Friends, the media is working feverishly (pun intended) to create the impression that the chief risk factor for catching the coronavirus is Republican/conservative political leadership. Well, poppycock! The surge in cases that is being seen in our Sun Belt is also replicating itself in parts of Europe, as we've seen, and, it appears, in Australia. Check out this article. Australians are even dabbling in the sorts of travel bans beloved by New York pandemic warlord Andrew Cuomo.
In other news, it's official: the U.S. economy got HAMMERED by the virus-related shutdowns in the second quarter. GDP fell by almost a third. We can expect considerable expansion in the third quarter, but not as much as we would have liked, because of the persistence of the pandemic as well as the scattershot, often irrational measures taken to contain it. To give you a baseline, Germany's economy contracted by only 10% in the second quarter. Granted, Germany suffered less from the virus than we did, but were not their lockdowns also quite stringent? It sure looks like Germany handled the coronavirus challenge, economically and medically speaking, better than we did. Is that Trump's fault? To a point, sure, but most of the key decisions about the U.S. response to the virus weren't made by Trump, were they? Federalism is alive and well in this country, at least in matters of public health. Most of the time that's probably a good thing. In these circumstances, it's a mixed blessing.
What did you say? "Poppycock?" LOL Thanks, that made my day, grin...on a serious note, Australia.
ReplyDelete-"More than 700 cases - it is a crushing blow for Melbourne's five million people." Oh wait, I know math isn't my forte, but isn't that like 0.00014%? Not even 1%, right? Grant it, any death from this virus is awful, but to keep locking down healthy people is wrong. And didn't I read one in six cases are from the nursing homes and that elderly people have made the majority of deaths? Yes, Cuomo has overplayed his ever loving King ruling hand. I think folks in general have had enough. Period. I'll put the likes of Walmart in there too.
I am going to keep saying this; if one can stand in line at Walmart with a stupid mask on then they can stand in at the Voting Booth. Period. As for the GDP, and now you know how they will win the election- taunting the bad economy. I still say ALIENS are next, wink. Mark my words, those pesky hornets couldn't get us, but the aliens will. Hopefully, Trump has learned his lesson, NO MORE SHUTDOWNS. I am afraid though, NY hasn't. I read somewhere like 100 BILLION has been lost, well, whose fault is that? I foresee more taxes in our future here. Sorry, Dr. Waddy, you won't be able to afford that summer house, wink.
Ha!
ReplyDeleteThe perverse reality, Linda, is that I and many Americans actually have MORE money to spend because of this pandemic. My salary is the same, but the government keeps insisting on sending me checks... The downside, economically, is that there is less to spend money ON, because so many things are shut down. HOWEVER, the good news is this: we are going to have record GDP growth in the third quarter (leading up to the election), and we might also get good news about potential vaccines before November. And good news for America=bad news for Democrats!
I agree that Australia may be making a mountain out of a mole hill. To think that this disease can be kept bottled up indefinitely is naive. If it kills relatively few people, as is now the the case, then we can count ourselves lucky.
Dr.Waddy: Australia appears to me to have a left wing dictatorial shell and a common sense interior. But they don't have a Constitution like ours. They are a very distant People's Republic of NY State perhaps without a cavernous mawed Stentor like Cuomo.
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