The Great Unknown

If we use President Trump’s address to the nation on March 11 as a start date, the coronavirus panic is now three weeks old. That Thursday morning, the airlines were overwhelmed with requests to cancel and change flights. People ran out to buy a lifetime supply of toilet paper. States began to clamp down on civil life with shut down orders and so forth. In the fullness of time, that speech will be seen as the point we moved from indifference to complete panic over the virus.

Now, the week following the initial panic was not a total lock down of civil life, as only a few states had started down that road. It was the following week when the great shutdown of the economy started in earnest, so we are just about ready to wrap up the second week of limited economic activity. Friday is when the government releases the weekly unemployment claims. Last week the number was 3.3 million and this week the number is expected to dwarf that figure.

As this goes to post, the estimates for the number of new claims are between 3.5 million and 5.25 million. The record for number of claims in one week was set last Thursday, so the next report is expected to be the new record. To put that into perspective, these are numbers four and five times higher than previous highs. There is no precedent with tens of millions of people being suddenly furloughed, as businesses are forced to close around the country, because they are told to close by the state.

Right now, 31 US states have some form of lock down in place. Not all are the same and not everyone obeys the edicts. There are plenty of people out and about, but major east coast cities now look like ghost towns compared to normal times. Lots of people are working from home, of course, but retail life has just about come to a halt, which means wholesale life is also slowing to a trickle. No one knows how long this will go on, but conventional wisdom currently says another month.

What this all means for the economy is completely unknown. The St. Louis Federal Reserve is out with a report claiming 47 million people will be out of work at the peak of the fallout from the lock down. That equates to a 32% unemployment rate. We are in unprecedented territory now. According to the report, “These are very large numbers by historical standards, but this is a rather unique shock that is unlike any other experienced by the U.S. economy in the last 100 years.”

Now, there is some hope that the depression will be V-shaped. That is, the economy comes back on in May or June and all of a sudden all of those furloughed people are hired back as business reopens. There will certainly be some of that, as the businesses that have not run out of cash will reopen, hoping to remain viable long enough to weather the storm. Many will have gone under, having run out of cash. Even in a V-shaped recession, it takes a while to fully recover.

The stock market is not always a useful guide for judging the economy, but in this case it can give us some clues. Right now, the robots that do 99% of the trading have factored in what they expect over the next six months. They have also factored in what they expect from government stimulus and bailouts. The Dow Jones has settled in around the 21,000 mark this week. The big sell-offs have subsided and investors are slowly buying into what many think is the bottom of the market.

Still, it is all guessing at this stage. Some states are talking about extending the lock-down into May or even June. China having a second lock-down is going to be seen by the alarmist as a sign the lock-down must continue forever. Given that we’re still at peak hysteria and have yet to hit peak infections, it is not unreasonable to think this carries into May. That means the lower end of that V-shaped recession gets much deeper and the angle coming out of it becomes much more gradual.

The only thing we can be sure of at this point is whatever lies on the other side of this is going to be very different from just a month ago. Politics, for example, are already changing, as the players respond to the new reality. Trump is turning into the wartime president, which is always good for the president’s numbers. He will no doubt become the great cheerleader of the recovery this summer, as he will want to take credit for the recovery from the lock-down, assuming there is one.

The question though is what will politics look like in a world of 30% unemployment, even if it is short-lived? If half the furloughed workers come back by June, that still means a world of unemployment levels not seen in generations. The last time we had double digit unemployment was 1982. You have to go all the way back to the Great Depression before seeing double digit unemployment again. Even allowing for the way these numbers are calculated, no one alive has seen what’s coming.

Lots of people will rush forward at this point arguing that these unprecedented times will suddenly make their preferred world view popular. The libertarians are smugly sure that this time, people will lose faith in government and join the libertarian revolution. The neocons are sure their treachery will be vindicated. On this side of the great divide, there are lots of cheers for the death of the economy, in the belief that putting millions of white people out of work will radicalize them.

That’s the thing though. This is uncharted territory. America is not Weimar Germany or 18th century France or 19th century Russia. We have no examples of a country turning itself off like this. We don’t really know why our rulers are doing this. The claim is the virus threat, but we have had worse virus threats and the ruling class did not go insane like this, so something is different this time. All we can say for sure is we moved from a world we generally knew and understood into a world of the unknown.

How will a people used to excess respond to a world of want? It is entirely possible that we get lots of real poor people again. That is, people with barely enough to feed themselves and a place to sleep. More important, those poor people will be visible to the middle-class again. How will people respond to that? How will people look at the plutocrats in a world with real poverty in plain sight? How will those plutocrats respond to such a world? No one has thought about it, so no one knows.

That means the politics of the future are probably not going to look like anything we have imagined. The old Left-Right axis makes no sense. The Left-libertarian versus Right-libertarian dynamic is now as relevant as Whiggism. If it is a short depression, then politics will revolve around the new state controls that are credited with “saving the economy” from the virus. If it is a long depression, then politics becomes a zero-sum game to see who fills the void of the discredited old politics.

Perhaps we are the first people to look out into the distance and get a glimpse of what comes after post-scarcity society. Maybe it is just a return to scarcity. Maybe it is a world with a high tech palace economy and fewer and fewer people working. Maybe the white nationalist get their wish and everyone becomes a dependent of the state. Maybe this look into the void frightens us and we scurry back to the safety of the past. For now though, we are staring out into the great unknown.


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Member
4 years ago

This crisis, real or manufactured, has exposed once again that a significant and vocal part of our guys on this side of the divide are lunatics and children. The vibrants are already ignoring the lockdown orders. Murders are up 21% in Philadelphia and the weather is just starting to warm up. They are used to living on government handouts so this is nothing new to them. The globalists and elitists in corporate America are going to be just fine. The people who are going to suffer are the regular working and middle class white people in America but when they… Read more »

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Arthur_Sido
4 years ago

I’m not sure what political solution there is at this point…what will replacing one set of Globalists with a different set of Globalists accomplish for the guy whose job is gone, or about to be?

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

I seriously doubt any viable solution will be political. The system is broken. And anyone who cheers the death of older white people is scum. China is appealing probably mostly because it has a policy of protecting homogeneity and is not likely to change that policy. I like that that part of china though I don’t know much else about it, aside from much of our manufacturing having been relocated there. Communism does not exist. It’s impossible, people aren’t equal. Some are short, some are tall, some are smart, some are dumb, some are lazy, some are industrious. It doesn’t… Read more »

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  thezman
4 years ago

Z, who specifically is saying these things? Is it a has-been like Spencer?

All the Dissident Right thinkers I still follow have stayed more or less sane. Z and Ramzpaul are the clear beacons of sanity, and Anglin has consistently said “it’s just the flu.”

Greg Johnson accepts the premise of the big bad virus more than I’d like, but he’s not gone completely off the rails. Nick Fuentes is a little too focused on Trump cheerleading for my taste, but he’s not gone completely off the deep end.

Who are these alleged Dissident Right thinkers pushing for full Communism?

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

Are we going to start posting “Comrades” and “Enemies” lists, Meme? Let’s derail the thread with e-personality gossip, by all means.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Exile – I keep hearing this whole “The DR wants Communism!” line, but I personally have never heard it, that’s the motive for my question.

Certainly whomever is saying this stands behind it, and doesn’t mind having their name attached to it.

PS – I didn’t (and don’t ever) downvote your posts.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

Same. The downvotes prove my point that a lot of pretend dissidents are just Breibarts who don’t like spooks. Touch their cheese and they cry out.

And no, I’m not going to “name the Commies.” It’s an in-fighting trap. We both know who we’re talking about.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Seriously, though, I don’t know who you’re referring to. Erik Striker maybe?

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

No means no.

qksgk
Member
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Exile:

You’re useless as teats on a boar hog. Yip-yap, yip-yap, but when someone asks about info you supposedly have, to support assertions you & others are making, you got bupkis.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  qksgk
4 years ago

Rooster, does the message matter or the messenger? I’m not taking in-fighting bait, stop trying to matador me. If Z wants to name the Commie, that’s his call.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

I’m working my way through Greg Johnson’s “White Nationalist Manifesto.” One of his dreams is that non-whites can be peacefully persuaded to leave the USA and return to their (or ancestors’) homelands, without any coercion or violence. If this is an representative example of his thinking, it doesn’t inspire confidence in any other utterance he might make 🙁

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Ben, this is where I’ll weigh in for optics – a gospel of armed struggle is neither mass-appealing or anything to be discussed online.

I still look at Greg’s “slow cleanse” as the ideal solution, but one for a core of White Nationalist separatists, not the American nation as a whole or even all American Whites.

Federalist
Federalist
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

MemeWarVet,
They’re not what you would call Dissident Right but smart guys who contradict the narrative, Steve Sailer and Greg Cochran, have lost their minds over this. I can’t even listen to the FTN guys anymore.

BadThinker
BadThinker
Reply to  thezman
4 years ago

Tucker Carlson, for a start. Though i’m not sure how much he was ever ‘our guy’.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  BadThinker
4 years ago

I believe Tucker’s overreaction is due to him being right early about this being a problem, and his confirmation bias is causing him to exaggerate. Otherwise, his show is a daily hatefest toward China, which is how it should be.

BadThinker
BadThinker
Reply to  DLS
4 years ago

The thing is it’s wasn’t (and would not be) a problem (we’ve dealt with flus like this many times before), if it weren’t for him and his ilk in the media setting up the panic.

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  thezman
4 years ago

over and over again

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  thezman
4 years ago

there are more than a few of “our guys” who need to be punched in the face.

You should be mending fences instead, regardless of how the epidemic goes. Unless you want to set back dissident politics 10 yrs or more. Just sayin’….

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  thezman
4 years ago

Okay that’s fair. I don’t just mean you, same goes for Cochran, Sailor and the others, they should be too. It would be such a d*mn shame if this leads to permanent fractures among us who can see the insanity of multiculturalism, population replacements and insane elites. I didn’t mean to pick on you.

Maus
Maus
Reply to  thezman
4 years ago

I find it interesting that “house arrest” has clarified and amplified the factionalization of the DR. It’s almost like the pressure to adopt gang-affiliation in prisons. Of course, you hate the guards because they represent institutional power; but it’s those dicks on the other side of the yard who make your day-to-day life truly miserable. Everything comes down to the Law of the Shiv. From TPTB’s perspective, prison is communism: all prisoners are equal and the government provides everything (setting aside the black market in contraband); but from the individual prisoner’s perspective, it’s every man for himself and all relations… Read more »

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Arthur_Sido
4 years ago

Recognizing that China has handled this better than muh West doesn’t make you a Commie. One of our biggest themes here is the problem of democracy. This situation is Exhibit A. Z’s been vindicated by America’s shambolic, anarcho-tyrannical, pseudo-libertarian sh*tshow of a response. Read the last 2 years of material in particular & listen to pods like “Right-wing economics” and “Democracy.” This is exactly the kind of scenario where authoritarian societies are at an advantage, but don’t you dare say so, or you’re with the Reds? As for who’s laughing about what, I’ll devil’s advocate for the “snowflakes” who’ve taken… Read more »

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

haha this guy believes what china says! holy shit talk about an impenetrable brain. hey, your picture is in the dictionary; go look up gullible (or maybe it was naive). wait wait, i remember now, it’s next to “stupid”.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Karl McHungus
4 years ago

Thanks for proving my point.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Exile, does he have a point? Rudely said, but does he? If China is bullshitting us wrt pandemic, should we simply bypass and form discussion around other, reasonably truthful countries?

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

Ignoring China when it’s Patient Zero would be unwise. We’ve somehow managed to have (far too) cozy trade and diplomatic relations with China for decades while “re-normalizing” our information to account for Han “truthiness.”

Our governments can’t trumpet the benefits of Chinese engagement b/c metrics on the one hand then be tactically skeptical of Chinese metrics for political convenience when the batsh*t hits the fan.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Screw the Chinese. I’m with you there. But believing what they say about the virus, or patient one or whatever… If we are just ragging on them for being the shits they are known for, great. If their virus “gift” can be weaponized against them all the better.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Karl McHungus
4 years ago

I know what you’re saying, that nothing coming out of China is trustworthy, and I agree with you. Still, the fact is that the PRC has in many respects come out of this looking like less of a shit show than our several states. That doesn’t mean that it’s true that they’ve handled things better, but think like a 60 year old who still watches the network news or even the local news (which relies on the networks for anything non-local). They’re being fed a diet of “American panic, Chinese competence.” Much of that is due to the timing of… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Exile – Genuinely curious, in what way do you find China’s response to be ‘better’? I’m not afraid of commies under the bed, and I do believe in authoritarianism to a degree, but I don’t see their lockdown and panic as being any more effective than ours, and all of it in response to a virus with a death rate (in overall numbers and %) that is just not that frightening to me. I guess what I have a real problem with is everyone expecting something, anything, from the ‘government.’ What ever happened to taking care of oneself and one’s… Read more »

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

I think the main problem with that line of thinking is that the middle class has the largest tax burden by far. The gov’t cheese is handed out freely to the top and bottom, elites and the POC, and the gov’t acquires the bulk of that cheese from white people in the middle. I don’t like seeing good white people with honorable attitudes like yours get taken advantage of, that’s how my parents think too and the maker pool is shrinking and the taker pool is growing. The problem is what goes on in the DC bubble will never stay… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

Fash – Oh, I agree 100% re the beatdown of the middle and working White people. I also agree the wealth distribution is totally skewed and most of us are totally screwed. I also agree the country is dead and Whites should get what they can from the dying carcass of what their ancestors built while it’s scavenged by everyone else. What really irritates me, though, is everyone calling for ‘guidance’ or help from on high (in DC). Does no one have agency or determination anymore? Please don’t confuse my criticism with boomer ‘bootstraps’ crap; I don’t think that way… Read more »

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Oh no, most people are helpless children now that lack the capacity to plan a week in advance. 40% of people don’t have even $400 saved in the bank. That’s why I kinda hope things get rough. We’ve gotten way too soft. And that softness is the root of what has led to the problems we currently face. Bootstraps ideology would be appealing if things weren’t so rigged and clownish and degenerate. Things weren’t so messed up when boomers grew up and formed their worldviews so I kinda get why they think that way, it’s just frustrating that most don’t… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

My current thinking about boomers is that they’re ultra competitive— definitely not something that’s natural to us younger folk. Use your leverage as a younger person (we have tons of it) to establish dominance. In other words, outcompete. Boomers seem to respect that. I believe they aren’t letting go because they don’t think we have what it takes. After all, this is a generation raised to worry about America’s overthrow by communists.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Paintersforms
4 years ago

Painter, that’s a valid take for a lot of Olds. I spoke with 2 different clients in that cohort yesterday who said much the same thing. These aren’t bad guys or Zio-cucks or whatever, wealthy but not “elite.” Not sure how much relates to the Cold War so much as ageless concern for the fate of what they’ve spent their lives building and the fate of their progeny.

These are the good guys, of course. The majority of Olds I know (sample skewed for SoCal narcissism) are burger-nat greedheads worthy of the stereotypes.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Fair enough. Guess I’m looking at the cold war as an economic conflict. Capitalism vs communism. Get rich or the soviets will nuke us. Also liberalism vs totalitarianism. We were less successful on that front. I think boomers were raised to fight that war, but that’s my own theory so who knows.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Here’s what appears to be a reasonably fair assessment. Note that some low scores are related to China’s working within the globalist structure (e.g. WHO) vs. China looking out for Chinese people.

https://www.livescience.com/us-china-coronavirus-response.html

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Arthur_Sido
4 years ago

We cannot talk our way out of the mess we are in, so looking at the problem as being in the bottom of the social pyramid is a waste of time. The good news is that the real problem is at the top of the power pyramid, and the number of these psychopaths is actually quite small. This is not an insurmountable problem to solve. There are over 200,000 skilled middle-class hunters in Wisconsin alone.

Yves Vannes
Yves Vannes
Member
Reply to  Arthur_Sido
4 years ago

“Hard times create…” Yea, it’s a cliche but how else did anyone think we were going to eventually cross the Rubicon. Shop ’til you drop then revolution? Hard times will bring into sharp focus hard differences. I naively thought that would be whites vs anti-whites. Instead we’re getting as Exile put it: “Dissident politics is harder than posting edgy racist slurs. Sometimes it even means your life changes, sometimes in ways you don’t like. Without dissatisfaction there is no social change. ” Absolutely. This should be our second principle. Our enemies have been feeding us the poison for decades. We’re… Read more »

Yves Vannes
Yves Vannes
Member
Reply to  Yves Vannes
4 years ago

A First Principle Thanks to Frodi :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RetDSGQOVhM

Mark Auld
Mark Auld
Reply to  Yves Vannes
4 years ago

Thanks for the clip. I’m subscribed to Scandi, but Utube forgot to notify me…how strange.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Yves Vannes
4 years ago

Save some lumber and nails for the gallows. We are going to need a lot of them. 🙂

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Gallows? No no no! Social distancing, remember?
Think 6.5 Creedmore.

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
4 years ago

It is a truism that people get the govts they want and deserve. As a Canukistani looking south… you Yanks will do alright, or as good as can be expected. It’s also true tha Americans generally despise their rulers and have guns of their own if the rulers want to get stupid about who’s in charge. If things get stupid(er)… again, you Yanks are in a good position. It might be said that your founding fathers were the original preppers. You guys have what you need. For you, failure or success will be up to you the people, and not… Read more »

FashGordon
FashGordon
4 years ago

I don’t think White Nationalists wish for everyone to become a dependent of the state. I think that a world where POC get free stuff aplenty while whites pay the bulk of the taxes that support those gibs is humiliating to us. We are quasi slaves in this system. I don’t want to pay deadbeat tyrone’s child support so that tawneesha can comfortably pop out 3 “school to prison pipeline” children who my own children are going to be forced to have to endure. So we might as well all be on gibs, since the implementation of a full gibs… Read more »

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

People of various hats, turbans, colors, and genders have been feeding at the trough for a while now. We likely have hit the moment where there is no one left to slop the hogs. Make of that what you will, and plan accordingly. No one knows what it means or how it all goes, but there is change afoot, and people hate change.

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  Dutch
4 years ago

They sure do. It’s gonna be rough whatever happens. But I see potential and am optimistic.

Guest
Guest
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

I think we’re all accelerationists on occasion when pissed off, but what you’ve detailed really is absolute best case scenario. We don’t know the future and it pays to be cautious and keep our powder dry. You assume far too much – how will the white man think of you when you’ve been cheerleading for his financial disinheritance…will he assume you have his best interests at heart? Probably not.

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  Guest
4 years ago

I think you misunderstand me. I’m not cheering for anyone’s financial disinheritance. If the state tries to take your wealth I will be firmly opposed to that, and end to this process of wealth redistribution and preferential hiring of POC is what I am cheering. A return to true meritocracy. An end to gibs. And I’m a 26 year old white male in 2020 USA, I’m always pissed off. Wouldn’t you be?

Guest
Guest
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

Feel you on that bit, early 20s here. Thanks for clarifying, I have no disagreement. One thought – it is posible for things to go from very bad to worse to even worse. Just because the state falls doesn’t mean something better will replace it. Just finished reading Barbara Tuchman’s calamitous 14th century. (((Tuchman))) but still terrific book. After the plague hit mid-century catastrophes continued to fall like hammer strokes for the next 100 years leading to extensive depopulation. Seems like there’s an underlying assumption that if we can just get an explicitly euro society with explicitly euro leaders all… Read more »

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  Guest
4 years ago

This virus isn’t the plague though, not even close. Clown world is the plague and the cause of this downturn, without clownworld we would be in the south korea boat. They still have an economy, they still have a population that is 99% korean, they were able to make masks for their people and their infection rates were minuscule. We live in gutted clownworld economy so we have little mitigation and our inept donor class puppet leaders have done things to make what could have been a molehill into a mountain. If things do go completely to pot, the virus… Read more »

UFO
UFO
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

At least you (and I) are still young. If shit pops off now we might be able to live normally in our late 30s onwards. The Yeltsin years were 10 years or so.

But the experiment of forced “diversity”, discouraging assimilation, and refusing to punish the criminals has quite honestly never been tried. I do know that the vast majority of urban whites would be instant road kill. Then the 3rd world hordes would probably duke it out in the cities. But we just don’t know.

Our elites are truly insane.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

This. Sunshine dissidence is cheap. I’m seeing a lot of pretend edge-lord dissidents clutching their priors like a woobie now that darkness falls. Real dissidents work well in darkness.

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

This is scary, I’m seeing a lot of fear in everyone right now, across the board. People will adapt though. Necessity is the mother of invention. And adaptation. We survived as hunter gatherers in the frozen north for hundreds of thousands of years, this will be a cakewalk comparatively.

NJ Person
NJ Person
4 years ago

Not to worry. The 32% unemployed people are “not essential”, unlike the bureaucrats, politicians and the media.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  NJ Person
4 years ago

Not far off NJ. One of the only fake metrics of our modern info economy that makes sense to me is how they have been cooking employment numbers for over a decade. They have been trying to figure out how to bury a segment of the labor force that was decoupled from the economy a good while back. That segment of idle and abandoned rail cars is still sitting in the switching yard. Even during the 4% unemployment heyday. Then conveniently they brand the ‘gig’ economy – and the financialization of private leveraged assets as mini-businesses like air bnb to… Read more »

Ricardo Williams
4 years ago

Is it possible that the reason for the hysterical reaction to this crisis is a cynical attempt to destroy the economy on the part of Democrat governors and their friends in the permanent bureaucracy? What better way to take down Trump than to saddle him with 30% unemployment? In my state of South Carolina, our Good Ole Boy Governor, Henry McMaster, is fending off calls from the local press to implement a mandatory shut-in order. Right now, he’s been calling for people to voluntarily stay home. How long will he hold out though? As a refugee of Montgomery County, MD,… Read more »

WhereAreTheVikings
WhereAreTheVikings
Reply to  Ricardo Williams
4 years ago

Our Republican governor in Oklahoma is just as hysterical as any Democrat.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  WhereAreTheVikings
4 years ago

Just imagine if Tiger King had won that race instead…

T. Morris
T. Morris
Reply to  WhereAreTheVikings
4 years ago

Never fear, WhereAreTheVikings – we have legalized Medical Marijuana and “dispensaries” on every other street corner now. Full employment for everyone! Growing, transporting, distributing, writing prescriptions, etc. And we can fully fund the schools for the first time in Oklahoma’s formerly ‘tight ass’ history t’boot. It’s all good! Deal with that, corona-cold!

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  T. Morris
4 years ago

Here the “dispensaries” still have no access to banking. Cash and carry. One I pass by always has a nasty looking armed guard at the door, whereas my bank has never needed one. 😉

Ganderson
Ganderson
Reply to  T. Morris
4 years ago

Also in MA the dispensaries are shuttered. Isn’t now when they are needed most?

David_Wright
Member
Reply to  Ricardo Williams
4 years ago

Have we met? 😉

Member
Reply to  Ricardo Williams
4 years ago

I just watched a whiny news segment last night about how frustrated the governors (meaning mostly libshit ones) have become with Trump’s refusal to issue national level orders. He’s not providing “guidance” for them you see. As if anyone in the media or their political allies was willing to take “guidance” from Literally Hitler even a month ago. What they’re doing of course is trying to set Trump up to issue national shut down orders that gives governors and mayors political cover for what they’ve done and are doing. So far he’s letting them twist in the wind and I… Read more »

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  pozymandias
4 years ago

Clown world laments how Literally Orange Hitler failed to lock down the country, restrict all movement, incite panic against an invisible enemy, and close the borders sooner and now those tasks are left to their own team blue elected officials who demand Literally Orange Hitler Not My Presidente share his final solution to the virus threat otherwise we are all gonna die. Ps, please send money.

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

No worries. Some Wall Street guy, Steve Munchkin, said “everyone is getting a dollar”.

Wait for your dollar.

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Reply to  Ricardo Williams
4 years ago

Greetings from Upstate SC.
Our neighbors down the road on I-85 just being ordered to shut down GA.
Doubt Henry will hold out much longer.
Oh yeah – latest news from a rather significant employer in SC:
Boeing is offering employees (161,000) buyouts as its CEO said it will take years for the airlines and aerospace industry to recover from the coronavirus crisis.

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Stranger in a strange land
4 years ago

They get their dollar too. Nothing to fear.

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Ricardo Williams
4 years ago

That Mad Doctor Fausto, er Fauci is bleating for a “nationwide” shut down. He forgot there were States. With Rights.

And Citizens.

The geek king, Mad Doctor Fausto.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
4 years ago

It truly is uncharted territory. I cannot help but believe we are about to get anarcho-tyranny times a thousand. The specter of citizens reporting citizens for walking their dogs in ways deemed unacceptable is the thing that bodes most ominous for the long term; in the meantime, armies of penniless, hungry people is an immediate danger to anyone who has anything not nailed down and gets caught in a mob.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 years ago

Jack, and the post-Corona status jockeying has begun. I just saw the first “I am a COVID-19 Survivor!” claim by a woman who was going apeshit about too many people in the local park on a nice spring day. Soon there will be 6 million survivors all demanding a bigger slice of someone else’s cake. This Corona bug has nothing on the leftist mind virus.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

Who is surprised, though? If you have no problems whatsoever with you own being targeted for genocide, the next logical step is to assist in it. I misread you initially and thought it was “I Am A COVID-19 Survivor” t-shirt, although that’s coming if not already here.

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

Does that make the people in the park “Covid-19 survivor survivors”?

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Dutch
4 years ago

The normies in the parks are called “covidiots” and “covid deniers”. Probably more being cooked up.

Where Is meme war vet? This is really his area lol.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

Right here homey!

Re: “Covidiot” and other slurs, let’s remember that we are fighting a 4th Generation War and that the moral high ground is essential.

Anytime someone trots one of these insults out, you accuse them of bullying. And your refutation to anyone defending this insane lockdown should be “guess you like homeless kids.”

People agree with us, but they fear to speak up.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

Ha! I have been doing just that. Turning “shaming“ and “bullying“ back on them. Hysterics ensue. I also forgot perhaps the best one, “spreaders”. Kind of reminds me of the gay-op malthusian-inspired “breeders” slur that was popular back when, coincidentally, AIDS was all the rage and apparently we didn’t need future programmers or lettuce pickers so babies were bad.

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  Dutch
4 years ago

In the future people’s Wikipedia entries will proudly state that their ancestors were Covid-19 survivors. Haters will skip to the “Early Life” section and say, “Ah hah! I knew it! Every. Single. Time. Hah!”

Or we’ll be huddled in the ruins of skycrapers, shiv-ing each other with rusty screwdrivers over a scrap of rotting pigeon flesh.

Member
Reply to  Mike_C
4 years ago

My ancestors have an unbroken record of surviving to breed that goes back millions of years. War, famine, pestilence, plague. You name it, we beat it.

onezeno
Reply to  Vizzini
4 years ago

Yeah, you and everyone else.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Mike_C
4 years ago

>>> Haters will skip to the “Early Life” section and say, “Ah hah! I knew it! Every. Single. Time. Hah!”<<<

You read my posts! I’m touched.

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Jack Dobson
4 years ago

Yep, some guy slowed down his car and started screaming something about “being home” when a friend and I were walking. I have a good throwing arm, But no rock at hand. Would have hurled it at his car.

Ris_Eruwaedhiel
Ris_Eruwaedhiel
4 years ago

My resume is on the internet and in February I received a phone call from a recruiter I once met with a few years ago. We chatted and I asked how was the job market. “It’s a candidate’s market,” she replied. Not anymore.

All this hysteria over a bad cold.

BadThinker
BadThinker
Reply to  Ris_Eruwaedhiel
4 years ago

I was really lucky. Switched jobs just before they shut down everything. New job is having me work from home.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  BadThinker
4 years ago

“Work?” Get with the program. Uncle Sam is going to pay for everything here on out. Hell, you don’t even have to pay your electric or water bills. In Europe some places, nobody has to pay rent! No word yet on how the economies will recover, but we can be sure the best experts are working on it right now! Trust your governments; they have only the citizen’s best interests at heart! 😀

onezeno
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Yep, same experts who just under-predicted the unemployment numbers by half. I could have told them the second week would show exponential growth. Problem is economists seem to fail up the ladder.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Ris_Eruwaedhiel
4 years ago

A cold doesn’t kill 1/3 or more of nursing home patients, put air craft carriers out of action, nor kill younger healthier people (even if old and frail still are the Reaper’s preferred.) Please consider that we are facing something more serious than a seasonal flu epidemic. It may not be the 1918 Pandemic, nor the superflu (Stephan King’s “The Stand”) or “Twelve Monkeys,” but it is a public health emergency and should be treated with some respect.

onezeno
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Voted down for advising not to underestimate a global pandemic that can cause extreme pneumonia even in healthy people. The anti-hysteria is almost as bad as the hysteria, it seems.

Jim-bo-bo
Jim-bo-bo
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

I think this Virus could solve our Medicare and Social Security problem…what better way to solve it than the Judges and Executioners be non-human….
Then, who would get laid off is the blood sucking Health (Sickness) Care System workers
Would you believe 1 (one) Outpatient Kidney Stone Removal (in and out in 3 hours with no complications) cost $72,000 ?? WTF are they smoking??

Drake
Drake
4 years ago

It is a weird time. I was laid off a few months before this crap started. Once I saw the pandemic incoming, I enrolled in an online PMP prep class figuring I would ride it out studying for the certification, pass the test, and be ready when the economy gets turned back on. What’s strange is that I have recruiters calling and emailing about jobs to be filled asap. Just had a second-round interview via Skype on Tuesday.

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

congrats!

Drake
Drake
Reply to  Karl McHungus
4 years ago

Not yet! No jinxes!

ChetRollins
ChetRollins
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

The professional class is somewhat insulated from the hysteria, as a large percentage can work from home with minimal hassle. That being said, the cascade effect is going to start to hit us as well.

My employer just notified me of a mandatory vacation next week. This is just the start, as I’m 90% sure the project I’m working on is going to get cancelled. Once the effects start to go up the food chain to the upper-middle class, popular conception of the lockdown is going to take a nastier turn.

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

Tell that to Tom Hanks 🙂

bilejones
Member
Reply to  Karl McHungus
4 years ago

Hanks is of that lucky strata of society that produces nothing that anybody needs and is, therefore, essential.
The first ones made richer by the bounce,

WhereAreTheVikings
WhereAreTheVikings
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

We’ll see. Will they give up the social acceptance their virtue-signaling is rewarding them with? Seems like a mighty strong drug, getting the women’s and soy boys’ approval . . .

Tarl Cabot
Tarl Cabot
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

The Great Recession in 2008 basically wiped out the blue collar middle class (destroying the home equity which was their only real asset). The Greater Depression will do the same thing to the service economy middle class, as their positions become unnecessary or redundant.

What will remain is a professional bourgeoisie comprising about 15 to 20% of the population: specialist physicians, white shoe lawyers, executives ( above director level) and government bureaucrats. The rest will essentially be a tenant class, or urban vote-serfs. The structure of society will look rather pre-industrial.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Tarl Cabot
4 years ago

Thinning the herd, swelling the ranks of the discontented. Sounds like a very stupid plan. Who would come up with such a thing?

“specialist physicians, white shoe lawyers, executives ( above director level) and government bureaucrats.”

Yep.

Sandmich
Sandmich
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

Worth noting, and this is something lost in the Great Depression history, that with 32% unemployment that means that 68% of people who want a job have one.

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  Sandmich
4 years ago

Unfortunately the labor participation rate is only 62% so lose a third of that and that means only about 40% of able bodied working age people will have jobs. Also worth noting. On the bright side, before the 60s it was only 50%ish and we did fine then. But wages were a lot higher then too. Two income trap kinda throws some shade on it unfortunately. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a book about how they tricked the wahmens into wanting to be office drones and not raise their children because “empowering” to work for some company… Read more »

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

Being at home with your children is slavery and sitting in a cubicle all day is freedom! “Freedom is slavery” and “Slavery is freedom”
American women fell for this!

WhereAreTheVikings
WhereAreTheVikings
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

Then the feminists told them to get a divorce, that the idiot is only good for child support. All of this is exactly why we have such messed up kids.

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  WhereAreTheVikings
4 years ago

It’s probably even worse than you think unfortunately. Throw in being raised by the degenerate media on top of it all.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

We are leaning very heavily on that type of position right now as processes have to be rethought–staff is working remotely–and now–figuring out restart processes and unfortunately scenarios where operating expense may have to be dramatically re-adjusted.

JustaProle
JustaProle
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

Were they emailing you in anticipation of passing thr PMP, or otherwise?

Drake
Drake
Reply to  JustaProle
4 years ago

Otherwise – I already have Six Sigma certifications, and a lot of experience. Was at the last place for 11 years and had all their internal certifications – which are meaningless to anyone else.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

Careful not to get doxed- Project Management Institute has the power to yank your certification for not being fully on-board with GloboHomo.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Drake
4 years ago

(Fellow Dirt People- Project Management Professional. Yes, I had to google it.)

Drake
Drake
Reply to  Alzaebo
4 years ago

Sorry!

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
4 years ago

We are off the horses and fighting on foot at this point. Was on a call with a German financial institution for two hours yesterday–an investor in one of our ventures. Germans are hard to read by phone, but interestingly one of the things they were intensely interested in was the potential for follow on civil unrest–particularly directed at the wealthy. These guys are pretty thoughtful in their thinking about second and third order effects. The only guidepost we have to use are the 2008 crisis, which was still only a 3% drop in nominal GDP and was a slower… Read more »

Sandmich
Sandmich
Reply to  SamlAdams
4 years ago

In one of the more interesting things in 2008-ish was OWS scheduling bus tours to show off the houses of the oligarchy. Probably wouldn’t take too much more for them to organize an actual mob this time.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
Reply to  Sandmich
4 years ago

Difference this time? Might not just consist of layabout modern day hippie types, but instead blue collar people with “skills”, many acquired while solving problems for Uncle Sam in faraway places.

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
4 years ago

What permanent loss of rights will come from this? They have been arresting and fining at least one pastor for holding church services. A month ago, nobody thought this was possible. Not to be outdone, some municipalities are directly assaulting the 2nd amendment as well. Maine says, “hold my beer” and throws the 4th under the bus. While some states, counties and the feds release prisoners and stop responding to 911 calls, others threaten arrest and jail for failure to social distance. Everyone thinks their ideology is going to benefit and everyone wants to exercise the “never let an emergency… Read more »

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Tarstarkusz
4 years ago

This is only revealing what was already true. We haven’t had rights for decades but for the indulgence and sufferance of the elites in preserving the fiction. Now more people know the real score.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Yes. And we are provided with ample daily examples of fellow white men and women – elected “leaders” and regular neighbors, who would turn you in to the stasi for five minutes of good safe feelz and social praise from the hive. So I hope people are keeping score.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

It’s up to us to keep score and keep reminding people of who called the shot and pocket on GloboShlomo.

I’m Noticing a lot of “this isn’t the time…” and “let’s talk about something else” interference-running out there. Like opposition electoral advice about who they “want to run against,” doing the opposite is the best assumption.

This is the MAGA-Con version of Stalin using Mother Russia to re-patriotize the kulaks as Hortler invades.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

I’m not sure if this is “it” or a test run…

I think the smarter ones (ie the funny hat wearers) would prefer to back down and learn from the mistakes made and cover their exposures for next time.

The problem is, their dumber, browner pets may not allow them to do so.

So do I know? Hell no!

MikeCLT
MikeCLT
4 years ago

Zman is right regarding the economy. It is like we have jumped off a cliff into a lake without knowing how deep it is or if there are rocks just under the surface. I’m not sure if the lockdowns are necessary, but we are totaling flying blind.

It is a hell of a thing to bet the country on.

Keep up the good work Z.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  MikeCLT
4 years ago

Brings back a memory. I knew a disabled student in the dorm who was almost completely paralyzed, neck down. Some arm movement for his chair controls. Used to get called to his room to help him in/out of chair. One day I was talking to him wrt his “accident”. Seems he was quite an athlete in HS and one day was with friends and *did* jump off cliff into a shallow river on an impulse. As he put it, typically when these accidents occur, paralysis is instant, consciousness not lost, and your body naturally floats to the surface—face up or… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

More likely he dove in. This is a surprisingly common cause of such total paralysis. Look before you leap, but really, really look before you dive. 🙁

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Yes, he dove in. I related the story poorly. However, he took responsibility for his youthful indiscretion.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

Compsci – Those types of stories terrify me. I recall a movie my husband watched, based on a true story, of a Brit who had been extremely athletic and ended up that way (cannot remember cause of paralysis) and no one wanted to let him go and he was desperate to be set free. To be trapped in one’s own body that way, with everyone ‘helping’ you – I pray that when/if I do something really stupid and/or my time comes, I end up face down.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

I left some of the story out. It has an amazing (to me anyway) end. This man was a “Mormon”, the church took care of him as one would family. Believe it or not, he was married later on and had two children—don’t ask me details, I do not know, but I’m told such is possible. He was for a while employed (as webmaster) by the college my dept was part of. We would meet each other often in the elevator and chat for a bit (talking was a hard for him). He was a better man than I for… Read more »

Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Christopher Reeve was an American actor, … best known for playing…. Superman.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve was left quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He used a wheelchair and needed a portable ventilator to breathe for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation

Apex Predator
Apex Predator
4 years ago

O/T: This is what Anarcho-Tyranny looks like at its essence. Guy gets robbed, defends store w/ firearm. HE goes to jail w/o bond and is facing 20 years in prison. Cop response- “You should have let him rob you and called us instead.” I.E. State monopoly on force/violence and you are a helpless peasant.

Watch the Tucker Carlson video and you’ll see, in technicolor, where we are headed as a nation. They want you defenseless and stupid and if you don’t comply your ass will burn for it w/ years of incarceration.

https://www.infowars.com/bye-bye-2nd-amendment-virginia-man-charged-for-shooting-masked-intruders/

https://www.arlnow.com/2020/03/29/police-store-employee-charged-after-shooting-would-be-thief/

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Apex Predator
4 years ago

Look, the last citation does not support your claim. In the report, the employee in question shot a guy breaking into store. No threat of life or limb provided. In this State the same law prevails. You can use deadly force to prevent deadly force, not property theft. However, you can brandish to ward off theft. This is reasonable.

Apex Predator
Apex Predator
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

Cool, give me your address, Ima come by and rob your house blind. So be a good little bitch boy and roll over while I do so. Is that really the stance you want to take here? You get the government you deserve, and you are a BIG part of the problem. Until the three came into the back room and drew down on him (i.e. too late) THEN he can fire? ‘Men’ like you got us into this situation with your meek passivity about the need for righteous violence just FYI. The correct answer for most of our history… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Apex Predator
4 years ago

Again, wrong. This State has stand your ground laws. He could easily have taken up a defensive position, drawn down on whomever approached, gave warning, and fired if approached. Most likely the person in the cited story, blasted at some guy at the door or shot him in the back as the perp attempted to flee. Whenever I see these “stories” it’s almost always some clown acting before thinking and then talking to the cops without benefit of a lawyer. If your thinking in self defense situations resembles your response to my posting, you’d best leave your gun at home,… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

At least the defendant will have a chance at a jury trial. They do sometimes render a sensible verdict, in this case, it wouldn’t be the one the Commonweath seeks.

T. Morris
T. Morris
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Yep. Jury Nullification still happens from time to time in the good ol’ ‘land of the free.’ Or so I’m told. Any betters on how much longer that can last in our Brave New World?

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

“in accordance with the law” does not necessarily equal “reasonable”.

Maybe it’s a shit law. (Written by shit people and passed by other shit people.)

Judge Smails
Judge Smails
4 years ago

We cannot forget that the plotters and the schemers never take a day off.

Bill Gates Calls for a “Digital Certificate” to Identify Who Received COVID-19 Vaccine

https://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/bill-gates-calls-for-a-digital-certificate-to-identify-who-is-vaccinated/

I often wonder what evolutionary purpose these parasites serve. They are not true leaders. They spend their entire lives hatching nefarious plots to force everyone else to live in their vision of the ideal World.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Judge Smails
4 years ago

Mark of the beast V6.6.6 (update coming to improve user experience and fix bugs relating to resistant nodes).

Epaminondas
Member
4 years ago

Look for corporate consolidation on the other side. The weak will fall away and the big corporations will get bigger and more powerful. They will continue to grow at the expense of private small businesses. The beast keeps growing.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Epaminondas
4 years ago

I think you’re right. This will make corporate stranglehold on the economy worse and the gov can’t believe all the new powers that just fell into its lap. Plus if this doesn’t kill the debt dollar I don’t know what would, it really must be immortal.

On the other hand, I think it is good for resistance to immigration, outsourcing and globalization. So kind of a mixed bag really.

Ris_Eruwaedhiel
Ris_Eruwaedhiel
Reply to  Moran ya Simba
4 years ago

On the other hand, big business likes immigration, outsourcing and globalization.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
Reply to  Ris_Eruwaedhiel
4 years ago

That is true. Forces that have never collided head-on on this scale, are about to ram into each other, politically and economically. What happens then is anyone’s guess.

Skynet
Skynet
Reply to  Ris_Eruwaedhiel
4 years ago

Well, if big business accepts a CARES Act loan, it must guarantee: the funds it receives will be used to retain at least 90% of its workforce, at full compensation and benefits, until September 30, 2020 it intends to restore not less than 90% of its workforce as of February 1, 2020, and restore all compensation and benefits to the workers no later than four months after the termination date of the declared public health emergency it will not outsource or offshore jobs for the term of the loan and two years after completing repayment of the loan it will… Read more »

bilejones
Member
Reply to  Skynet
4 years ago

The Loan proposals are bullshit for the consumption of the gullible,
The action is in the Five Trillion dollars that the Fed will use to buy useless Corporate Debt (and equities this time around) and the little noticed reduction of reserve requirements to Zero.
Infinite Leverage, that should get the bubbles inflated again.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Ris_Eruwaedhiel
4 years ago

Ris – and with the ‘borders’ locked down (but only to law-abiding White people) and all the gibs being promised, the dusky hordes are not running away afraid of civil unrest or the destruction of their small businesses. Gee, being on lockdown in American suburbia beats being on lockdown in Wuhan or Jakarta or Mumbai – who knew? They are going about business as usual and salivating about their bigger slice of grift that’s coming.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
4 years ago

The virus and lockdown threaten many small and medium sized businesses more than the huge corporations. For our overlords this seems like it might be an opportunity. In the same way they hate red state people/deplorables/rural Americans/Trump voters/white folks, they don’t like it that so many people still work outside the multinational corporate structure. They’d love to herd us into that, where we’re more easily controlled and they can utilize their diversity agenda. They increasingly want more control over what we say, how we live, how we think, what we do, etc. The people who own and work in smaller… Read more »

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  Wolf Barney
4 years ago

Exactly. Big business is the Trojan horse that will fence everyone in. Want a job, benefits, the means to live at a level greater than waiting for your EBT card to refill? Then get on board, brother.

Moran ya Simba
Moran ya Simba
4 years ago

Re predictions about what comes next, on New Year’s I don’t think anyone could have imagined we’d be where we are now. It’s a little like in fluid mechanics. With laminar flow it is easy to calculate where a given particle flowing along will go next. With turbulence you can’t, like with chaos, infinitesimal differences in initial conditions can send any given particle in a completely different direction. I think this is the same. Some ppl have started saying ‘keep a diary, this is history happening’. That actually makes kinda sense to me.

Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

Today’s Unemployment Number is 6.6million for the week ending March 28. Consensus expectations were for 3.76 million claims. The prior week’s figure was 3.3 million.
The previous all-time record was 695,000 claims on October 2, 1982.

NJ Person
NJ Person
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

Exponential growth?

ChetRollins
ChetRollins
Reply to  NJ Person
4 years ago

#flattenthecurve

Member
Reply to  NJ Person
4 years ago

Wow, I just did some calculations and this must mean that by the end of April there will be 105.6 million unemployed in the US. By the end of May we’ll have close to 3.4 billion people out of work right here in the USA. Stunning really, that’s roughly a 1000% unemployment rate. It must be true though. My computer said so.

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  pozymandias
4 years ago

My g-sh! The implications are staggering. Clearly at some point there will be six billion unemployed in the US. And it will be a crime to deny that.

Member
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

October 2, 1982, updated.

Well we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the [cubicles] down,
Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time,
[Wearing the masks],
Standing in line……

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
Reply to  Libertymike
4 years ago

And Dorney won’t be opening.

Vegetius
Vegetius
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

oh gawd

Bill_Mullins
Member
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

We are OFF THE FEKKING MAP!!! We are SO FAR off the map we don’t even know where the map IS and we’re still heading pell mell further off the map! Hell! We’re still ACCELLERATING! Nobody has a clue what comes next. As the ZMan wrote We have no examples of a country turning itself off like this. Any predictions made by alleged experts don’t even qualify as WAGs. They’re pulling their predictions straight out of their ASSES! Oh, and do not mistake my emphasis above for panic. I am not panicking. I’m just pissed at the Left – fekking… Read more »

Barnard
Barnard
4 years ago

The local paper where I live has an article today on how the extended shutdown is killing tax revenue. State governments will not be able to provide the services they have been providing after an extended shutdown. In our society which increasingly encourages dependence on the state how are people who want no agency in their lives going to react when services are reduced or cut off?

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Barnard
4 years ago

Actually, this may be how the panic ends. When the politicos see budget cuts on the horizon.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Barnard
4 years ago

Along with new “temporary” sales taxes and huge real estate tax increases “think of the children!”, the fedgov will gladly step in with fiat to force ornery states and cities to bow down. Look what they were able to do with highway funding. The people of cities and states will have an opportunity to finally put their (lack of) money where their mouth is. There will be a myriad of creeping situations in which we the people will be confronted with meaningful trade-offs between embracing a different standard of living brought on by fewer government services OR the comforts and… Read more »

Member
Reply to  Barnard
4 years ago

The states will get federally guaranteed loans and grants. More debt will be created to fund it all. Remember me when you’re reading articles a couple years from now about the U.S.’s $100 trillion national debt.

ChetRollins
ChetRollins
4 years ago

It sounds like the plan for the masses who are going to find themselves hopelessly poor is to rev up the money machine as much as humanly possible with welfare and infrastructure projects. Whether this ends in runaway inflation remains to be seen. The doomsayers have been saying ‘any time now’ in the same way the virus doomsayers are saying ‘wait until next week’. It will probably operate like it always has for the last thirty years, with the official inflation numbers being low while the average Joe becomes poorer and poorer while not being able to point to a… Read more »

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

re: inflation seen the price of oil lately?

Maus
Maus
Reply to  Karl McHungus
4 years ago

No. Haven’t filled my tank since early January. But yesterday at the market, in the space of one week: beef up $2/lb.; chicken thighs from $2.49 to $3.49 a lb.; and a dozen medium eggs from $1.99 to $3.20. There were no fresh carrots to be had at any price. CPI excludes food and fuel; so the government “inflation” number is useless in the real world.

Sandmich
Sandmich
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

The money printing has to far outstrip debt destruction to cause hyper-inflation, no? (Seriously, the mechanics of this are a bit puzzling to me). So far it seems like the actions of the Fed, while huge, have just been used to move debt from one ledger to another.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Sandmich
4 years ago

Hyperinflation is a myth. It is structurally impossible in our system, unless it happens in capital assets. Then its just called the ‘greatest economy ever’.

Well to be fair Sandmich, there will be a massive amount of theft and fraud so some of that gov’t money will slip between the ledgers onto the street.

But unlike ATMs accidentally loaded with $100’s, they will never know where it went.

Our gov “loses” billions during the best of times. Just wait until the era of the psychopath meets MMT head on. Medicaid fraud is gonna look quaint.

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Sandmich
4 years ago

Essentially MMT boils down to a legitimacy question. So long as the serfs of today are willing to strap in and pull the plow for what grandpa already got paid, and their kids are willing to step up when their turn at the plow comes. the system keeps going. It’s a tarted up version of Keynesian economics – or Keynes was dumbed-down MMT.

MMT works until the first generation that says “I’m not pulling that plow. I don’t believe any of this will ever be paid back. It’s fake – let me off this ride.”

Dak Jempsey
Dak Jempsey
Reply to  Sandmich
4 years ago

Inflation is a function of expanding credit. As such, printing money to pay off debt simply maintains price levels since there is no write off of credit (ironically, printing our way out of debt is functionally a jubilee). Deflation happens if people make purchases with cash instead of credit. If credit markets contract, whether through bankruptcy, repayment, forced write downs etc. then prices drop because the money (read: credit) supply is contracting. In the modern American economy, credit is money, and the expansion of credit is inflation, therefore the only option left is deflation because the inflation has already occurred.… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Dak Jempsey
4 years ago

The merry-go-round won’t end until the present dollar system is completely scrapped. That would never happen until the existing powers have sapped it for all it’s worth. It’s very likely that the government will be replaced too. Probably with large losses of life; season the scenario to taste and simmer gently. One of the cruel ironies of the origin of the Fed is that it was sold as a way to prevent government manipulation of the money system!

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

“the Fed [..] was sold as a way to prevent government manipulation of the money system!”

Perhaps they aren’t wrong to call us “muppets”. (h/t Dutch)
Sigh.

Ganderson
Ganderson
Reply to  Mike_C
4 years ago

JP Morgan basically saved the banking system in 1907. It was felt that that was too much power for one man to have, hence the creation of the Fed, which has failed every test since its founding.

abprosper
abprosper
Reply to  Sandmich
4 years ago

The money printing here is basically giving the system CPR in hopes that it will recover. This is less out of care for the people mind you but stability since most people in office benefit from the system.

The longer “no biz” goes on though, the less effective any means will be and the deeper into ,as our host put it, the Great Unknown we go.

No doubt the powerful are enjoying pushing people around but its risky, There are serious riots in Wuhan and the West is less well equipped to handle those or worse.

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

These are headlines we don’t want to see:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/over-100-billion-treasuries-dumped-171106252.html

In clown world, we don’t print money, we borrow it.
It’s not that we should be printing money, but if we are going to have helicopter money, it should be printed and not borrowed. The borrowing is just putting an interest payment on top of whatever inflation it happens to cause.

Elementary Penguin
Reply to  Tarstarkusz
4 years ago

WTF??!! Printed and not borrowed?!?! Are you crazy?! And how are the Jews supposed to make a living — do actual WORK?!?

Please cool it with the antisemitic plans.

Drake
Drake
Reply to  ChetRollins
4 years ago

Do we really need new bridges, highways, and trains I’m not allowed to use?

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
4 years ago

So…what if they never let us out of lockdown?

Perhaps their logic is that if they keep us focused on the virus, we won’t notice the Depression?

I’m getting more and more suspicious that this simply never ends.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

Well thats not very Patriotact of you.

Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

“there is a light at the end of the tunnel”

yup, it’s an oncoming train.

LOL haven’t heard that one since Carter was president.

Mikep
Mikep
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

Here’s one from the premiership of James Callaghan. Will the last one leaving the Country kindly turn out the light at the end of the tunnel.

Elementary Penguin
Reply to  Mikep
4 years ago

Yes yes round-eyes, by all mean, prease reave your country now. Go hide somewhere safe! We be happy to wait this out, then scoop up whole nice country for cheap, sprit it with Jews.

Prease reave now!

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  Elementary Penguin
4 years ago

Hahaha!

But the Chinese will not powershare with the Jews. (Or vice versa.) Two very old ethnocultural identities that have been maintained continually for literal millennia, each believing itself obviously and entirely superior to all other cultures — there is no possibility of a modus vivendi.

One principal difference is that, although the Chinese are certainly committing their share of bribery, intimidation, and general skullduggery, they at least have not infiltrated our cultural institutions, murdered them from within, and worn them as a skinsuit while preaching the poison of open borders and multiculturalism.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

How about an Ayn Rand reference? The light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be when the two trains collide head-on, an explosion results, and the tunnel is collapsed, because common sense had broken down and no one knew how to run the trains, resulting in the east-west commerce being halted. Rand pegged the capitalist/collectivist conflict well, but alas the real world doesn’t have smart people on the capitalist side and only dumb people on the Statist side… 🙁

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
4 years ago

Who’s John Galt (and where is he)?

miforest
Member
Reply to  Nunnya Bidnez, jr.
4 years ago

i was a young adult when carter was president . you do NOT want to go back there

Exile
Exile
Member
4 years ago

Dissidents are ahead of the herd because we’ve already embraced things like disconnecting from the cable news sheepdogs, anti-fragility, prepping, and forming our own networks. Many of us have also taken steps beyond the Tea Party base of 2010. We’re not just dissidents from the GOP, we’re dissidents from what even many paleo-cons still think of as “right-wing politics.” We’re in strange days when I basically agree with a soon-deleted David Brooks (aka Baruch) tweet to the effect that Republicans/conservatives will remember this as the time when everyone stopped listening to them and walked away, never to return. Reaganomics and… Read more »

Member
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

Echoes of Bud Fox belatedly appreciating the wisdom of his father, Carl Fox?

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Libertymike
4 years ago

I suspect Dad knew more about the kosher sandwich than he let on – he had no illusions about the venality and corruption of Democrat politics, but at least he had the sense to take his own side and demand a slice of the pie he paid for with his blood & sweat.

To a young kid looking at everything through a moral-ideological lens, it seemed so obviously wrong. The “have a cigar” GOP looked like the good guys back then.

Member
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

You weren’t alone.

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

People are now in genuine distress, and the Lefties, with their AOC and their Antifa antics, and now, “Weekend at Biden’s”, have blown their legitimacy with Normie. All they had to do was lay low and act like adults. But, no. There is a big opportunity to walk the walk now, not just (secretly) talk the talk amongst ourselves. People need to be shown what to do, and we are in a fairly good position to do so, not having been out there the last few years, raising hell over nothingburgers. Not that we have all the answers, or even… Read more »

Exile
Exile
Member
Reply to  Dutch
4 years ago

Exactly, Dutch. Now’s the time to remind some prospects whose narratives are more coherent with the flow of events and whose values and strategies are proving anti-fragile.

Take a bow, bro.

tonaludatus
tonaludatus
Reply to  Exile
4 years ago

“Unemployment isn’t just for marginal layabouts losing jobs they barely worked at. It’s for everyone now.”
I do not know the situation where you live but here in the land of Massholes I have not heard of a single Government employee to have lost his/her/X “job”, not a single one.

Karl McHungus
Karl McHungus
4 years ago

will the dem party survive this pandemic? they were foolish to stir up all the fear because it opened the door for Trump to “solve” the crisis; which, because this isn’t a real pandemic (like plaque, ebola, etc) means it is solved when things burn out. it also makes their previous statements on how the virus wasn’t serious look damning in the extreme — not to mention hypocritical and opportunistic. then after scaring everyone, they go out and hinder efforts to cope. the media and dems made a fatal mistake by allying with china against Americans. And their demise will… Read more »

Trojan House
Trojan House
4 years ago

I’d really like to know what’s going on. Up here in the Great White North, there are 10,000 cases (confirmed or not I don’t know but that is what is being reported). Our population is 37,500,000. Right now, that’s 0.00027% of the population. If we reach 1% (375,000 cases and 13,125 deaths using a 3.5% death ratio) is that still worth shutting down the economy and throwing the country into a depression, not to mention, the hundreds of billions in additional debt to the government??? We are also now entering police state territory as the province of Quebec are putting… Read more »

John Carter
John Carter
Reply to  Trojan House
4 years ago

Bitches be trippin Trojan. Funny thing is if things get much worse and she doesn’t have another man in her life she might start leaning on you for support.

Lolz at social distancing warrior.

Trojan House
Trojan House
Reply to  John Carter
4 years ago

She doesn’t have another man in her life, at least not that I know of. I will in no way be a post to lean on for her.

Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for “social distance warrior” lol! That came from a financial blogger here in the frozen tundra but it’s funny as shit.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Trojan House
4 years ago

Laugh at the busybodies. It will drive them over the edge.

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Reply to  Trojan House
4 years ago

We have to destroy the country in order to save it. Otherise, experts project 375,000,000 in Canada would have died without the heroic efforts of these, your public mast…er…servants.
You can thank me later
Justin T

Bill_Mullins
Member
Reply to  Trojan House
4 years ago

If we reach 1% (375,000 cases and 13,125 deaths using a 3.5% death ratio) is that still worth shutting down the economy and throwing the country into a depression, not to mention, the hundreds of billions in additional debt to the government???

In a gynocratic, hyper risk-adverse society, yes. To the gynocrats and soyboys no risk is too small and no price is too great to pay to avoid it. The havoc resulting from avoiding the supposed risk of covid-19 is, to the risk-adverse, a small price to pay to avoid catching the disease.

Bill_Mullins
Member
4 years ago

We don’t really know why our rulers are doing this. I think I know why the Dems started it. The claim is the virus threat, but we have had worse virus threats and the ruling class did not go insane like this, so something is different this time. What is different this time is that Donald Trump is currently residing at 600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the left has pulled out the stops to depose him. As I wrote in an earlier post, they had shot their wad with Russia-gate and Impeached Forever and this was just something else to throw… Read more »

DLS
DLS
Reply to  Bill_Mullins
4 years ago

At least we get the amusement of Trump playing Roadrunner to their Wile Coyote, and watching the dynamite blow up in their faces as he beep-beeps away.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  DLS
4 years ago

That will be small consolation when we’re all living in cardboard boxes

bilejones
Member
Reply to  DLS
4 years ago

In the real world:
Road Runner max 20 MPH
Coyote max 35 MPH.

They start lying to you early.
About everything.
For no good reason other than they can.

DLS
DLS
Reply to  bilejones
4 years ago

It wasn’t that Roadrunner was faster, but that Wile’s schemes were so stupid. I stand by my analogy. This is a hilarious string btw.

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Reply to  DLS
4 years ago

Wil E. Coyote not so much stupid, rather that he was supplied by ACME (it was hard to see, but the fine print on the boxes: Made in China)

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  DLS
4 years ago

Cartoons were silly, but I still got a real kick out of seeing my first live roadrunners out West. Same with quail. Sorry, comes from growing up in suburbia with the yearning to have been a settler.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Roadrunners here are like cats, they literally walk up to you in the yard and make roadrunner noises—hard to describe. Folks often feed them hot dogs (raw). Perhaps that’s why they’re so friendly.

Trapped on Clown World
Trapped on Clown World
4 years ago

Up until this point the people most affected are low wage individuals whom the expanded unemployment payout was very likely a raise. Now that the great madness is going to bring the pain to the nobility I expect anger towards the lockdown will increase. But the great takeaway is how feckless our leadership is. Those who push conspiracy theories should make note of these events. There is no grand conspiracy, no puppet master behind the curtain. Just hyper emotional administrators who are unable to do basic math. This explains much of our society, why we have so much immigration (LOOK… Read more »

Mikep
Mikep
4 years ago

There’s no doubt that the world is now a much stranger place than any of us could imagined just a few weeks ago. Who would have thought that the government of Sweden , of all people, would remain as the last bastion of sanity in all of the Western World. Or that the Tories would win a massive majority in Parliament then promptly implement all of Jeremy Corbyn’s nuttiest policies, wet their knickers and go hide under the bed, I never saw that coming. At this point predictions are probably useless, but I suspect that whatever’s coming over the hill… Read more »

FashGordon
FashGordon
Reply to  Mikep
4 years ago

SWEDEN ISN’T SANE. Muslim teens are “pranking” older swedes by coughing in their faces and posting it to social media, and none of those muslims have been punched in the face yet or forcibly deported. Not sane in my book.

Mikep
Mikep
Reply to  FashGordon
4 years ago

That’s kinda my point.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Mikep
4 years ago

Mikep – agree re the Tories, but not about Sweden. I’d argue the only reason that have not similarly panicked and tried to lock anyone down is because their country’s racial balance is so precarious that they realize it would show just how little power and control they have. They are about 30% vibrant and/or foreign born/first generation, massive demographic change crammed into the last 25 years or so, and they are the proverbial power keg.

Mikep
Mikep
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Acknowledging that importing the dregs of the Middle East and Horn of Africa may have a downside! Yes, I can see that they may wish to avoid doing that

UFO
UFO
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Jesus, is it that bad? Even Norway is still like 90% white.

Mark Stoval
Mark Stoval
4 years ago

I wish Z-man would stop being so optimistic. The State of Florida is now officially closed. Everything. HIDE UNDER YOUR BEDS! … and stay there until you die. There was this Z post not all that long ago where our host mentioned that you could not just screw around with a highly complex system — like a modern industrial society. They don’t just stop and restart anytime you want it to. We are in a period of time where it is said half the people are living paycheck to paycheck and now there will be no paycheck. Where does the… Read more »

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Mark Stoval
4 years ago

Look at the people the Normies put in charge. This was almost inevitable. The same low quality people in charge think they are going to “solve” the problem? Exacerbate. Worsen. Make a trajectory to disaster. They are not going to solve shit. The Normies are going to pay the price for their stupidity ….. along with everyone else. One thing this Zee guy has right at this point – we ARE in uncharted waters. The people I speak to, aka “fools” – think ‘everything will be just like it was’ … because … was. I am not wasting time telling… Read more »

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  HomerB
4 years ago

1. Got cash.

In the situation you outline, that will be good for toilet paper; used bills are nice and soft.

Question for the preppers: are you stockpiling salt? Once the electricity goes, there’s not a trillion ways to preserve meat and salt will most likely become be a high-value barter item.

Guest
Guest
Reply to  Felix Krull
4 years ago

Why are preppers always so condescending..? HomerB’s attitude will end up getting him schwacked by the crowd who will certainly appreciate his carefully stockpiled goods.

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Guest
4 years ago

Se my previous reply, Bugman 2. Why are you using this Yiddish term? I don’t live near said persons of high crime propensity – am in a more rustic area. Do you speak of, say, your tenants, Bugman 2? Don’t worry, those government Section 8 checks will continue to flow into your coffers even if you don’t fix the heat, peeling paint.

Now if you were personally thinking of making that long walk from where my property starts … and my front door to “schwack” someone …. well that would be regrettable for you.

Screwtape
Screwtape
Reply to  Felix Krull
4 years ago

Good point Felix. I worked in the salt mines for 15 years and hardly aged at all. I have a few things stocked. But I wonder if I really have the one skill I would need to survive the “transition” period into bartertown: ruthlessness. Most people assume the transition will follow some kind of normal trajectory, an incremental slide toward savagery. We have the tendency to look inland toward the pillboxes on the dunes while ignoring that leaving the relative safety of the landing craft requires stepping into a breech. Or 8’ of seawater with 60pounds of gear strapped to… Read more »

Sandmich
Sandmich
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

It’s hard to find a pellet gun review that doesn’t say “broke after X number of times” where X is less than 50. “Hand crank” rifles don’t seem to be able to tolerate the pressures over time and the air ones don’t seem to pack the same punch and are dependent on a scarce resource (the air canisters). Someone elsewhere mentioned that Venezuelans favored crossbows.

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Screwtape
4 years ago

“But I wonder if I really have the one skill I would need to survive the “transition” period into bartertown…” This encapsulates why so many are not prepared for a black swan event. We “transitioned” long ago and cash has been the ONLY way to go for YEARS. You point up one skill I did not list: negotiating skills. Look, based on the stupid and vapid replies/posts, I assume the snark types, bugmen, do not have women folk, nor children or others that depend on them. I certainly hope that is the case – as when yours turn to you… Read more »

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  Felix Krull
4 years ago

No need to preserve meat. Plenty of fresh meat will be visiting you on the hoof (or on the $300 basketball shoes du jour, more likely) for weeks to come. The trick is going to be prepping it so that it is safe to eat.

Y’all think zoonotic diseases from Sus scrofa/domesticus regular pigs is high risk? Well, with Long Pig you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Oh, and don’t trash the shoes. You may not find them to be your style, but odds are that you paid for them. 😉

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  Felix Krull
4 years ago

Eeeasy now, bugman. I doubt I fit the bill of your “prepper” slur, but I will embrace being “prepared.” Took some moment to list some ideas to better oneself, and by extension those that depend on you.

You, bugman? Some snotty reply. Look, you’d better hope the government gets you that $1 dollar, er, $1200 check soon – you’re gonna need half of that money to get a plumber to unclog your toilet since you can’t do it yourself.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  HomerB
4 years ago

To point 1 I would add acquiring some bullion, if one has not already done so. And not just 1 oz gold coins, get some 1/2, 1/4 oz or some 1 oz silver. You don’t want to wind up trading a kruggerand for a sack of potatoes.

John Carter
John Carter
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
4 years ago

If shi!t really is going to hit the fan why stockpile gold, why not cigarettes, coffee, and scotch. Valuable medical supplies. Gasoline. Bicycle parts, especially tires. Salt like FK pointed out.

Jim Smith
Jim Smith
Reply to  John Carter
4 years ago

.22 LR rounds. The new silver dimes.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  John Carter
4 years ago

Gasoline has a short shelf life. Learn to build a wood gas generator instead.

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  John Carter
4 years ago

It depends on the level of SHTF.

In HomerB’s scenario he talks about cash still having utility. Bullion would still be a useful survival tool in the scenario he describes.

Bullion was also useful during the 2001 Argentine collapse:
http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/archives/4251

In quasi-collapsed Venezuela bullion continues to be usefull:
http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/archives/5427

HomerB
HomerB
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
4 years ago

One reply to these quality replies. If we indeed have a “side” – we are supposed to be brain-storming ways for our side to succeed – as you men here do. I had thought about gold, physical gold. But IMO, if cash, even if devalued by half – loses its value, we’re going to be in a place that is beyond my simple suggestions. I would want ammo and matches. Have both. Another thing I have been doing as of late is filling out my set of tools so I can repair and build. Basic plumbing supplies – Mapp torch,… Read more »

Bill_Mullins
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
4 years ago

My money’s in spices that don’t grow in North America. Sam’s Club 2lb containers. I figure people are gonna get desperate for cloves, ground cinnamon, chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper, and suchlike. Very compact. Shit starts getting wild with my neighbors, I plan to load up the SUV and head to my son’s place in NM. My tent and cots will make okay living quarters and my FNAR (7.62X51/.308 Win) ought to put down pretty much anything in that vicinity.

JohnTyler
JohnTyler
4 years ago

Zman says; “We don’t really know why our rulers are doing this. The claim is the virus threat, but we have had worse virus threats and the ruling class did not go insane like this, so something is different this time.” I am agreeing less and less with Mr. ZMAN lately, but his statement above rings true to me. I cannot figure out why the response to this virus is so out of line with previous viral epidemics/pandemics within the last 20 years or so. Just check out the statistics for the 2009 Swine Flu vs the corona virus; the… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  JohnTyler
4 years ago

I like this graphic that attempts to illustrate the scale of the current situation versus past pandemics:

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

We’ve euthanized the global economy over something that does not even approach the level of the Asian and Hong Kong flus.

As others have stated, one has to wonder about the real lockdown goals.

I think there is a push on to implement neo-feudalism and herd more people onto the megacorp dole. I think the Internet-enabled social credit system is coming to limit travel and the best interest rates to the, “right kind of people.”

Range Front Fault
Range Front Fault
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
4 years ago

Good website…..Thanks.

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  JohnTyler
4 years ago

Trump is the shorthand, but what is really going on is that quite a few people are waking up to the hat/color/gender makeover of things, using big government and big business as the tools, and the Powers That Be are getting antsy about the trend of things in the other direction. Trump is the guy at the front of the parade, so he takes the shots and arrows. We didn’t jump when Hillary, Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer said “wait til your father gets home”, so now the house needs to be burned down. And down it burns.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  JohnTyler
4 years ago

John, good summary, I agree.

WRT Z-man agreement, I’m not sure he cares whether you agree with him or not. That’s sort of a Cochran thing. What Z-man does is make you think and that is valuable in and of itself.

roberto
roberto
4 years ago

Latest #s from my hospital

• Veteran Testing:
o We received 4 COVID test results today; 4 negative and 0 positive.
Total tests sent: 144
Positive: 5
Negative: 127
Pending: 12

Guest
Guest
Reply to  roberto
4 years ago

Thank you for continuing to send these, Roberto. Your percentages are significantly below the average. I suspect this may be attributable to the fact that, as a VA center, the average age of your patients is relatively high?

Any thoughts?

KGB
KGB
Reply to  roberto
4 years ago

Once again, thanks, roberto. I feel like you mentioned it before, but can you give us an idea, a state even, of your location?

Here in the wilds of upstate NY, my county (pop. roughly 100K) has 10 confirmed cases, and a single fatality (84 years old).

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  KGB
4 years ago

Portland, OR. He was kind enough to share it some days ago. But this room is pretty crowded these days, so easy to miss.

Flair1239
Flair1239
4 years ago

I have to say, I have been very disappointing with some of our guys. I have always known about accelerationists and understood the sentiment. But seeing our people gloat about the mass unemployment is a little sickening. Those same people are also deploying language like “virus denier” and saying those of us who are concerned about our economic future are carrying water for the Jews. I guess in an attempt to not be passive aggressive I am referring specifically to Richard Spencer, the guys on FTN, and TRS in general. I have a lot of respect for all those guys.… Read more »

abelard Lindsey
abelard Lindsey
4 years ago

Greg Cochran believes the economic impact of the shutdowns will be temporary and that the economy will light up like a Christmas tree once the shutdowns end. The reason for this is because, unlike say a global nuclear war, pandemics do not destroy infrastructure. The infrastructure is perfectly intact. I suspect Greg is correct. There is a lot of bullshit being pumped out onto the internet about this disease. All of the credible information, or that which seems credible to me, suggests this is, at most, a 1918 Spanish Flu level event. I don’t recall there being any lasting economic… Read more »

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  abelard Lindsey
4 years ago

The Roaring 20s started with an economic depression. There is no question recovery would take a few years at a minimum.

https://mises.org/library/forgotten-depression-1920

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Barnard
4 years ago

The 1920 depression was mostly due to the aftermath of WW I. I admit my knowledge of history is sketchy, but pretty sure that Europe in general fared rather poorly. The Flu was sort of a bonus from the Reaper.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
Reply to  abelard Lindsey
4 years ago

There was an incredibly bad recession that began soon thereafter. A terrible one. But the old guys from the 19th century were still in charge. They knew what to do. “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. … enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” – Andrew Mellon. Only two other times in the 20th century was this advice inadvertently taken through Paul Volker’s interest rate increases that created the recession of 1981, with the quick… Read more »

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
Reply to  JR Wirth
4 years ago

This is libertarian story telling. The depression of 1920 had different causes than the depression of 1929. The 1920 depression was caused by the contraction of the war state after the massive expansion of the war state (which, btw, is the last time America shrank the military back to pre-war levels after a war). The 1929 crash was caused by over a decade of loose monetary policy and a giant stock market bubble. True, the politicians reacted badly to the popping of the bubble and made it worse, but the 29 crash was going to be a lot worse no… Read more »

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
Reply to  Tarstarkusz
4 years ago

“It would be decades of a far worse depression of the 30s. Worse, the bankers would own everything.” – Lol. Just wait until they unveil the so called cures you want, they sure as hell won’t do what I want them to do. It worked so well from Juan Peron. It’s not about creating some libertarian utopia. It’s about leaving people the F alone to salvage their lives. “If the politicians did what libertarians like Woods and Schiff want them to do, I don’t think the country would survive it.” – Just because libertarians are wrong on dozens of things,… Read more »

Dutch
Dutch
Reply to  JR Wirth
4 years ago

The strategy this time around is to extend the credit lines, without any payments to them, for the duration. Add the principal payments to the end of the terms and don’t accrue interest during the time-out. Essentially a financial form of suspended animation. Like those movies where everyone freezes and the primary characters still walk around, the financial version of it. MTT (Modern Time Theory) instead of MMT (Modern Monetary Theory). The question is, when does one demand a restart of payments? Probably at the moment when foreclosing on the remaining deadbeats doesn’t tip the system over.

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
Reply to  JR Wirth
4 years ago

I don’t disagree that it’s a bad situation. The 20s were not the current day. The situation is completely different. The nutters have been ranting about hyperinflation for decades and they have yet to be right. There are a lot of deflationary forces happening right now. The money supply is decreasing, not increasing. Unlike other currencies, there is an extremely large market for US Dollars, even outside of the US. Whatever amount of gold you have, unless you are filthy rich, it’s not going to help you if hyperinflation did happen. Real prices skyrocket in hyperinflation, not just nominal prices.… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  abelard Lindsey
4 years ago

We can only hope. The economy that has been shut down is a complex system. Really, no one knows how to restart it. Here’s an attempted allegory. Years ago when I started with my dept, we were recipients of a series multimillion dollar grants to create academic computing environments. Those were (initially) the days of big iron computing, not our ubiquitous PC’s, which came later. So we built a computing center—distributed power, false floors, large a/c units, communications—the works. One thing never done was to produce our own power, so when there were outages, everything went down. Indeed, we set… Read more »

Judge Smails
Judge Smails
Reply to  Compsci
4 years ago

Don’t worry, AOC has an economics degree. We are in good hands.

Tarstarkusz
Tarstarkusz
Reply to  abelard Lindsey
4 years ago

There are apparently a bunch of videos from citizen journalists showing hospitals are empty, even in NYC with their body trucks and ships and the alleged epicenter of the virus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8jbAByesDQ The lugenpresse was caught showing footage of an Italian hospital and saying it was a NYC hospital! These liars cannot be trusted. They lie about everything and they are lying about the details at minimum of this. I have mostly taken the press with a grain of salt, but I didn’t think they could be so brazen knowing everyone has a video camera with them at all times. It’s… Read more »

Bill_Mullins
Member
Reply to  abelard Lindsey
4 years ago

All of the credible information, or that which seems credible to me, suggests this is, at most, a 1918 Spanish Flu level event. My money says that the final numbers – at least in the U.S. -will more closely resemble SARS than the 1918 flu. The biggest difference I can see between the covid-19 hysteria and SARS and the Spanish flu is that in the latter cases any/all ECONOMIC effects were entirely the result of the illness itself. In the case of the alleged covid-19 pandemic the economic effects are being and will continue to be the results of the… Read more »

David_Wright
Member
4 years ago

Prediction? Future not good. From there fill it your own dystopian scenario, probably be close to accurate.
I notice that most predictions everywhere are all on how will the future be economically. Its like the pandemic part is not that deleterious to us. Tells me something.

I think we should learn canning and how to smoke squirrel meat.

george 1
george 1
4 years ago

We can’t stop illegal immigration. Trump has signed into law massive expansion of the H Visa programs. We have a virus now that was made possible by our religious devotion to globalism. The economy will probably be wreaked to depression levels. And. Now we are pivoting to the war on drugs?

Or are we ramping up in South America to make a move on Venezuela? The Chinese are said to have assets there. Perhaps we are already at war with China.

Range Front Fault
Range Front Fault
4 years ago

ZMan…thanks for your deep analysis….gulp…I think. I can only assume there are reasons behind the massive constant media ampping up of world hysteria to the Wuhan virus. My nervous system feels like it touched the 3rd Rail when I brush up against thinking that this may be Cloward-Piven-Soros-Alinsky-style overload and tank the system. Then consolidate and grab the reigns of power through strong man means…in declining stages. The wahwyn politicians have made the leap to grab power-consolidate-move to tyranny and shut down gun stores and citizen mobility…plus release and dump prisoners across the country. I hope this is my woman… Read more »

M. B. Lamar
M. B. Lamar
Reply to  Range Front Fault
4 years ago

Letting all the convicts out, even murderers and rapists, is a big sign this is end game. Not exactly Cloward-Piven; more like Stalin.

vxxc💂🏻‍♂️😉 Toxic masculinity vector
Reply to  M. B. Lamar
4 years ago

Stalin would be an improvement.

But if we get anything, it will be American Nationalist Socialism.
FORWARD !! 💪👊

vxxc💂🏻‍♂️😉 Toxic masculinity vector
Reply to  Range Front Fault
4 years ago

Well Range Front; this WAS all about $4T to the banks, they were already in trouble in Dec with liquidity drying up and Wuhan was both problem and opportunity- Wuhan is the new Detroit, heavily in debt gambling – Just in Time supply just too late = bankruptcy. So they hyped a flu strain and got $4T Problem was then the narrative ran away into PANIC. Now they may have sunk their own boat, and ours. However; on your coup fears; no. Solve united states for coup. You can’t; power is distributed among 85,000 govts, 54 state and territory National… Read more »

ProUSA
ProUSA
4 years ago

We have no control over anything as this disease was not coincidental (see American Thinker two days ago). The obstacles for Trump, I.e., us, keep rolling off the Globalists assembly line and they will not stop. See Schiff’s plans to investigate the virus response—red meat for MSNBCNN. Rush Limbaugh said three times yesterday “If I say this I’m going to get into trouble” and then did not complete the thought. So trying to shine light on saving the economy over trying to save lives that cannot be saved will result in clamping down on freedom of speech. Balls in a… Read more »

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  ProUSA
4 years ago

Rush is probably departing this mortal coil in the next couple of months…he should just say what he’s thinking; knocks on the door from the Stasi be damned.

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

I suspect if/when you hear Rush come out and say what he really thinks – that’s likely a sign the docs have told him how much/little time he has left

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

Really – How much $ does the guy need at this point, when he’s already got millions? How long does he expect to be around and employed – given his audience is all aging and dying? I briefly listened to talk radio when I outgrew reading Hot Air/Gateway Pundit, end of GWB/beginning of Obamination. I outgrew talk radio far more quickly than I did cuckservatism lite, and I don’t believe it’s attracting a new audience or the children of its older listeners.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

How much $ does the guy need at this point, when he’s already got millions?

The more you have, the more you’ve got to lose. That’s why there is no such thing as effoff-money, only effoff-mindset.

MemeWarVet
MemeWarVet
Reply to  Felix Krull
4 years ago

True, but Rush can’t take that money with him…

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  MemeWarVet
4 years ago

Rush has really only one thing, his audience. No children. So he’ll talk until they carry him out. He needs no money, he just needs an audience.

John Carter
John Carter
Reply to  Felix Krull
4 years ago

@felix, that’s the truth. Humor is critical. Staying always pissed off gets you wrapped around the axle, eyes too close to the ground, while a little humor gives perspective.

ProUSA
ProUSA
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

So his analysis sucks? He gets huge flack from the Left so he’s right over the target. He just coined a phrase: Government by (virus) model. The guy is brilliant.

Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Reply to  3g4me
4 years ago

Meaning you think he does it for the money? At this point, his motivation may be just because he likes to hear himself talk, or he craves the attention, or he wanted that medal he got on tv a few weeks ago, or possilby he has some other deep dark ulterior motive. But, it sure ain’t for the money.

Mike_C
Mike_C
Reply to  ProUSA
4 years ago

“If I say this I’m going to get into trouble”

I don’t listen to Rush, so I don’t claim this is the case, but any chance it’s a rhetorical device? To get people to focus on that particular topic?

Say something flat out in plain speech and it might be buried, lost in the noise, or forgotten. But say “I can’t talk about this…” and suddenly everyone’s attention is focused.

ProUSA
ProUSA
Reply to  Mike_C
4 years ago

I got the distinct impression that he just wanted to say, you have to put the economy ahead of this pandemic, which is going to claim certain lives regardless of what we do. That might make him sound too calloused. I don’t think he used it as a rhetorical device; I believe that he was concerned about the way it would be interpreted if he was too direct. I don’t know what he was withholding. There’s an avalanche and a confluence of so many events happening that assist the Left’s goals, one of which is to curb free speech. Limbaugh… Read more »

Diversity Heretic