fire?

"and if any fit person so appointed shall refuse to undertake the same, the said parties so refusing shall to be committed to prison until they shall conform themselves accordingly." an edict of the lord mayor quoted in daniel defoe's a journal of the plague year_____________________________

politics and economics, rightly or wrongly, are inextricably intertwined in these parts...

governors are in consultation about the best way to reopen "the various states"...

and they are considering this because the economy ( read corporations ) is suffering...that workers are as well is a secondary ( albeit politically important in an election year ) one...

certainly corporations are more concerned about the profit/loss issue than the well-being of their staffs...sugar coated missives about "getting through this together" emanating from my employer aside...so politics was bound to creep into the decision making and so into this blog...governors may feel the right, as the elected chief executives of their states, to have a say in the decision about when to lift stay at home orders...

this isn't going down well in trumpist terms...the nascent authoritarian ( there has been an undercurrent of reichstag fire to all of this from the beginning...at least in trumpy's mind..and some of his more fervid supporters no doubt ) is claiming absolute control in when to dictate terms of "reopening"...hissy fits abound...

governors are in disagreement about the scope of the president's authority...

and at least some voters are sending signal that they have had about enough of tantrums and politics through personal insult...that fire may be spluttering...that the arsonists will make an effort to stoke it is a given...we will see how many fire extinguisher come to bear in november...as it stands there may be good reasons to reopen beyond big greed's need of a fix...one has to wonder how that will impact the spread of the virus, which, by the numbers, does appear to be slowing...hasn't stopped...and "getting back to normal" will be a slow process...if it is possible at all...no one really knows...

meanwhile, amid the abstractions about what may or may not happen, the supply chain is still running seriously behind demand for some products...

we are assured there is plenty of food available however...we will not starve....but the balkanizing impact of brand loyalty may be affected...you may be drinking mr.pibb instead of dr. pepper and the question of whether cheese doodles qualify as actual food may become highlighted as they vanish from shelves and the devotees may have to do without...so? decision will be made...that they will be made from incomplete data and from biased viewpoints is a given...humans are humans after all and desire can often take precedence over rational thought...we can all do that...events will disclose whether they were functional decisions or disastrous ones...as it stands my state is due to reopen at 11:59 p.m. next monday...we'll see if the president leans on the governor about that.