Well, $2T in government aid is being issued, but with the economy so savagely kneecapped, it's hard to say what wealth & value will stand behind that aid.

Fun ways to start your Covid Friday:

• Read this Thursday night story in the NYT (!) about that Navy Hospital ship which docked so theatrically in New York City on Monday:

The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients.

“It’s a joke,” said a top hospital executive, whose facilities are packed with coronavirus patients.

• Consider this Beaver State arithmetic:

Oregon - a state of 4.2 million people - has shut down in order to, by ITS OWN PROJECTIONS, keep an average of two extra people a day from needing intensive care this month.

Amy, is this where you want general Covid stuff, or do you want it in the playtime thread? The things below aren't intended to derail your Adelson/Gov't Payout topic. (A metaphor just came to mind— Expecting all this stimulus to sustain American vitality without actual wealth creation and value delivery is like slamming coffee in pursuit of the cardio fitness that comes from working out: Having the jitters is not exercise.)

• Singapore, an early success story, locked down schools and workplaces overnight.

• Gotta confess, had forgotten about this, if I ever knew. (Scant weeks ago, infectious disease was sooo passé....)

What is even going on with that carrier? Is there any institution in American live which isn't going to be humiliated this year?

“The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients.

“It’s a joke,” said a top hospital executive, whose facilities are packed with coronavirus patients.
Multiple Twitter threads from NYC doctors are horrific... Other cities are doing not-as-badly.”

I thought people understood that it was never intended to treat Corona virus patients. It is there to serve other critically Ill people who don’t have the Corona virus. Like accident victims and burn victims.

And take the pressure off the emergency rooms and out patient facilities so you don’t have to sentence your 85 year old grandma who needs an emergency pacemaker to death inadvertently to get her one.

The hospital ships aren't meant for Xi disease suffers - it's an even more enclosed space that would offer a fantastic breeding ground for the virus.

It's for other patients. Heart attacks, assault victims, birthing. But maybe NYC stopped those cases from occurring? did Mayor deCommie issue a decree outlawing them?

Can you outlaw Xi's disease while you're at it??? that would be useful.

• Singapore, an early success story, locked down schools and workplaces overnight.

@Crid,

Singapore is a tiny nation with a manageable -almost six million- population. It also helps a lot that it's more or less a surveillance state, you comply or else.

The United States of America is a monstrous continent with 300+ million strongly individualistic people that behave like cats who have lit firecrackers tied to their tails.

It's fun seeing you come around, Crid.

As for Adelson, it is great he can do that. Unfortunately most people can't. Somewhere between 50%-75% of US workers live paycheck to paycheck. Losing a job means they are broke. Despite what many people want to believe most businesses aren't much better. The majority live month to month. A multi-month shutdown like this mean bankruptcy.

As for the multi-trillion dollar laws recently passed, mostly meaningless. By the time most businesses know how to navigate the law they will already have run out of cash. Instead it will function like TARP. The politically connected will be protected and nuts to the rest of us.

Some will bring up the increased unemployment benefits. Those are one of the better choices in the laws. But they run into a problem. The federal government doesn't have enough money to replace the US economy. If we were talking about a small group of people this would be doable. But we aren't. After two weeks we already have 6-10 million people without a job. The minimum projection is 50 million on a two month shutdown. That is 1 in 3 workers in the US. The federal government was already spending $1.50 for every $1 of revenue. Cutting it's income while increasing spending only makes that worse. Sure the AOC crowd says we can print forever, but as Crid mentions above what is that money actually worth? The US isn't immune to inflation. Without real goods being produced there is no wealth, just funny green cloth and numbers in a computer. At the end of the day the US federal government just doesn't have the wealth to keep things going on it's own.

It's cute when you pretend to be principled, anticipatory thinker.

Um, Darth, did you read the NYT article?

(Michael Dowling is the head of Northwell Health, NY's largest hospital system.)

Quote:

...At the same time, there is not a high volume of noncoronavirus patients. Because most New Yorkers have isolated themselves in their homes, there are fewer injuries from car accidents, gun shots and construction accidents that would require an emergency room visit.

Ultimately, Mr. Dowling and others said, if the Comfort refuses to take Covid patients, there are few patients to send. And given the pernicious spread of the disease in New York City, where nearly 50,000 were infected as of Thursday, dividing patients into those who have it and those who do not is pointless, he said.

The solution, he and others said, was to open the Comfort to patients with Covid-19.

“It’s pretty ridiculous,” he said. “If you’re not going to help us with the people we need help with, what’s the purpose?"

The solution, he and others said, was to open the Comfort to patients with Covid-19.

Ok.

One condition. He decontaminates the ship before she sails out.

I am sure the only part of the story which will survive is where he is paying others depending on him. No one will mention his own success story, where he made something of himself. That’s impossible, UC. He didn’t build that!

With the ship it may be more a problem with ambulance or general public not knowing where to go or being in the routine. A gun shot wound goes to closest facility.
For a contagious disease a ship may not be ideal for treatment, too close quarters.

As to the main article, if it is his money and he’s giving it to employees kudos to him. If it is shareholders money, ehhh they often need that money too: grandma living off of dividends.

Same with land lords.

Just perspective: NYC metro area is over 20 million people.
The echoes in that hospital ship must be amazing.

Cue those who will blame Trump for not filling it.

> Just perspective:

No matter what happens, no matter the suffering and consequent mortality, fuck everything: DEFEND TRUMP.

If a civilization is scratched by wretched, infectious death and then dismembered by transgenerational upheaval, the important thing to remember is that the Game Show Host loves us dearly, always has our best interests at heart, and would never let anything happen that would put us at risk... Because he's a BILLIONAIRE (and you [whomever] aren't), and because he has a VERY special cell phone, his sanctity and preciousness must be safeguarded at all costs.

> One condition. He decontaminates
> the ship before she sails out.

✔