Tag: Coronavirus
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Northam’s Non-COVID Non-Update
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4eTqh-1pTU&w=480&h=315] Note: video starts at 4:50 by DJ Rippert Northam fiddles. As a resurgence of COVID-19 spreads across Europe and the United States, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam held a press conference ostensibly to discuss the pandemic. The presser provided little new information about the coronavirus or Virginia’s plans to combat the disease. Northam did…
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Common Sense and Coronavirus in Virginia
by DJ Rippert Stepping back. Over the past five months there has been an unending flood of information, guesses, misinformation and politicized ramblings about COVID-19. Various factions put forth their experts and cherry picked data to support their agendas. It’s time to step back and synthesize all that has been written into a set of…
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Why Is Our Governor Ignoring His Own Orders?
By Steve Haner If the overall case fatality rate for COVID-19 is 4 tenths of one percent, as the Centers for Disease Control just estimated, then perhaps 300,000 Virginians have or have had the disease. That’s working the math backwards from the 1,200 Virginia deaths reported so far. The chart below snipped from the CDC’s…
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Trailing Candidates Should Bail Out, Void Primary
By Steve Haner More often than not, the suspense in an election is over long before the polls open. That is the case with the two primary contests which will require me to sit in a polling place all day on June 23. The expected losers should just drop out now and save us all…
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What Campbell Is Really Saying In the Photo
“Mara, you call Haner back. He’s really gonna be pissed he can’t come in Monday.” Somebody has to explain to me how my getting a haircut in downtown Richmond Monday posed a threat to city residents, city residents who will now be crowding into the barber shops and salons of nearby Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover…
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State Spending Hike Also Postponed, Not Canceled
By Steve Haner Originally published in the May 3 Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star and then distributed by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Just as COVID-19 was starting its destruction of the world’s economy in early March, the Virginia General Assembly took final action on an exuberant two-year state budget within shouting distance of $140…
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Despite Offered Delays, Pay Your Taxes On Time
By Steve Haner The latest complaint against the Northam Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is failing to provide adequate state tax relief. The complaint comes from the Tax Foundation and surfaced in a news report in Wednesday’s Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has now chimed in with an editorial. Apparently most other states…
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New Northam Financial Directive Late, Clueless
By Steve Haner When I’m wrong, I should rush to admit it. The concerns expressed by others on this blog that the Northam Administration was failing to recognize the financial aspects to the COVID-19 pandemic were valid. The person exhibiting wishful thinking was me, with my assumption they were already acting. That’s because they just…
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Move 2020 Nomination Deadline To Late Summer
By Steve Haner A week after the March 3 Democratic presidential primary I was sick, probably with a cold but I had to wonder. No fever developed and patent medicines got me through. But it could have been COVID-19 after checking in hundreds of voters in the Maple Street Firehouse. There is no way I’m…
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Is Aubrey Layne Serious about a $2B “Hit” to Virginia’s Biennial General Fund from COVID-19?
By DJ Rippert Penny Layne. Aubrey Layne is Virginia’s Secretary of Finance under the Northam Administration. Previously, Layne served as Secretary of Transportation under the McAuliffe regime. Prior to his time in government Layne held a number of executive positions in private enterprise including the presidency of Great Atlantic Properties. Layne is listed by Wikipedia…
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Expanding an Ineffective Government Solves Nothing
By DJ Rippert The failure of American government at all levels is on display with COVID-19. Is our ever expanding government working? The percentage of U.S. Gross Domestic Product spent on government has been increasing for the past 50 years. While the percentage rises during recessions and falls during good economic times the trend-line is…
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The Solution Nobody Will Mention: DNR
By Steve Haner This is how we solve the coming hospital bed crisis. This is how we stretch our ventilators supply. No politician is going to say this, neither Donald Trump nor Andrew Cuomo, and doctors won’t start this conversation. Lester Holt won’t bring it up on Nightly News. It is called a “do not…
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Northam: Take the Bricks Off the Life Rafts
My first post in two weeks. What the heck, I should join the parade and give a bunch of advice to our beleaguered Governor which he is likely to ignore. This first appeared today in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. It has one of those annoying “take a survey” paywalls, but in this case asks a…
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Dare County, N.C., closes its borders
By DJ Rippert From Outer Banks to Outer Mongolia. Dare County, N.C. issued orders last week closing its borders to non-residents. Dare is a coastal county just south of Currituck County, N.C., which borders Virginia. Many Virginians know Dare County from Outer Banks vacations in towns such as Duck or fishing trips launched from Manteo.…
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Northam Shuts Down Schools. What’s Next?
By DJ Rippert Early Spring Break. Last Thursday Virginia Governor Northam somewhat suddenly decided to shut down all K-12 schools starting the next day. The shutdown is for “at least two weeks.” The question of how to manage continuing free and reduced price meals during the shutdown has been left up to the individual school districts.…