Trump to defund schools unless they reopen for on-person instruction

I think the Lincoln project puts together some killer videos / ads. Truly impressive. I am a bit skeptical about how effective some of them are though. This one feels more targeted to democrats to raise money than to defeat senate candidates for instance.

I wonder how many Republicans actually watch their ads. Everyone is giving the Lincoln Project a lot of praise for their "ads" but they are all over a minute long. That's pretty unheard for for any kind of ad. It's much hard to make a 30 sec spot than something over a minute. Something that's 75 secs isn't easy to put on their air and unlikely is on the air.

So who are consuming these ads and where?

 

this point is well taken, but again there are cultural factors at play that make it difficult if not impossible to do apples-to-apples comparisons between "the entire United States" and "other places" like Taiwan. Taiwan is a 14,000 sq mile island nation--the better comparison would be Taiwan to the state of Hawaii. Last time I checked Hawaii's covid numbers were closer to Taiwan's than to NYC's. Culture, geography, peoples' travel habits, political leadership . . . there are a few too many variables at play to make confident judgments about what would have happened if X, Y, or Z had happened. Hindsight is 20/20 and that's why people enjoy engaging in Monday morning quarterbacking. But the truth is that in a pandemic there are way too many variables to predictively model in any kind of consistently reliable way.

And another thing about masks and mask usage. We've been using masks in New York state since April. A friend of mine from growing up lost her father to covid as one of the early, early deaths in early April (April 7th). If anyone should be "pro-mask" you would think it would be her--and she is pro-mask . . . to a point. I was surprised yesterday to see her response to the New Jersey Governor's order to mandate ("push" in your terms) mask use on all NJ residents in all OUTDOORS settings:



Again, this is from somebody who lost a PARENT to covid. You would think she'd be the last person in the world to complain about stricter mask requirements, and yet here it is. That's the CULTURAL factor in mask usage at play here--call it defiant American rugged individualism if you like--a cultural factor that will always make conformity and obedience more difficult to achieve in the United States than in other, smaller, more homogeneous countries around the world.

 

I think many of the ads are being run on fox news so that suggests who Lincoln Project is targeting...

 

AZ has been a red state (though trump appears to be turning the state blue). In this small school district "three teachers went above and beyond in taking precautions against the spread of the virus while teaching in the same room, but all three contracted COVID-19."

One of the teachers died.

As Trump pushes to reopen schools, Arizona school leaders face more uncertainty

https://amp.azcentral.com/amp/5401041002?__twitter_impression=true

 

MLB and NBA players are being tested every 2 days for Covid-19. NFL players will be testing 3 times a week. It's a money business, unlike schools. Are teachers, students, administrators, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, parents and caretakers, and other people who are at risk going to be tested 2 or 3 times a week? I haven't read about any testing schedule period. Are athletes more essential than teachers? Hmmm, entertaining people vs educating people. Priorities for health and safety are so twisted in this country. It's sad and shameful. Multi-million dollar salary employees get special treatment.

What about the man dictating schools must open? He makes sure everyone he works with is tested often. It's all about doing all he can for himself, but forcing others to put themselves at a much higher risk. Get out there and open up those schools. At what cost?

Oh, we will do temperature checks and spread out the desks as best we can. Think about an elementary school teacher for a minute. Kids come into the classroom with runny noses, coughs, and sneezes daily. Parents already send them to school sick. As long as their temperature is below 100 degrees they can stay. So now what happens when every child with a low grade fever isn't sick enough to go home, but could possibly have Covid-19? They won't be wearing masks, because masks aren't required for children 9 and younger.

Then you have to consider special needs students. Hand over hand teaching, potty training, diaper changing, assistance with mobility and all other close contact required to work with the student. Are they asymptomatic? What if they are nonverbal? Are the teachers, parents and therapists working with these students tested every 2 or 3 days? It's not like they will be provided N-95 masks every day to protect themselves better like doctors and nurses.

Many of the people working with the special needs students do it in multiple schools across a district. You have substitute teachers, behavior specialists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, autism specialists, all of which are at a much higher risk. It's not a good situation during a pandemic.

Think about music and art teachers, gym teachers, and technology teachers who work with more than one class every hour. It's all just impractical to social distance with so many students. Then, you get to middle school and high school and add in sports, band orchestra, drama, etc. . Again, impractical to social distance. Will they test all these students and teachers 2 or 3 times a week? Yeah right.

Just say no to rushing back. The risk isn't worth the wait.

 

I hadn't heard about all the testing so I had to look it up real quick and that's (NBA) players and staff. Not sure about MLB and NFL but .....thats a lot of damn test

 

related:

"Atlanta Mayor: Okay, now that I have the virus, everyone has to wear masks":

https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/07/09/atlanta-mayor-okay-now-virus-everyone-wear-masks/

 

Per your article:

 

Kind of off-topic, but I wonder if her having COVID hurts or helps her chances at being VP. On one hand, she's getting it out of the way now and should be able to be around Biden come convention time. On the other hand, waiting this long to implement a mask order and not wearing masks before now could present a problem.

I don't think she's a serious candidate to be the VP anyway, but I do wonder how the Biden campaign would handle a VP with COVID. Joe isn't young.

 

yeah, not sure I see a mayor (even of a large city) as a viable candidate for VP. Especially when Biden is as old as he is

 

20/07/09/atlanta-mayor-okay-now-virus-everyone-wear-masks/[/QUOTE]

Not sure what the issue is. Kemp isn't forbidding masks just the implementation of health policies. And the Mayor's order is the same - an executive order. It's up to the courts to resolve this it appears but I don't know why Kemp would oppose a mask order given the surge in case count and the desire to keep the economy open.

 

MLB statement on COVID-19 testing
https://www.mlb.com/news/major-league-baseball-statement-july-6-2020

NFL plans to test players for COVID-19 three times per week, isolate positive cases
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-three-times-per-week-isolate-positive-cases/

 

I guess mainly that leadership is fragmented and leaders can often work at cross-purposes to one another. Your original statement that POTUS and Governors have the power to "push" people to do things (such as wear masks) runs up against all kinds of actual limitations and political realities that simply make it impossible to believe that such a statement is accurate. People have to want to do those actions themselves, and sometimes leadership backfires if it comes across as rigidly telling citizens what to do.

 

I reckon that takes out the trump talking point but unfortunately too late, this association should have included that key caveat from the get go and since they didn't they allowed their group to be used to support reopening schools no matter what. Folks should remember that before releasing statements in the future.

 

While technically you are correct, in practice, if Trump signed an executive order that all Americans should wear masks and he himself was wearing a mask, everyone would conform even if the order has no weight. But I'd imagine the state and local gov't would conform as if it had been done properly from the beginning there wouldn't be resistance to mask wearing.

Now if Biden or Obama tried to push people to wear masks, you'd get resistance from state governors for sure.

My point is on this issue is that anti-maskers are more about the politics of wearing a mask than anything else. Even Trump has labeled wearing a mask as the "politically correct" thing to do and I have seen the Trump's kids posts on the ineffectiveness of masks on FB being shared (which is sad that people don't understand why people working with live viruses need more protection than someone out and about).

 

What they advocate for is very different from a mandate, backed up with threat of withhold of fund.

I see nothing wrong with their strong advocate for physical present as a SHOULD. I think any reasonable person understand that a should have to be balanced with other factors, such as the ability to open safely.

But yes, it's a warning for all that this admin is not reasonable and have no problem using anyone in any capacity for their benefit.

 

I just find that bolded statement to be incredibly naive--or at the least just plainly wrong.

if Trump issued that kind of executive order you'd see it instantly tied up in the courts and the battle would last for years

agreed

I'm going to agree in part and disagree in part. Yes, some anti-maskers are more about the politics. I fully acknowledge that. But there are other motivations as well for not wearing a mask and not going along with the "pro-mask movement" for lack of a better term. I just don't think you can generalize about these things.

As luck would have it, an interview with the South Dakota Governor, whose state's covid statistics resemble those of Taiwan and other, European nations. She discusses mask requirements at around 11:00 mark following the question at 10:30. This is another exception to the points made earlier about POTUS and Governors' responsibilities to "push" mask use on their citizens. Every state is different.