March 29, 2020

Trump's "friend has the virus" story can't be confirmed because "hes in a coma"

probably that friend is a "big strong man with tears in his eyes" when he said "sir, thank you". lol

https://twitter.com/NancyNoCo24/status/1244401039689875458

March 29, 2020

Armed vigilantes blocked a neighbor's driveway with a tree to force him into quarantine

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/29/us/maine-coronavirus-forced-quarantine-trnd/index.html

A Maine man said armed neighbors descended on his home and chopped down a tree to block his road and prevent him from leaving because they believed he may have coronavirus.

The Vinalhaven resident said he went outside Friday to check why his cable service wasn't working and found a tree blocking the end of his road, according to the Knox County Sheriff's Office.

"While investigating the downed tree, a neighbor started yelling at him and a group of people showed up and began to gather around. Believing the group may be there to harm him, (he) fled to his residence and told his roommates what he had found," the sheriff's office said on Facebook.

The three roommates stayed in the home, where they used a VHF radio to contact the Coast Guard for assistance and a drone to monitor the group's activity, the sheriff's office said. Vinalhaven is an island town.

When law enforcement arrived, the group had fled and it was "apparent" that a tree had been cut down and dragged to block the road, the sheriff's office said.

Officers learned that some residents believed the roommates needed to be quarantined. None of the roommates, who were from New Jersey and were renting a home in Vinalhaven while working a construction job since September, showed symptoms consistent with Covid-19, deputies said.

March 29, 2020

"when they disrespect me, they disrespect the government"

March 29, 2020

the video of trump telling the african amer female journalist "dont be threatening"

https://twitter.com/KeejayOV2/status/1244392663928967168

March 29, 2020

Trump supporters outraged because Chuck Todd asked if trump "has blood on his hands"

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nbcs-chuck-todd-asks-biden-if-trump-has-blood-on-his-hands-over-coronavirus-response

March 29, 2020

"President Trump is a ratings hit. " Trump tweeted now rather than empathy for victims

“President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr. Trump and his coronavirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of ‘The Bachelor.’ Numbers are continuing to rise...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1244320570315018240

March 29, 2020

State data indicates we're headed for another record unemployment week - doubling/tripling last week

If trump had acted earlier, could some of this hardship have been lessened?

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State data indicates we’re headed for another record unemployment week
From Pennsylvania to Oklahoma, things are getting worse

By Matthew Yglesias@mattyglesiasmatt@vox.com Mar 29, 2020, 9:28am EDT

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/29/21198580/unemployment-insurance-claims-record

Last Thursday, the US Department of Labor reported a record-shattering surge in unemployment insurance claims for the week ending on March 21 as coronavirus concerns caused the economy to move into shutdown mode at a totally unprecedented pace. And while nobody knows for sure what next week’s reports may show, fragmentary evidence available from state level unemployment offices shows little sign that the situation is improving.

Instead of a one-off spurt, last week’s eye-popping initial claims number could be just the leading edge of a larger tsunami that will continue to press forward for several weeks.

Many states are reporting no letdown in claims
The state of Pennsylvania is unusual in producing timely, publicly available, day-by-day statistics on unemployment claims. They show clearly that next week’s data, for Pennsylvania at least, is on track to break last week’s record.

The Pennsylvania data shows the current week’s claims running slightly lower than last week’s claims, but that’s because it only has six days’ worth of claim data for the current week. It’s pretty clear that when Saturday’s numbers are added they’ll smash through last week’s record.

Some other states had even bleaker news, albeit in more anecdotal form. Robin Roberson, the executive director of the Oklahoma Employment Service Commission, predicted to local television reporter Emily Collins that “our record here in the state was set back in 1991 with over 9,000 initial claims in one week; of course last week we almost doubled that ... we will double last weeks again this week.” Colorado officials told Aldo Svaldi of The Denver Post to expect claims to triple in the week that ends on March 28 compared to the March 21 week. New Mexico reported 17,187 initial claims in the week that ended on March 21, and is now already at 32,000 initial claims based on the first four days of last week.

March 29, 2020

Disney, Sea World, Universal Studios, Legoland - plans for reopening

Disneyland closed for a month will hit Southern Calif hard. all those big hotels around disney are empty too.

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With April around the corner and no coronavirus containment in sight, Disney is now shuttering its domestic theme parks indefinitely. There is no new opening date. Disney is promising to continue paying its displaced hourly workers through April 18, but that doesn't necessarily mean the resort will spring back to life immediately after that. Disney doesn't know when it will open its parks, only because nobody knows when that will be.

Please stand clear of the doors
Disney may have been the first theme park operator to announce the first round of closures, but it let its biggest rival take the lead this time around. Universal Studios parent Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) announced on Tuesday that its parks would remain closed through April 19. Legoland, another theme park chain with parks in Central Florida and Southern California, beat Disney to the punch hours earlier on Friday. Its two resorts now won't open until at least April 15.

The worst news came out of SeaWorld Entertainment (NYSE:SEAS) shortly after Disney's update. It will also be keeping its theme parks closed indefinitely, but it also announced that it will be furloughing more than 90% of its employees by the end of this month.

This has obviously been a brutal month for the theme park industry. Shares of Disney, Comcast, and SeaWorld Entertainment are down 18%, 14%, and 50%, respectively, through Friday's close -- and that's with big stock price recoveries over the past week. There is no reason to think that April will be any more promising for the industry. Comcast and Legoland will likely have to abandon their new mid-April reopening dates.

The news isn't all bad here. Theme park and regional amusement park operators may be missing out on the spring break crowds, but there's still hope that the industry unlocks its turnstiles in time for the peak summer travel season.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/03/28/disney-world-and-disneyland-finally-admit-things-w.aspx

March 29, 2020

the community of Lynchburg, VA is angry with Fallwell for inviting back "16,000 petri dishes"

Lynchburg, Virginia, isn’t a stereotypical college town. It isn’t politically liberal. It doesn’t have the crunchy affect of an Ann Arbor or even a Charlottesville.

But even here, where Liberty University drives a large part of the economy—and where school president and chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. strides across the landscape as a local grandee—anger over Falwell’s decision to bring university students back amid a coronavirus pandemic is boiling over.

“Remember when people wanted to tar and feather folks? That’s about the level it’s at in the Lynchburg community right now,” a former longtime Falwell associate told me over the phone. “You have … 16,000 petri dishes he’s inviting back to Lynchburg, who have gone out all over country for spring break—he’s inviting them back into our city, our community, knowing that at some point they’re gonna have to interact with the public.”


Throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, efforts to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus have led colleges to upend their plans for the semester by moving classes online, canceling commencement ceremonies and—critically, from a public-health perspective—moving students out of dorms. Virginia Tech is practically begging students to stay away, enticing them with cash rebates. The University of Virginia has shut down its dorm system, save for those few students “who have no other option.”

Liberty University, meanwhile, has invited its students to return to the dorms, whatever their circumstances might be. Falwell has said this decision was in students’ best interests—that students would be better off if they returned to campus before the coronavirus spread—but that suggestion has met with exasperation by public health experts, state and local officials, and many residents of Lynchburg.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/29/falwell-liberty-university-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-152467

March 29, 2020

The Leader of the Free World Gives a Speech, and She Nails It

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/angela-merkel-nails-coronavirus-speech-unlike-trump.html

Angela Merkel doesn’t do drama and she doesn’t give speeches on TV. So the mere fact that the German chancellor faced the camera across a desk and spoke to the nation Wednesday evening made the gravity of the situation clear. “Es ist ernst,” she said—“This is serious”— and those three bland words had more power than a hellfire sermon. Then she pivoted from statement to plea: “Take it seriously.” Quickly, she moved on to historical context, the reason for her unprecedented impromptu appearance: “Since German unification—no, since the Second World War—no challenge to our nation has ever demanded such a degree of common and united action.”

Merkel made no specific announcements and called for no nationwide curfews or additional closures. Yet what gave her address its force was her tone, which was direct, honest, and searingly empathic. She laid bare not just the test we all face but also the solace that leadership can provide. Without accusations, boasts, hedges, obfuscations, dubious claims, or apocalyptic metaphors she did what a leader is supposed to do: explain the gravity of the situation and promise that the government’s help would flow to everyone who needed it. She gave full-throated thanks to front-line medical workers, assured Germans that there is no need to hoard, and paused to offer gratitude to a group of workers who rarely get recognized by heads of state on national TV: “Those who sit at supermarket cash registers or restock shelves are doing one of the hardest jobs there is right now.”

This is a war without a human enemy, and Merkel lay no blame. She asked for the sacrifice of discipline, for heroic acts of kindness. She acknowledged the paradox in calling for solidarity and apartness at the same time. She understood how painful it is that just when people desperately want to come together, families and friends have to endure separation. To Americans, Merkel’s appeals to democracy, and her sadness at having to use the full weight of her authority, come as a welcome shock. No German could listen to her calls for self-policing without recalling that she grew up in East Germany under the eye of the Stasi. “For someone like myself, for whom freedom of travel and movement were hard-won rights,” she said, “such restrictions can only be justified when they are absolutely necessary.” No American could hear that statement and fail to contrast it with our own leader’s ringing words: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/angela-merkel-nails-coronavirus-speech-unlike-trump.html