The Next Pandemic: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19

[reddogblitz]

4 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

I am continually amazed by people today and their lack of reverence for those who fought and died for their very rights and freedoms. Freedoms they nonchalantly toss aside at the whim of some governor or county exec.  I guess it’s no surprise when so many have been conditioned to think that America was just created by a bunch of wealthy white guys so they could have plantations and slaves. 

 

Totally.

 

You have to look no further than the "gig economy" to see how this happening in front of our very eyes. 

 

In the early 20th century people worked really hard and some died to acquire things like paid vacation, sick time, health insurance, weekends, the 40 hour work week etc.

 

Nowdays people think this is of no value and should be able to pay someone dirt wages to drive their own car totally at the mercy of the company paying only for when they have a rider and have no health insurance and work more than 40 hours a week. 

 

And people are happy to give it away because they can now do it with a cool app.

 

Sad.

57 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Outsourcing is separate from wages because it's fought for by lobbyists, subsidized by kickbacks, and enabled by congress and the executive branch. Outsourcing would still be something that would happen regardless of labor costs, because it's a lot more complex than that. You can solve the automation problem without solving the outsourcing one and vice versa. They aren't tied at the hip.

 

Who said they were?

[BullBuchanan]

1 minute ago, Deranged Rhino said:

 

You have that completely backwards. 

 

But, it's moot. 

 

So, let me ask you. If you believe that there is no discernable difference between the parties, and (as you stated earlier) believe that off shoring wasn't a natural economic development but one fostered by unelected officials in the lobbying industry (and elsewhere) controlling the government against the people's will (and the market's natural tendencies... how can you state with the same breath that the notion of a "deep state" (which is a terrible catch-all term these days) is fake? 

 

Right. you can't. You can't hold both opinions at once without being either completely hypocritical or naive. 

 

That's a false equivalency. I believe politicians are susceptible to bribes and corruption, and their election cycles are but ensure that vulnerability. They do favors for corporations and then they get kickbacks while in office and/or when they get out.

The FBI/CIA/NSA etc serve at the pleasure of the President. They aren't up for re-election, don't have to worry too much about doing favors for corporations because congress does that for them, and at any level other than the absolute top it's a guaranteed career job with great benefits and a pension. To suppose that they actively work against their presidents without cause or obvious benefit requires an Olympian level of mental gymnastics. They get to do whatever they want, with infinitely increasing funds with full support of congress and the President. What could they possibly gain?

[Deranged Rhino]

3 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

 

That's a false equivalency. I believe politicians are susceptible to bribes and corruption, and their election cycles are but ensure that vulnerability. They do favors for corporations and then they get kickbacks while in office and/or when they get out.

 

Read what you wrote above -- real slow. 

 

Now, I ask you with all sincerity and honesty -- not as a gotcha, but because you're so close to seeing through your own blocks -- who holds everyone's secrets? Who has unlimited access to the most invasive and powerful tools of surveillance in the history of humankind? 

(then we'll talk about your second paragraph)

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Deranged Rhino

[BullBuchanan]

4 minutes ago, reddogblitz said:

Who said they were?

You asked why they were separate so...?

[BullBuchanan]

 

Just now, Deranged Rhino said:

 

Read what you wrote above -- real slow. 

 

Now, I ask you with all sincerity and honesty -- not as a gotcha, but because you're so close to seeing through your own blocks -- who holds everyone's secrets? Who has unlimited access to the most invasive and powerful tools of surveillance in the history of humankind? 

 

Again, you're walking around with a suspect looking for a crime and no motive. It's a symbiotic relationship. The spook doesn't exist without the government and its associated war machine, and every president pays the toll. 

[IDBillzFan]

14 minutes ago, reddogblitz said:

Nowdays people think this is of no value and should be able to pay someone dirt wages to drive their own car totally at the mercy of the company paying only for when they have a rider and have no health insurance and work more than 40 hours a week. 

 

Some would argue that people get paid what they're worth.

 

Others would argue that no one makes that driver accept dirt wages to drive their own car. Some would even argue the person accepted that choice and those conditions on their own.

 

Some would argue that if you feel you have no value to the workplace that you should do what you can to better your prospects. They'd argue you could learn a good trade at the local community college for virtually free in any state in the country. They'd argue that you could even get an apprenticeship to learn a trade, to work your way up from gofer to nail guy to roofer to even starting your own construction business.

 

A simple general rule: most of the time things don't just happen to people because most of the time people let things happen to them.

[Deranged Rhino]

12 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

 

Again, you're walking around with a suspect looking for a crime and no motive. 

 

Again, this is why I asked you to read the FISC opinion memo. It lays out indisputable evidence that this crime DID take place, routinely. 

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icotr/51117/2016_Cert_FISC_Memo_Opin_Order_Apr_2017.pdf

(Pg 82-84)

 

As for motive -- you're joking, right? The motive is control. Over you and me. Control = power. Power = money. Who's more powerful, Bull, honestly, a sitting US Senator or the spook who knows where every one of the the bodies buried by that senator (metaphorical or otherwise) are located? If your goal is to remain in control and in power, why be a politician when, as you astutely noted before, they have limited shelf lives due to the election cycle?

 

 

12 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

 

 It's a symbiotic relationship. The spook doesn't exist without the government and its associated war machine, and every president pays the toll. 

 

How so? You said it yourself, presidents come and go. Spooks remain, and cross administrations. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Deranged Rhino

[reddogblitz]

1 minute ago, IDBillzFan said:

 

Some would argue that people get paid what they're worth.

 

Others would argue that no one makes that driver accept dirt wages to drive their own car. Some would even argue the person accepted that choice and those conditions on their own.

 

Some would argue that if you feel you have no value to the workplace that you should do what you can to better your prospects. They'd argue you could learn a good trade at the local community college for virtually free in any state in the country. They'd argue that you could even get an apprenticeship to learn a trade, to work your way up from gofer to nail guy to roofer to even starting your own construction business.

 

A simple general rule: most of the time things don't just happen to people because most of the time people let things happen to them.

 

I would agree with part of what you say.

 

The key to having a decent living is learning a marketable skill and staying current in it.  If you never learned one you're screwed.  And it's never too late to learn one.

 

However I also believe that things like 40 hour work week, paid holidays, paid vacation are a good thing.  They were put in place in part because happier employees (that get vacation etc) are better workers.

 

Today many in the tech industry are like the late 19th century earlier 20th century monopolies except they wear T-shirts so people think they're cool and their friend. 

 

As far as Uber/Lyft drivers choosing to do this, for sure.  But my point was how easily people give up what people in the past worked very hard to get and in cases died for.  That was what I was responding to.

[Doc]

58 minutes ago, shepherdog1960 said:

No one could have predicted this? https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/2014/12/02/president-obama-speaks-fight-against-ebola

 

watch from 15:20

 

 

drive by post.  not getting immersed in this swamp again.  I'll just add that the chorus here are morons and haven't improved themselves a bit.  doc is a pseudo doc.  dc tom is an absent idiot. and the shah did die from the mistakes of an inexperienced, world famous surgeon.  Shaq was more lucky.

 

Keep on driving, simp.

[BullBuchanan]

16 minutes ago, IDBillzFan said:

 

Some would argue that people get paid what they're worth.

 

Others would argue that no one makes that driver accept dirt wages to drive their own car. Some would even argue the person accepted that choice and those conditions on their own.

 

These two theoretical people sound an awful lot like the same person. 

[dubs]

2 hours ago, Capco said:

 

Multiple analyses show this to be true.  It started with Reagan and has been that way for some time.  It's also entirely why people like Bernie have come to the forefront, as a backlash to how far right the country has moved as a whole over the last 40 years.  The dismantling of the middle class as the source of American greatness, only to be replaced by corporate America, is central to the deregulation of the 80s.  

 

 

This is where the Democrats and Republicans reside on an objective, political spectrum of Western democracies.  

If you buy into the whole left right thing, you’re already a lost cause. 
 

if you wanted to really try and create a “left - right” scale, at least use the correct extremes. The reality is that on one side would be maximum liberty and on the other would be total government control. As a country we’ve moved far to the government side in the last 30 years, regardless of president or party. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by dubs

[IDBillzFan]

7 minutes ago, reddogblitz said:

However I also believe that things like 40 hour work week, paid holidays, paid vacation are a good thing.  They were put in place in part because happier employees (that get vacation etc) are better workers.

 

One of the things business owners got wrong was the idea that if you make the workplace more like a cool place to hang out, people will love to work there. Give them open work spaces, a gym downstairs, a couple of baristas, maybe free parking...even a place to nap.

 

It worked at first because it was cool and different. Then workers realized the idea was to keep them at work.

 

But after working many years as a regional sales director with staffs of anywhere from 10-20 people, I realized what I believe is one of the most important keys to having happy, productive workers: the collective understanding that their job should not be the single most important thing in their lives.

 

I believed if you could convince employees that you want their life outside work -- their hobbies, past times, family, church, community -- to be the priority, they would be more committed and productive. No, we don't want you working more than 40 hours a week, and weekend work was avoided...UNLESS we had a rush of business and everyone understood we all had to peddle a bit faster for a couple of weeks. Yes, we want you coaching your kids baseball team or being a deacon at your church or take your child's class on a field trip.

 

Turns out, at least for me and my company, it works wonders. In 15 years, one person quit to get a big payday. Everyone else is still here since the start.

 

Not bragging. Just making a point. Work is important, but when we make people feel like it MUST be the most important thing in their world, we're not helping anyone.

 

[PetermansRedemption]

19 hours ago, 3rdnlng said:

Well that's a bold prediction. Is that fence getting a little too uncomfortable to be sitting on? 

Oh I’m very biased. That’s why I refrain from commenting on most political things. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by PetermansRedemption

[Gene Frenkle]

1 hour ago, shepherdog1960 said:

No one could have predicted this? https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/photos-and-video/video/2014/12/02/president-obama-speaks-fight-against-ebola

 

watch from 15:20

 

 

drive by post.  not getting immersed in this swamp again.  I'll just add that the chorus here are morons and haven't improved themselves a bit.  doc is a pseudo doc.  dc tom is an absent idiot. and the shah did die from the mistakes of an inexperienced, world famous surgeon.  Shaq was more lucky.

Obama has Prescience.  Scarily prophetic.

[Buffalo_Gal]

Pfizer thinks they can stop the virus from replicating. Going to trials soon.

19 tested currently
26 active planing

 

Passed 2M tests completed in the United States.

DOE: money for college students for housing and classes. Student loan payments have been suspended for six months.

[Deranged Rhino]

7 minutes ago, Buffalo_Gal said:

Pfizer thinks they can stop the virus from replicating. Going to trials soon.

19 tested currently
26 active planing

 

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-identifies-lead-coronavirus-drug-candidate-11586427303

[Deranged Rhino]

 

[Buffalo_Gal]

Pence:

DOD 4100 active duty medical personal have been deployed to NYC/NJ/CT

There is a temp service with these military personal to relieve dedicated hospital workers in the city of NY (they are making certain the ship is fully staffed, as well as the Javits center, but as they are not now full of patients,  the medical personal can help elsewhere)


 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Buffalo_Gal

[shepherdog1960]

52 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Keep on driving, simp.

an unlikely word for an fmg to use

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by shepherdog1960

[njbuff]

People continue to pack into small places out here on Long Island.

 

I have seriously misjudged the smarts of the people out here.

 

Common sense does not apply. 

 

I feel like I am the only one self quarantining. ?