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Post by kds on Apr 3, 2020 18:59:07 GMT
I've never seen Ringo before, so when he announced a Baltimore date, I jumped on it because, you never know. But, I hear you with Ringo turning 80 this year, and Mike turning 80 next, we're getting deep into the 4th quarter with these guys. I have a couple of friends who saw Ringo recently and said it was a great show. I'm gonna be bugging them to try to get tickets again somewhere - and call ME this time! I was really looking forward to at, especially with Gregg Rolie and Steve Lukather in the group
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 4, 2020 12:58:29 GMT
Guidance has, in the past few days, gone from instructing the Average Joe to ignore any pressure to purchase and wear masks to reverse course and wear them, especially in more crowded, public places.
First of all ... there haven't been masks to be bought in weeks. Probably over a month. So it's a little late advice.
But second, they* really bungled the topic. In hindsight, even a little careful thought shows how silly the advice always was. The messaging had been: a) they don't actually help; and b) save them for healthcare workers and vulnerable patients who need them.
If they don't help, then why do those people need them? The answer is that yes, they DO help. They aren't a cure-all by a long shot, but they are much better than nothing, especially for those in critical situations. Even if the bottom line all along should have been to save them for the healthcare professionals and vulnerable people, they should have told the truth: they aren't foolproof but they help, and so we need you to reserve them for those people who need them most. And if you choose to make your own makeshift one, that's a good idea that might help some. Don't lie to the people.
*Authorities. The WHO was among the worst, which is troubling, but also national health organizations, the federal government, mainstream media, and at least my state government, too.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 5, 2020 13:30:34 GMT
Is anyone else finding the media almost intolerable these days?
First, a disclaimer: I try not to be one of the pile-ons against the overly demonized mainstream media. I don't find it evil or nefarious the way many seem to ... just kind of sensationalist, short-sighted, bumbling, and not especially good at what they do.
What's causing me to turn off the radio and turn away from the major papers I usually go through more thoroughly is the COVID-19 saturation. Of course--of course--it is the major story every day. I'm not suggesting it ought to be otherwise. But that said, every single story is virus-related, and some of them just seem contrived to ensure each and every one of us understands how terrible life is.
The stories themselves are bad enough, not just coverage of the disease's actual progress, but endless strings of anecdotes about how it is affecting the poor, the rich, the young, the old, the white, the black, the gay, the straight. A story on how it impacts rural Southern Muslims, urban northeastern Jews. How this hospital is overrun ... and that one. What it's like to be a musician in these times, or a restaurantuer. An office schmuck or a fast food worker. It's as if there is a mission to find everyone and document every problem, every instance of suffering. And of course it's all wrapped in an anti-administration cloak.
Even between stories, I hate how NPR hosts' banter is always about how hard it is recording from home; or writers who can't help but chime in about the challenges of writing from quarantine with kids underfoot.
"Everything is terrible for everyone! Nothing has ever been worse!" That's the message I feel we're being fed incessantly.
And honestly I don't think that's helpful. I have a colleague who, when we talk, constantly talks about how terrible things are. But she's healthy. Her family is healthy. She's not in any imminent danger of losing her job. "Terrible" for her, as for many of us, means "try to stay home as much as possible and keep some physical distance between yourself and others. And wash your hands more." If that's the worst thing that ever happens in her life, she is living a fabulous life.
Please don't misunderstand, I'm not saying the world is all peaches and cream, and the virus should be ignored. It is a tragedy, obviously devastating many people's lives and hurting the economy in ways we don't even know yet. But for most of us, most of the time, we're talking about personal inconvenience. Being told it's worse than it is, CONSTANTLY, just isn't helpful for people's mental well being or perspective. It's disrespectful to the people actually losing loved ones or jobs.
And it's just bad journalism. The world is continuing to turn, events are happening beyond the virus. But I've heard more coverage by far about whether the virus is disproportionately impacting Native Americans than I have about how the administration revoked the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's reservation status (and took its land). Saudi Arabia and Russia have been at [economic] war over oil prices, but we aren't hearing much about it.
It's virus porn. It's not healthy.
EDIT postscript: I just went to the NYT website. The first 28 stories, scanning top left to right, row by row, were directly coronavirus related. Then one wasn't. Then five more were, then one wasn't. And so on.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 5, 2020 14:01:11 GMT
Is anyone else finding the media almost intolerable these days?
Yes, and for all of the reasons you mentioned above. And, there's another reason that you didn't mention - bringing politics into it. It really bothers me when the networks, which is basically all of them, uses COVID-19 as an "opportunity" to score political points. Now is not the time for that. There will be plenty of time for that in the fall.
Watching the news on TV has become very depressing. I can only last a few minutes before I have to turn it off. I'll try to get a quick update on COVID-19 and that's it.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 5, 2020 14:08:13 GMT
Is anyone else finding the media almost intolerable these days?
Yes, and for all of the reasons you mentioned above. And, there's another reason that you didn't mention - bringing politics into it. It really bothers me when the networks, which is basically all of them, uses COVID-19 as an "opportunity" to score political points. Now is not the time for that. There will be plenty of time for that in the fall.
Watching the news on TV has become very depressing. I can only last a few minutes before I have to turn it off. I'll try to get a quick update on COVID-19 and that's it.
Oh, I snuck it in there, just didn't want to be accused of being political in a non-political thread! Note "And of course it's all wrapped in an anti-administration cloak." I'm horribly tired of it all, annoyed by it all, and I'm opposed to this administration! But that doesn't mean every Democratic mayor or governor is a hero, every Republican one is a villain, or that every word out of the president's mouth is unfiltered evil.
(Since you opened the door...) I do think he fumbled on multiple occasions during this crisis, but let's be serious: nobody would have handled it perfectly, because crises don't result in perfect responses. Ever. And we'll never know how another president might have responded or how it would have played out subsequently. It's easy to be certain a Pres. Clinton would have masterfully played the same hand because it can never be falsified!
There are political implications, ramifications, etc., and all of us can campaign or vote as we see fit. But talking from that angle all the time (especially when you're purportedly a neutral, objective news organization) is unseemly, unprofessional, and unhealthy.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 5, 2020 14:10:43 GMT
I can only last a few minutes before I have to turn it off. I'll try to get a quick update on COVID-19 and that's it. Also, I truly believe this is to your credit. A lot of people I am talking to aren't able to do that, and I think that's the weakness. They are glued to the TV, or radio, or internet news, tracking every last tidbit, rumor, development. The positive test count went up by two more cases! Three more deaths!
Not healthy. At all. I think--and yes, this is my opinion only, and I'm no doctor--the healthy approach is to stay informed, and then go on with life as much as possible. Staying on top of every little story is not actually productive in any way, it's only a way to add stress and potentially anxiety and depression into your life.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 5, 2020 14:29:05 GMT
I can only last a few minutes before I have to turn it off. I'll try to get a quick update on COVID-19 and that's it. Also, I truly believe this is to your credit. A lot of people I am talking to aren't able to do that, and I think that's the weakness. They are glued to the TV, or radio, or internet news, tracking every last tidbit, rumor, development. The positive test count went up by two more cases! Three more deaths!
Not healthy. At all. I think--and yes, this is my opinion only, and I'm no doctor--the healthy approach is to stay informed, and then go on with life as much as possible. Staying on top of every little story is not actually productive in any way, it's only a way to add stress and potentially anxiety and depression into your life.
Sorry, I went back and re-read that paragraph/line about "wrapped in an anti-administration cloak." I thought that's what you meant but I wasn't sure.
Just a quick comment on watching TV. That has been one of the more surprising behaviors - or non-behaviors - for me. When I knew I was going to be off work indefinitely, I thought I'd go through periods of hunkering down on the recliner and watching large blocks of TV. But that hasn't really been the case. Obviously there's no sports and I can't get into watching the rebroadcasting of old games. I've lost touch with today's popular TV shows. I'm not a game show person. And, even the movies on cable have been disappointing (not enough Scorsese and Tarantino ). I do catch some of the evening shows, but like I said above, I don't last long. What I end of doing is channel-surfing and hope that something, maybe a good documentary, catches my eye.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 5, 2020 17:21:54 GMT
I haven't been watching anywhere nearly as much TV as before. Reading books, either.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 6, 2020 22:25:59 GMT
UK PM Boris Johnson, already hospitalized with coronavirus, has now been admitted to ICU.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 13, 2020 23:38:50 GMT
A week without posting in this polluted thread. I like it. But I also do have a story that fits best here.
When legal orders went into place about vague things like "stay-at-home" orders (as it was called here) full of loopholes and room for interpretation, I wondered whether police would be enforcing this, or what.
In Minnesota, anyway, it seems that the charge has been tacked on to people being arrested and charged with other crimes. On one hand, this is a good thing: people aren't being charged for not making a wide enough semicircle around some passerby, or for buying too few household goods to justify the trip out.
But on the other hand, if it is being added to charges that would have existed anyway, is it really even necessary? Here, "police and prosecutors often added the charge to unrelated offenses that included drunken driving, shooting paintballs at houses and driving with a canceled license."
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Apr 14, 2020 14:57:14 GMT
Something positive for a change... around here, hospitals are reporting that they are not experiencing the surge that was predicted for this point in the pandemic. They're busy, but not over-capacitated. Additionally, the nationwide numbers are trending lower than anticipated. There is a feeling that social distancing measures are working, and that the curve is flattening here. It's far too early to resume normal behaviours, but it's encouraging to say the least. If we stay the course, we may come out of this without too much loss. Not that I want to downplay the suffering of those who have been impacted. The current number of 700ish deaths is still a tragedy, and of course is sure to continue rising before leveling off. But there is reason to believe that far more lives have been saved than initially projected.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 14, 2020 15:20:35 GMT
The general trendline is similar in Minnesota. While we're at around 1700+ confirmed cases and 70 deaths in the state, testing is still rare enough that it's certain we are wildly under-counting actual cases; but there are still sufficient medical resources (in terms of facilities and equipment) to handle those needing it, even if we aren't testing enough people. And the social distancing/curve-flattening seems to be pushing the peak out into mid-summer, by which time hopefully there will be far more tests, resources, and ideally information.
The down-side is, by mitigating the damage, the doubters are redoubling their efforts to call it a hoax and the near-shutdown pointless. That has been a fear of mine all along.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Apr 14, 2020 18:20:24 GMT
I've been concerned about that too - the naysayers who are looking at these positive results as some kind of proof that they were right, it wasn't such a big deal and the whole world overreacted. They're going to push for a return to normal, and it's scary to think about what might happen in that case.
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Post by B.E. on Apr 15, 2020 19:27:33 GMT
People are starting to receive stimulus checks in their bank account. If you want to check your status, the IRS finally updated that section of their site. www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-paymentsIf you owed, authorizing a withdrawal from your bank account isn't sufficient to receive a direct deposit of the stimulus check. Using that link you can ensure you get a direct deposit. Who knows how long it might take to get a check in the mail.
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Post by B.E. on Apr 16, 2020 16:48:02 GMT
When legal orders went into place about vague things like "stay-at-home" orders (as it was called here) full of loopholes and room for interpretation, I wondered whether police would be enforcing this, or what.
In Minnesota, anyway, it seems that the charge has been tacked on to people being arrested and charged with other crimes. On one hand, this is a good thing: people aren't being charged for not making a wide enough semicircle around some passerby, or for buying too few household goods to justify the trip out.
But on the other hand, if it is being added to charges that would have existed anyway, is it really even necessary? Here, "police and prosecutors often added the charge to unrelated offenses that included drunken driving, shooting paintballs at houses and driving with a canceled license."
I hate this practice. I think it's an injustice. Laws should be enforced uniformly or they shouldn't exist.
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