Monday - March 16, 2020

Free Money Again

The Federal Reserve announced on Sunday that it dropped its benchmark interest rate by a full point and launched a massive $700 billion quantitative easing program.

“The effects of the coronavirus will weigh on economic activity in the near term and pose risks to the economic outlook,” the Federal Reserve said in a statement. “In light of these developments, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate to 0 to 1/4 percent. The Committee expects to maintain this target range until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals.”

If you’ve forgotten what QE is, in hopes of never hearing it again after the Obama years, it’s the Fed buying up a ton of government bonds with several plane loads full of the cash they print out. If nothing else, it dumps a whole lot of cash into the market.

A central bank implements quantitative easing by buying specified amounts of financial assets from commercial banks and other financial institutions, thus raising the prices of those financial assets and lowering their yield, while simultaneously increasing the money supply.

If nothing else, this ought to drop mortgage rates even further than their current never-ever-been-this-low level. So it’s a good time to refinance. A local bank was offering a 2.89% refi 10 days ago; we’re tempted. Especially if that drops a couple more points.



~~~~



The stock market is diving again too. Might be a good time to invest in things you know are going to rebound, like energy stocks. 

Posted by Drew458     on 03/16/2020 at 09:26 AM   
Filed Under: • Finance and Investing • Pandemic Pandemonium •  
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It’s Quiet. Too Quiet

Impacts Of Isolation

Our local grade school and high school are closed. They’re going to do distance learning for the next couple of weeks. Traffic was very light on the highway near us; usually I can go outside in the early morning and hear the cars and trucks thundering by, and often the road behind us is used as a shortcut when traffic backs up. Today, nothing. With the airlines reducing flights there aren’t even any contrails up in the sky. No little planes up dancing around either.

I’ve got another batch of Stupid Easy Bread autolysing, and after I mix that together and throw it in the fridge I’m going grocery shopping. Shouldn’t be much of any crowds there mid-morning, and maybe I can stock up on corned beef, which is on sale for St. Patrick’s Day. Except that’s canceled this year.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/16/2020 at 09:09 AM   
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   Sunday - March 15, 2020

Give Us This Day

I made up a recipe I found online in the comments area of a post somebody had made about autolyse. That’s a bread baking thing where you mix just the flour and the water then let it sit for a while. This breaks down the flour and makes a smoother bread. It was one of these “no knead” recipes that has a really large amount of water in it - “high hydration” - that is supposed to give you a big open artisanal crumb. In other words, big air bubbles in the loaf. It’s a retarded autolysed sourdough, which means most of the rise is done overnight in the fridge.

I’ve managed to talk our new bowling teammate, Mrs. Newbie, into baking bread. She’s a good cook, and is willing to give it a whack. She’s made two loaves so far, so I’m hoping. I sent her pictures, saying how sometimes you make a brick, because I consider this loaf a failure. It didn’t rise much, there wasn’t any oven spring, and the cold oven baking method did not create the nicely browned and super crispy crust I’m used to. Nor was the crumb anything spectacular. OTOH, the dough has a little rye flour in it, so it tastes really good. She texted back that the loaf looks real good to her. Well sure; she’s just a beginner so she’s at the start of the learning curve. I might pass this recipe on to her, because it’s really pretty darn easy to make. However, sourdough is tricksy, and the autolyse seems to speed up fermentation. So mine came out over-proofed, which is why I call it a brick. But a good recipe turns out tasty bread even when the method is not the best.

I’m going to diddle the recipe a bit, and try it with all the flours autolysed together, instead of just the bread flour. Also I’ll bake it in a hot Dutch oven, not the author’s cold one. And if that works out, I’ll try it a third time with AP instead of rye, because not everybody has rye flour on hand. Except for breadheads like me ... I think I’ve got 7 kinds of flour sitting in the closet.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/15/2020 at 07:16 PM   
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Norway Hit Too

With more than 1,000 coronavirus cases in southern Norway and 3 deaths in Oslo, northern Norway has closed the door on southern Norway. All public events and schools closed. Russia has closed the border.

[ Thursday 3/12/20 ] Kindergartens, schools and universities are being closed along with sport halls and public events. It is the new normality, the country’s health authorities say.

“These measures are the the most dramatic ever taken in Norway in peace time,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said as she on Thursday presented a series of unprecedented regulations.

“It will give a different life situation for everyone in the country,” Solberg said in a press conference. She called for solidarity among citizens.

“We must stand together by keeping distance between each other,” she underlined.

All schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities are closed with immediate effect. In addition comes stringent regulations on peoples’ traveling. Anyone coming home from abroad will be forced into home quarantine.

At the same time, sport halls and all organized sport activities are being halted.

“This situation will take time,” the Norwegian Health Directorate says in a statement on the extraordinary measures that now are taken across the country.

The unprecedented regulations come as the number of coronavirus cases in Norway on Thursday increased to 621, an increase of more than 20 percent from Wednesday.

10 people in Tromsø have tested positive for coronavirus by Saturday, but northern Norway has fewer cases than most other regions of the country. 907 people have so far tested positive, making Norway one of the top ten most affected countries.

Norway was the fifth country after China, Italy, Denmark, and Ireland to announce a nation-wide lock-down to slow the coronavirus. By Sunday morning, three people, all in Oslo, have died of the virus.

The measures taken by the government on Thursday was by prime minister Erna Solberg said to be “the most far-reaching measures Norway’s population has ever experienced in peacetime.”

Additional to closing down kindergartens, schools, universities and asking all who have the possibility to work from home to do so, the borders are also closed for travelers from outside Finland and Sweden. 

From 8 am Monday morning, all Norwegian airports and harbors will close for incoming passengers from countries outside Finland and Sweden, except Norwegian residents returning home.

Tromsø is northwestern Norway, a narrow strip of land and small islands up on the coast. Norway is on the Atlantic side of the Scandinavian peninsula, with Sweden in the middle and Finland on the east side up against Russia’s Kola peninsula. Norway wraps up around the top, so it has a short border with Russia. Finland’s border with them is many times larger.

The Russian prime minister on Saturday morning announced a new set of measures aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Among those measures is a closure of the borders to Norway and Poland.

While there are about 2,000 cases across Scandinavia, Finland has only about a fifth as many as the other two countries. Northwestern Russia has less than a dozen, although Moscow is reporting 34 cases. 

Posted by Drew458     on 03/15/2020 at 08:56 AM   
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   Friday - March 13, 2020

And then a miracle happened. No, not really

We played the “management” team again tonight. Their worst bowler (200 average) is still out after his surgery, so they brought in T, a super dooper bowler I’ve known forever. As a sub, T usually throws one nearly perfect game, one poor game, and one right on his average, which keeps his numbers level.

We got a handicap from them about equal to our highest average bowler (me). They didn’t even try in the first game, just blindly threw the balls. And we managed to beat them by about 27 pins.

Then they woke up. Daddy P threw a 289 in Game 2, which is 10 strikes in a row followed by a 9/. Egad. Mommy P pulled a 240 in game 3. Yeah, they’re all just terrible. We got trampled in Game 2. We were merely beaten in Game 3.

I finally had the sense to move 3 boards right in Game 3 and went down an in without much hand, threw 7 strikes in a row later in the game, and pulled out a 221. We lost total wood too.

But we won our first game in 9 weeks. First win in forever.

Half the league was absent tonight. Corona fear probably. We got there at the last second and still got a parking space right in front.

I think I’ll stick with the right hand line. After all, that’s the line Daddy P throws, and the same line daughter P on another team used when she threw a 300 against us the other week.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/13/2020 at 10:20 PM   
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Sure, Because China Lies About Everything

WHO: Europe Now COVID Epicenter

Europe is now the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, as more countries declared a national state of emergency over COVID-19.

”More cases are now being reported every day [in Europe] than were being reported by China at the height of its epidemic,” director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He said 5,000 people have now died of the virus, calling it “a tragic milestone,” and urged governments to implement social distancing measures to slow the spread.

“Do not let this fire burn,” he said. ”Isolate the sick.”

China was burning the dead so fast that the pollution cloud could be detected from space. And then BING! just like that it was over? Not a chance. They’re hiding it, literally burying it, and you know they are.

But the EUropwienies can’t help themselves, they have to push the Socialist crap at the same time. So “isolate the sick”, but “keep the borders open”.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen has condemned some European countries for introducing blanket travel bans and border closures in response to coronavirus, saying: ‘The single market has to function’.

Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are among the nations forbidding entry to anyone arriving from Italy or without a certificate of health.

“It is not good when member states take unilateral action because it always causes a domino effect and that prevents urgently-needed medical equipment from reaching patients and hospitals,” she said.

“It amounts to the reintroduction of internal borders at a time when solidarity between member states is needed.”

Solidarity, eh? You mean like when Italy put out the call for help and not one other EU country responded?

A top Italian official knocked the European Union for leaving Italy’s plea for medical assistance unanswered while the coronavirus outbreak cripples the country.

Italy’s permanent representative to the EU, Maurizio Massari, wrote an op-ed in Politico on Tuesday asking for aid from EU members. The Italian official said that while the EU has ignored Italy’s requests for aid, China has begun assisting Italy bilaterally.

“Italy, the European country struck hardest by the coronavirus, has done everything it can to contain and manage the epidemic,” Massari wrote. “We must ensure, under EU coordination, the supply of the necessary medical equipment and its redistribution among those countries and regions most in need. Today, this means Italy; tomorrow, the need could be elsewhere.”

“Italy has already asked to activate the European Union Mechanism of Civil Protection for the supply of medical equipment for individual protection,” Massari added. “But, unfortunately, not a single EU country responded to the Commission’s call. Only China responded bilaterally. Certainly, this is not a good sign of European solidarity.”

Posted by Drew458     on 03/13/2020 at 11:34 AM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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It’s National Emergency Day! Woo Hoo Wu Flu !!!

President Trump 3pm To Address The Nation

President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency on Friday over the coronavirus outbreak, invoking the Stafford Act to open the door to more federal aid for states and municipalities, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Trump is under increasing pressure to act as governors and mayors nationwide step up actions to mitigate the spread, closing schools and cancelling public events. The president said he will hold a news conference at 3pm in Washington.

The move would allow the government to martial additional resources to combat the virus, and also marks a symbolic turning point for the president, who has repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu and insisted that his administration had the outbreak under control.

The Stafford Act is how the federal government opens the disaster relief money faucet. However, once that lever gets pulled, expect the states to start locking things down even further.

The Stafford Act is a 1988 amended version of the Disaster Relief Act of 1974. It created the system in place today by which a presidential disaster declaration or an emergency declaration triggers financial and physical assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency[3] (FEMA). The Act gives FEMA the responsibility for coordinating government-wide relief efforts. The Federal Response Plan includes contributions from 28 federal agencies and non-governmental organizations, such as the American Red Cross. It is named for Sen. Robert Stafford (in Senate 1971–89), who helped pass the law.

Congress amended it by passing the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, in 2006 with the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, and again in 2018 with the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA

Here’s Fox News with their report:

President Trump announced that he plans to hold a press conference Friday afternoon to address the coronavirus crisis, as concerns over the spreading outbreak wreak havoc on the economy and American life.

Fox News is told the president is expected to declare a national emergency.

“I will be having a news conference today at 3:00 P.M., The White House. Topic: CoronaVirus!” he tweeted.

The announcement comes as major sporting and other events are called off or postponed, businesses across the country institute telework policies, government buildings and schools shutter and other disruptions rock the nation, amid efforts to curb the transmission of the virus.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/13/2020 at 11:19 AM   
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   Thursday - March 12, 2020

Oh Puh Leazze AOC

As Usual, AOC Is FOS

AOC shows up on Fox News, claiming voter suppression is what caused her boy Bernie to lose in Michigan. Uh huh. “Rampant voter suppression”.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., strongly implied Thursday in her first sit-down interview with Fox News that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., lost this week’s Michigan primary because of voter suppression.

“Special Report” host Bret Baier broached the topic by mentioning an appearance by Sanders at the University of Michigan that drew around 10,000 people before asking Ocasio-Cortez, a Sanders surrogate, “How can you say the progressive position is still prevailing nationwide when Joe Biden is winning so much?”

“Well, I think one thing that isn’t being talked about is the rampant voter suppression in this country,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Right there in Ann Arbor, where we had that rally, those kids were waiting three hours in line to vote in Michigan. And so when we talk about who’s turning out and who’s not turning out, we absolutely need to be clear.”

According to the Fox News Voter Analysis, Democratic primary voters under age 30 were still a source of strength for the Vermont senator in Michigan, but he won just 13 percent of seniors – and more than twice as many seniors turned out as young voters.

Baier asked Ocasio-Cortez to clarify her voter suppression claims.

“You’re saying that you think voters didn’t get to vote that wanted to vote in Michigan?” Baier asked.

“Absolutely. You know, obviously, there’s also more that we need to do in terms of turning out youth voters,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “We need to make sure that we’re inspiring young people to turn out. But when you do turn out, you should not be waiting three, four, seven hours in order to vote.”

Now here’s a funny thing. Michigan has absentee voting for their primary. Approaching a million absentee ballots were requested.

As of 8 a.m. Monday, 12 hours before the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot at an election clerk’s office, the number of absentee votes already cast for the 2020 Michigan Primary was 712,851, according to data from the Michigan Secretary State.

That’s of a total 970,290 ballots requested, meaning 73% of ballots have already been filled out and returned.

It’s 314,808 more ballots than were cast at the same time in 2016, for a 79% increase.
...
At the start of the last day to request absentee ballots 970,290 had been requested, more than 474,000 in the 2016 Michigan Primary, for a 96% increase.

So not only are absentee ballots available, they can be requested and submitted up to a mere 12 hours before the primary polls open. And people in Michigan are using them nearly twice as much as they did last time.

So cut the shit bar girl. Your old dufus lost because he sucks. Not because of any “rampant voter suppression.”

Well, maybe your Twinky-Dink Snowflakes didn’t vote because they were too stupid and too lazy to make the teensy tiny effort to get an absentee ballot ahead of time. You can get the form online. But OMG!!!! You have to print out a paper form, sign it, and then mail it in. With a stamp. Which means maybe finding a mailbox or going to the Post Office. Or finding the county clerk’s office, going there, and dropping it off. Like, that’s totally gross. So Boomer. Disenfranchisement!! Voter Suppression!!!!

Posted by Drew458     on 03/12/2020 at 06:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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Bears Rampage On Wall Street

Markets Tank. Worst Drop Since 1987.

Dow down 10% in one day; drops 2352.60. NASDAQ and S&P 500 both down about 9 1/2%.

This is on top of losses earlier this week and some recovery the day after.

Airlines and cruise ship companies hit severely, losing 17 - 36%. Hotel booking companies also hit.

Stock markets in Europe and Asia also hammered.

U.S. equity markets cratered Thursday despite another flood of liquidity from the Federal Reserve after President Trump suspended travel from Europe for 30 days in an effort to contain the spread of the corona10 percent.

The S&P 500 entered a bear market down about 8 percent while the Nasdaq did as well dropping nearly 8 percent. Trading in U.S. equity markets was halted briefly just minutes after the opening bell when the S&P fell by 7 percent.

The entry into bear market territory was the fastest on record for the S&P and Nasdaq as tracked by the Dow Jones Market Data Group.

Stocks briefly trimmed some losses, before selling resumed after the New York Federal Reserve injected $1.5 trillion of fresh liquidity into the bond market.

The decline was the worst since the Black Monday crash of 1987 when the index lost 22 percent of its value in a single day

Posted by Drew458     on 03/12/2020 at 03:23 PM   
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Everybody Is Kung Flu Fighting

“We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear”
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general

Someday, hopefully in April, this will all pass, and things will be normal again. But it may not be until May or June or later. And things won’t be normal anytime soon.

Maybe the massive shutdown of daily life will prove to be an overreaction. Maybe the virus, while contagious, isn’t that harmful. But the die is cast. Everything is shutting down.

No more hockey either. Like the NBA, the NHL just canceled the rest of the season. Aww crap.

And that’s about that needs to be said, other than random reports from here and there as the bodies pile up. If they do. And I hope they don’t. But “social distancing” is going to be the new watchword for the next few months.





I’m going to go to the grocery store again and buy up lots of everything that can be frozen or stored. If there is anything left. Because I’m a cynical semi-pessimist, I fully expect to encounter a near-panic situation when I get there.

Oh, the Dems came up with their own Mo Gibbs Wish List package too -

House Democrats late Wednesday unveiled a 124-page spending measure to address the coronavirus pandemic meant to aid workers and families set to have their lives disrupted.

Lawmakers are expected to vote on the bill Thursday and, while it is poised to pass under the House Democratic majority, it’s not clear yet whether Senate Republicans will take it up before Congress is set to adjourn for a week-long recess.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said earlier Wednesday the price tag for the measure would be in the billions. A summary released by the House Appropriations Committee included some of the costs.

The House measure includes provisions that would entitle workers to paid sick leave and added time off for coronavirus patients and and establish a federal funding for “emergency leave” for people quarantined by the illness or caring for others affected.

It also would expand food stamps and unemployment insurance for those impacted by the coronavirus and the school and business closures it has caused, as well as aim to provide meals to children who normally get lunch at school. The measure also provides aid to states coping with increased medical costs for the poor.

Well, I suppose that won’t hurt, and it’s all fiat currency anyway, so what the heck.

I was going to post yesterday on how NYC and Seattle are planning on keeping their schools open no matter what, as they’re more social assistance centers than they are learning institutions. Let’s see if that idea lasts longer than the first provable school kid infection vector.

... and the stock market is tanking again OF COURSE.  >2000 points down one day, >1000 points up the next, now it’s down >1800 points and it’s not even 10am. Aside from being totally overvalued, the market is totally over-reactive. It’s all a dream anyway, so why not just dream “and then the wicked witch Wuflu put the whole castle to sleep for 100 years 60 days”, AND JUST PARK IT.

U.S. stocks plummeted at opening Thursday after President Trump’s speech Wednesday night failed to calm investors’ fears about the coronavirus.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 7.43%, for a loss of 1,749 points, at opening.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite were also down at opening, 6.62% and 6.49%, respectively.

At the market opening, the price for crude oil is down by more than 7% and trading at roughly $30 a barrel.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/12/2020 at 08:53 AM   
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   Wednesday - March 11, 2020

Ach Crivens, I got nearly all of them

We never had a party line phone, but when I was young, you only needed to dial 4 numbers to get anyone in my town, pay phones still cost a nickel in some places, and you gave your local phone code with words or letters. “Murray Hill 6, 1458” “PE5-1234”.

And forget Green Stamps. Blue Stamps, and those booklets full of Plaid stamps you saved and pasted to drive across the county to the redemption center to get free stuff. Different stores gave out different kinds of stamps.

Howdy Doody went off the air when I was really small. Fine by me; I always thought it was phony and lame.

And before the TV test pattern came on, usually the one with the Indian Chief at the top, the network played the national anthem. And then there was no more TV for the night. If you knew your stuff, you could use the test pattern to adjust your TV to get the sharpest picture. They needed adjusting every few weeks I think.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/11/2020 at 08:18 PM   
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Who says it’s so

Kung Flu is now officially a Global Pandemic

The President is giving a speech about it right now. Travel restrictions against China, first Federal travel restriction ever.

Trump to take “strong but necessary actions”: NOBODY comes here from Europe. Exemptions only for Americans AFTER they’ve been screened. Right now it doesn’t apply to the UK.

No insurance co-pay for getting tested. Tax cuts, workers comp.

$8.3 Billion in funding. So on and so forth. “Social distancing”, schools closed. “This is not a financial crisis, just a short moment in time we all have to get through together. “

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus that’s now sickened more 100,000 people across the world has officially been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) — weeks after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in February that the outbreak of the virus, and the disease it causes --COVID-19-- “absolutely” had the potential to become a pandemic.

“WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” Tedros said during a Wednesday press conference. “We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.”

Posted by Drew458     on 03/11/2020 at 08:02 PM   
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stuffed, like cabbage

We went floor shopping today and found some solid bamboo flooring we really like. Ok, we liked the “camaru” and “koa” wood boards better, twice as thick for twice the price, really strong and durable, but they’re maybe a little too up-market for a condo like this. But what we found is much better than anything that Lowe’s or HD has. So it will be really nice when it gets installed.

Of course, there’s a whole cascade of things we have to do before we’re ready for the floor guys to get to work. Aside from cleaning this place up, and cleaning this place out, we have to get the cat fixed. We love the little beastie inside out, but she goes into heat every few weeks all year long, won’t shut up for an hour, claws all the furniture, pukes on the rugs every damn day, and sprays on our stuff. And we have some stuff that’s way too good to be piddled on by some horny little cat. So it’s time. We tried to do this when she was a kitten, but her health was poor and we almost lost her in the surgery. She turned blue and stopped breathing and the doc had to stop, bring her back, and sew her up. I really hope she’s up to it by now, 3 years later. But we have to take the risk or else we’ll be living in decrepit soiled conditions and cat piss stink. No thanks.

So as long as we were down there, we hit the polish deli. OMG. I could have dropped $500 in a flash. They had such a great selection of all kinds of yummy stuff, from massive kielbasa to fresh ham to all kinds of pieroges, fresh bread, candies, all kinds of freshly made things from stuffed cabbage to potato pancakes to cheese to those Polish cookies with a name I can’t pronounce. Plus all kinds of imported Polish food in cans and jars. We got beets, 8lb of various massive kielbasa, polish sauerkraut with carrots, barilki (chocolate candy barrels filled with whiskey) and a whole selection of freshly made frozen pieroges. And we cooked it up when we got home, and ate like starving pigs. OMG. I did one coarse kielbasa on the grill, along with a couple pork chops we had that needed cooking. Ate that with some of the sauerkraut after adding a small amount of caraway seeds, and some lightly pieroges with butter and sour cream. Horry cats, I’m stuffed, and we have leftovers for days. So good.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/11/2020 at 07:31 PM   
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Smells Like Fascism And Slave Labor

NY Governor To Use Prison Labor To Make Hand Sanitizer

Nothing wrong with the government entering the capitalist arena with an unfair advantage, right? Corner the market and take over the means of production. Maybe it starts with hand sanitzer in NY, but what’s to stop them from expanding into anything and everything in any state?

Fascism? Nah, couldn’t be.

New York state announced Monday that it is using prison labor to produce its own hand sanitizer product in an effort to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

“We are introducing New York State clean hand sanitizer, made conveniently by the state of New York,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said in a press conference. Cuomo claimed that the sanitizer is superior to others because it contains 75 percent alcohol.

“To Purell, and Mr. Amazon and Mr. eBay, if you continue the price gouging, we will introduce our product, which is superior to your product,” said Cuomo. “And you don’t even have the floral bouquet, so stop price gouging.”

Corcraft Products, operated by New York’s Department of Correctional Services, Division of Industries, is manufacturing the product and expects to pump out 100,000 gallons weekly.

How about that, they already have their shell corporation set up.



~~~~~

A typical countertop bottle of hand sanitizer is 8 fluid ounces; 8 fluid ounces is a cup, 16 cups to the gallon, so 100K g/wk means 1.6 million bottles of the stuff per week. While that sounds like a lot, there are tens of millions of people frantic to buy as much as they get their hands on ASAP.

So let’s look at a basic Build A Factory kit. It really isn’t hard or expensive to set up an operation like this in a matter of hours when you’re the government.

Assuming 24-7 emergency production and a slight amount of product wastage, 100K gal/wk is 600 gallons per hour, the output of 3 small factory size mixing tubs (think surplus dairy tubs), and a simple bottle filling assembly line that can flow 160 bottles per minute. That’s pretty slow. Break the flow into 5 or 6 parts and the fill rate is down to under 26 seconds per bottle. That’s a slow rate even for manual labor using a turkey baster to fill them. Honestly, this is hardly bigger than a garage sized effort.

A small factory based in a closed grocery store - like all those A&Ps sitting around empty - could churn out 10 times as much with hardly any automation or computerized process control. Easy to ramp that up to 1000 times the original expectation with a dozen tubs, process control systems, automatic injection bottle filling. (seriously, you could just take over a beer plant which is 95% similar process. And they can churn 10s of thousands of bottles per hour. In a true emergency you’d even use the beer bottles, just to get the product out the door faster) With flow control systems and hydraulic agitators you don’t even need mixing tanks. Just pump it all together as you need it. Especially given the ease of funding it with tax money, the vast amounts of subsidized ethanol available, and all the labor supply you could ever want. The only (no pun intended) bottle necks I can see are in the plastic extrusions to make the bottles and pump caps, and the printed cardboard boxes to pack them in. But with “emergency powers” the State could co-opt them immediately.

Yup, let government take over the means of existing production and it can ramp up insanely fast. Probably make the trains run on time too.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/11/2020 at 10:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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