While we fiddle about who was a victim and who got privilege, most of Rome is burning right now

    By artappraiser on Thu, 06/18/2020 - 8:46pm |

    Comments

    People can walk and chew gum

    https://www.vox.com/2020/6/10/21286759/study-covid-19-lockdowns-black-owned-businesses-hardest-recession

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-08/black-business-owners-suffer-41-drop-in-covid-19-lockdowns

    https://time.com/5848557/black-owned-business-coronavirus-aid/

    We all know $500 billion is not traceable


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 8:31am

    Hello, with loans or no loans, traditional "retail" not coming back. For a lifetime at least. No fancy "retail" jobs either, substitute cashier at the CVS (predict big fight over preference for the latter type jobs!)

    And restaurants and bars not gonna show profitability until there is a coronavirus vaccine because they must reduce capacity from break even .

    Arts and entertainment? BROKEN! Totally broken. Don't know how they are going to make money and employ people. No live shows. Drive-in solution? ah but audiences and proceeds cut by a mega percentage. (Not to mention no new movies, no new TV.)

    Fashion? BROKEN.

    Hair salons, long hours in the chair braiding? Fuggeaboutit.gone. Can't afford it anyway, lost the retail job.

    Mundane 'hood stuff like dry cleaner? Fuggedaboutit! Don;t wear fancy duds anymore.

    Any plans to change the type of businesses that predominate here? No, past grievance is of more concern? Gonna wait until reparations gonna from the sky?

    Basketball related? NFL related? Fuggedaboutit. Gone until vaccine.

    We're talking Great Depression here. Not a "recession". Very very serious. Very very urgent.

    Unless you're into "STEM".


    by artappraiser on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 4:03pm

    This is known. It is also known that doing carry out to support local businesses is best done in person rather than via things like Bite Squad which appropriates a share of the profits.

    It is also known that supporting bookstores is important, so you track down stores that offer mailing services. This is a "sacrifice" because it is much easier to do the ebook rather than the hardback or paperback which increase the strain on your bookshelves.

    Not stuck on past grievances, but not forgetting past grievances. Working on ways to help out the community.

    An onsite teaching source for children in high risk situations (the children are not high risk, the risk is the situation) who have trouble in school, can no longer have close encounter one on one sessions. The teaching an counseling is moved to Zoom.

    We try to adapt.

    I am glad that I live in a world that realizes times are changing and tries to adjust, and not in your rigid little bubble. People deserve to be pissed off and express grievances.


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 4:20pm

    Little interest from a guy who "wrote" "Art of The Deal" and starred in "The Apprentice":


    by artappraiser on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 3:27pm


    by artappraiser on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 3:44pm

    Many urban wastelands coming for the foreseeable future, filled with the poor and old needing access to nearby hospitals.

    I'm figuring many of the "kids" having moved back "home" temporarily are now just  gonna end up staying in mom & dad's suburban home for the rest of their lives, even after mom and dad dead, instead of selling it:

    The Coronavirus and Its Spread: How Hard Will Recovery Be in New York City? - The Pandemic Sent Young New Yorkers Packing. Will They Return? (New York Times) https://t.co/scu0SOUmHL

    — Rick Rigazio (@CAPTRick74) June 19, 2020

    Manhattan is quite realistically probably going to become part dystopian urban wasteland, part reverting back to 1935, looking more like Queens. It's going down, even the New York City Independent Budget Office agrees:

    How Will Hudson Yards Survive the Pandemic? https://t.co/iy8Q8WX3pv

    — A Great Big City (@agreatbigcity) June 19, 2020

    Sure, the museums will still be there. But little else. No performing arts or restaurants until vaccine, might as well go elsewhere...

    see it becoming quite dangerous--doormen and garage attendants disappear first...

    Brooklyn gonna be okay, tho? Back to imitating small city hipsterville? One big commune? Harlem will become artful while miserable again?...


    by artappraiser on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 4:38pm

    extra added NYC area problem?


    by artappraiser on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 5:02pm

    The limits of dystopia are difficult to make out, if possible at all. In the spirit of pessimism, consider the following:

    The matter of mortgages and the value of property are linked together with rental markets.
    If enough people can't pay rent, they put pressure on mortgages linked to rental income. I imagine this true in a lot of places but have seen it for myself in NYC.
    When put under pressure in the past, the real estate market chose to keep the price high on properties even if nothing was moving. As a collective, they did not want to suddenly see properties lose half their value in the course of several months.

    And because the Banks hold both ends of this equation, they are no longer in the enviable position of playing one set of interests against another.

    I don't know how the movie ends.


    by moat on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 5:55pm


    by artappraiser on Fri, 06/19/2020 - 9:35pm


    by artappraiser on Sat, 06/20/2020 - 7:22pm

    Aargh, liberal rants that largely miss the point.

    Elon Musk's SpaceX was exactly the kind of private endeavour to augment gov work, not a place to lament money that could have  been used elsewhere. His attempt to supply an underwater pod to rescue Thai boys in a cave was a stab at the private "step Up and help" we should see from tech (met with a "shove your pod up your ass", but such Is Brit expat politeness - likely the pod *wasn't* of use, but nice try anyway -better Fast dev provisional emergency capability Is needed for emergencies we havent seen before.

    Complaints about Bill Gates' failures in health and education should acknowledge that *failures are valuable*,  we need more experiments, we dont know what works or the money we throw at things would just work. But things don't "just work". We need *lots* of failures to improve.

    Zuckerberg? A poser, forget him for anything useful.

    But what Is inexcusable Is that we couldnt find/quickly spin up privately funded masks and Covid tests for the whole world quick, whatever the screwups of Trump gutting the reserve supplies. A piece of material to cover mouth and nose - say 1 billion x 7 for the Americas,  another half billion x 7 for Europe. 1 billion garments for doctors/nurses. What happened to our Lend-Lease/Dunkirk flotilla mentality? How many troops did private schooners Ferry Across the Channel when push came to shove? But whats the actual value of all our app development and IoT conferences And whatever boasting if we can't keep or help granny from being sick or take care of her at home when the hospitals are all infected. Zoom's cool, but we had that over a decade ago in Skype - 4-5 Moore's Laws ago.


    by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 06/21/2020 - 1:09am


    by artappraiser on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 12:32am


    by artappraiser on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 12:48am


    by artappraiser on Thu, 06/25/2020 - 5:18pm


    by artappraiser on Sat, 06/27/2020 - 12:52am

    I do not find this protest helpful in the least in the situation the world is in right now, not for minorities, not for anyone:

     


    by artappraiser on Sun, 06/28/2020 - 1:10am

    Really.

    When is it going to sink in with everyone that the money we are living on, eating with, going to the hospital with, that does not grow on trees?

    Those unemployment checks are going to end soon. More permanent "layoffs" every day. Either the overdue rent is due or, if it wasn't paid, the landlord's mortgage is due and he can't put it off much longer. Suppliers not getting paid. Farmers going broke. Stores and restaurants if lucky enough to survive this long, need to operate at like 25% capacity, that means 25% of what they used to gross, not enough to stay open with 25% of past help.

    Everyone going to work for Amazon, deliver to each other? Or what?


    by artappraiser on Sun, 06/28/2020 - 2:37am


    by artappraiser on Sun, 06/28/2020 - 4:10pm


    by artappraiser on Sun, 06/28/2020 - 4:23pm


    by artappraiser on Sun, 06/28/2020 - 10:50pm


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 3:14am

    Like the Cable Guy said, I don't care who you are, that's funny. 


    by A Guy Called LULU on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 3:42am

    I thought this comment would show up with the picture that is in your link. 


    by A Guy Called LULU on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 3:44am


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 12:30pm

    The traditional advice by financial planners, which hardly anyone follows, to have 3 or 6 months living expenses in liquid savings? WRONG! cheeky


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 12:35pm

    winners among the many losers:


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 1:30pm

    And who's teaching them? From Chopin to chopsticks...


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 4:00pm

    Same story with exercise equipment. Best sales for same time period ever. 


    by A Guy Called LULU on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 5:05pm


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 12:42pm

    There is low likelihood of Trump addressing anything of importance, in fact he wants to end Obamacare.

    The protests are not just about police, but also about the structure.

    How would you have people protest during a pandemic?

    Should it all be via Zoom?


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 7:41pm

    Both @ NYTimes.com:

    Employer-Based Health Care, Meet Massive Unemployment

    The coronavirus pandemic is exposing a central flaw in America’s health care system.

    By Jeneen Interlandi Ms. Interlandi is a member of the editorial board. June 29, 2020

    Remote School Is a Nightmare. Few in Power Care.

    Government should treat the need to reopen schools as an emergency.

    By Michelle Goldberg Opinion Columnist June 29, 2020


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/29/2020 - 11:58pm


    by artappraiser on Wed, 07/01/2020 - 12:05am

    Las Vegas workers sue, saying casinos failed to protect them from coronavirus

    Published: June 29, 2020 By Katherine Sayre, WSJ via Marketwatch.com

    One of first lawsuits seeking to hold employers liable

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/las-vegas-workers-sue-saying-casinos-failed-to-protect-them-from-coronavirus-2020-06-29


    by artappraiser on Wed, 07/01/2020 - 5:29am

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