Coronavirus SZN Forever

[CatoTheElder]

If I remember correctly, my roommate in college was a masters degree student in geology which is a field that gets recruited heavily by the oil industry and thus my main source, most companies bought up patents from third parties in order to keep tech suppressed while oil was still a massively profitable enterprise and eventually unfurl once they’ve bled the earth dry of the resource.

[bojanglesman]

We're all gonna die.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/can-the-coronavirus-be-spread-through-farts/

[reuben]

I would bet all my money that if these tacticool faggots ever got in a firefight, they would excrement themselves and run away crying.

Can you imagine what would have happened if protesters showed up to BLM demonstrations like this.  All my money again that these doofs think taking a knee during a song is inappropriate activism.   

[Johnny English]

Taken from an SEO/digital marketing expert I know on Facebook. I doubt that they wrote it, or at least not on FB, as it appears to use Reddit's version of markup, but it seems pretty legit and is sourced:

This isn't conspiracy theory land, this is paid political advocacy driving these unsafe, "astroturf " protests.

If you're on the conservative spectrum in a swing state you are being manipulated by OneClickPolitics and Ujoin - two advertising agencies that have been identified as the source of the "reopen" campaigns.

To be clear, these are paid political efforts designed to out people in danger by violating the quarantine efforts to benefit Donald Trump and his party in the coming election.

They are encouraging innocent people fall for their campaign and risk death and Illness.

Details:This isn't any conspiracy, it's just good old fashioned American business. There are indeed two campaigns:

* One using [OneClickPolitics](https://oneclickpolitics.com/):

**PA, WI, OH, MN, IA** - OCP's branding is displayed proudly all over these sites, just look at the source and the stunningly obvious "contact your legislator" custom site widget. Seems to use uniform CMS. Ohio is *not an outlier* - they just altered their CMS presentation.

* One using [UJOIN](https://ujoin.co/):

**MD, NC, NJ** - these were harder to ferret out, but they all use similar formats & different CMS They try to link directly to CHANGE.ORG, and up their "blog" when data can't be autofilled. These "blogs" cross link with one-another. These sites seem to have a hard time dealing with privacy extensions, unlike OneClickPolitics.

* Unknown data collection/provenance:

**OK** (OCOPA is a real but intensely partisan think tank, the reopenok site is, however, very new and looks to be aping the other sites instead of relying any CMS), **WA** (this is a true enigma - if someone really wanted their sites to be "grassroots" looking they would all look like they were designed by script kiddies that time-traveled from 1998). Hilariously, whatever software they are using in WA links directly to [this reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/…/i_simply_cannot_believe_…/fnstpyl/…) as part of their "truth news feed" - so it's not hand-curated.

---

I encourage you to read and examine the sites, mission statements, and services offered by One Click Politics, and UJOIN. They go out of their way to expound that they are masters at pretending to be grass-roots movements that can conjure up seemingly organic support at the drop of a check.

To quote [OCP](https://oneclickpolitics.com/):
>Are you launching a new coalition or association and need more members now? Want 10,000 signatures for your petition from residents of a certain state? Are you battling a legislative issue in a location where you don't have enough advocates, who are constituents of the legislators you are attempting to influence? Or would you like to impress your boss by reporting a 15% growth in membership in less than 90 days? If your answer is yes, keep reading!

>OneClick Acquisition is your solution for generating immediate legislative actions from new supporters within mere days. We deliver “on demand, organic supporters” through our proprietary digital ad placement technology.

So again, not a conspiracy - but definitely astroturfing. The real question though, isn't who is doing this. It's can they be definitively financially linked to these two professional astroturfing firms?

(probably not)

Both firms tout their ability to cycle news stories, facebook posts, twitter rampages, and texting so as to appear "grassroots" and not seem as if they are disseminating copy-pasted material.

And yes, there are many, many more professional astroturfing firms out there, willing to take whatever check comes across their desk in order to influence public opinion and legislation.

I suggest that if any of you want to stick it to OCP and UJOIN, take screenshots of their bogus sites, so that they'll have to diversify their tactics in the future.

In conclusion, this isn't something necessarily coming from ESLEWHERE. It's a critical flaw in our political system. Private corporations can legally masquerade as normal citizens who are concerned about their "constitutional rights" being infringed upon by <fill in the blank> and you don't know who wrote the check.

Here's the thing: people on both sides of the aisle are going to be screwed by these so-called protests. People are going to **die** if this takes hold. This isn't a right vs left thing. This is a normal people vs big-data-government-lobbyist thing. Even your racist uncle who may have gone to one of these protests may be hurt by this. It's not you (if you disagree with him) vs him, or you vs his political views. It's normal people vs THEM.

THEM isn't your governor, or your representative or senator. THEM is whoever hired these ghouls. Also these ghouls themselves.

Wash your hands, wear a facemask, and P.S.:

https://i.imgur.com/BBb1ngJ.jpg

EDIT: I would be remiss if I did not take the time before logging out to mention that the states targeted by OCP - pennsylvania, wisconson, iowa, minnesota, and ohio are presidential election swing states. Make of that what you will.

[dcm1602]

Taken from an SEO/digital marketing expert I know on Facebook. I doubt that they wrote it, or at least not on FB, as it appears to use Reddit's version of markup, but it seems pretty legit and is sourced:

While this is seemingly possible

People that hate Trump are rallying against quarantine too. Some of the most liberal anti Trump people I know have absolutely had it with quarantine and the government. And these are people living in NY (who don't work in Healthcare as these people basically universally want people to stay the freak home)

[Johnny English]

Governor Brian P. Kemp @GovKemp
Apr 20

Due to favorable data & more testing, gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24 with Minimum Basic Operations. #gapol

Interesting take on this move by the Governor of Georgia:

You really want to know what I think about rescinding shelter in place in the way this order is structured?

It's about making sure people can't file unemployment. It isn't about saving lives, certainly. It's not about the peak of the curve. I think lots of people are going to ignore the governor and stay home regardless. This isn't a decision being driven by epidemiology. It's the rawest and most lethal of political decisions, and it will kill people.

Kemp is looking forward to the fiscal discussion in 2021 and 2022, when all of this really starts to hit. He got elected by out-yahooing the field. His base has been trained to view government spending as a crime, and he knows that he becomes politically vulnerable to an attack if he raises taxes. He is not capable of delivering a nuanced message around necessity, because his base doesn't know how to hear it.

The state is staring at one million unemployment applications. It probably cannot pay those over six months. The unemployment fund has a reserve of about $2.6 billion. Last week it paid out about $42 million -- which is about three times as much as it usually does. That figure will double in two weeks, give or take. Maybe more.

At that rate, the fund is empty in about 28 weeks. Probably less. Even if things improve later, that fund will run dry in a year, because unemployment isn't going to return to 5 percent for a long time.

Georgians did the Kansas thing a couple of years ago and instituted a hard constitutional limit on income taxes of 6 percent. It cannot go higher without amending the state constitution. What that means is that there's no easy mechanism for the state to accommodate an extraordinary expense, like this, without somehow telling Republican reactionaries that they must raise taxes.

Those reactionaries are the ones who will be protesting in front of the state house Friday, when this order goes into effect.

If there's no state order calling for businesses to be closed, the people who are unemployed can no longer claim that their unemployment is involuntary, even if it would be utter idiocy for them to return to work. A hair dresser or a massage therapist cannot maintain social distance. But they can certainly file for relief ... unless the law says they can work.

"Gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists."

Not banks. Not software firms. Not factories. Not schools.

It is no coincidence that the businesses on this list are staffed by relatively poor people. Because that's who he wants off the unemployment rolls. And if they die ... well, they're mostly black people, or Asian, and poor, and an acceptable political loss for a Republican governor.

The purpose of this isn't to open up these businesses. It's to get the workers there off the dole. Work, and die. Or don't work ... but you're on your own. Because we can't raise taxes to cover the time you spent trying to save your life and the lives of the people around you.

[SixFeetDeep]

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Dr. Redfield tells the Washington Post.

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1252710717263941632?s=21

[reuben]

Interesting take on this move by the Governor of Georgia:

Due to favorable data & more testing, gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists

That's the most frivolous freaking list I can imagine.  This is a list of most important businesses made by a pimp who enjoys bowling. 

[Johnny English]

That's the most frivolous freaking list I can imagine.  This is a list of most important businesses made by a pimp who enjoys bowling. 

Indeed. Hence the idea that the purpose is to get poor people off unemployment regardless of the likely risk to them and the wider community.

The one thing I do take issue with in the post I quoted was the suggestion that he's not re-opening banks or software companies or factories. Banks and software companies have largely gone on unaffected as their ability to WFH is fairly extensive, and many factories have been classified as essential businesses and thus continued working. There's no reason to announce their re-opening if they haven't closed in the first place.

It's just freaking stupid to re-open the things he listed.

[Pope]

Seems like a list of businesses as strange as it may be that has little to no possibility of working from home. The racism and death slant seems far fetched

[Miamipuck]

I can't recall tattoo parlors ever being mentioned in a government business correspondence, very weird list.

[Pope]

Thinking more about this, I think the most logical avenue on this is that they are low wage gig jobs that are currently collecting unemployment. By putting them back to work it lightens the unemployment loan burden while ensuring/hoping the employees and businesses practice safe standards

[Johnny English]

Thinking more about this, I think the most logical avenue on this is that they are low wage gig jobs that are currently collecting unemployment. By putting them back to work it lightens the unemployment loan burden while ensuring/hoping the employees and businesses practice safe standards

It's almost like you completely ignored the post I quoted.

[Pope]

It's almost like you completely ignored the post I quoted.

Yeah I ignored the blatantly political/racist slant which everything has to become these days

IT WILL KILL PEOPLE!!!!!!

[dcm1602]

Indeed. Hence the idea that the purpose is to get poor people off unemployment regardless of the likely risk to them and the wider community.

The one thing I do take issue with in the post I quoted was the suggestion that he's not re-opening banks or software companies or factories. Banks and software companies have largely gone on unaffected as their ability to WFH is fairly extensive, and many factories have been classified as essential businesses and thus continued working. There's no reason to announce their re-opening if they haven't closed in the first place.

It's just freaking stupid to re-open the things he listed.

I find it hard to imagine that a government who is spending obscene amounts of money on socialized bullshit is scheming to save a few bucks by opening businesses.

This is the most freaking stupid hot take.

I think far more likely Trump (& Co) are trying to trivialize the pandemic making it seem like it's over, and going with the populist opinion of people want to get the freak out of their houses.

Winning in November is far more important than saving a few dollars and screwing the poor people.