Coronavirus!

[macdaddy]

LA Fitness had scheduled to open in GA on 5/1 but quickly reconsidered.  

Quote

Our guidance on how we proceed throughout this pandemic is to do what is best for our members and our employees. So, although we had originally set a target date of May 1 for our first market reopening, specifically Georgia, we decided to hold off for now while we seek a greater consensus between the federal, state and local authorities on the proper path forward. Also, we have received many emails and phone calls from members and want you to know we are listening and taking what you say into consideration.

 

[thecampster]

This is a really, really good lesson for all of those not familiar with the media, paid polling or public affairs.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/910699/alarming-number-americans-believe-coronavirus-vaccine-exists-being-withheld

 

So forget the nonsense answer in the poll of 48% of Americans believe there is a vaccine and the government is hiding it or that more than 50% of Democrats agree. Those are sensationalist and depends how the question was asked.  Get to the bottom line here. Who paid for it and why do they care if people don't trust what the government says. This poll right here explains everything wrong with politics.

 

Someone is paying for these types of things and putting them out there in an attempt to make people believe its okay to get caught up in a new conspiracy. This is to throw off the election, get people riled up, etc. This is pre-fake news. Read it, but ask yourself, who thought it was a good idea to ask those questions and why?

 

So taking the hidden link to the original story we find this quote, "according to the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project with USA TODAY"

 

Hmm...so a quick search finds Nationscape's site and the democracy funds site and a quick trip to the bottom shows their about pages.  Go a little farther and then bam...you find who is behind it.

Pierre Omidyar from Wikipedia

 

"Omidyar and his wife, Pamela, own properties in Henderson, Nevada,^[39] and Honolulu, Hawaii.^[1]

According to Forbes, his net worth was $13.1 billion (US) as of January 2019.^[11]

Omidyar is a major donor to Democratic Party candidates and organizations."

 

Okay so I'm not saying oh crazy guy or any of this nonsense. Just giving a politics lesson here in general. We are in the middle of a global pandemic, both sides struggling to get together, find common ground.  Then this weird survey gets out with generic names behind it. But we all know there are no real generic names. Here we have a guy asking questions meant to get at how to push peoples' buttons. See what conspiracies people believe or don't and how deep that belief goes. You wonder how it becomes news. Because people like this push it from behind. Both sides, doing what they do.

 

This is why you can't trust what you read. All of the information is being surveyed early on. Stances formulated well in advanced and then pushed at you with studies funded by people with agendas. Be careful.

[thecampster]

Maybe the scarier part is the research partner they employed for the study "Lucid".

 

One of the primary services "Lucid" offers is to help you monetize your research with targeted marketing, improving response. IE. telling those reading the results what to believe and how to target them.

https://luc.id/monetization/

 

[macdaddy]

[sturt]

38 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

(Forgive me, but always need to have this kind of thing sourced or linked so we know where the intel is coming from... especially for something where there's so much controversy surrounding it in the first place.)

[kg01]

8 hours ago, Eddielives said:

This seems pretty on par with Trump.  I'm honestly not surprised at all.  And I won't be surprised when his sycophants are too scared to stand up to this lunacy like they would if it were, say, a Democrat president recommending it.

In all honestly, can someone explain why they can hear this and still have any measure of confidence in leadership?  And, to your point, there are millions who'll choose to ignore the sheer stupidity of it.

I'm not a demo.  I'm not a repub.  I just want to know how this doesn't dishearten you fully.  Anyone?

[macdaddy]

21 minutes ago, sturt said:

(Forgive me, but always need to have this kind of thing sourced or linked so we know where the intel is coming from... especially for something where there's so much controversy surrounding it in the first place.)

my bad.  This was a tweet from Atlanta's mayor.  

 

 

[AHF]

46 minutes ago, kg01 said:

In all honestly, can someone explain why they can hear this and still have any measure of confidence in leadership?  And, to your point, there are millions who'll choose to ignore the sheer stupidity of it.

I'm not a demo.  I'm not a repub.  I just want to know how this doesn't dishearten you fully.  Anyone?

Let's keep the focus on coronavirus on this thread and leave broader political discussions for the politics board.

[thecampster]

42 minutes ago, AHF said:

Let's keep the focus on coronavirus on this thread and leave broader political discussions for the politics board.

I agree but it is hard with this. My post is borderline inappropriate. So much of this is going to boil over into the political edges soon and its going to be a blurred line.

 

I think I'm most bothered right now but all the posturing and jockeying for position right now. Its very disrespectful to the people who have paid with their lives so far. Everything from people trying to tie Climate Change to this to others hitting on illegal immigration. This isn't the time to further your personal agendas. We can sort that out later. 

 

All that said...how the heck are you AHF...keeping sane?

[AHF]

7 minutes ago, thecampster said:

I think I'm most bothered right now but all the posturing and jockeying for position right now. Its very disrespectful to the people who have paid with their lives so far. Everything from people trying to tie Climate Change to this to others hitting on illegal immigration. This isn't the time to further your personal agendas. We can sort that out later. 

 

All that said...how the heck are you AHF...keeping sane?

Truth.  Put the agendas aside and deal with this situation.  

 

Sane here.  Busy with work...which I'm be grateful to keep up.

[Spud2nique]

3 minutes ago, AHF said:

Busy with work

You don’t have a job.

Sincerely,

Sturt

Comon Sturt for me. A little teehee  

[kg01]

1 hour ago, thecampster said:

All that said...how the heck are you AHF...keeping sane?

Well, the implication is that he's sane in the first place.

[Thomas]

To quote the ever great Stephen King....“Maybe tomorrow it will be our world again.” Or at least sooner rather than later because over 54,000 Americans are already gone forever as of right now.

[JayBirdHawk]

[Buzzard]

Here is a little something about the industry I work in. Its scary to think this many employees crammed together have never stopped going to work in these conditions.

https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/04/call-center-workers-speak-out-against-companies-with-nj-locations-amid-the-coronavirus-outbreak.html

The work around is not cheap as it requires a laptop/desktop, ISP, VPN, phone carrier able to make routing changes ( they can all do this ), and a software phone/headset. I think its a disaster that some pretty big companies failed to implement that. New Jersey is 2nd only to New York in the most cases per 1 Million.

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

I think those of us working for our company are extremely fortunate they had the technology and the foresight to start emptying our building over a month ago. Its been completely empty for over three weeks.

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Buzzard

[macdaddy]

The technology has been there for years.  I know it's harder for big companies but our small company made sure everyone had the ability to 100% work at home when we had the last really big snow storm in Atlanta (quite a while ago).   For small companies, with the technology that's available, it's really not that hard.  

As for the expanded testing, it's great that we are testing more but sad that you still have to 'qualify' to get a test.   

[Buzzard]

25 minutes ago, macdaddy said:

The technology has been there for years.  I know it's harder for big companies but our small company made sure everyone had the ability to 100% work at home when we had the last really big snow storm in Atlanta (quite a while ago).   For small companies, with the technology that's available, it's really not that hard.  

As for the expanded testing, it's great that we are testing more but sad that you still have to 'qualify' to get a test.   

Most big companies have the technology as well. They just do not pay for enough VPN Licenses in case of a disaster type situation; and some have not implemented IP Soft phones.

Like you said, the technology has been there for years and if countries like the Philippines and India can get it done; it only stands to reason that the state of New Jersey could as well.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Buzzard

[JayBirdHawk]

The Los Angeles Lakers have returned approximately $4.6 million that they received from a federal government program intended to help small businesses weather the economic burden caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the team said in a statement to ESPN on Monday. The Lakers, one of the NBA’s most profitable franchises, applied for relief through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, and were among the companies and nonprofits granted loans during the first round of distributions. But after reports that several large or highly capitalized entities were securing aid from the program’s initial $349 billion pool — while hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses were shut out — the Lakers said they returned the money. “The Lakers qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll Protection Program,” the Lakers said in a statement to ESPN. “Once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be directed to those most in need. The Lakers remain completely committed to supporting both our employees and our community.”

– via Kevin Arnovitz @ ESPN

 

[macdaddy]

4 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

The Los Angeles Lakers have returned approximately $4.6 million that they received from a federal government program intended to help small businesses weather the economic burden caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the team said in a statement to ESPN on Monday. The Lakers, one of the NBA’s most profitable franchises, applied for relief through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, and were among the companies and nonprofits granted loans during the first round of distributions. But after reports that several large or highly capitalized entities were securing aid from the program’s initial $349 billion pool — while hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses were shut out — the Lakers said they returned the money. “The Lakers qualified for and received a loan under the Payroll Protection Program,” the Lakers said in a statement to ESPN. “Once we found out the funds from the program had been depleted, we repaid the loan so that financial support would be directed to those most in need. The Lakers remain completely committed to supporting both our employees and our community.”

– via Kevin Arnovitz @ ESPN

 

What friggin scumbags.   They did not qualify, never should have been given the money but never should have applied to begin with.   This money just did not get to the places it needed to be.  I hope someone is checking that these corporations are really "giving the money back"

"As soon as we got caught we decided to give it back"  asshats.

[Spud2nique]

Nice work John!