The Sentinel Today 200508

The Sentinel All the news that's fit to print and some that's not.
After Covid This pandemic may at some point end and maybe it will never end. Restarting businesses with little regard for restarting the pandemic again may keep it going into fall and there could be another stronger wave in the cold weather. The virus could also mutate and keep doing that every time there is a cure or vaccination. With many possibilities for the pandemic I will assume that it does go away and things return to normalcy. What did pass for normal 6 months ago will not return to what it was, but to a new normal. This reporter's thinking is as follows. The stock market will collapse, how far down is anyone's guess, but I do not see it regaining anywhere near what it was 6 months ago. Most retail stores as we knew them will not recover at all. Walmart will remain the top dog in the brick and mortar segment and nearly unopposed. Cell phone company stores will likely go completely into Walmart or Best Buy. There will be a resurgence of cottage industries all run out of individual homes. This will be a challenge for the IRS to collect enough taxes to support the government because those cottage industries will be flying in under the radar.	Stimulus Package While at the moment the stimulus payments will give a short term bump, long term the economy will tank for a decade or more. The stock market will attempt to draw in new investors, but only the big boys, the wealthy elites will be trading stocks. The depression (that's what this is now) will continue and sooner or later the government will perhaps admit to that fact, but don't hold your breath waiting for it. Employment will never be the same as it once was. However, with all of my dire predictions, Americans will once again learn how to cope with a bad situation. Home Kitchens Kitchen sinks were started in the 1820 time frame. That's 200 years ago and when kitchen counters came in they were low as the sinks because people were short back then. Well here we are with the majority of people, nearly all of us now, 6 to 8 inches taller and we now have to bend over to use the sink and the counters. This reporter believes it is well past time to raise kitchen sinks and counters for the majority of us and if really short people have to reach up these days, so be it.	Uncle Billy Uncle Billy is very tired of sitting at home with aunt Ethel. He is usually out and about the town on errands he seems to make up to get out of the house and he usually lifts a few tall cold ones and flaps his jaws with with his tavern buddies as they each try to out do each other with another tall tale of victory over some crisis. Uncle Billy doesn't believe in wearing masks (those are for armed robbers in his estimation). Billy went to the local Walmart the other day and when he was held outside due to restrictions in the numbers of people allowed in the store, he naturally stirred up a fuss with the doorkeeper. The police were called and Billy was almost arrested for the disturbance. Aunt Ethel cooled him down and saved me from bailing him out again. This reporter is getting tired of going down and bailing him out of jail, all because aunt Ethel doesn't like jails as much as uncle Billy seems to enjoy them. My guess is many inmates are like uncle Billy and probably some of them are his tavern buddies.