Prickly City by Scott Stantis for May 07, 2020

No masks? Well, I guess Carmen’s got herd immunity, now, so why bother?

And still, NO national response.

Not to worry though, the next hydroxychloroquine is just around the corner.

And plenty of bleach on the shelves.

kaffekup: Why bother? It never was about protecting us, the quarantines and masks are about protecting you! Without testing, knowing that people are contagious long before they are contagious, and some people never show symptoms at all, but are still contagious, the point of quarantines and masks was to protect everybody else!

(Yeah, I know you already knew that, but someone out there is bound to misinterpret what you said, above)

I dunno. Pretty sensible reaction if you ask me.

Just a random comment anticipating the arrival of our friend… I guess fascism has always been about fantasy, pretend the virus isn’t there and everything will be back to normal. Aunt Bee will be in the kitchen, Opie will be fishing with Andy, and Tinker Bell will come back to life. Why they chose this fat moron for dear leader is an impenetrable mystery. Oh and Democrats are the problem, not gutting the government.

Because it’s all about the ratings, don’cha know?

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President Donald Trump and many governors are heralding a reopening of the American economy — even though a majority of states ending their coronavirus shutdowns this week have not met the White House’s most basic thresholds for testing, tracing and a prolonged drop in new cases.

The White House has tried to distance itself from governors’ actions by insisting its reopening guidelines are merely suggestions, not the rule of law.

But Trump is latching himself on to the message that America is ready to reopen, traveling on Tuesday to Arizona — one of the states not yet meeting all of the administration’s criteria — to visit a Honeywell plant and promote the reopening of huge swaths of the nation.

✄

“There’s this mindset that it’s like running a show and you’ve got to keep people tuned in, you’ve got to keep them interested and at some point you’ve got to move on and move on quickly,” said a former senior official at the Health and Human Services Department. “Viewers will get tired of another season of coronavirus.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/04/states-shrug-off-white-house-benchmarks-for-reopening-235339

Meanwhile, back in reality….

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President Trump and sycophantic Republican governors are in a frenzy: They want to reopen businesses and restart the economy.

The problem is the voters, the customers and the workers don’t want to.

Moreover, the results of reopening are likely to be disastrous, thereby increasing Republicans’ political collapse.

(And when the incumbent Republican senator in Montana is down by seven and in Iowa is statistically tied, make no mistake. Republicans are imploding.)

Let’s start with the politics of reopening. Everyone wants to get back to shopping, going to movies and playing sports, right? Hardly.

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It does not matter whether people are in states with strict or loose restrictions; the anxiety is palpable.

This is the reverse “Field of Dreams” situation: Open the stores, but the public may not come.

Workers may or may not return. Hence, whatever boost one gets may be muted.

Republicans may not get much credit for reopening establishments that the public thinks are unsafe, nor will Republicans get the economic surge they think is necessary to keep the economy and their reelection prospects afloat.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/05/politics-price-premature-opening/

@jbmlaw01 — Have you checked the graph for Georgia on the John Hopkins’ Covid-19 dashboard site? I just compared the chart for Georgia with New York and Georgia’s chart looks exactly like New York’s chart did in the middle of March when they only had about 30,000 cases. If that is a true indicator for what Georgia is in for, we can expect Georgia to have over 300,000 confirmed cases and over 25,000 deaths in about six weeks. And that is assuming they take the steps New York took, but no, they are not. But hey … they’re getting their economy back open, so who really cares how many get sick or die as long as there is profit to be made, amirite?

https://babylonbee.com/news/governor-whitmer-sends-out-imperial-probe-droids-to-catch-people-violating-lockdown

https://babylonbee.com/news/new-poll-finds-democrats-would-vote-for-ted-bundy-if-he-were-running-against-trump

More Bee: American Christian Thanks God He Doesn’t Live In One Of Those Communist Countries Where The Government Can Shut Churches Down On A Whim

Why is jbmlaw01 posting links from the Babylon Bee? AFAIK, this is a satirical site famous for over-the-top fake stories focusing on well known pastors, celebrities, and politicians.

Trump has my sympathy, he got what he asked for and it has made him miserable.There is a lesson in that, he’ll never learn it, but for those with eyes to see. . . .

Have you hugged a cactus today?

Love is but a song to sing

Fear’s the way we die

You can make the mountains ring

Or make the angels cry

Though the bird is on the wing

And you may not know why

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

Chester Powers / Chester Powers Jr.

The latest national response:

“Because, you know, this virus is going to disappear. It’s a question of when. Will it come back? In a small way … will it come back in a, uh, uh, fairly large way? But we know how to deal with it now much better, you know, nobody knew anything about it. Initially. Now we know we can put out fires, we can put out, they call ‘em embers, if it’s small or it’s a FIRE! Or a hot spot. We can put it out. But … we can’t have our whole country out. Can’t do it. The country won’t take it. Won’t stand it. It’s not sustainable. And I think you’re gonna have a tremendous, uh, transition, which is a 3rd quarter … thing, I think you’re gonna have a good 4th quarter, I think next year is going to be an incredible year, economically, and with that being said, if somebody lost somebody, a parent or a wife or a husband or, uh, you know, any brothers, sisters, if you lost someone, you can never make up for that by saying, well, you’re gonna have a great year next year, economically. And so, you can never do that, but I will say from an economic standpoint I think next year is going to be a big year, there’s tremendous demand. You see, with the stock market, when stock markets are 24,000 and we went through the … worst attack we’ve ever had on our country. This is really the worst attack we’ve ever had. This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center. There’s never been an attack like this. … And it should’ve never happened. It could have been stopped at the source. Could have been stopped in China. It should have been stopped right at the source. And it wasn’t.”— Donald Trump, 5 May, 2020, the Oval Office.