without belaboring a lot of political points, we have the wrong leadership in this country to get out of this covid deal quickly and easily. it is going to be a long haul and, though we will go over a hundred thousand soon, we will keep going up over time until it gets bigger and bigger. it's just the way it is - lots of people will die.

so history will look back at this era as a time when the people who lived furthest in the country had an advantage; people who tended to stay home and limit interaction had an advantage; people like my one son who has a wife and young baby - advantage, because they don't really need to go out all that much. people like my other son, single, disadvantage. he'll have trouble staying out of social venues.

and this will go on for years. yes each state is different. texas is spiking now, and will spike more in the next few weeks - georgia, wisconsin, mississippi, same. no telling whether it will just end with the good weather, or other states will spike as soon as they reopen, or when masses of people hit the beaches. those of us way out in the country, or with very young families - we'll be ok. we are not relying on heavy social interaction to get from day to day. we have changed our lifestyle, but you have to look at the money to see what else will change and how it will fall out.

for us, personally i think most of the changes are good, but that's because i am very stingy. if i am stingy about my driving to town, and we've cut gas consumption by 50 to 70 percent, that's good. if we take a cold look at how our meat is processed and turn to the local farmers for a side of beef (that might be a ways off), that would be good too. if we cut our own hair, or learn to entertain ourselves better out here in the country, as a more self-sufficient entity, that's good. lots of it is good. it might be bad for nail salons, barbers, malls, j.c. penny, etc., but it's good for the earth, and good for the general health of the people.

yes it causes widespread economic turmoil. i think millions of us were living on just spinning wheels. if you run a tattoo parlor or nail salon, i don't really feel sorry for you. hotels, airplanes, cruise ships, we can take a break from this stuff for a few years. i'm sure all these people will be dunning trump for a handout. but they've been riding high for years, riding on fumes. that's especially true of the stock market. he gives them a thirteen trillion tax break, yeah, party all around, confidence, high stocks. they're passing money around. if we are just getting by, out here in the countryside, getting to the next generation, we're a little better off, because we're not relying on that false sense of security that comes from having paid off the government.

easy for me to say - i rely on the government anyway, for social security, and i'm aware that they'd like to take it away from me, but i also think that as long as i have my health, i'll be ok. and that's why i'm basically altering my lifestyle. twenty to thirty percent of us - not going into the convenience store, skipping the greasy spoons. either they serve it to us outdoors, or we make it ourselves - and that second option, though they wouldn't want us to know - is actually much healthier.