4/15/2020 –
Two groups of governors on America’s east and west coasts declared they would form regional alliances to coordinate a reopening of their respective economies. Together the ten states represent approximately one-third of the U.S. population and roughly 35 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
I’ve been telling everyone that this fake “crisis” would peak in April and play out sometime in June. As usual, the political clowns from each side want credit for “fixing” the economic tragedy they together caused. So the Democratic governors are teaming up to upstage Trump and the Republicans in claiming to reopen their states. To them it is just a game, but to millions of people it has been ruinous and deadly. Sadly, people continue to worship the demigods of Washington DC and the State governments who, like the Greek gods of old, are capricious and disconnected from the citizens who continue to look to them for salvation.
Let us hope that as the demigods compete for votes and power they will get distracted and hopefuly lose some of their death grip on us.
On Monday, California, Oregon, and Washington announced the Western States Pact to “flip the script on COVID-19” and “work together on a shared approach” to reopening the economies of each state. The governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island also formed a working group to plan a reopening in the Northeast region, with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announcing his state would join the group, too. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stressed the importance of regional coordination, given that much of New York’s workforce commutes from neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.
The 10 U.S. states coordinating plans separately from the White House to reopen businesses shut by the coronavirus are responsible for a large proportion of the U.S. economy.
Collectively the ten states generated 38.3% of the total U.S. economic output in the fourth quarter of 2019, highlighting how much of the U.S. economy depends on its most populous states.
California and New York, the biggest and third-biggest states respectively, account for about 23% of total U.S. economic output, figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis show.
Announcements about the pacts to coordinate plans came after Republican President Donald Trump declared any decision on reopening the economy was up to him. The White House is preparing its own plans which are expected to be announced soon.
But Trump also suggested he would prefer to defer to governors. “I’d rather have them make the decision,” he said in his daily news conference. Again, showing his ineptitude and deferring to the governors.
Outside of the two coalitions, the two states with the biggest contribution to GDP are Texas and Florida, which together account for 14%. Both are led by Republican governors.
The U.S.’s 50 states generated $21.4 trillion in total economic output in 2019, from widely different industries. Finance dominates in New York, for example, agriculture and tourism in Florida.
California will detail its plan with Oregon and Washington on Tuesday, Newsom said Monday.
In the U.S. Northeast, the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts will coordinate to gradually reopen their economies. Each state will ultimately make its own decisions based on its specific needs, Cuomo said.
Have we learned anything from this? How will we react the next time a fake ”crisis” like this comes around? We folded like a cheap suit over this one.
VIRUS ALERT !!!
CLOSE THE COUNTRY !!!
YES, MASTERS. WE WILL OBEY!
Don’t look to Trump for help – nor is he totally to blame for this fiasco. Democratic governors were the first shut down their states. Trump, in one way, is a typical politician. He stands for nothing except his own interests as he perceives them, everything is transactional, and he sees the world through the eyes of a huckster who just needs to manipulate his followers to make himself look successful. What is known is that he is a clinical narcissist who misunderstands his legal powers.
________________________________________________________________________________