NICE WORK, WHO: WHO Deletes Misleading Tweet That Spread Paranoia About COVID-19 Reinfection. “That’s technically true: There’s no evidence of immunity. But that’s because COVID-19 is new and the matter hasn’t been conclusively studied yet.”
Archive for 2020
April 26, 2020
VIRUS-RIDDEN PESTHOLE UPDATE: Passed-out passengers, trash, urine fill subway cars amid coronavirus crisis. “Maybe the mayor needs to check out these images.”
REMEDIES AND RESISTANCE: NYC tailor defies state order: ‘I’m opening my doors come hell or high water.’
POSSIBLY THE MOST OBSCURE STEELY DAN REFERENCE YET FEATURED ON THIS BLOG. (Warning, spoiler in the comments).
OPEN THREAD: We got heavy rollers, I think you should know.
NEW YORKER COLUMNIST HAS HIS SEVEN DAYS IN MAY MOMENT: New Yorker staffer and former Carter speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg: ‘Time for a military coup?’
Since at least 2017, the DNC-MSM have periodically gone full Seven Days in May. Glenn’s 2016 paper on military coups in the United States just keeps getting more timely!
THE CUOMO FAMILY MAGIC CORONAVIRUS CURE:
In the first of many plugs for naturopathic professionals and “friends,” Cristina [Cuomo] elatedly describes the arrival of what reads like a truck full of unpronounceable products delivered by one Dr. Roxanna Namavar, “who also does vitamin drips at home in the Hamptons,” dressed head-to-toe in coveted medical protective gear. This special delivery, Cristina recognizes, may not be in every reader’s budget so she suggests the next best thing: bathing in Clorox bleach.
“Here is a more affordable way of neutralizing heavy metals: Twice, I took a bath. I added ½ cup ONLY of Clorox to a full bath of warm water to combat the radiation and metals in my system and oxygenate it,” she suggests. “We want to neutralize heavy metals because they slow-up the electromagnetic frequency of our cells, which is our energy field, and we need a good flow of energy.” Yes, a good flow of energy. And lighter, brighter skin with every wash.
Related: ‘Please Think About Others:’ Chris Cuomo Pretends He Didn’t Break Quarantine Already.
LIKE ME COMING HOME FROM THE STORE JUST BEFORE THE QUARANTINE: Russian freighter arrives at space station with nearly 3 tons of supplies.
DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: “Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak began, no longer has any patients hospitalized with COVID-19, China’s state-run media organization Xinhua reported Sunday,” ABC News “reports” with a straight face.
Flashback: China’s Long Tentacles Extend Deep Into American Media.
BILL GATES CALLS QUESTION ABOUT WHETHER CHINA COVERED UP THE CORONAVIRUS A ‘DISTRACTION.’
Related: “Microsoft has had a presence in China for more than 20 years, entering the market in 1992. Our founder, Bill Gates, had the foresight to establish an office in Beijing, accurately predicting the country’s transition to the booming economy we see today.” (Bumped, by Glenn).
HOW THE NY TIMES SWUNG AT FOX NEWS — AND MISSED:
“He watched Fox, and believed it was under control,’’ his daughter told The Times, citing as an example a complaint from Sean Hannity that the Americans were being “unnecessarily’’ frightened. She added, “If Trump had gone on TV with a mask on and said, ‘Hey this is serious,’ I don’t think he would have gone.”
His daughter’s emotions are understandable, but the timeline is off. For one thing, Hannity made his observation the first week in March, after the Joyces’ cruise was at sea, so it had nothing to do with their decision to leave. Their ship left port in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, March 1; Joe and Jane had flown to Florida over the weekend – the last weekend in February. So, yes, if Trump had given a national address wearing a mask in late February, that would have been impressive leadership. It also would have been at odds with what the nation’s top infectious disease experts — not to mention leading Democrats in New York and elsewhere — were advising. It wasn’t even what the New York Times, or Ginia Bellafante were saying.
Here is a timeline for the week leading up to Joe Joyce’s ill-fated vacation:
Read the whole thing.
And to add to the timeline: Pelosi Now Says U.S. Should Have Stopped Americans Coming Back From China. “Pelosi had previously joined the chorus of Democrats criticizing the travel ban as racist.”
SCHRODINGER’S DICTATOR: Kim Jong Un Won’t Be Dead Until There’s A Succession In Place. I Wouldn’t Bet On What It Will Be.
LESSONS FROM the Amish health care system.
AT AMAZON: save in Arts Crafts and Sewing.
HMMMM: Panic-buying grips North Korea amid rumors of Kim Jong Un’s demise.
Residents in the North Korean capital have resorted to panic-buying amid reports that controversial leader Kim Jong Un is gravely ill or dead, according to a report.
Store shelves in Pyongyang were being cleaned out of everything from liquor to laundry detergent, canned fish to cigarettes in recent days — as conflicting reports continue to surface about the portly dictator’s possible demise, the Washington Post wrote Sunday.
I wonder what the sales trends are like in Pyongyang Department Store Number 1, which the good Dr. Theodore Dalrymple described thusly in 1991:
I also followed a few people around at random, as discreetly as I could. Some were occupied in ceaselessly going up and down the escalators; others wandered from counter to counter, spending a few minutes at each before moving on. They did not inspect the merchandise; they moved as listlessly as illiterates might, condemned to spend the day among the shelves of a library. I did not know whether to laugh or explode with anger or weep. But I knew I was seeing one of the most extraordinary sights of the twentieth century.
I decided to buy something – a fountain pen. I went to the counter where pens were displayed like the fan of a peacock’s tail. They were no more for sale than the Eiffel Tower. As I handed over my money, a crowd gathered round, for once showing signs of animation. I knew, of course, that I could not be refused: if I were, the game would be given away completely. And so the crowd watched goggle-eyed and disbelieving as this astonishing transaction took place: I gave the assistant a piece of paper and she gave me a pen.
The pen, as it transpired, was of the very worst quality. Its rubber for the ink was so thin that it would have perished immediately on contact with ink. The metal plunger was already rusted; the plastic casing was so brittle that the slightest pressure cracked it. And the box in which it came was of absorbent cardboard, through whose fibres the ink of the printing ran like capillaries on the cheeks of a drunk.
At just before four o’clock, on two occasions, I witnessed the payment of the shoppers. An enormous queue formed at the cosmetics and toiletries counter and there everyone, man and woman, received the same little palette of rouge, despite the great variety of goods on display. Many of them walked away somewhat bemused, examining the rouge uncomprehendingly. At another counter I saw a similar queue receiving a pair of socks, all brown like the plastic bowls. The socks, however, were for keeps. After payment, a new shift of Potemkin shoppers arrived.
If Orwell had come across the above passage, he would have said, “I can’t put this in 1984; no one would believe it!” If you’ve never read about Pyongyang Department Store Number 1, definitely read the whole thing.
2020’s REALITY IS TOO CRAZY FOR EVEN THE BABYLON BEE TO SATIRIZE: Oregon man part of radical left-wing antifascist group sues his grandmother over rent disagreement.
STACY MCCAIN: The Things That Pass For Knowledge.
DE BLASIO’S GONNA DE BLASIO: De Blasio appoints wife head of coronavirus racial inequality task force.
As Charles said earlier, New York is getting it good and hard.
In other de Blasio news: De Blasio threatened to close churches and synagogues permanently, but gives Muslims 500,000 meals for Ramadan.
UPDATE: Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy disagrees with the above take on de Blasio’s Ramadan meal program: “I read with interest about this program, but isn’t it part of a general program that distributes free meals, including normal meals for people who have no religious dietary preferences, kosher meals for those who prefer kosher, and halal meals for those who prefer halal? See https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/24/us/new-york-halal-meals-ramadan-trnd/index.html and https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/food/free-meals? Is there any indication that Muslim are being given more meals than Jews and Christians? The plan is to distribute 25 million free meals in April and May, apparently, so it’s not that odd that 2% of those would be halal, no? (Muslims make up an estimated 9% of New York’s population, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/nyregion/muslim-community-patrol-brooklyn.html, though presumably not all prefer halal.)”
DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: Atlantic Magazine: Hurrah for Pandemic Censorship!
Exit quote: “In the great debate of the past two decades about freedom versus control of the network, China was largely right and the United States was largely wrong. Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet, and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values.”
VAN JONES’S OCCASIONAL GLIMMERS OF REALISM MUST BE STAMPED OUT: Van Jones Slammed For Saying Black People Must Change ‘Lifestyle Choices’ Amid Coronavirus Pandemic.
I mean it’s not like white people have changed their lifestyles at all, amirite?
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES COVERING FOR THEIR BOSSES: Three Potential Biden Running Mates Appeared On Sunday Shows. None Were Asked About Sex Assault Allegations.
