About the protests in Michigan and other states, are minorities protesting?

No, it is right wing white supremacist “Libertarians” (sorry to be redundant) who are protesting health measures.

”...I do think some governors went too far,”

What is “too far”?

Michigan saw a spike in cases a week after NY and California went on shelter in place. The metro areas of Michigan were looking as bad as anywhere in the country.

@zenvelo From what I understand the Gov of MI put in place orders that people can’t buy landscaping supplies, house paint, she’s deemed it non-essential. I think she closed all state parks, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Why shouldn’t people be able to paint their house, or for a landscaper to work? They just had a snow, so I’m not sure the landscaping matters much this time of year, but residents there are annoyed by it. Can they clear the snow from sidewalks?

What seemed to be missing was her giving enough information for when the limits would be removed. What she would need to see in terms of caseload, or rethink some intricacies of her plan.

There is a “group” that seems to been inciting people to be more afraid than they should be, she needs to do something to gain trust with them I guess.

I do empathize with the governor that people are stupid and the only way to control them is to put in orders, because too many people won’t or don’t pay attention to what is safe behavior. Ironically, a month ago (more or less) when she was asking for the president to do a US order and to help, I talked back to my TV telling her to do it! A few days later she finally did orders in her state.

In Milwaukee, the black community is hardest hit. But the most Republican area in the state, nearby Waukesha, is where the whites had a pro-virus parade yesterday. 1,000 people, standing side by side to shout and hoot. The GOP legislators are going to court to end the lock dowon.

They’re going to get a lot of people sick and dead. As a special bonus, it’s worse for business, too. Conservatives – always wrong about everything.

WBUR – Aggressive Social Distancing Now Is Good For The Economy Later, Study Finds – ”... the economic outcomes of the 1918 flu were very different in different cities, depending on their response to the pandemic. The study, which analyzed 43 cities, found that the areas that moved more aggressively to limit activities and physical interactions among the public had more economic growth following the 1918 pandemic.

“The best-performing cities included Oakland, Omaha, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, which all enforced over 120 days of social distancing in 1918, the study found. The cities that struggled the most after the pandemic — Lowell, Philadelphia and St. Paul—had less than 60 days of social distancing in 1918.”

@Call_Me_Jay one thing that made isolating cities easier in 1918 was there was not so much urban sprawl and transportation wasn’t as easy as almost everyone can jump in their cars and move around. I’m not questioning the assertion that quarantining now is better for health and economic productivity, I’m only adding my comment as a means to state additional difficulties at this time in history.

If I was really a conspiracy theorist I would think the WS wants businesses to open up because the virus is hitting minorities so hard.

@JLeslie one thing that made isolating cities easier in 1918 was there was not so much urban sprawl and transportation wasn’t as easy

Interurban rails connected cities in a way that I envy today. My grandmother in Wisconsin told me about traveling to Chicago for 5 cents when she was young.

Look at this map of rails spreading out from Indianapolis over 100 years ago.

^^Great map! New York of course had a large rail system also, as it does today. I’ve heard that in Michigan the automakers worked very hard to get rid of public transportation in the Detroit metro area back in the day. Maybe that’s partly why those lines don’t function anymore.

A lot of our country was very rural though in 1917–1918, and even if there was rail running through it near the town it wasn’t used on a daily basis for commuting. Although, I will agree that by 1918 we already were very well into the industrial revolution (I think it started back mid 1800’s?) and factories in cities employed a lot of people and for obvious reasons those would be breeding grounds.

The 1950’s we saw a tremendous amount of suburban sprawl as men home from the war made babies with their wives and moved out to where their children could have green lawns to play on. Another legacy of the baby boom era. Maybe that actually helps us not spread the virus? At least in the suburbs we can stay in our house unlike the city that has everyone touching the same door handles, elevator buttons, a stair railings.