2021. Better / Worse / Same as 2020 How optimistic are you? Or pessimist. I'm just a realist. 2021. Better / Worse / Same as 2020 and why Moi Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic, regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.
Maybe around mid-summer I'm hoping for a better year. My wife and I get our first shots next week. That doesn't stop us from having to use all the cautions but it's just a good first step in the right direction.
I agree, a fair guess at least. When the pandemic first hit I figured a good two years of catastrophe ahead. The various vaccines coming out within one year may cut that time frame shorter. As slow as the vaccine roll-out is though, and as piss poor as people are doing in following advice on protecting themselves, the best we can hope for is a mid-year improvement in 2021.
Sadly, I expect the year to be worse. I'm a Christian Zionist and believe the scriptures about the "last days" of "end times". One of the hallmarks of that time period is that the chaos that will be coming is similar to the labor pains of a woman giving birth. The pain becomes steadily worse and the contractions more frequent. I'm not a "Covid denier" but I do believe that the CFR numbers do NOT justify the actions being taken by governments in the states or at a Federal level. We are on track for a serious rebellion if these "leaders" keep pushing the citizenry.
I waver between optimism and pessimism. There are vaccines for COVID, which I didn’t believe could be done. Joe Biden will be at the helm. Brexit is no longer dithering. Australia has had rain, and floods but they aren’t very bad, and the farmers are happier. We’ve run up huge debt in dealing with COVID but we are surviving. Interest rates are terrifyingly small and China is picking on us. Then, @Esdraelon proposes that we are looking at the end! dunno what to think. Ps. Happy New Year everyone.
Has to be better, because 2020 has set the bar so low! The main factor in making it better, in my opinion, is the availability of Covid-19 vaccines (I got mine yesterday). It's been a slow start but I hope that my June the pandemic will be over. This should bring the economy roaring back. We got rid of Donald Trump. This will bring some calm after the chaos of the last four years. I look forward to that.
[QUOTE="Esdraelon, post: 1072334678, member: 89317" I'm not a "Covid denier" but I do believe that the CFR numbers do NOT justify the actions being taken by governments in the states or at a Federal level. [/QUOTE] [A bit off topic but since you introduced this aspect of the issue, it's fair to comment.] Well, if you say so, sorry but then you *are* a "Covid denier," one of the many who haven't realized that the CFR is not the whole story. Covid-19 leaves behind possibly permanent organ damage in about 10% of survivors, including in youngish people with no underlying medical conditions, as numerous studies have been demonstrating more and more, especially for the heart muscle, which often acquires chronic myocarditis of the kind that is silent now but can lead to heart failure down the road. Not to forget clot disorders, brain fog, pulmonary fibrosis with permanent shortness of breath and fatigue, renal insufficiency, etc. Most people don't realize that the economic burden (costs of treatment, lost productivity, curtailed life span) that will predictably result from the maimed people, not just the dead people, will be enormous the more we allow this virus to spread, and MUCH bigger than the economic impact of the containment measures. Besides, the containment measures here in the US, contrary to all the outcry and whining, has been rather minimum as compared to some other countries. We had 3 to 5 weeks of lockdown back in the spring and all 50 states have reopened, to various degrees with just a few exceptions (such as indoor restaurant restrictions, gym restrictions). We hear this constant whining about "my freeeeeedoms!!!!" and "the lockdown is destroying the economy" and I look around and see no lockdown whatsoever. My state is functioning practically at full speed. The economy is sputtering not just because of government-imposed containment measures, but mostly because consumer confidence is low and wise people are NOT WILLING to engage in activities that will expose them to the virus. Dining out is one of my favorite activities and you won't catch me in a restaurant right now, regardless of what my governor says about how restaurants are allowed to function. I won't go to a theater either for a concert, a play, or a movie, even if they open up. I won't go to most stores, as I've postpone any non-essential shopping. I won't take an airplane or go to a hotel (which are fully open). So I won't be generating profits for these business NOT because of any lockdown, but simply because I'm prudent and don't want to expose myself to consequences I may regret for a (curtailed) lifetime if I catch this virus. This is not being paranoid, by the way. This is being prudent. Paranoia is the fear of a delusional threat that doesn't actually exist. When you try to avoid a REAL threat, it's called prudence. Finally, the CFR numbers are low but given how infectious this is (and it will get worse with the new B.1.1.7 strain) the end result is a lot of dead people. 1.8% appears to be a low number but when you plot that into our large population you end up with a large number. When it's all said and done we'll have had at least 500,000 dead Americans from Covid-19, and sorry, if you think that this is a small number you're out of your mind. That's about 161 9/11s, almost twice as much as the combat deaths in World War II, and by far the worst pandemic in more than 100 years, back to the Spanish Flu of 1918-19. That number will be just slightly lower than the estimated Spanish Flu total. As of now, Covid-19 has already surpassed the daily deaths by cancer or cardiovascular disease. We are having another 9/11 every day. If anything, "the actions being taken by governments in the states or at a Federal level" are insufficient to deal with a problem of this magnitude. Very fortunately we got vaccines now (but we need to roll them out faster). The bottom line is, you want a good economy? Then, control the pandemic. There is no such thing as a good economy in the presence of a highly contagious disease that kills 1.8% of confirmed cases and maims 10% of the survivors.
I have to get a 'Brexit' card to replace my Carte de Sejour, so I have to go to Blois in a couple of weeks so they can repeat all the stuff they did for the Carte de Sejour. Bureaucracy for the sake of it, preservation of public sector jobs.
@Esdraelon in continuation of post #12 above, read this: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ohio-state-study-finds-student-182158708.html In post #12, had in mind a German study looking at cardiac MRI and troponin tests of Covid-19 survivors of all ages (medium age 49, SD 14) that found heart damage in 78% of them and myocarditis in 60% of them (unrelated to underlying conditions); unusually high numbers (and the sample was taken from a Covid-19 test center; two thirds of the subjects examined had had mild cases and had not needed hospitalization). I posted that study here, multiple times. That study is small and hasn't been fully replicated. But now this Ohio State University study sees the same damage in college athletes; you can't get much younger and healthier than college athletes. 30% with heart damage and 15% with myocarditis. If this is not scary, I don't say what one would call scary. So, ALL these people have survived their bouts with Covid-19... they are young and previously healthy and strong like an ox... but 30% came out of it with weakened hearts, and 15% with persistent myocarditis. Again, the CFR is not all. I'm being generous when I say 10% of people come out of it with organ damage. The heart is only one organ and even in these very young and health individuals, there is 15% with persistent damage. I'd say all organs considered it's probably more likely to be at least 20%, or 1 in 5. That's the number that Fauci believes in. He mentioned 20% of survivors with organ damage. One in five, just looking at confirmed cases in America (20 million now) is already 4 million people. The economic impact for the decades to come of 4 million people with newly acquired chronic heart weakness is HUGE. Do you still think that containment measures are not justified supposedly because the CFR is low?
I can't vote until AFTER the run-off election for senators in the State of Georgia is held and the results determined. Republicans have already lost both the House and the Office of the President. If, on top of that, Republicans also lose a majority in the Senate after January 5th, then the nation is going to continue to suffer, badly, in 2021, and, surely through 2022 also. The only exception will be stock market gamblers, who will continue to do very well, completely sheltered from a "Judgement Day" in our economy by the Federal Reserve central bank continuing to manufacture trillions of imaginary dollars, going on 'bond-buying' binges, and crushing interest rates on peoples' savings accounts (which just continues the devaluing of our money). If Democrats are denied a majority in the Senate, then we have at least a fighting chance of being able to control the idiotic, radical damage that these Leftist militants can do to the country. If not, then the American taxpayer is SCREWED!
They are already talking about perma canceling the already delayed tokyo games due to herpes or whatever it is that is going around the globe. I forget the exact virus. News doesn't cover it much. As for 2021 and the topic of the thread, it is going to be a bad year economically. I am sure Biden will bless us with at least 1, possible 2 government shutdowns in 2021. More businesses will collapse under COVID restrictions, particularly small ones. Europe and the UK will be taking a Brexit hit. And people will lose their poop if there are any appreciable break through infections with the new vaccinations. The world will be increasingly angry anyway.
Even if the Dems win both races in Georgia, it's far from guaranteed that they'll be able to pass any radical bills into law. A 50-50 tie with one tie-breaking vote (The VP's) is the tiniest majority ever. For some radical bill to fail, it's enough to have the disagreement of a conservative Dem senator like Joe Manchin. For example, he was interviewed about packing the Supreme Court, and said "I'd never vote for it." Then and there you have the effort failing 51-49 so that Harris doesn't get to exercise the tie-breaking. Here: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/11/16/who-will-hold-the-most-power-in-the-next-senate/
Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve central bank has exerted its smothering effects on precious metals, too, in order to keep the 'fraud balloon' afloat for the hideously overvalued stock markets. I find it amusing that people are amazed about how 'well' gold has done during the past few years, closing yesterday at under $1,900 per ounce. But, if it weren't for the 'Fed' trashing the dollar by 'printing' hundreds of billions of extra imaginary dollars, endlessly, while it goes on 'bond-buying' binges, the price of gold would very likely be no less than double that amount! Silver is equally suppressed, closing at less than $27 per ounce. Ha! In 2011 silver hit a price almost double what it was last Friday, and I unloaded a bunch of it back then -- KNOWING that the Federal Reserve would run in and pull some kind of crap! Sure enough, later that same year, the Fed rolled out "Operation Twist", along with more ongoing "Quantitative Easing" bullshit (even though the Great Recession officially ENDED in June 2009). Precious metal prices have been artificially crippled ever since.... Joe Biden? Bet on this -- Joe Biden will do absolutely NOTHING to hamper or restrain the Federal Reserve System central bank in the slightest. Hell -- he's already announced that his Treasury Secretary will be the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve... Janet Yellen!
the economy and covid will be worse going into 2022 according to bill gates https://www.marketwatch.com/story/b...coronavirus-pandemic-its-bad-news-11607893787
it should be better for Christian Zionists because the Supreme Court is mostly Conservative. biden wouldn't be able to do much with senate and high court controlled by republicans
