Prickly City by Scott Stantis for May 03, 2020

How many edibles were in that package, Carmen? And are there ANY left?

Since I have never had twitter on any device I may be ahead of the serenity curve.

Auguries of Innocence By William Blake https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43650/auguries-of-innocence Thanks, Scott. A good sentiment for the times.

By Non-Trumper – David Brooks

Fortunately, the rippers are not winning. America is pretty united right now. In an ABC News/Ipsos poll last week, 98 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans supported social-distancing rules.

According to a Yahoo News/YouGov survey, nearly 90 percent of Americans think a second wave of the virus would be at least somewhat likely if we ended the lockdowns today.

A Pew survey found 89 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats support the bipartisan federal aid packages.

Seventy-seven percent of American adults think more aid will be necessary.

According to a USA Today/Ipsos poll, most of the policies on offer enjoyed tremendous bipartisan support: increasing testing (nearly 90 percent), temporarily halting immigration (79 percent) and continuing the lockdown until the end of April (69 percent). A KFF poll shows that people who have lost their jobs are just as supportive of the lockdowns as people who haven’t.

~

The polarization industry is loath to admit this, but, once you set aside the Trump circus, we are now more united than at any time since 9/11.

The pandemic has reminded us of our interdependence and the need for a strong and effective government.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/opinion/coronavirus-unity.html

I’ve gotten some nice responses from Twitter to sonnets I’ve written. I guess it’s all in how you use a thing, not the thing itself.

I tread lightly on Twitter. Never know what you might step in.

When I was growing up I heard the term “all in a twitter” many times, and it was never meant as a compliment. Generally indicated a person or group was easily excitable, with an implication they were shallow and/or not very bright. Always had trouble with the idea of taking Twitter seriously, and the last 4 years have only reinforced that.

If you haven’t loaded Twitsville on your whatever phone, no need to remove it.

A truth that’s told with bad intentBeats all the Lies you can invent.It is right it should be so;Man was made for Joy and Woe;And when this we rightly knowThro’ the World we safely go.

A friend recently sent me this:

When you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don’t say to yourself, “It looks like the end of the world.” What you’re seeing is love in action. What you’re seeing in that negative space, is how much we do care for each other, for our grandparents, for the immuno-compromised brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet.

People will lose jobs over this. Some will lose their businesses. And some will lose their lives. All the more reason to take a moment, when you’re out on a walk, or on your way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into all the emptiness and marvel at all that love.

Let if fill and sustain you. It isn’t the end of the world. It is the most remarkable act of global solidarity that we may ever witness.

Paul Williams

Looking grim in my former residence of Georgia (though I don’t see Bulloch County’s statistics here, so maybe they’re doing better). 1,000 new cases in a day, and their death rate appears to be about 16% among known cases. If they wise up now, things might not get too much worse.

https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/breaking-georgia-verifies-new-covid-cases-hours/LqtzhH5mSQvSvkHIJsUxCI/

I’ve always liked that bit of poetry, and as a 70 yo hippie, I’m glad to say that I’ve been there several times..

It’s a nice few moments to have as conditions necessitate, but don’t try to stay.

But if you do go there or wherever your calm place is, just bring back a little bit of it. Dave D.

Tomorrow’s WSJ article:

The ratings come from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and were put together by economist Art Laffer, Steve Moore of the Heritage Foundation, market analyst Phil Kerpen and journalist John Fund. The results will be released Monday but we got an early look.

The authors examined the severity of the state lockdowns, the stay-at-home requirements, the date of reopening, the treatment of hospitals, schools, factories and stores, and the enforcement penalties. They also took into account the severity of the virus outbreak in each state, dividing states into categories of high, medium and low risk. This means that governors in high-risk states like New York aren’t graded worse merely for reopening later than, say, Utah or Wyoming.

The ratings give significant weight to when and how states are opening on the assumption that the longer they wait the longer their economic recessions will be. This makes sense because the longer the lockdowns the more physical and human capital is lost as businesses shut down and the connections between employer and employee are severed.

Seven governors get an A: Jared Polis of Colorado, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Mark Gordon of Wyoming. Four receive an F: Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, Ralph Northam of Virginia, and Tony Evers of Wisconsin.

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”-Oscar Wilde

And, after all that “analysis”, isn’t it odd how they went strictly along economic and apparently party lines in who they applauded and who they denigrated?