Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Trump's Best-Case Pandemic Outcome is 100-240,000 Dead -- The Trump administration has finally made a gesture toward the reality of the pandemic. At yesterday's briefing, the previous 15 days to mitigate the outbreak became 30 days. Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the White House task force, said, "There's no magic bullet. There's no magic vaccine or therapy. It's just behaviors -- each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days." If all the behavior is correct, the model shared suggested 100-240,000 dead. Without any mitigation efforts, 1.5-2.2 million Americans would die. The reality will tend toward the 800,000 to 1 million mark. [1 April]
Parties Consider Virtual Conventions -- The pandemic has affected politics in ways few have imagined. One of the foundations of the American electoral process is the nominating convention. These meetings of the great and not-so-good go back to the 1800s as political parties emerged from post-Revolutionary America. With that technology, face-to-face meetings were inevitably adopted. Today, those are dangerous to the health of all involved. So, both the Democrats and Republicans are considering holding virtual conventions, which will affect the election itself. [31 March]
Pandemic Inspired Changes May Become Permanent -- The Covid-19 outbreak is having an immediate effect on politics around the world. Elections are delayed, strangebed fellows made and some leaders are pretending all is well. It is hackneyed to say that the only constant is change, but the alterations to the world's politics are immediate and long lasting. What is particularly interesting are the structural changes that the disease is forcing upon poltiical leaders. [30 March]
Trump Proposes County-Level Reopening of America -- President Donald Trump has lots of ideas, almost all of them bad. His latest plan is to relax federal government guidelines for social distancing and Covid-19 avoidance on a county-by-county basis. One hardly knows where to begin in critiquing this idiocy. It presumes that the nation has vast amounts of information it lacks. It pre-supposes that each county in the country is hermetically sealed off from all others. It further requires the virus to avoid crossing county boundaries. In short, it is unworkable, unreasonable and plain stupid. [27 March]
Jobless Claims Shatter Record -- The Covid-19 outbreak and shutdown has put literally millions of Americans out of work. Today's jobless claims came in at 3.28 million. This shatters the old record set in the 1982 recession, when just under 700,000 claims came in. This is not a usual wave of unemployment. These people are out of work because of the governmental demands that their firms close to prevent the spread of the virus. Absent the virus, they would have work. The economic problem is big, but not necessarily enduring nor is it unfamiliar. [26 March]
© Copyright 2020 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
Volume XVIII, Number 65
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