Illinois State Senate President Don Harmon, through the Illinois congressional delegation, recently requested a $10 billion public pension bailout from the federal government.
In the letter, Mr. Harmon suggests that Illinois is making progress on addressing its pension debt, but that the coronavirus pandemic is causing difficulty because of revenue losses to the state. He writes:
$10 billion in pension relief, directly for the state’s retirement systems:
Illinois largest liabilities are its unfunded pension liability at $138 billion and other post-employment benefits liability at $54 billion. Illinois law has put the state on a path to fund the pension liability in a manner that is actuarially sound, and the state has been following the payment plan set out in that law. In a normal year the size of those payments crowds out funding for services and programs. Clearly this will not be a normal year and that crowding out effect will be exacerbated by significant revenue losses.
I would ask that the federal government:
1. Provide direct cash assistance to the pension systems; or
2. Offer a low interest federal loan to aid Illinois in our efforts to restore and maintain retirement security for public sector workers, many of which are on the frontlines of this pandemic battle.
Clearly this request is addressing a public pension crisis that is not short-term in nature, but one that has been going on for decades. The state created this pension crisis and while it may be amplified by the coronavirus pandemic, it certainly was not caused by it.
While the efficacy of this funding request is likely to be debated from all corners of the political spectrum, let’s look at the request for what it is — a cry for help from a state that is drowning in pension debt.
The problems with Illinois’ public pension systems have been known for years and have caused service cuts, tax increases, benefit reductions for new state workers, and dramatic reductions in the state’s credit ratings. Despite a failed attempt at pension reform in the last decade that was overturned by the courts, Illinois been unable to revisit the issue and enact meaningful pension reforms that would address its public pension plans’ funding and create more efficient and effective plans for future hires.
Hopefully, Illinois’ request for a bailout from federal taxpayers is an indication that the state is finally ready to seriously address the devastating financial crisis of its own making.
Perhaps this cry for help reflects an acknowledgment that the state can no longer rely on tax increases, service cuts, prospective benefits reductions and workforce reductions to keep its failing pension systems on life support. Laying the burden on taxpayers, students, public employees and consumers of public services is untenable.
While the pension crisis is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID 19 pandemic and economic downturn, that’s the reality Illinois must now live in. Economic uncertainty, which is already rising, will be amplified and cause strains on state and local government budgets going forward. Illinois should use this time of enhanced candor to look for real solutions to its pension crisis, including the introduction of fresh pension plan design options for new hires that would both better meet employee needs and eliminate the risk of accruing future unfunded liabilities.
Despite Illinois’ persistent inability to rise above politics to solve its pension problem to date, effective solutions exist and help is available.
This Is The Most Important Number For Wall Street For The Next Few Months
With the market now ignoring the latest economic data and corporate earnings outright, having put – for better or worse – the coronavirus lockdown in the rearview mirror while ignoring the latest profit data (which it believes is meaningless) and instead looking ahead to the gradual reopening of the US economy, the only thing traders care about is how far the US economy is from a return to normalcy. To answer their question, Goldman has put together a real-time reopening scale which, since no fundamental or economic data matter, will soon become the top market-moving indicator for the US stock market.
* * *
One month ago, when most of the US was still behind the curve on the first wave of the corona pandemic, Goldman published a “lockdown index” to keep track of where on the spectrum, so to speak, various US states and country in general were to be found.
One month later, the usefulness of this index appears to have peaked as markets now only care about the “reopening” – at least until the second coronavirus infection wave hits – and as cities and states across the U.S. begin to reverse lockdown measures at different paces and with different processes in place, Goldman has introduced a new index and weekly series that will measure the pace this reopening is happening by looking at a wide range of data from “Stay at Home” (food delivery, eCommerce, streaming media, grocery sales, etc.) to “Back to Normal” (commuting, box office, travel, etc.) and business activity (freight, housing, equipment sales, etc).
While Goldman uses economic data for this purpose, the bank also looks to a broader set of coincident, high-frequency sources (app downloads, point of sale, restaurant reservations, etc).
Aggregating this data, Goldman has created the Reopening Scale, an attempt to quantify where the balance of the scale sits between “Stay at Home”, the state we currently find ourselves in, and “Back to Normal”, relative to a benchmark (in this case Feb 3rd).
To determine the position of the scale (1-10) Goldman calculates growth or decline in each category relative to pre-Crisis levels, and equal-weight each category into its new Composite Scale.
From there, Goldman assigns a Reopening score reflecting these quantitative inputs.
No surprise, the scale currently reads “1”, as all of the “Stay at Home” categories (Exhibit 5) have increased dramatically over recent weeks and “Back to Normal” categories (Exhibit 6) have declined materially, with many down 90%+.
Similarly, many of the business activity categories (Exhibit 7), which are somewhat independent of the other two categories given businesses’ ability to adapt, are currently mostly lower. As progress toward reopening begins, that should show up in the Reopening Scale moving higher and plan to monitor that progress here.
[most important index to watch ]
The key findings from Goldman’s reopening index
The initial read across these data sources describe a quasi-apocalyptic landscape we’re all very familiar with: lots of eCommerce deliveries, streaming media, and video chats taking the place of commuting, travel, and trips to the store. While that picture is still very one sided in the data, with cities and states beginning to look for ways to reopen, Goldman expects to see the scale shifting higher over time, showing less “Stay at Home”…
…. activity and more signs of “Back to Normal.”
Highlights:
eCommerce adoption is accelerating through the end of April after averaging >65% y/y growth in app downloads for each week in the month. Companies including Amazon, Walmart, Target, Ebay, Wayfair and Etsy represent this category, although there are many others also benefiting from higher demand. This adoption is significant and sustainable: Wayfair saw 90% growth in April accelerating through the period as people focus on home decoration and improvement while relying on the convenience of having bulky furniture shipped to the door.
The grocery category is up broadly but split between products that are benefiting in this environment (flour, cleaning products, alcohol) versus those that are not (beauty aids, shaving, deodorant). The $ spend per store on flour peaked at +250% y/y at the end of March when people stocked up in anticipation of a lockdown, while deodorant spending was down 20% last week as nobody seems to care if they stink any more since most are working out of their pajamas in their bedroom. At some point these categories will trend back towards normal levels as businesses reopen and people begin spend more time outside of the household. The question is when.
Within Industrials, Goldman is keeping an eye on (1) the Industrial consumer: where we monitor air travel, auto sales and ethanol blending which is a measure of gas consumption; (2) Industrial housing: where we follow mortgage applications, new & existing home sales and prices, state permitting activity and cement shipments, all of which should indicate house shopping and construction activity; (3) Industrial equipment: including Boeing aircraft orders, CAT retail sales and industrial distributor sales; and (4) Industrial trade: including what is carried by rail and truck and what is coming through major ports. Across all four categories, including across nearly each singular metric, the data has deteriorated sequentially each month through the year thus far, with no major positive second derivatives yet. The consumer and housing related data could improve first, as stay-at-home orders are lifted; while equipment and trade could recover after consumer and housing, given the longer cycle nature of the economic activity.
Travel is clearly one of the most heavily impacted sectors, and the focus is on the most representative companies in airlines, lodging and OTAs. Air travel domestically, as represented by TSA checkpoint passengers, was down 95% y/y last week and international passenger arrival from the top 5 US airports was down 99% this past week. Notably, extended stay companies, which we did not include in our lodging data, actually saw growth during this period as an option for people sheltering in place.
On the other hand there are some small, early signs that life is resuming some form of normalcy. While all commuting metrics have fallen since February, including gas demand declining ~50% in the latter half of March and first week of April, and Starbucks app downloads trending similarly, gas demand has improved this past week to -36% from a trough of -48% y/y. Google Community Mobility Reports are also showing workplace and transit movements down roughly 50% at the trough, although there are small upticks in the most recent weeks, indicating an increase in general mobility as some states begin to reopen.
Restaurant traffic, as measured by the number of seated diners on OpenTable, is slowly picking back up in recent days from -100% since the end of March. Overall dollar sales at restaurants, meanwhile, have improved from a -60%+ run rate in late March to -40% in early May as take-out and delivery orders increase in the wake of stimulus check disbursement. Similarly, there has been a tick-up across retail concepts that remain open (e.g., discount stores, wholesales clubs, etc.). These small signs of recovery will continue as the country gradually reopens and consumers resume their daily activities.
Stay Home
In Goldman’s “Stay at Home” scale, demand surges are most prominent for Video chat apps with weekly downloads growth up ~1700% y/y on average in April. Grocery apps including Walmart Grocery, Kroger and Instacart have seen 314% y/y app download growth in the same period of time, while dollars per store spent on flour, household cleaning compounds and alcohol grew 50% y/y on average. At the same time, online gaming engagement continues to increase, with the number of hours of Twitch streams doubling in April y/y to reach ~1.8bn.
Many of these categories saw the highest growth rates in the second half of March/first half of April when lockdowns in the US began, including news TV such as CNBC which saw ratings grow 60-70% y/y in the latter half of March as people tuned in to hear daily updates on COVID-19. We expect elevated demand into the summer months for this basket of “Stay at Home” metrics, although many of them are already seeing more moderated growth in the most recent 2 weeks.
Stay Home Category Updates
Verizon management noted that their Consumer segment saw some change in activity over the last two weeks as government stimulus checks came in, including a greater inflow of payments and some early signs of increased retail volumes (gross adds and upgrades).
Target management suggested that there was a significant pick up in the home category in the beginning of April as people adjusted to more home cooked meals.
PayPal saw a 135% y/y increase in net new active accounts as holdouts in the digitization of money were forced to find alternatives to cash.
Back to Normal
The “Back to Normal” category includes some of the most heavily impacted consumer segments, including commuting, dining and all aspects of travel. The Google Global mobility report suggests that both transit and workplace movement trends are down roughly 50% from the baseline (roughly similar to the 40%+ decline in gasoline demand), while most box office and dining metrics are down 100%, since movie theaters and restaurants were some of the first places to be shut down. Beauty product sales are also suffering sharp declines and sales of deodorants at grocery stores have now fallen double-digits for four consecutive weeks as people shelter at home. On the travel side, TSA checkpoint passenger count has been down >90% y/y since the second half of March, with the number of passengers in the US falling to 750K in the week of April 20, 2020, compared to >16 million in the same week in 2019. US occupancy rates continue to be down 62% y/y in the week of April 20th, though rates are off lows of -70% in the first week of April
Back to normal category updates
Some of the most anticipated movies are expected to release later in the year, with the exception of Mulan: Wonder Woman (8/12 release), Black Widow (11/6), Top Gun Maverick (12/23), Mulan (7/24), No Time to Die (Bond) (11/25).
While Opentable data indicates reservations are down 100% y/y for the country, early restaurant reopenings in select cities like Atlanta, Tampa and Dallas show diner declines of 80-97% y/y versus 100% in the rest of the country. Restaurants are reopening with modified hours and with significantly lower density than before, seating 25%-50% of the tables with many keeping bars closed to allow for social distancing.
United Airlines noted that searches for spring break 2021 exceeded searches for spring break 2020 at this time last year, indicating pent-up demand, although they do not expect many of those to turn into real bookings until the virus is sufficiently contained
Business Activities
Business activities have also been heavily impacted by COVID-19, including real estate and industrial trade. Mortgage applications were down over 30% y/y for the first three weeks of April as real estate transactions and home constructions also slow. Homebuilders reported an approximate 50% decline in order rates for April, with local economies that are more reliant on travel and tourism (i.e. Las Vegas) down 60+% while areas of the Southeast and Texas are off ~25%. Encouragingly, activity at the end of April had more than doubled off the lows seen earlier in the month as consumers look to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates. As peoples’ mobility continues to be restricted across a number of states, auto sales and ethanol blending are both down y/y, though we expect these activities to resume fairly quickly as restrictions begin to be lifted and consumer demand recovers. On the equipment side, there has been no recovery yet in Boeing aircraft orders or CAT retail sales, though we expect both could start to move off the bottom over the next few months
Business activity category updates
Some recent rail carload data, while still sharply negative, is perhaps stabilizing. Other data including Economically Sensitive Rail Carloads is also assessed to evaluate the industrial economy, rail intermodal and West Coast Port data to get a sense for both global trade and the consumer economy and the Cass Shipment Index, DAT Load to Van Ratio, and Truckstop Spot Prices to ascertain general freight demand.
Facebook noted on their Q1 earnings call that after an initial steep decrease in ad revenue in March, they have seen signs of stability reflected in the first three weeks of April.
Building product companies saw sales off 30-35% YOY in April, as the strength seen in housing earlier this year comes through. With people staying home, Whirlpool reported April sales off 20-25%, with demand for secondary fridges and freezers (for home food storage) as well as small countertop appliances (i.e. stand mixers) rising, as people are increasingly cooking and baking at home.
Which brings us to the most important number on Wall Street for the next several months: The GS Reopening Scale
To look at all these metrics in aggregate and quantify where consumers are on the path to economic recovery, Goldman created a composite scale that is based on the inverse average of growth in all the sectors within “Stay at Home” categories and the normal average of “Back to Normal” categories relative to the week of February 3rd, reflecting where the consumer is between the two categories.
We are confident that in mere days this scale will immediately become one of the biggest – if not the top – market-moving indicators for a world desperate to learn how far away for normalcy we are; any uptick in the scale will lead to a sharp bounce in risk assets and vice versa, which means that once again Goldman will be able to manipulate the market with a data set that belongs exclusively to the bank, and which can be adjusted a critical inflection points.
Goldman indexes a value of 100 to consumer activity in the week of February 3rd, before the impact of COVID-19 in the US, and the minimum value that the composite scale has reached is 37. The composite scale is then translated onto a GS reopening scale of 1-10, where values below 50 represent a 1 and a return to Feb 3rd levels would represent a 10.
The GS reopening scale, based on the trajectory of the Composite Scale, first reached 1 in the week of March 23rd, where it has remained for the 5 weeks since, indicating that consumers are still at the trough of impacts from COVID-19.
The bank expects that as states begin to reopen for business, these metrics will slowly begin to recover, bringing to scale back up. However, Goldman’s economists expect the recovery to a 10 to take at least a number of months during which period the “Stay at Home” category will show significantly slower growth, while the “Back to Normal” category will likely moderate declines as people resume daily activities of dining, commuting and travel, among others. Goldman will refine this data weekly as a tool to measure the pace of reopening, measure consumer behavior and highlight sectors and companies that may be benefiting or disproportionately impacted from the shape of that process.
For those who may have lost their jobs during the lockdown, it appears a whole new sector of jobs is opening up across the country. Cities and states are seeking “contact tracers” and “disease investigators” to track down anyone who may have COVID-19 or anyone who may have come in contact with people diagnosed with COVID-19.
There are multiple job postings on Indeed.com, an employment-related search engine for job listings. Job titles include contact tracer, contact tracing supervisor, COVID-19 case investigator, and communicable disease investigator.
While some people find these positions to be necessary to public health, others find them invasive and meddlesome. One of the most worrisome things about this is what kind of power is held by the tracers and investigators. If they feel someone isn’t quarantining properly, and they report that person, what happens next? Ventura County, California officials claimed they would remove people suffering from COVID from their homes if there was only one bathroom, a claim they’ve since walked back after public outrage ensued.
Ventura County officials were forced Wednesday to apologize and clarify that those who could not isolate or quarantine themselves would never be forcibly removed from their homes as part of an effort to further contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Video circulated on social media showed Dr. Robert Levin, the director of Ventura County Public Health, speaking before the board of supervisors Tuesday about a plan to hire up to 50 new “contact tracing investigators” to “find people who have COVID-19 and immediately isolate them, find every one of their contacts, make sure they stay quarantined and check in with them every day.” (source)
If officials really want to see violence and unrest ensue, forcibly hauling off an ailing loved one would be one surefire way to make it happen.
What are contact tracers?
Here’s a little more about these jobs. (Emphasis mine)
New York State will hire and train a team of staff working remotely to support the NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) and Local Health Departments (LHDs) to perform COVID-19 contact tracing in communities across NYS. The aim of this initiative will be to call every person diagnosed with COVID-19, establish all contacts of this person, and proceed to call and maintain ongoing communication with every contact. In addition, the team will support the isolation and quarantine of individuals, as appropriate in cooperation with the LHD. This includes virtual needs checks and referral to community resources as needed. This contact tracing initiative is in tandem with statewide-wide efforts to increase testing, improve communication and knowledge of effective strategies to reduce transmission, and implementation of isolation and quarantine. This will fortify efforts to control the pandemic in NYS.
General Summary:
The Contact Tracer will use a web-based client resource management (CRM) platform to call all contacts of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19, determine exposure, assess symptoms, refer for testing according to established protocols, and provide them with instructions for isolation or quarantine. Contact Tracers will maintain ongoing communication with contacts to assess symptoms, ensure compliance with quarantine and determine social support needs and/or handle reporting of issues that arise. Contact Tracers are required to follow set scripts and adhere to policies and procedures provided by NYS. They will also comply with Department training regarding confidential information related to personal information. COVID-19 Contract Tracers will be required to work a minimum of 20 hours per week.
Work in collaboration with the Case Investigator from the local health department (LHD).
Call contacts of newly diagnosed cases.
Communicate with contacts in a professional and empathetic manner maintaining emotional and cultural awareness.
Collect and record information on symptoms and needs into the CRM with accuracy.
Provide contacts with approved information about NYS isolation and quarantine procedures, and if appropriate, refer them to testing according to protocol and/or to a COVID-19 Community Support Specialist for social resources.
Follow a set script to inform contacts about the importance of isolation or quarantine and what to do if symptoms are present or develop.
Maintain daily contact with Team Supervisor.
The position is considered temporary with a one-year engagement expected and the possibility to extend as needed.
The contact center will operate 7 days a week between the hours of 8am and 8pm. Evening and/or weekend work may be required.
Minimum Qualifications:
High school diploma, or equivalent required. Must be 18 years of age or older. Some college training preferred.
Must be a NYS resident.
Ability to speak, read, and write English clearly and concisely. Fluency in a second or multiple languages would be a plus.
Employment is contingent on completion of a background check by NY State.
Own telephone, computer, wireless internet (WiFi) and electronic equipment. (A partial reimbursement to maintain unlimited phone and data access will be provided.)
Must have access to a working PC with Windows 10, Antivirus Protection: Windows Defender and Windows Firewall; or Mac with Apple OS X 10.13, Antivirus Protection: Sophos; and personal mobile device to use for this job.
A headset is preferred.
Preferred Skills:
Ability to exhibit a professional, positive attitude and independent work ethic.
Excellent interpersonal skills required and ability to interact professionally with culturally diverse individuals during a time of crisis and distress.
Ability to show empathy to distressed individuals and assist with identifying solutions to problems identified.
Excellent organizational and communication skills.
Sound judgment required.
Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and professionalism.
Proficiency with computers and data entry into electronic tracking systems.
Because when you’re sick, who doesn’t want to answer questions asked by someone reading from a script? A similar job is posted for Applied Memetics.
There are also postings for “Communicable Disease Investigators”
Another even more invasive COVID-related job is ” Communicable Disease Investigator,” a position that Louisville, Kentucky is urgently seeking to fill.
Crown Services, Inc. in Louisville is proud to accept applications for COVID-19 Communicable Disease Investigators to join the fight against the novel Coronavirus in our community! The work involves investigating situations concerning individuals who have been in contact with COVID-19, which could result in possible sources of infection. This includes locating patients of COVID-19, and persons with whom they have had contact. Investigation procedures involve contacting various information sources such as welfare agencies, neighbors, hospitals, work locations, restaurants, and bars. The investigator is primarily concerned with locating persons who should be examined for acute infection. General supervision is received from an administrative superior with leeway allowed for the exercise of independent judgment and initiative in carrying out the mandate of the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Certain assignments made to employees in this position will require reasonable access to transportation to meet field work requirements made in the ordinary course of business in a timely and efficient manner.
Required Education and Experience
Current student or graduate from a college of public health, medical science, college of nursing, or school of medicine.
Essential Functions
Interview patients to elicit information regarding their contacts to COVID-19 positive patients and to determine possible personal and health history related to transmitted diseases.
Educates and counsels patients regarding transmitted diseases and risk reduction.
Locates persons who have been reported to have COVID-19 or who have been in contact with infected individuals; directs these individuals to submit necessary laboratory specimens and such other necessary control measures.
Induces persons who have been in contact with COVID-19 to have medical examinations and laboratory testing as applicable.
Provides information and education on COVID-19 to phone inquiries.
Conducts interviews with persons who are COVID-19 positive and assists them in informing their close contacts of their positive status.
Conducts investigations to discover unreported cases.
Performs a variety of duties relating to the preparation of reports, entering personal data on patient registers, and preparing correspondence to send to patients who are in need of medical examination and treatment.
Maintains records on all delinquent and/or non-conforming patients.
Prepares individual narrative reports concerning work procedures and certain patients.
Utilizes appropriate methods for interacting effectively and professionally with persons of all ages and from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, educational, racial and ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, lifestyles, and physical abilities.
Pay and Schedule
COVID-19 Communicable Disease Investigator pay is $35.00 per hour base, plus mileage reimbursement
These full-time opportunities are on a rotating shift, and are available immediately! These positions are work from home with travel required within the Greater Louisville Metro area, including Southern Indiana. Staggered shifts are assigned between 7am-7pm, Sunday-Saturday. (source)
Not only do sick or potentially sick people need to worry about being phoned or questioned by contact tracers, but there’s also a whole new world of dystopian technology being rapidly developed.
These things won’t just go away when the pandemic is over. If they’re in use for a year or two years – however long this virus is with us – chances are, they’re here to stay.
Meanwhile, it’s still nearly impossible to get tested in many states.
Despite the White House’s claims that anyone who needs a COVID test can get one, it’s proven to be nearly an impossible feat for many people who are genuinely ill. According to one report, the availability of testing depends on one major factor.
As a result, the limited number of tests available at each site are often reserved for higher-risk patients (for example, those with underlying health conditions) or those exhibiting strong symptoms that are associated with COVID-19, such as trouble breathing, pain or pressure in the chest, confusion and bluish lips or face. (source)
In some states, you can’t just go to the drive-through testing facility and take a test – you require a doctor’s order, which you can only get after an appointment.
American Shopping Malls Resemble Ghost Towns After Reopening
The latest jobless print and unemployment figures are truly historic, tens of millions of Americans are out of work, and the real economy has crashed to depression levels. President Trump is attempting to reopen the severely damaged economy and force a V-shaped recovery by the time the presidential election is seen this fall. However, that is wishful thinking as the probabilities of an economic recovery are slim to none as hard data reveals the crash is one of the worst on records — it will not be until the back-half of the year that the true extent of the downturn will be realized.
This summer will be challenging for millions of folks, as high unemployment, continued economic turmoil, and household deterioration suggests a revival of the economy will likely not be seen. Morgan Stanley outlined last week that a recovery could occur in 2021 or even 2022.
In late April, Scott Minerd, the CIO of Guggenheim Investments, said a recovery in the economy could take upwards of four years and “to think that the economy is going to reaccelerate in the third quarter in a V-shaped recovery to the level where the gross domestic product (GDP) was prior to the pandemic is unrealistic.”
With several big names in the financial industry already calling a V-shaped recovery for this year “unrealistic” — The New York Times on Saturday morning (May 9) — has just given the American people a dose of the reality of the economic devastation.
And we must note, today’s economic crash is much different than before. There’s an entirely new component to it where aggregate demand cannot be immediately switched on through intervention via government or central bank policies. Mainly because people are confined to their homes in stay-at-home public health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. A similar instance was seen during the Hong Kong riots in late 2019 when the government attempted to stimulate its economy but failed to do so as people chose not to visit shops during the social unrest. This all suggests that traditional stimulation policies in a pandemic will likely be ineffective in driving consumers to stores for several reasons; many are broke and unemployed. Still, they haven’t received benefits, and the virus fears are driving consumer habits. Again, this is indicative of not a V-shaped recovery but more of a prolonged downturn — something equity markets fail to see at the moment.
For more color on this, Daily Mail has published photos from across America of economies that are reopening with very few people returning to shopping malls and or stores. Many are staying away from public areas because of pandemic fears.
To the people who earn a living from them, every job is essential.
But during the coronavirus pandemic, the actions of politicians like New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo sparked protests from those who were laid off from jobs deemed “nonessential” by the government.
That doesn’t sit well with Mike Rowe, host of the web-based reality series “Returning the Favor” and an advocate for the hard-working folks who keep the America running.
The former “Dirty Jobs” host appeared on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino” on Tuesday and was asked for his take on the Democratic governor’s statements late last month in regard to people who have lost their jobs.
“You want to go to work? Go take a job as an essential worker,” Cuomo said of protesters concerned about the government-imposed shutdown’s effects on their livelihoods.
“You can get a job as an essential worker,” he said.
“So now you can go to work, and you can be an essential worker, and you’re not going to kill anyone.”
Perino asked Rowe what he thought of those remarks, noting that many people are “put off” by politicians deciding their jobs are either “essential” or “nonessential.”
“Well, can you blame them?” Rowe replied. “When I was doing ‘Dirty Jobs,’ things were flush and very few people were paying very little attention to these anonymous, unsung workers who were making civilized life possible for the rest of us.
“Well, we’re in a different world right now,” he added. “People got the memo.”
Rowe explained that millions of people are out of work because of government action, “but if you look at the impact of removing those workers from our economy — our macro economy — you can see that they’re absolutely essential.”
Speaking about the impact of using such binary classifications for workers, Rowe said:
“This is one of those instances where the headlines have caught up to our vernacular and if we don’t make some tweaks to our lexicon, we’re going to wind up sounding really — oh, what’s the word — stupid.”
“Well, it’s not just that we can do it, we have to do it,” he said, using Fox host Greg Gutfeld’s metaphor to explain the conundrum.
“We’re trapped in a prison of two ideas: the idea that releasing the lockdown is somehow going to be irresponsible, and extending the quarantine is going to be cowardly. These are bad choices,” Rowe said, “but it’s what happens when we dispense cookie-cutter advice.”
Rowe talked about his “safety-third” theory, reasonably weighing risks and rewards equally to make a decision.
His theory is in stark contrast to Cuomo’s relentless belief that locking down the state is worth it if even one life is saved, regardless of the economic or lifestyle destruction that occurs in the process.
“Not to pile up on the governor,” Rowe began, “but a couple weeks ago he said another thing that really snapped my neck.
“He said ‘no measure, no matter how drastic or draconian should be deemed unjustified if it saves a single life,’” Rowe said, paraphrasing the governor.
“The notion that nothing in the country is more important than staying safe, that’s not something common-sensical people embrace,” Rowe added.
“That’s something you hear from people who are trying to sell you something or politicians who are trying to get re-elected.”
Cuomo has indeed continued to take this approach.
“There is no dollar figure to a human life,” the governor tweeted Tuesday. “New York will reopen (by region) when it is safe to do so.”
There is no dollar figure to a human life.
New York will reopen (by region) when it is safe to do so.
Rowe is absolutely correct about politicians like Cuomo who tell residents that their jobs are suddenly “nonessential” only by virtue of government edict.
The fact of the matter is that all jobs are essential to the people who earn livings from them, and the pain caused by being prevented from working cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, Cuomo advising people to simply take “essential” jobs, as if it is that easy in the middle of a pandemic, is as condescending as former Vice President Joe Biden telling coal miners to “learn how to program.”
Mike Rowe is right — putting safety above all else is not a principled philosophy, but rather a tactic of power-hungry politicians like Cuomo.
It’s time to empower struggling Americans by giving them the chance — and more importantly the freedom — to get back to work.
“This Is The Final Straw”: Elon Musk Melts Down, Says He’s Suing Alameda County & Moving Tesla Out Of California
Recall just days ago we reported that Tesla was sending people back to work at its Fremont factory in Alameda County before the area’s lockdown expired.
Then, late last week, Alameda County responded by telling Musk that he could not re-open his factory. “We have not given the green light. We have been working with them looking at some of their safety plans. But no, we have not said that it is appropriate to move forward,” Erica Pan, interim health officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department, said on an online town hall meeting on Friday.
That was enough to trigger a total Elon Musk meltdown. The CEO, who has been going off on diatribes about civil liberties on conference calls and podcasts alike, Tweeted out on Saturday that he is going to be suing Alameda County for not allowing him to re-open.
Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.
Calling it the “final straw” Musk also said he was going to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California and to either Texas or Nevada.
Musk also called the county’s interim health officer “ignorant”, claiming she was acting “contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!”
Most importantly, however, she is acting against the interest of Elon Musk and Tesla.
People on social media weighed in about Musk’s meltdown:
Full meltdown by Elon Musk.
TSLAQ should give credit to Dr. Erica Pan of Alameda Public Health for standing up to Musk and enforcing civil and health code that the citizens of Alameda entrusted her with.
Recall, on Tesla’s recent earnings call, toward the end and increasingly angry, Musk unleashed a 5-minute rant complete with an f-bomb in which the CEO doubled down on his stance against the shelter-in-place orders that have gripped the United States economy in recent weeks, warning that the factory shutdowns are a “serious risk” to the electric automaker’s business.
Hey, thanks for all the tax breaks and subsidies, California, see you later!
Venezuela Charges US Ex-Special Forces Soldiers With “Terrorism & Conspiracy”
The two US ex-special forces turn mercenary soldiers captured by Venezuela Monday as they tried to lead a small anti-Maduro invasion force into the country appeared in a Venezuelan court on Friday, alongside some dozen other alleged conspirators and detained mercenaries.
Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41 have been charged with “terrorism and conspiracy” for the failed raid, which new details say included a total of 17 people coming ashore on fishing boats from a staging ground in neighboring Colombia.
Silvercorp mercenaries Venezuela captured following this week’s failed invasion face charges including terrorism, conspiracy, & illicit arms trafficking. They face 25-30 yrs in prison
Venezuelan media also claims that eight among the mercenary force – reportedly mostly made up of Venezuelan defectors – were gunned down when they tried to enter the country.
Denman and Berry have specifically been charged with “terrorism, conspiracy, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and (criminal) association.”
Captured mercenaries after botched ‘Bay of Pigs-style’ raid into Venezuelan territory. Image source: Defense Ministry of Venezuela/Al Jazeera.
There’s officially no death penalty in the Venezuelan legal code, with the charges faced by the Americans bringing a max 25-30 years in prison.
Maduro and Caracas officials have ultimately blamed the plot on President Trump, something which the US president and admin officials were quick to deny, with Trump noting he would never have used “a small little group”.
“If I wanted to go into Venezuela, I wouldn’t make a secret about it. I wouldn’t send a small little group, it’d be called an Army,” Trump told FOX on Friday.
RT @laradiodelsur: Mercenary Airan Berry shows the contract between Silvercorp, Juan Guaidó, JJ Rendón and Sergio Vergara signed in October 2019 to execute terrorist plans in Venezuela pic.twitter.com/i8HsNimMHN
Meanwhile Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab has issued an Interpol arrest warrant for ex-Green Beret and head of the Florida-based security firm Silvercorp Jordan Goudreau.
Goudreau had initially been boasting of being behind the failed coup attempt and giving media interviews from Florida, and he’s now under investigation by US authorities.
Washington appears to have been embarrassed by the whole “rogue” operation, for which Silvercorp has also come under widespread mockery online.
Vets are dunking mercilessly on these failed Silvercorp mercenaries who were the masterminds behind that edgelord Bay of Pigs in Venezuela. I talked with a few ex-special forces operators and rounded up the memes roasting this fiasco. Story never ends! https://t.co/ORZz0Lw5kG
The US army has since confirmed the men formerly served as members of the Green Berets and had been deployed to Iraq. Venezuelan state officials have claimed the group was going to be paid $212 million to orchestrate the overthrow of Maduro on behalf of opposition leader Juan Guaido and his US and Colombian backers.
While distancing itself from the fiasco, the State Department has pledged to “use every tool that we have available to try to get them back,” according to recent statements by Mike Pompeo.
Ohio officials are encouraging employers to report what they’ve designated “Covid-19 fraud” as the state begins reopening some industries. Workers who refuse to report to work in light of the pandemic, which has killed more than 1,300 Ohio residents so far, can be reported via a government website and have their unemployment benefits taken away.
According to the Washington Post, less than a week after the state reopened manufacturing and distribution facilities, construction, and offices, 600 employers have “turned in” about 1,200 workers for not reporting to work.
A staff member at a restaurant on North High Street takes out the trash on March 15, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo: Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
“‘Turned in’ is a really fucked up way to even begin thinking about this,” tweeted labor journalist Sarah Jaffe in response to the Post‘s report.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services set up a website this week where employers may use a form “to report employees who quit or refuse work when it is available due to Covid-19.”
With retail stores expected to reopen on Monday, employees in that sector could be reported as early as next week for not returning to work.
In an email sent to employers across Ohio, officials told companies that “Ohio law prohibits individuals from receiving unemployment benefits if they refuse to accept offers of suitable work, or quit work, without good cause.”
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has set up a form called “Report COVID-19 Quits or Work Refusals when Work is Available”
By designating a deadly public health crisis an insufficient cause for staying home, as health experts have consistently urged for nearly two months, the Ohio government is giving residents a “near-impossible choice,” according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Ohio workers must now choose between “going to work and earning income to put food on the table, and protecting their health,” senior policy analyst Alex Camardelle told the Post.
Critics on social media accused Ohio officials of encouraging employers to “snitch” on workers for following the recommendations of public health officials.
Other Republican-led states have also aggressively pressured workers to report to their jobs with threats of having unemployment benefits taken away. As Common Dreamsreported last month, Iowa officials are designating failure to report to businesses in reopened industries as a “voluntary quit,” while Texas’s reopening order carried the same message.
The Century Foundation, a progressive and non-partisan think tank, noted that the focus on so-called “Covid-19 fraud” in Republican-led states stems from a fixation at the U.S. Department of Labor on rooting out workers who are using unemployment benefits when work is available to them. According to the Labor Department, nearly 90% of people who received unemployment benefits in Ohio between 2016 and 2019 used the system correctly.
“The driving activity of the U.S. Department of Labor for the last six to seven years has been unemployment fraud,” Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the foundation, toldThe American Prospect.
Ohio’s website represents a “bright flashing light of ‘fraud, fraud, fraud’ that for me is just like another example of the system’s overemphasis on unemployment fraud, rather than making sure we pay people who are out of work,” he added.
Did Obama Defense Deputy Lie To Protect Her Fraudulent Russiagate Sources?
Newly declassified congressional transcripts from the Russia investigation include testimony from former Obama administration defense official, Evelyn Farkas, who testified under oath that she lied in an MSNBCinterview when she claimed to have evidence of “the Trump staff dealing with Russians,” and said that the Obama administration was “trying to also get information to the hill” because the incoming Trump administration would try to hide the (nonexistent) evidence.
During closed-door testimony on June 26, 2017, however, Farkas – who was the Clinton campaign’s senior foreign policy adviser – admitted she had nothing.
In an exchange with former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Farkas is pressed on why she said ‘we’ when she said ‘if they found out how we knew what we knew about their staff dealing with Russians.’
…how did this non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, gain knowledge of intelligence regarding members of Trump’s team and their relations with Russia, when she was the senior foreign policy advisor for Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton?
Farkas was the prime driver behind the anti-Russia phobia inside the Pentagon during the Obama years — shilling hard for the Ukraine — requesting that the President send them anti-tank missiles — which, essentially, would mean outright war with Russia. –iBankCoin
Given all we now know, Occam’s razor suggests that Farkas, while working for the Clinton campaign, was fully aware of the work of Christopher Steele – the former UK spy paid by the Clinton campaign (through their lawyers and Fusion GPS) to fabricate the infamous dossier used by US intelligence to paint Donald Trump as an agent of Russia.
That said, who exactly did she mean by “we” during that interview? And who was scrambling to leak evidence to the hill?
Based on the MSNBC interview, Farkas obviously knew something. But instead of going down that particular rabbit hole during congressional testimony, she thought the best option was to simply say she lied.
Once the government’s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes, the entire order vanishes along with it.
The era of waste, greed, fraud and living on borrowed money is dying, and those who’ve known no other way of living are mourning its passing. Its passing was inevitable, for any society that squanders its resources is unsustainable. Any society that makes private greed the primary motivator and priority is unsustainable. Any society that rewards fraud above all else is unsustainable. Any society which lives on money borrowed from the future and other forms of phantom capital is unsustainable.
We know this in our bones, but we fear the future because we know no other arrangement other than the unsustainable present. And so we hear the faint echo of the cries of alarm filling the streets of ancient Rome when the Bread and Circuses stopped: what do we do now?
When the free bread and entertainments disappeared, people found new arrangements. They left Rome.
The greatest private fortunes in history vanished as Rome unraveled. All the land, the palaces, the gold and all the other treasures were no protection against the collapse of the system that institutionalized corruption as the ultimate protector of concentrated wealth.
The most zealously guarded power of government is the creation of money, for without money the government cannot pay the soldiers, police, courts and administrators needed to enforce its rule. Western Rome created money by controlling silver mines; in the current era, governments create money (currency) out of thin air.
Once the government’s money loses purchasing power, the system collapses. And so in the final stages of Rome’s decline, Imperial orders still flowed to distant legions, but the legions no longer existed; they were only phantom entries on Imperial ledgers.
Our “money” is also nothing but phantom entries on digital ledgers, and so its complete loss of purchasing power is inevitable.
Without “money,” the government can no longer enforce the will of its self-serving elites: orders will still flow in a furious flood to every corner of the land, but the legions to enforce the institutional corruption will be nothing but phantom entries on Imperial ledgers.
Once the government’s ability to sustain its enforcement with money created out of thin air vanishes, the entire order vanishes along with it. The destruction of the value of central bank-created “money” is already ordained, for there is no limit on human greed and the desire to maintain control, and so governments will create their “money” in ever-increasing amounts until the value has been completely leached from the phantom digital entries.
The outlines of a better world are emerging, an arrangement that prioritizes something more than maximizing private gain and institutionalizing the corruption needed to protect those gains. We will relearn to live within our means, and relearn how to institutionalize opportunity rather than corruption designed to protect elites.
We will come to a new understanding of the teleology of centralized power, that centralized power only knows how to extend its power and so the only possible outcome is collapse. (I explain these dynamics in my book Resistance, Revolution, Liberation: A Model for Positive Change.)
We will come to understand technology need not serve only monopolies, cartels and the state, that it could serve a sustainable, decentralized economy that does more with less, i.e. a DeGrowth economy.
The Federal Reserve will fail, just as the Roman gods failed to sustain the corrupt and bankrupt Roman elites. A host of decentralized, transparently priced non-state currencies will compete on the open market, just like goods, services and commodities. The Fed’s essential role– serving the few at the expense of the many, under the cover of creating currency out of thin air–will be repudiated by the implosion of the economy as all the Fed’s phantom “wealth” evaporates.
The outlines of a better world are emerging. Do you discern them through the smoke as the last frantic phantoms of an unsustainable system issue orders to reverse the tides of history as they dissipate into thin air?
