samhexum

We've also seen that big cats and house cats can catch the virus. What about other animals? I'm hoping turtles can, too. I have a particular one in Kentucky in mind.

Yes!

NYC politicians haven’t begun to face facts about coronavirus fiscal crisis By Nicole Gelinas April 22, 2020 Neither Mayor Bill de Blasio nor the City Council understands the scope of the current fiscal crisis: a potential 25 percent loss in the city’s private-economy jobs base and an unknown contraction in Gotham’s tax base. The mayor is closing swimming pools, and the council is planning drastic new restrictions on private-sector jobs. Instead, they should concentrate on four steps to bring the economy — and people — back. New York has seen sudden, massive crises before — twice already in the new century, on 9/11 and after the 2008 financial crisis. This isn’t like those. In modern history, New York has never lost more than 6 percent of its private-sector jobs. This time, with major parts of the private economy, from restaurants to Broadway, shut down entirely, and layoffs trickling up to higher-income workers, the city could lose a million jobs, or one of every four. Nor does New York benefit from long-term trends that once worked in its favor. After 9/11 and the financial crisis, young people and immigrants still flocked to city living. For the past three years, the city has been losing population. New York benefited from relentless global tourism. But nobody knows when borders will reopen — or how consistently they’ll stay open. Of a projected $66 billion in tax revenue for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1, the city, based on job and income losses, is likely to see a loss of more than $10 billion, twice as bad as after the financial crisis, even after accounting for inflation, and far more than any elected official is estimating. (The remainder of the city budget is funded by state and federal grants.) The plummeting of sales, income and hotel taxes is self-explanatory. But the city’s traditionally stable $31 billion property-tax intake could shrink, as owners ask for reassessments in light of the cessation of substantial economic activity. Raise taxes — as the city did after 9/11 and 2008? Sure, and give tens of thousands of people who have decamped an excuse not to come back. So what should the city do? First, the City Council and the mayor should announce a holiday on sales taxes through the end of the 2020 calendar year; the state should follow. In doing so, the city and state will forfeit revenue, yes. But they will also send a signal to businesses of all sizes: Once New York is open again, diners and shoppers will enjoy a nearly 9 percent discount on their purchases. For now, the city and state would forfeit largely theoretical tax revenue. Longer term, the state’s congressional delegation should partner with hard-hit red states, including Louisiana and Florida, to ask the federal government to fund a sales-tax holiday, hopefully through next year. Second, the city should eliminate its tax on commercial rent, too, and forfeit another theoretical $1 billion. The city’s retailers and restaurateurs can’t afford this burden. How to pay? Third, lawmakers must strip down the city’s five-year, $79 billion capital budget. New York can’t move forward with its plan to build four new jails in four separate boroughs at a cost of nearly $9 billion, for example. Rebuilding jails on Rikers would be cheaper and faster and also doable — and more humane for inmates. Last, Gotham must freeze government wages. The wage bill, pre-COVID-19, was slated to rise from $30.1 billion for the current fiscal year to $32.3 billion by 2024. New York can no longer afford such increases. Municipal workers can’t be spared the carnage the economy is suffering. The city has no choice but to lay off civilian workers who can’t work at home, such as hundreds of school nurses, and hire them back later. That’s what expanded federal unemployment insurance is for. None of these actions will solve the problems New York faces. The city (and state) need billions, and potentially tens of billions, in federal aid. It’s either that, or risk defaulting on our municipal debt as we protect basic services such as policing and sanitation. No elected official is showing he understands these realities. The mayor still hasn’t called for a wage freeze. The City Council is considering bills that harm small business, such as a bill requiring employers with more than 100 workers to pay their “essential employees” a huge hourly hazard-pay premium. Nice idea —but the stores will close. The New York that reopens will be different than the New York that closed down — and the city must acknowledge these realities. Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of City Journal Why New York City needs a property-tax holiday By Nicole Gelinas April 26, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council support rent moratoriums for tenants impacted by COVID, and stores and restaurants with no income have already stopped paying rent. Yet the city is silent on a looming issue: Come July, does Gotham expect to collect taxes from landlords whose income is plummeting? The city’s $93.5 billion budget is based on trickle-up economics. People make money and spend it on apartment rent, as well as at stores, restaurants, hair salons. Property owners benefit, as activity pushes up the value of their investments; in turn, they pay taxes. Many owners won’t be able to meet the July 1 due date. Even if the city starts to open mid-May, retail and restaurant owners will face huge challenges: Will customers sit close to strangers? Will commuters be back to support retail? When will borders open, bringing tourists? Meanwhile, the city charges loan-shark interest to late payers: 7 to 18 percent, compounded daily. Jan Lee, whose family has owned tenement property in Chinatown for generations, rents to rent-stabilized residential and market-rate commercial tenants. His 22 residential tenants paid the April rent, but “May is going to be a very tough month.” And commercial tenants aren’t paying. Lee rents to two restaurants, including one world-famous Chinese restaurant, in operation for five decades. “April came,” Lee said. “He told me. ‘I am not able to pay.’  ” Neither restaurant is paying. Attempts at delivery-only have failed, as workers have a hard time getting into Manhattan, and commercial food-supply chains are breaking down. “It doesn’t behoove me to chase a restaurant out,” Lee says. “No one is going to fill a 2,000-foot space.” But small owners are expected to come up with cash, well over $50,000, even for modest properties. “Owners should not, when they roll up the gate, be met with bills,” says Lee. “The number one cost is going to be property taxes, 25 to 35 percent of gross rent roll,” says another owner, Joanna Wong. If the city is draconian, smaller owners will bounce, as they did in the 1970s. Especially owners with modest, rent-stabilized portfolios, who need the commercial income to subsidize apartments. City Hall should set up a deferral program for owners who demonstrate hardship, as downtown Councilwoman Margaret Chin suggested Friday. Tax payments would be delayed, not canceled, with owners resuming payments next year, in installments, with no interest. If things aren’t better next year, the city and owners will have to revisit the process, and property bills must start to come down, anyway, as the city revises values downward. “The city doesn’t have any money,” one city official said of this idea last week. With state approval for this aid, though, the city could borrow against next year’s resumption of revenues, through a new Federal Reserve program. Again, if next year isn’t better, everyone will have to deal — but it won’t help recovery to squeeze cash owners don’t have. Officials should also stop implying that residents don’t have to pay rent. State Sens. Michael Gianaris and Julia Salazar are pushing such a movement. “I sympathize with our tenants,” says Joyce Holland, who manages small properties in Manhattan and Brooklyn. But “income … is needed to run the property.” She’s willing to be flexible with one tenant who may need to break her lease and with those who have lost income. But the rhetoric doesn’t help. The point of Congress approving extraordinary unemployment benefits is so most people can pay most bills, avoiding broader economic collapse. Longer-term, the city faces grave uncertainty: At $30.1 billion annually, the property tax is its biggest tax. A botched recovery will harm the value of that property, as would-be New Yorkers shun badly managed density. Even after six weeks, the mayor still can’t figure out ways for New Yorkers to exercise on open streets, or how to help the homeless who have taken over subways — not good signs for future revenues. Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor of City Journal. Twitter: @NicoleGelinas

NYC coronavirus cases reach over 150,000 as state death toll nears 17,000 More than 400 Big Apple residents succumbed to confirmed or suspected cases of the coronavirus Saturday into Sunday, raising the combined death toll to nearly 17,000, City Hall statistics show. A total of 16,673 New Yorkers have now been lost as of 2 p.m. Sunday, a jump of 403 from the last update at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. That unthinkable tally includes 11,460 confirmed coronavirus fatalities, and 5,213 “probable” cases in which the deceased exhibited telltale signs of the disease, but weren’t officially tested, according to the city Department of Health. Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier Sunday announced a confirmed statewide death toll of 16,966. Unlike the five boroughs, Albany does not yet include “probable” deaths in its public accounting. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the city rose to 153,204 on Sunday — up 2,628 from Saturday. MORE: Schumer: Bootleg coronavirus test kits pose 'disaster' for recovery efforts

Panic-buying grips North Korea amid rumors of Kim Jong Un’s demise Can you imagine how hard it'll be to schedule an Instacart delivery there? Residents in the North Korean capital have resorted to panic-buying amid reports that controversial leader Kim Jong Un is gravely ill or dead, according to a report. Store shelves in Pyongyang were being cleaned out of everything from liquor to laundry detergent, canned fish to cigarettes in recent days ( https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/what-is-essential-and-what-is-not.157101/ )— as conflicting reports continue to surface about the portly dictator’s possible demise. Helicopters have also been flying low over the capital, and trains in North Korea and northern China “have been disrupted,” the outlet reported. Speculation that Kim was gravely ill or dead was fueled by his notable absence from a highly touted celebration of the republic’s 88th anniversary — and subsequent reports over the weekend that the leader’s train had been at a standstill for days. Despite an assertion from South Korean leaders Sunday that Kim was “alive and well,”his fate remains uncertain. On Saturday, Sen. Lindsay Graham told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro he would be “shocked” if Kim was still alive, given his unusual disappearance in recent days. Kim did a similar disappearing act in 2014 when he went several weeks without being seen, sparking rumors of a military coup. When he reemerged officials reported that he had been recovering from surgery.

Don't you mean an insatiable penguin?

BUT CAN HE EVER LIVE UP TO THE NAME...? https://thumb-p3.xhcdn.com/a/ZPNPK9bqtMY7oNJIpY5xbg/000/129/751/853_450.gif https://assets.daily.squirt.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ro9ym1472611828-reposting-vintage-hot-and-hairy-stud-chad-johnson.gif https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/-CjJ-zSHpilVtGYcYiTtGEqMs1vXlv0YcHqnqugShp_Ka6fANmkwDCyKFiAQ2uMEFrt86LBwEBSBFNZWkQeWoEPULaiVJOzQ9oKTqDmp7qVSmcBb3qmACNYxtTR7faXv0_KOMuE AND JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT... https://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljexw4iWc01qfn6lbo1_500.gif https://thumb-p2.xhcdn.com/a/Y0nLbMqYF-vtTfV50meF8A/000/326/398/922_450.gif https://x.imagefapusercontent.com/u/rocketsotherside-1/7998233/837547720/gif13.gif https://24.media.tumblr.com/64a5572c6ca150ad7c3e5fa4c67b9cf1/tumblr_mwvd1wZNWr1sfs461o3_400.gif https://78.media.tumblr.com/7b1473d4e5bbb87acd07ac249e101f26/tumblr_mwvd1wZNWr1sfs461o1_400.gif https://31.media.tumblr.com/6bb7fc9a6ea5c86e68ccf840a8988819/tumblr_mwvd1wZNWr1sfs461o4_400.gif

Probably coke.

I find him smug and annoying and not particularly funny, plus I don't appreciate anyone who rips off Valerie Harper for the name of his sitcom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV6jFPiqslw

No, but if you pack & ship it correctly, your food can. Do you have a website where we can place orders? :cool:

Ricky Gervais was one of the guests this week, which meant automatic deletion of the episode from my DVR without watching it.

I got fresh strawberries from Peapod Friday morning. I paid a little more than I wanted to, but at least they were big and looked yummy. They went right into my fridge. I went to have some this morning, almost exactly 48 hours after I’d put them in the fridge, and I bit into one… and found it frozen. As were the others. I had to leave them out on the counter for awhile. They must have been frozen with liquid nitrogen.

We need a yawn emoji.

Nick Cordero could be turning a corner in his battle against coronavirus. His wife, Amanda Kloots, announced on her Instagram Story Friday that her 41-year-old husband has tested negative twice for COVID-19, which could mean the novel virus has left his system. “Good news, dada had two negative COVID tests. Yay!” the former Radio City Rockette told her followers as she held their son, Elvis. “Which means we think the virus is out of his system and now we’re just dealing with recovery and getting his body back from all the repercussions of the virus.” She added, “But COVID is two negative tests, which means hopefully the virus is out of Nick. Thank god.” The Broadway actor has been unconscious on a ventilator at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for more than three weeks, though Kloots said this week that he’s “making progress” in his recovery after he had his leg amputated last weekend. On Thursday, however, Kloots said Cordero should’ve “woken up by now.” “The doctors said that there was nothing on the MRI that would show that he won’t wake up, which is amazing. We are so happy about that because that was a big worry for all of us,” Kloots said. “However, he hasn’t woken up and it’s been 12 days out of sedation.”

We had a milk machine next to the cigarette machine in our building. The last building that I knew of that had a milk machine was one I delivered papers to when was in college.

Enjoyable new show on HGTV. The Property Brothers (whom I don't usually watch) help a celeb surprise somebody special in their life by transforming a space for them whilst they're away. First up was Brad Pitt turning a backyard storage shack into a guest house for a makeup artist who's worked with him for 29 years on 40 films and is like a sister to him. Next was Melissa McCarthy redoing the house of her aunt and uncle. Next will be Viola Davis, presumably doing something for somebody who helped her get away with murder.

Well, I watched the I LOVE LUCY episode. I didn't think I could be disappointed, but I was. MAJORLY! At the start of the episode Eric McCormack said "WILL & GRACE is shot before a live studio audience." Well, I figured he'd made a grammatical error while giving a preview of the episode's story line and had meant to say "WILL & GRACE ARE shot in front of a live studio audience." You can imagine the letdown... I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, waiting for some awesome climax, but alas... : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( > : { ( >