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[Egan_BW]

I agree with all of that but we're animals.

[Dunamisdeos]

Heaven forfend we admit that we are more than cattle. We'd have to hold ourselves to a standard above instinct.
 
And no, it's not "arguably worse", sir. In your home state of Michigan, your lockdown that lasted into June saved lives. You were the site of multiple high-publicity campaigns to ReOpEN THe ECoNoMY, whereupon your Governor acquiesced. In MY home state of VA, we've been under state-mandated measures of containment since March, and we're one of the least affected areas in the nation. Our unemployment has gone up 0.7%, we're not exactly entering poverty in droves. Turns out heaps of sick and/or dying people is bad for the economy.
 
The super brave freedom squad sure did get to do it's thing, but it turns out you can't openly proclaim your intent to ignore a pandemic and then throw up your hands like you don't know why everyone is sick.

[Egan_BW]

Unemployment might not be the best metric to use, as it misses people who have left the workforce as a result of covid. If, like me, you're scared of catching it and have no way of getting a remotely safe job, you're not going to keep looking for work.

[McTraveller]

I'm saying that MI's lockdown process - the starting it and letting it stop - is worse than if we did something different; I'd posit we took the worst possible approach with an initial lockdown that was too long and fomented too much unrest, so when things let up, people responded the other way; I'd have thought the initial lockdown only needed to be 4-7 weeks, not 15.  The fact that it went 15+ weeks and then stopped was just dumb.

I'm glad that VA has a better outcome of things.

I don't have the fortitude for it, but I'd be curious to see how COVID breaks down across more demographics. At a high level I wonder how much has to do with the fact that VA has a much lower poverty rate and much higher median income than MI - does that have more of an impact than whatever mandates are in place? What about industry split? MI is heavily manufacturing based (630k manufacturing jobs in 2018), whereas VA is much less (only 240k in 2018).

[Dunamisdeos]

I am angry about COVID things and I appreciate everyone being understanding whilst I vented somewhat.

[McTraveller]

No worries Dunamisdeos - we are all in the same situation.

[JoshuaFH]

I'm a Michigander as well Mctraveller, and I'd say that a little bit of social unrest is preferable to loads of covid cases. If anything, I'd say that any possible unrest was caused by the flipflopping, leading people to be confused about the severity of the situation and suspicious of the competence of our Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Inconstancy is always surer to produce doubt than otherwise.

I would say it was always in our leaders' best interest to be turgid and vigilant, to always be browbeating the masses for the kind of lackadaisical attitude that might spread the infection further. Doing anything else only comforts the common enemy, Covid, and the fact that they have done anything else only compounds the larger belief in governmental incompetence and immorality.

[Frumple]

... anyway, anyone else notice the Wisconsin recount? To quote someone else's response,

3 million dollars to lose harder *chef kiss*

[MrRoboto75]

At a high level I wonder how much has to do with the fact that VA has a much lower poverty rate and much higher median income than MI - does that have more of an impact than whatever mandates are in place? What about industry split? MI is heavily manufacturing based (630k manufacturing jobs in 2018), whereas VA is much less (only 240k in 2018).

The simple, reductive answer is VA has a democrat for a governor, and MI has a republican one.

VA is a strange state, and often a battleground one for a reason.  Northern VA is basically a big suburb for DC, and a lot of big business there either IS the federal government (like me), or is contracted from the government (my dad).  A lot of people commute into DC or around the beltway, or the Great Falls area if you're into that.  As you can guess a lot of that stuff is office bullshit, and its not super hard to make work-from-home work.  This area votes blue.

In my experience taking 66 west far enough, or 95 south past Fredricksburg and you may as well be in a different state.  Its a much bigger emphasis on rural farming, and occasionally manufacturing.  The tobacco trade is somehow still alive and well, I'd pass by a big Marlboro factory on the way.  This area votes red.

[hector13]

The fearful man dies a thousand times, the brave man dies only once. Stop being dead.

I too played Rome Total War and read the loading screen tips.

I smiled, so you win.

"Nobody I know is dying, so I don't have to care."

On the contrary. Everyone I know is dying, as am I, as are you. I made that abundantly clear.

You don’t appeared to have internalized the logical conclusion of this that any course of action is thus pointless in the face of your inevitable non-existence.

Like, nothing you do matters, so why even make the effort of arguing? It changes nothing, even if you succeed.

[Frumple]

I can't imagine he's going to actually pay up the three million, though. It is nice to see Wisconsin go 132 votes bluer, though I'm sure the rural towns hate it.

Pretty sure he had to pay up front, actually? Unless that was one of the other states...

[Dostoevsky]

I can't imagine he's going to actually pay up the three million, though. It is nice to see Wisconsin go 132 votes bluer, though I'm sure the rural towns hate it.

Pretty sure he had to pay up front, actually? Unless that was one of the other states...

They got the wire transfer on the 18th, so yep - had to pay up front. Of course it's not Trump who had to pay so much as all the donors who keep pumping money into his campaign post-election...

[Madman198237]

The simple, reductive answer is VA has a democrat for a governor, and MI has a republican one.

Last I checked, the Democratic party in Michigan was, in fact, the Democratic party elsewhere, and not just some stray Republicans wearing the wrong color of tie. But who knows, nowadays.

The simple, reductive answer is incredibly wrong.

[MrRoboto75]

Ah, no wonder they tried to siege her with firearms.

[Doomblade187]

Yeah, MI having poor virus performance has a lot to do with the notably republican legislature preventing Whitener from extending measures. Not that Whitmer did a great job imo.