Virus Impact on CP

The reason issues like domestic abuse, and child abuse (of any form) is currently of critical interest to mental health experts is because of the conditions we are living under. A kid who is abused typically has school to go to to get away from their abuser. A woman who is abused by her (often) drunk husband gets a respite when her husband goes to work, or when he has a good day.

One of the exacerbated problems we are facing is that victims of abuse are currently living within a system that, in some cases, 1) forces them to be in the presence of their abuser 24-7, 2) that abuser is also under increased stress which only fans the flames that leads to said abuse, and 3) help is scarcer because of the restrictions we are all living under. The absolute worst thing for a victim of abuse of any kind is isolation with their abuser.

That's the point I think ML was getting at.

Stress has been, currently is, and always will be a common denominator in every form of every mental illness and abnormal behavior of the human condition, from the harmless to the extremely harmful.

Our private practice has nearly bottomed out since the restrictions began, and any rational human knows that stress and anxiety are likely fueling an invisible tsunami of mental health issues.

At my own tiny college in Ohio, I need two hands to count the students I personally know who have had suicidal ideations since this all began.

99er said:

If the local hardware stores sold out fast and never restocked I have a feeling places like Lowe's and Home Depot likely would have sold out and had been in the same situation anyway.

Thats a fair point. Maybe seeds are the new toilet paper in the upper midWest where there is a short growing season.

None of that changes the fact that it was an idiotic decree from an inept governor, who still allowed the sale of LOTTERY tickets (which must be paid for in cash).

My neighbor 6 doors down owns our local ACE hardware. I shop there whenever I can despite their ridiculous prices. But like I told him, if I need a new water heater I’m going to Lowe’s. He gets it. I don’t mind buying a few plumbing parts, seeds, pool chemicals, etc from the local guy. But when his water softeners are almost 3x the price of big box stores, I have to side with my family’s pocketbook. Anyone who says differently is a lying ideologist.

Don’t forget.... big box stores employ LOCAL people.

^ KevinJ, that’s exactly what I was referring to. Thank you for explaining it more clearly than my quarantined foggy brain was able to.

Anecdotally, I have a friend who is a psychiatrist with the VA. Granted she is not dealing with a subset of the population at large, but she’s incredibly concerned at the alarming increase in concerning behavior of her patients. That’s all I was told because of privacy, etc, but I trust her and it makes perfect sense.

If a guy like me is depressed, who is otherwise always overly optimistic, I can only imagine what someone with underlying mental health issues must be feeling.

Again, more misinformation. Mavlaunch, maybe you'd be more credible in people's eyes if you didn't post things that are just untrue. Lottery tickets do no need to be paid for in cash. You can buy them with credit or debit cards, at the store's discretion. And many of them near me sell them that way. Even the bars here will run a Club Keno with debit or credit cards. Now I personally agree seeds are more essential than lottery, but I know many people who will never grow a garden in their life but play the 4 digit everyday. And whether people believe it or not, that money coming in from the lottery is essential to meet a state budget.

Side note, I see everyone's points about how this quarantine can be harmful mentally and can put people in a bad spot. I guess I never looked at it that way. And thankfully I've never lived through these problems.

vwhoward said:

Again, more misinformation. Lottery tickets do no need to be paid for in cash.

I ran a large liquor store for 7 years during end of high school and college. Lottery retailers earn 2% sales commission on all lottery products, which includes scratch off, daily 3,4, lotto, mega millions, etc. Generally speaking, credit card merchant fees exceed that 2% meaning it would cost the merchant money on every ticket sold. I highly doubt that’s true, unless some retailer decided to offer that to get people in the door.

I’ve personally sold millions of dollars of lottery tickets and I can tell you, there’s a whole lot of touching going on. Taking the scan feed input, pulling out the paper ticket after, taking cash and dispersing cash change. And often in smaller stores, as was the case for me, I was also running regular register duty in addition to lotto, so I was touching all kinds of cash and lotto paraphernalia.

But yeah, selling tomato seeds is just too risky.

It is absolutely true. And you can even search the Michigan Lottery website with this as a filter. It will show you what stores are near you that do. More and more people don't carry cash. And will go to the store willing to accommodate them.

Select filter...

https://www.michiganlottery.com/resources/find-a-retailer

Also, upon further research you are correct, there are certain locations in Michigan where you can use a credit card to purchase lottery tickets. Except it makes it an even worse proposition than it already was — those transactions are treated as cash advances on the CC. Which means they accrue interest immediately and normally are charged a transaction fee.

Only certain banks or card companies do this. Not all. So more misinformation. Granted, a terrible idea and a bad option. But absolutely possible at a lot of places in Michigan

You can’t call something misinformation without documenting some evidence to the contrary. Cmon.
I think we all know that credit cards charge fees.

Michigan lotto, with the exception of the big lotto and mega millions, are generally set up (statistically) to pay out $.25 per dollar spent. Some games are more and some are less. It’s a sucker bet either way. But for a lot of drunks, Keno is a good way to pass time at the bar, and I’m not judging that.

Depends on your credit card. If you pay off your card every month, you never pay a dime in fees, with the right card and credit score. But yes, you're correct, it's a sucker's bet.

Kevinj said:

One of the exacerbated problems we are facing is that victims of abuse are currently living within a system that, in some cases, 1) forces them to be in the presence of their abuser 24-7, 2) that abuser is also under increased stress which only fans the flames that leads to said abuse, and 3) help is scarcer because of the restrictions we are all living under. The absolute worst thing for a victim of abuse of any kind is isolation with their abuser.

This is the thing that concerns me most about the current shutdown. I understand it and for the most part am in favor of it, but also understand there is a real human cost to maintaining it. I work in a public high school, and I worry every day about my kids that I know are not in good situations, and who I know that between schools and people not seeing medical professionals are not having the same safety net to protect them that they did while we were all still together because they're no longer coming in regular contact with mandated reporters.

vwhoward said:

Depends on your credit card. If you pay off your card every month, you never pay a dime in fees, with the right card and credit score. But yes, you're correct, it's a sucker's bet.

I did this for a lot of years. The folks buying lottery tickets every day have neither the right card (or any card) and certainly not the right credit score. That’s a generalization but an accurate one.

Perhaps if those same folks bought seeds we would have an ACTUAL seed shortage (not one manufactured by the governor)

The idea that anyone can defend or uphold a state governor that allows lottery purchases on credit cards in order to support an out of control state budget is so beyond the idea of rationale thinking it is simply perverse at the very least.

Detroit, Flint... its easy to figure out where your problems came from over the last 50 years.

vwhoward said:

Only certain banks or card companies do this. Not all. So more misinformation. Granted, a terrible idea and a bad option. But absolutely possible at a lot of places in Michigan

1. We were responding to each other’s posts at the exact same time. You can stop saying “misinformation”

2. Generally speaking, and I’m not positive about this so don’t drag me down into the dirt, but with a LOT of retail experience under my belt I would expect lotto sales on a cc to fall under the category of cash advance, meaning, interest starts accruing immediately.

If that’s not accurate feel free to prove otherwise. I just know the retail POS margins on lotto are small and in excess of sales commissions. Someone, somewhere has to be eating a loss if I’m wrong, but you’re the one calling BS so it’s on you to prove it.

MaverickLaunch said:

Thats a fair point. Maybe seeds are the new toilet paper in the upper midWest where there is a short growing season.

None of that changes the fact that it was an idiotic decree from an inept governor, who still allowed the sale of LOTTERY tickets...

I'm sure there were the people who normally buy for spring which I would bet is a lot plus more who had the idea to finally start that garden now that they had time. I'm sure most stores don't have huge shipments of seeds coming in often and well, there's your empty shelves.

I do agree it seems silly to ban the sales of seeds from big box stores but I see you an inept governor and raise you a moron who considers professional wrestling "essential".

I think we can all agree that there are a lot of things that governors have said that restrict normal commerce that make no sense, at least to the laymen.

Pretty sure the governor of Michigan has no idea how golf works, as an example. Her lip-smacking statement of “people still have to go inside to make tee times” was categorically false. I have made nothing but online tee times for at least 5 years. But watching her state otherwise almost seemed like she was happy about it, gleefully denying wealthy white men the opportunity to get some exercise (per her Racist AG, paraphrasing, and taking some liberties, but for goodness sakes read what she wrote... racist all the way). Odd that racism from the left along with allegations of sexual assault get swept under the rug, conveniently.

So when do I get to ride Skyhawk again????

Just saw this. I will leave it to the way smarter people on this forum to either agree or discredit the source as their personal political agendas see fit:

https://nypost.com/2020/04/27/ive-worked-the-coronavirus-front-line-and-i-say-its-time-to-start-opening-up/?fbclid=IwAR3EYL0B4n28pAN3f-KiA9hCCRHzVRwsFGO-Ue9uN6p1976S5pyqQDTuDZs

I just hope that those who disagree with said report are also transparent in their efforts to uncover the truth about the allegations, substantiated multiple ways (unlike the Kavanaugh allegations) that uncle Joe finger blasted a coworker against her will. That’s not my account, that’s what she said, literally. But I suppose there are those who would rather see our current president under the guillotine than ever hear the truth. I’m not surprised. Fortunately for the former VP he does not remember. Anything. Ever.

Seriously, this is the guy who the left has chosen literally to run against a guy who has said the stupidest things on camera, ever??? He is going to get annihilated. I don’t even love trump but Biden cannot form a complete sentence.

I think Rush Limbaugh may have gained access to your account, ML. ;-)

You can literally buy lottery tickets on your phone with a debit card, FWIW. I mean, I get that this lotto thing is a political talking point, but it's odd to see people complain about how many things are shut down simultaneously criticizing things that aren't shut down. I understand you're complaining about what you perceive as an inconsistency, but the reasoning for this has been explained - Michigan is required, by law, to have a balanced budget, and lotto sales are a significant part of the education budget. Add in the fact that on-site fundraisers aren't happening at schools, and you've got a serious budget issue to manage.

And as was pointed out before, you can find a single doctor, or even a group of doctors, that will tell you all sorts of stupid, wrong stuff. Vaccines are bad, smoking isn't, etc. That an opinion piece by one doctor in the New York Post of all places (and a blog, previously) is where you're finding ammo for the "open things up" argument should give you pause, at the very least.

As for Michigan, yeah, some of the early restrictions - no motorized boating or golf, for example - seemed poorly executed. But again, I'd rather have things shut down too much at the onset than have the opposite happen. Because erring on being too loose would likely cause a massive spike in cases/deaths that would result in things being shut down even more dramatically for a longer period of time. And no one wants that.

I mean, look at the situation in NYC as an example of what happens when you wait too long to clamp down. The death toll there alone will be staggering, once excess deaths have been added up.

Man I shouldn't have traded those magic beans I had.

Could have made a fortune selling them to Michigan residents apparently.