Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

when's kickoff?

 

Bother. Management is apparently spooked by reports of a third wave, so we're going back to working from home for at least two weeks. I keep telling myself it won't be as bad as before as I've traded up to a slightly larger shoebox and can go out for groceries, but I'm still really not looking forward to this.

 

Japan is 'shocked' and furious at the US after a major coronavirus outbreak at 2 Marine bases in Okinawa — and says the US is not taking the virus seriously

The island of Okinawa has had about 150 Covid infections. Now it has broken out at two U.S. Marine bases there, with 60-some new infections - and the Japanese are pissed.

I can't say that I blame them.

 

Florida reported over 15,000 new cases this morning. First link I could find: Florida reports largest, single-day US cases increase during pandemic

 

By the way, the $800,000,000,000-pound elephant in the corner of the room is the stock market bubble. At some point this summer, the major players are going to realize the gravy train is about to pull into the station, and we'll be in for one Great Depression of a ride. It has little to do with Biden. This is inevitable because of the sorry-ass way the Fed has poured gasoline on the fire.

Trump's "gotta get the kids back in school" is basically trying him to do defribrillation on a dead economy. He knows his chances are dead in the water if he doesn't somehow get REAL unemployment numbers down, and that to him is getting parents back in office buildings (which ain't happening, either). He'll kill people if he can save the 1% from losing a dollar.

Wall Street's playing with free money, just like 2002. It's like a slow-motion train wreck and I really don't know where to stash the 401(k). Even worse, the middle class trying to keep their heads above water despite this whole thing will get crushed like a tsunami at that point.

Financial ruin AND a pandemic. What a country.

 

Note that the "largest single day" record in Florida beats out New York at the height of Covid-19 there back in April.

 

Gator chomp! 'Nole chop! Turnover chain! We're No. 1!

 

I'm certainly no money guru, but selling stocks and moving to cash before it happens seems like a no-brainer. That was my thought back in February and March before the wheels came off of the market. Of course, if you move your 401k into a money market fund and the company running it goes out of business that might end badly as well. Maybe Ragu can speak to the pluses and minuses of that sort of move.

 

Superintendent for one of US's largest public school systems has a message for DeVos: 'You can't put every kid back in a school' - CNNPolitics

 

Most school districts aren't going to reopen this fall. That's not a guess. It's a well-informed promise. Way too risky, and schools wouldn't have sub teachers to cover classes. Without subs, teachers would have to cover other classes, which opens them up to even more risk.

There's a lot of talk about the kids and their relatively low risk to COVID-19.

But you need adults to run the schools. And if they get sick, with so few choosing education as a major the last five years, there would be nobody qualified to lead even the virtual classes if enough got sick and were killed by the virus.

If the country wants school, extreme measures must be taken. Otherwise, it just won't happen.

 

For a while I thought three-quarters of the S&P 500 CEOs would go to the Oval Office and say, "Listen, Bozo, there is no economy while the virus is still out of control. Businesses can't survive on 25 percent of their regular revenue and, oh, by the way, that'll be reflected in the stock market in short order. People are staying at home because there's infection everywhere and, frankly, we don't blame them. Thirty percent of people can't pay their rent or mortgage. This is simple: you get the virus under control, people go back to work, schools operate as usual, people leave the house and get on airplanes and we all live happily ever after. Now get off your ass and do something constructive." But I guess not.

 

Solid voiceover work here.