“Interestingly enough, the ones offering help are China, Russia, and Cuba.”
What can I say ? If they would only be that generous towards their own citizens.
Re religion - it’s not atheists who are pushing to continue to have regular gatherings of many, MANY people. Just saying.
Places of worship are exempt from Michigan’s EO on groups of people. Essentially because the governor was told by certain people in state congress that if she didn’t exempt churches, they would cease to work with her on COVID-related issues.
@socaldad2002 Yes most of us in the big cities in Texas are already “sheltering in place” We just have so many smaller towns and rural areas.
I believe they need 60 votes. If they do not have 60 votes for whatever reason, it doesn’t happen.
Yes, but to change the rules will require 60 votes and he has 5 out… so in order for it to happen he’s gonna have to play ball.
So now we’re getting divisive over religion mainly due to one poster who tends to either be on the extreme end of things or enjoys playing with people?
Uh, ok. I’m solidly Christian and solidly into helping my neighbor regardless of where you stand with your belief in God. We watched our church’s livestream broadcast (no audience) today and he feels the same way - totally encouraging folks to be on board to help everyone.
How much sense one has with this virus (or in general) really has nothing to do with their relationship (or lack thereof) with God. Can we not go down that rabbit trail due to being baited?
I agree with @Creekland in wanting to take religion out of this conversation. We can have a shared morality without having a shared religion.
Eh, I think there can be values that bind a people that have nothing to do with religion. Values such as compassion for the needy, helping your neighbor, respecting the rule of law, building a safe community in which everyone has a shot…I’m an atheist, and I believe in all these values. And I don’t really care whether or not others around me are religious if they believe in those values as well.
The coronavirus pandemic is clobbering global stock markets
From CNN’s Laura He and Clare Duffy
Asian markets and United States stock futures fell during Asian trading hours as a massive stimulus package to help Americans handle the coronavirus pandemic hit a major stumbling block.
Here’s how the markets performed in the US:
Dow futures fell more than 900 points, hitting a 5% decline that triggered a maximum allowable limit, or “limit down.” That halted futures from falling further.
S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures also fell around 5%, and were last sitting at 4.8% down and 4.4% lower, respectively.
Meanwhile, in Asia Pacific:
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 plunged more than 7% Monday.
South Korea’s Kospi dropped 5%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 4%.
China’s Shanghai Composite lost more than 2%.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 was the outlier, last trading up 0.7%, though trade was choppy. The International Olympic Committee’s executive board said Sunday it is considering postponing – but not canceling – this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo because of the pandemic.
Yes, religious groups have been some of the biggest Covid-19 clusters.
however, many religious groups have successfully switched to offering online services. All should look into doing so.
Those governments do not have to worry much about domestic public opinion. They see that as an advantage of authoritarianism – they can do things to increase their “soft power” abroad without that worry.
An interesting note about Cuba is that it historically has put much of its limited economic resources into educating physicians, to the point of having so many* that it can have high quality inexpensive health care and have physicians to export as humanitarian aid to increase its “soft power”. Not that it makes the government overall praiseworthy (it is, after all, an authoritarian government with little freedom for its citizens and a political ideology that limits economic growth and keeps its people poor), although it chose to do this one thing well (perhaps at the expense of other things it could have done for its people).
This year’s Olympics are in doubt. Only war has ever forced them to be scrapped
From CNN’s Emiko Jozuka in Tokyo
The coronavirus pandemic is throwing doubt over whether this year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo will still go ahead.
Canada has become the first country to announce it won’t send athletes to the Games. And, for the first time, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said postponing the 2020 Summer Olympics is a possibility.
The Olympics are still months away – they’re scheduled to start on July 24. But as Team Canada said in a statement, it’s not just about athletes’ health – it’s about public health.
Has this ever happened before? The short answer is: Yes. The 1916 Summer Olympics were canceled amid World War I, and both the Summer Olympics of 1940 and 1944 were axed due to World War II.
But scrapping an Olympics in peacetime would be unprecedented.
Who would be impacted by this? Doing so would have ramifications on everything and everyone from the sponsors and broadcasters to the economy and athletes.
Organizers said in December that the cost of hosting the Olympics was 1.35 trillion yen ($12.25 billion) – and, according to Reuters, that figure did not include the cost of moving the marathon and walking events from Tokyo to Sapporo to avoid the summer heat, a decision taken in October 2019.
Massive investments had been made in improving Japan’s transportation networks, building venues and upgrading tourism facilities in anticipation of the 90 million visitors that Abe said Japan would welcome in 2020.
The Bishop was giving live streaming Catholic mass in Honolulu today. For Honolulu, churches are deemed nonessential. Construction, permitting and DMV are essential. 
Also, a shared religion does not necessarily mean a shared morality.
It does look like generosity…but it will definitely come with strings. But we would usually be there with offers of help and we aren’t. (We are too busy trying to figure out our own “help”)
RE; Cuba and physicians. We were able to spend one day in Cuba during the short time it was open to us. Had a ‘private’ guide even though private enterprise doesn’t exist. Here’s the thing. … Yes, Cuba trains some great physicians. At home they make the same a s a plumber. But…rented to the world market Cuba gets market rates for their Docs. So, Cuban docs are a commodity the Cuban government brokers on the open market.
The Cuban physicians in foreign lands do not personally benefit from their appointments. They are working off their debt to their government. Something along the lines of indentured servitude.
Can’t agree with that characterization of things but do agree that digs as to one group or the other aren’t helpful.
Getting in the spirit of things, I’ll skip speculating as to the belief system of the average spring breaker, long as there’s no more of this:
I think it would make sense to move the Olympics to 2021. There’s no way that pushing it forward a few months will make it safe. And it’s not as if the 4 year spread between games is somehow sacred. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous time and it can wait a year or so until a vaccine has been developed.
Kinda like many American med school grads who work off their college debts by working for less pay in needy areas…
^^^^ Not exactly. One is voluntary - one is governmentally ‘assigned’. One is a choice, the other is …well…add your own term…