Donald A. Loucks, TEM
Submitted 8 March, 2020
It’s been a rich couple of weeks, hasn’t it? The COVID-19 (Corona) virus exploded into the news cycle and was immediately exploited by politicians. President Trump was attacked for not acting fast enough, even though the Federal Government’s response was very quick compared to previous pandemic threats.
Trump then asked for $2.5 billion from Congress to initiate action to prevent the spreading of the virus and jump-start vaccine development. Congress seized upon the opportunity to spend even more and upped the amount to $8.3 billion for good measure.
As it stands now, the virus symptoms of COVID-19 infection run the spectrum from no symptoms at all to potential lethality in the elderly or those with immune system weaknesses. One report showed that the mortality rate was lower than the seasonal influenza that is currently in full swing. Oh, and Oak pollen was seen on a car this morning. So, good luck with that.
The most humorous video clip regarding what people should do to safeguard themselves from infection was so classically hysterical that most should have seen it by now. The video is of a government press briefing. A woman who was admonishing the public on proper hygiene stressed how important it was to wash hands often and DO NOT TOUCH FACE OR EYES! This while repeated licking her finger to turn pages in her briefing notes. One could only imagine one of her colleagues sidling up next to her and whispering, “Do you know what you are doing in front of that camera?” **Sigh**
The economic impact has been nearly instant. Here, South By Southwest (SXSW) has been cancelled which may put many businesses in Austin in financial stress. Airlines are also losing large amounts of revenue because of cancelled flights, and cruise ship line are really taking a beating because of the image of a quarantine imprisonment on a Marie Celeste, forever wandering in search of a port.
Only without the entertainment and booze.
Certainly there will be some countries that will try to take advantage of the economic turmoil. Saudi Arabia, for example has boosted oil production ostensibly to drive other producers into economic distress. In the United States, there will certainly be reductions in fuel prices for the short term.
One might also wonder if some sort of political virus infected the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate process. They were dropping like flies in the last two weeks, and we all know how flies drop, don’t we?
The irony is that all the “diversity” in the previously sizable field has disappeared. No women, no gays, no people of color – one could say that Elizabeth Warren was the last Native American to drop out and leave Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, both elderly white men with striking foibles.
Biden is no longer a gaff machine. Rather, he has become a gaff machine gun moving from a gaff-a-day to a gaff-an-hour. All the while, Sanders gets angrier and angrier reminding us of the old man with a cane chasing kids of his lawn.
But really, the Democrat race is actually for the Vice Presidency. After all, at 78 years, Biden, considering his obvious memory issues (“I’m Joes Biden and I’m running for the United States Senate!”) is reaching a significant cringe level. While Sanders is more lucid, one still muses how long he might last in office, considering his recent heart attack.
This is where things become interesting. If Biden or Sanders win the presidency, it is not unthinkable that one or the other might not make it through their first term. So, who would their choice for VP be?
Why did so many drop out last week? It can be argued that Elizabeth Warren may have cost Sanders the nomination by staying in the race and costing him any wins. By dropping out after primary it could be said that she did Bidens dirty work for him by slaughtering Mike Bloomberg in the last debate and taking votes away from Sanders. I know, like some relationships, “it’s complicated.”
It is truly a shame that Tulsi Gabbard will not be allowed in the next debate. Compared the walker brigade (see Monte Python) Gabbard would cream the two guys simply by being lucid and logical.
But wait, there’s more! How about Hillary Clinton teasing her willingness to be the VP choice? The Democratic National Convention might be more fun than the Oscars without a host.
President Trump is not cancelling campaign rallies. Let’s see who chickens out, or coughs out, first.
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/covid-19-funding-where-money-goes
https://nypost.com/2020/03/07/grand-princess-cruise-passenger-describes-hellish-coronavirus-quarantine/
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/saudi-arabia-starts-all-out-oil-war-destroys-opec-flooding-market-slashing-oil-prices