Gordon

Portland

The things around here that look very different are 1) All the closed businesses.  Drove by the Woodburn Outlet Mall today: not a car in the parking lot.  2) Traffic - It's almost fun to drive!  Gas is cheap, too.  3) Thinking that regarding supplies and the like, we can't wait until we need anything.  Instead, we need to plan ahead and hope the supplies will be there.  In my case, I'm on meds that my body depends on.  That means that quitting them could have bad side effects.  4) Lots of closed urgent care centers and the like.  Marilyn's niece works at a convalescent home and says they are down to a 7 day supply of masks - and they are using 1 mask per day.  The poor unlucky patients and medical staff that are going to get covid and die because fuckhead trumpski blew away the pandemic organization Obama had put in place - and the amount of time he and all the "leaders" of our country pissed away when they could have been building up stockpiles of personal protection items like masks and sanitiizers.   Marilyn and her friend Joy want to sew some to donate, but can't find elastic anywhere. I notice that in newsclips I see of Chinese people they seem to have no shortage of masks.  The official response from the repugnicans today is that what's in the past is water under the bridge.  I say it's sewage under the bridge in their case.  Your duty as an American is to ignore their past fuckups and give them 100% of your trust.  

I talked with my trapper buddy last night to find out what things are like in Heppner.  He says they are out of the same things everybody else is out of.  He thinks, much like you, that is a deliberate exercise in control.  Stay Home.  They are threatening that if you don't they may have to dole out consequences.  Can you say Marshall Law?  Of course, my paranoid trumplover friends think it is a conspiracy designed to enable THEM to take our guns away.  So, they are all stocking up on ammo and weapons.  My trapper buddy thinks the shit is gonna get really bad in Portland, and that I need to keep M's and my vehicles with a full tank so we can get out of here quick.  He says that there has already been discussion about how to block the mobs from west of the cascades out.  He's right: It would be relatively easy.  Just take a big backhoe and drag a 5' deep trench across I84.  Or blow up a bridge.   If it's that bad, there is going to be chaos everywhere.  I don't see that happening yet.  However, I think a collapse of the financial system has a very good chance of happening.  I am not going to predict a timeline, but it seems to me that the longer this shit goes on, the greater the chance of economic catastrophe.  It may already be too late to do anything more than postpone the agony.  

There are some things that are certain: 1) Our government at all levels was and continues to be woefully ill prepared to deal with what's happening.  And, this is the exact type of situation that governments are supposed to handle.  A big raspberry to 'em. 2) We are lucky to live in an area where social distancing is fairly easily achievable.  I went fishing today, and even though there was a fairly large number of fisherman, everybody was respectful and giving other people plety of space.  We also have trails and things we can do that should be safe.  3) People are hording and will continue to horde.  I don't blame them, but it's still a shitty thing to do.  4) There seems to be a large number of people that are looking to go out of their way to help those who can't help themselves.  A lot of it is individual effort, which speaks well for the heart of the communities.  5) A little bit of common sense can go a long way in a time like this.  I know it's in short supply, but it doesn't take much to understand that if you have a cold, you shouldn't hang around with old people.  I've known that forever and behaved accordingly - except when I have used public transportation, attended public events, and attended family gatherings.  I don't know how to get out of most of that and still have a social and family life.   6) If/when we get through this, other pandemics will likely follow.  Hopefully we will learn from this and be way better prepared.  7) We are probably looking at the tip of the iceberg as economic fallout comes down.  There's a shitload of people living from paycheck to paycheck, and now they have no paycheck nor is there any prognosis for when they will get a paycheck again.  Many are in debt up to their eyeballs, and that includes banks, developers, etc. - those who leverage what they "own" to borrow money in the service of speculation.   In my opinion, the stock market was already nothing but a house of cards.  It sure as hell didn't take much for it fall 30%.