[Rhymes]

In less-important-but-still-typical news, the entire MLB season could be scuttled because Florida Team were idiots.  Color me shocked.

I remain of the opinion that when the sea levels rise and Florida is swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean nothing of value will be lost.

[The E]

Okay, so, this is a bit interesting and you will be able to see the punchline coming from a mile away.

Just like in other countries, Germany too has a sizable minority of people who see mask-wearing and social distancing as violations of their rights. They even had a big public demonstration recently (which was subsequently closed because.... the 20.000 people present violated mask-wearing and social distancing statutes, what a surprise).
The news magazine Spiegel ran a poll recently (through a polling company, to reduce biases) asking about attitudes towards these demonstrations. A large majority (about 66%) outright said that they can't understand these attitudes, a further 12 % were more ambivalent but strongly trending towards not understanding, and about 26% said they had various degrees of understanding (which, of course, is different to agreeing with the views these demonstrators had, but nonetheless).

Where it gets interesting is when party preference is taken into account. The big parties, CDU, SPD and Greens, are all firmly (read: 90+%) on board with these restrictions. The more radically left Linke is also firmly on board, but about a fifth are skeptical; our libertarians are about 60/35 on the whole thing and our resident "we are not Nazis, we swear, we just don't like immigrants and jews very much" idiots from the AfD are...... strongly on the side of the protesting idiots.

What a twiiiist

[SilverAngelX]

Like comic artist Ralph Ruthe said: "You know you've done it fundamentally wrong when you're getting understanding from the FDP and praise from the AFD."

[Dysko]

Okay, so, this is a bit interesting and you will be able to see the punchline coming from a mile away.

Just like in other countries, Germany too has a sizable minority of people who see mask-wearing and social distancing as violations of their rights. They even had a big public demonstration recently (which was subsequently closed because.... the 20.000 people present violated mask-wearing and social distancing statutes, what a surprise).
The news magazine Spiegel ran a poll recently (through a polling company, to reduce biases) asking about attitudes towards these demonstrations. A large majority (about 66%) outright said that they can't understand these attitudes, a further 12 % were more ambivalent but strongly trending towards not understanding, and about 26% said they had various degrees of understanding (which, of course, is different to agreeing with the views these demonstrators had, but nonetheless).

Where it gets interesting is when party preference is taken into account. The big parties, CDU, SPD and Greens, are all firmly (read: 90+%) on board with these restrictions. The more radically left Linke is also firmly on board, but about a fifth are skeptical; our libertarians are about 60/35 on the whole thing and our resident "we are not Nazis, we swear, we just don't like immigrants and jews very much" idiots from the AfD are...... strongly on the side of the protesting idiots.

What a twiiiist

Well, in Italy most of the no-mask idiots are supporters of Salvini's Northern League far-right party and Meloni's Brothers of Italy fascist party.
Surprising, isn't it?

Bad news is... they will most probably win the next elections Where I live, the League regularly gets at least 60% of the votes, and in a nearby town there is even a school complex dedicated to the founder of the party.



The situation here is still quite good for now. Despite a surge in new cases last week, the situation seems to be mostly under control. At least in my area so far I saw almost everybody wearing masks inside buildings (...and I discovered that people not wearing them will quickly do so if I fake a cough near them  ). Hospitals are almost empty, with few dozens people in ITU. However, many fear that the autumn will cause a new surge.

[karajorma]

Facists for Freedom!

[BlueFlames]

Fourth case confirmed at work.

More time was set aside for surface cleaning, but shift startup meetings are continuing. 

The company is advertising lots of full time and temp-to-hire positions, so I'm starting to get a sense for how management intends to keep the factory running as the virus starts to burn its way through existing staff.

[Grizzly]

Meat packing plant in the netherlands had 25% of their workers sick from covid

was detected late becauseeeeee the bosses forced their employees to lie to health inspectors.

Anyway I'm looking at becoming a vegetarian now.

[Su-tehp]

Meat packing plant in the netherlands had 25% of their workers sick from covid

was detected late becauseeeeee the bosses forced their employees to lie to health inspectors.

Anyway I'm looking at becoming a vegetarian now.

Jeebus, Mariana and Jehoshaphat. The world needs more workers' unions.

[BlueFlames]

Fourth case confirmed at work.

This case was the person who works two cells to my right.

One of the people who works two cells to my left spiked a fever on Monday and is awaiting COVID test results.  Our ace contact tracers in HS&E flagged up that guy's carpooling buddies as needing COVID tests, but not the other person he shared a work cell with all last week.

The person in my work cell the shift before me subscribes to the notion that the best way to deal with COVID-19 is to expose everyone, so that the survivors will have immunity (the BoJo plan).

All three of the people who work in the cell immediately to my right think that COVID-19 is a hoax (the Trump plan).

I'm going to go have my pre-work panic attack now.

[Mito [PL]]

Wow people will never stop to negatively amaze me.


Also, a couple articles relevant to the meat processing subject:
(Before you open the links, do note that they carry photos from these facilities that you might not want to see)
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/05/dutch-meat-processing-plant-closed-as-45-workers-test-positive-for-covid-19/
https://www.dw.com/en/europes-meat-industry-is-a-coronavirus-hot-spot/a-53961438

[Grizzly]

Meat packing plant in the netherlands had 25% of their workers sick from covid

was detected late becauseeeeee the bosses forced their employees to lie to health inspectors.

Anyway I'm looking at becoming a vegetarian now.

Jeebus, Mariana and Jehoshaphat. The world needs more workers' unions.

`

We have unions, the FNV in particular is large. But meat plants in general tend to rely on immigrant labour (in our case from the easternmost EU) and not speaking the language of the unions makes joining them quite difficult. Lot of these companies rely on the labourers not knowing their rights.

[mjn.mixael]

Well... my brother who works for the essential service of a car wash just tested positive for Covid. But it's definitely a Democratic Hoax.

[Su-tehp]

Well... my brother who works for the essential service of a car wash just tested positive for Covid. But it's definitely a Democratic Hoax.

Mjn, as a fellow essential worker, and FWIW, I hope your brother pulls through.

(But car washes are essential services? Who knew? )

[The E]

(But car washes are essential services? Who knew? )

A couple months back, GameStop was claiming that its business was essential too.


****ing GameStop

[karajorma]

People in lockdown need to be able to play games. And it's not like a system by which you can buy and download games over the internet has existed for the last 10 years or so.

[The E]

People in lockdown need to be able to play games. And it's not like a system by which you can buy and download games over the internet has existed for the last 10 years or so.

nono, I fully agree that game preorders and funko pops are an essential good in these trying times, and that they would be completely diminished if you could just buy them online

[Mobius]

So, it turns out that a boy who's been in Spain a week or so ago has been infected by Covid-19 and even though he had fever, he proved himself to be "smart" enough to go to two of the most popular nightclubs in the entire region. The news spread quickly and triggered some serious paranoia among those who "may have been" in contact with him. Said guy eved stated on a public post that he received some 2,000 messages and 700 calls in a matter of hours. As a direct consequence, the governor closed all nightclubs and reintroduced the requirement to wear masks under all circumstances. Both restrictions are applicable until September 7th.

Furthermore, nation-wide, data clearly show a slight but steady increase in infection rates. I'm afraid it may get worse in a couple of months, as the temperatures will drop due to the usual seasonal changes.

As a matter of fact, this once again proves how - regardless of laws and restrictions - it's ultimately a matter of common sense, which people don't have.

[Su-tehp]

This lack of common sense, or worse, a deliberate rejection of common sense, was made manifest yet again here in the US by a sheriff who actively banned his deputies and visitors to his sheriff's office from wearing masks.

A sheriff banning face masks when face masks and social distancing are the only tools we have to stop the spread of COVID-19. I will never forgive these morons.

[Dysko]

New daily cases in Italy have been slowly but steadily increasing for days, and today we had 845 new daily cases, the highest increment since 16th May.
Now I think it can be certainly said that we are in the 2nd wave too 

Moreover, the number of people wearing masks is steadily decreasing. I have a bad feeling about this

[Colonol Dekker]

Makes you appreciate how quickly something like the black death could ravage medieval Europe, long travel times not withstanding.