Really, this isn’t the best time to be working everybody elses’ last nerve…
Uhhh. “She has since fielded requests from one of the families to do video calls because their children miss her. The parents did not offer to compensate her for the calls.” https://t.co/AbScux4y61
— Antonia Hylton (@ahylton26) March 26, 2020
… Household help, often performed by undocumented immigrants like Ms. Zamorano, has become a fixture of American homes. In a thriving economy, even middle-class families have been able to hand off their mops, brooms and lawn mowers to low-paid workers from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and other countries. With reliable caregivers at home, many dual-income couples have raised children while building high-powered careers.
The coronavirus crisis is compelling many families to reassess. Concerns about the safety of an outsider entering their homes coupled with financial instability have prompted even the well-heeled to dispense with their help, and severance payments are a rarity.
Unlike their employers, undocumented workers cannot collect unemployment or benefit from a government bailout. They are part of the bustling informal economy, typically paid cash and off the books for the essential work they do. Without paid sick leave, remote work capability and access to jobs, they become uniquely vulnerable.
We cancelled our cleaners, but paid them anyway + an extra $300 each. One of them has a covid-19 positive spouse and is in quarantine. They sent us a heartfelt thank you. You can do it too. DON"T CANCEL ANYTHING! https://t.co/T1Z7rOhZ3u
— Shamir Karkal (@shamir_k) March 25, 2020
Jeremy Jacobs is the owner of the Boston Bruins. He’s worth more than $3 billion … he’s providing 68 employees on leave with one week of paid leave and reducing salary for 82 others. Again he’s worth more than $3 billion https://t.co/yMwKO8so9J pic.twitter.com/8XIUspF8gp
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) March 25, 2020
IOW: Cosplay Socialists are mad about laid off workers getting an extra $10,800 over the next 4 months.
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) March 25, 2020
It should be more. But damn, I'd love to be rich enough that $1200 wasn't a significant amount of money. https://t.co/xz0iFI2fx5
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) March 25, 2020
‘Progressive’ Sanders supporter who somehow failed to win a seat on NYC’s City Council:
The average "consumer unit" (essentially a household) spends $4,464 on groceries per YEAR. That's $372 per month. Even including dining out, it's $660.
Utilities are $4,409 per year, or $337 per month
Source: https://t.co/Xm3MMerlRh https://t.co/J9G7nisS8D
— Jeremy 'adjusted for inflation' Horpedahl ?????? (@jmhorp) March 25, 2020
I mean I get that rent for a lot people is out of control, and maybe this bill should be adjusted for that, but jesus lady you don't have to tweet from a $2000/month studio.
— Staying inside to own the virus (@agraybee) March 25, 2020
imagine writing a sentence so cruel https://t.co/4sQ3IMCaUq
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) March 26, 2020
ETA:
I was like “wow yes what a damning pullquote, amazing excerpt to prove the ghoulishness of this piece!” and then I realized actually he wrote the article????? and he personally selected this as his own promotional pullquote????? pic.twitter.com/NBeS7N7Bqx
— Helen Rosner (@hels) March 25, 2020
MIT alum here GFY. How do you have "innovations" on an empty stomach?
This is the kind of thinking that exalts Thoreau and fails to realize every single thing he did was on the back of his mother and sister who cooked his food and washed his clothes. https://t.co/b2XojfO4kZ
— Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis (@KendraWrites) March 26, 2020
hope being on Ivanka's speed dial was worth it, Mags https://t.co/NRTs6HwgRj
— local jack please ban the nazis person (@pleizar) March 26, 2020
Just spitballing here, thinking outside the box…
Here's Dilbert creator Scott Adams suggesting that invading another country to take its hydroxychloroquine supply should be on the table. pic.twitter.com/Xlz2zuNcA7
— Feminist Proper Gander (@dappergander) March 26, 2020
Just in case there was any confusion pic.twitter.com/5N0zX3ywcA
— Feminist Proper Gander (@dappergander) March 26, 2020
From "Virus panic is dumb" over "We keep plants open despite shelter orders" over "car accident more likely to kill you than virus" over "we will make ventilators if there is demand" to "will re-open as fast as humanly possible to make ventilators".?????https://t.co/13fFy5exAA
— Alex Luck (@AlexLuck9) March 25, 2020
Sad-trombone coda from yesterday’s outrage…
Twitter Deletes The Federalist Op-Ed on Deliberately Spreading Coronavirus https://t.co/MK5UAa25rP
— andrew kaczynski? (@KFILE) March 25, 2020
It turns out that "Dermatologist" published in The Federalist suggesting that people infect themselves with coronavirus isn't even licensed!
The Federalist is a shoddy collection of total frauds. Who pays for that publication to exist?!?https://t.co/CvHpoaUOD2
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) March 25, 2020
EXCLUSIVE (from me): Dr. Douglas Perednia (who published an opinion in The Federalist, which was deleted by Twitter) says that the conservative site made unwanted edits to the piece. https://t.co/YfW5SitT39
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) March 26, 2020
Recently released photo of key funder of the Federalist. pic.twitter.com/R0OWzMnQ4F
— dhanuraashi (@dhanuraashi) March 25, 2020
The funny thing is that just yesterday her husband, an editor at The Federalist, published a piece by an MD (who hadn't practiced medicine in 25 years) saying that people should have Covid-19 parties where they contract the disease for the common good. Spare me. pic.twitter.com/BWUyq7vbwq
— Seth Cotlar (@SethCotlar) March 26, 2020
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Repost from below:
Speaking of ventilators (and we were, or at least I was), our MBA Princeling is on the case
A recommendation to Mr Kushner. Somebody better check on Mr Cuomo, he may blow a gasket….
Mary G
I am seriously thinking of torches and pitchforks after President Evil pulled out of ordering ventilators and said on Hannity that NY doesn’t need 30,000 – 40,000. Also, testing is STILL not happening.
West of the Rockies
OT (this an open thread though), but has anyone heard of a Covid 19 case that was more than mild but not serious in which the fatigue factor goes on for a month or more? My girlfriend and her daughter have both had a few day-long episodes days after their essential recoveries have taken place.
Thank you for any thoughts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Romney 2012 Muckety-muck Stevens:
I wonder if he worked on any sitting GOP Senators’ campaigns
tom
This evening, I was talking with a friend of mine who is a CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) at suburban Detroit hospital which is being converted to a facility for COVID-19 patients. Due to a lack of vents, her hospital is considering “split vents” – up to four patients per ventilator. She doesn’t think that is possible.
How ever bad you think it is, it’s worse than you think.
danielx
Everybody has their own reality, true enough, but these creatures live not only on a separate world but in a separate plane of existence.
Brachiator
It is great that this writer points out that it’s not just the “evil rich,” but quite a few people in the middle class who employ undocumented workers. And some undocumented workers have ITINs, ID numbers that let them file tax returns, but they are not eligible for most credits, so they have no practical access to much of they safety net that helps lower income citizens.
But I certainly applaud those people of means who still try to find a way to pay their employees, whether citizens or undocumented.
kindness
I for one can’t wait to mooch on my $1200 PelosiBucks.
Anne Laurie
From what little I’ve seen discussed on that topic (& my vast experience watching tv hospital dramas) it is possible to hook more than one patient to a ventilator, at least for a short period of time. But every one of those unfortunates will get less than 100% efficiency, and will suffer for it.
It would be inconceivable under normal circumstances, because the potential legal liability would cripple any hospital. But in a situation where doctors are openly discussing automatic DNRs for any coronavirus victim who isn’t otherwise young & fit…
Brachiator
Young Jared is given responsibility for more shit than Woody Allen’s Zelig.
But what has the motherfucker ever actually accomplished?
tom
@Anne Laurie: I understand that ventilators must be closely monitored and adjusted to match the patient’s lung capacity, respiration rate, and other things. Since no two patients are alike, and since patients recover at different rates, using split vents is really tricky. But if the situation is desperate enough, you do what you have to do I guess.
The Dangerman
Hey, if it comes to it, $1200 ain’t gonna get you a ROLL of TP on the black market. We will be selling single squares by that point. Now, if the square was somehow inked with the image of Trump? Maybe.
joel hanes
The EPA, under Andrew Wheeler, just suspended enforcement of all environmental regulations for the duration of the pandemic.
I wish I were joking.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489753-epa-suspends-enforcement-of-environmental-laws-amid-coronavirus
Anything to own the libs, I guess …
Yutsano
@Brachiator: He married well.
The Dangerman
@Brachiator:
Did his daughter?
ETA: Shakes fist at Yuts, who got their first and far more clean.
Duane
Trumpov wants to be a war time president. It might not be the war he was looking for.
debbie
@Brachiator:
He has consistently failed up. That takes a special kind of loser.
Avalune
Trump honors loyalty over competency. Kush doesn’t NEED to accomplish anything – just needs to be a good little lap doggy.
The Dangerman
@joel hanes:
Next:
The Justice Department … just suspended enforcement of all voting rights laws for the duration of the pandemic.
dmsilev
@Brachiator:
He’s the son Trump never really had, a man in his own image.
I guess you could call that an accomplishment. It’s more than Don Jr. or Eric ever managed.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie et al.
Also, this. New York approves ventilator splitting, allowing hospitals to treat two patients with one machine
joel hanes
Labor Department, under Eugene Scalia, suspending enforcement of all affirmative action guidelines for the duration.
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ofccp/ofccp20200318
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: I was just at Costco and they wheeled out a pallet of TP and a mob formed…social distancing be damned.
John Revolta
@joel hanes: John Scarne, the famous magician and card player, told a story in one of his books about a town that hosted a gambler’s convention. Somehow the local Mob replaced every deck of cards in town with their own- marked- decks. “I’m told”, he said, “that what happened next was pretty impressive”. This is the situation we currently are experiencing in the US of A.
mrmoshpotato
Sorry to interrupt the recording and reporting of the shitshow, but LOOK!
Avalune
We are still totally fine on toilet paper but I think Leto is going to riot if he has to keep eating my egg beaters.
dmsilev
And, re: the first subject, unless your own income has fallen off a cliff because of this, yes you have a moral obligation to pay your cleaner, nanny, etc.
(I have a cleaner who comes once a month to do the deep-clean stuff I suck at doing myself. I had no qualms or hesitations or anything about telling her not to come but that I’d pay her for the duration of the lockdown. It’s pure and simple the right thing to do if you’re at all able.)
debbie
@NotMax:
They have to at least try it.
The local news here reported on the lines of people in NYC lining up to be tested. At Elmhurst, the link was practically around the block. They were waiting hours. I can’t imagine feeling lousy and standing in coldish weather for hours.
Nicole
I… the family that wanted their nanny to do free video chats… I… aaarrrghhhhhhhhh.
Brachiator
@joel hanes:
Damn. Is this shit coordinated?
This is like negative martial law. Trump is using the pandemic to effectively repeal any federal law he doesn’t like.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: I would say bring on the lawyers but all the courts are closed.
joel hanes
@Brachiator:
I think it’s shock and awe.
Fair Economist
@West of the Rockies: Yes, one of the first recovered patients in Wuhan said he felt exhausted all the time weeks later. I can think of several hypothetical causes with this disease.
NotMax
Dear Reverend,
Our prayer circle is riddled with argument. Is the God’s judgment on us for
1) a black president?
2) same sex marriage?
3) transsexuals in bathrooms?
4) sinful Hollywood and lascivious music lyrics?
5) legalized abortion?
6) ending prayer in schools?
7) birth control?
8) giving women the vote?
9) the 14th amendment?
10) the 13th amendment?
Prayerfully yours,
Confused in Christ
Ajabu
@Avalune:
Please don’t call that charlatan “Kush”. Kush was an advanced African civilization when Kushner’s ancestors were climbing trees and painting themselves blue.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they didn’t waste any time putting this one together, and it will make him crazy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Avalune: I ended up getting the pricey organic eggs on my Costco run(they didn’t have the cheaper ones).
NotMax
@Ajabu
Oh my, don’t go giving Jared ideas on how to protect from this.
;)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Good.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: All of them Katie.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Inorganic eggs taste like Horta.
:)
Kay (not the front-pager)
@dmsilev: Amen. My cleaning lady also works at Walmart so I had no hesitation about asking her not to come for awhile. I gave her 4 weeks lump sum payment so she would have a cushion to deal with the crisis, and told her I would send her a check every 4 weeks until it was safe for her to start working again. I mean, just because I’m old and a’skiret doesn’t mean her bills go away.
I’m sure I’ll have to give her a bonus when she comes back to work. I do not keep the place up to her standards.
Ajabu
@NotMax: As long as it’s just him and his bimbo, More power to them…
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The Washington Post today had a story about the national egg shortage. Bottom line, hens only lay so many eggs per week, and it’s rather difficult to quickly scale up the number of available hens.
lgerard
Any other time I just would have laughed at this
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Maybe FYWP truncated that?
All of them, Katie. That’ll be $50, each.
:)
West of the Rockies
@Fair Economist:
Thanks for your response. It’s been weird. They both got it, were down for about two weeks, perked up, but have each had about 3 day-long episodes of fatigue and low-grade fevers in the 2-3 weeks after.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: NICE! (chef’s kiss)
smintheus
What the heck is this? I thought all the Democrats managed to wring out of McConnell was an extra $600 per month in unemployment insurance…for 4 months maximum.
mrmoshpotato
@lgerard: Are lightning bolts going to hit all of these fuckers followed by a voice from the sky yelling, “Why did you let my children die?!”
smintheus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump is waiting for one of those offers to include kickbacks to himself.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: I’ve never had Horta, being that’s it’s not carbon based, is there any trick to prepare it?
Mary G
Kent
Oh, how quaint. You thought the Trump Administration was actually enforcing environmental laws, affirmative action, and voting rights BEFORE the pandemic? Bless your heart!
ByRookorbyCrook
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Dammit Jim I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer… er chef
Daddio7
So the same people who can not believe we did not stockpile several billion dollars worth dollars worth of ventilators, PPE and gin up tens of millions of a special test in a matter of weeks were caught flat footed when the stores ran out of TP and eggs. My wife and I had several months worth of food and butt wipes before Christmas. After China started locking down cities I added another layer to my supplies.
Kent
$600 per WEEK on top of the normal weekly payment.
CaseyL
I’d say a military coup is looking pretty good right now, but I’m not sure how many white ethno-nationalist Dominionists have wormed themselves into high command.
Mary G
Poe Larity
Everyone goes back in time to kill Hitler – has anyone gone back to kill Thoreau?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He’s trying to pay off Deutsche Bank with a Contagion Buffet
Peale
@CaseyL: yeah. I’m at wits end here. Breaking point. All we asked for is 8 weeks of staying at home and not taking kids to Disney. And white evangelicals couldn’t even give us 5 days before deciding once again to sacrifice other people.
mrmoshpotato
@CaseyL:
No. Stop that.
joel hanes
@smintheus:
kickbacks
IMHO, this has already happened. Parse with me Trump’s mob-speak
He says “we talked to the companies” and they did not want him to invoke the provisions of the DPA to compel production of pandemic materiel at a fixed contract price with the government — the volume and the price, and I think the allocation of the output, would be a matter of public record, and profiteering would be impossible.
The companies want exactly the current situation: desperate customers competing for scarce resources, bidding against each other. No public record of the volumes or prices or allocation. Maximum profits.
So I think Trump said something like “That’s good We’ll do it your way, and you’ll be very happy with this deal, very beautiful. But you need to be nice to us in return. Talk to our people, they’ll help you, it will be perfect, believe me.”
And some of those profiteering monies will find their way into the Trump organization, and others will pay for overpriced ill-defined “services” that get invoiced and paid without anything being done, etc.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
“A tasteful array of hamberders surrounding the centerpiece – a life size bust of Dear Leader sculpted in orange Jell-O.”
joel hanes
@Kent:
To be scrupulously fair, there is a difference between tacit non-enforcement of regulations, and calling out loudly “Ollie ollie oxen, POLLUTE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT IT’S OFFICIALLY LEGAL NOW”
mrmoshpotato
Cheez It Extra Toasty crackers are just burnt.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: A tasteful array of McDonalds?
NotMax
@Joel hanes
“Multi-billion dollar no bid contract for ventilators awarded to 6-person concern in [insert blood red state here] which makes shoe trees. Film at 11.”
Sab
@West of the Rockies: Soundss like my niece’s experience.
oatler.
@John Revolta: Scarne? The guy who proclaimed in his gambling handbook that there was no organized crime in America?
joel hanes
@NotMax:
I don’t think there are any government contracts at all.
The federal government seems to have just stepped out of the way to let the profiteers have a completely unregulated no-public-records free hand.
divF
@Ajabu: If Kushner’s ancestors were Britons, you would certainly be correct. However, Jews had a comparable civilization from about the same time as the Kush (and not so far away from them geographically).
That said, Kushner (not Kush, your point is otherwise well-taken) is viewed by all the Jews I know as a shonda.
Splitting Image
@oatler.:
This is actually not wrong. Organized criminals worthy of the name invest enough in lobbying activities to make whatever they are doing legal, after which they cease to be criminals.
Criminals actually breaking laws are by definition not organized enough to be called “organized crime”. Hence there can be no organized crime in America.
John Revolta
@oatler.: Not in the one I read. He has quite a few of ’em out. He may have….. changed his views on the subject. ;^)
Keith P
So let’s say we invade some countries to take their hydroxyquinoline. What happens when the stuff doesn’t actually affect COVID infections?
PS: It comes from tree bark, like regular quinine. I’m kind of surprised people aren’t chugging Canada Dry to try to cure it. If you want to invade someplace to take it, maybe find some part of the rainforest that hasn’t already been cleared to make palm oil.
Ilefttxwhenannlost
@Poe Larity: I prefer who would Jesus abort in this line of query
terry chay
@dmsilev: We recently started to have a cleaner come once every three months. She was scheduled to come a couple days ago — though with shelter-in-place lockdown for the last two weeks, that was cancelled.
My wife called her yesterday (she apologized for not showing up as her mom had recently died) and we managed to pay her 6 months in advance via Venmo via a friend who was sitting next to her. She was in tears with joy. (I’m so fortunate my wife speaks Spanish fluently.)
I went to the local burger joint I eat lunch at on days when I work from home and purchased about 5 months worth of gift certificates. On the few days we decide not to cook, we cycle through our favorite local restaurants that have takeout.
We are so fortunate; others much less so.
burnspbesq
@Mary G:
Slavitt deleted that tweet because it ignited a shit-storm in comments.
Brachiator
@Peale:
They kinda screwed up, and will end up sacrificing themselves.
burnspbesq
@Daddio7
Well, la di da.
cliosfanboy
@Poe Larity: well, he’s not alive, is he?
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
Another amazing thing about that Cowen quote: those universities all have multi-billion dollar endowments. In other words, they sit on GIANT, SELF-SUSTAINING PILES OF MONEY but shouldn’t be bothered to kick 0.0000001% of it so The Help can survive a plague.
OTOH he proves Economics must be a science because it contains about 0% humanity.
debbie
@West of the Rockies:
You’re long gone, but I don’t think exhaustion is specific to COVID-19. I’ve experienced similar after pneumonia or a particularly nasty flu.
John S.
@divF: My family uses a different term for Kushner. Putz comes to mind.
PenAndKey
@joel hanes: And yet just a few days ago someone was dismissing the notion of “shock doctrine” here on the blog. This is it in action, and they’re everything the GOP dislikes about the law from AA enforcement to environmental protection to abortion is going to be on the defensive while they pretend something as quaint as the ‘rule of law’ applies during a pandemic.
J R in WV
The Republicans and Theocratic Calvinists may be surprised, tinkering with the rule of law during the Trump Plague may have unanticipated consequences. Once people start being refused advanced medical care because they’re too likely to die anyway (like wife with compromised immune system and lung damage) and dying as a result or the lack of equipment…
Many of our best friends have become nurses, mostly in advanced practice (OR work, trauma care in the ER, ICU work, etc) and I fear for their health and safety without proper protective gear. They know how to protect themselves, but you can’t do it properly with a kitchen towel or bandana. I wonder what the 2nd amendment nutjobs are going to do?