Prickly City by Scott Stantis for May 16, 2020

We left “normal” behind long, long ago.

Everything looks better in the rear view mirror.

You can understand why Republicans are desperate to change the topic.

Three million more Americans filed unemployment claims last week, bringing the unemployment numbers to 36.5 million, a stunning figure.

Republicans are stuck defending their opposition to more aid, the death toll inches toward 90,000, and President Trump’s handling of the pandemic is getting lousy ratings.

(CBS News reports: “President Trump’s handling of the outbreak continue to drop from March and are now the lowest he has received. Today, 43% say he’s doing a good job, 5 points lower than three weeks ago and 10 points lower than in March.”)

Rather than change their unpopular positions or govern competently, Trump and his flunkies are resorting to increasingly incoherent conspiracy theories.

(The latest bad news: North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr’s stock deals are reportedly under investigation by the FBI for insider trading.)

McConnell’s answer to the pandemic is to shield businesses from lawsuits. Not a crowd-pleaser. What does he do then? Accuse President Barack Obama of leaving the country with no game plan (more than three years ago).

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Trump cannot even articulate what his made-up conspiracy — which alleges the Obama administration tried to frame top Trump officials, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, during the Russian collusion investigation — is all about.

Explain to our audience what this means,” Bartiromo implored. Peter Strzok! Lisa Page! An “insurance policy” to take Trump out!

Huh?!

Cut to commercial.

Even for the mainstream media willing to give credence to just about any crackpot conspiracy the Trump administration throws out, there should be a floor: If Trump cannot even explain the conspiracy, the media should not cover it — other than to say Trump is becoming frantic about his reelection.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/14/conspiracy-cupboard-is-bare/

Ohhhhhhh… $%#@!!!

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Five sailors on the U.S. aircraft carrier sidelined in Guam due to a COVID-19 outbreak have tested positive for the virus for the second time and have been taken off the ship, according to the Navy.

The resurgence of the virus in the five sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt underscores the befuddling behavior of the highly contagious virus and raises questions about how troops that test positive can be reintegrated into the military, particularly on ships.

All five sailors had previously tested positive and had gone through at least two weeks of isolation. As part of the process, they all had to test negative twice in a row, with the tests separated by at least a day or two before they were allowed to go back to the ship.

https://apnews.com/0cae34376380ab4150002a58bd9934b9

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

D Thomas

There’s people all around me

But I feel so alone

I guess they’d like to help me

But I have to do it on my own

I know I don’t have much of a choice

I’ll go out of my mind

Or into the night

That’s kinda Zen… I’m in.

Man, A most extraordinary being. Created in God’s image. A fallen creature by his and her own free will and his and her choice to sin.

Yet despite our folly, in the microscopic percentage of time we have been present in the billions of years of the existence of the Universe, we have come so far. In that small slice of time we have left our planet, split the atom, created amazing art and culture. The negative history also sticks out. But our better angels can prevail and I look forward to the next few seconds of time in the scope of the universe and the billions of years to follow.

Thanks be to God for the redemption and salvation provided by His Son so we can move forward in confidence.

Normal is just the ‘mean’ of abnormal.

Respectfully ask out leftist friends to look into a criminal case – nothing current – where a non-violent offender was sentenced to two life terms in prison plus 40 years. freeross.org. Did not sell or buy drugs, was not trafficking in pornography, was not arranging any criminal activity, and actively endeavored to block all of those. He wrote a website that allowed individuals to buy and sell and accept bitcoin. The website solicits signature on their petition.

I am really curious what Trump Disciples believe ought to be done.

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Trump decreed that dealing with the virus was the responsibility of the governors — and also stated that governors were responsible for not having seen the pandemic coming and stocked up with PPEs, staff, ventilators, hospital beds, etc.

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Then, the governors, at least some of them, tried to slow the spread of the virus by issuing shelter in place orders.

Trump IMMEDIATELY sabotaged those governors: LIBERATE MICHIGAN, etc. The cure is worse than the disease!

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So what do the Trump Disciples think should be done?

“You had to hand it to human beings. They had one of the strangest powers in the universe. Even her grandfather had remarked upon it. No other species anywhere in the world had invented boredom. Perhaps it was boredom, not intelligence, that had propelled them the up the evolutionary ladder.”

Terry Pratchett — Thief of Time

An interesting essay in WSJ today, the medical argument against lockdown. May be behind a pay wall.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lockdown-skeptic-they-couldnt-silence-11589566245

Slight quibble on the ‘toon. ’Normal’ and ‘ordinary’ are not equivalent. So instead of ‘extraordinary’, everything in our life is abnormal. :p