Am I missing something? The way I see it the state lockdowns are outside Trump's control

[Amishman]

They were instituted at the state and local level, and at a glance I can't find anything that would allow him to overrule them.

He can have all the tantrums he wants, but the states hardest hit have D governors, who will gleefully tell him to fuck off. major metro areas across the country have Democratic mayors, almost without exception

He is powerless on this matter.

[unblock]

1. He's threatening to cut off federal funds to states that continue such measures

[Amishman]

2. that would be what I was missing

damn coffee needs to kick in.

[jberryhill]

4. Doesn't matter

Here's a thought experiment...

You are the General Counsel of a large company. The CEO comes in and says, "Hey, we want to get everyone back to work, do we have any liability exposure?"

[unblock]

8. Point taken, I don't think many states or businesses will cave, but it does matter

I think the businesses and states that have been leading the actual policy against covid-19 will continue to do the right thing. Cities and blue states in particular.

But then donnie will use this as an excuse to restrict federal funds to those states. It might not affect the course of covid-19 much, but it will fulfill a wet dream of his, getting to send money to red states while refusing to send money to blue states.

[Hoyt]

12. Do you have a link to that?

[Mike 03]

16. Thank you. I'm also Googling like crazy for this story and

can't find a single thing. Just stories from last year about the threats to cut fed funds to sanctuary cities and California for other reasons.

[Hoyt]

18. Yep, that's what I found too and I didn't hear threats in yesterday's presser. I wouldn't put it

past trump, but I'd rather have the facts.

[Roland99]

14. I've not heard or read that

[Mike 03]

15. I'm goggling like crazy trying to find this story, the part where Trump

threatened to cut federal funds to states that disobey his order to return to normal and I'm having no luck.

Do you by chance have a source? This is humungous news.

All I can find are his threats to sanctuary cities and California dating back to last year.

[Jersey Devil]

3. He has the power to persuade

You are right about him not having the power, technically. But he could seriously undermine the orders of the governors by telling his followers, some 40%+ of the population, to ignore local rules. And his followers would drink the Cool Aid.

[mucifer]

5. he's satan he really is

[jberryhill]

6. If you run a company, go ahead and ask your workplace insurer about getting everyone back in

[GusBob]

10. I been thinking about this

I have a business acquaintance, she runs a beauty supply place, hair makeup, botox etc
Upscale, she and all her clients are upper class
She is a real Trumpette and has been bitching her place got shut down. She is now crowing Trumps decision Shed be the type to drink the kool aid

Q: if she opens sooner that the regulators that govern her profession (she is licensed thru the city county and state) and someone gets sick or someone gets sick and dies, can they sue her?

[jberryhill]

11. Yes they can

Right into oblivion

https://wtvr.com/2017/02/03/1m-verdict-awarded-to-nail-salon-patron-who-contracted-infection/

RICHMOND, Va. — A Central Virginia woman who contracted a severe mycobacterial infection and was left permanently scarred after a visit to a local nail salon has received a verdict in excess of $1 million against the nail salon, including compensatory and punitive damages. .

[Midnightwalk]

22. How provable would it be

Not a lawyer so just asking.

In the nail salon case it sounds like there was good evidence the infectious was caused by poor sanitary conditions at the salon.

It would be harder to prove that for a pandemic wouldn’t it?

Is there some principle that the spa would be negligent enough in ignoring the threat that proof of how an infection happened isn’t needed? A person getting their nails done probably is taking other unnecessary risks.

They would deserve to be sued. They should be shut down immediately, fined or arrested. Anyone going to the salon while this is going on is an idiot.

Just asking if winning the suit would be as easy as the link seems to imply.

[jberryhill]

23. How provable is anything?

I'm not opining on any particular case.

It would depend on the individual facts.

My point was to go to your insurer and ask, as a general proposition, would there be liability. The answer is "yes". That doesn't make any particular circumstance winnable.

If your insurer is not going to cover you, you don't open. It's that simple. That's unrelated to whether anyone would win a case.

If I'm in the business of running a refinery and I ask my insurer, "Hey, if a lot of my workers are outside, is it okay if they smoke cigarettes?" my insurer is not going to cover me, and my board is not going to let me open the plant unless I make it clear they can't smoke.

[GusBob]

7. Trumps a shill, a huckster and a con man

What we are missing is what nobody is talking about today, the amount of unemployed right now
and coming this week

Trump, the Wizard of Distraction has succeeded again

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. He doesn't mind creating chaos. When on earth has "being powerless" stopped him from running

his mouth before?

[Igel]

13. People vent.

And under stress, they vent more.

No, he can't. He could cut off funds, but people have been conflating things as though we're living everywhen right now.

We didn't have supplies today and yesterday because we won't tomorrow. It's a frequent story. That kind of thing.

He doesn't think (present) we'll need to continue lockdowns (future) months from now (future), instead we can (it's future coded as present tense) end them in weeks (see, it's future).

We act as though Trump speaks in careful, precise terms like Obama did--overlooking when Obama didn't because, well, it was an outlier and we understand. He doesn't. He speaks in fairly careless terms most of the time, but fairly often when push comes to shove what's done is different. That's "lying"--or a different speech style. The only thing that focusing on how his speech style must be the same as others, when it's obviously not, is to allow us to vent.

Now, I like fairly precise, measured speech styles. On the other hand, I'm around a lot of people that don't and I know how to understand them. It just takes a little effort. Thing is, many who insist on not understanding him have the same style of speaking--lots of exaggeration, bragging, hyperbole, saying what's wished for and not likely. In the end, while his message is confusing, the media and venters just wind up making it even more confusing as snippets of misunderstood speech, bad informational currency, rule the media and drive out useful informational currency. Gresham's law, revised for the media.

[octoberlib]

17. One of the things that worries me is if companies start ramping up business travel

again, people will be flying all over the country spewing viruses everywhere. I live in Charlotte, the second biggest banking center in the US and know a manager at a big rental car company. They normally have about 2,000 reservations on Monday; yesterday they only had 152. This is good , it means people are staying home but if travel ramps up again it could be catastrophic.

[Takket]

19. I would hope corporations aren't as stupid as him

So you open your company up wide right now and what??? Corona goes insane, your entire staff is sick, you have to shutdown again anyways because your employees are sick or maybe even dead and on top of that, now you are going to get sued for negligence. Opening the country up in a week will only make the economy WORSE

[DaBronx]

20. State borders

If some states followed Great Leader to their deaths and others continued to practice safe lockdown policies, the safer states would also need to lock down their physical borders to be successful. When we think in policy terms we must be reminded that there are physical challenges that must be considered. I don’t see that happening and there will be forces within the safer states who will disregard safe practices for greed. He is a danger to society and his enablers and supporters are accomplices. I have to ask myself from time to time if this is real. Sadly, the answer remains the same.

[jberryhill]

24. States can't close their borders

[DinahMoeHum]

21. "Trump. . . is not in charge here. . .The governors are in charge. . ."

#newrostrong