SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT: Washington Post editor who wrote an entire book asserting Brett Kavanaugh was guilty isn’t so sure about Joe Biden.

TRUMP GIVES GOVERNORS THREE-PHASE PLAN TO REOPEN ECONOMY.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: We Have No Idea What Joe Biden Is Muttering About Here. Maybe You Can Help Us Out? “When most politicians speak, audiences have to suspend their disbelief. When it’s Biden speaking they have to suspend their incomprehension.”

FROM NITAY ARBEL:  Operation Flash, Episode 3: Spring Awakening.

The third installment of the alternate history series where Hitler and Himmler were assassinated in March 1943.
A desperate military situation forces Carl Goerdeler’s Emergency Reich Government (ERG) to make a bargain with the devil.
Across the Channel, Winston Churchill plays for time as he pursues a separate peace with Goerdeler.
Two old acquaintances make the first steps on a long march toward national atonement.
And meanwhile, the ERG’s deadliest enemy lurks within its gates.

TO BE FAIR, THEIR COMMUNISTS PLANNED IT THAT WAY:

JOEL KOTKIN: Who Will Prosper After the Plague? The tech sector and the managerial class will get richer, while the rest of us become their serfs.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to widen even further the growing class divides now found in virtually every major country. By disrupting smaller grassroots businesses while expanding the power of technologies used in the enforcement of government edicts, the virus could further empower both the tech oligarchs and the “expert” class leading the national response to the crisis.

In our increasingly feudal society, the small property owning yeomanry who operate the local businesses essential to Los Angeles shopping streets, and New York neighborhoods are already under threat and will be squeezed further by both the pandemic and its aftermath. But even more hard-pressed will be the growing, propertyless serf class that includes laid-off workers and the roughly 50 to 60 million workers in essential jobs, notes a new report from Richard Florida, and of those, 35 to 40 million require close physical proximity as opposed to those who can retreat to safety behind their computers. Roughly 70% of these workers are in low-wage professions, such as food preparation, and often, despite their increased risk, often lack health insurance from their employers.

Plagues, such as in the 14th century, may have wiped out as much as one third of Europe’s population, and devastated great Renaissance trading cities. In the Middle Ages, the wealthy sought safety in their country estates, much like the affluent now fleeing major European and American cities. Diets and survival rates varied enormously between the upper and lower classes. As one 14th-century observer noted, the plague “attacked especially the meaner sort and common people—seldom the magnates.”

But the wreckage also created new opportunities for those left standing. Abandoned tracts of land could be consolidated by rich nobles, or, in some cases, enterprising peasants, who took advantage of sudden opportunities to buy property or use chronic labor shortages to demand higher wages. “In an age where social conditions were considered fixed,” historian Barbara Tuchman has suggested, the new adjustments seemed “revolutionary.”

What might such “revolutionary” changes look like in our post-plague society? In the immediate future the monied classes in America will take a big hit, as their stock portfolios shrink, both acquisitions and new IPOs get sidetracked and the value of their properties drop. But vast opportunities for tremendous profit available to those with the financial wherewithal to absorb the initial shocks and capitalize on the disruption they cause. As in 2016, politicians in both parties have worked hard in the new stimulus to get breaks for their wealthy constituents, whether they are big retail chains, rich California taxpayers, or, in some cases, themselves.

Over time, the crisis is likely to further bolster the global oligarchal class.

I dunno, I think it’s also stirring a lot of resentment. Though one of my friends says that his employees don’t want to come back until June because they’re making more money on the enhanced unemployment than they would at work.

YOU MEAN, THE SCIENCE WASN’T SETTLED?  (AS IF SCIENCE EVER WERE):  Star spotted orbiting black hole backs up Einstein theory.

YES, THAT’S ABSOLUTELY WHAT WE NEED WHEN WE’RE ALL SUPPOSED TO BE TERRIFIED OF THIS FOREIGN VIRUS. YOU’RE RIGHT:  COVID-19: Democrats demand end to border wall construction and migrant detention, calling for illegals to walk free.

(Do I need to point out I’m being sarcastic?)

NO. AND THEY ALSO WON’T PROTECT YOU FROM ANY OTHER VIRUS, MANY OF WHICH ARE FAR MORE DANGEROUS: Will eyeglasses or contact lenses protect you from coronavirus?

If you’re that scared, I suggest you wear one of these:

LOOK, THIS IS WHY PLANNED ECONOMIES FAIL, AND IT ALL ENDS IN LACK OF TOILET PAPER, AND A HUNDRED THOUSAND SHOES, SIZE 2 FOR THE LEFT FOOT. EVEN WITH THE BEST INTENTIONS, NO ONE CAN KNOW WHAT THE POPULATION OF A CITY WANTS OR NEEDS, MUCH LESS THE POPULATION OF A STATE. THIS IS ALL INSANITY. AND IT’S HEADED TO VENEZUELA BY FALL UNLESS THE LOCKDOWN ENDS YESTERDAY:  The surprising businesses countries do and don’t deem essential.

WHAT TO WEAR WHEN YOUR GOVERNOR IS AN AUTHORITARIAN D*CKHEAD:  Mom selling penis face masks has raised $56K for charity.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN SOME COUNTRIES:  COVID19 update, April 16, 2020: Germany’s exit roadmap; brief Belgium update; UPDATE: Switzerland’s time table.

SO HE’S TOO DUMB TO READ THE CONSTITUTION HE SWORE AN OATH TO PROTECT. WELL DONE, NEW JERSEY, ELECTING THIS MORON. AS GRANDMA WOULD SAY “YOU MUST BE SO PROUD. GO AHEAD AND WIPE YOUR HANDS ON THE WALL”:  New Jersey Governor: Bill Of Rights Above Pay Grade.

ANYONE USING THE PHRASE “NEW NORMAL” TO DESCRIBE THE CURRENT MADNESS SHOULD BE PELTED WITH ROTTEN VEGETABLES. CALL IT WHAT IT IS THE ILLEGAL ABNORMAL:  Beware Andrew Cuomo’s Proclaiming “New Normal”.

AS WE’RE SEEING OVER AND OVER AGAIN:  Top Israeli prof claims simple stats show virus plays itself out after 70 days.

LET THEM EAT ICE-CREAM:  Payroll Protection Program out of money as Nancy Pelosi still demands additional unrelated spending.

AND YES, I KNOW, A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE VIEWING TRUMP’S DECLARATION AS A HOPEFUL SIGN. I SEE IT AS HIS CONTINUING TO ALLOW US TO BE GOVERNED BY SCIENTISTS WITH PRETTY CHARTS. BECAUSE THAT WORKED SO WELL FOR THE USSR:  Trump bows to bureaucrats, unveils a never-ending 3-phase program to end shutdowns.

They didn’t close us gradually. They can reopen like they closed.

Also, am I the only one who still remembers this was ALL about “bending the curve” which apparently auto-bent (because three weeks of isolation would be when it started to bend, but instead it never spiked. Even with all the dubious diagnostics and highly exaggerated “deaths.”)

SERIOUSLY people go outside. Being locked indoors with the MSM leads to strange amnesia and hysteria.

HONEST, I THINK UNLESS THE TAKE OVER OF OUR ECONOMY AND TURNING IT INTO A PLANNED ECONOMY IS NOT REVERSED YESTERDAY, WE’LL HAVE BLOOD ON THE STREETS:  Freedom Is Starting to Break Out.

I’VE BEEN SCREAMING THIS FOR A MONTH NOW:  We Are Needlessly Devastating Our Country.

To quote 1776, the musical, “Is anybody there? Does anybody care?”

FROM C. CHANCY:  A Net of Dawn and Bones.

Blood rituals, black magic, and broken masquerades. Names to run away from really fast. And maybe the end of the world….
Welcome to Intrepid, North Carolina. Where autumn brings leaf season, tourists, and bloody sacrifice.
Twenty years have passed since the Dark Day brought creatures of horror onto the evening news. Now vampires run nightclubs, alchemists deal potions on the street corners, and werewolf gangs lay claim to shady alleys. The honest cops of Intrepid enforce human laws on supernatural evil, and pray. Because the turn of the leaves brings Halloween, tourists… and the return of a serial killer who’s plagued Intrepid for over two decades.
Yet the night holds darker secrets than even the best detectives have unearthed. Somewhere in Intrepid, a demonic sorcerer plans to bring Hell on earth. And the Demongate is almost complete.
In the midst of a stakeout gone wrong, two mysterious wanderers drop into Detective Church’s life. Aidan, who moves like flames and holds secrets in his shadows… and Myrrh, a holy warrior born of ancient Alexandria. Enchantress. Heretic. Hell-raider.
Welcome to Intrepid.
Evil’s in for a hell of a night….

OPEN THREAD: Knock twice, rap with your cane.

AT AMAZON, Bras for Women.

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY: Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: Abortions Are ‘Life-Sustaining.’

MODELS WORK BEST WHEN YOU HAVE PERFECT DATA AND A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROCESSES INVOLVED, WHICH IS NEVER. Earth’s atmosphere has 4 times more dust than climate models allow for.

OLD AND BUSTED: “Believe All Women.”

The New Hotness? Glaring #MeToo hypocrisy haunts Warren endorsement of Biden.