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Let me start by saying that all views expressed here are my opinion, not the Orange Juice Blog’s. I just read on Twitter that 94% of California’s population is back to purple restrictions due to the ongoing COVID outbreak. A few days ago we had a million cases, second place behind Texas. I understand that we need to protect our citizens, but when Governor Newsom attends some birthday party at French Laundry, an overpriced, pretentious restaurant, it is very hard to take him seriously. I won’t even mention Nancy Pelosi having her hair done (It still looks bad by the way, Miss Nancy.)
This will be the third time this year that we are locked down. People are already struggling, and for those like my husband who were lucky enough to go back to work, they’re out of work again. I’m not even thinking about the holidays coming up. We aren’t big on the Thanksgiving and Christmas thing in my house, but what about the small businesses that depend on those sales? From what I read, they receive about 20% of their yearly revenue in November and December. Will these businesses be able to recover?
Let’s give a big “Thank You” to all the spoiled brats who refused to wear a mask because their freedom to be a jerk was being limited! If we had all done the right thing back in March, maybe we wouldn’t have to do this over and over. Closing 94% of the state will not do anything. Those same people who cried about wearing a mask will have no problem going to the counties that are open or are in the red tier, and you can bet they won’t wear a mask there either.
Mitch McConnell seems more interested in stroking Trump’s ego than actually working for the greater good, like helping out-of-work Americans pay their bills. I do not see any help coming from any of our beloved politicians. Why should they? They are still getting their paychecks and they will be taking their Thanksgiving break soon. 
Trump will be tweeting that he won the election at least 100 more times. (As Sonny and Cher once sang, “And the beat goes on.”) Trump has no intention to shut down the country or even enforce the use of face masks. He does not care how many Americans are infected or will die.
Any nitwit should know that people cannot go to work when they are sick. People cannot shop when they are sick. Nobody will buy non-essential things when they are laid off or sick. I never took economics in college but that sounds pretty straightforward to me.
What will it take for we Americans to get our act together and realize we have to work together if we want to get out of this mess? We cannot depend on those we elected to do the right thing. It is up to us.
En fuego
Typically most retail stores (malls, clothing, etc) get between 40-50% of their revenue for the year between Black Friday-Christmas depending on who you ask. The cases were already rising before Gavin got called out on his attendance, but over 30% of people surveyed by OSU indicated that they will have family gatherings of excess of 10 people for Thanksgiving.
Probably part of this is to try and act before Thanksgiving in lieu of increasing numbers, but at this point it is probably going to make little if any difference.
Also given that there is no stimulus and likely will not be until post Georgia Senate race makes things even worse. The best approach would have been to issue another round of PPP back in late Sept-early Oct in anticipation of a winter spike, but really it is sort of a fend for yourself type of situation which is very regrettable as there will probably be many businesses that don’t make it past this holiday season.
Even if a stimulus is passed post Georgia senate race, the damage is well done at that point.
I agree that we need money to get through this. I understand people are scared of not having money to pay bills and since they are not sick — yet, they will gamble that the virus will not affect them. Other countries understand this and are paying their citizens to stay home for at least 4 weeks. Closing down part of the state or parts of the country will not work. Those individuals who want what they want will travel to places that are open. And the virus will continue to spread. I know of a few people who got Covid and even though they survived they still have lasting health problems; mainly respiratory damage.
In my opinion, it takes only one infected person to show up at any size gathering to infect several people, if not all of those who attend. There are far worse things than missing a meal with relatives we don’t see 11 months out of the year. We can suck it up and do the right thing and hopefully become better humans.
*It is so good to have the Inge back with us. Your heart has always been in the right place and we greatly appreciate your take on just about most things. Having said that…..wearing a mask goes like this. Walking on the street? Carrying the mask in your hand. When you come within six feet of anyone….slap it on….so maybe if you are walking…make that 12 feet away.
Meanwhile RC’s MRNA solutions: Pfizer and Moderna….will be fun to watch. We will dutifully Standby to Standby….”For people who tested Positive…95% Effective?” However for those that are actually sick from Corona Virus? RC needs to put about 100 Grand into Pfizer and Moderna stock…..we wish him well on that.
Meanwhile II, thanks Inge for your thoughts….good to have you back!
Thank you for your kind words.
This is not about whether people wore masks or not. Masks have not been proven to help anything. The smart thing would be for those who are vulnerable to stay home, and let everyone else go to work and keep the economy going. How many people have died because they couldn’t see a doctor, or they were depressed because they lost their job? Why didn’t we do this for the flu, which kills a large amount of people every year? This is nonsense!
You badly need some copy editing. Take your last sentence, change the exclamation point to a colon, and move it up to the top.
Those who work can collect the virus and bring it home, even if they remain asymptomatic. What do you do if they LIVE WITH “vulnerable people”?
Almost every other country has figured this out except us — which is why our national reputation is circling the drain. (Biden’s election helps it, but we show too many signs of a possible recurrence.) Why you want Russia and China to become the dominant international forces of this century is perplexing. (And that’s giving you the benefit of the doubt.)
*”Long ago and far away…….” ,,,where to begin? All this hype about a 95% effective Vaccine has the whole country twisted into knots. There is no selective applications:
How many Blacks? How many Chinese? How many Hispanics? How many Blancos?
Anyone can make up statistics. Meanwhile, “The devil is in the details!:, as Ross the Boss said. What is the age breakdown? How many over 65 in the study group? How many under 19 in the Study Group? This is how Fake News got started….and we can’t wait to have Fox News tells us.