IT SEEMS CLEAR THAT LOCKDOWNS DON’T STOP THE VIRUS, THEY MERELY DELAY ITS SPREAD: Japan Acted Like the Virus Had Gone. Now It’s Spread Everywhere. “Countries throughout the Asia-Pacific are experiencing second waves, many — like Hong Kong, Australia and Vietnam — after being standard bearers for virus containment the first time around. They’re providing a window into the future for places just emerging from their first outbreaks, or continuing to battle through them, like the U.S.”

Like every other pandemic in human history, it will spread until it burns out. I’m afraid that when China allowed international flights out of Wuhan to continue, the die was cast.

Related: Sweden, Which Never Had Lockdown, Sees COVID-19 Cases Plummet as Rest of Europe Suffers Spike.

Also, this observation:

MY LATEST FOR THE PJ MEDIA MOTHERSHIP: Joe Biden’s Veep Delay Underscores a Campaign and a Candidate in Chaos.

Presidential candidates usually announce their running mates very close to the start of the convention which this year doesn’t begin until August 17.

Why Biden chose to announce that he’d announce early and then announced that his early announcement would be delayed, is unknown.

This will-he/won’t-he routine is symptomatic of a campaign — and a candidate — that has no idea what it stands for.

Perhaps most telling is Biden’s Triple Lindy (it’s way more than a mere backflip) on his support for police.

The rest is just for our VIP supporters.

If you’ve been thinking of becoming a member, you can do so here — and don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.

AND NOW FOR THE BEE, AMERICA’S PAPER OF RECORD!  ‘Down With Fascism!’ Cries Protester Burning Bibles.

AND THE “EXPERTS” ARE OFTEN FRAUDS OR HACKS OR SIMPLY CLUELESS: The coronavirus has shown people that big government can’t solve all their problems.

When asked in the abstract, voters generally tell pollsters they want the government to do more to solve the problems in their lives. Yet new data show that the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent botched response at all levels of government may be starting to relieve people of their naive belief that more government “help” is a good idea.

According to a new Gallup poll, Congress’s already-low approval ratings have done a nosedive in the last few months. At 22% in March, when the coronavirus outbreak began, approval ratings had briefly ticked up after Congress passed a $2 trillion relief bill. But now, the legislative branch has fallen to just 18% approval.

That means nearly 4 in 5 people in the United States do not approve of our legislators’ performance amid this crisis, and it’s not a partisan phenomenon. The gap between Republicans and Democrats on this metric is only a few points.

In an interesting contrast, public trust in the private sector has risen markedly during the coronavirus crisis. A new Axios/Harris poll surveying voters on their views toward various industries found positive changes in every sector except media (how about that!) and airlines. From medicine to retail to technology, private enterprise’s rapid and innovative response to this unprecedented crisis has impressed people.

These are welcome trends in public opinion. After all, the COVID-19 disaster has been a story of government incompetence and mismanagement from the very beginning. The original coronavirus outbreak got out of hand because of the Chinese Communist Party’s malfeasance. By silencing journalists and “disappearing” doctors in an authoritarian effort to save face, the regime delayed global response to COVID-19 until it was too late to contain the virus.

Then, when the outbreak first reached U.S. shores, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention botched our response horribly. By foolishly monopolizing testing kit production and putting up red tape, the two government bureaucracies set our ability to contain the virus back irreparably. The crisis was also compounded by the failure of government officials from both parties to take it seriously initially. Even after the government woke up to the threat, the inconsistent and confused messaging on best prevention practices coming out of the CDC sabotaged our collective response.

Worst of all, elected officials such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York made the deadly decision to force nursing homes to accept patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 and so endanger their entire community. More than 6,400 New York nursing home residents have subsequently died from the coronavirus.

Yep. Read the whole thing for more failures.

ONLY BECAUSE IT’S SO COMPLETELY DIVORCED FROM REALITY:  Even though I should know better, I still experience a sense of disbelief about what’s going on.

AGAIN, BEHOLD HOW SHOCKED MY FACE IS:  America is engaged in a religious war.

IT’S HAPPENING ALL OVER:  Louisville, KY: Cuban Community Rallies In Support Of Cuban Restaurant After BLM Issues “List of Demands”.

THIS IS MY OH SO VERY SHOCKED FACE:  NY Times union calls for racial quotas in hiring and staffing, euphemistically called “equity”.

SHE IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! AFTER ALL BOTH WHITLESS AND NOISOME ARE REPU–  OH, WAIT:  Crush Working Americans: Marcotte Blames Republicans.

BE A LION:  Issac Stands For National Anthem While Others Take The Knee.

They can only win if they convince everyone that it’s inevitable.

OH, BEHOLD MY SHOCKED FACE:  Twitter Hearts Iran’s Khamenei, Trump Is A Villain.

FUNNY WAY TO SPELL PROPAGANDISTS:  DC Mayor Calls Lewis Funeral Essential for Lawmakers.

WHO HAD SOVIET CANNIBAL ANTS ON THEIR BINGO CARD FOR 2020?  One Million Cannibal Ants Trapped in Soviet Nuclear Bunker Have Escaped.

Of course, note this is Newsweek, not the Babylon Bee, so not nearly as reliable. And also that a million Ants isn’t that much of a mass…. Or a problem. I probably have those many in my garden right now.

OF COURSE. BUT YOU SEE, THAT WAS THE INTENT ALL ALONG:  Longer Lockdowns Associated with Much Worse Economic Outcomes.

And no, not just to unseat Trump, though that was likely part of it.  Follow the bouncing ball:

All the communist dictatorships in the world only came into power after a SIGNIFICANT disruption. Okay, often self-created. but more importantly, the soft despotism of socialism in Europe and most of the world came on the heels of the economic destruction and disruption of WWII.
Now the peasants have stopped thinking socialism and globalism are their salvation. From the incoherent explosions of France, to the elections in Britain, to the even larger explosions (which we let be tamped down) of Hong Kong, there’s a global revolt against the self-proclaimed aristocracy, the “intelligentsia” of socialism.
So?

Lockdown, incalculable destruction and world immiseration.  That will show the peasants! And bring them to heel quite quick.