Comments

1

I have plans for how to watch really cool fireworks, but it involves Canada Day, a small town in BC that most people have only seen on film or TV, and really cool passports.

Good thing I'm already immune, eh?

2

Oh, and, sadly, we do get the Blue Angels, so your dogs and cats will go crazy in August.

3

Starbucks can afford to pay its rent and its landlords should be disgusted and should unanimously make them pay their goddamn rent.

5

Although odious, no one size fits all on the Starbucks requests. It could be good business sense to negotiate a reduction, as Starbucks does bring in customers and would in turn help nearby businesses.

This is a long term evaluation the landlords will make, not a knee jerk slap down by novice non-business people.

6

@4 Yep.

The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying
The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/

White Supremacists Plot to Use COVID-19 as Agent of Bioterrorism
Federal law enforcement learned that neo-Nazis encouraged spreading germs by spraying saliva from bottles at police and non-White people.
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/white-supremacists-plot-use-covid-19-agent-bioterrorism

8

@5 you need to read up on the situation. A large portion of those receiving the letter have stated they have no plans to offer concessions. Starbucks has a lot of money (nearly 6 billion cash and cash equivalent) and can weather a year of paying rent. According to filings they have a $1.25 billion rent obligation for the term they are asking relief. They can afford it. The shareholders are going to have to suck it up. SBUX closed up 2.25% (1.90) @ 77.76, current market cap $90.83 billion.

9

@8: Yeah, ok, but that doesn't negate what I said.

10

Wait. I thought all landlords were greedy jerks and rent is theft? Isn’t Starbucks just standing in solidarity? But then again big companies like Starbucks should be punished so does that mean landlords are ok in this situation? It’s all so confusing.

11

@4 This black woman was murdered by someone with COVID-19 spitting on her.

The Tragic Death Of Belly Mujinga And The Psychology Of Spitting In The Coronavirus Era: Expert says the act of spitting at another human is a psychological assault as well as a biological one.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-tragic-death-of-belly-mujinga-and-the-psychology-of-spitting-in-the-coronavirus-era_n_5ebd8928c5b6ae72a1ffe628

12

@11
Macbeth - It's my favorite Shakespeare.
"Out, out damned spot!"
Which is what we're all saying as we wash our hands!

14

@13 Are you really going to pretend the racial disparities in this country (from birth to death) do not affect who gets sick and who dies (who is at most risk and how people are treated when they seek medical care)?

Just as this country is small percentage of the world's population with the most cases and the most deaths, the black (and latina) population(s) are a small percentage of this country's population with the most cases and deaths. You need to face facts and reality and the truth about what is happening here and keep take your condescending mansplaining and lecturing and shove it up your ass. This is not about epidemiology or virology, this is about how the system of white supremacism this country exists on harms black people and other non-white people by design.

There are literally thousands of sources of information about this. Though you have to be willing to face reality, educate yourself, and acknowledge what is happening and why.

Covid-19 Is Killing Black People Unequally—Don't Be Surprised
The coronavirus pandemic is further exposing a gulf in the health statistics of white and black Americans that has existed for decades.
https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-coronavirus-racial-disparities/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/08/what-white-americans-can-learn-about-racism-coronavirus/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/04/racism-us-healthcare-coronavirus-african-americans

COVID-19 Killing African Americans at Shocking Rates
— Wildly disproportionate mortality highlights need to address longstanding inequities
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86266

COVID-19 Has Infected and Killed Black People At Alarming Rates. This Data Proves It.
It’s time for “an ethical reckoning.”
https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/04/covid-19-has-infected-and-killed-black-people-at-alarming-rates-this-data-proves-it/

Black communities account for disproportionate number of Covid-19 deaths in the US, study finds
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/health/coronavirus-african-americans-study/index.html

Covid-19: How racism kills
https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/covid-19-how-racism-kills

15

America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further
The coronavirus is coursing through different parts of the U.S. in different ways, making the crisis harder to predict, control, or understand.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/patchwork-pandemic-states-reopening-inequalities/611866/

The relevant part regarding racism and the part it plays in this shit show:
III. The Patchwork Legacy

The current patchwork is not random. Nor is it solely the consequence of America’s actions in 2020. It has emerged from a much older, deeper patchwork.

16

@13 - Without all the heated rhetoric, it's pretty simple:

Viruses attack vulnerable populations with poorer health.
Racial minorities are populations vulnerable to poorer health.

17

*Some racial minorities...

18

And / or due to a history of systemic racism in our country, African American, Latino and immigrant populations work in higher percentages in the service industry, warehouse fulfillment, meat packing industry, and public service sector (law enforcement, public transit, utility workers, healthcare, and other essential occupations). People in those lines of work are more likely to get exposed to Covid19 than predominately white middle and upper class office workers who have been working from home for 2 months.

19

@18: Yes, but you also need to include poor whites in service industries, warehouse, meat packing, etc. who are more vulnerable than people of color (such as Indian and Asian software engineers) who work from home.

Lets's be thorough and intellectually honest here.

20

Hey guys, just moved to Seattle (Kent) from Cali. Don’t worry, I’m one of the good ones, from Visalia (GO BOOTLICKERS). Looking to make some new MAGA homies, HMU, I have a go fund me So I can buy a new Toyota Tacoma to own the libs.

21

The virus is more likely to afflict the poor. The poor are more likely to be black/brown than white and will be forever unless income inequality is addressed. Rich capitalists love that most of you view this first and foremost as a struggle among races rather than a class struggle. The great diversion continues.

23

The Portland plan "puts in place a 1% marginal income tax on the wealthiest residents and a 1% tax on gross profits for the region’s biggest businesses". This is much better than anything any Seattle council member has proposed. The big question is whether it would be legal. Both taxes are flat, which means that from that perspective, it should be OK. You can have big deductions (many businesses have them) so I think that is OK. The only question is whether the city itself can pass a tax like that, or whether it would have to be done by the state.

25

24 doesn't grasp the fundamental principle of marginal utility- even as he chirps about macro 101.

26

@24 you cut taxes on the lower class and renters in the middle class. They tend to spend all that money. You don't cut taxes on business or the upper middle and upper classes. They always save and invest it, which causes external money flows.


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