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Well, y'all, we can look at it this way ... the pandemic is a perfect excuse for us introverts to refuse invitations, stay home, and avoid people. See, there really is a silver lining to everything!

I'm not following the news much but I heard they're thinking of sending every American $1000. (Although if the banks are closed, I'm not sure how we're supposed to go about cashing the checks.) I guess that would help ... but I worry even more that it would help Trump get re-elected. I think I'd rather starve than see that happen. What a world we live in, eh?

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It keeps surprising me how people are afraid of staying in, esp. with their kids. This is like I get confirmed more and more how much of an alien I am. 
I cannot remember much my parents being responsible for me having fun at home. I was glad I was able to stay at home and play in peace.

PS: we have 1st case of Corona in our company. whoopdedoo.gif
Sigh, I'm so tired of repeating: "haven't I told you?" It's not easy being right all the time, when you are an optimist… with experience.

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8 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I worry even more that it would help Trump get re-elected. I think I'd rather starve than see that happen.

Do you mean you'd prefer to starve rather than see him re-elected, or rather than see a cash hand-out help him get re-elected?  If the former, you might want to stop eating now, because it's likely to happen.  It's difficult to unseat an incumbent.

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6 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Do you mean you'd prefer to starve rather than see him re-elected, or rather than see a cash hand-out help him get re-elected?  If the former, you might want to stop eating now, because it's likely to happen.  It's difficult to unseat an incumbent.

I mean I'd rather see anything at all than to see him get re-elected, because I think nothing could be worse. Not war, not death, not starvation. Nothing. But I think you are right. I think this pandemic has ensured it.

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Hang in there.  You've survived more than three years of his presidency so far -- less than five years to go, regardless.

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The damage that HAS been done in that time ....

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I feel Trump has really mishandled this crisis from the start. He only closed off travel from China, no other countries (like he's never heard of other international travel), he dismantled our pandemic team in 2018 (you know the ones who are supposed to watch for these things), he totally dismissed and ignored the severity of the virus, saying it would go away with warm weather and would disappear one day "like a miracle". He has repeatedly contradicted the experts by saying we have the virus completely under control and will have a vaccine in a few months. Then the poor doctors have to take time to set the record straight. Sorry for the rant but it bugs me that this man can continually lie and/or take credit for things he has not done, place blame on others and refuse to accept responsibility for anything. If the Democrats handle this properly there is a wealth of evidence proving why Trump should not be elected and I don't think a relatively small payout is going to matter in the long run.

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5 hours ago, J.P. said:

he will do everything to stay where he is. Be it a third (and fourth, and…) term, be it by not going away even if he loses the election

Short of a military coup, none of that is gonna happen.  In the first place, the presidency has a constitutional term limit of ten years, so no one can even be on the ballot if they've already served two terms (eight years).

3 hours ago, kimber8ada said:

it bugs me that this man can continually lie and/or take credit for things he has not done, place blame on others and refuse to accept responsibility for anything

Well, he's a politician.  Plus he's a clueless jerk, no argument.  But -- to damn him with faint praise -- his presidency hasn't turned out to be nearly as awful as I had feared.  As for his chances at re-election, that depends on who the Democrats can come up with, and so far I'm not impressed.  They may be assuming that whoever runs is likely to lose to Trump anyhow, and so they're offering up a sacrificial lamb -- that seems to be common practice when running against an incumbent.

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Military coup, or something similar was what I was thinking of. He doesn't care about constitution or anything else. And his followers would march on DC with guns if he asked them to. He kind of mentioned being the president until the end of times, with a huge applause. This will be interesting.

I have a new fine show title for you: Orange Is The New Plague.

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20 minutes ago, J.P. said:

Military coup, or something similar was what I was thinking of. He doesn't care about constitution or anything else.

I would be utterly astonished, despite his bluster.  This country has a track record of well over two hundred years without any sort of national coup.  One man, even one who's popular in certain circles, isn't likely to try going flagrantly against the rules, let alone succeed.  Thank goodness!

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3 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I would be utterly astonished, despite his bluster.  This country has a track record of well over two hundred years without any sort of national coup.  One man, even one who's popular in certain circles, isn't likely to try going flagrantly against the rules, let alone succeed.  Thank goodness!

Carol, I sincerely hope you are right. I am utterly astonished that his party has not stood up to this pervert so far, and I no longer expect them to in the future. And he's already flagrantly gone against every rule he can find, and gotten away with it. No, I fear JP is far closer to the truth. If the party in power refuses to rein him in, who will?  Will the governors call up the National Guard to go and arrest him? It's a cinch the Senate won't. Plus, I know his people ... they're all around me. They are, if not brain-washed, certainly acting like it. They will support him no matter what crime he commits.  No, I'm not going to blithely assume the system will work; if it was working, he'd be long gone by now.

And just for the record, his presidency has turned out far, far, far more awful than I feared. I never imagined he would be allowed to get away with as much as he has.

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

As for his chances at re-election, that depends on who the Democrats can come up with, and so far I'm not impressed.  They may be assuming that whoever runs is likely to lose to Trump anyhow, and so they're offering up a sacrificial lamb -- that seems to be common practice when running against an incumbent.

Sorry, but no, that is NOT what the Dems are assuming. What they are desperately thinking is that they need to nominate someone who will be able to appeal to swing voters. Trump got too many of them last time, because of their fear and loathing of that  wicked liberal female, Hillary. The assumption is that if they wouldn't vote for her, they won't vote for a gay or a minority either, or anyone to the left of center. Is Joe the answer? Who knows, but the majority has decided he's got a better shot than anyone else. I pray they're right.

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I hope everyone on here is doing okay in these strange and unpleasant times.

Life has become a bit like the kind of scary pandemic movie I don't have the guts to watch.

And best wishes to Joe too, that would be silver lining.

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3 hours ago, bedelia1984 said:

I hope everyone on here is doing okay in these strange and unpleasant times.

Hi, Bedelia!  I assume you're doing OK, then?

Nobody here has mentioned being ill, so let's hope we all stay healthy.

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10 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Hi, Bedelia!  I assume you're doing OK, then?

Nobody here has mentioned being ill, so let's hope we all stay healthy.

Yes I am, so far so good. I wish the same for everyone here.🤗

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Doing fine, but my brain cannot decide if it's in work mode or not. It's a funny state.

I didn't have any fears of isolation, I also don't freak out about the restrictions and the proclaimed state of emergency*, but it doesn't feel like your regular cocooning for 2-3 weeks when you are on holiday. Need some kind of prospect and then I need to get used to it, but at the moment all is still uncertain.

I'm alone in the office, nobody bothers me all day long, but I cannot concentrate. Next week my company goes into short-time working, but we weren't told on which conditions yet. It can be total close or part-time working.
Almost all colleagues are working from home (yet) and we still have quite a big project to be finished quickly, but after that I doubt we'll have anything to do for a while.

Schools and non-essential shops are closed, also restaurants, cinemas and every place made for gatherings. Many big corporations are going into short-time working too.

We are still short of toilet paper and cheap soap, also toast bread and many brands of pasta, flour and rice, but it's not like the whole supermarkets are empty, at least not where I go shopping.

Case numbers still going higher. I hope that we won't have a situation like Italy, but it will show in the last two weeks, if the implemented measures were enough. In my eyes they came at least a week, if not two weeks too late.

* I realize that the most of the people here didn't experienced any nation-wide trouble since… maybe the oil crisis in the 70ies. They take all for granted, also the right to be anti-social jerks. As a survivor of the Martial Law period in Poland it's not that new for me. ;)

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1 hour ago, J.P. said:

... most of the people here didn't experienced any nation-wide trouble since… maybe the oil crisis in the 70ies. They take all for granted ..... As a survivor of the Martial Law period in Poland it's not that new for me.

That's a good point, J.P. -- the current situation isn't all that bad, mostly just inconvenient.  I am concerned about the long-term effects if this goes on much longer, such as small businesses having to fold, and people who've been laid off lacking money for even the essentials.  But such concerns are being recognized, so there's hope that some sort of help will be available.

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I'm also concerned about the long term effects. It's just too soon to think about it now, we have to literally survive it first. And the stricter the rules the sooner we are over it. Just cannot stop thinking what would happen if they have put the areas on quarantine after the first cases (we knew what it looked like in China already) and closed the borders. Theoretically if all movement was stopped for the period of time needed for an infected person to get rid of the virus, we could have the problem sorted out - there would be sick people in isolation and the rest of us could go back to business.

The problem is - none of the politicians want to be responsible of the economical costs of a shut-down, so they waited, debated and tried to pass the responsibility down the chain of command.

PS: Actually I'm still undecided if I'm more concerned about the changes that will follow - or that nothing really changes.

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5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

people who've been laid off lacking money for even the essentials.

Like meee.  I hope the people who still have jobs don't take that for granted.  The shutdown/shut-in sucks, but it's tolerable.  What's actually scary is not making any money right now.

 

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4 minutes ago, Artemis said:

The shutdown/shut-in sucks, but it's tolerable.  What's actually scary is not making any money right now.

Hopefully this will all wind down fairly soon.  China seems to be getting past the worst of it, and I hope they're right about that.  So with any luck, things will soon be picking up again over here as well.

Hang in there!

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What worries me now is that Trump is talking about lifting the restrictions "soon", saying the cure shouldn't be worse than the disease. He seems to be focusing more on the economy, which is important, than he is on the nations health. He's also in favor of payouts or "loans" to big businesses. I realize it's important to keep these businesses solvent, but feel not enough attention is being paid to small businesses as well. That's one of the contentious issues in the bill being debated in Congress right now. There are no restrictions on how the corporations have to use the money. This means the money can be used for executive raises or stock by-backs instead of being put to use in the business itself. So now we have the finger pointing again with Republicans saying Democrats aren't in favor of the payments to the public when that isnt the issue at all.

I just hope this is over soon and we don't rush into opening back up, just because some big businesses are pressuring the government. That could put us in an even worse situation.

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5 hours ago, kimber8ada said:

What worries me now is that Trump is talking about lifting the restrictions "soon"....

Even if the national guidelines are eased up, the individual states can still continue to issue their own more-stringent guidelines and orders -- and I suspect that many of them will do so, especially those hardest-hit by the disease.

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I've just been told that the place where I teach is now planning to be closed until mid-May. That's two months without pay.

All of the art shows I was going to enter have been cancelled. Not that anyone would show up to buy art anyway.

I was pretty blithe about the whole thing at the beginning, and I'm still hopeful, but I'm starting to get nervous. Don't know how long I can survive with no income. I did get my tax refund already, that will help.

Other than that, I'm fine. But I'm with JP, I'm already starting to forget what day it is, etc. Also I can't get very motivated. 

Be safe, be well, folks.

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