Ep. 62 Prejudice Flu Virus Names, Stimulus Packages and A Bill Gates Ted Talk From 2015

OPEN Welcome to another episode of the Modern Moron as the Senator Returns in rare form… A lot of cursing in this episod which will be in two parts… first off The Senator flakes on me and by now we both know this is no surprise, but what does surprise me is his cavalier attitude about the whole thing or it's as if it's not his fault that he doesn't communicate.  I had to nag him and chew him out and his final text to me was "I'd love to eat first, pour myself a cocktail and then we do it, if not I'll do it now and eat later." So, I pounced on that opportunity and said, "Make the cocktail and let's go", know that if I got a cocktail in the knucklehead with no dinner, there would be dividends later in the conversation.  More on that later. We open with the Senator unable to configure his computer… again… so that he can use the higher quality microphone, that I purchased for him to use.   From there we move on to the corona virus, which he even makes the naming of the virus about him, that it should be called the Chinese Flu and we'll get into why, not that it makes any sense.  We talk about the non existence of sports in our lives,  We get into the stimulus package that has been passed by congress and bipartisan partisanship, or is it partisan bipartisanship, I can never get that straight.  Neither can politicians. We go over how big your check might be in the mail and the backbiting that went on to get it passed.   Then I bring up a TED talk Bill Gates gave in 2015 about how we're not ready for the Pandemic we're experiencing right now.  There's a link to that Ted Talk at the bottom of the screen. This somehow leads the Senator to say something stupid but I think I'm the stupid one for thinking he's serious and we leav it there.   I do hope this gives you a break from the crazy treadmill we are all on these days… and thanks for listening to the Modern Moron... CLOSE I have to clarify or rather backtrack something I said regarding what we were defining as Pork Barrel appropriations.  An improvement to the Kennedy Center when I think about it could and would be a stimulus to the economy in the way of employing contractors and other workers and that would be a good thing.  But I think the idea behind this particular stimulus package as in "the spirit of the law" which I hear all the time now, is to get dollars into our citizens hands who need it as quickly as possible.  An earmark for a project like that would take years for the money to get into the hands of the people who need it most. The project creation and project management and the bidding process and the vetting and the awarding of contracts… again, years and a lot of potential for those contract dollars to grease the hands of politicians and political donors and I think you get where I'm going with this.  I'm all for improving the Kennedy Center but this is about getting money to people who need it for food and shelter because of this pandemic. Millions have been laid off and the claims for unemployment are at record numbers beyond the Great Depression. So, let's fix the Kennedy Center another time.   AS far as the checks going out, the Senator was correct… the payments would start phasing out for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000. The amount would then be reduced by $5 for every additional $100 of adjusted gross income, and those making more than $99,000 would not receive anything. And what I said about not receiving a check personally and that that was fair and correct was a bit moronic and short sighted.  Sure it's fine for me… it's just me and a half a kid.  But I'm sure there are families with 3 or 4 kids, maybe  more and perhaps parents living at home, so $75K doesn't go as far for them as it does for me.  Plus I'm a cheap bastard who lives on top ramen and toast, so that does play in my favor. Next time we'll see what the hell the Senator means by his Bill Gates conspiracy theory and remember that cocktail I let him have without dinner?  Yeah, that starts to kick in. Again, this is not the place to go for accurate or correct information on the Coronavirus, or on anything now that I think about it.  Why would you come to this program for real anything. Current issues; Moron opinions… that's what we do. See you next time. The next outbreak? We're not ready | Bill Gates - YouTube  Inside Bill's Brain - Netflix