The President & the Pandemic

I read a  CNN article last night titled "Trump and his allies respond with pseudo-science as US virus deathtoll hits 150,000."  It recaps the history of our administration's response to the COVID-19 -- and, as we have seen, there hasn't been a response.

I just don't understand what they possibly have to gain by not having strongly pushed proven anti-COVID measures like masks, social distancing and hand washing. It just doesn't make sense. It's almost as it they are sabotaging the war on the virus.  Why would you want to prevent people from getting sick and dying?  If you want to help your reelection chances AND quash the virus, what better way than a strong, coordinated federal response rather than differing, weaker state responses? What are they waiting for?

Foreign terrorists must be laughing because we are doing their job for them, and I just don't get it at all.

Lots 'o Links

Take a look at the always interesting posts at Liz Sheld's Morning Greatness; Maggie's Farm; Stephen Kruiser's Morning Briefing; Larwyn's Linx; and Stephen Green's Insanity Wrap #17.

The Young and the Reckless; or Virus-Spreading Covidiots

Last night I was reading a Washington Post story about the fact that - surprise! - young, deliberately reckless people are drinking, not wearing masks, not social distancing, and bringing COVID-19 home to make their parents and grandparents sick, if not dead.  Reading the comments was an experience in itself, and I thought this one, by ink stained wretch, was one of the best:

"They respond only to what affects them directly. The message they need to hear from the authorities -- in a media blitz  --is this:  if you and your friends spread the virus to the wider community by refusing to wear a mask, binge drinking in parties and bars, and forgetting social distancing, here's what will happen:

1) the medical system will collapse so nobody will be able to treat you for anything.
2) your state's economy will collapse and the benefits you count on will shrink to near nothing or disappear.
3) there won't be any jobs for you or anyone else.
4) your parents/relatives (if they survive) won't be able to support you unless they're very rich.
5) you may look forward to a future of chronic unemployment, destitution, homelessness --- and disability if you catch the virus yourself. Not just  'old people' can get very sick."

Questions About the Rioting & Vandalism in Portland and Elsewhere

1. I am sick and tired of coming home from a long day at work to see more news about criminals looting, smashing, rioting, and attacking, especially in Portland. Don't these lowlives work? And if they somehow do have jobs, shouldn't they be fired?

2. If this were ISIS or some other foreign terrorist group committing such anarchy in our country, wouldn't we be putting a stop to it as quickly and as forcefully as possible? So why can't we do that with domestic terrorists like these?

3. If the rest of us are obeying "safe at home" orders, then why are these violent lawbreakers allowed to roam the streets and spread COVID-19? Do the so-called officials in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and other cities even remember that we're in the midst of a fatal pandemic?

(At least we now suspect the answer to the questions about why there was a fireworks shortage, and why cities were hearing loud fireworks across the country every night even before July 4.)

Floridiots Drinking, not Thinking

Florida is in desperate straits coping with a surge in COVID-19 cases, and yet they're talking about re-opening bars? I just don't get it.

Tribute to "Mr. Tiger"

I won't be following baseball this year, but I do like reading about players I admired when I loved baseball.  I also like good writing.  One of those players was the late Al Kaline, and one of the best articles I've read lately was this Jeff Seidel column from the Detroit Free Press, titled "Al Kaline was truly 'Mr. Tiger': A man of humility, humor and elegance." Even if you don't like the game, you'll like the man.

Instagram Stars!

I got a kick out of this New York Times article titled "He’s 83, She’s 84, and They Model Other People’s Forgotten Laundry."

Lots & Lots 'o Links

If you're interested in following the progress of coronavirus vaccines, check out these resources. I like the New York Times Vaccine Tracker.

Greg Crosby writes this about baseball: "The one sport that I thought might be immune to left-wing politics and America bashing has now jumped onto the Marxist bandwagon. So very sad." I agree. I want to watch a sport for the excitement of the game, not to be lectured about race or any other topic.

Make sure you visit Stephen Kruiser's Morning Briefing; Larwyn's Linx; Maggie's Farm; Liz Sheld's Morning Greatness, and Stephen Green's Insanity Wrap #13. 

The word tsukerkrenk, meaning diabetes, is the focus of today's Yiddish Vinkl by Harold Ticktin.  He notes that "in the German literature, diabetes came to be known as the Judenkrankheit, or 'Jewish disease.'" Of course it did.

Check out The People's Cube for characters, TV shows, and movies that should be banned immediately. See above graphic for an example!

Lots 'o Links

Here are the usual suspects: Liz Sheld's Morning Greatness; Larwyn's Linx; Maggie's Farm; and Stephen Kruiser's Morning Briefing.

Here's a terrible scenario to contemplate, from American Greatness: "How Confident Can We Be of Victory in November?  If anything is crystal clear at present, it’s that all this leftist mayhem, encouraged by the Democratic Party and its adherents, represents an existential threat to America as we know it."  And we thought the stakes in the 2016 election were high! The Republicans should run ads showing the rioting, looting, and arson, and the crime statistics, with the caption "Want more? Vote for Joe Biden for President".

What Is This, An Antisemitisn Contest?

Or, as Stephen D. Smith writes, "Since we're debating labels, stop calling it anti-Semitism. It's Jew hatred."

In the category of Nerve of the Day, "US television star and actor Nick Cannon clapped back at ViacomCBS on Wednesday shortly after the media giant fired him for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories during an episode of his 'Cannon’s Class' podcast. On a lengthy statement posted on Facebook, the 39-year-old demanded an apology from the company as well as ownership of  'Wild ‘N Out,' a comedy improv show broadcasting on VH1, which is owned by ViacomCBS."

I always like how they apologize afterwards, when it's too late. And they claim to feel ashamed afterwards.  I don't accept rote apologies for Jew hatred. You shouldn't have said it in the first place.

Somehow, it's always the Jews they attack, in mittern drinnen.  They must be thinking about us constantly, since they bring it up so often in casual conversation.

We ought to turn the tables and keep talking about them, but at least we are telling the truth. Remember this from December?

"The suspects in last month's deadly shooting at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey had an explosive device hidden in their vehicle that could have killed or maimed dozens of people, FBI officials said Monday. FBI officials and the U.S attorney's office for the district of New Jersey told NBC News that the device, described as a crude pipe bomb, could have killed bystanders or wounded people up to 500 yards away. Authorities have identified David N. Anderson and Francine Graham as the two suspects in the December shooting that left six dead including both of them. Anderson and Graham were suspected members of the Black Israelite movement, which has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an anti-Semitic and black supremacist hate group."

Black supremacists? But I thought there were only white supremacists!

But remember: it's all a Jewish conspiracy.

A Possible COVID Miracle Drug?

This sounds too good to be true - but it'd sure be a lifesaver if it is true. Plus, wouldn't you love to see Israel get the credit?

"Existing drug may downgrade COVID threat to common cold level — Jerusalem study
Hebrew University professor says he’s worked out what makes the raging virus so vicious, and how to fix it using an anti-cholesterol med; no human testing done yet
Prof. Yaakov Nahmias says that his research shows that the novel coronavirus is so vicious because it causes lipids to be deposited in the lungs, and that there is a solution to undo the damage: a widely-used anti cholesterol drug called fenofibrate.
Unlike remdesivir, which is being lauded for its effect on coronavirus patients, fenofibrate, sometimes sold under the brand name Tricor, is already accredited by America’s Food and Drug Administration and is in plentiful supply. Remdesivir is in short supply and is also still pending full approval by regulators like the FDA."

Louis Farrakhan, Please Call Kimberly Hawkins!

You have the bravery of  Daniele Israel on the one hand, who wrote his letters on his one-way trip to Auschwitz; and you have this brazen, unapologetic antisemite on the other. Sue-Ann Levy writes,

"What a difference a week has made to Kimberly Hawkins—the owner of Foodbenders catering company in downtown Toronto.

In just a week Hawkins’ take-out and catering business of seven years has gone from being renowned for its fresh, healthy options to infamous for her unhealthy hateful obsession with the Jewish state.
A little more than a week ago, on Friday July 3, I paid a visit to her store. This was just after word started to get out in the Toronto Jewish community about Hawkins’ anti-Semitic signs and Instagram posts.

Her anti-Zionist ravings ramped up in mid-June after she’d caught the public’s attention with F—- the police and Defund the Police signage outside her store.

Since she had posted on Instagram #ZionistsnotWelcome in her store, I pulled a keto salad out of her refrigerator and took it up to the cash register to see if she’d sell it to me.

Before I paid her, I told her I was a Zionist, a Jew and a Toronto journalist – in case she didn’t want to take my money.

She hesitated for a moment before taking my $13. I subsequently asked her if she wanted to comment on the controversy swirling around her about her series of posts, in which she called Zionists 'greedy and entitled' and 'Nazis.'

She’d also posted that Zionists 'control the media,' and that Israel is a 'terrorist state that kills little babies' – among many other anti-Semitic tropes dressed in the guise of being anti-Zionist.

She refused comment except to say she has a problem only with Zionists but loves Jews. She also told me all she was doing was standing up for Palestine and for that she was being harassed and was receiving death threats.

When I returned to the store a few minutes later to give her another chance to comment, I was ordered to leave by two of her supporters while they unleashed a torrent of f-words."

There's more, but you get the point. All that was missing was the "Juden Verboten!" sign.

Priceless Letters

From the BBC website: "Letters of love: 'Our father wrote every day as he waited to be sent to Auschwitz'"

"Arrested by the Nazis for being a Jew, Daniele Israel spent months in jail in Trieste before being deported to Auschwitz. The letters he wrote to his wife as she hid with their two sons only recently came to light, writes Dany Mitzman, and paint a deeply moving portrait of a family shattered by the Holocaust."

"His love for his sons leaps out from all his letters", and the sons say their mother  "considered these letters the greatest treasure she had.". 

The Last Words of a Coronavirus-Denier

30-year-old dies after attending 'COVID party' thinking virus was a 'hoax'. The man told nurses, "I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it's not."

How does a grown man possibly think that the deaths of over 130,000 Americans is a hoax? And how do you educate people like this, who are supposed to be adults, when all the available information about COVID-19 has been out there for months? Maybe this needless death with sink in and make an impression at long last.

Survivor and Liberator

Here's a touching story from the CNN Good Stuff newsletter:

"Auschwitz survivor to meet family of American GI whose kind gesture gave her hope"
"(CNN) A survivor of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, now living in London, will have a Zoom meeting next week with the children of an American GI who liberated her -- and gave her a small gift of hope.
Lily Ebert, 90, survived the Holocaust and routinely spoke about her experiences, but she had never shown the German banknote given to her by an American Jewish GI soldier, which featured messages of kindness... The note was inscribed with 'a start to a new life' and 'good luck and happiness.'"

Message to President Trump: Don't be Like Herbert Hoover

CNN had a good article worth reading, entitled "The US is diving into a dark Covid hole -- and there's no plan to get out." This is a wake-up call.

We've known for a long time how dire this coronavirus is. It's now time for Trump to get the federal government heavily involved and make sure that hospitals and doctors' offices have all the equipment they need.  It's a scandal to have shortages in this country. If what we need comes from China, then start manufacturing our own masks and gloves and drugs here, using all the unemployed Americans who want to work, in continual shifts until it's done. If the American workforce could make planes during WW2, then certainly we can produce huge quantities of masks and gowns so medical personnel won't have to resort to wearing garbage bags!

Herbert Hoover was a great humanitarian, but he failed when the Great Depression struck and his belief in limited government put the burden on charities to help the millions of poverty-stricken Americans. That is what he is remembered for.

Trump should unleash the power of the federal government in the war on COVID-19 and avoid becoming known as another Herbert Hoover.

Let's Boycott Stupidity

What ridiculously childish behavior this "cancel culture" nonsense is!  I love how you are immediately condemned if you say anything complimentary about Trump. Here's the latest idiocy:

"Politicians and celebrities are boycotting Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the country, after its CEO, Robert Unanue, praised President Donald Trump during an event Thursday at the White House. 'We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder,' said Unanue, who is of Spanish descent, at the event.'"

So because he's a decent man and a successful businessmen who appreciates other successful businessmen like Trump, his company should be destroyed? 

I'll be very disappointed if he's forced to apologize simply for being honest.

Too bad we can't boycott stupidity.

Lots 'o Links

Here's a lot of stuff to read while you wait for the libraries to reopen. Visit Stephen Green's Thursday's Insanity Wrap; Maggie's Farm; Liz Sheld's Morning Greatness; Larwyn's Linx; and Stephen Kruiser's Morning Briefing!

The Old "They Took it the Wrong Way" Excuse

"Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson has been accused of anti-Semitism for promoting a quote falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler and featuring posts praising Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has an extensive history of anti-Jewish remarks.  On his Instagram story feed, he posted a quote falsely attributed to Hitler: 'Hitler said, 'because the white Jews knows that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep Americas secret the Jews will blackmail America.''

In his 'apology' after the fact, he compounded the offense by saying "Anyone who feels I have hate towards the Jewish community took my post the wrong way" (no, we didn't);  and "I post a lot of things that are sent to me. I do not have hatred towards anyone. I really didn’t realize what this passage was saying." (no, of course he didn't.)

I wonder if he'll now be lectured on antisemitism the way the rest of us are being lectured on  racism?

Name Shame

In the latest of a neverending stream of frantic name changes, the historic Washington and Lee University is actually set to remove the "Lee". Why not just erase American history completely while you're at it?

So what if your own last name is Lee? This is a very common name -- is everyone expected to change it?  What if your surname is Jackson or Johnston or Hill? And how about if your name happens to be White? If some people are upset by this political incorrectness, are you supposed to give a public apology and grovel?

When will this frenzy stop?

Ennio Morricone R.I.P.

This great film composer just died at the age of 91, referred to by Nevada Public Radio as the sound of the American West. I think I've seen "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" just to hear the title theme, and  I've seen "Once Upon a Time in the West" too many times just for the music, especially  the railroad scene at the end:



I also love the theme at the beginning of this clip from "Once Upon a Time in America":


CNN lists five of his movie tracks you have to hear.

Do Your Part - To Defeat COVID-19!

This is from the New York Times Coronavirus Briefing e-newsletter that I subscribe to. I  find that this newsletter, as well as the one from CNN, is invaluable for educating yourself during this treacherous time. It's too bad the oblivious rioters and partygoers don't read it -- it can save their lives. To sign up for the NY Times newsletter, visit this page

"The danger indoors:

Elected officials in the United States are beginning to acknowledge that the rush to reopen was a mistake, as many of the hardest-hit areas in recent weeks have been places that lifted lockdown restrictions fastest. And one factor seems to be playing an outsize role in the uptick: indoor transmission from businesses like bars and restaurants.

More than 239 scientists from 32 countries are now warning that airborne transmission of the virus indoors should be taken more seriously and are calling on the World Health Organization to revise its recommendations, which they say underestimate the dangers of transmission by tiny, viral particles that linger in the air indoors.

Our colleague Donald G. McNeil Jr., who covers science for The Times, told The Daily podcast that when people talk or laugh, they create an “invisible mist” or a “droplet cloud” of tiny particles that floats around near their head. That fog can hold enough virus to transmit the disease; walking into it is akin to someone “spitting on your face.”

Indoors, without a breeze, the cloud can drift across a room, like in a bar or at a cocktail party, at more or less head level, he said, to be inhaled by revelers until 20, 30 or 40 people are infected.

Evidence is also mounting, Donald said, that Covid-19 is more of a blood vessel disease than a respiratory disease. While the virus enters the body through the lungs, it seems to do its damage by attaching to the insides of blood vessels, infecting organs, like the kidneys and the brain, with lots of fine blood vessels."

(Above WW2-inspired poster as seen at this website.)

Lots 'o Links

Follow all the news you need at Liz Sheld's Morrning Greatness; Maggie's Farm; Stephen Kruiser's Morning Briefing; and Larwyn's Linx!

And here's a random thought from Larry Elder: "At a time in America when one’s race has never been less important, the left has taught an entire generation of the most privileged Americans ever to view the world through race-tinted glasses."

Virus-Spreading Partygoers From Another Planet

Sometimes I think these irresponsible morons must be from another planet where they'd never heard of the COVID-19 pandemic, because we keep hearing these stories over and over while the numbers get worse. Here are just two.

Item: Alabama students throwing 'COVID parties' to see who gets infected.  "Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry said students have been organizing 'COVID parties' as a game to intentionally infect each other with the contagion that has killed more than 127,000 people in the United States. She said she recently learned of the behavior and informed the city council of the parties occurring in the city.  She said the organizers of the parties are purposely inviting guests who have COVID-19. 'They put money in a pot and they try to get COVID. Whoever gets COVID first gets the pot. It makes no sense,' McKinstry said. 'They're intentionally doing it.'"

Item:  "On June 17, a crowd of up to 100 people, most of them in their early 20s, attended a party at a home in Rockland County, N.Y., just north of New York City.
The event violated a state order in effect at the time that capped gatherings at 10 people in an effort to slow the coronavirus’s spread.
For local officials, that was just the start of the problem.
The party’s host, who was showing signs of being sick at the time, later tested positive for the virus. So did eight guests. County officials, eager to keep the cluster from growing, dispatched disease tracers to try to learn who else might have been exposed to the virus at the party.
The tracers hit a wall.'My staff has been told that a person does not wish to, or have to, speak to my disease investigators,' Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the county’s health commissioner, said on Wednesday. Of those being contacted about the party, she added: 'They hang up. They deny being at the party even though we have their names from another party attendee.'"

I don't care about any of these dangerously reckless, selfish idiots. They get what they deserve. I do care about the vulnerable senior citizens and people with compromised immune systems who we were supposed to be caring about from the very beginning.  Obviously, partying is much more important than saving lives.