Collecting Parking Fees in Virginia's State Park

This is how parking fees were collected in Leesylvania State Park on April 15, 2020 by order of Governor Northam of Virginia, the most draconian Covid-compliant state. As a socialist dictator, Northam will not open businesses in Virginia until June 10, 2020, the last state in the union to do so.

Grocery Lines and Social Distancing

"Social distancing"

Photo: Ileana Johnson

I was shopping in our neighborhood grocery store chain and found out accidentally that employees have their own stash of merchandise in the back from which they can purchase what they need without having to fight the crowds for the items in high demand.

Some stores, to their humanitarian credit, have made it easier for senior citizens to shop by opening up early for an hour for their shopping convenience without other customers knocking them over in the race to get an item. It was so bad that rude and rapacious customers even took items from the carts of much slower elders.

This reminds me of the lines we had to stand in daily in order to buy our necessities. The deliveries for the day ran out rather quickly, sometimes before we made it to the front of the line, but communist loyalists, friends, families, and those willing to bribe the salespeople were always able to buy what they needed, sometimes they did not even have to stand in line, they could show up earlier in the day, before the store opened and the lines formed.

As the supply of goods is disrupted by the government-imposed lockdown for our own collective good, and to save our lives, grocery stores have been trying to provide a modicum of normalcy and controlled order in the constant fear and panic driven by the media and by public service announcements.

While in a Food Lion store, Lynda van Liew Fairman complained to the manager about the constant repetition of the PSA intercom announcement made by “a creepily calm woman” to keep six feet of space between shoppers. “I told her they need to stop running it as it is belittling and keeps the fear building. We’re not 3rd graders having to constantly be reminded to walk in a single-file line on the right side of the hallway on the way to the cafeteria. This is absurd and offensive. It’s like we’re in a bad sci-fi movie or a Twilight Zone episode! We are not mindless automatons.”

The manager replied that she had no control over what was played on the Muzak, it came from [the ghost entity called] “corporate.” Obviously we are controlled by the unseen “corporate” and the bureaucrats in government. Perhaps it is insurance companies requiring the intercom message for those stores that are deemed “essential” and must remain open.

In my neck of the woods in the commonwealth of Virginia, made more draconian and socialist over the Easter weekend by more executive orders of the Democrat governor with a medical degree, grocery stores and Walmart are half-full. They have cleverly spaced out what other merchandise they do have that is in low demand right now, but shelves are still bare and hoarded items are not there very long. They get swiped and disappear before they are even taken out of boxes.

The supply disruption in the economy is barreling down the tracks at high speed. What else can possibly go wrong when dairy farmers are dumping milk in the fields as their contracted customers, restaurants and schools, are closed, six meat packing companies are shuttered due to employees sick with the pandemic coronavirus, a quarter of the labor force is unemployed and rising, and the national product is not made in necessary quantities to match demand, while grocery stores, anticipating shortages and slow deliveries, are limiting the number of items that can be bought, or are price-gouging customers.

The need for food drove us to a larger urban area but then, as we were 20 miles away from home, the realization hit us that we had no place to go to the bathroom. Everything was closed or open for curbside delivery only. Luckily we could drive back home rather fast as the major interstates were unusually traffic free.  

At least in local parks, even though the public restrooms were closed, port-o-potties were brought in. We were told that bathrooms were too hard to clean properly and people could not keep six feet of “social distancing.” I always wondered how they came up with six feet of “social distancing.” Why six feet and not five or seven? A sneeze travels at speeds of roughly 250 mph.

The experience brought back the memory of visiting Italy where we had to buy something in a store or restaurant in order to go to the bathroom. There were some pay restrooms but there were few and far between if we walked in urban areas. The auto grills were great on the Italian autostrada.

As evidenced by comments on social media, many naïve Americans have tremendous confidence that the President can handle the economic problem. He is a smart and knowledgeable man but there are limits to his power, he certainly cannot control the economy, it is driven by supply and demand and invisible pricing forces, Adam Smith’s “invisible hand.”

And the other half of America criticize him for being “a dictator and a fascist” for either not having responded soon enough to the virus crisis or for having exceeded his powers. No matter what he does, the discontented half of America, who happens to be progressive and anti-American, blames him quite irrationally for everything, including the existence of the Covid-19.

The lack of proper information and unnecessary government control gone-berserk have made Americans leery of government control and have adopted and started to believe in various conspiracy theory scenarios which gave rise to even more irrational and rational hoarding and uncertainty.

Easter Sunday in the Soviet Union and in the United States

by Janet Lynn  Fifty Easters ago, I was in the USSR, a godless state. Sightseeing tours included Christian churches turned into museums. The tour guide adamantly proclaimed in the "museum" that Christianity is a "myth."  On that Easter weekend, 1970, a VIP tour of Lenin's tomb was arranged for the foreign athletes visiting to give figure skating exhibitions. At age 16, already a Christian by choice, I stood in Lenin's stone tomb in Red Square staring at the Bolshevik revolutionary's preserved body. He had been dead for decades. Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead and conquered sin and death on Easter, which was illegal to celebrate in the atheist USSR. That State was god. As history records, the socialist enactment is a cult of death. Eyewitnesses are historically recorded observing the tomb of Jesus  empty on Easter Sunday. Jesus is alive! He is Risen! Lenin is still in his tomb, deader than a door nail. The tour bus passed through the squares where the Bolshevik Revolution was fought. On either Good Friday or Easter Sunday the tour guide in the godless USSR explained that "the blood that was shed during the Bolshevik Revolution was shed to save mankind." My blood shivered and my mind quaked at her proclamation. I knew that only the Blood of Jesus Christ, the Perfect Son of God, was sacrificed and shed to save mankind. A propagandist for the USSR and its atheist system of socialism-communism captured my attention on the almost empty plane ride back to New York from Moscow. He smoothly explained that socialism-communism was the perfect system for mankind.  His propaganda swirled in my head as shiny illusions. I wanted to believe everything the nice man said. What a perfect way to live. The State provides and controls everything, and everyone will have everything they need, and everyone will be equal. He was certain that socialism-communism would one day rule the entire world, and the United States.  By the time the plane reached New York after this most profound Easter weekend, I knew the man on the plane was wrong! I had been to his nation. I had observed the poverty, the bread lines, the lack of products in common stores, the intense control of its people, the bottomless void when God is declared illegal----the severe oppression was felt physically. The faces of all the people were hardened with deep sadness---the real face of socialism-communism. I wanted to kiss the ground of the United States when I saw the American flag outside the plane window before landing in New York. I was free. The man who propagandized me was not. He did not understand liberty or its power under the principles and reverence of the Judeo-Christian God.  I was an individual created by God. The atheist Soviet Socialists were forced to live in the State collective--the herd.  I knew that churches in the United States would always remain open. Judeo-Christian God, worshiping God, and celebrating Easter would never be declared illegal. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.  Half a century later, in America, my beloved land of liberty, this Easter weekend 2020 almost all churches have been ordered closed. Pastors have been threatened with arrest or permanent closure of their churches if they do not obey the State and its influential doctors. These doctors may mean well and are working from appropriate concern, but they have succeeded in acting like man-gods who can conquer all death and are terrorizing citizens. They have powerfully influenced policy to shut down an entire nation, its businesses (except the State chosen ones), schools, its churches and synagogues. The imposition of social distancing should be called inhumane social isolation.  Americans have a choice to make on Easter Sunday and in the days, weeks and months to come.  Will Americans continue to give up their liberties? Will we become a Democrat Socialist collective herd, or will we remain individuals who promote and preserve life but do not fear death under a system of liberty?  Lenin's body remains enshrined and on display in his stone cold tomb in Red Square, Moscow. Lenin is still deader than a door nail. The Marxist ideology that he spawned into being is alive with a foot in the door of America.  Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. He is alive! Will the Christian ideas that spawned liberty and the value of the individual die this Easter, 2020, and end up in a museum as only a myth? Judeo-Christian principles are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, declared a MIRACLE by various American Founders.  One Founder of the United States declared, "Miracles do not cluster."   It is for freedom that Christ set us free! Janet Lynn is a Five-time U.S. Figure Skating Champion (1969-1973), Olympic Bronze medalist 1972 and World Silver medalist 1973. She is in the U.S. and World Figure Skating Halls of Fame and is proud to be a Homemaker. This article appeared originally in the Eagle Forum Alabama.

Hoarding

Modern toilet paper with 

splinters

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

Throughout history, when governments have intervened in the smooth operation of the free market based on supply and demand, the results have been disastrous, not the least of which is hoarding and the emergence of black markets. I am not talking about the psychological problem of hoarding personal items when people have a hard time getting rid of anything they own, even old and dirty scraps of paper. I am talking about fear-based hoarding, the result of fear of shortage or imminent societal collapse.

Natural disasters such as announced hurricanes or tornadoes often compel people to buy excessive food, bottled water, gasoline, a generator, milk, but especially toilet paper. Civil unrest or fear of disease such as this corona pandemic can also force people to hoard food and other necessities, including toilet paper. In a category of its own are the preppers who are ready for any end of the world, political holocaust unrest scenario. They purchase food with the shelf life of 25 years or more and build shelters/bunkers underground, in caves, or decommissioned bunkers.

Hoarding goods in excess of immediate need is caused by artificial scarcity. Artificial scarcity can be cause by unnecessary government intervention that scares people into hoarding behavior, i.e., panic driven by government forcing the closure of businesses and locking down the working population which can no longer produce necessary goods for society to function properly. Best example of this is the recent Covid-19 interference in the market. This action is yet to reveal the entire disaster which has wrought on the economy as the domino effect of unintended consequences is making chips fall.

An example from the past of government interference in the market is price controls at Valley Forge when farmers, who needed to feed their families, did not abide by the government’s price controls and sold their produce to the British for gold while Washington’s continental army was running at near starvation mode.

Economists believe this is what happened after 1971 when President Nixon decided to experiment with price controls. The economy suffered a plague of shortages, “we ran out of nearly everything” and, after price controls ended in 1974, most of the shortages disappeared.

Monopolies and cartels such as OPEC can also cause artificial scarcity of one product/service they offer. Holding a patent for a new drug can cause shortages and high prices as a result.

The New Deal issued the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) which was “designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers subsidies not to plant on part of their land.” This act caused artificial shortages.

Deliberate destruction of goods such as in a war situation can cause panic hoarding driven by the fear of starvation. Such items in short supply become mediums of exchange, more valuable than currency, i.e., cigarettes, bullets, chocolate, soap, women’s pantyhose, medicine, and vitamins.

Destruction of goods because there is no longer a distributor or buyer for that good can also cause hoarding. The recent Covid-19 action by the government has caused farmers in Florida to destroy tons of tomatoes, squash, and other vegetables which were previously bought by now closed restaurants. Farmers have also dumped thousands of gallons of milk as schools, universities, and restaurants were closed indefinitely. At the same time, a shortage of milk in grocery stores forced grocers to impose a purchase limit of one bottle or one gallon. People thus hoarded milk.

People engaged in what is called panic-buying of certain products in anticipation of a disaster, shortage, or large price increase. Some example of panic-buying through history include the first and second world wars when everything was in short supply; the 1918-1920 Spanish flu pandemic when people stored quinine and remedies for flu such as Vicks Vapo//Rub; Cuban missile crisis in 1962 when people bought excess quantities of canned food; any hurricane or tornado causes people to buy excess milk, bottled water, bread, and toilet paper; Coronavirus pandemic caused people to panic-buy food, facemasks, rubbing alcohol, hand-sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes, anti-viral wipes, and toilet paper. Panic-buying causes price gouging by both individuals and grocery stores.

The most glaring example of constant hoarding occurred during the entire existence of the socialist republics of the Iron Curtain which were run by the highly inefficient centralized government of the Communist Party. Citizens of such countries like Soviet Union, China, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba were forced to constantly hoard items in short supply. Most products were in short supply because of the absolute mismanagement by Communist Party apparatchiks.

In these socialist/communist countries hoarding was punishable by law, and those caught served jail time. Both a black market and a barter market emerged from the severe shortage of everything. People were accustomed to carry around large sums of money and jute shopping bags in order to join a line in progress because they knew, whatever was on sale, they needed it.

But why hoard toilet paper? It is a basic instinct to be and stay clean. There is also the knowledge that, unlike food where there are substitutes, toilet paper has no substitute unless you consider paper towels, newspapers, and leaves.

People stockpile toilet paper because it is not perishable and are afraid that the domestic production and distribution will be disrupted. If needed, toilet paper can also be used as cosmetic wipes and tissue. Toilet paper under the centralized Communist Party economy had huge splinters in it and was always in short supply. Finally, people engage in mob mentality, ‘everyone is hoarding TP, I should too.’

There are 150 companies that manufacture toilet paper and the average person uses under 100 rolls a year, some much less. The U.S. demand for toilet paper stands at about 3 billion rolls a year. We import about 10 percent of our needs of TP.

If hoarding from grocery stores is not an option, people turn to canning and drying fruits and vegetables. If you freeze a lot of food, remember that, if the power goes out, the cache will spoil. Twice we lost the contents of our freezer and refrigerator due to spoilage after hurricanes when electricity was out for days and even weeks.

No matter what you hoard for survival, you will eventually run out if production and distribution are disrupted for extended periods of time.

Mr. President, Please Open the U.S. Economy!

Mr. President,

Please open up the U.S. economy as soon as possible!

It is very sad that so many people around the world fell ill, suffered, and thousands have lost their lives to this horrible virus. But the rest of the globe must go on living in a terrible economic situation which is about to get much worse than most people realize. Is it a moral crime to care about the sick but to advocate for the living too?

What about the people who are sick with other ailments and cannot see their doctors because the offices are closed? Are they not entitled to be seen by a doctor? Some may die by neglect.

Can you not see that you are playing in the hands of China, Russia, and the global communists who want nothing more but to destroy the U.S. economy in order to make a smoother transition to take over its people for the one global super-state ruled by communists? They want us dependent on China and the communists for all of our needs - economically, medically, financially, educationally, and every other way possible. And you are one courageous American who has derailed their agenda for now.

China already owns so much of this country! Bring back our industries from China, communists are NOT our friends and allies. China owns so much land and businesses in this country already – Hollywood, the media, banks, manufacturing, etc.

Look what they have done to businesses in northern Italy. Here is the real reason Italy had so much Coronavirus – they have hundreds of thousands of legal immigrant Chinese working in the artisanal high end trade of leather and silk and hundreds of thousands of illegal Chinese immigrants as well.

I don’t know where this virus came from but I do understand economics. China is trying to bankrupt our economy in order to come in and buy more businesses in trouble at bottom prices.

Mr. President, you won’t have money to build up our military to defend us against a Chinese military invasion, and they are building up their military like crazy. You will be too busy finding food and medicine for destitute Americans who are already out of jobs. Twenty-five percent of the labor force is out of work.

How are you going to build tanks with steel from China? What if they change their minds and refuse to ship it after they’ve taken our money?

I am not so sure the economy is going to bounce right back up as some ecstatic economists have stated – “as soon as the lockdown is over, people will go back to work and everything will be fine.”  Small businesses, single family owned, do not have the ability to bounce back like a corporation which can raise money by issuing more stock or get huge government bailouts. Small business owners rely on revenue, their savings, and loans; they can’t raise capital any other way. After weeks of lockdown, how many small business owners, the back bone of America, will be able to survive and rehire their former employees?

Mr. President, can you not see that the Democrats are 100 percent socialists/communists now and don’t give a flip about our country? They investigate you non-stop in order to deflect what they are doing to this country, the fundamental transformation to socialism, on its way to communism.

And half of America is so brain-washed by the public school education that they think communism is great. You have to fight them at the ballot box as well because they cheat and lie.

Build that wall already! If the countless new illegals that crossed our borders so far would not have come here to sanctuary cities, we might not have had this Coronavirus invasion. And their illegal votes might not have flipped Virginia socialist last November.

We need our second amendment, we need our guns to fight a potential communist invasion and to protect ourselves from government intrusion. We might even need our guns to protect our food supply from looters.

Stop giving money to churches and church-sponsored NGOs to bring illegals into this country. Churches have been infiltrated by communists as well and they are no longer preaching the gospel to their parishioners. They are preaching globalism, a mega state ruled by communists.

Americans are too ignorant and naive to realize that the communist ideology has been the most destructive force in history, killing at least 100 million innocents.

Stop giving money to the U.N. and all the tin pot dictatorships around the world. The WHO is a bureaucratic organization run by third world despots. They hate America and would love to see its downfall.

Stop depending so much on computer modeling. The results are as faulty as the incorrect data which had been input by “experts” with nefarious agendas but pretending to care for the people. Just like the global warming modeling scam, the data spewed out garbage because faulty input readings and variables were used.

Mr. President, can you not see who is pulling  the Coronavirus policy strings in your White House? A real practicing physician would not be discounting a potential life-saving drug like hydroxychloroquine for his patients, but your Coronavirus tsars do because they are political hacks supporting their boss Bill Gates, who has invested a lot of money in a vaccine with which he wants population control of the globe. Can you not see they are financially-vested in a vaccine, not a cure? But people around the globe need a cure right now, not 18 months in the future after the vaccine had been developed and tested on humans.

Valid Questions and What Happens Next

Woodcut: Ship of Fools

There are numerous questions that I have pondered in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. How long can the economic patient survive without economic oxygen?  How is this temporary medical crisis going to be used to curtail your freedoms permanently? And is the crisis temporary? Does the saying, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” frighten you? How will life change in the AC (after Coronavirus) when compared to life BC (before Coronavirus)?

Employment

The 6,648,000 seasonally adjusted for unemployment claims have doubled in the last two weeks. Millions of workers were furloughed and laid off as “demand for goods and services, as well as the ability to provide them” has decreased dramatically due to orders to stay home and to more severe lockdowns. Some states, however, have elected “business as usual” for their population.

Economists are predicting as many as 20 million unemployed by the end of April. Put that into perspective with the 8.7 million unemployed during the Great Recession. How high could the unemployment rate spike, 20 percent or perhaps 30 percent in the coming months?

According to Breitbart, “roughly 90% of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, which have been imposed by most U.S. states.” Disposable income is not coming in but rent, bills, loans, hospital bills, must be paid. https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/04/02/jobless-claims-jump-by-6-6-million/?fbclid=IwAR0gzqw0FFKOynSOhCONc52PhIaFGvQTeoku_NZ812e5WRVHiLtiL9S7nEY

Many Americans will get $1,200 from the U.S. government’s $2 trillion Economic Stimulus bill to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus economic shutdown. This huge sum full of unnecessary and shameless political Democrat and some Republican pork will add to the already unpayable national debt as the government will have to print money to cover the sum, increasing inflation.

“Kyle Pomerleau, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that 165 million people, or 93% of all tax filers, will get some benefit, with about 140 million of them getting the full amount. Seniors whose only income is from Social Security and veterans who rely solely on disability payments will receive the payments.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-26/when-and-how-will-i-get-that-1-200-stimulus-payment-quicktake

Will that cash infusion arrive soon enough, how long will that last, and will the likely cash infusion into pre-existing goods (car payments, mortgage payments) which had already been counted into the previous GDP, really stimulate the economy?

Potential business collapse

Despite the stimulus bill, not all businesses will be able to keep their doors open and will close forever or will be bought out under a different umbrella for potential basement prices.

Businesses large and small must still pay rent and loans as well under collapsing revenue. There is Internet shopping, but some smaller businesses are not set up that way and shopping has dried up, limited to essentials. Restaurants, hotels, cruises, vacation venues, entertainment, theaters, parks revenues have dwindled. Malls have closed. And retailers were already in trouble before the Corona virus pandemic hit, they were slashing personnel and closing stores. Furthermore, the CBO expects the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to contract by 7 percent.

Obligatory Vaccinations

Afshin Yaghtin is writing in Principia Scientific.org that “Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on March 18, 2020 during a “Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session that he is working on a new, invisible ‘quantum dot tattoo’ implant that will track who has been tested for COVID-19 and who has been vaccinated against it.” The vaccine is being researched and tested and will be available soon. Yaghtin wonders, “Will this mean forced vaccinations or perpetually ‘sheltering in place’ for those who refuse the coronavirus vaccine?” https://principia-scientific.org/bill-gates-digital-tattoo-implant-to-track-covid-19-vaccine-compliance/?fbclid=IwAR1GG9CqQhJ3sewd9zoHufLh52x-gzy-pulD3QkWP0jkVEbDgMDWEfyJOtI

Working on the ID2020 Certification Mark, Gates Foundation, in alliance with Accenture, IDEO, Gavi, and the Rockefeller Foundation hopes to use “immunization to serve as a platform for digital identity” and to bring ID2020 to the masses.

How did Bill Gates become a medical expert as the main stream media is asking him questions which should be addressed to medical doctors and policy makers, not to a computer billionaire who dabbles in the population control agenda, vaccines, malaria prevention, and child vaccinations in Africa.

Schools and Universities

Schools and universities have closed for the remainder of the year. Many opted for online instruction and parents have stepped in with home schooling. Testing has been cancelled until further notice. Academic competitions as well as competitive sports have been canceled. Would schooling change in the future, with less and less physically going to class?

Telecommuting

Government employees and those working for large corporations can work from home. After kinks have been worked out, this may become the model for work in the future. In large metropolitan areas commuting by bus, metro, train, or “slugging”/rideshare in a stranger’s car have come to a halt.

Malls and stores

The locked and empty malls and stores may remain so permanently as people are moving more and more to online shopping as a business model. Ordering online and picking up items at the store will probably be eliminated when the overwhelming rush of home deliveries would have been resolved by the introduction of more trucks, routes, and drivers.

Socialized medicine

After decades of advocating for the socialized medicine model, Medicare for all and healthcare for none, Democrats will be happy to realize that one viral pandemic has succeeded in bringing in medicine based on a patient’s usefulness to society, age, and level of sickness. The much sought-after rationing that liberals have been pushing for years would have been achieved. Never have dentists been told by state governors that they must close their practices by a certain date.

Big Winners and Losers in Business

Intermediate businesses and mom and pop stores without Internet footprint were closed while the big companies like Walmart, which sold the same products plus food, could open via governor executive orders. Amazon emerged as the biggest winner.

Hygiene Habits

People finally learned how to properly wash their hands often and keep a 6-foot distance from the nearest human. People also finally realized what a great sanitizer Purell is and how scarce toilet paper and other necessities become under socialism. They also learned how to stand in line every day in order to find food or paper products. Some Americans learned to sneeze and cough onto their sleeves. The old German handshake will disappear, replaced by fist and elbow bumps. Hugging, a favorite of Americans, will become obsolete or verboten.

Environmental liberals have finally learned that reusable grocery bags are contaminated and harbor many harmful bacteria and viruses which are spread around through bags that are not sanitized/washed at high temperatures after each use.

Family Time

Americans rediscovered their wives, children, and loved ones, and learned that spending more time with them instead of watching sports on television was quite fun and became happier, enjoying life to the fullest. Not eating in restaurants so often but having meals at home and cooking favorites for each family member became a new and enjoyable experience, brushing up on cooking skills long forgotten due to the hustle and bustle of commuting and too many competitive activities.

Freedoms Lost

Freedom of assembly was curtailed overnight by governors’ decrees. People were fined for having parties at home with more than 10 people, a highly arbitrary number based on bogus determination. Was there an exact footage that 10 people could interact on? Forced “social distancing” altered people’s behavior towards one another.

Freedom of religion was also restricted. Interestingly, we did not hear anything about closed mosques, just churches, temples, and synagogues. Large churches may never recover.

People were forbidden by governor’s orders in Virginia to practice at indoor gun ranges.

National parks, forests, and local and state parks were also closed. Night fishing and boat were also forbidden. Picnics in parks were limited to 10 people and in other areas they were entirely verboten.

Traveling by airplane and cruise ships was also curtailed. The cruise ship industry may never recover fully, especially huge vessels that could accommodate several thousand passengers. There will be less airlines as the industry struggles to recover passengers lost.

Airports will be plagued by more invasive health screenings under the guise of protecting the population from unseen threats.

More After-effects

Americans will learn that the death panels appended in 2010 Obamacare do exist under the guise of rationing and these will increase over time.

Hotels and global vacation venues will struggle to recover for years especially in countries like Italy and Spain.

Organized sports, already under attack for bodily injuries and by transgenderism, may never recover. Olympics will be derailed.

Lost jobs and income, involuntary isolation, forced distancing will cause loss of homes, marriages, and even families.

Depression and a sense of hopelessness and confusion will cause suicides to rise. Rodney Atkinson predicts that “the suicides from the economic and social effects of lockdown will far exceed the number of deaths actually caused by the Coronavirus.” He wrote that worldwide deaths were 21,297 by Coronavirus, 113,034 from seasonal flu, 228,095 from malaria, and 249,904 from suicide (in the period of March 1-25, 2020) http://freenations.net/a-pandemic-is-a-panic-of-academics-lockdown-suicidesvirus-flights/

Atkinson said, “there are increasing reports of family killings and suicide in Britain as families face the desperation of lockdown and financial worry. A tragic case from Germany was the suicide of the Finance Director of the State of Hessen, Thomas Schaefer, because he had become depressed about how to cope with the economic collapse due to the lockdown.”

Americans will have to realize that food and resources are limited and may have to get used to less supply, long lines, and rationing.

Whether this pandemic was accidental or not, the end result will be the crashed consumption and production which will affect the global economy profoundly due to severe unemployment, recession, significant wealth loss, diminished or wiped-out savings, depleted pension funds and, over time, if recovery is slow worldwide, it may cause localized skirmishes and more tribal wars.

Ileana’s Musings During Corona Times

The forest is coming back to life

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2020

I’m going to start dating everything with B.C. (before Corona) and A.C. (after Corona) or, if I am in a day of reckoning economic mood, B.C. (before collapse), A.C. (after collapse). I know I’ve become a full-fledged American because I have gained humor during dire times when I should be crying. Why take everything so seriously, we must be self-deprecating once in a while.
My wardrobe has taken a turn for the worse but I seem to be blissfully happy about it. I didn’t just fall off the fashion train, I mix and match loud pajamas in mismatched colors, and warm and comfy sweaters with pants Mims bought me long ago in my favorite colors, loud pink and sea foam blue. They hang loosely so I can be comfortable. I am not trying to impress anybody except my waist.
I keep in my car two coats, a Nanook-of-the-north model with a hoodie against the wind called “the hawk” in black and one in red so all the critters can really see me wandering and run away, a wool blanket, three different umbrellas, plenty of empty coolers for food preservation, a walking stick, gloves, hat, forest map in case I get lost, which is often, pepper spray, my camera, Purell, water, face mask, sun glasses, readers, hand lotion, makeup bag I never use (the bears, deer, and foxes don’t care), and other survival items.
My car looks worse inside than a college kid’s vehicle, going home to do laundry. I would buy a new car but why ruin its beauty with all my junk?
I’ve become that person I used to make fun of in my twenties, with graceless stretch pants and seemingly color blind.
How many times have you opened the door to your house and looked outside at the empty street and neighborhood? Close the door, it's cold and drafty and the flies and mosquitoes are coming in!
Tomorrow we will spend the day in the basement. That way it will feel like we are visiting and dirtying up someone else's house. For ambiance, we will turn on the lamp that's never plugged in because nobody reads there – it’s too cold. We could open the door but the critters may crawl in and it's still pretty darn cold outside too. But the grass looks pretty and the snakes are alive too. Chip and Dale are busy digging up my flower beds, looking for acorns they’ve buried for the winter.
The house is clean like it’s never been before, and I even vacuumed the tiny space between the drier and washer with all the lint accumulated over the years. I could have made a really big dust bunny out of it but I'm not artistically inclined and not yet bored out of my mind.
We keep asking Alexa what the temperature is outside. “It does not matter, suckers, you are still stuck inside on China Corona virus lockdown.”
Gas is so much cheaper but there is no place to go because everything is closed and under police surveillance. The tiny river beach at the nearby vast park is surrounded by yellow tape like a crime scene. I am thinking about taking up yoga in the sand because the governor said that exercise places should remain open. Maybe I can also take up day fishing, it is still allowed but night fishing and boating are “verboten.” I don’t own a boat nor fish so I don’t know that the virus is catchier after sundown; you probably drink too much beer and get too close for pandemic safe “social distancing.” Our Democrat governor Northam did extend our lockdown until June 10 which seemed like an arbitrary date until I learned that June 9 is the Republican primary so we won’t be allowed to vote in person.
Let me open the door for the umpteenth time to see if the deer family or the fox have come by looking for food.