We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
The Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration teams ha a series of joint flyovers of multiple metropolitan areas as a tribute to all the health care providers and first responders.
Here are some photos of their appearance over New York. Since the only photos on either the Navy or USAF websites are from the Navy, I’ll guess that pursuit plane was Navy.
More pix:
Continue reading “Thunderbirds and Blue Angels joint appearance.”
The economic statistics are rolling out to show the initial impact of the shutdown of the economy.
The collateral effect the shutdown and isolation will have on deteriorating emotional and mental health along with increased mortality due to postponed or canceled medical treatment will take years to quantify.
New stats in last few days:
New claims for unemployment
4/30/20 – Department of Labor – Unemployment insurance weekly claims – Another 3,839,000 people filed an initial claim for unemployment in the week ending April 25.
The entire aviation industry, including airlines, plane manufacturers, engine producers, and maintenance, will be devastated from the pandemic and shutting down the economy.
4/27/20 – Wall Street Journal – ‘Welcome to Your Flight, Nathan.’ Traveling During a Pandemic Means Having the Plane to Yourself – My first, second, and third reaction was to chuckle when reading an article describing multiple commercial flights with only one passenger. The description of pilots making the standard welcoming announcement that greets the sole passenger by name is funny.
Then I shuddered in fear at the absolute devastation to the entire economy from most fights being almost empty. The financial destruction will require years of recovery.
Untold numbers of airline, ground transportation, hotel, restaurant, and food vendor companies are being shattered. Incalculable numbers of companies will not survive.
Work that collapse back to the airplane manufacturers…
Continue reading “Massive hit to the aviation industry from the pandemic.”
The California governor has laid out some general plans on how the state eventually will be taken off lockdown. There are four overall phases stretched over the next year or more. Highlights include:
Schools may start early, perhaps even in July. That will be conditioned upon schools having the ability to maintain safe distances between students.
This discussion will be posted on several of my blogs.
The graphic provided by the state describes the four stages:
The Air Force Thunderbirds and the Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration teams are having a series of joint flyovers of multiple metropolitan areas as a tribute to all the health care providers and first responders.
Saw some video of the flights this morning. Even distant view on a TV screen and just straight line flying was impressive.
Off to the side there was a pursuit plane, obviously taking lots of pictures. When those appear on the USAF and Navy websites, I’ll post some. In the meantime, here are a few pix of those astounding pilots, for your viewing pleasure.
Continue reading “Thunderbirds and Blue Angels in combined appearances.”
Now for a breathtaking break from the negative news on the evaporating economy and fading freedoms. (Ugg. So sorry for the awful alliteration!)
Delightful photos of the B-17 Flying Fortress, workhorse of the U.S. during World War II. All photos courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.
Incredible view from the underside of a formation on its way to Germany:
The classic photo of B-17s with their escorts overhead.
Damage from the shutdown is getting more visible; it is growing, spreading every day.
Hospitals and surgeons have been devastated by stopping what is considered ‘non-essential’ care. Many hospitals may go under. Going under is what farmers are starting to do with their crops. After a panic like we are in, who has liability if anyone gets sick and thinks they caught the bug in a store, restaurant, or business?
Devastation in health care industry
4/23/20 – The Federalist – Instead Of “Flattening The Curve,” We Flattened Hospitals, Doctors, And The US Health Care System – Outside of New York city, hospitals have not been overwhelmed. That means it is time to open up the medical system to allow “non-essential” services.
Example cited include Florida which was projected to have 465,000 hospitalized patients by April 24 only having 2,000 on April 22.
Continue reading “Damage from the shutdown is growing day by day.”
We are past the point where the damage caused by the lockdown is greater than the damage caused by the coronavirus. The damage could start compounding. Here are just a few of the recent articles making this point:
4/22/20 – The Hill – The data is in – stop the panic and end the total isolation – A medical doctor says it is time for our leaders to examine the evidence instead of hypothetical guesses and then carefully let the country start operating again. He cites five factors ignored by people who want to keep the country in ongoing lockdown:
Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.
Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding.
Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem.
Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections.
Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.
Keep in mind California will probably be on lockdown until August and Virginia may be locked down until a vaccine is in use.
Two severe medical problems are being caused by and will be prolonged by the severe lockdown.
Many states are starting to open up their economy.
Virginia may be closed down tight for up to 24 more months.
California may not open up until August.
August.
There will be incalculable medical, emotional, and financial damage in California and Virginia from the lockdown. More on that momentarily.
This discussion will be posted on several of my blogs.
Good news
On the bright side, getting most attention for opening are:
Other states are thawing because they also don’t want to bankrupt everyone, destroy all the hospitals, further tear down overall health levels, and permanently cripple their economy. List includes:
And then there is Virginia and California.
Every additional day of the shutdown is causing horrible damage. Not only is the economy suffering with record high unemployment, soon-to-be record high bankruptcies and shuttered businesses, but also there is now and will continue to be a decline in overall health. We will see increased mortality from other causes because of the shutdown. The damage to our freedoms is widespread and immeasurable.
Point made by the author of the column linked below puts it this way:
This is not a trade-off between lives and the economy. It’s a trade-off between lives and lives.
In a series of articles over the last week I attempted, in my own feeble way, to describe the wide ranging damage we are watching grow every day.
The question our governors and mayors urgently need to consider is whether we have already passed the point at which there will be more damage (including deaths) from the shutdown than from the coronavirus.
This post will be published on several of my blogs.
Trading off lives for lives
4/17/20 – Colorado Politics – Opinion/It’s time to shift tack – and contain the virus while reopening Colorado’s economy – Author was sounding the alarm on a pending medical disaster well before others realized there was a problem. That danger is now past.
He draws the analogy to a hurricane expected to make landfall at category 5 but deteriorated to a bad thunderstorm the morning it landed. In that analogy the cat 5 which was expected to land on the entire country only hit New York, New Orleans, and Detroit.
The news feels like we are moving ever deeper into an over-the-top dystopian novel. Unfortunately this isn’t fiction.
Another 4 million unemployment claims last week and ongoing attacks on the First Amendment.
About the only job specialty in the country today with bright growth prospects in the near term is trial attorney.
(This post will cross-published on several of my blogs.)
New unemployment claims
4/23/20 – Department of Labor – Unemployment insurance weekly claims – an additional 4,427,000 people filed their initial claim for unemployment in the week ending April 18. Here is another article in case link is dynamic.
This is on top of the four previous weeks of horrible levels of new claims.
Here is a summary of the unreal news. Recap shows number of new claims for unemployment for the last five weeks with a subtotal. The number of people who were unemployed in March is then listed with my estimate of the total unemployment now.
Hat tip to Behind the Black for the legwork identifying additional sectors of the economy that are collapsing. Large segments of the economy I haven’t mentioned before:
Damage to these sectors won’t immediately heal the moment state governors decide they will allow the economy to come back to life out of its induced coma.
Home sales
4/21/20 – Fox Business – US home sales plunge 8.5% in March, and it may grow worse – Sales of existing homes dropped 8.5% in March. Article use the word “cratered.”
Continue reading “More entries on the list of economic sectors devastated by the shutdown.”
I can barely type fast enough to keep up with the adverse impact on the economy or freedom. Can barely keep up with the news about entire sectors of the economy collapsing. Most recent sectors I’ve learned about: airlines and the entire health care system. Since drafting this post last evening, learned about the destruction in the clean energy industry and saw some stats on the devastation in the restaurant sector.
This post will be printed on several of my blogs.
Airlines
4/20/20 – NewsMax – Big 3 US Airlines May Cut More Than 100,000 Jobs by Fall – At the moment passenger loads are frightening – article says domestic flights are averaging 10 passengers and international flights are averaging 24 people plus crew.
Continue reading “More sectors of the economy being destroyed by shutdown of the economy.”
We can now see an extensive effort to re-write the story of the shutdown of the economy. Before that is accomplished it is necessary to put a number of factors on the table so they don’t disappear down George Orwell’s 1984 memory hole.
4/13/20 – American Institute for Economic Research – Liberation From Lockdown Now – Article discusses recent explanations and how we got to this point.
We need to remember this uncomfortable information before it is removed from the discussion.
I shall quote one paragraph from the article to keep the information alive before it is erased from the record. The early advice from the experts was:
“For a family sitting around the dinner table tonight,” said Dr. Nancy Messionnier, a spokesperson for the CDC on January 17; “this is not something that they generally need to worry about.”
Let’s not forget the next sentence:
Some states are already loosening some of the shutdown restrictions.
The ‘indicators’ announced by California, Oregon, and Washington indicate it may be months before any parts of the economy are allowed to revive.
Washington state and Texas show the stark contrast in approached.
(This discussion will be posted at several of my blogs.)
4/19/20 – USA Today – US reopening: What states are relaxing social distancing restrictions and moving away from lockdowns? – Several states have already dialed back parts of the lockdown. Others have announced dates to do so. A summary of the small steps:
Californians will stay in lockdown for a very long time
4/14/20 – Office of the governor – Governor Newsom Outlines Six Critical Indicators the State will Consider Before Modifying the Stay-at-Home Order and Other COVID-19 Interventions