Archive for 2020
March 21, 2020
MICHAEL IRVIN FUMBLES BADLY: NFL Legend Michael Irvin Says Corona Should Stop Advertising Their Beer During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Irvin tweeted, then deleted:
Since I am not a beer drinker. Maybe it’s just me. But I believe that @corona beer SHOULD NOT be running their commercials at this time. Sorry I don’t want to hear how a Corona gets it’s lime while the Coronavirus is getting lives.
Found via Amy Alkon, who tweets in response, “Once again, we see the value of Pat Kingsley and other Hollywood publicists who kept celebs from opening their mouths in public.”
WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS HARDEST HIT: Trump’s approval rating soars during handling of Coronavirus.
RIP, GAMBLER: Kenny Rogers, country music icon, dies at 81.
THE END OF LUXURY BELIEFS:
STONEHENGE HAS NOTHING ON SCOTLAND’S CRANNOGS: Since we’ve all got more reading time during the coronavirus crisis, now is perhaps a good time to expand our range a bit and maybe even discover new interests. Here’s a start, courtesy of National Geographic:
You’ve heard of the mystery of Stonehenge in England. But archeologists recently discovered that Scotland’s crannogs are even older and more mysterious. I mean, why did those who lived there more than 3,000 years ago build islands of no obvious purpose in the middle of a Loch? Careful what you say by way of answering that question. I’m a McFarland on my mother’s side of the family.
BREACHER DELIVERY: Not to your doorstep, to a beach near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. A U.S. Marine Corps M1150 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) exits a U.S. Navy Landing Craft Utility. Good photo of the ABV. Here’s a photo from 2010 with an ABV sporting a plow attachment. This photo’s caption also explains what hides inside the “charge tubs.” This military technology update from 2009 explains why the Marines acquired the ABV. Finally, a photo of a U.S. Army ABV launching a mine clearing charge. When you need combat engineers, you need combat engineers. The problem is, there are never enough combat engineers when you need them.
WIFE’S PRAYER FOR HER HUSBAND TO STOP WATCHING SPORTS ALL THE TIME RESULTS IN GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
—From the Babylon Bee, America’s Newspaper of Record.
IN THE WORDS OF A HONG KONG PROTESTER, DON’T TRUST CHINA, CHINA IS ASSHOLE: China Is Avoiding Blame by Trolling the World. Beijing is successfully dodging culpability for its role in spreading the coronavirus.
Some American commentators and Democratic politicians are aghast at Donald Trump and Republicans for referring to the pandemic as the “Wuhan virus” and repeatedly pointing to China as the source of the pandemic. In naming the disease COVID-19, the World Health Organization specifically avoided mentioning Wuhan. Yet in de-emphasizing where the epidemic began (something China has been aggressively pushing for), we run the risk of obscuring Beijing’s role in letting the disease spread beyond its borders.
China has a history of mishandling outbreaks, including SARS in 2002 and 2003. But Chinese leaders’ negligence in December and January—for well over a month after the first outbreak in Wuhan—far surpasses those bungled responses. The end of last year was the time for authorities to act, and, as Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times has noted, “act decisively they did—not against the virus, but against whistle-blowers who were trying to call attention to the public health threat.”
We need to be moving manufacturing — and commercial intercourse generally — out of China as quickly as possible.
WITH HELP FROM STAFF, Biden to pretend to be president.
OUT ON A LIMB: America Is Still the Best Place to Be during COVID-19.
A CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE WAY TO LIMIT THE SPREAD OF COVID-19: I’m puzzled as to why we are shutting down large parts of the economy, while not doing simpler, much less expensive things. Why are we not on a crash course to produce hospital masks, and ask or require people to wear them when they go out to places where they may infect people? Basic masks don’t protect you much from the virus [though it will stop you from touching your mouth and nose, which is its own advantage], but if you are carrying the virus and don’t know it, it will prevent your cough or sneeze from spreading it to the person sitting/standing next to you. It’s one of the reasons, as I understand it, that infection rates in Asia, where mask-wearing is common, have plummeted. Below: South Korea.
FROM THE SAME INTEL CLOWNS WHO CLAIMED RUSSIA STOLE THE 2016 ELECTION: Today’s Washington Post front page features a sensational story claiming the intelligence community was warning President Trump and Congress way back in January that coronavirus was going to be a worldwide pandemic.
But closely reading the key graph shows it to be based on one anonymous source, plus the opinions of anonymous “others:”
“Intelligence agencies ‘have been warning on this since January,’ said a U.S. official who had access to intelligence reporting that was disseminated to members of Congress and their staffs as well as to officials in the Trump administration, and who, along with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive information.”
And. on the opinion page (or do I repeat myself?), what is this but “nine former intelligence chiefs” warning that:
“We cannot let the covid-19 pandemic be a cover for the deeply destructive path being pursued by the Trump administration. The most recent illustration of this unprecedented attack is the continuing dismissal of career intelligence professionals — officers who have ably served both Republican and Democratic administrations regardless of their personal political stripe.”
Translation: Trump is remaking the leadership of the intelligence community, displacing the entrenched bureaucrats – careerists and career political operators – who tried to sell us the Russia hoax, the Mueller probe and the quid pro quo. So in response, they are weaponizing the coronavirus.
WHEN INDUSTRIES LOSE SYMPATHY:
RIP, Kenny Rogers.