EmirOfShmo

It's gotta be a Fox news thing. My wife & I were at the pool yesterday & one of the rabid Fox news following females at the pool said "Cuomo is begging the rich to come back to New York." I didn't take the bait & turned up the volume on my cell phone playing Pandora.

This is from a daily Yahoo Finance email I get: On Wednesday, ADP’s private payroll data for July showed that just 167,000 private sector jobs were created last month, far short of expectations. And it is worth noting at this point in the recovery that “created” jobs are really just positions that were reclaimed after shutdown measures were imposed nationwide in March. Elsewhere in labor market data, the Institute for Supply Management published its July reading on activity in the services sector on Wednesday. And while this data showed a continued rebound in overall activity, employment was the most discouraging area of this report. ‌ ISM’s employment subindex fell further into contraction territory in July while overall activity moved further into expansion. The report said comments from survey respondents included: “Current freeze on all open positions” and “[Employment lower] due to retirements and departures; limited new hiring at this time.” ‌ Oren Klachkin, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, said this data, while encouraging for the broader economy, suggests that employment will lag output as the economy heals. ‌ But if hiring lags, then consumer spending — which has fueled so much of this recovery — is at risk of remaining stalled or perhaps rolling over. ‌ Edit: Additional info about job projections. On Friday, economists expect the government to report that employers added 1.6 million jobs in July, according to data provider FactSet, and that the unemployment rate declined from 11.1% to a still-high 10.5%. At any other time, a million or more jobs would constitute an unheard-of increase. But July's expected gain would fall way short of June's 4.8 million increase and would signal that hiring has sharply slowed. It would also mean that the economy has regained barely 40% of the jobs that fell to the coronavirus ... “We’re kind of past the stage where we’re quickly recalling workers to their old jobs," Davis said, “and getting to the stage that people will need to get new jobs at new companies or in new industries.” It is a trend that points to a grinding, sluggish recovery. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/gone-good-evidence-signals-many-174211007.html

Not trying to downplay anyone's medical situation but there's a salmonella outbreak linked to onions in the US & Canada. If you've been/are sick you may have food poisoning. Even if you didn't buy & eat onions recently it might be in prepared/restaurant food you have eaten. @TryTheBeal! this might have been your situation. Thomson International Inc. of Bakersfield, California is recalling Red, Yellow, White, and Sweet Yellow Onions shipped from May 1, 2020 through the present. The onions are being recalled because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis. Onions were distributed to wholesalers, restaurants, and retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/thomson-international-inc-conducts-voluntary-recall-red-yellow-white-and-sweet-yellow-onions-because https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/salmonella-outbreak-linked-to-onions/

West end of Richmond.

Isiasis started raining a little bit about 6PM here in western RVA. Then rained really freaking hard from 630-715. Winds picked up at the same time. Since then the rain has been steady towards the heavy side but no wind. Supposed to hit east of here ~3AM & should be finished here by ~noon. Batten down the hatches...

From that article:

And the color of the face compared to the hands....LMFAO 🤣

You should take your temp every couple of hours & record the result. Hang in there.... 🤒

The whole "if we don't pay them $600 they'll go back to work" argument is bull****. People aren't going to go stay in a hotel, fly on a plane or ride on Amtrak when you take away their $600. I don't recall seeing any 'Now Hiring' ads on Monday by hotels, airlines & Amtrak now that the $600 is gone (effective Sunday, July 26th). I guess those workers just don't want to work - even with their extra $600 gone. I don't care what their job was - it's not suddenly coming back because you took away their $600. Such stupid ****ing logic. Are there some people doing that? Yes, but point me to data, in detail, that supports that ‘a lot’ of people are doing this. Such bull****. Companies are still laying people off. The following is from a daily Yahoo Finance morning briefing email I get (my emphasis): The latest weekly report on initial jobless claims showed another 1.434 million workers filed for unemployment insurance. That number shows many are still being newly let go from their jobs. Claims for continuing unemployment insurance, however, were even more concerning, rising by more than 800,000 to 17.01 million last week, the first increase since May. "The increase in continued claims suggests that rehiring may be pausing as the rise in Covid-19 cases causes more businesses to shut down or scale back reopening plans," said Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics. As of last week, Vanden Houten estimates that when you include those receiving pandemic unemployment assistance, adjust for backlogs and states no longer reporting claims, it's likely that some 29.6 million people were receiving benefits of some sort as of July 11 — a record high. ‌The most recent claims data also covers the reference week for the July jobs report, which will be released a week from today on August 7. And this data could also be another step back in the labor market’s improvement that started back in May. Southwest Airlines Spends $1.7Billion on Employee Separations Although Southwest Airlines will not be laying off workers, over 17,000 employees will leave the company at a cost of $1.7 billion. “Experts tell me that, while our cases should plateau at 60,000-70,000 new per day, there is no evidence (based on behaviors) that the case counts will come down—until we have a vaccine,” Kelly wrote. “I’ve recently heard from CEOs of four large U.S. pharmaceutical companies racing to develop vaccines. All agree none will be available until early next year, at best. Based on that, all agree that things won’t be ‘normal’ until mid-year 2021, at best. In planning for the “worst case scenario,” the executive asked employees to consider taking an extended time off package the airline is offering to conserve cash. The 17,000 employees that are either leaving the company outright or taking extended time off will cost the airline $17 billion in exit fees. https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/southwest-spends-1-7-billion-on-employee-separations-predicts-depressed-demand.html

The fight over the $600/wk vs. 70% of income maxed at $500/wk seems ridiculous to me. Anybody who was making >~$37k qualifies for the $500/wk. So how much is this really going to cost vs. $600/wk for all? How about people who have had their income reduced? Or hours cut back? Add to that new infrastructure to support whatever crazy algorithms & systems to manage the distribution/qualification to 21 million people. Add in the delay past July 31 that it's going to take to put money in people's pockets and there are going to be a lot of people missing rent, mortgage, utility bills to pay for food. This article does a good job of defining why the $600 should continue. "Furman finds that at peak levels (in the third quarter of 2020) the extra $600 top-up by itself is projected to boost GDP by 2.8% and to support just under three million jobs. In short, letting this extra $600 in UI benefits expire at the end of July would by itself cause more job loss than was seen in either of the recessions of the early 1990s or early 2000s." https://www.epi.org/blog/cutting-off-the-600-boost-to-unemployment-benefits-would-be-both-cruel-and-bad-economics-new-personal-income-data-show-just-how-steep-the-coming-fiscal-cliff-will-be/ Furman's paper Before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on June 18, 2020 https://docs.house.gov/meetings/VC/VC00/20200618/110811/HHRG-116-VC00-Wstate-FurmanJ-20200618.pdf

Food things I discovered so far during the pandemic: Old Bay Hot Sauce – where you been all my life? Hard to find but damn, it’s good. Miso – used this for the first time with soy sauce as a glaze on grilled fish. Wow! I’ll be using this more often on veggies & other meats. Omsom – read about this company in a food article. Small company that makes Vietnamese starter sauces – “Each starter combines all the sauces, aromatics, seasonings, citruses, and oils that decades of tradition call for. All packed into a kitchen shortcut!”. I ordered the ‘Sampler’ pack – 2 each of their 3 starters. I’ll update after cooking with them. Alaskan fish – I decided to splurge & joined an Alaskan fish-of-the-month club. It’s a small co-op that is all handline caught fish. The June delivery was cod. I have grilled some & baked some. Delicious! I just received the July shipment of black cod (sablefish) & halibut. These will be on the grill in the coming days. I think the shipments are through November with different salmon species each of the remaining months. That's it for me. What are the new things you've discovered??

^^are these numbers in line with other states (especially states with high case counts)?

^^Doesn't this have something to do with White House Occupant's hotel near the existing FBI building? Edit: Ah yes...now I remember. He wants it to remain fed land so no competitor can build there. Maybe pelosi is trading this for $600/wk fed money. President Trump intervened in a big federal building project to help protect business for his hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, a group of House Democrats alleged on Thursday. Trump wants to demolish and rebuild the FBI's headquarters, the Democrats say, to preserve the site's government ownership and deny any potential competitors to the Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office Pavilion up the street. https://www.npr.org/2018/10/18/658509261/trump-intervened-in-fbi-hq-project-to-protect-his-hotel-democrats-allege

Did he play Tuesday or Wednesday? I'm assuming he's been practicing & near other people. Isn't there a risk that other players have been exposed?

Too soon...😢

I waited too long to get the WS red hat with the stars in the curly W. I just bought the gold hat (above).

^^Growing up a Senators fan, I couldn't bring myself to root for the Orioles after the team moved to Texas. So I looked for the team the Orioles hated the most to root for: Yankees. Most/all of my friends started rooting for Baltimore but I couldn't do it. The Senators got too many beatdowns from the Orioles to turn around & root for them. I did get to see the Pirates beat them at Memorial stadium in Game 7 in 1979 - the 'We Are Family' version of Pitt. Good times.

Hmm...okay, but I purposely avoided the 'living wage' discussion because it really doesn't belong in this thread. In addition, there have been discussions (here & in the public, at large) that the extra $600/wk discourages people from returning to work. My point being there aren't jobs for people to return to regardless of their income levels. I agree with you on the UBI with no means testing. Would have been the right solution starting in April. Unfortunately, I think that ship has sailed. They - the GOP - is not going to sign off on anything close to this. Last I read they are talking only about an extra $400/MONTH or $100/wk for the unemployed. There has also been discussion about another stimulus check (for all, as before) but the details I've read are fuzzy on details.

You're assuming people actually have a job to return to. Take a look at the travel industry - there have been massive layoffs across this industry, from low scale workers all the way to the top earners. Car rental companies in bankruptcy, hotels/motels shuttered or running on thin staffs as nobody is staying in either, airlines with massive layoffs across the board (American Airlines 25k, United Airlines 36k), restaurants that cater to travelers at/near airports or in major tourist areas. And that's only partially considering all of the residual & downstream industries & workers who rely on people traveling to earn a living. Have we forgotten about the farmers that destroyed their crops earlier this year because they had nobody to sell to (hotels, airlines, cruise ships, etc.)? I doubt airline pilots are refusing to go back to work so they can collect their $600/wk + State unemployment. There's no job for them to go back to! Same for the people who clean the planes between takeoff. This isn't about low wages or trying to increase living wages. It's about trying to get us through this pandemic. Yeah, let's not be short-sighted about it. But let's not cut off our nose to spite our face (as someone above has already stated) and not pay people who are unemployed. Some of the things done in the EU could have or should have been done here (suspending mortgage/rent/utility payments, etc.). But the fear of impacting the stock market got in the way of a solution that was both in the best interest of the individual and in the best interest in slowing the virus spread (pay people enough to keep them home if they are unemployed). Would that be 'fair' to those still working? No, but this isn't about being 'fair'. It's about doing what's right & trying to end the spread of this virus. The travel industry isn't returning if it's decided not to pay unemployed people $XXX extra per week. And it's not returning if we do pay them. Per usual, this is all about the political fallout of a decision which may or may not (probably not) be in the best interest of we, the people.

You do if you're in Virginia, plus you're eligible for the weekly $600 Fed PUA. I thought this applied to all states to cover the 'Gig Workers'? I disagree the PUA should be discontinued. We're already seeing rollbacks of openings across many states. I'm not proposing a continued $600/wk. There needs to be a comprehensive plan to support people & not piss away money on companies that are going to fail because people aren't spending money they don't have. Rinse & repeat. This isn't just hitting families making <$40k. My friend's job as a Food & Beverage manager at a major chain hotel ($90k + bonus) isn't returning in August or possibly even September. It may not come back at all. Retrain at 55+ for a career he's been in since he was 15? Sure. The graph below is from the the group reporting 32% late payments on rent & mortgages for July. I was surprised to see the numbers for those making >$50k. https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/july-housing-payments

It's a restaurant group that was started by 2 brothers in the '70s. It's actually a bunch of different types of food. I've been to most of them & always stop in at Pappadeaux when connecting in DFW. Good stuff. https://www.pappas.com/home/

Yep - and it really was awfully ballsy. Reading through the article it explained that nudity, as a form of public protest, is allowed in Portland.It is not considered indecent!

The sea was angry that day my friends...

Did you fry or bake the steak fries?