WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, March 26, 2020

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1/ A record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week – the largest number of unemployment claims ever recorded for a single week since the government began collecting data in 1967. The number shatters the Great Recession peak of 665,000 claims in March 2009 and the all-time mark of 695,000 in October 1982. As a result, the U.S. unemployment rate has likely already risen to 5.5% from 3.5% in February – a level not seen since 2015. A similarly large number of initial unemployment claims is expected next week when the Labor Department releases its report on claims filed this week. In the prior Labor Department report, for the week ended March 14, initial claims totaled 282,000. (NPR / CNBC / Washington Post / CNN / New York Times / Politico / Bloomberg)

• ???? COVID-ables:

• U.S. death toll hit 1,000. (Washington Post)

• The U.S. leads the world in confirmed coronavirus cases with at least 81,321 people known to have been infected. (New York Times)

• Nearly 1.5 million N95 respirator masks are sitting in a U.S. government warehouse in Indiana, but authorities have not shipped them because they are past their expiration date. (Washington Post)

• “We may well be in a recession.” –Fed Chairman Jerome Powell

• Trump’s cabinet pastor blamed the outbreak on those who have “a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality.” Ralph Drollinger wrote that the U.S. is “experiencing the consequential wrath of God” because the “forsaken,” which includes environmentalists and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, have “given over” to their “degrading passions.” Betsy DeVos, Mike Pompeo, Ben Carson, and Rick Perry all regularly attend Drollinger’s bible study sessions, with Perry describing him as a “brilliant, knowledgeable bible instructor.” (NBC News / Independent)

• ???? Read This: How the pandemic will end. The U.S. may end up with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the industrialized world. This is how it’s going to play out.(The Atlantic)

• Live Blogs: New York Times /