Stimulus

People are not going back to work now for less than a living wage and it has nothing to do with the stimulus. It has everything to do with the complete lack of incentive folks realized they ever had working more than full-time and still not being able to make ends meet. The whole time while they were not working, during the pandemic, they found a way. And now they are going to stick with that, the same way they stuck with their bad jobs and bad pay for so many years. It would be tragic and a colossal mistake for the Democrats to mistake that shift for anything the right is spouting nonsense about over, unemployment or jobs.

What we really need, after raising the federal minimum wage across the board, is another much larger stimulus payment, ASAP. Too many of the folks I know have just barely gotten their heads above water with all kinds of back payments and are just now able to use any of that money to shore away or buy consumer goods. And the economy will be in very bad shape indeed if the consumer market continues to stall and prices really go up in addition to so many people being out of work.

Eventually the Republicans will see that it’s time to raise the minimum wage, hopefully soon. In the meantime the stimulus payments are possibly the only thing keep the consumer market going.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-yahoo-news-you-gov-poll-bidens-job-approval-dips-amid-concerns-over-government-spending-195445131.html

surviving tornado season

Modern tornado warnings are pretty good. You probably have at least twenty minutes between a tornado warning and any kind of lethal storm activity on the ground. Know where one of these three are within five minutes walking or driving distance.

Basement –

I was under the impression that virtually everyone in the midwest has a basement. Apparently this is not true. I can’t believe all the people I hear about riding out these tornados in their closet or bathtub. The “closet” or “bathtub” is your clue for ‘that person doesn’t know what they’re talking about’ and not to listen to them. Find a basement or designated storm shelter, which is going to be in a basement. It’s May, so do this now, like today… find a neighbor within a few minutes walking or driving distance that has a basement.

Hospitals –

You’d think churches and other large commercial buildings in the midwest, again, would be built up to tornado standards. Nope. But hospitals and probably most government rated buildings are. Find a real, actual hospital, built to accommodate major medical operations. Even then you’ll want to go low and towards the center of the building, ideally to any parts of the structure underground… like a basement.

Banks –

Find a bank with a vault. Go into that vault and close or secure that vault.

Walk – Ins

Find a restaurant with a large walk-in refrigerator. Make sure you can safely close yourself and others inside for the duration of the tornado. Securely close yourself and others inside.

Really bad ideas include: Bath tubs, closets, underneath overpasses, parking garages, hallways inside or around concrete or cement walls, buildings. All of these tornado “go tos” are known death traps in the event of a real storm in which you will truly need a survival shelter.