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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Trump wants schools to reopen. Experts say COVID-19 safety measures will cost billions
This is a full-on cash grab riot. If you have ever worked on a humanitarian mission or been in a war zone and watched the mad stampede of desperate hungry people when the food trucks roll up, you'll understand what I mean. The poor refugees can be excused--they are fighting (often each other) for their lives. Today's US Cavalcade of Waste is shameful and cynical.
The states closed their schools, and now insist they need billions from the federal government to open them back up.
WASHINGTON — If schools are to reopen safely as soon as August, which President Donald Trump has proposed, education experts say billions of dollars in federal funding will be needed in the next coronavirus relief bill.Uncle Sam has gone senile and fearful, so he is throwing borrowed trillions out the window, and his madness has touched off a free-for-all.
Governors are asking Congress for $500 billion in emergency funding to rescue states with severe revenue shortfalls, but leading education groups say schools should receive half of that money.
some $50 billion of that money would be set aside for minority-serving colleges and universities. Another $25 billion would go to supporting vulnerable children, as well as low-income and minority students.Remember what a multi-billion dollar budget-busting boon 9/11 was for the MIC, the alphabet intelligence agencies (that failed us) and for the ballooning federal bureaucracy?
The education establishment and domestic federal, state and local bureaucracies are exploiting this crisis to grab their share.
Get a load of THIS...
ReplyDeleteCalifornia State University campuses to remain closed through fall semester, online instruction to continue: Chancellor Timothy White made the announcement Tuesday, which will affect all 23 of its universities
The California State University (CSU) system said it plans to cancel all in-person classes for the fall and to continue instruction online, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
CSU Chancellor Timothy White made the announcement Tuesday, which will affect all 23 of its universities.
"This virtual planning approach for the next academic year is necessary because of the evolving data surrounding the progression of COVID 19," White explained to CSU trustees.
White said non-partisan researchers and health experts forecast additional waves of infection coupled with the flu season in the fall. He added the public immunity rate is very low, and it is not likely a vaccine will be developed during the academic year....
Think of all the businesses (shuttered now and forever?) related to college campuses: pizza restaurants, coffee bars, dorm "mothers," various sports and sports stuff, rooms rented out in private homes, concerts and what goes along with those concerts (ushers, for example), campus bookstores, laundromats, dry cleaners, dorm goods (sheets, pillows, etc.), campus police (typically state employees), college spirit clothing, and much more.
And what about lab courses and the like?
I have a circle of friends here in Nevada who are science and professors. They are all pretty confident that they can do just as good a job online for the great majority of students as in person. And that includes labs, at least to some degree. But small groups in lab cohorts are easily managed in safe distanced mostly "more sterile" labs.
DeleteAOW asked... "Think of all the businesses (shuttered now and forever?) related to college campuses: pizza restaurants, coffee bars, dorm "mothers," various sports..."
DeleteThis is a fair question. The NCAA has said if colleges are in an online setting, they cannot compete. Period. Leagues are now trying to come to grips with this. My son who writes on sports says ppl need to get real. There will be no sports for the remainder of 2020. Period. People can wish and hope he says, but there doesn't seem to be a way to make it happen.
As for the businesses, I'd ask this. Apart from the jobs those campus based businesses and others around our cities provide, are any of them offering an essential service or product? We really don't need to eat out. we can stream movies in our homes, books can be ordered online, etc., etc.
The bell was tolling for a lot of these businesses anyways, Covid has just sped it up. As has happened all through our history, the smart people will adapt.
I asked my wife what happens if support for non profits, mine included dries up in this crisis and here's what she said... "We'll figure it out. Maybe open something new."
I suspect most ppl will too.
At least I hope so...
Meanwhile, in Hawaii:
ReplyDeleteWaiting too long to reopen Hawaii’s economy could lead to riots, said one of the top officials orchestrating the state’s coronavirus response.
“At some point we need to accept risk,” Kenneth Hara, the state’s director of emergency management, told lawmakers on Monday. “We have to accept that people will get infected and we have to push it to the threshold of what our health-care system can handle. If we let the economy go the way it’s going, I feel there will be significant civil unrest and, worst case, civil disturbance and rioting.”
Hawaii’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which has ground to a halt over the past few months. The state has discouraged tourists by instituting a mandatory two-week quarantine for all new arrivals, and has paid for more than a dozen violators to be sent back home. A number of rule-breakers spotted leaving their hotel rooms have also been arrested, and face fines or prison time.
Hawaii previously boasted one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, but nearly one of out every three Hawaii workers is now jobless...
THIS is where we are (dated May 12, 2020):
ReplyDelete2 months ago: "Can't open until we flatten the curve to save our healthcare system." One month ago: "Can't open until we have a vaccine." A few days ago: "Can't open until we have multiple vaccines." Today: (Essentially) Can't open until Biden wins.
What are we gonna do about this???
Go back to that first one. We should be building hostpital capacity during the lockdown, and gradually releasing it once there's enough capacity to cope with the expected case load.
DeleteWhat are we going to do about this? What “we the people” have always done. Nothing but sit back and watch our political masters flush our grandchildren’s money down the crapper. I think Trump was wise in delegating most of the COVID-19 authority to the states; he will be even wiser informing states to figure out how they intend to re-open schools without federal money.
DeleteYou know, people complain about the wastefulness of the DoD spending unheard-of sums of money on such things as toilet seats, as well they should, but there is nothing more wasteful (and I would add, “criminally so,”) than the tens of billions of dollars we waste on public education every single year. Seriously, who would buy a family car that everyone knew was a safety disaster, subject to rust, an oil-burning, gas guzzling, gosh-awful lemon assembled by idiots that cost three times as much as the damn thing is worth?
There is no education going on in America’s public schools. Our schools are no more than public wealth redistribution centers where mission failure is an annual event. If there is any learning going on in our schools, it is learning how to fleece others out of their hard-earned money. It is where inept parents send their starving kids for free meals, where students graduate unable to read, write, or do simple math, and at best qualifies its graduates for part-time work at a burger joint. If we must have public education, let the people of the states’ foot the bill —all of it; they’ll get tired of doing that after a while, and this in turn will open the door to true educational reform in this country.
The Coronavirus Lock-down is a Economic Catastrophe The worst jobs report in the Country’s history shows why the economy must reopen.!
ReplyDeleteThe countries Unemployment in April has soared to 14.7%—the highest rate of Unemployment since the government had started to keep records way back in 1948.
Our countries working force is HURTING, and Bleeding even worse than those numbers show! People can’t keep their Businesses going, the can’t pay their rent, they can’t hold on to their employees, they can’t feed their families. It is predicted that 50 percent of the countries Restaurants will go out of business.
Records show that 6.4 Million workers have left the workforce.
The Country is in a Economic Catastrophe, and the Democrats are complaining that Trump wants to Open Up the Country’s Economy and that it’s to early!
Let’s face it, this is EXACTLY what those Democratic Socialist’s want! They want to WRECK the Economy because they know (or they think) that with a Bad Economy Trump’s chances of being Re1Elected will be deeply diminished.
Just imagine how a Progressive, Socialist, Communist Economy would be! We just has a very small taste of it. We just felt how it would be with the Super Market’s shelves empty, No Water, No Toilet, No Soap, No cleaning products. Look how bad it is now for some of us... . We would be wiping our Azzes with leaves for the next four years!
Where is their Basic Common-sense?
Look what “America’s New Face” Andrew Cuomo just did to the people in our Nursing Homes! He told them that they would lose their Licenses if they DIDN’T take in patients with CORONAVIRUS! So they took them in and at least 5,300 people have died from COVID-19 in New York State’s Nursing Homes since May 9th. And that’s a Fact. And Andrew Cuomo is lecturing President Trump? Is he Kidding!
These are the same damn crooks that were screaming Russian collusion, and who believed Jussie Smollett’s Hoax, who are now screaming that we Repunlican’s should listen to them and keep the Country Locked Down, and the people out of work! Think about that!
That wont last very long because the closed businesses won’t be paying any taxes .
And now Andrew Cuomo (“America’s Great Governor”) is complaining that President Trump should bail out New York!
Bail Out the corrupt and mismanaged States like New York? Is he kidding?
The Hell with what these Marxist want! To Hell with their “New Normal”.
DD... in regards to bailouts, I'm sure states like New York would love a system where the money states could survive on just the money they send to Washington.
DeleteIn Nevada, the rural counties in our state would be bankrupt were it not for the money from Clark County, the population center of the state. In the US, many states like Wyoming and West Virginia could never support their citizens and municipalities without money from states like New York and California.
The larger states, like here in Clark County, Nevada ask this question all the time... Why do we have to bailout and support the more rural and poorer states and areas?
@ Dave
DeleteIn our Republic, the states are sovereign. It is up to the citizens of states to determine their own destiny ... without inference or assistance from the federal government, which in terms of national taxation, robs from Peter to pay Paul. Let the people of Wyoming and West Virginia figure it out; they’ll soon learn an important lesson about personal financial responsibility. They’ll learn to prioritize spending ... which we all must do within our households. The federal government should only spend money inside states when there is a compelling federal interest in doing so, such as interstate highways. Beyond that, no. Nevada can organize itself however it wants. If the people from Clark County are happy to bail out everyone living in White Pine County ... fine. Just don’t ask the people of Illinois to pay their tab. And not a damn red cent for illegal aliens no matter where they illegally reside.
This sums it up perfectly! (graphic)
ReplyDeleteAmen!
DeleteAOW.. that was my post at American Thinker that you commented on. Marooned in No Man's land: A Nursing Home. Thanks.
DeleteBunkerville,
DeleteI know! It was an excellent post -- and poignant.
Fill a football stadium with 50,000 people for a Super Bowl game. Now tell those people that 1 of them is going to die, and 3 of them will be sent to the hospital. Are 50,000 people going to say, "Well, I don't want to see the Super Bowl bad enough to take that gigantic risk," and stay home?
ReplyDeleteIf you said yes, then consider this. If 50,000 people prepare to enter the freeway in their cars at 70 mph and you tell them that 3 of them are going to die and 8 of them will be hospitalized with terrible injuries, will those 50,000 decide to stay off of the freeway? If you think the answer is yes, think again. Multiples of those 50,000 people get on the freeways every single day.
Jayhawk provides a good analogy, but it relies on a tacit simplification that the risk is taken to be static. Maybe those risks are a reasonable estimate if we stay home. Were we to actually attend the superbowl then the risk would go up, and continue to increase the whole time we stayed at the game.
DeleteSome real world numbers: for every 50,000 people, 150 deaths in Lombardy, 130 deaths in NYC. These are non-representative epicenters, but apart from social distancing, what is stopping your nearest city from becoming an epicenter too?
@jez
DeleteI was pretty sure you would find higher numbers somewhere to bolster your support of media panic. Nationwide, deaths are at very close to 2/100,000. In all states other than NY and NJ deaths are at or well below 2/100,000. If you stay home the stats at the football game are irrelevant. If you stay off the freeway stats are irrelevant. My point was that people do not stay home from the football game, do not stay off the freeway, but do cower in fear over a virus that has the same statistics because the media has instilled panic.
@jayhawk: I do not support the media panic, but it would be complacent to ignore what's happening at the epicenters, wouldn't it?
DeleteNo, the stats are not irrelevant, you are subject to risk even if you stay at home: after all, a decent proportion of the folks showing up in hospital are people who weren't going out. But that's a side issue: my main point is that you have to account for how showing up at the game alters risk, since that changing risk quickly becomes the dominant part of how we model this. Your conclusions seem reasonable because you're extrapolating from the risk as it stands at a single moment, but it's only once we incorporate some of the dynamics of the situation that we can begin to appreciate how it is different from traffic, and a different kind of response is justified.
@Jayhawk... the Lombardy example is not some "higher numbers somewhere to bolster your support of media panic".
DeleteIt's a real life example of people, 40,000, in a stadium, that many scientists cite as the event that kicked off the Italian, and thus, the European and US illnesses and fatalities.
There is simply no argument for sports as essential, especially with crowds. Look, I get it... there are many things we want to do. But not many of them are things we actually need to do.
Perhaps for awhile, it's best to forgo our wants, so we can fulfill our needs?
Dave, Dave, Dave ... Have you forgotten something?
DeleteNeed is something essential for survival; want is something that we desire. In America, these two converge on the question of liberty. Live Free or Die is the state motto of New Hampshire. It also expresses the feeling among conservative Americans. There is no reason for life without liberty.
Dave & Sam: remember, jayhawk's stadium is metaphorical.
DeleteJayhawk writes as if we've done nothing to improve traffic safety.
DeleteDuck,
DeleteGood ol' apocalyptic Bob Dylan. One of your favorite composers?
Can there be any doubt?
DeleteDuck... I so wish to read a Robert Hilburn review of that album.
DeleteHere's the song
DeleteCongratulations to so many people for so completely missing the point of my comment. Would anyone seriously tell you that one person will die at a football game? Get real people.
DeleteThe point is ATTITUDE and PANIC. The point is that people WOULD NOT BE panicked at the thought that one person would die at a football game. Almost no one would assume that he/she/it would be that one person.
People ARE NOT PANICKED at the thought that they might die on the freeway, despite the fact that so many do every day. They assume, in fact the THEY WILL NOT DIE on the freeway no matter how often or how long they drive on it.
And yet people ket the media drive them into living lives under their beds because they assume that THEY WILL DIE, that they WILL BE ONE OF THE TWO PEPOLE out of 100,000 who will die if they step outside their front door.
I don't know what proportion of the panic is irrational, but I think it's to be fairly comfortable (depending on your local conditions, which vary wildly) with the current death/hospitalization rate, yet to be concerned at the prospect of those rates climbing in response to a relaxation of distancing measures.
Delete...I think it's reasonable to be ...
DeleteJez,
DeleteIn my view, the word panic implies irrationality.
I am concerned that we are becoming a nation of hypochondriacs!
Duck,
DeleteI listened to the song.
Dylan has a bit of an obsession about the assassination of JFK, right?
Well....as long as they can keep creating these massive crisis, and intimidating the people, and Hoaxing us with their phoniness the CROOKED,SLIMY, BOTTOM FEEDING, .Democratic, Communist, Fascist, Marxist, Socialist, PARTY is still alive and kicking.
ReplyDeleteTime for a tax boycott!
DeleteAm I the only one who recalls Everett Dirksen:
ReplyDeleteA billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
Now we are talking trillions....crazy.
We are still borrowing below the inflation rate.
Delete@Ducky
DeleteYou must be an economist. Borrowed money does not need to be repaid. The only factor is the interest payments you have to make, because once borrowed, the principle is yours to keep forever.
I'm not aware of any government in history who paid off its entire national debt, but that might be because I'm neither an economist nor historian. Do you know of any?
Delete@jez
DeleteAnd the beat of non-logic goes on. Many governments have defaulted on loans by collapsing, said collapse being due in no small part due to those debts. Nonetheless, Most bank robberies never recover the stolen money, either. Does that make bank robbery proper?
You absolutely are an economist. Only an economist can use thinking that says that the fact that nobody does what they are supposed to means that they are no longer supposed to do it.
Don't credit me with arguments I haven't made -- this is just an interesting question. Do you know of any?
DeleteI just got a phone call from my cousin, whose husband has his own electrician company. He has now been sidelined for two weeks because two electricians from another company have just tested positive.
ReplyDeleteSIDELINED FOR TWO WEEKS!
No work, no pay!
And his wife is on lockdown, too, because her husband is quarantined.
This is the second round of lockdown for them.
So, off I go tomorrow alone to the oral surgeon for a major extraction. My cousin was supposed to drive me. No more! She's on lockdown.
DeleteThanks, Jez.
Delete