Tuesday, March 31, 2020

The Police: Don't Stand So Close To Me



Don't Stand So Close To Me
The Police

[Verse 1]
Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking, she's so close now
This girl is half his age

[Chorus]
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me

[Verse 2]
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it's not so easy
To be the teacher's pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry

[Chorus]
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me

[Verse 3]
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov

[Outro]
Don't stand so close to me
Please don't stand so close to me

at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday, March 30, 2020

AOC Is Joshua?

“If Bernie is Moses, then AOC is Joshua”
at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Coronavirus News (20)

US extends social distancing to April 30 in hopes of avoiding 100,000 coronavirus deaths
Modi seeks 'forgiveness' from India's poor over COVID-19 lockdown Modi apologises as 21-day lockdown stings millions, leaving the poor hungry and forcing migrant workers to flee cities.
Pelosi on Trump's coronavirus response: 'As the President fiddles, people are dying'
Coronavirus updates: Trump extends shutdown, Fauci warns 200,000 could die
India says no plan to extend coronavirus lockdown as poor struggle
New Yorkers who break social distancing rules will now face fines up to $500

Here in NYC, Our very close friends are infected by Corona Virus, Thanks god they are recovering fast. But, US govt is...

Posted by Anzan Shrestha on Saturday, March 28, 2020

Because of your powerful blessings and prayers I am free from the risk and the doctors going to discharge me tomorrow...

Posted by Shambhu Moktan on Saturday, March 28, 2020

My simple advice to folks in USA: Please lobby for Total Lockdown soon. Trump is foolish not to even lockdown NY. There is no other way. USA will sink further if delayed! #CoronavirusInUSA

Posted by Bijay Raut on Sunday, March 29, 2020


Oil prices fall to 17-year low as Saudi Arabia-Russia standoff continues, coronavirus hits demand
US crude oil price falls below $20 Fall in demand due to virus creates surplus that risks overwhelming storage capacity ..... traders bet production would have to shut to cope with the collapse in demand from the coronavirus pandemic. ..... The global oil industry is facing its biggest demand drop in history ....... While demand has collapsed, the supply of oil has also increased rapidly because of the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Traders now believe the surplus could approach 25m barrels a day next month, a level that could overwhelm storage capacity worldwide within weeks. ......

“This is a historic oil price collapse, and it is not done yet as the system physically runs out of places to put all the oil”

...... “The pain in the shale patch is going to be severe. We will see production shut-ins accelerate.” ...... Higher cost producers such as US shale and Canadian tar sands are broadly unprofitable at these price levels ....... the US oil industry, which expanded in the last decade to make America the world's top oil producer, could contract as much as 2.5m b/d by the end of 2021, from around 13m b/d of crude output now ..... Refineries are cutting back on processing crude oil into fuel, and oil companies could start shutting down producing wells



Minnesotans worry as COVID-19 spreads to nursing homes
Trump extends federal social distancing guidelines to April 30
'Stealth Transmission' of COVID-19 Demands Widespread Mask Usage
at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Make Believe



Imagine FDR Delegating World War II To Governors
at No comments:
Labels: ,

Coronavirus News (19)

Rhode Island Police to Hunt Down New Yorkers Seeking Refuge Rhode Island police began stopping cars with New York plates Friday. On Saturday, the National Guard will help them conduct house-to-house searches to find people who traveled from New York .... New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., on Friday reporting a total of 44,000 cases. ..... Rhode Island has just over 200, and it has begun an aggressive campaign to keep the virus out and New Yorkers contained, over objections from civil liberties advocates........ Raimondo, a Democrat, said she had consulted lawyers and said while she couldn’t close the border, she felt confident she could enforce a quarantine. ....... The maximum penalty for not complying: a fine of $500 and 90 days in prison. ....... Just before 1 p.m. Friday, state police were set up on Interstate 95 northbound, at the rest stop closest to the Connecticut border. A mile or two before that, motorists could see signs ordering all New York passenger vehicles to pull over at the rest stop.

'You are not absolutely invulnerable': Fauci talks to Trevor Noah about coronavirus The Covid-19 virus is “insidious and treacherous”, he said, “in that you can spread it easily”, even if you’re asymptomatic or have mild symptoms such as a cough or low fever....... the mortality of seasonal flu – the thing that you and I go through every season – the mortality is about 0.1%,” Fauci explained. “That’s a lot, and we get used to that mortality. But the mortality of this is about 10 times that. It’s at least 1%.” And the mortality rate can be “devastating” for certain populations, such as the elderly and those with underlying conditions such as heart disease, lung disease and diabetes.......

“The virus is the clock”

....... if this virus acts like every other virus that we know, once you get infected, get better, clear the virus, then you’ll have immunity that will prevent you from reinfection,” said Fauci. ....... Biden replied. “The coronavirus is not his fault, but the lack of alacrity, the speed with which he responded to these things, I think could be improved considerably. ....... “I don’t quite understand the lack of willingness to move rapidly and to let science dictate,” Biden continued. .......... On Late Night, Seth Meyers ranted about Trump’s narcissism even in a pandemic. “The president is supposed to be a public trust – you’re supposed to be able to distinguish between your own personal interests and the duties of the office,” he explained. “Now, sure, every president gets something out of it. Maybe they use it to meet girls [John F Kennedy] or they get a nice Netflix deal [Barack Obama] or they might even use it to score a sweet deal in real estate [Jimmy Carter, who builds Habitat for Humanity houses]. ..... “Ninety-five years old and still building houses – Jimmy Carter is the yin to Trump’s yang,” Meyers continued. “It’s like he has to do a good thing for every bad thing Trump does, one house at a time.” ........ Case in point: CNN reported this week that Trump wants to prematurely open up the US by Easter because he’s bored of isolation. “Hey man, welcome to the club! We’re all stuck inside,” Meyers fumed. ...... Trump has reportedly demonstrated typical symptoms of cabin fever: crashing meetings, inserting himself into conversations and once-ignored briefs. Which means “the answer to the riddle ‘How do you get the president to go to a meeting?’” said Meyers, “is a fucking pandemic”.

Five superpowers ruling the world in 2050 In 30 years, most of the world’s largest economies will be those that are emerging today, surpassing current behemoths such as the US, Japan and Germany. ........ surpassing the US (dropping from 2nd to 3rd), Japan (dropping from 4th to 8th) and Germany (dropping from 5th to 9th). ....... Even relatively smaller economies like Vietnam, the Philippines and Nigeria will see huge leaps in their respective rankings over the next three decades ...... By 2050, India is projected to be the world’s second-largest economy (overtaking the United States) and will account for 15% of the world’s total GDP. ...... Brazil ...This South American powerhouse is set to be the world’s fifth-largest economy by 2050, overtaking Japan, Germany and Russia in the process. ....... “Brazil is one of the world’s giants of mining, agriculture and manufacturing, and it has a strong and rapidly growing service sector. I’m also seeing an increase in tourism investment.” .......... more than 30% of Nigerian residents are new entrepreneurs or the owner-manager of a new business, among the highest rate in the world.



Millions of workers in the US won't be getting stimulus checks Unauthorized workers make up about 5% of the US labor force -- around 7.6 million people...... the coronavirus crisis that's devastated global markets, overwhelmed hospitals and left millions without jobs is having an outsized impact on undocumented workers. Many had service-sector jobs that were decimated by the pandemic. Those who remain employed largely don't have the option of working from home, and are risking their safety to keep supply chains going. ...... because of the threat the novel coronavirus poses, advocates argue this shouldn't be treated as business as usual. In a public health crisis, they say, if someone feels like they can't miss work or can't afford medical care, that impacts the entire community. ....... "From a public health perspective, you cannot have an effective national response to a pandemic that excludes enormous segments of the population. That's both illogical and immoral" ........ more access to testing and emergency medical care for immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs. ...... "Everyone's health literally depends on the health of your neighbor. And guess what? Everyone has an immigrant neighbor." ...... "The government is making us invisible. The fact that I'm a person without documents in this country does not mean that I'm not a human being, that I'm not hungry," she says. "The government uses us when it needs us. ... We keep their houses clean, we take care of their children and their elders. And we do it with a lot of love."

The next financial crisis: A collapse of the mortgage system
Coronavirus measures could cause global food shortage, UN warns
70 million people in the US are under a severe weather threat that includes tornadoes and hail
Coronavirus live news: confirmed cases around the world pass 600,000
Trump tweets blame in all directions over ventilators for coronavirus, except at himself
Coronavirus Is A Defining Test And American Government Is Failing It It’s not just Trump. Our politics are unfit for this calamity.
Teen who may have died of coronavirus was turned away from urgent care due to lack of insurance
Gavin Newsom takes new tone with Trump as he steers California during coronavirus crisis
Not wearing masks to protect against coronavirus is a ‘big mistake,’ top Chinese scientist says
New York may be weeks away from reaching a peak in coronavirus cases. Now other states are preparing for surges
Public health expert: ‘Coronavirus is going to hit every city in America’










at No comments:
Labels:

Imagine FDR Delegating World War II To Governors

World War II did not go to every country on earth. This pandemic has. World War II did not freeze national economies and supply chains, although there were unmistakable disruptions. My point is, on scale, this is big. World War II seems to be the only available metaphor. But that is like using earth as a metaphor to talk about Jupiter. Jupiter is also a planet, alright.

And Trump has been botching it.
  • He spent precious weeks in denial. He was going to tweet the pandemic away. 
  • A nationwide lockdown lasting three weeks would have been the least disruptive economically and the most effective medically. When testing everyone is not an option, putting everyone in isolation for three weeks is enough time for the infected to start showing symptoms and qualify for further self-isolation. 
  • Just like FDR needed airplanes in huge numbers, this pandemic is asking for supplies: masks, gloves, ventilators, hospital beds. This pandemic would be a good reason to call a truce on the trade war with China. China seems to have an immediate capacity to produce those things plenty. If not, the wartime act for this needed to be put to practice. Domestic production needed to be ramped up. 
  • Trump is in a hurry to get America back to work. Because if the economy does not go back to pre-pandemic, he is toast in November. The fastest way to get America back to work is through widespread testing. Everyone who needs to or wants to get tested should be able to get tested with results showing up within the hour. Then you become much better at identifying and isolating people. And the rest can go to work. 
  • But is is already late. The sky has already fallen. The unemployment numbers already have passed Depression levels. Numerous businesses have already gone belly up. 
  • With Trump not only is the national dimension missing, but the global dimension is also missing. This pandemic is global. Only a coordinated global dimension will work. In the aftermath of 9/11 the FBI and the CIA learned to work together. Now national governments will have to learn that same lesson. Otherwise you are looking at massive deaths and massive economic disruption. 
  • Trump is unfit for the moment. He has failed to rise to the occasion. Trump has botched it bigly.


Coronavirus News (18)
Coronavirus News (17)
Glaring Holes In The Two Trillion Bill Coming Out Of Capitol Hill
Coronavirus News (16)
Coronavirus News (15)
Coronavirus News (14)
Coronavirus News (13)
Coronavirus News (12)
Coronavirus News (11)
Coronavirus News (10)
Coronavirus News (9)
The City That Never Sleeps Is A Ghost Town
Coronavirus News (8)
Time For Universal Basic Income Has Arrived
Coronavirus News (7)
Coronavirus News (6)
Coronavirus News (5)
Coronavirus News (4)
Coronavirus News (3)
Coronavirus News (2)
It Was Stupid To Inject 1.5 Trillion Into The Stock Market
Coronavirus News (1)
The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Like The Spanish Flu (1918-1922)
The Most Responsible Head Of State On The Planet

at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,

Friday, March 27, 2020

Coronavirus News (18)

Cuomo: Not sure if closing all businesses, keeping everyone home was 'the best public health strategy'
How small-business owners and the self-employed can take advantage of the coronavirus stimulus package Congress recently passed a $2 trillion stimulus package, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Securities Act (CARES), that includes expanding unemployment insurance to self-employed workers and independent contractors. The bill extends unemployment benefits for 13 more weeks and also includes an additional $600 a week on top of state unemployment benefits for up to four months. The rate of state pay may be less for self-employed, independent contractors, and freelance workers........ Network, network, network: “The worst thing you can do right now is stop communicating” ....... “Talk to your clients, talk to your audience. Put out the word on Facebook that you’re still open for business.” ....... Now is a good time to make changes. Think about ways to operate more efficiently. Review your marketing materials and see what needs updating. Think about your technology and social media accounts. And consider the future and what updates you’ll need to make to your business to address the new way of life after a pandemic ....... Consider a side hustle like online tutoring or making deliveries. Or take an aspect of your own business and shape it into something people need now. “Advertise locally and drum up some extra cash for things people are craving during this time of being shut in and distanced from others”



Indian migrant workers could undermine the world's largest lockdown India may still have fewer than 1,000 cases but the fear of pandemic has caused panic buying and attacks on front line medical staff. ...... Doctors and nurses in the capital New Delhi told CNN that they have been ostracized and discriminated against by their communities over fears that they could bring home the virus after work. Some doctors have even been threatened with eviction or having their electricity cut off....... "Many doctors are now stranded on the roads with all their luggage, nowhere to go, across the country," said one letter from the Resident Doctors' Association of New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.



How the Covid-19 recession could become a depression

As the Covid-19 pandemic worsens, it’s hard to decide which are scarier: the conversations I’m having with epidemiologists or the conversations I’m having with economists.

....... The mistake the US made in 2008 was not spending enough. We underestimated the size of the output gap, and then passed a stimulus too small to fill it. When the Obama administration returned to Congress for more fiscal ammunition, Republicans refused, and the recovery limped rather than roared. ......... There’s only one equilibrium: It’s economic inactivity until the danger passes.” ........ There will be at least four waves of economic pain, he told me, each building on the last. Wave one is “the sudden stop,” the unexpected cessation of economic activity all across the country ....... When the economy stops, and GDP plummets, workers lose their jobs. That, Zandi said, is wave two, and “it’s coming very quickly.” ....... On Sunday, James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said unemployment could reach 30 percent, and GDP could drop by 50 percent. ...... The third wave, according to Zandi, will be “all these folks who’ve seen their nest egg wiped out. They thought they were set for retirement and they’re not. They’ll go into panic mode.” ....... Wave four, Zandi continues, will see businesses cut investment. ........ But if the virus is brought under control in May, and Congress passes enough stimulus, Zandi, and other forecasters, think powerful catch-up growth in the third and fourth quarters is possible. Perhaps this could be

a “V-shaped” recession: a sharp drop followed by a swift recovery

. ........ The nightmare scenario is that the virus isn’t under control by the summer, and extreme social distancing measures are needed throughout the year ....... the ground could collapse underneath the economy. ....... Another possibility is a financial crisis, in which the markets for corporate debt or government bonds or international currency flows lock up, and create a contagion of their own. Already we’re seeing signs of strain: strange movements in municipal bond markets, shortages of dollars, and corporate debt markets. If any of these collapse into panic, we could add a 2008-style financial crisis atop our 2020-style economic and public health crisis. If that happens, says Zandi, “then you get into very dark scenarios — you start getting three, four, five years of financial pain.” ....... “It’s not cyclical unemployment. It’s quarantine unemployment. Businesses aren’t allowed to operate. People aren’t allowed to be out of their home. The idea that if you just give people money it’ll somehow prevent the unemployment rate from skyrocketing makes no sense. No amount of demand stimulus will get people to go to restaurants if they’re closed.” ........ delivering up to $18,000 to families of four and sustaining the aid so long as the public health emergency continues or unemployment is elevated ....... the closest comparison to the economy we’re creating now is the economy of World War II: The government was spending huge amounts of money on the war effort, but wages were suppressed, goods were rationed, the public was pressured into buying bonds, and social norms discouraged excessive consumption. ......... If those businesses collapse in mass numbers, then even when the health risks pass, the labor market will be in shambles, as there won’t be jobs for workers to return to. ......... In a more imaginative country, with a more ambitious and capable political system, crisis could become opportunity: This could be the moment to pass a true Green New Deal, taking advantage of cheap money and idle workers to solve perhaps the central problem of our future. If this economy must collapse, perhaps we could build something better, fairer, more sustainable in its place. “I hope this will cause a seismic political change,” says Sen. Bennet. “I think this is going to make us realize we need to invest again in America.”

This calculator tells you exactly how big your coronavirus stimulus check could be
Coronavirus: Trump makes thinly veiled attack at AOC during White House briefing
Coronavirus measures could cause global food shortage, UN warns
Coronavirus strikes UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his health secretary and his chief medical adviser
As coronavirus cases spike worldwide, China is closing itself off
Coronavirus pandemic's global impact seen from space in chilling satellite images
'It’s what was happening in Italy': the hospital at the center of New York's Covid-19 crisis New York is the center of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, and Elmhurst hospital in the New York City borough of Queens is the center of the center. ...... the medical examiner’s office has stationed a refrigerated trailer to act as a makeshift morgue. ...... there were 23,112 Covid-19 cases in New York City alone ....... The hospital is located in one of the poorest and most diverse areas of the city, home to 20,000 recent immigrants from 112 different countries. It was already operating at 80% capacity before the coronavirus pandemic ....... In the Elmhurst and the

nearby Corona neighborhood

, one in four people lack health insurance. One in four live in poverty. ..... “Doctors describe scenes in apocalyptic terms. Patients are reportedly dying in the emergency room still waiting for a bed. Residents line the block, standing inside barricades and in the rain waiting to get tested.”

at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)