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iwannawritepls · 4 years

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Le Morte d’Arthur Thoughts P5

Book 2 Chapter 11

Where's her fifth son

Who

How is this supposed to be all Owain because I know they change his name every now and then don't they

Arthur has masonry skills

I didn't know that it was a lot that died I thought Pellinore had died and I was just like now I don't really care – I didn’t like Lot

Is Balin trying to kill Arthur because if he is then why did he run from Arthur’s Castle surely he would just stab him and then leave ?

Oh no, I liked the other one I get their names mixed up

oh that's so cool. you know what else will do that cling film

Wait so Arthur doesn't ever have excalibur's scabbard Morgan le Fay gives it to her lover that’s low key really smart and wow I applaud her

Book 2 Chapter 12

7 chapters more I don't know I haven't counted actually that's a lie

Oh no Arthur’s sick no

look I know this is the beginning of Hamlet so if he gets poison in the ear he's gonna die

I'm sorry you know just big rip

Okay if people can just walk in and on their horses – this is a really shitty Castle

I'm so confused I thought he wanted to kill Arthur but now he doesn't want to kill Arthur where's his brother gone I'm so confused

‘By my head’ he would say by my beard but he doesn't have one ha ha ha

Wait what will you do

um wait so he doesn't hate Arthur but he ran away from Arthur because reasons Arthur imprisoned him and then he got a cursed sword from ‘the falsest damsel that liveth’ so now they’re just chilling and they’re friends in this? I think I prefer it when people sleep with other people’s wives because then I know they hate each other, you know

I'm not gonna lie I don't know what I just read but is that new for me?

Confused counter: 10

Book 2 Chapter 13

don't you hate it when you get to a new castle and its customary for you to bleed before you can enter

Oh no I think I understand wait maybe

I don't think Gawain hasn’t killed Pellinore apparently he's still going to which is confusing

also isn't this a blood feud at this point is it's there's just a lot of ‘this person will kill this person because they killed this person’ and you're like ‘ohh no…who is this person’ you get me?

Alas indeed yeah like why are these like prophecies coming to people who are going to die. You just can't give this message to anyone because they don't know half of the people it's like it's like giving your McDonald's order to the wrong table and being like well can you just go give that to the right table then without telling them who the right table is how is that gonna help anyone in anyway why can't you just take it back and give it to the right table you're the one who's better suited to this than me (but I would probably be like yeah and then if they told me that I would probably but like – that's besides the point I'm just really polite but you know) it's just kinda like why why why

I love that word so much portcullis

oh shit he got trapped under it

The requirements for these curses are so specific yet so general at the same time And I love it but also like how is how like why isn't anyone going out to solve these themselves why does everyone have to stay where they are can no one like leave their houses to go solve their problems have some agency people

I like how they just bring up people that we're not gonna meet for probably half a book like ohh yeah by the way possible is going to help play okay also it spelt Percivale and I love that

Book 2 Chapter 14

That's such a great name

oh he – he kills him

what

please chapter titles getting weirder and weirder

I feel like balling deserves more recognition true he's going out like just murdering a bunch of people which is kind of weird because like what's your reason behind this but at the same time like he's got a pretty cool Storey

you just know him casual

this King is so forthcoming with knowledge like ah I know exactly what you mean yeah let me tell you the Storey of how I smoothed my brother twice haha

They say smoked him with the back of his hand what they really mean is they just slapped him add it hurt but they want to sound hardcore say it makes him sound like he slapped him with fire but you just slapped him and it hurt and there's no shame in that we don't judge here

All these confrontations happen so fast

Book 2 Chapter 15

Yeah he deserves that

This spear is overpowered I would like this fear please um it's just so cool thank you very much

I feel like it's a bit traumatising to be saved by Merlin after being trapped with a dead body for three days or is really gotta start smelling by then especially as it's under the earth so it's very hot and so decompose quicker I just yeah that doesn't sound fun you know

Book 2 Chapter 16

I really can't tell whether or not Merlin loves or hates Balin because you know I love him um but you know I understand why people might not he is a bit of a crazy man I think someone I can tell

Oh no Oh my God my God God

fun have I got a picture on next page? No.

Yes King you tell that creepy swamp monster what's what

that's a bit of an oof moment

oh this is the Fisher King everything makes sense now ohmygod can we take numbers away from the confused counter it's all just wow Oh my God this is genius

I'm so easily impressed I just need things to make sense at this point in this book and I'll just be like wow

nothing good ever happens to this man nothing

Balin curse counter: 4

He must just really hate himself if you really think about all because he just took a sword from the ‘falsest damsel that liveth’

just live in the forest then no one can hurt you and you can hurt no one

is this Robin Hood

Eve

everyone is just like you're so cool he's also really cursed

I keep thinking about 90 day fiancé

my brother just walked in on me talking about 90 day fiancé looks at me as if I'm crazy

anyway I keep thinking about 90 day fiancé and really I just don't like big head he's funny as a concept but as a person he's a bit of a dick and I'm so happy that rose managed to you know get out there that relationship because he was just a bit of an asshole really wasn't he?

anyway back to the book um Balin bout to kill a woman just because she wasn't on time and if that was the case then all of my friends would be dead because I am always early

his name is Garnish his name is Garnish,,,

go on darling I believe in you

Oh no ohh no no no

Oh no that's so mean ‘the foulest knight that he ever saw’ like dude calm yourself

All of these superlatives before we even get to the good parts (when I say good parts I mean the parts people know the most so like Gawain and Galahad and Lancelot and the other ones) we've already had ‘the falsest damsel’ and ‘the foulest knight’ and the’ strongest King’ like we're just gonna have the kind of strong but not the strongest because the strongest is already dead you know

so, does that mean Lancelot isn't the best knight because Balin is

also this has a lot of like internal monologues in this I'm so sorry to everyone I really hope you've enjoyed this I've really cut down me talking because you know I don't want to bore you with my rants about superlatives

Book 2 Chapter 17

what the hell

he got so sad that his blood pressure shot so high that he started bleeding out of his mouth and nose I…find yourself a man who does that you know (jk don’t do that he’s probably not the healthiest in relationships)

everywhere he goes corpses follow

you killed her yourself it was your own choice to kill her

Now lady he swore fighting because last time he did that the that one Irish knight died and then his wife killed herself the knight his name was like Launcelot but it wasn't I Lancelone or something (some searching later) Lancelor

I don't know why but the very concept of putting a Knight and a horse in a boat together is just hilarious because I picture the boat being like a little row boat with the horse and then the knight sitting on the horses back full gear full saddle full Armour this boat is like barely floating and yeah it's just pretty funny

Book 2 Chapter 18

I'm not looking forward to this chapter because brothers against brothers is not fun to read

Oh no who

oh no please don't do this to me

why doesn't anyone ever take that helmet off

oh gosh hello goodnight that's so sad

Oh no they realised its each other

‘thou hast slain me and I thee for all the wide world shall speak of us both’ – Balin or Balan a long time ago

Alexa play despacito

I hate to say it but you know it was prophesised so it was going to happen but at the same time didn't really wanna put myself through that

on the plus side nobody slept with someone's wife

this is what happens when you just run the head first into battle you know

what is a Yeoman (a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder.)

aw so sweet

‘we came both out of one tomb that is to say one mothers belly and so shall we lie both in one pit’

you know for people who are dying they go on for a while

just you know shove some essential oils on that shit you'll be fine

oh that's so sad just sitting with your brothers corpse for a couple of hours like ‘hey remember that time we chased that squirrel?’ no reply ‘yeah me too’

Book 2 Chapter 19

Oh God Merlin’s back

they really like gold

which ones Balin which ones Balan

why would you do that

no just no melon needs to be punched in the face as hard as humanly possible because you can't just keep giving this cursed sword to people

‘Sir Lancelot or else Galahad his son and Lancelot with this sort shortly the man that in the world he loved best, that shall be Sir Gawain.’ We stan

If you just threw this damned sword away then nobody would die omllllll

petition to punch man in the face needs one vote change dog

what the fuck

F in the chat lady and gent ladies and gentlemen for Balin and Balan ‘two brethren born in Northumberland, good knights’

sequitur iii liber

book 2 finished three begins next time on –

#big dead arthur #Le Morte d'Arthur #king arthur #Arthurian Mythology #arthuriana #arthurian literature #book two #in which there is more murder than before #somehow #this was really long #im so sorry #more so that you sat through this #but maybe you're as confused as i am

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years

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White House and Congress Remain Far From Any Stimulus Deal

Even as they vowed to continue talks, negotiators remained dug in on crucial points of any potential deal, jeopardizing additional relief for small businesses and laid-off workers — and all but guaranteeing that senators who had planned to go home for a scheduled recess next week would instead stay in Washington awaiting a deal.

Given the number of outstanding policy issues, including the revival of expanded unemployment benefits and Mr. Trump’s rejection of a key Democratic demand for nearly $1 trillion for struggling state and local governments, the prospect of votes on such a package next week appeared remote.

“I feel optimistic that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said after hosting another round of talks in her Capitol Hill office with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader. “But how long that tunnel is remains to be seen.”

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told reporters on Wednesday that the Senate would “certainly be in next week,” delaying the beginning of the recess in a bid to produce a legislative framework in the coming days.

Every day of delay risks further damage to an economic recovery that has stalled — and, by some measures, begun to regress — as the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus continues to surge in the United States. Economic forecasters were bracing for the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report on Friday to show a significant deceleration in hiring from May and June. Any additional help for people and businesses that lawmakers approve in a new package, including a resumption of expanded unemployment benefits that have lapsed, could take weeks to make its way into the economy once Mr. Trump signs a new bill.

“There are no top-line numbers that have been agreed to,” Mr. Meadows said after the meeting, charging that Democrats were unwilling to make significant concessions. “We continue to be trillions of dollars apart in terms of what Democrats and Republicans hopefully will ultimately compromise on.”

“Is Friday a drop-dead date? No,” he added. “But my optimism continues to diminish the closer we get to Friday and certainly falls off the cliff exponentially after Friday.”

Barring a compromise, Mr. Trump and his top lieutenants on Wednesday continued to explore the possibility of taking executive action to address some of the unresolved disputes. Those included reinstating a weekly federal unemployment benefit that lapsed on Friday, reviving a federal moratorium on evictions and imposing a payroll tax cut that has been rejected by lawmakers in both parties.

It is unclear whether Mr. Trump has the legal authority to force the changes he wants without the consent of Congress. Democrats have sued to block Mr. Trump from repurposing federal funds for construction of his border wall. It is also not certain that the orders would work to bolster the economy as Mr. Trump hopes. For example, companies might not pass the savings of a suspended payroll tax on to their employees, and instead continue to withhold them in the event that the tax must be repaid next year.

“If we can reach a compromise on these big issues, I think everything else will fall into place,” Mr. Mnuchin said after briefing Mr. McConnell on the latest meeting. “If we can’t reach an agreement on these big issues, then I don’t see us coming to an overall deal and then we’ll have to look at the president taking actions under his executive authority.”

On Wednesday, disputes over funding for the Postal Service also emerged as a sticking point between Democratic leaders and the Trump administration, as top officials huddled with the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, for more than an hour as part of their negotiations.

Mr. Schumer described a “heated discussion” with Mr. DeJoy, who he said had ignored multiple phone calls over concerns about slow mail delivery in New York. Democrats and voting rights groups have charged that cutbacks Mr. DeJoy has put into place are part of a deliberate effort by Mr. Trump to undermine the Postal Service in an effort to interfere with mail-in voting that will be critical to a safe election in November.

“We told him that elections are sacred and to do cutbacks, at a time when all ballots have to count — you can’t say, ‘Whoa, we’ll get 94 percent’ — is insufficient,” Mr. Schumer said after the meeting. “We are demanding that the regulations that are put in place, which cut employment over time, be rescinded, particularly because of Covid and because of the elections.”

The Coronavirus Outbreak ›

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated August 4, 2020

I have antibodies. Am I now immune?

As of right now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been frightening accounts of people suffering what seems to be a second bout of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may last in the body only two to three months, which may seem worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It may be possible to get the coronavirus again, but it’s highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or make people sicker the second time.

I’m a small-business owner. Can I get relief?

The stimulus bills enacted in March offer help for the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for aid are businesses and nonprofit organizations with fewer than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some industries are also eligible. The help being offered, which is being managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But lots of folks have not yet seen payouts. Even those who have received help are confused: The rules are draconian, and some are stuck sitting on money they don’t know how to use. Many small-business owners are getting less than they expected or not hearing anything at all.

What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work?

Should I refinance my mortgage?

It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards.

What is school going to look like in September?

It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.

Democrats are pushing for $10 billion to be allocated to the agency over a year, instead of their original proposal for distributing $25 billion over three years. They have also proposed additional money for food assistance programs, money for child care, and more than $900 billion to help states and local governments avoid laying off public workers as tax revenues fall. Administration officials have offered $150 billion in state and local aid, and on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he opposed any such money.

“We can’t go along with the bailout money,” he told reporters at the White House. “We’re not going to go along with that.”

The fate of a $600-per-week federal unemployment supplement to laid-off workers, which lapsed last week in the absence of an agreement to extend them, also remains another significant point of contention. Senate Republicans want to slash the benefit.

Democrats are pressing to extend the payments through January. On Tuesday, Republicans countered with a plan to resume them at $400 per week through Dec. 15, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them. Democrats declined the offer, which was first reported by Politico.

Some Senate Republicans, largely removed from the process, have begun discussing the possibility of holding procedural votes on individual proposals, forcing Democrats to block them. One of those votes could be an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program, a popular federal small-business loan program, which stops taking applications at the end of the week.

News of a self-imposed deadline did not completely assure senators that a deal was to be had, though some Republicans said it could compel some sort of compromise.

“At some point, you have to set a deadline, or just continue this Kabuki dance every day,” said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. “Nobody wants to do that.”

“There’s plenty of time to get a deal if there’s a deal to be gotten,” he added. “If there’s not a deal to be gotten, there’s no reason to continue to act like there is.”

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fromtheothersideby · 4 years

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And so here I am, asking bluntly – is the closedown of the country the right answer to the coronavirus? I’ll be accused of undermining the NHS and threatening public health and all kinds of other conformist rubbish. But I ask you to join me, because if we have this wrong we have a great deal to lose. I don’t just address this plea to my readers. I think my fellow journalists should ask the same questions. I think MPs of all parties should ask them when they are urged tomorrow to pass into law a frightening series of restrictions on ancient liberties and vast increases in police and state powers. Did you know that the Government and Opposition had originally agreed that there would not even be a vote on these measures? Even Vladimir Putin might hesitate before doing anything so blatant. If there is no serious rebellion against this plan in the Commons, then I think we can commemorate tomorrow, March 23, 2020, as the day Parliament died. Yet, as far as I can see, the population cares more about running out of lavatory paper. Praise must go to David Davis and Chris Bryant, two MPs who have bravely challenged this measure. It may also be the day our economy perished. The incessant coverage of health scares and supermarket panics has obscured the dire news coming each hour from the stock markets and the money exchanges. The wealth that should pay our pensions is shrivelling as share values fade and fall. The pound sterling has lost a huge part of its value. Governments all over the world are resorting to risky, frantic measures which make Jeremy Corbyn’s magic money tree look like sober, sound finance. Much of this has been made far worse by the general shutdown of the planet on the pretext of the coronavirus scare. However bad this virus is (and I will come to that), the feverish panic on the world’s trading floors is at least as bad. And then there is the Johnson Government’s stumbling retreat from reason into fear. At first, Mr Johnson was true to himself and resisted wild demands to close down the country. But bit by bit he gave in. The schools were to stay open. Now they are shutting, with miserable consequences for this year’s A-level cohort. Cafes and pubs were to be allowed to stay open, but now that is over. On this logic, shops and supermarkets must be next, with everyone forced to rely on overstrained delivery vans. And that will presumably be followed by hairdressers, dry cleaners and shoe repairers. How long before we need passes to go out in the streets, as in any other banana republic? As for the grotesque, bullying powers to be created on Monday, I can only tell you that you will hate them like poison by the time they are imposed on you. ll the crudest weapons of despotism, the curfew, the presumption of guilt and the power of arbitrary arrest, are taking shape in the midst of what used to be a free country. And we, who like to boast of how calm we are in a crisis, seem to despise our ancient hard-bought freedom and actually want to rush into the warm, firm arms of Big Brother. Imagine, police officers forcing you to be screened for a disease, and locking you up for 48 hours if you object. Is this China or Britain? Think how this power could be used against, literally, anybody. The Bill also gives Ministers the authority to ban mass gatherings. It will enable police and public health workers to place restrictions on a person’s ‘movements and travel’, ‘activities’ and ‘contact with others’. Many court cases will now take place via video-link, and if a coroner suspects someone has died of coronavirus there will be no inquest. They say this is temporary. They always do. Well, is it justified? There is a document from a team at Imperial College in London which is being used to justify it. It warns of vast numbers of deaths if the country is not subjected to a medieval curfew. But this is all speculation. It claims, in my view quite wrongly, that the coronavirus has ‘comparable lethality’ to the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed at least 17 million people and mainly attacked the young. What can one say to this? In a pungent letter to The Times last week, a leading vet, Dick Sibley, cast doubt on the brilliance of the Imperial College scientists, saying that his heart sank when he learned they were advising the Government. Calling them a ‘team of doom-mongers’, he said their advice on the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak ‘led to what I believe to be the unnecessary slaughter of millions of healthy cattle and sheep’ until they were overruled by the then Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir David King. He added: ‘I hope that Boris Johnson, Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance show similar wisdom. They must ensure that measures are proportionate, balanced and practical.’ Avoidable deaths are tragic, but each year there are already many deaths, especially among the old, from complications of flu leading to pneumonia. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) tells me that the number of flu cases and deaths due to flu-related complications in England alone averages 17,000 a year. This varies greatly each winter, ranging from 1,692 deaths last season (2018/19) to 28,330 deaths in 2014/15. The DHSC notes that many of those who die from these diseases have underlying health conditions, as do almost all the victims of coronavirus so far, here and elsewhere. As the experienced and knowledgeable doctor who writes under the pseudonym ‘MD’ in the Left-wing magazine Private Eye wrote at the start of the panic: ‘In the winter of 2017-18, more than 50,000 excess deaths occurred in England and Wales, largely unnoticed.’ Nor is it just respiratory diseases that carry people off too soon. In the Government’s table of ‘deaths considered avoidable’, it lists 31,307 deaths from cardiovascular diseases in England and Wales for 2013, the last year for which they could give me figures. This, largely the toll of unhealthy lifestyles, was out of a total of 114,740 ‘avoidable’ deaths in that year. To put all these figures in perspective, please note that every human being in the United Kingdom suffers from a fatal condition – being alive. About 1,600 people die every day in the UK for one reason or another. A similar figure applies in Italy and a much larger one in China. The coronavirus deaths, while distressing and shocking, are not so numerous as to require the civilised world to shut down transport and commerce, nor to surrender centuries-old liberties in an afternoon. We are warned of supposedly devastating death rates. But at least one expert, John Ioannidis, is not so sure. He is Professor of Medicine, of epidemiology and population health, of biomedical data science, and of statistics at Stanford University in California. He says the data are utterly unreliable because so many cases are going unrecorded. He warns: ‘This evidence fiasco creates tremendous uncertainty about the risk of dying from Covid-19. Reported case fatality rates, like the official 3.4 per cent rate from the World Health Organisation, cause horror and are meaningless.’ In only one place – aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess – has an entire closed community been available for study. And the death rate there – just one per cent – is distorted because so many of those aboard were elderly. The real rate, adjusted for a wide age range, could be as low as 0.05 per cent and as high as one per cent. As Prof Ioannidis says: ‘That huge range markedly affects how severe the pandemic is and what should be done. A population-wide case fatality rate of 0.05 per cent is lower than seasonal influenza. If that is the true rate, locking down the world with potentially tremendous social and financial consequences may be totally irrational. It’s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat. Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.’ Epidemic disasters have been predicted many times before and have not been anything like as bad as feared. The former editor of The Times, Sir Simon Jenkins, recently listed these unfulfilled scares: bird flu did not kill the predicted millions in 1997. In 1999 it was Mad Cow Disease and its human variant, vCJD, which was predicted to kill half a million. Fewer than 200 in fact died from it in the UK. The first Sars outbreak of 2003 was reported as having ‘a 25 per cent chance of killing tens of millions’ and being ‘worse than Aids’. In 2006, another bout of bird flu was declared ‘the first pandemic of the 21st Century’. There were similar warnings in 2009, that swine flu could kill 65,000. It did not. The Council of Europe described the hyping of the 2009 pandemic as ‘one of the great medical scandals of the century’. Well, we shall no doubt see. But while I see very little evidence of a pandemic, and much more of a PanicDemic, I can witness on my daily round the slow strangulation of dozens of small businesses near where I live and work, and the catastrophic collapse of a flourishing society, all these things brought on by a Government policy made out of fear and speculation rather than thought. Much that is closing may never open again. The time lost to schoolchildren and university students – in debt for courses which have simply ceased to be taught – is irrecoverable, just as the jobs which are being wiped out will not reappear when the panic at last subsides. We are told that we must emulate Italy or China, but there is no evidence that the flailing, despotic measures taken in these countries reduced the incidence of coronavirus. The most basic error in science is to assume that because B happens after A, that B was caused by A. There may, just, be time to reconsider. I know that many of you long for some sort of coherent opposition to be voiced. The people who are paid to be the Opposition do not seem to wish to earn their rations, so it is up to the rest of us. I despair that so many in the commentariat and politics obediently accept what they are being told. I have lived long enough, and travelled far enough, to know that authority is often wrong and cannot always be trusted. I also know that dissent at this time will bring me abuse and perhaps worse. But I am not saying this for fun, or to be ‘contrarian’ –that stupid word which suggests that you are picking an argument for fun. This is not fun. This is our future, and if I did not lift my voice to speak up for it now, even if I do it quite alone, I should consider that I was not worthy to call myself English or British, or a journalist, and that my parents’ generation had wasted their time saving the freedom and prosperity which they handed on to me after a long and cruel struggle whose privations and griefs we can barely imagine. - Peter Hitchens https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8138675/PETER-HITCHENS-shutting-Britain-REALLY-right-answer.html

#resistthelockdown #whatsreallygoingon

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years

Quote

WASHINGTON — Top Democrats and White House officials on Wednesday remained nowhere close to an agreement for a new rescue package to address the coronavirus’s toll on the economy, growing increasingly pessimistic that they could meet a self-imposed Friday deadline as President Trump again threatened to act on his own to provide relief. Even as they vowed to continue talks, negotiators remained dug in on crucial points of any potential deal, jeopardizing additional relief for small businesses and laid-off workers — and all but guaranteeing that senators who had planned to go home for a scheduled recess next week would instead stay in Washington awaiting a deal. Given the number of outstanding policy issues, including the revival of expanded unemployment benefits and Mr. Trump’s rejection of a key Democratic demand for nearly $1 trillion for struggling state and local governments, the prospect of votes on such a package next week appeared remote. “I feel optimistic that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said after hosting another round of talks in her Capitol Hill office with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader. “But how long that tunnel is remains to be seen.” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told reporters on Wednesday that the Senate would “certainly be in next week,” delaying the beginning of the recess in a bid to produce a legislative framework in the coming days. Every day of delay risks further damage to an economic recovery that has stalled — and, by some measures, begun to regress — as the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus continues to surge in the United States. Economic forecasters were bracing for the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report on Friday to show a significant deceleration in hiring from May and June. Any additional help for people and businesses that lawmakers approve in a new package, including a resumption of expanded unemployment benefits that have lapsed, could take weeks to make its way into the economy once Mr. Trump signs a new bill. “There are no top-line numbers that have been agreed to,” Mr. Meadows said after the meeting, charging that Democrats were unwilling to make significant concessions. “We continue to be trillions of dollars apart in terms of what Democrats and Republicans hopefully will ultimately compromise on.” “Is Friday a drop-dead date? No,” he added. “But my optimism continues to diminish the closer we get to Friday and certainly falls off the cliff exponentially after Friday.” Barring a compromise, Mr. Trump and his top lieutenants on Wednesday continued to explore the possibility of taking executive action to address some of the unresolved disputes. Those included reinstating a weekly federal unemployment benefit that lapsed on Friday, reviving a federal moratorium on evictions and imposing a payroll tax cut that has been rejected by lawmakers in both parties. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump has the legal authority to force the changes he wants without the consent of Congress. Democrats have sued to block Mr. Trump from repurposing federal funds for construction of his border wall. It is also not certain that the orders would work to bolster the economy as Mr. Trump hopes. For example, companies might not pass the savings of a suspended payroll tax on to their employees, and instead continue to withhold them in the event that the tax must be repaid next year. “If we can reach a compromise on these big issues, I think everything else will fall into place,” Mr. Mnuchin said after briefing Mr. McConnell on the latest meeting. “If we can’t reach an agreement on these big issues, then I don’t see us coming to an overall deal and then we’ll have to look at the president taking actions under his executive authority.” On Wednesday, disputes over funding for the Postal Service also emerged as a sticking point between Democratic leaders and the Trump administration, as top officials huddled with the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, for more than an hour as part of their negotiations. Mr. Schumer described a “heated discussion” with Mr. DeJoy, who he said had ignored multiple phone calls over concerns about slow mail delivery in New York. Democrats and voting rights groups have charged that cutbacks Mr. DeJoy has put into place are part of a deliberate effort by Mr. Trump to undermine the Postal Service in an effort to interfere with mail-in voting that will be critical to a safe election in November. “We told him that elections are sacred and to do cutbacks, at a time when all ballots have to count — you can’t say, ‘Whoa, we’ll get 94 percent’ — is insufficient,” Mr. Schumer said after the meeting. “We are demanding that the regulations that are put in place, which cut employment over time, be rescinded, particularly because of Covid and because of the elections.” The Coronavirus Outbreak › Frequently Asked Questions Updated August 4, 2020 I have antibodies. Am I now immune? As of right now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been frightening accounts of people suffering what seems to be a second bout of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may last in the body only two to three months, which may seem worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It may be possible to get the coronavirus again, but it’s highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or make people sicker the second time. I’m a small-business owner. Can I get relief? The stimulus bills enacted in March offer help for the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for aid are businesses and nonprofit organizations with fewer than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some industries are also eligible. The help being offered, which is being managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But lots of folks have not yet seen payouts. Even those who have received help are confused: The rules are draconian, and some are stuck sitting on money they don’t know how to use. Many small-business owners are getting less than they expected or not hearing anything at all. What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work? Should I refinance my mortgage? It could be a good idea, because mortgage rates have never been lower. Refinancing requests have pushed mortgage applications to some of the highest levels since 2008, so be prepared to get in line. But defaults are also up, so if you’re thinking about buying a home, be aware that some lenders have tightened their standards. What is school going to look like in September? It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community. Democrats are pushing for $10 billion to be allocated to the agency over a year, instead of their original proposal for distributing $25 billion over three years. They have also proposed additional money for food assistance programs, money for child care, and more than $900 billion to help states and local governments avoid laying off public workers as tax revenues fall. Administration officials have offered $150 billion in state and local aid, and on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he opposed any such money. “We can’t go along with the bailout money,” he told reporters at the White House. “We’re not going to go along with that.” The fate of a $600-per-week federal unemployment supplement to laid-off workers, which lapsed last week in the absence of an agreement to extend them, also remains another significant point of contention. Senate Republicans want to slash the benefit. Democrats are pressing to extend the payments through January. On Tuesday, Republicans countered with a plan to resume them at $400 per week through Dec. 15, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them. Democrats declined the offer, which was first reported by Politico. Some Senate Republicans, largely removed from the process, have begun discussing the possibility of holding procedural votes on individual proposals, forcing Democrats to block them. One of those votes could be an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program, a popular federal small-business loan program, which stops taking applications at the end of the week. News of a self-imposed deadline did not completely assure senators that a deal was to be had, though some Republicans said it could compel some sort of compromise. “At some point, you have to set a deadline, or just continue this Kabuki dance every day,” said Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri. “Nobody wants to do that.” “There’s plenty of time to get a deal if there’s a deal to be gotten,” he added. “If there’s not a deal to be gotten, there’s no reason to continue to act like there is.” The post White House and Congress Remain Far From Any Stimulus Deal appeared first on Shri Times News.

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