We bring you the best Covid-19 links, all miles points travel interrupted, a beautiful post about biking across continents, more on the Paycheck Protection Program, more data breaches, more amazing photography, more virtual travel, travel for real to Antarctica, we talk about dating and sex while living under Covid-19, learn about hamsters, how to feed lots of people, we talk about the new reality facing blog businesses and more for freeeeeeee!
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COVID-19
We are going to start with something positive today: A Creator of the Ebola Vaccine Has Hope for Slowing Covid-19.
All I can tell you is that the scientific community is going all in on Covid-19 treatments, here is what I mean: Every Vaccine and Treatment in Development for COVID-19, So Far.
Bill Gates had warned us, we did not listen to him. He is again telling us what to do, will the morons in the current administration listen AND act in an organized, non chaotic manner? Here’s how to make up for lost time on covid-19. It’s the same shit I have been screaming about here but no one listened to me. Maybe it is because only a few know of my blog, sad lol. It is a must read. Maybe the administration put this guy in charge instead of phucking sycophant robot Pence!
I have been saying scientists wills save us, the question is when! This is another good sign, ignore the clickbait-y headline: WOW!! – on SARS-CoV-2, Chinese and MIT researchers are CRUSHING IT right now.
This is awful and makes me so sad for obvious reasons: The New Fear for Asian-Americans Going Out in Public. It will really help if they stopped calling it Chinese virus *&$^%!
I think in the near future we will all be getting a complimentary supply of masks in the US Mail: It’s Time to Face Facts, America: Masks Work. I am convinced they help!
As we revisited the masks issue, we are revisiting the bio-surveillance issue as well: We Need A Massive Surveillance Program. Disturbing? Oh hell yeah…but the alternative is worse imho. I do not expect this to happen by the way…
I continue to believe that living in a surveillance society is incompatible in the long term with liberty. But a prerequisite of liberty is physical safety. If temporarily conscripting surveillance capitalism as a public health measure offers us a way out of this crisis, then we should take it, and make full use of it. At the same time, we should reflect on why such a powerful surveillance tool was instantly at hand in this crisis, and what its continuing existence means for our long-term future as a free people.
Another must read about all the conflicting advice we hear every day, what to do? Who to believe? How are we supposed to live like this and more…The Anxiety of Culpability.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: New: The CitiBusiness AAdvantage Platinum now offers 70k AA miles. There is an offer for the United Explorer card offering 60,000 miles. The IHG Rewards Club card offering 140k points too, highest ever. For a standard workhorse card I recommend the 60k Chase Sapphire Preferred card. For a standard premium card I recommend the 50k Chase Sapphire Reserve card. For a standard 2% cash back card I recommend the Citi Double Cash card. Available with my links. Lets move on!
Well, it is the second quarter of 2020 you guys. Personally, I have no idea what day it is everyday. At least I know which credit card I will be using for groceries in the next three months, it’s not like I am spending any money on anything else. Chase Freedom Q2 2020 5% Categories: Grocery Stores, Gym Membership, Fitness Clubs (Streaming Services Added). Discover’s 5% is on gas stations this quarter LOL.
We are seeing so many moves by airlines and hotels to soften the blow to their customers that is hard to keep track of. I found this interesting: Marriott Now Allowing 30 Elite Night Credits Per Year From Credit Cards (15 Personal & 15 Business). And then we have Amex too: American Express Extends Spend-Requirement For Extra 3 Months For New Credit Cardholders From December 2019 – May 2020. More are coming…so you can travel stay at home for freeeeee!
Again, WTF! Marriott’s Latest Data Breach Impacts 5.2 Million Travelers.
Can you imagine being stuck at sea aboard one of those cruise ships floating around with people stricken with the virus? And nobody accepting your ship to dock? I can not imagine.
TRAVEL
The Cranky Flier says to the airline industry to Shut It Down. I agree!
I found this pic here, wow!
When we start traveling again I am going to do my best to get to Antarctica before it melts away: A place that makes you ask the questions that really matter.
Lets travel to 12 museums virtually!
Wow, what a find! What Happens When Two Strangers Trust the Rides of Their Lives to the Magic of the Universe. You will enjoy this a lot. And hell no I am never doing this!
PERSONAL FINANCE
Well, the rollout of the fiscal stimulus help by the Feds is proving, as expected, a giant shitshow. You should know about this, good intentions but the execution is, well, super chaotic! SBA small-business loans: 8 things to know about the Paycheck Protection Program.
The actual Paycheck Protection Program application
Update: This PPP program is making the term “giant shitshow” be way understated! Now it appears you can use a bank’s application and not totally restricted to the one linked above. The interest rate was first stated at 4%, then at 0.5%, yesterday at 1%. Who knows what it will be tomorrow, SAD lol.
Please no questions on the above, I am buried and I spend WAY too much time here, thank you for understanding!
For great reads about the economy and finances, I always enjoy the newsletters by Howard Marks, even though I may not always agree with him. Here is the latest one: Which Way Now?
ODDZ & ENDZ
Which human has zero empathy in his veins? Easy answer: Donald Trump. Don’t get me started again, trying to lower my blood pressure. Ok, lets get back on track, this guy is doing lots of good: ‘Without Empathy, Nothing Works.’ Chef José Andrés Wants to Feed the World Through the Pandemic.
Of everything that is changing, what to do about dating and sex? Dating in Captivity Go ahead and reinstall Tinder in self-isolation. Or, if that doesn’t work, join a virtual sext bunker.
Amazing video! THIS Is How Hamsters Fit So Much Food Inside Their Cheeks!
I really liked the movie Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler. It is about hustling in the jewelry business. And how much this has in common with some in our hobby hustling for deals and MS scores and stuff like that. Gem Fatale.
Me when I put each of my blog posts together, yeah I always thought of myself as an artist, no idea why I majored in accounting in college. Oh wait, I know why, it was easier to find a job lol.
I am so proud of how the Greek state is handling the Covid-19 crisis. And the Greek Prime Minister (someone I supported) has shown amazing leadership skills by making the difficult decisions early and it appears the curve is being flattened and it is not like the horrific shit show we are undergoing here. And his command of English as well. If the previous administration was in charge I swear half of the population would be dead now…they used to have a guy high up in the Health Ministry who had press conferences and he was smoking, no kidding! This is the Greek Prime Minister being interviewed by Christiane Amanpour, BRAVO!
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
We will likely be seeing more blog posts by The Free-quent Flyer it appears: Some Personal News.
I now have three Paypal monthly donors, how come The Free-quent Flyer has more subscribers? 🙂
I am so happy to see Travel Codex doing more posts, even that aviation dude Rohan is back. Maybe quality content is making a comeback as the credit card pumpers go all out on…credit card pumping before they go poof?
Has the management at The Points Guy come out to state something like this? No? I wonder why! How Frequent Miler (the business) will survive COVID-19. I think it all depends on how long this new reality lasts…
I am starting to wonder in what business is Simon Malls in! Simon Visa Gift Card online bulk ordering. Everything you need to know. Maybe you should take some time off this hobby? Please don’t go out to liquidate. For me personally I am not doing anything, I am hunkered down at home hoping my miles and points stash does not become worthless in the months ahead. This stood out to me: “That will take you to a page that requires information like your social security number, driver’s license number, and billing & shipping addresses. Simon requires the same type of information from customers who purchase in-person at their malls. Some readers may not be comfortable with providing that much information to register, but those are Simon’s requirements to get approved for large orders”. There is no way in hell I will give all this info to…someone at Simon Malls, so be careful out there!
The latest monthly post by Mile Nerd: Surreal Life.
With Chase business credit cards cut off from ALL affiliate channels, selling the Chase Ink Business Preferred card offering 100k Ultimate Rewards points has just vanished! It is still offering 100k miles but no pimping plastic blog is interested in helping their readers travel for free now that they don’t get paid for it. BARF!
I know many bloggers read me. But nobody links to me. But they can’t wait to link to bigger blogs so they can get some clicks from those readers and entice those blogs to link back to them. It pisses me off, just saying whining.
What have you missed the most? I miss having a cup of coffee at my local Panera, especially after I went in for the $8.99 monthly unlimited deal (they are not charging me while dine in area is closed). Here is a photo of me with my daughter back in the good old pre virus days.
And I leave you with this…Hey, travel for freeeeeeeee!
TBB
travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Good morning!
Thanks for the links!
Hope everyone is doing ok.
Hey TBB, thank you for another great post! Best to you and your family!
Hope Carl and Sam are ok 🙂
Thanks DML and David for posting before noon 🙂
Got some new bread and feta cheese from another store today and they are both amazing #winning
PPP Go!
Carl is OK despite a mysterious thing that has caused him extreme knee pain, moving to the hip over the last week. NO idea what happened but if I push on the side of the knee…. HOLY CRAP! NO way I am going to a Doctor or Hospital or Clinic for now, so just wait and see. Sure has put a hitch in my “git-a-long” though. Sleeping later than usual too! No Medals that way!
Despite what some sources say, I think within a couple months we are gonna see some VERY good spend/CC/Bonus opportunities head our way. I just kinda plod along unlike those people who try to gobble stuff up. Slow and steady, but watch for chances that seem safe and it has worked. Now I have lots of points that I like…. but nowhere to go! WAHHHH! But that will change eventually.
I suspect a year before Intl. travel is fairly easy again though. And always, it will be different from before, with health checks required for a lot of countries.
No medals today, but I like that pic of you and your daughter! One thing a lot of folks are getting is serious extra time with family and if you use the time well, as you appear to do, then you can come out of this with a lot of extra good memories you would not otherwise have.
Stay safe and healthy and happy! That is the most important part!
>>>>Stay safe and healthy and happy! That is the most important part!
So so true.
Time will tell…as always what happens.
I am starting to fear for my trip back to Greece in November…
I too posted before noon.
So, I just learned that there may be no RMDs required in 2020. I’ll have to read up on that. That chould save Mitt about $4 million or so of taxable income. And exactly how is that supposed to give the economy a boost?
Trickle-down
There is A LOT in that bill…
If Obama had done that they would be screaming bloody Socialist non-stop!
You’re an optimist
“ I think in the near future we will all be getting a complimentary supply of masks in the US Mail”
Will probably be after we get a check from the Fed.
I was born optimist I think…
Hey, George, just a quick last thought here…. You write: “With Chase business credit cards cut off from ALL affiliate channels, selling the Chase Ink Business Preferred card offering 100k Ultimate Rewards points has just vanished! It is still offering 100k miles…”
I am thinking that Chase might realize it can sell a lot of cards on its own without having to pay affiliate fees in the future, or much smaller ones at least.
This might be the end of affiliate programs the way we have known them for a while and maybe even a loosening of rules like 2/3/4 or 5/24 or whatever from the banks if the idea spreads.
Whaddaya think?
Carl-
Chase also might be worrying about those business cardholders. Lower transaction fees, and yesterday’s late fees and interest charges might be tomorrow’s bad debts.
I think a lot depends on how long before we get back to normal.
There is (was?) a reason why TPG was so successful…they can push LOTS of product out the door! And their target market is good, it’s not like us. As in paying fees and interest! The thing is can they sell enough to stay in businesses the longer this goes on…
And Sam’s point is definitely a factor too, no doubt.
Today’s “funny” is missing a very import airport code.
BSM – Basement 🙂
You are right, how did I miss this?
spell checker and a quick finger got me.. Make that “… important airport code..”
Wait, so if sh#% comes from Spain, it’s “Spanish flu”, but when it comes from China,
it’s not Chinese? I’m confused…
Do you still say the ‘n’ word?
If you Trump fan boys took the time to learn you would find out that the Spanish Flu did not come from Spain. Actually, it may have come from where Pompeo is from, phucking Kansas!
Swine Flu started in the US and we call, well, phucking swine flu!
We can go on and on…
So now you come back for just racist shit?
Yes please. Let’s go on and on shall we? What do the West Nile, Ebola, and Zika viruses have in common? All named after where they were first discovered. Please, let’s not be scared of geography.
Where on the world map do I find H1N1?
Steve Silberman is Nostradamus:
From May 5th 2017
“ Trump’s Katrina will be a deadly pandemic.”
After CDC faced budget loss of hundreds of millions of dollars after American Health Care Act passed the House.
https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/status/860595784424620034?s=21
On Monday I have an article leading my post about an article back in 2017 pretty much describing what is happening now
Orange blood on their hands!
JUST SO WE ARE CLEAR ON THE TIMELINE:
Dec 18th – House Impeaches Trump
Jan 8th – First CDC warning
Jan 9th – Trump campaign rally
Jan 14th – Trump campaign rally
Jan 16h – House sends impeachment articles to Senate
Jan 18th – Trump golfs
Jan 19th – Trump golfs
Jan- 20th first case in South Korea
Jan 20th – first case of corona virus in the US, Washington State.
Jan 22nd – “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”
Jan 28th – Trump campaign rally
Jan 30th – Trump campaign rally
Feb 1st – Trump golfs
Feb 2nd – “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
Feb 5th – Senate votes to acquit. Then takes a five-day weekend.
Feb 10th – Trump campaign rally
Feb 12th – Dow Jones closes at an all time high of 29,551.42
Feb 15h – Trump golfs
Feb 19th – Trump campaign rally
Feb 20th – Trump campaign rally
Feb 21st – Trump campaign rally
Feb 24th – “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb 25h – “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
Feb 25h – “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
Feb 26th – “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”
Feb 26th – “We’re going very substantially down, not up.” Also “This is a flu. This is like a flu”; “Now, you treat this like a flu”; “It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.”
February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Feb 28th – “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”
Feb 28th – Trump campaign rally
March 2nd – “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
March 2nd – “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 5th – “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”
March 5th – “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”
March 6th – “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 6th – “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
March 6th – “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
March 6th – “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”
March 7th – Trump golfs
March 8th – Trump golfs
March 8th – “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”
March 9th – “This blindsided the world.”
March 13th – [Declared state of emergency]
March 17th – “This is a pandemic,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”
March 18th – “It’s not racist at all. No. Not at all. It comes from China. That’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.”
March 23th- Dow Jones closes at 18,591.93
March 25th – 3.3 million Americans file for unemployment.
March 30th – Dow Jones closes at 21,917.16
April 2nd – 6.6 million Americans file for unemployment
April 3rd – Friday night firing of Intelligence Community watchdog Michael Atkinson,