The Walls Come Down: No Travel Betwen US and Europe for 30 Days

[The Romulan Republic]

New York is now allowing online marriage ceremonies:

https://aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/zoom ... 25473.html

If you live in New York, there is now one more thing you can do online: get married.

"I am issuing an Executive Order allowing New Yorkers to obtain a marriage license remotely and allowing clerks to perform ceremonies via video conference," Andrew Cuomo, New York state governor, wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

With more than 13,000 coronavirus-related deaths, New York state is the epicentre of the pandemic in the United States.

Many marriage bureaus have been shut because of the health emergency, leaving couples unable to get licences because the state requires at least one of the partners to complete their application in person.

NEW: I am issuing an Executive Order allowing New Yorkers to obtain a marriage license remotely and allowing clerks to perform ceremonies via video conference.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 18, 2020
But Cuomo is ordering that provision waived to let couples apply remotely, his office said on Saturday. The state will also enable town and city clerks to conduct weddings by video.


Growing protests in US call for lifting state lockdowns
"There is now no excuse when the question comes up for marriage. No excuse. You can do it by Zoom. Yes or no," the governor said, with a smile.

Meanwhile on Sunday, Cuomo said 507 people had died the previous day, down 43 from Friday and by 271 since last Monday. Other indicators were going in the right direction, the governor added. Hospitalisations were down by more than 750, to 16,213.

"If the data holds and if this trend holds, we are past the high point, and all indications at this point are that we are on a descent," Cuomo said during his daily press briefing. However, he warned that New York would not return quickly to pre-pandemic conditions.

"The beast is still alive and the beast can rise up again," he said, cautioning against easing lockdown measures too soon.

With physical distancing widely recognised as one of the most effective measures against the coronavirus, events involving crowds such as weddings were among the first to be banned as countries scrambled to contain the spread of the pathogen. However, various governments across the world allowed the virtual version of the ceremony.

Indonesia has opened online registrations since public service workers were ordered to work from home in late March.

The service, however, is only for couples who were married and applied for registration before the enforcement of the remote working policy.

The same applies in the United Arab Emirates, where an an online marriage service was launched last week allowing couples to get married amid restrictions on movement.

[Broomstick]

Fuck off, Jub. You're not advocating for just a crackdown. You're specifically advocating - in bad faith, I suspect, so no, I won't be debating you on it - for the summary execution of wounded, subdued captives. So, once again - go fuck yourself.

So when the shooting starts, if it does, why should the armed mob of idiots be treated any better than an ISIS agent, member of the Taliban, etc? What is the difference between those terrorist groups and their aims and a hypothetical situation where US citizens against the current lockdown start shooting because they don't like being told to stay put for their own good?

Jub, you are arguing for them to be treated worse.

No, we do not do summary executions of the wounded and if a solider does so they are brought up on murder charges. What morally bankrupt piece of shit you are for even suggesting it.

Newsflash, fuckwit: You aren't allowed to summarily execute wounded ISIS or Taliban fighters either.

Yes, because soldiers never put in an extra round or two into a downed enemy just to be sure. The alternative is leaving the armed mob to deal with their own wounded even though that seems less humane.

No, you goddamned fucksit, you call in your medics to deal with the wounded.

Holy fuck you're a monster. You can't tell the difference between an advancing, actively shooting enemy and someone lying helpless on the ground bleeding out. You are exactly the sort of person who should NOT be allowed to hold a gun.

[loomer]

Oh, he can tell the difference. He's just a complete fucking psychopath.

[loomer]

Nearly 2000 inmates in an Ohio prison of 2500 have tested positive for the Vid. Nearly 5% of all state inmates in Ohio have contracted the disease now. We can expect higher death tolls out of the prison system than in most of the rest of the state, so, you know. I don't want to hear about how DeWine's been doing a good job when the Vid is ripping through the prison system.

[Zaune]

The people do have a right to protest, because get this, in the fucking 1600s during the Plagues and such, even the British Crown and the Mayor of London was intelligent enough to arrange for food to be delivered to houses placed under quarantine and locked for 40 days and nights.

The equivalent of this would be arranging for national payments of TrumpBux as long as the quarantine/lockdown lasts, because people need to pay notes and bills.

But no, all we get is like a one time payment of $1200 to $3000 depending on your tax situation. YES THIS WILL WORK OUT GREAT.

I can't really argue with that, honestly. Yes, the "anything that inconveniences me is Communism" crowd are drowning out any reasoned debate with paranoid drivel about the "deep state" and sinister plots to accomplish fuck knows what nefarious scheme, but the fact remains that we cannot keep this up indefinitely. Even in places where the emergency payment arrangements are less half-arsed people are falling through the cracks, the businesses that haven't been forced to close entirely are either on life support for lack of custom or being run ragged trying to meet demand while losing staff every time someone develops symptoms, and the psychological effects of de facto house arrest are starting to build up. We've already talked about the uptick in spousal and child abuse, depression and even suicide and that's going to get much worse before it starts getting better, especially as unemployment starts going up because companies can't pay the bills anymore.

[loomer]

The US Treasury has unlawfully released the information of tribal governments that put in for government funding as part of the relief package.

[The Romulan Republic]

The US Treasury has unlawfully released the information of tribal governments that put in for government funding as part of the relief package.

Because of course they did.

[MKSheppard]

So at Hogan's Maryland Press conference today, there's a Korean flag and lets see now:

I want to sincerely thank our Korean partners for assisting us in our fight against this common hidden enemy. ("Thank you" in
Korean). Each part of this collaboration was unprecedented, from identifying and vetting the Korean testing company and getting the
scientists and our labs to work through all of the technical details with the teams in Korea, to the complexities of the international
procurement contracts and processes, to figuring out intricate logistic solutions like arranging the first-ever Korean Air flight from
Korea to land at BWI, it really was an amazing team effort, and I want to personally thank President Moon Jae-in, Prime Minister
Chung, Ambassador Lee, and Prime Minister Hong, the director for public diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, here
representing the republic of Korea today, and who was there with us at BWI on Saturday.

So about $9M of South Korean tests bought (about 500,000 tests worth).

It's possible. It's one of the things I will be discussing later in the week. You know, if you look at, if you could possibly do
things in different regions or parts of the state, but what we don't want is to have one place open, everybody rushes over there, and
then infects that county. So there's a lot of thought that goes into that. Certain areas don't have as bad of an infection rate.
Maybe because they haven't done enough testing. Or you know what we don't want is to have the neighbor next door come over if you
open up everything and then we'll be flooded with more infected folks

[MKSheppard]

11 cents a fucking barrel for oil.

Quick buy 100 barrels so that you can refine your own guzzoline for the post apocalyptic world.

[Captain Seafort]

11 cents a fucking barrel for oil.

Positive or negative?

[Zaune]

On the plus side, CO2 emissions probably haven't been this low for decades.

[ray245]

On the plus side, CO2 emissions probably haven't been this low for decades.

It goes to show just how utterly reliant we are on burning fossil fuel to drive our economy.

[Jub]

Now's the perfect time for governments to buy up inactive wells, inactive refineries, etc. and shut them down in favor of greener solutions. Yes, demand will come back sharply after this is over and there may even be shortages as everybody races off to get to anywhere but where they've been holed up, but now's the best time to make a lasting change.

[ray245]

Now's the perfect time for governments to buy up inactive wells, inactive refineries, etc. and shut them down in favor of greener solutions. Yes, demand will come back sharply after this is over and there may even be shortages as everybody races off to get to anywhere but where they've been holed up, but now's the best time to make a lasting change.

Green solutions need to be able to generate as much jobs as the fossil fuel industry does, otherwise sheer desperation to revive the economy might us even more dependent on fossil fuel.

The industries that relies heavily on fossil fuel like tourism and etc cannot switch to green solutions that easily.

[J]

TP shortages on the way. For real this time.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... -in-canada

Toilet Paper Shortages May Get Worse on Sawmill Slowdown in Canada
By Jen Skerritt
April 20, 2020, 12:54 p.m. EDT

Supply cuts that were supposed to bolster the beleaguered lumber market are now creating an unintended effect: the wood chips required to make sought-after toilet paper and wipes during the coronavirus pandemic are becoming more scarce.

Right now, about 25% of Canadian sawmill capacity is shut after producers from West Fraser Timber Co. and Canfor Corp. idled operations amid a price slump and poor outlook for spring building as the coronavirus spreads. That’s reduced the output of wood chips that pulp mills rely on to make everything from toilet paper and wipes to cardboard boxes and paper bags, said Derek Nighbor, president and chief executive officer of the Ottawa-based Forest Products Association of Canada.

Without federal aid to get some sawmill capacity back on line, input costs could rise or there could be a shortage of the materials pulp mills need for household products, he said. Panic buying has already caused shortages of toilet paper and other hygiene products in supermarkets around the world.

“The demand from pulp mills has gone up at a time when we’re starting to see the chip supply become more scarce from the sawmills,” Nighbor said in a telephone interview. “It could drive the cost up or there could be product constraints for sure in the months ahead.”

High production costs in Canada squeezed profits for sawmills. The U.S. housing market remains under pressure as the coronavirus spreads, and lumber futures plunged a record 32% in March.

The industry is optimistic that Canada’s government can tweak its wage subsidy program to help forest operators qualify and bolster their access to cash to help them survive the coming quarters, Nighbor said. Canada exports the bulk of its pulp, paper and packaging products and the U.S. is one of its major markets, he said.

“We’re in a crisis here,” Nighbor said. “We need more of our sawmills running.”

[Broomstick]

Even in places where the emergency payment arrangements are less half-arsed people are falling through the cracks, the businesses that haven't been forced to close entirely are either on life support for lack of custom or being run ragged trying to meet demand while losing staff every time someone develops symptoms, and the psychological effects of de facto house arrest are starting to build up. We've already talked about the uptick in spousal and child abuse, depression and even suicide and that's going to get much worse before it starts getting better, especially as unemployment starts going up because companies can't pay the bills anymore.

Right now there are no good answers.

I'm going to say that again, because it's really, really important to know and understand that fact.

There are no good answers.

No good solutions. No good choices. We have to choose between different types of bad with incomplete knowledge and huge risks no matter what we choose.

Either extreme is going to lead to dead people, and trying to keep to a middle course might or might not be worse.

[Broomstick]

11 cents a fucking barrel for oil.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

It's now less than zero! I am NOT kidding here is a link.

[TimothyC]

Nearly 2000 inmates in an Ohio prison of 2500 have tested positive for the Vid. Nearly 5% of all state inmates in Ohio have contracted the disease now. We can expect higher death tolls out of the prison system than in most of the rest of the state, so, you know. I don't want to hear about how DeWine's been doing a good job when the Vid is ripping through the prison system.

Lots of people in close proximity to each other see high rates of transmission. You'll note that the populations in question are being treated, and managed both in the facilities, and outside of said facilities.

What, pray tell, would you have had the State of Ohio do differently given the conditions on the ground?

[FireNexus]

11 cents a fucking barrel for oil.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

It's now less than zero! I am NOT kidding here is a link.

I think I’ve figured out why Trump is so keen to start the economy back up. If oil prices stay this low for long, Putin might be straight-up murdered by one (or all) of his capos. Especially since a lot of their wealth is still tied up by sanctions.

Expect the economy to reopen or the pee tape to be made public in 5... 4... 3...

[madd0ct0r]

This looks interesting but I don't know enough to assess

https://www.southwales.ac.uk/news/news- ... -covid-19/

Once the initial evaluation, due to run until this weekend, has concluded, the team will be moving on to optimise their test for use at point of care. The molecular technology, which is based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification of DNA (or LAMP), lends itself to point-of-care testing because no complex sample processing or expensive equipment is required. The USW approach uses a novel swabbing and sample extraction technique which reduces cross-contamination and biosafety issues, and crucially reduces the time taken to process the results. The team already have already developed a prototype device which costs less than £100 to manufacture. This means that an affordable, mobile testing and analysis kit could shortly be available, allowing results to be available in just 20-30 minutes.

[Jub]

Now's the perfect time for governments to buy up inactive wells, inactive refineries, etc. and shut them down in favor of greener solutions. Yes, demand will come back sharply after this is over and there may even be shortages as everybody races off to get to anywhere but where they've been holed up, but now's the best time to make a lasting change.

Green solutions need to be able to generate as much jobs as the fossil fuel industry does, otherwise sheer desperation to revive the economy might us even more dependent on fossil fuel.

The industries that relies heavily on fossil fuel like tourism and etc cannot switch to green solutions that easily.

Ideally that would be the case but even if it's only a 20% replacement we should act. We simply can't keep letting the economy hold the environment hostage.

[Agent Sorchus]

11 cents a fucking barrel for oil.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

It's now less than zero! I am NOT kidding here is a link.

I think I’ve figured out why Trump is so keen to start the economy back up. If oil prices stay this low for long, Putin might be straight-up murdered by one (or all) of his capos. Especially since a lot of their wealth is still tied up by sanctions.

Expect the economy to reopen or the pee tape to be made public in 5... 4... 3...

You are a really ignorant pos. This is the price only of american oil, and the price is actually the cause of Suadi and Russian increased production more than the decrease in demand state side. A large portion of US oil is shale and other high cost of production oil, whereas both Saudi and Russian Oil costs far less per barrel to produce.

The more inforned view is that this has been caused by the Russians who are trying to force exactly this situation on US oil producers and the Saudi's are trying to get the Russians to blink. And this once again shows that Trump is not in the Russian pocket no matter how often people repeat it, if he thinks reopen economy = higher oil prices.

[FireNexus]

You are a really ignorant pos.

Oh gee. I thought we lived in a globalized world where US crude being so cheap you couldn’t give it away would be bad for other producers of pricey-to-extract-oil. I bet Russian crude is at a totally sustainable price point...

*checks prices* Nevermind, the Brent benchmark is at $26 per barrel, which is $14/barrel less than Russia needs to maintain solvency.

A large portion of US oil is shale and other high cost of production oil, whereas both Saudi and Russian Oil costs far less per barrel to produce.

Now I know you’re full of shit, because Russian oil is much closer in cost to produce to US shale oil than to Saudi oil. (US Shale: $23/barrel, Russian oil: $19/barrel, Saudi oil: $9/barrel.)

The more inforned view is that this has been caused by the Russians who are trying to force exactly this situation on US oil producers and the Saudi's are trying to get the Russians to blink.

The informed view is that Russia totally wanted to get buttfucked in a price war with Saudi Arabia at the same time as global oil demand has tanked, forcing them to slash productivity of the far and away largest sector of their economy.

And this once again shows that Trump is not in the Russian pocket no matter how often people repeat it, if he thinks reopen economy = higher oil prices.

Yes, that’s definitely what this shows. It’s fully obvious that increased demand for oil would not increase the price of oil.

[aerius]

Now's the perfect time for governments to buy up inactive wells, inactive refineries, etc. and shut them down in favor of greener solutions. Yes, demand will come back sharply after this is over and there may even be shortages as everybody races off to get to anywhere but where they've been holed up, but now's the best time to make a lasting change.

The countries that are getting cornholed by these oil price wars are the ones who can't even figure out how to mass produce basic shit like a 5 cent surgical mask. And they'll somehow find their asses with both hands and figure out a green energy economy. Lol. My 5 year old daughter has a better chance of understanding multi-variable calculus.

You are a really ignorant pos. This is the price only of american oil, and the price is actually the cause of Suadi and Russian increased production more than the decrease in demand state side. A large portion of US oil is shale and other high cost of production oil, whereas both Saudi and Russian Oil costs far less per barrel to produce.

The more inforned view is that this has been caused by the Russians who are trying to force exactly this situation on US oil producers and the Saudi's are trying to get the Russians to blink. And this once again shows that Trump is not in the Russian pocket no matter how often people repeat it, if he thinks reopen economy = higher oil prices.

Yup. The Russians are not only trying to kill the US shale producers, they're also to working to reduce US influence in the Middle East by putting the Saudis in trouble. The KSA and Russians have similar production costs, but the Saudis need higher prices since they need to support a much larger proportion of their economy with their oil revenues. It's basically an oil proxy war between Russia, US shale producers, and the KSA and other OPEC countries which are nominally aligned with the US.

[Jub]

The countries that are getting cornholed by these oil price wars are the ones who can't even figure out how to mass produce basic shit like a 5 cent surgical mask. And they'll somehow find their asses with both hands and figure out a green energy economy. Lol. My 5 year old daughter has a better chance of understanding multi-variable calculus.

That's not an issue they can avoid. It's going to happen sooner or later, and this is the perfect chance to make sooner now.