The port of Oakland is not offloading freight either, and ships crews are quarantined.

The horizon is littered with long tankers and tall white cruise ships. The cruise ships being anchored here really pisses me off. They escape paying US and local post taxes by claiming tax havens like Panama and the Bahamas as their home ports. It is painfully obvious the US, and Los Angeles in particular, is their home port. And it is our taxes (my taxes!) that are maintaining that port for them and paying for the harbor patrol that keeps guard on their ships to keep them safe. Plus we're giving cruise ships billions in bailouts.

I predict that we are going to be seeing many cascading system failures. There is a short lag before that, but there are signs.

The reason? Neo-liberal policies. No fat for the lean years. If it is not profitable, it will not be done and that includes stocking up, storage of supplies, prevention, responses to crisis, etc. It doesn't fit in a profit-only model which revolves around the economy and its owners, not serving, protecting and providing for the people...oh, I mean consumers, (what a bullshit term). All of that is going to show up based on the often overlooked, complex array of interdependence of everything.

This is when you see the egregious faults in the system as it is. Should we rinse and repeat that? Much of what is to come will stem from a gamed system that does not exist as reciprocally as we would like to imagine. The system failures will grow and could even become severe. It will be a time of austerity and great change, at least until we can get a new Administration and begin to work to repair what has been broken for so very long, (decades actually) and create a more adaptable, equitable and prepared one so that future emergencies, and you can count on new pandemics, won't be so devastating. Ah, we billions into the military as a means to protect ourselves from foreign threats, but we have little or nothing for an internal crisis? Come on! Give me a break. That is not acceptable at all. That's an embarrassing tragedy to say the least, especially in a country with so much wealth for the few.

We are CITIZENS of this country and I think we have been pushed into a box with the "consumer" label on it. How often do we hear the word citizen and other terms that indicate that we are human beings; living, feeling entities? That is, to me a significant difference and might be an important thing to consider as we reboot the machine. Same program, or do we swap it out for something real, compassionate and anthropocentric rather than a machine for the wealthy and their, (obviously they are the owners) economy?

We are going to learn what we need to do about this, (it is essential) but it will be the hard way and it didn't have to be.

We are citizens. Consumers should be a term that comes far down the list of who we are.

People are not doing much consuming now, are they?

I'm waiting to hear what my university's furghlough plan is before seriously considering a new car.

My 15 year old Volvo is good for another 5 years or so, but these are incredible deals.

I just found out a rat attempted to make a nest in my engine. I will be looking again in July when there should be news of the vaccine progressing.

But how are cars getting sold if there's nowhere to go?

From their apartment complex parking lot, early April. Boynton Beach Florida.
Cops told them that most of the time it’s teenagers who drive the car for a while and then abandon it. They checked out buying new cars and found out that dealers can’t give them away right now. Could have gotten amazing deals with 0% financing.
Police found both the cars, both with some body damage (fixable). My son’s car was involved in a drive-by shooting and was impounded for a while. Something to tell their (eventual) kids.