So coronavirus is definitely going to kill a few of us.

[Dan Druff]

Your points are safe (for now), Druff

Dumb.

So points only don't expire while they're closed? How about the day after they open?

They need to just freeze it and move all the expiration forward while they're closed. Or... how about... no expiration in 2020?

Also people who earned Diamond/Seven Stars in late 2019 are gonna be royally fucked because they'll barely get an opportunity to use their status in 2020, and then it will expire on 1/31/21. At least mine is good until 1/31/22 because I earned mine in January.

[Tellafriend]

The Trump administration has stopped seizing the wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits of people who are in default on their federal student loans, an administration official confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday.

© Alex Brandon/AP Photo Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

The Education Department is putting a stop to collecting on defaulted federal student loans amid the coronavirus pandemic and ordering private collection firms to stop pursuing borrowers “until further notice," according to the official and a memo sent to the companies. The department plans to make the policy retroactive to March 13, the day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, the official said.

Bing COVID-19 tracker: Latest numbers by country and state
The new executive actions, which the Trump administration is expected to announce this week, provide a reprieve for the more than 9 million federal student loan borrowers who are in default on their debt. Borrowers default on those loans by failing to make a payment for roughly a year.
The decision to halt the debt collection comes as congressional Democrats, labor unions and consumer advocacy groups urged Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to hit pause during the pandemic on the sweeping powers that the federal government has to pursue borrowers.
Department officials have ordered the private companies it hires to collect defaulted loans to immediately stop calling borrowers, sending collection notices or taking steps to seize portions of their paychecks, according to a memo viewed by POLITICO.

“Private Collection Agencies shall cease all Administrative Wage Garnishment efforts,” a department official wrote in the message to the industry last week. The department’s restrictions, which still permit the collection companies to accept incoming calls from borrowers, are to remain in place “until further notice,” the message said.
The Education Department also plans to stop referring defaulted student loan accounts to the Treasury Department, which is responsible for executing the seizure of borrowers’ tax refunds and other federal benefits like Social Security payments.

The executive actions by the Trump administration come as Democrats and Republicans in Congress are fighting over how far the student debt relief provisions of the massive $2 trillion economic rescue package should go.
House Democrats’ massive stimulus proposal released on Monday would have forced the Education Department to suspend involuntary collections on federal student loans. The Senate bill would require the department to halt all monthly payments for six months, though it doesn’t explicitly reference the collection of defaulted loans.

GOP senators have argued that the six-month postponement provides adequate relief to borrowers during the coronavirus emergency, while Democrats are pushing to include at least $10,000 in debt cancellation for each loan borrower.

The Trump administration has already set the interest rates on all federally held student loans at zero percent and created a new forbearance option for any borrower who wants to pause payments for at least two months. Most borrowers have to request that option from their loan servicer, though the Education Department said it was automatically applying the benefit to borrowers who are already more than a month delinquent on their loans.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/de...cid=spartandhp


And so it begins.

[Belly Buster]

the disaster index here isnt going to be how many people die, its going to be how many people die because our health care system collapsed.

curve flattening / shelter in place / whatever is management more than avoidance/mitigation.

Americans: absorb this information.

This is why you are fucked.

[Dan Druff]

the disaster index here isnt going to be how many people die, its going to be how many people die because our health care system collapsed.

curve flattening / shelter in place / whatever is management more than avoidance/mitigation.

Americans: absorb this information.

This is why you are fucked.

Ummm

The health care system isn't going to collapse. It's possible it could be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, but that's only because we have a big population and this might require an unprecedented number of hospital beds and equipment.

This is already happening in Italy, where they have socialized medicine.

Socialized medicine does NOT increase the amount of overall healthcare available, nor does it make it easier to see a doctor. On the contrary, it's known for making it more DIFFICULT to see a doctor and get tests, and the only benefit to the citizens is a lack of financial obligation to the individual.

"If only we had socialized care in the US, we'd be far better off" is one of the great myths of this entire situation. If we had socialized medicine, we'd be in the exact same spot -- or worse.

[donkdowndonedied]

Say you have to go to hospital becuse your lips are blue n shit but no ICU beds or any bed. So you're laying on a pallet in the hallway. Can they still bill your insurance for ICU !?!?

[donkdowndonedied]

Americans: absorb this information.

This is why you are fucked.

Ummm

The health care system isn't going to collapse. It's possible it could be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, but that's only because we have a big population and this might require an unprecedented number of hospital beds and equipment.

This is already happening in Italy, where they have socialized medicine.

Socialized medicine does NOT increase the amount of overall healthcare available, nor does it make it easier to see a doctor. On the contrary, it's known for making it more DIFFICULT to see a doctor and get tests, and the only benefit to the citizens is a lack of financial obligation to the individual.

"If only we had socialized care in the US, we'd be far better off" is one of the great myths of this entire situation. If we had socialized medicine, we'd be in the exact same spot -- or worse.

It will be interesting as a post-mortem to compare our outcome versus european western countries. Not sure how medical is handled in SK/Japan. You believe we'd be equal or worse but that is just your opinion.

Socialized medicine can be many things. It really depends on many factors. I've known more than 1 person in past year that has left the US because the medical system is fucking nuts here. If you have nice professional job (or equivalent income) then hey it works just fine.

[TheXFactor]

Look the Las Vegas casinos are still going to be fucked.

After they re-open, do you really think most gamblers, shoppers, people who go to conventions, malls, restaurants, hookers, etc. will return?

Business will probably be off by half or more.

This recession may last for years.

Many of the Hotels in this country will go bankrupt and will close. They will be sold for a faction of their original value. Real estate everywhere will become cheap. Banks will not loan money to anyone. The restaurant industry will not survive, millions will lose their jobs. Most restaurants cannot make enough money with a drive through and take-out service. Bars and nightclubs are another horrible industry to get into in this new economy, most will go out of business.

But don't worry, Caesar's will still honor your points.

[blake]

Question: Who suggested Easter?

Trump: I just thought it would be a beautiful timeline.


just a quick reminder that the president of the united states is learning disabled and mentally ill.

i just hope that someone cleared the easter start date with the coronavirus

[Dan Druff]

Ummm

The health care system isn't going to collapse. It's possible it could be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, but that's only because we have a big population and this might require an unprecedented number of hospital beds and equipment.

This is already happening in Italy, where they have socialized medicine.

Socialized medicine does NOT increase the amount of overall healthcare available, nor does it make it easier to see a doctor. On the contrary, it's known for making it more DIFFICULT to see a doctor and get tests, and the only benefit to the citizens is a lack of financial obligation to the individual.

"If only we had socialized care in the US, we'd be far better off" is one of the great myths of this entire situation. If we had socialized medicine, we'd be in the exact same spot -- or worse.

It will be interesting as a post-mortem to compare our outcome versus european western countries. Not sure how medical is handled in SK/Japan. You believe we'd be equal or worse but that is just your opinion.

Socialized medicine can be many things. It really depends on many factors. I've known more than 1 person in past year that has left the US because the medical system is fucking nuts here. If you have nice professional job (or equivalent income) then hey it works just fine.

We are already seeing the problems in Italy where they can't handle all the COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms, and the older ones are being left to die.

It's very tragic.

Could the same happen here? Yes.

But that would be a failure of pandemic preparedness (and a failure to react quickly enough), not a failure of the healthcare system.

The entire argument of, "This is why we need socialized medicine" is so bizarre, because availability of rapid care has NEVER been a strength of socialized systems. They are notoriously plagued by waiting lists and unavailability of tests/procedures. Many consider this an acceptable tradeoff to get everyone covered for "free", but it's absurd how some are now claiming this weakness doesn't exist, and is actually a strength.

Comparing death rates isn't an accurate way to assess things, anyway, because there are so many variables contributing to that.

The truth is that any system (socialized or privatized), which had a massive number of empty hospital beds and unused equipment for all of this time, would have been incredibly wasteful.

It's very reasonable that hospitals initially didn't have the room to care for a mass number of people infected by this.

It's unreasonable that some countries (including the US) didn't spring into action immediately and work diligently to rectify this before things got really bad. But as I said, that's a failure of government, not the healthcare system.

[Belly Buster]

It will be interesting as a post-mortem to compare our outcome versus european western countries. Not sure how medical is handled in SK/Japan. You believe we'd be equal or worse but that is just your opinion.

Socialized medicine can be many things. It really depends on many factors. I've known more than 1 person in past year that has left the US because the medical system is fucking nuts here. If you have nice professional job (or equivalent income) then hey it works just fine.

We are already seeing the problems in Italy where they can't handle all the COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms, and the older ones are being left to die.

It's very tragic.

Could the same happen here? Yes.

But that would be a failure of pandemic preparedness (and a failure to react quickly enough), not a failure of the healthcare system.

The entire argument of, "This is why we need socialized medicine" is so bizarre, because availability of rapid care has NEVER been a strength of socialized systems. They are notoriously plagued by waiting lists and unavailability of tests/procedures. Many consider this an acceptable tradeoff to get everyone covered for "free", but it's absurd how some are now claiming this weakness doesn't exist, and is actually a strength.

Comparing death rates isn't an accurate way to assess things, anyway, because there are so many variables contributing to that.

The truth is that any system (socialized or privatized), which had a massive number of empty hospital beds and unused equipment for all of this time, would have been incredibly wasteful.

It's very reasonable that hospitals initially didn't have the room to care for a mass number of people infected by this.

It's unreasonable that some countries (including the US) didn't spring into action immediately and work diligently to rectify this before things got really bad. But as I said, that's a failure of government, not the healthcare system.

You can write the post mortem now. It's only partly to do with healthcare system. It's a lot to do with the political in-fighting, the fact it's an election year, federal vs state idealogical differences, and your sitting president being totally the wrong person to be in charge as this shit unravels.

I'd really like to be wrong on this but it feels like this is the perfect storm for you guys.

[Dan Druff]

Look the Las Vegas casinos are still going to be fucked.

After they re-open, do you really think most gamblers, shoppers, people who go to conventions, malls, restaurants, hookers, etc. will return?

Business will probably be off by half or more.

This recession may last for years.

Many of the Hotels in this country will go bankrupt and will close. They will be sold for a faction of their original value. Real estate everywhere will become cheap. Banks will not loan money to anyone. The restaurant industry will not survive, millions will lose their jobs. Most restaurants cannot make enough money with a drive through and take-out service. Bars and nightclubs are another horrible industry to get into in this new economy, most will go out of business.

Everything is going to recover at a different rate.

Disneyland will recover quickly, because it's a long-beloved brand and people will be itching to go once it's considered safe.

Same with sports. By the time this is over, there will be a huge appetite for sports. Sports fans are going through huge withdrawal right now. Like Disneyland, people may be skittish at first, but will quickly get over it.

Travel will recover, but more slowly. Airplanes and hotels will still freak people out a bit, and many won't have the money to travel for awhile.

Casinos will also have a slower recovery. People will be scared to be in crowds and to touch chips/machines which everyone else has touched. Also, there will be less disposable income. However, there will be many who will return simply because they've been jonesing to gamble all this time.

I think restaurants will recover more quickly than you would expect. People are going to be really tired of eating slop at home every night, especially given the limited ability to buy ingredients at the grocery store.

The cruise industry will have the hardest time. People now see cruises as floating disease centers. They will also fear being quarantined for weeks in their tiny stateroom if anything goes wrong -- almost like being in prison. That will take years to recover, and it may never quite go back to what it once was. However, memories are short, and people will return to old behaviors.

[gauchojake]

Too bad Phil Hartman was murdered he would have been the perfect Larry Kudlow.

[Daly]

Look the Las Vegas casinos are still going to be fucked.

After they re-open, do you really think most gamblers, shoppers, people who go to conventions, malls, restaurants, hookers, etc. will return?

Business will probably be off by half or more.

This recession may last for years.

Many of the Hotels in this country will go bankrupt and will close. They will be sold for a faction of their original value. Real estate everywhere will become cheap. Banks will not loan money to anyone. The restaurant industry will not survive, millions will lose their jobs. Most restaurants cannot make enough money with a drive through and take-out service. Bars and nightclubs are another horrible industry to get into in this new economy, most will go out of business.

But don't worry, Caesar's will still honor your points.

You should sell it all and buy gold and hide in a bunker. Buy high, sell low they say.

[Dan Druff]

We are already seeing the problems in Italy where they can't handle all the COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms, and the older ones are being left to die.

It's very tragic.

Could the same happen here? Yes.

But that would be a failure of pandemic preparedness (and a failure to react quickly enough), not a failure of the healthcare system.

The entire argument of, "This is why we need socialized medicine" is so bizarre, because availability of rapid care has NEVER been a strength of socialized systems. They are notoriously plagued by waiting lists and unavailability of tests/procedures. Many consider this an acceptable tradeoff to get everyone covered for "free", but it's absurd how some are now claiming this weakness doesn't exist, and is actually a strength.

Comparing death rates isn't an accurate way to assess things, anyway, because there are so many variables contributing to that.

The truth is that any system (socialized or privatized), which had a massive number of empty hospital beds and unused equipment for all of this time, would have been incredibly wasteful.

It's very reasonable that hospitals initially didn't have the room to care for a mass number of people infected by this.

It's unreasonable that some countries (including the US) didn't spring into action immediately and work diligently to rectify this before things got really bad. But as I said, that's a failure of government, not the healthcare system.

You can write the post mortem now. It's only partly to do with healthcare system. It's a lot to do with the political in-fighting, the fact it's an election year, federal vs state idealogical differences, and your sitting president being totally the wrong person to be in charge as this shit unravels.

I'd really like to be wrong on this but it feels like this is the perfect storm for you guys.

It's really not the healthcare system. While I'm against socialized medicine, I've been calling for major reform of the US healthcare system for years, so I'm not one of those "status quo is great" guys at all.

I agree with the rest. The US government hasn't handled this well, there's been a complete absence of a real plan, and the partisan fighting just won't stop.

It's extremely reprehensible that anyone is trying to insert non-coronavirus-related legislation into the emergency bills being discussed. These politicians should be ashamed of themselves.

And yes, Trump is the wrong guy to have in charge in a situation like this. He actually has certain strengths and did better in some areas than almost any other President would have done, but emergency management is a huge weakness of his. Part of this is because he's more of a "I want the big picture and I'll make a snap-decision" guy, rather than a careful, details-oriented guy. In some cases, being a President too obsessed with details can result in overthinking and making the wrong decision -- kind of a political version of poker's fancy-play-syndrome. However, this is a situation where every move needs a ton of analysis regarding both its impact on the short term, medium term, and long term. You can't just shoot from the hip.

I really wish Trump would just step back and let the experts run this matter, because he's just not good at it.

[Sanlmar]

Look the Las Vegas casinos are still going to be fucked.

After they re-open, do you really think most gamblers, shoppers, people who go to conventions, malls, restaurants, hookers, etc. will return?

Business will probably be off by half or more.

This recession may last for years.

Many of the Hotels in this country will go bankrupt and will close. They will be sold for a faction of their original value. Real estate everywhere will become cheap. Banks will not loan money to anyone. The restaurant industry will not survive, millions will lose their jobs. Most restaurants cannot make enough money with a drive through and take-out service. Bars and nightclubs are another horrible industry to get into in this new economy, most will go out of business.

Everything is going to recover at a different rate.

Disneyland will recover quickly, because it's a long-beloved brand and people will be itching to go once it's considered safe.

Same with sports. By the time this is over, there will be a huge appetite for sports. Sports fans are going through huge withdrawal right now. Like Disneyland, people may be skittish at first, but will quickly get over it.

Travel will recover, but more slowly. Airplanes and hotels will still freak people out a bit, and many won't have the money to travel for awhile.

Casinos will also have a slower recovery. People will be scared to be in crowds and to touch chips/machines which everyone else has touched. Also, there will be less disposable income. However, there will be many who will return simply because they've been jonesing to gamble all this time.

I think restaurants will recover more quickly than you would expect. People are going to be really tired of eating slop at home every night, especially given the limited ability to buy ingredients at the grocery store.

The cruise industry will have the hardest time. People now see cruises as floating disease centers. They will also fear being quarantined for weeks in their tiny stateroom if anything goes wrong -- almost like being in prison. That will take years to recover, and it may never quite go back to what it once was. However, memories are short, and people will return to old behaviors.

There will be casualties in each segment you reviewed.

Mortal wounds or simple bankruptcies.

There will be far fewer restaurants that’s for sure.

We just exited one of the best periods of employment, income, loose credit. Quite simply, there will now be far less of everything.

[Dan Druff]

Too bad Phil Hartman was murdered he would have been the perfect Larry Kudlow.

I feel Phil Hartman's death was not utilized enough as a cautionary tale of both "You don't marry crazy" and "You don't marry a drug addict".

[Sanlmar]

Too bad Phil Hartman was murdered he would have been the perfect Larry Kudlow.

I feel Phil Hartman's death was not utilized enough as a cautionary tale of both "You don't marry crazy" and "You don't marry a drug addict".

They are quite similar, Hartman and Kudlow

Is that a popular take?

[Dan Druff]

The Trump administration has stopped seizing the wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits of people who are in default on their federal student loans, an administration official confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday.

© Alex Brandon/AP Photo Education Secretary Betsy DeVos

The Education Department is putting a stop to collecting on defaulted federal student loans amid the coronavirus pandemic and ordering private collection firms to stop pursuing borrowers “until further notice," according to the official and a memo sent to the companies. The department plans to make the policy retroactive to March 13, the day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, the official said.

Bing COVID-19 tracker: Latest numbers by country and state
The new executive actions, which the Trump administration is expected to announce this week, provide a reprieve for the more than 9 million federal student loan borrowers who are in default on their debt. Borrowers default on those loans by failing to make a payment for roughly a year.
The decision to halt the debt collection comes as congressional Democrats, labor unions and consumer advocacy groups urged Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to hit pause during the pandemic on the sweeping powers that the federal government has to pursue borrowers.
Department officials have ordered the private companies it hires to collect defaulted loans to immediately stop calling borrowers, sending collection notices or taking steps to seize portions of their paychecks, according to a memo viewed by POLITICO.

“Private Collection Agencies shall cease all Administrative Wage Garnishment efforts,” a department official wrote in the message to the industry last week. The department’s restrictions, which still permit the collection companies to accept incoming calls from borrowers, are to remain in place “until further notice,” the message said.
The Education Department also plans to stop referring defaulted student loan accounts to the Treasury Department, which is responsible for executing the seizure of borrowers’ tax refunds and other federal benefits like Social Security payments.

The executive actions by the Trump administration come as Democrats and Republicans in Congress are fighting over how far the student debt relief provisions of the massive $2 trillion economic rescue package should go.
House Democrats’ massive stimulus proposal released on Monday would have forced the Education Department to suspend involuntary collections on federal student loans. The Senate bill would require the department to halt all monthly payments for six months, though it doesn’t explicitly reference the collection of defaulted loans.

GOP senators have argued that the six-month postponement provides adequate relief to borrowers during the coronavirus emergency, while Democrats are pushing to include at least $10,000 in debt cancellation for each loan borrower.

The Trump administration has already set the interest rates on all federally held student loans at zero percent and created a new forbearance option for any borrower who wants to pause payments for at least two months. Most borrowers have to request that option from their loan servicer, though the Education Department said it was automatically applying the benefit to borrowers who are already more than a month delinquent on their loans.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/de...cid=spartandhp


And so it begins.

Zeroing interest rates for awhile: Agree

Not collecting on federal loans right now: Agree

Permanent cancellation of any debt:

[Sidewinder]

Americans: absorb this information.

This is why you are fucked.

Ummm

The health care system isn't going to collapse. It's possible it could be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, but that's only because we have a big population and this might require an unprecedented number of hospital beds and equipment.

This is already happening in Italy, where they have socialized medicine.

Socialized medicine does NOT increase the amount of overall healthcare available, nor does it make it easier to see a doctor. On the contrary, it's known for making it more DIFFICULT to see a doctor and get tests, and the only benefit to the citizens is a lack of financial obligation to the individual.

"If only we had socialized care in the US, we'd be far better off" is one of the great myths of this entire situation. If we had socialized medicine, we'd be in the exact same spot -- or worse.

At what point do the billionaire owners of hospitals and the multi-millionaires that run them get some blame?

My subway has never once ran out of bread yet this geniuses ran out of masks and respirations? I'm ready to point some fingers at someone other than some gang of politicians that make everything worse.

[Dan Druff]

Ummm

The health care system isn't going to collapse. It's possible it could be overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases, but that's only because we have a big population and this might require an unprecedented number of hospital beds and equipment.

This is already happening in Italy, where they have socialized medicine.

Socialized medicine does NOT increase the amount of overall healthcare available, nor does it make it easier to see a doctor. On the contrary, it's known for making it more DIFFICULT to see a doctor and get tests, and the only benefit to the citizens is a lack of financial obligation to the individual.

"If only we had socialized care in the US, we'd be far better off" is one of the great myths of this entire situation. If we had socialized medicine, we'd be in the exact same spot -- or worse.

At what point do the billionaire owners of hospitals and the multi-millionaires that run them get some blame?

My subway has never once ran out of bread yet this geniuses ran out of masks and respirations? I'm ready to point some fingers at someone other than some gang of politicians that make everything worse.

I'm not sure about the supply of masks. There was some screwup there, but I don't fully understand who's at fault.

The respirator thing is again due to an unprecedented need for them. I don't blame anyone for that, but I do blame the government for the slow response to rectify it.