Today Penny and I went to church. Church in person fills spiritual needs that I cannot get from video services. After church Penny and I did some grocery shopping and got lunch. She waits patiently for her share of my lunch. She got two runs today one before church and another on our way home from shopping.
No update was given today by 5 p.m. on COVID-19 virus statistics.
Liberals are calling good evil and evil good and because of their hypocrisy the coronavirus lockdown is seemingly down and out, as many Democrats in charge of big cities — including several who once insisted on strict quarantine measures — line up to champion the nationwide mass demonstrations over the in-custody death of George Floyd sans social distancing.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out at protesters calling to reopen the state earlier this month, saying at a news conference, “you have no right to jeopardize my health … and my children’s health and your children’s health.” Cuomo’s directives have been enforced throughout the state: A New York City tanning salon owner told Fox News he was fined $1,000 for reopening briefly last week, calling the situation “insane” and saying he already was “broke.”
On Friday, though, Cuomo said he “stands” with those defying stay-at-home orders: “Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes, and the demand is for justice.”
In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Jewish community that “the time for warnings has passed” after he said a funeral gathering had violated social distancing guidelines. On Sunday, the mayor asserted, “We have always honored non-violent protests.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, meanwhile, had warned that in-person worship services would be a “public-health disaster,” disregarding constituents’ concerns that he was violating their First Amendment rights. Now, his administration has been distributing masks to rioters, even though public gatherings of 10 or more are still ostensibly banned. Frey also allowed a police station to burn, saying it was necessary to protect police and rioters.
“The city encourages everyone to exercise caution to stay safe while participating in demonstrations, including wearing masks and physical distancing as much as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” a news release read. “The city has made hundreds of masks available to protesters this week.”
The mayor of Washington D.C., Muriel Bowser, vowed $5,000 fines or 90 days in jail for anyone violating stay-at-home orders. This weekend, though, Bowser defended the protests: “We are grieving hundreds of years of institutional racism. … People are tired, sad, angry and desperate for change.” An angry mob of rioters in the city turned its rage on a Fox News crew early Saturday, chasing and pummeling the journalists outside the White House in a harrowing scene captured on video.
The pace of job losses is slowing but still extreme, setting the expectation that job loss will still be at a historic high next week.
Last week, 2.1 million workers applied for first-time unemployment benefits, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Since mid-March, about 41 million people have applied for unemployment insurance.
The number of workers filing for unemployment benefits has fallen for the eighth straight week, from as high as 7 million, but the pace of job loss is still at a historic high.
“Just because joblessness seems to be getting worse at a slower rate doesn’t mean it’s not getting worse,” said Nick Bunker, Indeed Hiring Lab’s director of economic research.
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said Thursday that the unemployment rate for May, set to be reported by his agency next week, is likely to be 19% or 20%.
“If we can get back to work promptly, safely, we have a chance of coming out of this more quickly than downturns we’ve had in the past because this one was self-imposed,” he said on Fox Business. “It was meant to be temporary.”
All 50 states have begun to reopen, and the District of Columbia will enter phase one of reopening on Friday. Still, the economy is recovering at a slow pace, and according to Bunker, “The labor market has a huge hole to crawl out of.”
“The whole country could reopen in stages, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that economic activity is going to bounce back,” Bunker told the Washington Examiner. “There’s been tremendous policy reaction in terms of unemployment insurance, but it’s uncertain … whether demand from households and businesses is going to be firing back up quick enough.”
A separate economic report from the Commerce Department out Thursday found that the economy contracted more sharply than previously thought in the first three months of 2020. The GDP, a measure of all goods and services produced across the economy, fell at an annual rate of 5%.
It marks the steepest quarterly decline since an 8.4% drop in the fourth quarter of 2008 at the nadir of the financial crisis.
Industries that suffered most due to the coronavirus, especially tourism and airlines, have seen raised expectations in recent days, in the form of higher stock prices in some cases, as states and cities have begun to ease restrictions. Yet workers are still suffering the fallout.
American Airlines announced Thursday that it will lay off 30% of its management and administrative staff as the company grapples with shrinking demand for air travel due to the coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“We must plan for operating a smaller airline for the foreseeable future,” Elise Eberwein, American’s executive vice president of people and global engagement, told employees.
Similarly, Delta Air Lines is offering buyouts and early retirement packages to its 91,000 employees, Financial Times reported Thursday.
“I’m often asked for specifics about how small Delta will need to be over the next couple of years,” Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive, said to the staff. “The fact is, right now, we simply don’t know.”
Pastor Shanks giving the sermon to those who attended church in person.
Arya carrying one of the Shank’s rabbits after church.
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