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Dispatch from the People’s Republic of Washington State
Today’s Headlines:
- Local Businesses Hard-Hit by Burglars During Covid-19 Shutdown
- Inslee Extends Stay-home Order Through May
- You Can’t Lock Everybody Down, Say Protesters
This is what downtown Seattle looks like today:
Ray and I went to our local (six blocks from home) Costco today, and it was ugly. “Minders” everywhere reminding you to stay six feet away from others; the PA system repeating the message to follow CDC Guidelines; the notice stating that on Monday they will require all customers to wear masks. Shopping there is now no fun. I am a Costco shareholder, and this just makes me sad and angry.
Published in General
Well, that’s a plus, right? 😉
Probably 40% of those deaths are in nursing homes.
Somehow I don’t feel sorry for people in Oregon. They are getting what they voted for. The virus didn’t change the unavoidable economic result of their socialism. It just moved it forward time.
Yeah, I don’t know how much longer Cooper can keep the Stay-at-Home order going here in NC. Even Mecklenburg County, which has the most COVID cases and deaths in the state, and thus had more severe restrictions than the state order, has loosened up. I have to think the state is starting to feel the pinch.
Reason number 53,729 why we must do everything legally possible to keep a Democrat woman from getting elected to the presidency. Marginally legal is a separate list.
That is what will finally open the economy. When the government employees who have been enjoying a paid vacation find that paychecks have stopped coming.
I wish. But, I think it’s more likely the states suffering lack of revenue will look to the national government to print more money. Because hyperinflation can’t possibly happen here in
Venezuelathe US. World’s reserve currency, blah, blah, blah. . .57% as of last report, April 28.
I saw a news report this weekend that said budgets are starting to be cut and some government workers are having hours cut or layoffs happening. Of course, the Wake county school system had their hand out (why I don’t know. You haven’t had anyone in your buildings or buses in 6+weeks). I can also attest to the fact that people are ending the stay at home on their own in my area of Wake county (not that I noticed it to be too strict except dine-in eating). More folks are out and plenty of “Karen’s” at the park complaining when they think you are too close.
I spoke to my son yesterday. He lives in Seattle. I live about 40 miles south of Seattle in rural Pierce county. It is pretty mellow down here, as far as I can tell. I only go shopping once a week, so my exposure to other people indoors is pretty minimal. I do ride my bike just about everyday, but there is only one area of my rides that puts me in relative close proximity to people. That is a paved trail that runs through the valley below my home. There are a lot of people on the trail where it goes through more inhabited areas, lots of walkers, a few runners, and some cyclists. Generally, people maintain a distance from those passing, though when in a group they don’t seem as careful about distancing from each other.
Anyway, my son is also an avid cyclist. He does rides that involve crossing Lake Washington on one of the floating bridges. According to my son, the bicycle path tends to be crowded on weekends. He gets very exercised about the close proximity to other riders he is passing who aren’t wearing masks. I tried to explain to him the very slim possibility of getting a sufficient dose of the virus to cause infection in open air while riding at speeds approaching 20 miles per hour. He is, however, thoroughly brainwashed by local media. He is a bright guy, but all he is hearing is panic-stricken nonsense and statistics which are juiced to induce fear. The fear goes way beyond what I can think of at all as rational. He is in terrific physical condition, is only 45 years old, and is really at his physical prime. Any danger to him is pretty minimal, but he is terrified, and that really bothers me.
If an intelligent, generally sophisticated adult can be reduced to this level of superstitious terror by a combination of media and politicos, it is no wonder that idiots like Inslee can, after inducing similar terror in themselves, transmit the same feelings to much of their constituency. In places like Seattle/King County which has a large number of cases and five times the number of fatalities as adjacent Pierce County, it has to seem like a medieval plague, particularly when the fear is continually fed. Avik Roy was interviewed on the What the Hell is going on Podcast today. He said that political leaders would far rather err on the side of excessive caution. I think keeping the economy in turmoil until the election is also is an even greater part of the motivation.
That is a very good point.
Yes! I believe that people wouldn’t be nearly as paranoid about the situation if the media wasn’t constantly going on about how “scary” and “out-of-control” it is.
It is Yakima County, where I live, that has the highest per-capita cases in the state. As of yesterday, we have 48 deaths, 46 of which with serious underlying conditions. I don’t see it on their site now, but last I looked, all but 8 of the deaths were at nursing homes. People in Yakima really seem to be going about their lives as usual. All the stuff is closed that the Governor has forced us to close, and there’s no little-league or school. We have the highest rate of infection and the 2nd highest rate of testing… This pandemic is not at all what is being described in the media your son consumes. I’d have little patience with the scoffing at someone on a bike trail not wearing a mask (I don’t wear a mask anywhere). He is in far more danger of injury from wrecking on his bike while giving the stink-eye to a non mask-wearer than he is of catching the virus in the open air while riding a bicycle.
The Fed will just print more money so they can keep being paid.
I have been seeing complaints about the quality of The Federalist’s reporting This article provides an example.
Full disclosure: I am a PERS beneficiary, which is why I know a lot about it.
This is not a defense of PERS, but to point out the fallibilities of The Federalist.
PERS is greatly underfunded, for all the usual reasons. Oregon politics is dominated by the public employee unions, which makes any attempts to alleviate the problems extremely difficult. But the system is not the worst in the country, contrary to the implication of the article. I have seen rankings which put it closer to the middle. Illinois and New York are clearly the worst two. Again, not to make excuses for the problems.
A glaring error jumped out at me: “It [PERS] originally promised retired workers 100 percent of their pre-retirement income for the rest of their lives.” PERS original promise was to pay employees 1 2/3% x number of years worked x final average salary. That works out to 50%, not 100%. There have been changes over the years making the payouts more generous for some retirees, but only a relative small number of retirees receive anything approaching 100%.
The article also omits to report that there have many efforts to reform the system over the years. The Oregon Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the benefits vest in the employee as they accrue, and to change them is a violation of the Oregon Constitution. So any real fix requires a constitutional amendment. In 2003 the system was substantially changed, reducing benefits for employees hired after that date,
But my big complaint is that the caption and the premise of the article are false. “Oregon Plunders the Dead in Desperate Attempt to Pay Lavish Pensions.” Now, Oregon has a high estate tax, which I believe should be repealed. In the last legislature, Republicans introduced a bill to make the tax less onerous. It wasn’t going to happen (the bill died in committee) but the Republicans have to fight where they can. Estate taxes are paid into the general fund. But in 2018 the legislature passed a bill that earmarked tax receipts that were rising faster than projected to be applied to PERS. Estate taxes are rising mostly because of rapidly rising property values. So IF the Republicans had been successful in easing the estate tax, PERS wouldn’t have got that money. Democrats opposed, but not to “save” PERS. They were never going to agree in the first place. To the extent Oregon is plundering the dead, we’ve been doing it for many, many years, likely long before PERS existed.
The Federalist article seems to be sourced from this newspaper article.
Click bait.
It’s time to start taking advantage of senior hours, I think.