money to do that.


EDIT: And we both know that Trump needs suburban voters. He's not going to raise their taxes. For most, it'll just end up being a handout to those who in all likelihood don't need one.

Not to make light of the outbreak in GA, but is there a better test as to whether you've lived or have family in the south than the proper pronunciation of Albany, GA?

Uh oh, have I been saying it wrong?

ALL-Beh-ni

It's certainly better than nothing, and I'm glad to see them working on an alternative that isn't some cruel bastardization of trickle-down-economics, but on the other hand $1000 to every American seems like both a massive move that could have unprecedented effects on our economy for decades to come and a half-measure that will provide 80-90% of Americans with a boost to their saving while those 10-20% in need get 1-3 weeks of resources towards a nationwide lock-down that could last multiple months and the worst estimates even reach into years.

If, as it reads, you're saying it like Albany, NY, that is, indeed, incorrect.

The accent is on the second syllable for Albany, GA.

My oldest brother lives just outside of all - BIN - ee

I lived there for 20 years. I never heard a single person in that city pronounce it differently than the city in NY. Only people from outside the city.

Fascinating. I have never heard it pronounced all-BIN-ee.

We've been openly talking about how we as a Synod and a Church may have to cancel Holy Week services and just have the Sunday we are able to go back be "Easter".

I've never even heard of Albany, GA until right not, but I have also been pronouncing it as ALL-beh-knee for my entire life.

Maybe generational? My father-in-law grew up in and around Nashville, GA and has always put the accent on the second syllable as has his siblings still in the Nashville area.

If you're a high income earner, consider it a tax rebate (or cut).

I worry about the deficit but in bad times, I think you need to spend. And with where rates are, the country is practically making money when they borrow. We just need to build a surplus when the economy is booming.

I also wonder if at the end of this we'll see a shift in our military spending. It seems pandemics like this are much bigger threats than any major military conflict. Will a big chunk of that spending be pushed into preparing for future pandemics and setting up systems to create vaccines on the fly?

NY up to 1700 cases. I expect much greater testing is what's driving this number up so rapidly.

I went to college with people from there and that's the way they pronounced it or else I would have thought it was just like Albany, NY

People around me always pronounced it Al-BAY-nee

Phoenix and Tucson just shut down bars and made restaurants take out/drive thru only.

1/3rd of the Brooklyn Nets have Coronavirus.

Kevin Durant is one of them

If we’re talking about dumb ways to say stuff, Campbell,Ohio is a US top 5 dumbest.

Florida has scrapped testing and grades for K-12 and students will not be allowed back until at least April 15.

No one knows at this point, but these numbers seem way over estimated.

It also says we will have to social distance until a vaccine is developed to have any real shot at reducing numbers. I just can't see that happening.

Well it does say if it goes unabated. I translated it to “Take this seriously or else” against what they see as the “let’s continue on as normal with no precautions “ crowd. I think they saw the president was a part of that crowd.

Dropkick Murphys annual St Paddys day show from Boston about to start. No fans. Free livestream on youtube, facebook, and their website.

Just a heads up for Georgia people. I have it from two different people (one a county official and one from GMA), Governor Kemp is likely to announce closing all non-essential business Friday.

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Sigh. The sports world had a lot of distractions the last day or two. There was a lot of NFL talk - the Texans doing stupid things, Tom Brady leaving the Pats, other big name QBs moving around the league - and then we had to have this dropped.


And I know this is going to pale in comparison to the days ahead when some of these people unexpectedly start dying (and, unfortunately, when it will happen to people we know personally).


SI

I did a little math this morning, and if 70% of company pilots get the virus, and of that group, even if only 1% die, that's still almost 100 pilots at my company that will be stricken. Those are pretty sobering numbers in a small grouping. This will all hit close to home for us eventually unless we can get vaccine that's effective.

I understand this perspective, but I think it will happen at least for months. When people start dying daily in the high hundreds or thousands here like they are in Italy, when we run out of proper ventilators and impossible triage decisions set in … and we're weeks away from that at best IMO … I think there will be an insistence on the public side to minimize it as much as possible for as long as necessary. Put it this way; I'll be surprised if I go back to the job I had last week anytime before late summer at the earliest, and probably longer. I know some people who are like 'nah, school's closed for two weeks but they won't extend it more than that, etc.' I see no indication at all that this is going to do anything but get worse for a while yet, more things are going to shut down not less in the weeks to come.

I am wishing & hoping Portland's relative isolation and high density of introverts & hermits will work to its advantage. On the East coast there are clusters of major cities there practically a half-hour away from eachother and California is like a 1000-mile smudge of cities up I-5, whereas Portland is 3-4 hours from the nearest major city in any direction.

I am on the Jersey shore. A town called Belmar. Tons of people here commute to NYC including my neighbor. No way we can stop the rapid spread.

No way schools will reopen to classrooms in 2 weeks. It'll be all remote through May unless there is good news on vaccine.

Worse is yet to come for sure now that testing is ramping up. MSM is saying next 15 days is critical but not sure I understand what's so special about these 15 days. Why not days 15-30 as the critical also?

So what happens when this finally hits India?

Or Africa.

Lots of speculation on how heat effects the virus so hopefully not bad.

First Bay Area and now real possibility of New York.

Great time to film the next Purge movie.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/polit...ntv/index.html

According to one FOFCer, it is running wild in the Philippines despite it being in the 90s there.

Cuomo won't do it just because De Blasio wants to.

In that case Africa is pretty fucked

One of my best friends is a professional firefighter and paramedic in Cincinnati. He said shit is about to get real there. Told me they have set up an area for when first responders initially get the virus. Chilling shit.

Jake Tapper having a fit because people were outside exercising. He keeps going on and on about people rollerblading. Unless you are ploughing into people, you can't catch the virus just by being outside.

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I think it's more likely that people going into self-quarantine/testing positive from CPAC & Trump/Pence actually agreeing to be tested was their watershed moment. Those numbers aren't even the highest I've seen - many people were throwing around 3.4m (as a rough 1% of all Americans).

Yeah, I don't think people grasp that "flattening the curve" also lengthens it (possibly because many of the graphs floating around on the internet don't extend the long tail), just how many people are living paycheck to paycheck or work in the service industry, and how disproportionately that population is younger & not at a high risk of mortality from this.

If you want to say we need an immediate lockdown to give hospitals more time to stock up on ventilators, masks, etc, and give governments time to make contingency plans if there is a huge spike that's one thing. (Though leaving the airports and many businesses that really aren't essential open makes it seem like half measures at best.) But this isn't going away in 2 weeks, it isn't going away in 6 weeks, and I don't think it's worth shutting down our society for 18 months until an effective vaccine can be developed & mass produced.
If young, healthy & wealthy professional athletes start dying I will quickly change my tune, but nothing I have seen so far indicates they are basically any risk of dying (or some serious long term health problems from this).

We need a heat wave, but the Memphis where I live projects to have an unseasonably cool April.

We are starting to see some evidence merging that humid weather does suppress it to some extent, or at least we can hope.

One weird data point I don't understand - in many of the stories I've seen coming out of Asia they talk about having their temperature checked at every building they enter, or the subway, etc... I thought the biggest problem with this disease was that you can have & transmit it during a 14 day incubation period despite not showing any fever like symptoms? If so, why are so many Asian countries that have been through H1N1, MERS, etc using temperature checks as a tentpole of their quarantine efforts? Are you just more contagious during a period when you have it and a fever (like patient #31 in South Korea) so this is a way to weed out the worst potential spreaders?