This week has been something of a whirlwind of a week with lots of news and changing situations regarding our lockdowns. It is one of those weeks when it seemed like the right time to do another quick hits and random observations column it might make you aware of some things are going on and you can look into a little more deeply if you so desire.
CBS News announced some pretty significant layoffs this week. A lot of their employees are lamenting the fact that they did not see this coming. They cannot believe this is happening to them even though as a news reporting agency you would assume that they would make a connection between high unemployment rates and the slowing economy, because God knows they've been reporting on it on a daily basis. I guess they thought that companies would continue to spend their advertising dollars at the same level even though sales were decreasing. Never mind the fact that CBS News like many of the broadcast networks news divisions were barely making it before the economy slowed. But that just goes to show you the bubble that most of these people live in believing that it's not about making money but it's about "reporting the news." And they are immune from those things that happened to everybody else in society.
I know this discussion has been out there for a little while, but now more and more of our politicians and pundits are talking about rental assistance plans. How do you need assistance with your rent if you're getting $800 or $900 a week in unemployment benefits? Or if you are receiving your full salary because your employer participated in the payroll protection program? I'm asking for a friend.
Twitter is now fact checking President Trump. They have never fact checked anyone before. Mark Zuckerberg, in an interview with Dana Perino, said that Facebook has a policy of not being the arbiter of what is true or not true. Somebody needs to reprogram his software because that is an outright lie. They fact check conservative news stories all the time. You might remember that he even testified in front of Congress that he thought his company had a duty to sniff out false news that might negatively or unfairly influence the decision of voters during elections. Which is cold for people who are voting the wrong way.
For some reason it's OK to go to a restaurant with 50% capacity and people 6 feet apart and enjoy a meal but you can't go to a bar with 50% capacity and people 6 feet apart to enjoy an adult beverage with some food. There is very little disagreement in the medical community that alcohol destroys the coronavirus so shouldn't it be the other way around? I guess the science is not guiding our governor on this one.
On average a panda eats for 12 hours a day, the same as a person stuck at home under quarantine. That's why we call it a pandemic.
When bars do reopen it's likely to be at 25% capacity which means they're gonna need all the help they can get in order to have a chance to survive. Unless you can drink for four people, stay at home and let us professionals handle this.
Our governor along with most of the Democrat governors in this country have turned neighbors on neighbors by making it acceptable to snitch , even encouraging them to turn people in for violating their orders. How people cannot see the similarities between this and what any other tyrannical government in history has done is beyond me. I had a man stand in front of the windows of my office on Monday morning, when we were closed and I was the only one in the place, and take a picture of me. He stood there for two or three minutes typing into his phone and would not make eye contact or acknowledge me in any way shape or form. I'm sure he was reporting me to the government for not wearing a facemask. He did not even bother to ask if I was eating, drinking , exercising, or had a medical reason for not wearing a mask. Or maybe I had another reason for not following the rules due to having a close personal relationship with somebody in the governor's office.
On Memorial Day I posted a video on my Facebook page of a compilation of images. These images were the Funeral services of deceased military members and their families or images of flag draped caskets being shipped home. It is an emotional video but reminds us of the reason for the day , which by the way has nothing to do with remembering victims of the kung flu. Facebook decided to warn my friends by covering the video with the warning that it could contain graphic or violent images. Yet they seem OK with the videos of the rioting in Minneapolis that actually show violence.
In 20 years for a young person who asks me about the toilet paper crisis of 2020, I'm going to tell them that we had to drag our butts across the lawn uphill both ways in the snow.