Manx has some thoughts about the Coronavirus.
Well, the break is over. Didn’t take long for all facets of media to come up with a new 24/7/365/Century/Millennium/∞ unbounded topic. So here goes with keynote happenings:
Tom Hanks and his wife have tested positive. Not to be ignored Matthew aka Ferris Bueller Broderick’s sister has been diagnosed! Yep, her plight is national news.
Beijing has been bending over backwards trying to convince the world that the United States is the real culprit behind the quickly spreading virus.
Not to be upstaged by Beijing Joe Biden snuck out an unlocked door at the home and wandered until he found a camera crew. In his best “I kicked Corn Pop’s a$$” persona he proceeded to trash Trump over the bug. Joe spewed what he would do to stop the problem when he’s inaugurated in 314 days.
Dr. Phil has come up from his rodent warren to solicit money on behalf of a virus organization he has some sort of connection to. Not to be outshined Dr. Oz is now making rounds on Fox News. And in HALLELUJA! news sky pilot Jim Bakker has been hawking a secret potion virus killer. Bakker’s snake oil sales were quickly shut down by authorities.
My grandson his home from his local public university where the campus is now a scene out of “On The Beach”. Last three weeks of quarter cancelled. Finals will be done online. Emergent response by the provost? Interestingly one of those weeks is spring break. The other two – finals weeks – were well set for online testing before any crisis arose.
An actual barometer has evolved – restaurant closures. A local long respected restaurateur is closing twelve of his thirteen restaurants for eight to twelve weeks due to customer traffic dropping by as much as 90%. Reopenings will be flexible. That will put about eight-hundred of his employees out of work. Today’s excellent reduction in jobless claims are going to evaporate next round followed by ugly increase in claims reports. Other restaurants are having similar issues. Many have shuttered. Some – including a group owned by a husband and wife - have permanently closed. It’s a tough business. High rents in this town, mandatory higher wages and benefits set by the Seattle City Council and evolving ever-rising business taxes.
Wish Paul Erdman were still alive – he could write a great story about using global panic as a weapon. Matter of fact he was quite prophetic starting with his first major novel “The Crash Of ‘79”. “Panic as a weapon.” Talk about an actual way to tank our economy before a national election. “Weapon”? Think about Russia and Saudis recent oil “price war”. It now costs much more to produce a barrel of U.S. oil than what that barrel will sell for.
Not to be outshined by self-diagnosed gluten intolerance “sufferers” cable news is being flooded with Skype interviews of the newest victim class – self-diagnosed and self-quarantined possible COVID-19 sufferers. Heard one cable commentator tell a self-quarantined “victim” she was a “hero”.
Just be sure to hoard lowland Scots Whisky. More beneficial than highland whisky to gargle with given lowland’s more prominent iodine taste. Think Johnnie Walker Red. SLÀINTE MTHAH!
Went shopping at Costco today. Among other things, they were out of toilet paper and paper towels. Safeway, Albertson's, Fred's and Walmart were also out. Finally found some at the Dollar Tree store. There must be a huge amount of hoarding going on. That means there is a huge amount of panic running amok in the population at large. They're not in a panic over actual horror, they're in a panic induced by a media frenzy of false and misleading information. It's put out by greedy morons trying to boost sales of air time and papers. They haven't got a clue about actual circumstances. The hype and scare tactics are shameful and demoralizing. The panic stricken public need to be quarantined from the media as much as from the virus. The cold hard fact is that Covid 19 will kill far fewer people than most influenza have done. Time to wake up and smell the hand sanitizer.
Posted by: Ruwanna | March 12, 2020 at 11:46 PM
Hot off the presses:
"Federal Reserve cuts rates to zero and launches massive $700 billion quantitative easing program"
So is the Fed "printing money" feeding a recession or will this accomplish today's stated goal?
Posted by: Manx | March 15, 2020 at 02:52 PM
They keep talking about how this is a relatively short term problem, but it appears to me that there will be even more layoffs causing some businesses to close for good. This could push us into a recession, and the liberals will see that as a perfect propaganda tool to get rid of Trump.
Posted by: Franklin | March 16, 2020 at 03:59 PM
Truer words were never said, Franklin......
Posted by: Manx | March 16, 2020 at 09:35 PM