Terminal 5 deserted. When does it end?
 

Did one of the few departures out of JFK last couple days. A ghost town. It’s sad, disturbing. Even Starbucks closed at 3p. No one at KCM or security. Had a broken pairing with overnight in Long Island City. Walked next door to neighborhood grocery/bodega/deli (typical Queens style place) for coffee. Clerk wearing mask half way. Two guys cooking food no mask. Guy cracking eggs no gloves. Guy in scrubs in line at grill. Wearing mask and has a badge that says MD. Eye balls me for no mask. Doc orders omelette. I’m like the guy cooking you food has no mask or gloves and the self serve coffee bar over there is being touched by everyone. Me included. Those pots, creamer carafes, and lids didn’t get wiped down between people. And you’ve got an exposed stethoscope hanging around your neck. And frankly if I lived in NYC I’d bring my own food to a hospital but you do you I guess.

i don’t get the half baked “sort of” effort on this. The irony is hilarious. Scuttle the economy - and don’t take cash because that’s “dirty” - but here take my plastic debit card and don’t wipe down the pin pad between customers. Happened at Lowe’s. The clerk is behind plexiglass now but I watched three people touch the pin pad with their fingers one after another. People touch the pin pad at the ATM without gloves. I’m sure Wells Fargo is out wiping the ATM between customers. Right.

As I watch this industry burn to the ground, I’m appalled at the basic lack of common sense. We’re either over doing or under doing this but this middle of the road thing is killing us.

Okay.
Thanks for the update.
I went to work this week, too.

You know you can just hit “reply” on one of the several other topics discussing Coronavirus right? You don’t always have to create a new topic.

Just pointing out the hypocrisy brother. Not giving you a play by play. Keep masking up. Enjoy the bankruptcy.

Didn’t seem to fit the topic in play. Since the thread drift is rampant. Is having a different thread disturbing?

Just incredibly hard to read with all the word vomit for something that’s been discussed ad nauseam. Some civilians lack common sense in their response to Covid-19, got it. Do what you want though.

I've noticed in the last month the rapid increase of places taking NFC payment. I use it as much as possible, wish everyone else did.

Did you stay and buy food from said bodega? Where’s your cooler of food for the trip?

About damn time. Welcome to the rest of the world America.

As soon as you scan your immunity certificate pretty soon.

after that, they will choose which purchases are “good” for you. No sugar, cigarettes or guns. Denied! SORRY!

Well seems like everybody keeps parroting the same thing of a “new normal” that’s coming as a result of this. Which I thought was weird because everything will calm down and go back to the way it was, but their agenda doesn’t allow us to go back to the way things were. They have other plans apparently.

I agree. Use cash.

The other angle is that anyone laid off from any job netting less than ~$3000-4000/mo is now receiving $0-400/week state unemployment and $600/week federal assistance—for the next 6 months.

The $600/mo federal is not income based. I have seen social media posts reminding people “if you have 1 cent in qualifying earnings you get $600/week too!”

Just throwing it out there that with that kind of money on the table (to do nothing) sets up a sort of moral hazard re: reopening the economy.

Plenty of baristas out there are getting $1k a week to watch Netflix and play with their phones. It might seem short-sighted to many of us, but imho the average hipster isn’t exactly biased towards all the Starbuckses reopening right now if only for that reason.

I’m convinced. After years spent developing a nuanced view of the myriad issues we face as a society and the moral, philosophical and practical implications of the various potential solutions, when considering the historical record and available data, I believe random opinions on an anonymous message board are the most reliable foundation upon which to build the structure of one’s worldview. Now off to social media to spread the news!

Have you heard him speak? But I’m already done with this. Surely you have seen him speak and if you think that’s leadership, or intelligence, there’s no reasoning with you. Oh well.

Well two problems:
Biden sounds like your grandpa that can't remember what year we are currently in, placing him in charge would be tantamount to elder abuse.

Trump sounds and talks like a lot of Americans, and that (despite all of his faults, and there are many) is what connects him to a large portion of the population, so when the Left/Dems/Media just repeatedly call him stupid, ignorant, and dare I say it, deplorable, well a large portion of America feels that is actually a slight directed to them personally. This has allowed Trump to connect with Americans/supporters in ways the Republicans haven't in quite some time .

In the past, when the Media/Dems/Leftists called Romney, or Bush racists, dolts, war criminals and, evil minded people, the average public didn't identify with them as they were basically elitists who happened to disagree with Democrats. Many more people relate to the way Trump talks, expresses himself in an unconventional way, doesn't "play by the media's rules". Older Repubs would cowtow immediately to any accusation by the media, not so in the present administration.

While the Left/Dems have enjoyed a near takeover of all mainstream media sources, I'm not sure in the end this will be to their benefit as much of it leaves a very bitter taste in many American's psyche.

Not to fret for the Leftists though as they have continually moved the goal posts to the point where over the last few decades, even the republicans are pushing/agreeing to things that decades ago would have been considered wildly out of bounds by the federal government.
Who would've thought in 2016 that we'd elect a "Republican" president, house for two years, and Senate for the next 4 yrs and, despite would could be described as one of the best economic times in the previous 50 yrs, would STILL be running a deficit of over $1Trillion PER YEAR!

Hey Mods, if you delete my post you owe me an explanation. Unless your taking down all posts that are about joe Biden. Shameful

which is interesting since there is a ton of post about trump, orange man as one guy was calling him (is it ok to refer to someone as a guy or will they get triggered?)

I bet it’s because I linked Biden with China. Can’t expect much from a company based in LA.

Literally ANYONE who was paying attention.

^^^^^^^^^^^^This guy^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It was a rhetorical question..... the tea party was a fiscal uprising based awareness and it was notable how in the end the tea party was vilified by the mainstream press and elites on all sides.

Like I said earlier, at this time, we have NO PARTY that has any fiscal discipline. Republicans were walking towards the fiscal abyss, Dems want to just go ahead and jump in.

Your 1st paragraph says nothing.

In your 2nd paragraph, you say "at this time". Is it your position that Republican control at the federal level normally result in debt reduction during their tenure?

The tea party was a false start, with grassroots support installed some who were interested, but alas they went to DC and were institutionalized.

No actually, the last time this country espoused true fiscal responsibility to any extent was during Clinton's term. It took Newt Gingrich and the contract with America along with a Republican Senate to push forward fiscal responsibility. Because we had a Demo President, the press more or less went along with it, yes there were the usual charges that grandmas and kids would die, but in the end the country ran surplusses to the point where people were wondering if having a debt free US govt was actually a good thing since the FED RESERVE would have less power over the economy without interest rate leverage.

BTW that was 25yrs ago, 1994.

Now the people in the US have been so conditioned by the mass media that it's somehow the FEDs job to take care of them, from feeding them, housing them, providing healthcare for them, protecting them from natural disasters, etc. None of that was ever designed to be the purview of the FED govt, yet if Johnny is hungry it's "whats the President doing about that?"
This is a natural outcropping of the fact that the states have to pay for stuff as they go, the FEDs are allowed to run endless (well until the music stops oneday) defecits so no wonder it's the only real scapegoat.

It's like when someone hits your car in the parking lot, but you sue WALMART for negligence in having faded lot lines.....it's not really the person responsible, just the deepest pockets.

Ah, so it happened that one time with a D President and an R Senate.

So then I'm not sure why you said:

"Originally Posted by full of luv
Who would've thought in 2016 that we'd elect a "Republican" president, house for two years, and Senate for the next 4 yrs and, despite would could be described as one of the best economic times in the previous 50 yrs, would STILL be running a deficit of over $1Trillion PER YEAR!".

But, to answer your question, *I* would have thought.

What do you think would happen if we ever have an all D govt again? Fiscal responsibility?
Last time that happened in 2008 we almost nationalized 17% of our economy to help a few million more people get health insurance/care. That ushered in the Tea Party in quick fashion.

What's funny is that for a long time the R's seemed to focus more on the power that mattered on peoples daily lives at the state and legislative govt.
The D's seem innately focused on the President, giving that position in govt waaaayyyyy too much deference, power, and sway.

US Govt has gotten so large now, that party is almost irrelevant as the bureaucratic forces in DC are an industry amongst themselves.

There really isn't that much "public service" anymore in working in govt, it's really about making it a career.

The legislature writes the laws that the executive branch is to enforce (nothing more, nothing less). Over the last few decades we've allowed the legislative branch to hand over law making functions in the guise of rules/regulations/procedures to unelected, unanswerable (to the normal citizen), DC bureaucrats.
Activist judges who make up whole cloth rules/laws.
In case you missed it, Senator Ben Sasse gave a great explanation of it during a speech in the Kavenaugh hearings.

https://www.sasse.senate.gov/public/...tter-than-this

Like I said above, no party is willing to be fiscally responsible anymore. We used to have a ying and yang of spending/taxing, now we just have yang yang yang.....

You're more right than you know....

This is from the continuum.
https://qmap.pub/read/3951

Excellent documentary discussing how the fake news does the thinking for the average American. Critical thought is the antidote. Lots going to happen soon... just remember what the "news" tried to feed to you the whole time.

No one wants to face the tough answers. We are facing an issue that is entirely hyped up. The numbers are showing that this virus is in no way as lethal as first shown. And our politicians are trying to just throw money at it to solve the problem now. The Dems hate Trump so much they are wiling to sacrifice millions of jobs. Trump wants to win so bad he is throwing trillions at this issue. Sadly, what needs to happen is for the government to stop sending money out. People for once might actually have to suffer and have inconveniences in their lives. There is a long term consequence for just throwing trillions at this. Trump will be gone in probably 4 years but the American public is going to face a huge debt. Inflation is going to hit and the economy is going to dump. I feel for my kids who are just starting their lives. Its not going to be great.

What? All this money is not free??? Article I read this morning pointed out many are making far more on unemployment than they do working their normal job. I don’t even know how that’s possible. No incentive to return to work and make less.

So you ask the above after previously asking this?

Originally Posted by full of luv
"Who would have thought in 2016 that we'd elect a "Republican" president, house for two years, and Senate for the next 4 yrs and, despite would could be described as one of the best economic times in the previous 50 yrs, would STILL be running a deficit of over $1Trillion PER YEAR!"

CCP bot ..........

That's one of the effects of having a decentralized government. Every single public servant representative votes differently every time. Republicans are generally fiscally conservative. Demoncrats love to "give" things away. But occasionally you have RINOs on the right, and fiscally responsible Democrats too. Just look at the latest stimulus packages. Even though Trump wants no out of focus spending on the bills, it's been the Democrats that want to fund their pet projects and special lobbyist interests. Ultimately if you want to lower the deficit, vote in Constitutionally minded candidates who want to audit the Federal Reserve and stop it from printing money out of thin air. That pretty much eliminates every Democrat and most Republicans. There's plenty of people who get it, but they're never voted in. So ultimately it's all our fault. Remember that Trump doesn't make laws nor does he pass spending bills. The executive branch does not have the power of the purse.

Did Trump promise to fix the national debt during his campaign? That is an absolute yes. Was it getting better (before the Coronavirus)? No, it was getting worse. Much worse, and that was during the BESTEST economy the world has ever seen.

One of the major drivers of additional deficits and debt was Trump's tax changes (which the Lions share of the tax "savings" went to the executive class and the investor class, directly and indirectly, proportionally very little went to the middle class), which he CHAMPIONED. To say that the debt is not at all Trump's fault is moronical. In truth, he is largely responsible for the newly added debt.

who controls the purse strings????? gee wonder...

Who controlled the purse strings? Republican's for more than half of Trump's presidency. Who WROTE the new tax laws, and who was it's biggest salesman? Gee, wonder.

Spending has been a bipartisan failure for a long time. One person, or one entire government at a singular snapshot in time, is not to blame. Fiscal responsibility is out the window now. It’s snowballed out of control on both sides. Someone needs to reign it in...but they likely won’t be popular or be able to buy votes by promising free stuff.

Eventually, in a big financial "crisis" one day, financial discipline will suddenly be imposed by the lack of ability borrow/print more money without serious ramifications. The only thing that has saved us till now is the fact that everywhere else in the world is at least as bad or worse financial trainwreck (or hides the numbers).

There you have it, folks. Terminal 5 is deserted due to deficit spending. This thread has been very enlightening. If I wanted to read idiots on both sides of the aisle argue I'd go to the facebook comments section.

The worst part, is that Trump and Republicans said the debt was a national emergency, and campaigned heavily on electing them to fix the national emergency. They were given all 3 branches of federal government in 2016, and they MADE IT WORSE! And, they made it worse, during the BESTEST economy the world has ever seen. You are supposed to pay debt down during the good times because budgets will inevitably crumble during the bad times! Like right now!

That is the brutal truth of Trump's presidency and the Republican party with respect to the national debt. And it is very, very bad.