Hoping For The Smart Restart!

The AFP lays out Trump's election strategy. In his Trumpian way I think he has managed to find a winning message that he will present in a divisive way. (I wish I could remember which pundit pointed out weeks ago that no one should underestimate Trump's sense of the national mood. Probably quite a few, actually.)

The gist - Trump is going to run in favor of getting America back to work. Make the Economy Great Again! Which makes the Democrats what - the party of "Stay Locked Up and Out of Work"? Some of them are stupid enough to argue for just that, but the larger problem is the rural/urban divide behind this disease. Big city Democrats are living a different life than rural Republicans, with suburbanites caught in-between.

We've seen the rural/urban divide play out across the nation and even within states - Michigan grabs headlines but upstate NY and rural California just don't have the same coronavirus experience as their big city counterparts. One size does NOT fit all.

My issue with Trump is that this does not meed to be presented in a confrontational way. "Liberate Michigan"? Come on - it's been obvious since last fall that the lockdown in Michigan has an upstate/downstate divide ("Last fall"?!? OK, that's quarantine-weeks, which are like dog-years.) Michigan's governor is not the enemy here; she has legitimate concerns about the people in the Detroit Metro area. That happens to be where her voters are so the politics can get nasty, but they don't have to get nasty.

Although Trump was not a fan, George Bush had a good statement on this topic. National character, national unity. I do love his phrase "in this time of testing." That prompts me to revive my Smart Restart post from the summer of 2015. Or mid-April. Whenever.

 

Comments

[James D.]

My issue with Trump is that this does not meed to be presented in a confrontational way.

Really?

Maybe if the pro-closing folks stopped saying things like “how many people are you willing to murder for your frozen yogurt?” then those who want to open things up could be less confrontational in return.

Or if the governors and mayors could measure their language and behavior and stop acting like tyrants and acknowledge that the other side just might have an argument.

When that happens, then come back and tell us about President Trump being confrontational, OK?

[James D.]

Also:

In his Trumpian way I think he has managed to find a winning message that he will present in a divisive way

From the day he declared his candidacy, the Democrats, the MSM, the prog sheep on social media and the never Trump folks have been screaming that he is a racist, sexist, homophobic fascist Nazi rapist warmongering illiterate lunatic moron, and so are all his supporters. But somehow it’s always Trump who’s being “divisive.”

[sbwaters]

he will present in a divisive way

Democrats so often seem to project on others what they, themselves do.

[Threadkiller]

They need to open up the restaurants and groceries, because this disruption has screwed up the supply chain, besides harming the business owners.

I have posted several times how Newsome has used the “crisis” to enact programs(not legislation) that insert the government and so-called philanthropists between the food producers and the supply chain.

He and his czars pat themselves on their backs while telling a non inquisitive media “we have been working on this for a long time.”

I suggest you dig deeper into the shenanigans of your individual bureaucracies and study the new normal pen and phone “programs” in your state that “help those in need.”

*****************

Jim, would you repost the details of the California podcast rebel?

I will check in much later, today. Thanks!

***********

A quick search of the heavy handed NM governor reveals that just over a year ago she pulled National Guard troops from the US Boder because it was only fomenting a charade put on us by Trump and the Feds.

Now she goes Close Encounters of The Third Kind on Gallup?

Posted by: Threadkiller | May 03, 2020 at 11:10 AM

[sbwaters]

Michigan's governor is not the enemy here; she has legitimate concerns about the people in the Detroit Metro area.

... but she can't seem to distinguish between the two. It was advised early on to address needs for restriction on a county by county basis.

Also, we have learned enough about the bug since January that we:
1) Can isolate the at risk.
2) Can mitigate symptoms of those infected without overwhelming health facilities.

[MissMarple2]

Why can't Michigan's governor do what Indiana's governor did, and open up all but a few densely-populated areas?

Plus I can guaran-damn-tee you, as my dad used to say, that if you own a lake resort, independent restaurant, or other business dependent on tourism, you might be thinking the governor IS the enemy.

And has she rescinded the "no vegetable seeds for sale" order? What are the parents of newborns to do about car seats?

[clarice]

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/05/how-treatable-is-covid-19.php
https://www.dailywire.com/news/two-cdc-websites-give-vastly-different-coronavirus-death-tolls

TM, I don't think it was DJT who politicized the virus. And I don't think that those who did and continue to do so will stop so hands across the water seems an exercise in futility.

[lyle]

Michigan's governor is not the enemy here

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

You’re actually trying to defend this woman?

[Manuel Transmission]

How close are we to having a cop shot for restraining a citizen from doing their god given free activity and does that cascade to CW 2.0, or collapse the whole unlawful edict nonsense?

[Captain Hate]

When did Patterico take over the blog?

[lyle]

I don't think it was DJT who politicized the virus.

No, he didn’t. But if you try to defend him, you’re labeled a “cult member” by all the same jackasses who have politicized this from the get go. It’s infuriating.

[Manuel Transmission]

In spite of our commie guv having just declared that we stay in lockdown until the end of the month and probably looking to out do the commie guv of OR who have declared a lockdown until July 6th, we had our first gathering of eight last night And are planning a beach party the end of the week.

Femall

[KevlarKid]

CH +1 🧨🧨🐧🧨🧨

[Old Lurker]

"Michigan's governor is not the enemy here"

If so, we have lost what we used to fight and die to protect, and without the hand wringing and debate ad naseum.

[Manuel Transmission]

A friend sent me this link from a decade ago that predicted where we would be just now.

https://www.businessinsider.com/stratfor-predictions-for-the-next-decade-2010-1#china-doomed-1

Not bad on a few things. Most notable is expecting China’s collapse.

[Old Lurker]

Divisive?

The Divide is as clear as the Grand Canyon by now, seems to me.

Pick a damn side already, and own it.

[MissMarple2]

This is instructive, and Shannon Bream has certainly heard from quite a few people.

https://twitter.com/tracybeanz/status/1256939439508598784

First Shannon tweeted this:

Shannon Bream
@ShannonBream
·
16h
Gotta say a ton of people out and about today. Mix of masks and no masks. People eating and drinking in unapproved patio areas outside restaurants and shops. What about where you live?

THAT set off Tracy Beanz, who answered:
Tracy Beanz
@tracybeanz

“Eating at unapproved patio areas”. Do you hear yourself???
=====================
There follows on the link I provided at least 30-40 replies of people who are FED UP, giving Shannon a piece of their mind.

By the way, I think Tracy lives in Michigan.

[sbwaters]

Thnx, jimmyk. It would appear Cuomo's executive order has expired:

202.11: the following directives for the period from the date of this Executive Order through April 26, 2020:

The directive contained in Executive Order 202.10 related to restrictions on dispensing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for prophylactic purposes is amended as follows: No pharmacist shall dispense hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine except when written: as prescribed for an FDA-approved indication; for an indication supported by one or more citations included or approved for inclusion in the compendia specified in 42 U.S.C. 1396r–8(g)(1)(B)(i); for patients in inpatient settings and acute settings; for residents in a subacute part of a skilled nursing facility; or as part of an study approved by an Institutional Review Board. Any person authorized to prescribe such medications shall denote on the prescription the condition for which the prescription has been issued.

[lyle]

she has legitimate concerns about the people in the Detroit Metro area.

So “legitimate” were her “concerns” that she banned buying vegetable seeds.

And child car safely seats.

But the abortion mills and lotto sales spots stayed open.

Sure.

[matt - deplore me if you must]

So how would the French news agency know Trump's strategy anyway? Was this inside information from Pierre Delecto?

While Trump may well have such a strategy, How would the media know? The leaks seem largely to have been plugged but we still get wild speculation from the major media outlets. Paging Kim Jong Un, anyone?

[Jane]

Heard a guy last night MT who made a very good argument that this is the death of China. Not necessarily the pandemic, which will speed it up but lots of things. He started with the 30 year old rule that you can only have 1 child. That few children cannot sustain the society. It was fascinating.

[JimNorCal]

General agreement in the Intelligence Community that coronavirus came from Wuhan laboratory:

https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/02/intelligence-community-coronavirus-leaked-wuhan-laboratory/

Commenter: "given the Intel Community ‘consensus’ track record it didn’t come from Wuhan after all then"

[JimNorCal]

Army Times appoints 28-year old feminist leftist who hates Trump as editor-in-chief:

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/16/army-times-editor-trump-hate/

commenter: Or, you could just give the soldiers subscriptions to the NY Times and do away with the Army Times

[Old Lurker]

Jim, let me know when all 27 intel agencies agree...

[GUS]

Everyone knows there's an UPSTATE DOWNSTATE DIVIDE in Michigan.

THEO MAGUIRE, care to explain WHY??

[GUS]

Yeah, it's TRUMPS FAULT, if he had just gone along with the COUP, and DISENFRANCHISED 63 MILLION VOTERS,OBAMA and COMEY would have obeyed the law.

RIGHT???

[GUS]

Yes, Lyle, and HALF WHITMER proclaimed that driving to your summer lake home in the UP was verboten.
You might something or something, and next thing you know FREEDOM BREAKS OUT.

[JimNorCal]

Sure, TK and thanks for asking. Repost from prev thread. Typepad seems to react badly to "dot fm" URLs, so you'll have to sound it out.

For anyone in CA and IF you have time, I have a favor to ask.

There’s this guy trying to launch a podcast called California Underground.
He’s been doing it about a year but is lately coming out regularly with an episode a week.

The request is to listen to one episode and then send him feedback on what you like and don't like.

I’ve never met the guy, Phil. He’s based in San Diego.
My motivation is that I’d like there to be more ways for us to communicate what’s going on. Phil seems grateful to get feedback and willing to make changes in his format and what issues he focuses on.

podcast name is CaliforniaUnderground

email is CaliforniaUnderground at protonmail.com
I’m subscribed on my phone, but you can listen on a PC at
anchor dot eff em slash CaliforniaUnderground

(Can you tell I'm working around TypePad link censorship?)

Thanks for reading.

[Jane]

MT,

Here is a link to the interview. I recommend it: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/china-expert-peter-zeihan-says-chinas-collapse-world-stage-coming-within-three-years-provide-support/

[Tom Bowler]

Michigan's governor is not the enemy here; she has legitimate concerns about the people in the Detroit Metro area.

Begging to differ, TM. When you have a House committee chair publicly lying about evidence of collusion and then refusing to release unclassified transcripts; when you have the DOJ selectively prosecuting Republicans while letting Democrats off; when you have the CIA and the FBI spying on a Republican presidential campaign; when our government has been so thoroughly corrupted, all for the purpose of electing Democrats, then yes, Michigan's governor is the enemy until she proves otherwise.

[Buford Gooch]

I used to enjoy TM's posts. Now I only come here for the conversation in the comments.

[MissMarple2]

Daughter and I are going to look at flowering crab trees at Home Depot in a little bit. She wants to dress up the patio and I am glad to see her getting interested in making the outdoor spots look better.

[Narciso]

Karnak did less mind reading than the agence press

[lyle]

Michigan's governor is the enemy until she proves otherwise.

She’s past the “until” part.

[Narciso]

I came fron the beacn, ive always seen our host as a socratic fellow.

[GUS]

I remember pointing out what a SQUISH MAGUIRE is a couple of years ago. I was told to stop ATTACKING our GRACIOUS HOST. Pffffffffffffft.

Hey Theo Maguire, did you see the creepy Michigan Governor call "armed protestors" the worst kind of RACISTS???? What about her "ARMED GESTAPO"?

You've jumped the shark.

[Art in Newport]

News from the far West

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-02/newport-beach-joins-fight-against-newsom-orange-county-beach-closure-order

It may be that we out here facing Newsom are just "a bunch of clowns who want to skate and surf" as a commentator recently said. (TK: so, you've met my family?)

Nevertheless, as far as we're concerned, the beach is ours. The ocean is ours.

This is not over.

[Jane]

I love our host. I’m free to disagree with him on his site if I want. He is a very generous and gracious man, and like everyone entitled to his own opinion!

[Narciso]

How are you doing jane

There were clusters of people some fishing with an array of polls.

[Manuel Transmission]

Jane, we watched that last night as well. Adds to a piece I’m working on that I may send to Clarice.

[Narciso]

Crime think will be punished

https://mobile.twitter.com/kerpen/status/1256669706859225088

[Narciso]

Ok then
https://mobile.twitter.com/wheelertweets/status/1256765889015398401

[GUS]

My mother in law passed away. My wife can't even have a CATHOLIC FUNERAL MASS with family and friends, FOR HER MOTHER....

This is where the rubber meets the road. Like many many things in the last decade plus, we've seen the GOVERNMENT take LIBERTIES with our LIBERTIES.

Yes, this pasty faced dimwit full family of GOVERNMENT TAX PAYER funded lifer LAWYERS...IS the ENEMY. She has disrespected the CITIZENS and CONSTITUTION she swore to uphold. Those who disagree with her are called RACISTS.

[Narciso]

Well then:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.france24.com/en/20200503-covid-19-in-cameroon-a-chloroquine-therapy-hailed-by-french-expert-becomes-state-protocol

[Captain Hate]

Again - *what* are we doing, with "phases"?
========================
^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^
They want to keep their hand on the scale. Today, you can't have an open restaurant. Tomorrow, you can have it 1/4 full. next week, half. I think they want to dampen the unbridled enthusiasm of opening up, and remind everyone they can shut it right back down if economic numbers look too rosy.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at May 03, 2020 12:50 PM (7Fj9P)

[Jack Lillywhite]

Just back from “Pinch A Penny” our local Pool supply company for some new vacuum hose lengths and the Poolbot repaired. Here in Florida, next to Publix, CVS, ABC liquor, pool companies are also essential bizness.

The place was packed but with 6 foot spacing marked off.

The ABC and Publix parking lots were packed and have a feeling AA is going to be packed once this goofy lockdown is over. Well them and bankruptcy court.

Hang in there.

[Art in Newport]

Matt,

Was going to ask yesterday but got distracted, you mentioned your walk in Laguna where you got "sandwiches at C'est si Bon". That must be a new place since my time; whereabouts would I find it? On the highway? thanks!

[Tom Bowler]

Lyle @ 12:24

If she switched parties she might be eligible for redemption, but even then I'd suspect her of using it to attack from a different quarter.

[JM Hanes]

TM's inner Karen is showing.

[jimmyk]

“When did Patterico take over the blog?”

TM seems content to let us Neanderthals comment freely, so that’s the difference. He seems to use Twitter to do battle rather than go back and forth with us. I just hope he doesn’t abandon the blog for Twitter the way Burge did.

[GUS]

Twitter, that dude isn't a fascist????

[Threadkiller]

It may be that we out here facing Newsom are just "a bunch of clowns who want to skate and surf" as a commentator recently said. (TK: so, you've met my family?)

:-)

Yeah, that was a broad brush comment of mine. I do believe that the skate/surf demographic if far and away made up of liberal or don’t-give-a-shit people. When they get pissed Newsome will listen, so it is probably a good arena to infiltrate to speed the revolution along.

Unfortunately, once he placates the majority of the Billabongers, the headline making will disappear.

[Threadkiller]

Hello JMH!

Thanks, Jim!

[Narciso]

Like shooting womprats

https://mobile.twitter.com/andrew_amarone/status/1256967408088203267

[Old Lurker]

"and remind everyone they can shut it right back down"

And this right here (since such power newly vested in the government can but only come out of the freedom and liberties of the people) is the permanent damage done to the American Dream if this is allowed to stand as settled division of powers & liberties. If that is the way it is to be, then we truly are just another any old country amongst the many. Nothing more; nothing less.

These last two months are truly that significant.

[JM Hanes]

Hey TK! :-) Took a little CV break here.

[Extraneus]

test

[Narciso]

Now you tell us

https://mobile.twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/1256968723170242563

[Extraneus]

Interesting. Typepad wouldn't let me comment while my VPN was active.

[Old Lurker]

JMH!

[Narciso]

Hey jm.

[Extraneus]

Anyway, I'm thinking we could see a real political realignment in November, with tyrannized working-class Dems voting for Republicans who obviously want to LIBERATE them.

[Extraneus]

Whitmer on Biden Allegations: Not Every Claim of Sexual Assault Is Equal

“As a survivor, and as a feminist, I’ll say this. We need to give people an opportunity to tell their story. Then we have a duty to vet it. And just because you’re a survivor doesn’t mean that every claim is equal. It means we give them the ability to make their case and the other side as well. And then to make a judgment that is informed. I have read a lot about this current allegation. I know Joe Biden, and I’ve watched his defense. There’s not a pattern that goes into this. And I think for these reasons, I’m very comfortable that Joe Biden is who he says he is. And you know what, that’s all I’m going to say about it. I really resent the fact that every time a case comes up, all of us survivor have to weigh in. It is reopening wounds, and it is— you know, take us at our word, ask us for our opinion, and let’s move on.”

Anyone know what she supposedly survived? A brutal gang rape? A potentially suggestive comment?

[clarice]

HI, JMH AND JANE! Gus sorry to hear about your M-i-l. Defy Evers. meet outside the church to pray for her.

I don't know if this has been posted.
CDC website now shows only 37k deaths from CV-19 - revised down.
Total Deaths:
Covid-19 deaths: 37,308
Deaths from all causes: 719,438
Pneumonia deaths: 64,382
Deaths with Pneumonia & Covid-19: 16,564
Influenza Deaths: 5,846
Deaths with Pneumonia, Influenza or Covid-19: 90,165

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR0gBeSq5L6roBDOrtEjcmoNEzSrowYaf5QtYFdaUROUr9YNs0N1wZtjte8

[Art in Newport]

Time will tell TK. Just wanted to make note that we who grew up out here on the beach, we take our water sports very seriously.

[anonamom]

When trials are all done and they show the circumstances where HCQ is effective, they will be old news, not worthy of coverage.

Right. If you want to get better, take zinc w your HCQ.
It's working. But feel free to wait on the trial results.
Esp if you vote D.
No question it's safest to do that.

I mean, do you really want to risk taking zinc???

[JM Hanes]

Hi Guys!

Seems like TM's post is having something of a unifying effect, no?

[henry]

Perhaps the Dem Governors should pay attention to Fauci and reopen by county. Oops, can’t lock down your own voters in the urbs and let the uninfected flyover deplorables go on with their lives! Science stops at the state border.

[Momto2]

Michigan's governor is not the enemy here;

Curious to hear how she would govern differently if she were "the enemy?"

Also - comparing his disparate reactions to Obama and Trump has burned all bridges to GWB in my opinion.

[GUS]

Oooooooh pooor poooooor Shitmer. She's a victim.

She should show us the criminal report she filed.

This woman is scum. I think people should wear a pink pussy mask around her, so she doesn't infect us.

[JM Hanes]

Whitmer is the walking talking reductio ad absurbum case for lockdown.

"We've seen the rural/urban divide play out across the nation and even within states..."

It plays out in the worst possible way here. Apparently it's not fair for cities to suffer the slings of COVID-19 while everybody else just goes on living normal lives. We're a one size fits all culture now! All hail the collective.

If Momma Whitmer ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. The worst was when she suggested extending the stay at home order, for everybody, as a punishment for protests. That's the way an occupation force operates.

[GUS]

I see nothing except LIBTARD FULL COMMIES SPEWS OUTLETS accepting SHITMER'S word for some sexual assault. Typical crap.

I will believe she was assaulted, when she presents some PROOF that such an assault happened.

She's not a victim because she says so.

[GUS]

JMH, obviously, you are the worst kind of RACIST, and you HATE, pretend RAPE VICTIMS.

[rich]

>>>I don't think it was DJT who politicized the virus.

No, he didn’t. But if you try to defend him, you’re labeled a “cult member” by all the same jackasses who have politicized this from the get go. It’s infuriating.

Posted by: lyle | May 03, 2020 at 11:35 AM<<<

why i've been taking a break and going to take another. the media and experts are rewriting history right before our very eyes. it was the chinese and who and the big city public health bureaucracies who were minimizing the dangers and anyone making sensible decisions was racist and anti-science. and sure enough whenever it was decided to use this crisis to burn down the united states it all changed on a dime and me being outside was somehow dangerous, deadly even, to every karen in the neighborhood. we are in this position because of expert incompetence, the inner fascist of everyone in government, and the inner fascist of all our neighbors.

enjoy your lockdown tm, you deserve it.

[rich]

good to see you back JM Hanes.

[henry]

HQC, Zpac, Zinc. This guy uses it at a nursing home. 0 dead.

https://twitter.com/docevenhouse/status/1256765070245269505?s=21

[jimmyk]

“Seems like TM's post is having something of a unifying effect, no?”

Hi JMH! So TM is goin 4D on us?

[anonamom]

TM so doesn't get it does he?
DTW has a problem--give DTW a solution. Utterly RIDICULOUS to have the UP and the northern 1/3 of the mitt under any restrictions.

We are NOT talking a mortality of 8-12%, like we saw in Italy in early March--we are seeing a mortality of 0.025%.
Time to quit being science deniers, and get with reality.

Some people are still going to die, but it is INSANE to take down the country to stop the virus--which will NOT happen. Virus go viral!

[James D.]

Michigan’s governor (and Newsom in CA and Pritzker in IL and DeBlasio and Cuomo in NY, and too many others to list - both Dem and GOP) ARE the enemy, because they are treating their citizens with dismissive contempt, and they have forgotten (or never knew or cared) that the power they hold is temporary, on loan to them from the very citizens they are mocking and insulting and denouncing for daring to question them.

I have not heard a single one say to small business owners that they are sorry, that they understand the enormous costs being imposed on them, that they will make things right for them. Because they can’t be bothered to even pretend to care about people whose livelihoods are being wiped out. If they did care, the lockdowns would have been better thought out, and every effort made up front to cushion the blow on businesses and citizens who are losing their income or jobs or life savings.

They don’t care. They’ve shown that in word and in deed. Of course they’re the enemy.

[Porchlight]

Catching up (as if that's possible).

On the last thread, I was asking if you get a text or a phone call on your cell if it's traced - I meant that in the context of contact tracing. Presumably if you're a contact of a person who tested positive, someone gets in touch with you and I just wondered how, because if I got a call from an unknown number I wouldn't be likely to answer.

lyle, yes, I did see that about UT being investigated. Good. It's about time. We have a ridiculous percentage of Chinese students and I'm sure we're doing China all kinds of favors. It's time for this crap to stop. I hope they take a hit.

Not coincidentally, UT's president, Fenves, is heading for greener pastures (Emory). He just announced it. He and his wife and kid were the first three Wuping cases in Austin. They got it in NYC at a conference.

I forgot all about the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I knew it had been postponed, but I would normally celebrate anyway. Something in the back of my mind was telling me to pick some mint to take to our friends' house, but it didn't tell me why. However, we ended up drinking plenty of Kentucky bourbon anyway.

[Barbara]

Given the new CDC stats, this sure ain't 1918 revisited.

And hydroxychloroquine and zinc in combination do work! They didn't plan on President Trump catching on to this therapy. Some people were looking for a big financial payout on this, and I think one of them was Fauci.

[Jack Lillywhite]

amom,

I can attest from living 4 years in the UP (actually 6 when you add my service time) that more people there die from too much Brandy than CoVid19.

[Extraneus]

Interesting Epoch Times interview of Lee Smith here. It's about an hour, but Smith makes a novel point around 45 minutes in about the supposed revelation that Christopher Steele's sub-source might have been compromised by Russian disinformation. Instead, Smith believes the whole disinfo angle is part of a fallback legal strategy promoted in case any of the coup plotters end up having to defend themselves in court.

Smith anticipates that lawyers will argue that their honest and super-patriotic G-men clients were faithfully pursuing the Russia hoax not as a corrupt political operation but because they were fooled by Russian disinformation. Smith says that's b.s. and that there was no Russian disinformation in the dossier, only Clinton and Fusion GPS disinformation, and that the whole disinfo angle is just battle-prep for a Hail Mary legal strategy.

[jimmyk]

Some people were looking for a big financial payout on this, and I think one of them was Fauci.

That may be part of it, but I think it's largely driven by Orange Man Bad. The NYT seems to have an automated system where any story mentioning HCQ (1) can only cite negative results; and (2) inserts "A drug promoted by President Trump without any evidence." Cuomo's trials, as I posted earlier, seemed to be set up to fail by only giving HCQ to critical patients, and it's not even clear whether zinc was part of the regimen.

[Porchlight]

I knew the NY trials would get screwed up on purpose. It was too good to be true when Cuomo seemed eager to sign on.

They really are evil enough to withhold effective treatment in order to get Orange Man.

[JM Hanes]

TM:

Actually, I'm not at all sure where you end up here. After acknowledging that one size does not, in reality, fit all, you give Whitmer a pass for her draconian one-size-fits-all directives, because her core voters live in Detroit? If she's not the enemy, she is certainly the enemy's useful idiot, which amounts to the same thing. How the above came to be couched in disappointment that Trump is likely to run a confrontational campaign eludes me.

Even folks who have disliked Trump from the start have been expressing astonishment at the confrontational politics of the media, after tuning in to a couple of White House pressers. But gee, everything would change for the better if Trump would just play nice, and the rest of us were to cut our new overlords a break? Or is it simply that it's difficult to publicly defend a guy who is just so embarrassing? I know I had trouble with that at the beginning, but now, I just plunge right in, and figure I don't have to prove I'm not an idiot to anybody either.

[Captain Hate]

I'm in no position to know like people in the field how effective HCQ is but when jackasses who are dumber than bricks start badmouthing it in unison, I know when I'm being conned. And I know how to react to a Governor who doesn't see that.

[Jane]

Saying there is no "pattern" in Joe Biden's behavior might be the joke of the century.

[Porchlight]

Hi Jane, how are you? How is Kiwi?

[rse]

From the pandemic to the climate, many of the expert class’s marquee predictions have been exaggerated or even plain wrong. (In the 1970s, hysteria among educated elites was mostly directed toward dire predictions that our natural resources, including energy and food, were about to run out, leading to imminent mass starvation.) Like the Medieval clergy, the clerisy, especially in the dominant media and academia, rarely takes itself to task. Instead, it makes deference to “the science” into a form of quasi-religious zealotry. For some, the pandemic is being hailed as “test run” for the true green agenda of less material progress and, ultimately, “de-growth.”

The parallels with the Middle Ages are profound. The lockdowns and economic depression associated with the pandemic will help, as Psychology Today suggests, cure “the human beast,” a phraseology not too distinct from early Christian assessments of humanity’s capacity for sin. This “eco-medievalist” view sees the pandemic as the latest punishment meted out by an increasingly angry and wounded Mother Nature. Conservatives, some of whom predict the pandemic will undermine support for climate extremism, fail to understand the mass appeal of a media-powered movement largely couched in quasi-religious terms.

https://americanmind.org/essays/the-pandemic-road-to-serfdom/

[peter]

I'm with Jane @ 12:32 (and I hope you are doing well, by the way.) Our blog host is a an extremely nice man, and he provides a place for all of us. He obviously finds Trump's style to be off-putting. I get that. My wife felt the same way in 2016. We should try to persuade TM him with arguments and facts.

[JimNorCal]

"I used to enjoy TM's posts"

I still do. I'm like GUS, in that I perceive that TM is coming down on the other side of the fence.
That's sad, of course, but since so many have met TM and liked him ... since I've read insightful and clever commentary by him ... I'm really taking this as an opportunity to ponder how smart people could possibly NOT see that support of Trump is a desperate imperative.

VDH makes the point that for someone closer to the edge, someone who doesn't have the money for needed dental work and stuff, these Dem political maneuvers are more than distasteful The enormous gov't waste and corruption dries up ALL the money and economic vibrancy that could make these "edge people's" lives viable.

They came for the Edge People and I said nothing because I was prosperous ...

Be that as it may, the time may come when ... hmmm, let me put my survey question in another comment.

[peter]

Perhaps by pointing out how ineffective George W. Bush was when he was President, and how he seems to have suffered a case of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to the evil Mainstream Media-Democrat party complex. Or by pointing out that Trump saved us from such losers as Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.

[rse]

Just finished that essay I linked to and in the end it acknowledges this is all leading to a demand for UBI. He describes the function without using that acronym.

Add to this toxic stew the fact that some jurisdictions, citing infection fears, have released dangerous criminals onto the streets. Crime has predictably spiked from New York to San Francisco. Even before the pandemic set in, the big American cities—unable to curb large homeless populations spreading filth and Medieval disease—took on the hazardous cast of ancient Rome, Victorian London, New York’s Five Points, or the favelas and ghettos of Third-World cities like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, or Manila. The rising number of people unable to pay rent—now one in three—could provide fodder for a new round of urban disorder.

Ultimately such disorder threatens the power of both the oligarchs and the clerisy. Their likely response may be embracing what I call “oligarchal socialism,” where the very notion of work disappears in favor of a regime of cash allotments. This notion of providing what Marx called “proletarian alms,” widely supported in Silicon Valley, could prove a lasting legacy of the pandemic. This is how Rome, as slaves replaced the middle orders, kept its citizenry in line, and how the Medieval order in times of economic stress relied on the charitable efforts of the Church.

The virus that now dominates our daily lives may soon begin to slowly fade, but it will have a deep, protracted impact on our society and class structure. Covid-19 will likely leave us with conditions that more resemble feudalism than anyone could have imagined just a few years ago.

I honestly wish I hadn't been quite so prescient when I picked out the ISC metaphor so many years ago now.

[JimNorCal]

If for some reason this blog was made inhospitable for pro-Trump people and you had to leave, where would you go to communicate with like-minded people?

[matt - deplore me if you must]

I agree with Bush's statement, but not with the evil that hides behind the Left's nonstop hatred and divisiveness.

We seem to be getting to the point when indictments start being made and the charges are going to stick based upon the paper trails.

How can anyone who believes in justice countenance what the Democrats and their allies have done for the past 3 years? They started with a lie. Then they doubled down on the lie. Then, when a pet Special Prosecutor wasn't able to find evidence of a crime they fabricated new thought crimes and went all the way to the point of impeachment. Just as the virus was striking hardest.

The gun is still smoking and this morning they are after Trump for going to West Point. Attack. Retreat and go silent. Attack again.

It really doesn't matter what the perceived transgression is because they have to stoke the fires of hatred any way they can.

While former Hitler Bush's sentiments are noble, unfortunately he doesn't seem to understand or care about the corruption and base motives of his opponents.

[JimNorCal]

Nice to see JMH.

TK, I notice you've been spelling our Govs name as "Newsome" like in "Loathesome".
But I'm pretty sure it's Newsom. No "e" at the end.

[Narciso]

More like gruesome, jim sc.

[matt - deplore me if you must]

Hi Jane! How are you faring?

Art, C'est si Bon has been there for 30-40 years. It is next to the post office on Riverside at Coast Highway. Only decent French bread I have had in California. The owner is an asshole but he knows how to bake. And their sandwiches are wonderful. They had a place in CDM until @ 10 years ago, but the landlord raised the rent and someone else move in.

I still feel Trump's style is off-putting, but he has been good for the country.

[Porchlight]

Palm Beach boat parade in support of Trump:

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/hundreds-of-boats-gather-for-parade-supporting-trump-near-mar-a-lago/2228173/

Trump tweeted his thanks. Pretty cool. I miss South Florida.