There's a Kind of Hush...

[MineralMan]

All over this forum. Something's missing today...

[True Blue American]

1. Extreme Exhaustion?

[MineralMan]

3. Nothing to say?

It's almost time to rename this forum to General Discussion - Election 2020

Some regulars here will disappear, I predict, if they have not already done so.

[True Blue American]

5. I explained

How I feel.

Did manage a couple of groceries this morning. Meijer almost bare, Kroger well stocked except for TP and bread. Produce fully stocked, meat mostly so. Fresh chicken breasts.

People were buying paper towels. I mentioned Kleenex. Off they went. Never thought of that!

[MineralMan]

10. Yeah, I made a supermarket run around 9 AM.

No crowds in the store, but lots of empty shelves in several areas. I found everything I was looking for, though, although I had to buy two 6-pack cartons of eggs. All of the dozen packages were gone. But, there was an ample supply of 6-packs. Odd.

Still no paper goods or hand sanitizer products, and the frozen dinners were heavily picked over - but only the major brands. There was plenty of stock of Indian, Chinese, and other ethnic frozen meals. I thought that was odd, but I tend to buy those anyhow when I'm stocking the freezer.

The store was sold out of canned bean products, oddly enough. No Bush's Beans to be found. But, if you turned around and looked at the Hispanic foods section, all of the bean products there were in full supply. Seeing that, I bought a half dozen cans of pinto beans and some canned Spanish Rice.

The canned tuna was gone, but there were ample stocks of canned salmon and a surplus of canned sardines and kippered herring. I already have those things, though, so I passed by.

The dry pasta shelves were almost empty. I keep a stock of dry pasta around, so I wasn't bothered. However, I noticed that the oddball pasta shapes and bagged specialty pastas were fully stocked. I guess people don't really understand that it's all the same thing. It just looks different. I left those there, too.

I did need laundry detergent, though, but those shelves were fine, although no bleach can be found.

At 9 AM, most of the shoppers were elders. The checkout aisles were staffed by produce department guys. I think the regular checkers will come in later.

I said, "Thanks for working," to my checker. He seemed surprised, but gave me a big smile. Then, I sanitized my hands for the second time before bagging my groceries. I did it again at the car, and then avoided face-touching until I got home and unbagged everything and put it away. Then I washed my hands thoroughly.

Everyone in the store was being very careful to observe good social distancing.

[treestar]

14. Makes me curious about

Asian, Indian and Mexican groceries.

Do they have different situations - like what is it that they are out of?

[MineralMan]

18. I'm not sure. I haven't been in any of those so far.

However, there's a supermarket in my old home town in California that has a largely Hispanic clientele. My brother-in-law, who lives there still, posted a photo from inside that store the day after all the toilet paper was gone. The shelves were full, so maybe the hoarding thing wasn't as active for that store's usual customers.

We have a number of Asian markets here in the Twin Cities. There was a story in the local paper about them being sold out of large bags of rice, so maybe that was what was being hoarded by their customers. I haven't been in any of those stores, either.

[Blue_true]

15. You clearly have never been poor.

Believe me, there are a lot of options for TP when a poor person runs out of it. Heck, as a boy, I wiped my hiney with Spanish moss.

[PatSeg]

7. There are a couple of groups

that I visit on Facebook and all of a sudden a lot of people just disappeared overnight. I told people who complained about them that this would happen in the blink of an eye!

[getagrip_already]

2. I'll bet that other site is kind of down also..... n/t

[MineralMan]

4. Oh, probably not.

I won't go check, though.

[George II]

6. The message died last night....

[mathematic]

8. Sanders campaign suspended online ads

So his supporters are probably discouraged.

[bluewater]

9. I think it's the pandemic.

A lot of us are basically numb from processing the daily dose of very unsettling news.

[BidenBacker]

11. Maybe we are all just silently observing

that the DJIA just dropped below where it was the day our beloved Fuhrer took office?

19795

A 0% return in over 3 years is pretty good, don't you guys think? This is actually great compared to what Dubya did over his 8 years.

Damn, these Republicans are good for the economy and stock market...that's why I vote for 'em.

[Blue_true]

12. Not a good choice of an OP, IMO. nt

[MineralMan]

13. OK, thanks...

[Blue_true]

20. Why didn't you say Ok Boomer?

Both of us are Boomers, though I am a younger model.

[MineralMan]

22. OK, Boomer...

LOL!

[LanternWaste]

19. There will always be those who delight in consistently punching down

and cower behind pretense in doing so.

[treestar]

16. Posts confident that Bernie will win this thing

are in short supply. Used to get many of those, especially after Nevada, but my favorite was one that said it was certain Bernie would have it wrapped up by Super Tuesday.

[Wellstone ruled]

17. It is creepy quite today

here in Vegas. With the Casino's shuttered and the Schools Closed. We are near the 125k people out of work. And that trend will be increasing by the hour as Business's start to close.

It is going to get ugly real quick. Those 125k workers are mostly Paycheck to Paycheck workers like most of Nevada.

Saw first hand the Panic yesterday mid day,had to make a hot shot run to our fav Grocery. What a mess,Shelves were pretty much empty,anything shelf stable was cleaned out,couple of people had pulled the last of the back room pallets of Stock on to the floor,people just grabbed full cases off the Pallet before they could be put on the shelf. Been around the Grocery and food Service industry my whole life,this is the first time I have seen Frozen Vegetable Cases wiped out other than a mechanical breakdown. The only Frozen Cases that were not cleaned out were ready to heat and eat main dishes. When a pallet of Campbell Tomato soup(144,24 count cases) was wiped out in less than twenty minutes. The young fellow just dropped the Pallet on the end of the Isle and got the heck out of the way. Crazy.

[MineralMan]

21. Well, the economic base in Vegas has been wiped out, really.

Good reason for panic there, I'd think. I read that casinos are shutting down entirely. When the Strip goes dark, the panic will increase, I'm sure.

[Wellstone ruled]

24. Midnight was the curtain call

State wide. The unanswered story is,what will happen with our Homeless Folks which number in the tens of thousands. Do know there are several emergency Kitchens available. Twenty Two Schools have Staffed their Kitchens in order to do a drive up prepared food distribution for Students and Families of Students as a way to combat lack of dietary needs. And that will only be proactive until the gas tanks go dry.

[MineralMan]

25. The school lunch program in St. Paul is delivering

packs of six meals per student by school bus to every school bus stop in St. Paul, starting today. Yesterday, when we walked our dogs, we saw the school bus drivers practicing their routes with empty buses.

[BidenBacker]

26. Boeing is on the verge of bankruptcy

And now needs an immediate government bailout of $50 billion just to stay afloat for awhile. Same goes for God knows how many other companies. Guess they shouldn't have used all of their GOP tax cuts to buy back their stock. The one that will have cost us $5.5 trillion over the next decade.

I've read a lot of history during my life, including about the Great Depression. Would rather read about one than live through one.

[MineralMan]

28. The airlines, too, no doubt.

They've cut flights way back, and the flights are going pretty empty. They have no cash reserves, really. I'd guess we're not far from an almost complete air travel shutdown, actually.

I'm afraid we ain't seen nuthin' yet.

[BidenBacker]

33. Right you are, MM

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/business/us-airlines-federal-bailout/index.html

Let's see now...$50 billion for Boeing and another $50 billion for the airlines. Okay, that about takes care of it...we can do $100 billion easy.

Oops, CNN just said the auto companies are shutting down and Ford will cease all production in a few days. We better give those guys a few bucks, too.

And the casinos...and the banks...and the restaurants...and the (insert favorite sector here).

This looks really bad. Munchkin now throwing out 20% unemployment numbers.

Glad we got a POTUS who knows a thing or two about bankruptcies.

Everything Trump Touches Dies.

[mcar]

23. I noticed that

[NurseJackie]

27. Strike up the band!

Joe/Kamala or Biden/Harris 2020!!
Jump on the Biden Bandwagon & abandon the revolution!!

[berni_mccoy]

29. No one wants to talk politics as the world ends.

[MineralMan]

31. We're all still talking politics. That's not what I meant.

Nope. The discussion continues, but some voices are no longer speaking.

We won't stop talking politics.

[Wellstone ruled]

30. Reality Check time.

It go damn real overnight.

[DonaldsRump]

32. Not sure what BS is going to do, so maybe that's why it's silent on this forum

But one thing we CANNOT be quiet about is the Trump Virus.

Trump and his gang that can't talk/shoot/etc straight, along with Fox, are now spinning the Trump Virus as if Trump is our savior.

If we are indeed quiet in Democratic Primaries, please be as noisy as you can on your social media and other oral/written communications. Call it the Trump Virus and make sure EVERYONE you talk to understands how badly these monsters bungled the situation. It would have been tough under any circumstances, but we had 2 months of non-action by these buffoons.

It is governors and local governments that have got us to this point, which is surreal but necessary to stem the tide. We are in the Bay Area under a lockdown (barring essential things). But it's the right thing to do.

Remember, it is the TRUMP VIRUS. Let's KISS on this one, or words to similar effect (if you get my drift).

[musicman65]

34. Yes there sure is