NYT needs to write an article regarding this funding as it is not available to anyone in any state as not a single governor has asked for these funds to be released.
Dear Governor Bryan,
I do not have your direct email but I am sure someone from this email will contact you and let you know of my concerns. I am sure you are aware that due to the coronavirus many businesses have been affected in St. Thomas and the USVI. We are one of these businesses. As you might be aware that funds have been authorized by the Trump Administration for the SBA to provide loans to businesses like mine due to the coronavirus but we need your help. Here is the link: https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-newsroom/press-releases-media-advisories/sba-provide-disaster-assistance-loans-small-businesses-impacted-coronavirus-covid-19
I called the the SBA this morning to apply for a loan and they told me that Governor Bryan has to request these funds be made available to the USVI businesses. According to the SBA, not a single Governor has asked that these funds be released. It makes little sense for the Trump administration to announce this program to find out that that no one can get this loan until the Governor of USVI asks that these funds be released to the USVI. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Socialism for owners, hard capitalism for workers.
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Democrats aren’t not the party of AOC as the New York Times bias flies over the bow of the ship. Yet they don’t support certain politics, they are neutral.
So what does this paper and what do democrats support?
If we had progressive policies. I’ll list them. There are five key goals. Higher Wages, Medicare for All, Climate response, Education, and ending legalized bribery in our politics.
If we had Medicare for all small businesses would be freed from directly worrying about providing medical. And all those customer service people who have none because they are worked under full time schedules would have access to medical and could seek treatment when needed.
If we had a party of AOC versus moderates we could actually deal with these issues facing us proactively instead of the Republican and Democratic way of saying we can’t pay for it.
Instead of loans we could actually be running a government that pays its bills if we taxed fairly and the wealthy paid their fair share instead of putting the burden on the rest of us. That way when situations like this occur it’s balanced out instead of causing catastrophic cascading affects potentially through society as those with less capital are the ones paying for everything.
Let me ask you this New York Times “Centrists”? If AOC didn’t exist and progressives weren’t here what would you do? Hand out loans and make a profit of the sickness? You think that’s a proper response to this?
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Speaking of sick workers not staying home...You know why some people are fearful? Because of boneheaded moves like this:
"News that a health care worker could have exposed students at the event last Friday night, a mixer for doctors and Dartmouth College students, swiftly reverberated on the nearby campus."--NYT
Can someone help me understand how a *healthcare worker* at Dartmouth, knowing he had the virus and expressly told to self-quarantine, *chose* to attend a busy event on a *college campus* ?!
Had this not been in the NYT, I would have thought it was an Onion article.
Thank gods this is not the proverbial "big one."* If it were, we would be in dire, as in existentially dire, shape. This man should be held accountable. Another person at the event is already sick. He was expressly told to quarantine and did not. He has now endangered many. What are the consequences for that?
----
*I'm assuming it's not based on how relatively slow the rate of spread and death is. In 1918, within hours of the war bond rally, people began dropping in epic numbers, as in thousands in a day. Within the day, they were dying. Within the week, Philly's main streets were lined with coffins ten deep, three wide, for blocks and blocks.
We still, thankfully, are not seeing anything like that but it sure isn't because of anything we're doing right; at every turn we demonstrate that we are not prepared.
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@AhBrightWings "Can someone help me understand how a *healthcare worker* at Dartmouth, knowing he had the virus and expressly told to self-quarantine, *chose* to attend a busy event on a *college campus* ?!"
Read "The Hot Zone". When faced with these situations, many people behave irrationally, or selfishly. It is important to account for this impulse in some when planning how to contain an outbreak.
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I am so sick of all the media attention about this virus!
I worked in healthcare for 34 years and retired 5 years ago.
Nobody seems to be reporting the details of who is getting so sick that they die.
Is anyone paying attention to the details of whose dying, like the people in the skilled nursing facility in Washington that were already so compromised that they required 24/7 nursing home care.
Why isn't the media reporting these important details as well as comparing the number of Corona virus deaths to the number of deaths from every day flu virus, which might help put this all in perspective?
My sense is that those details would tamp the current hysteria down and likely not sell as much advertising space in the media.
While it's certainly NOT fake news, it is grossly over blown and over reported.
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@Greg , I agree! Thank you for making this important point. I watched the BBC a few nights ago, and heard that the underlying conditions that could cause the deaths include diabetes, severe heart conditions, severe lung conditions like COPD and lung cancer, severely compromised immune systems; in other words, people who are medically fragile already.
It's a serious problem, and over 3,000 lives lost is horrifying. So little is known about the virus, and how it manifests in different people, so we're all anxious. But some detailed information about would help minimize panic.
@Greg Many of us don't have health insurance so we are terrified. Until we are all covered, I will absolutely be just as terrified of this as I am of the flu. As a retired health care professional, you have the time and means to work on getting all people insured. Please help those of us working 3 jobs who can't advocate for ourselves.
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There are also small businesses in international markets that are finding that trade fairs have been cancelled, potential customers are backing off, and orders are drying up. If the pandemic continues for any length of time, and nothing is done, many will have to lay off their employees and close their doors.
I was intrigued by the mention of interest free loans. Perhaps the category of eligible businesses should include those impacted by the coronavirus in other countries.
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As I have been saying for the past two months, we have a panic pandemic that reminds me of the movie, its a mad mad mad mad world. Like in that Hollywood, CA movie, there is a hidden pot of Gold and all the usual suspects are after it. Why did the golden state, CA declare a state of emergency when it was Tennessee that got hit by a tornado that has killed 25+ people with 1000s effected by destroyed property? Simple on the day that senator Schmmer got the release of a pot of gold of 8 billion dollars, the golden digger state has become the first in line to snatch the prize. Never seemed worried about the homeless crisis for so long.Why? there is no additional funding for it and CA does not get to choose who stays in the state and who leaves.
The concern for small businesses which have been thriving during the booming Trump economy have to go with the flow and do whatever it takes for the pass over of this man made crisis. Hope they saved for a rainy day when fear and panic has gripped the world.
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@Girish Kotwal Right on. Like they tell us working folk: save for a rainy day. Lose your job and health insurance? Too bad, didn't you save for a rainy day?
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@Girish Kotwal
Excellent perspective!!
Golden digger state indeed! Funny, but so true. We were just wondering today how much of the aid money will be stolen by evil, greedy corrupt people.
However, God sees! A person absolutely reaps exactly what he sows.
@Girish Kotwal
Tornadoes are not contagious.
CA pays more into the Federal coffers than any state in the nation and relies less on the government than other states. The State of Tennessee can declare an emergency; contact your representative.
There are working people in CA barely holding on as well. Financial hardship is not discriminatory or regional.
We are all in this virus together.
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Along with bills such as this Congress needs to find the money to pay for the COVID-19 testing for Americans
4
The United States has two factors that make us particularly susceptible to the coronavirus pandemic:
We have 44 million Americans without healthcare insurance. They don't seek medical help until they're very sick and then go to emergency rooms. Most people infected with coronavirus experience mild flu-like symptoms, so uninsured people will never see a doctor, but are still contagious.
Low wage workers rarely have paid sick leave. They live paycheck-to-paycheck and so go to work even when they're ill. This is true for many in the hospitality industry (e.g. restaurants, hotels). If they have coronavirus, hospitality industry workers will infect many people with whom they have contact, a perfect storm for spreading the pandemic.
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The consequences of this China virus have already created substantial difficulties for many people. Nevertheless, I think it is a mistake and extremely unfair for the government to provide subsidies to any of them, individuals or businesses.
If substantial difficulties end up being suffered by few persons and businesses, then many would be motivated to support such subsidies. But if this virus becomes a widespread phenomenon from which many tens of millions of people suffer medically and/or economically in a variety of ways, then subsidies simply could not be provided to all who have losses. We would simply have to accept that extremely costly damage has been inflicted on the nation, little different than the aftermath of a war. But if we rush to subsidize early sufferers, then when the damage becomes widespread, they will be the undeserved privileged beneficiaries of assistance that no one else will be able to get.
Thanks to the NYT for highlighting the need to start thinking out of the box when it comes to supporting our small businesses in this crisis and for pointing out the utterly inadequate response of our national leadership and traditional, conservative 'small business' organizations. As a founding member of Main Street Alliance I have testified in support of a national health care system, paid sick and family leave and increased minimum wage legislation. All that effort now seems more forward thinking than I ever imagined it might. I am co-owner of a small company located in New Jersey and I want readers to understand fully what a dislocation like this pandemic means to a company our size. Our weekly payroll is sixteen thousand dollars a week, our overpriced for-profit-health- insurance has been as high as 2000 a week, mortgage, business loan service, property taxes, utilities, business insurance another 4500 a week. I'll leave it your very capable readers to do the math and ask, with "very thin margins" when things are booming, how much do folks think we can bank for a rainy day never mind an idle month? I don't need a "low interest loan" unrelated to ongoing business no matter how well intended. If we don't want to see boarded up Main Streets in the recovery from this pandemic, Main Street is going to need direct grants and programs closer to unemployment and temporary disability for small businesses, not tax breaks and loans.
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A few thoughts with important small business implications. Physical cash is more of a disease transmission hazard than credit cards with tap and go activated. Hipster male employees absolutely can not wear face masks (m95) of design that will actually help. Same for customers. Regular Users of respiratory protection devices capable of precluding virus intrusion - those employed in the chemical industry for example - realize that one must be young and healthy and lungs already in good shape to don that gear for long. Smokers are out. Vapers are out. See where this is going? “To go” single use packaging can not be ruled out as a transmission vector. Drive ins don’t necessarily preclude transmission. Door handles and valves: who cleans them and how often? (Customers might need vinyl or butyl rubber gloves donned before store entry if things get serious. There are no data yet on this subject.) Riding one’s own bicycle has certain advantages over relying on parking attendants and taxis and Uber or Lyft or even mass transit.
1
My dad was a small business owner. I worked at his business through high school and college. Like Mr. Day, Dad's business operated close to the margins. If there had been a large coronavirus-like outbreak early in his business career, I would not have gone to college. Thus I would been one of the millions of people whose lives would have been dramatically changed by a, what would be, a long forgotten event. (Everyone knows about WWl; how many people know about the Spanish Flu that killed just as many people?)
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@Thucydides Probably most people, I would imagine. The Spanish Flu wasn't an obscure, forgotten event. That's why people have been worried about another outbreak like it for quite some time.
3
This response will fall into the category of a Devil's advocate type of comment. It is time to closely examine the nature and outcome of quarantines. That includes an analysis of the Chinese approach and comparing it to the way in which we are going about it.
Unfortunately, our approach may be the most expensive and, in the long run, the least effective means possible. The current practice is to identify and quarantine all persons exposed to an index case. That will definitely slow and hopefully abolish the spread from that case. If this is done at the very beginning it might be effective. However, if the disease is easily communicated person to person there will rapidly develop a widespread pool of cases with minimal symptoms. Then, it will be too late for this approach. It will be an endless "whack-a-mole" type of problem. It will be near impossible to track down and "self quarantine" all the contacts.
The Chinese approach is authoritarian and regressive. It may be the most effective. An entire region that contained all the cases was quarantined. No one allowed in or out. Then, everyone in the region was also quarantined essentially to home arrest to locally control the spread. At that point, they wait for the disease to burn itself out. It apparently requires a human host. The Chinese sought to deprive the virus any contact with uninfected humans. It appears to be working if we can trust their information.
Neither choice is appealing.
4
I manage a 17 person non profit that has no sick time for our p/t workers who work from 5 to 20 hours per week. The safety of my staff and the public we serve (in close contact, non essential) is more important than anything else. It’s only the cost that has prevented us from having sick leave. On an emergency basis I got approval for giving each staff member the ability to take the equivalent of two weeks off paid (no doctors note) for anything that might be contagious, so they don’t have to risk losing money to do the right thing and stay out. Already - almost over a third of my staff has or is recovering from a respiratory illness, and one person has used the benefit. The staff and I meet in a few days to discuss our future path. I look forward to when this is mute and we close down when the schools close down. Many of my staff is high risk because of age.
19
Staffing is a concern in most companies. I'm a recently retired RN. On the rare days when I attempted to call in sick, I was inevitably begged "Can't you just take something and come on in to the hospital? We're short staffed as it is!"
If there's one positive thing that results from this potential pandemic, it will be the acknowledgement that the USA must establish healthcare for all its citizens. No one should have to juggle their health against their ability to pay.
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@Sunny
Staffing is an issue because it’s profits and metrics driving it. I’ve seen it my whole life in the US. Cut the staff to the bone, cut some more and then disaster strikes or something happens and hire people.
America chose a path where people are literally expendable. Democrats jumped on board for 40 years and assisted. We’re fighting for the soak of our society. Those extensibility attitude is directly related to our economic system of profits over people.
The current moderates embrace Profits over people. Every time they say we can’t afford it. The party of AOC would change that. That’s what we are fighting for.
People matter more than profits. That’s the choice facing our society.
4
Are those Trump people that stupid? Trump has had trouble borrowing money--think how hard it is for a small business with marginal profitability.
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@Terry Lowman
Moderate democrats do the same. Look at student loan crisis. Instead of having a proper education system they run it through the profit motive and traded companies. Instead of just providing infrastructure out right that supports civilization.
Let the capitalist make the junk and loan money for stuff. Certain things need to be essentials of society and function all the time to maintain it.
5
Uncle's is a great game store, hope they do ok.
12
@SeattleGuy Yes, it is a great store. This location is in a Seattle suburb and has a great community. I am concerned for all our small businesses affected by the Covid 19 outbreak. The expansion of the small-business loan program is sorely needed as a cushion to make sure our great small businesses can stay in business.
10
Guess you shouldn't have voted for Trump. If you did, I have no sympathy. Some countries have to learn the hard way.
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@Dave
Please remember that millions of us did not vote for him. We worked our hearts out to prevent this presidency for the very reasons we're now seeing. Disease is no discriminator of political persuasion, so we too will pay the price and it's beyond bitter and galling that so many of us warned of what the ultimate outcome would be if a man this criminally inept and corrupt were elected and were ignored. I did every single day of the campaign on various news sites and I raised the specter of how he would perform in a scenario much like this.
We do not deserve this, but like you, I hope this serves as an urgent wake-up call.
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@Dave
With due respect for the Americans, they have an Electoral College that gave Trump his victory. The majority of Americans chose another. Trump did not win a majority.
Believe the vote in November will be a popular vote, rather like a beauty contest of sorts. Their Electoral College, which is made up of live humans, will decide at the end of the game who is president.
At least that is how I understand it to be.
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@Dave
"Guess you shouldn't have voted for Trump."
We didn't. The Electoral College did. Quick. Name one just one of the electors that voted for Trump.
3
If they were large corporations or red state farmers we would bail them out with generous checks. Too bad if you voted for Trump unless you are in his circle of hypocrisy.
41
@Ted
I agree. But stick in the word "welfare" between "generous" and "checks". See how these Trump voters like being mocked by being "welfare queens" for being down on their luck - bad luck created by the man they voted for.
4
Corona virus testing and treatment should be free to all including those without insurance.
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@Judy
Nothing is free right? How can we afford it? Where are the democratic moderates saying this?
Sounds absurd and hateful doesn’t it. Profits over people.
Had this administration acted promptly and appropriately, we need not be in such dire straits. Now that we are, let's learn from this.
1. Universal healthcare should now be non negotiable. If we're as hard hit as other nations, we're going to be in very deep trouble. With so many living paycheck to paycheck, staying home while sick isn't an option.
We are barbarians on this issue. Every other country has managed this and it's time we DEMANDED universal coverage. Enough is enough. Lives have always been at stake but we now may see many die of a manageable disease for lack of comprehensive care.
2. Bring home manufacturing. Nearly all medical supplies and drugs are made in China and India. When their workforce is diminished it affects world markets in the very way we are witnessing.
3. Impose buying limits to forestall hoarding. No one should have been allowed to purchase hundreds of masks, the entire shelf of hand sanitizer etc.
4. Make all testing free and readily available the moment a virus appears. If it costs money, the most vulnerable among us won't avail themselves of it because they literally can't afford to.
5. Pay living wages. Many Americans will be uniquely susceptible because they cannot afford well visits or healthy food. This virus will affect the poor and ill disproportionately.
6. When in doubt, quarantine early and consistently.
7. Elect a capable, ethical, informed,and educated president capable of handling crises. Who's at the helm matters.
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@AhBrightWings I agreed with everything you posted except one! Which is living wage. What does that mean? Is that mean peoples can have multiples kids and being a single parent? Impossible. What we need is to educate kids not to get impregnated too early or marry the wrong person. $15/hr is not enough to support yourself and your kids. Wake people!
3