Until Thursday!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "lid" in this context, it means Biden will not be appearing in any public events, which essentially means he's hiding until Thursday.

This is important for several reasons.

It's important because Biden has called lids on a large percentage of days throughout September and October. We are almost 2 weeks away from the election and one of the candidates constantly avoids any public events. Why? This is when candidates pack their schedules in an effort to get every last vote.

The voters need to see their candidates. If Biden is unwell, the voters deserve to know.

If Biden can't handle basic campaign events, how the heck is he expected to lead this country?

- JW

One-third of excess deaths in US during pandemic were not due to the coronavirus: Study

A new study found that a third of excess deaths in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic could not be directly attributed to the coronavirus.

“Although total US death counts are remarkably consistent from year to year, US deaths increased by 20% during March-July 2020. COVID-19 was a documented cause of only 67% of these excess deaths,” the study, published on the Journal of the American Medical Association's website, said. “Some states had greater difficulty than others in containing community spread, causing protracted elevations in excess deaths that extended into the summer.”

One reason for the high amount of excess deaths not attributable to COVID-19 has been disruptions in health services caused by lockdowns.

“Excess deaths attributed to causes other than COVID-19 could reflect deaths from unrecognized or undocumented infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or deaths among uninfected patients resulting from disruptions produced by the pandemic,” the study’s authors noted.

...

BLUE STATES HAVE AN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE THAT IS ALMOST TWICE AS HIGH AS RED STATES… AND 40% MORE COVID DEATHS PER MILLION TOO

by Kevin Ryan

There are two completely different economic recoveries occurring among the states: a “Blue State” and a “Red State” recovery.

In the so-called “Blue States,” state and local governments have been very slow to reopen their economies, and very quick to re-close. As a result, unemployment has been consistently higher, and still totals in double digits at 10.6%.

The recovery in the “Red States”, meanwhile, has been much stronger, with unemployment at just 6.6%.

And the people who live in the “Purple States” (the swing states) have seen a mixed recovery, with unemployment at 7.8%, fittingly in between the level of the red and blue states.

The result of this will be not just differences in unemployment rates, but also differences in the multitude of other factors that unemployment affects, including state and local finances. Blue state politicians are essentially creating the circumstances that will require a bailout:

Stricter business closures -> Higher unemployment -> Decreased household incomes -> Lower tax revenues -> Worse state & local finances -> Greater need for federal bailouts

Indeed as negotiations over yet another round of federal coronavirus spending continues, one of the biggest hang ups is that blue states and municipalities essentially want bailouts to pay off debts from their prolonged shutdowns (among other things). So far, President Trump has said he doesn’t want poorly-run states to be subsidized by better-run states (though, if Democrats sweep in the upcoming elections, that’s likely to be exactly what happens).
Oh, and the notion that the Red States have been irresponsible by not being as strict and by opening up quicker has thus far not been seen in the fatality data: the Blue States have suffered 40% more deaths per million residents than Red States.

And the notion that population density is the reason for this disparity may also be turning out not to be the case, as recent studies have found that population density (e.g. people per square mile) is not the driver of higher death rates.


METHODOLOGY:

BLUE STATES (states that have voted Democrat in all 4 of the last presidential elections): California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.
Total Population: 121 million

PURPLE STATES (states that have not voted the same way in the last 4 presidential elections):
Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Total Population: 105 million

RED STATES (states that have voted Republican in all 4 of the last presidential elections): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Total Population: 104 million
Unemployment Rate (August - most recently available unemployment data for all 50 states & DC):
Blue States: 10.6%
Purple States: 7.8%
Red States: 6.6%
Total COVID Deaths per Million People (through 10/14):
Blue States: 779
Purple States: 530
Red States: 556

Note on methodology: These are not simple averages of the states, but are actual totals. So, for example, the “Blue State” calculation for deaths per million equals the total number of COVID deaths in the Blue States divided by the total population of the Blue States (converted to a rate per million).

Ballot drop box catches fire; Arson investigation underway