This might be controversial

They are calling these the George Floyd riots.  Well, they aren't anymore.  They aren't about Floyd anymore.   That's the controversial bit.  Let me explain my thinking.

Oh, his murder was the spark, and HUGE spark it was, but the conflagration is beyond that now.  The Floyd protests have been co-opted.  It's grown beyond the righteous Floyd protesters.

You can still see glimpses of the Floyd protests.  Floyd protesters guarding stores, guarding cops from a mob that got separated from their platoon, thing like that, but that greater mob outnumbers Floyd protesters.

Factions of the greater mob has exploited the spark for their own ends. Sure.

What got us here?  Gov't overreach.  Tyranny.  Yes, racial injustice is part of it, but tyranny is still at the base.  Floyd was killed by a cop, and instrument of government.  The folks that tell us what to do and when to do it.  That lady, Breonna Taylor, in Louisville that was gunned down in a no-knock that went to the wrong house and she tried to defend herself from home invaders?  Government sent those people.  The Ahmaud Aubrey case in Georgia, where an ex-cop and his buddies were righteous taking the law into their own hands about a suspected burglar?  They were cloaking themselves in the garments of government law enforcement when they confronted a man.  All the localities determining what you can and can't do during WuFlu lockdown?  Government telling folks what to do in the minutest and most annoying detail, disrupting lives and livings and a lifetime of work for millions.  All the Karen scolds ordering strangers about when they don't wear a mask right or are five and a half feet away instead of 6?  And calling the cops about the same, or acting like the rules apply to others and not themselves, or threaten a black man that she'll tell the cops "a black man is threatening me!"?  Another form of tyranny.

Lots of these have HUGE racial elements, yes, but the Telling Others What To Do and wielding government like a clumsy cudgel has been causing the pressure to build, in ALL communities.  And without that pressure, by letting people live their lives as best they can with the best information that can be provided them, well, that pressure doesn't get tamped down til it reaches a burst point.  It did get tamped down.  It did burst.

People, especially Americans, don't like tyranny.  They like the security and safety of order, yes, but go too far and you get this.  Especially when you mix in true injustice and arbitrary enforcement, and rule by man instead of rule of hopefully-impartial but at least plainly-stated law.   

Pallet in Dallas

Was it brickbat from this pallet what they used to beat that man/store-owner, in the street Reginald Denny style?

Well, let's see what's in the news this AM

...from overnight.

Oh dear.

What's Open Here

What's open and how wide in the Free State?

First, what can't be shut down?  The juice to your house.  If you don't pay the power bill, you keep your lights til at least July 1.  No late fees either.  Same with water, gas, phone, and cable.

Brewpubs and wineries and restaurants, outdoor seating only, distance customers, paper one-use or sanitized menus.

Outdoor youth sports can come back some.  As can a few other outdoor activities.  Keep your distance, and no one from Jersey!.  Pools can open at 25% cap.

My County, modified operations WITH guidelines:

1. Retail: Curbside only.
2. Restaurants and bars: Outdoor seating (delivery and curbside pick-up continues).
3. Childcare: Open for dependents of essential employees and Phase 1 reopening employees.
4. Personal services: Hair salons and barber shops for hair only. By appointment.
5. Houses of worship: Virtual or drive-in services or outdoor gatherings of 10 or fewer participants.
6. Manufacturing: Fully reopen but with precautions.
7. Car washes: Exterior service only.
8. Outdoor produce pickings: Pick-your-own operations.
9. Outdoor day camps: Following Maryland Department of Health guidelines.
10. Outdoor youth sports: Following Maryland Department of Health guidelines.

2400 dead from it in Maryland, half of those are nursing home residents.

Plenty of testing capacity.   The graph that tracks the percent positive versus testing rate is absolutely useless.  It tells us nothing.  It LOOKS like a positive development as the 'trend' is down, but is it only looking like that because they aren't just testing the obviously afflicted because test quantity is short and priotitized?

The 'experts not knowing' was sort of expected with a novel new strain.  But my expectation for timely and useful data sharing was overly optimistic.  The only relatively useful chart is the confirmed death bar graph, but the bars change almost before you eyes with constant behind the scene correction, impacting my faith in the veracity again.

But yeah, this is madness indeed

Before 1PM! pic.twitter.com/MTNaUmrhhV

— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) May 30, 2020

Huh.

Makes you wonder.  Did someone put a pallet of bricks there?  Who, someone?  I can see at least two different and opposing sides seeing the utility of that.  Opposing, but with a common desire to see brickbats thrown.  Huh. 

Or it's staged. 

Or... could be a coincidence.

“They” staged a pallet of bricks in Dallaspic.twitter.com/jp9IoUUuRT

— Ali † opposes Antifa (@ali) May 30, 2020

Whinging

We are allowed to eat at outdoor seating in restaurants, now, in my state.  The one restaurant with good shady outdoor seating near me closed permanently.   The timing is poor because if it isn't raining in Maryland in the evening it is 90 degrees and humid.  I am hoping the re-open momentum is irresistible now.

Layoffs at work.  While my section is busy making money for the company 24/7, lots of other parts of this very large corporation have been shuttered, and they need to save money, and to do that they need to dip everywhere.  It's the story everywhere right now, I am sure.

Well, except local governments and public universities.  While they COULD have laid off the more sinecure-ish positions, they didn't, and are going on the tried and true business model of begging for a bailout.  I hope they fail.  If they DO fail they still won't can the sinecures.  Regulator rules arbiters and diversity enforcement specialists will keep their jobs, but firemen and school teachers will lose out. Just my guess.

You could fire 50% of the non teach admin types randomly at any university and have no impact on the quality of education and research.  That's been my position for a long time.  And it's win win for everyone.  Even the laid off admin types.  Cuz some of them will change careers to something less... parasitic?

Grocery addendum

I prefer the NY Strip.  I tried to get into the Ribeye cut, and it's fine, no mistake!  I just like a bit more meat versus fat, and the strop is easier to manuever about.

I call for Medium at a restaurant because I don't prefer blue rare, and I don't prefer well done.  Ask for medium and they will usually get somewhere in the middle

When I cook it at home in my skillet (I have no outside grill) I have dialed in how long a side to get medium rare.  Which IS my preference.  Cooked, yes, but still with some life to it.  I don't judge the people that eat it blue.  Good on them.  I do just the people that take it well.  Judging right now.  ~squint~

Angle Soft TP was available.  My usual brand.  MEGA rolls.  Just waiting for normal now.   Not there yet.  Won't be there next week.

"Why did you go back to the grocery store, T-Bolt?  If you are like me and everyone I know your hording instinct kicked in and you have slowly filled your pantry fridge and freezer to capacity since March."

You are right.  But it's getting hot.  I was missing a crucial ingredient. Time to bust out the gin, it is clear-likker season.  And that means tonic water needed fetching. 

FINE, Harris Tweeter

If the only meat you are gonna put out that is on my shopping list is grass fed NY Strip, then I guess I am eating steak 3 nights in a row. 

I kinda miss the shake n bake pork chops, tho.

It is pretty good steak.

Book Detail

I asked for recommendation for something clever to read.  Some of your recommended I try a guy named Fforde.  The Eyre Affair.

Right!

I'm a quarter of the way in.  Not what I expected, but still good. Set in England in the mid 80s, and the Crimean War has been going on for 130+ years.  Heh.  Parallel universe type stuff.  I'm liking it so far

The main character is a special operative law enforcement type.  She gets bumped upstairs to more exciting work . (Read:  dangerous...)  And expecting trouble her supervisor provides were with AWFUL, horrible, beyond-the-pale immoral ammunition for her pistol to help her get an edge over an extra dangerous quarry.

She could get fired if Internal Affairs catches here with it!  Fired, if she is lucky.  The existence of said items is practically a Crime Against Humanity, is how they act. 

What kind of ammo?  Regular self-defense ammo.  'Holler points,' we might say.

Ok ok, I am cutting the author some slack.  He is British, after all.  Writing in 2001.  Regular folks in America aren't tuned in to what self defense ammo does and is for.  So regular folks in England are even further behind.  Plus, parallel universe.  Lots of things go wonky when you introduce that level of fantasy, so getting a slight case of the vapors over what is essentially Federal Hyrda-Shoks could even be intentional.  Like most gunnies, I roll my eyes a little bit and just read on, going with it.  But I put the histrionics here because I need the fodder.

I don't let it put me off my feed.  Get this, the main character is named Thursday Next.  She has a pet dodo (cloned extinct specimens... everyone has one as a pet there days!) and her career path up to this point in Special Ops is tracking down literature crime.

As I said, I am not regretting picking this up.

This week is momentous

At work.  A banner week

Lots of folks that took time off I work with are coming back.  Yes, from the Rona fears, but also one had back surgery in early January.   Timed that surgery well.  Those of you that know folks that get vertebra fused together know recovery takes a while.  Plus you need a few days to get off your morphine habit. 

So that'll be fun.  Getting the band back together.

----

Grocery stores round here are still iffy.  But.  I've seen TP on more than one occasion.  I've gotten yeast.  Flour is back, just not overloaded with it. 

'Normal' will be "Terlet paper there every trip, and hand sanitized and disinfectant wipes are on the shelves too" I guess.

----

My brother is in the Navy.  He has taken advantage of all this to grow a Grizzly Adams beard.  Good and bushy, but he had a baldspot on the front of the chin.  It's weird. 

----

I miss the range.

Memorial Day

Grandpa.  Silver Star, Peleliu.  Posthumous. 

Yo Vote

It's all vote by mail in Maryland June 2.  I'm told.  Haven't gotten my ballot yet.  I wonder if I will in time...

It's not too important.  Just a primary.  I hope Governor Hogan opens up the polling places, though.  I'm of the opinion that if you don't vote in person, you don't vote.

"What about military folks serving overseas, T-Bolt?  Would you disenfranchise them?  They vote for the same stuff YOU like, so that's an advantage."

Yup.  No vote.  You give up rights when you serve.  It's part of the deal.  If you concentrate the voting situation to one day, one place, in person, you can wrangle it better.  Can you cheat like that?  Yes.  But it is easier to lock it down and keep an eye out for cheaters.

I got no problem making that Tuesday a federal holiday.

Geography

As a kid, my younger brother got a 'jigsaw' puzzle that was made of wood.  But instead of puzzle shapes, there were state shapes.  It was a puzzle map of the USA.  I was a bit outgrown for it, but he played with it constantly for months.

So he knew all his states from an early age.  And I did not.

Oh, if you gave me a map with all the borders, I'd get 40 states right, and quick.  At age 12, say.  But he'd have gotten all 50 from age 8, easy.

It'd usually be things like "I know one is Vermont and the other New Hampshire, but which is which..." or "Colorado, Kansas, and Wyoming are here somewhere... "

Now that I am old, I am more solid.

How?

I made no effort to get better with geography and cartography.   Certainly not with the the states.  But it all gelled somehow, without trying.  THAT is definitely Wyoming.

Heck I can draw a decent USA, now, on a blank piece of paper.

Slow knowledge accumulation, I guess.  Now I can go ahead and go senile and start forgetting it all.

I am weak on furren lands, at this point, though also growing stronger every year.  Europe was much easier when you only cared about the West, and let the Warsaw pact countries fend for their ownselves.  But I can hit Hungary and Romania on the first try, now.  I do halfway decent with French towns and German states.

I know the north coast of Africa, the southern parts, and a few on the was coast and the bight.  Call it 30%.

South and Central America is 60%.  Asia a bit better.

I guess my knowledge depends on how interested I am in a place. 

Pardon Obama?

Hey, I said it first!

Back on the 8th.

Disc Shaped Hole

I mentioned Heretics of De'Ath, a Brother Hermitage book, a monk at De'Ath's Dingle monastary.  Solving murders in 1066, Ye Olde England.

I am reading that book because I have a Terry Pratchett sized hole in my reading pile.  Nothing can replace Terry, obviously, but I am looking.  Maybe Howard Warwick can help.  So far, it is clever, but not Pratchett clever.  The humor sneaks up on you, and you have to be a bit wise in the ways of the world.  A start, but not a rip roaring hilarious romp.  Still, it's the first book of a series.  I may well let Howard of Warwick find his footing.   It's good enough to make me just go ahead and buy book 2.   (the first two are $.99 on Kindle, so... easy enough decision, pocketbook-wise.) 

But what about YOU?  Any of you find a book or series that comes close to tickling your fancy like the Discworld did?  I need something like that.


---

Wait, there is this.

Bupkis catching up

I got no blog fodder.

Thanks to the Chinee Rona, I haven't wanted for fodder for weeks and weeks.  It's a record.  There was a time where I came up empty every Monday, so it's been a decent run, actually.

Now the free associate comes in...  Books?  No fodder.  I am reading about a monk near Lincoln that solves crimes in 1066.  Heretics of De'Ath.  But no blog fodder, there.  Movies?  Haven't watched much.  Last one was Knives Out.  Which was decently entertaining.  Tried to make fun of Trump with it's characters but ends up subverting itself.  Trump does that without trying.  The ol' 'I'm rubber, you're glue' strategy.  So what I am saying was that it was entertaining in SPITE of the purposely annoying bits that self-sabotage.   It's fun seeing James Bond talk like Foghorn Leghorn.

But see?   Off topic.

I already talked about SCOTUS looking for a 2A case this term.  Which fills me with both thrilling expectation AND trepidation.

Conditions of the lockdown are loosening some, even in my state, hit middling hard.  Nobody is accusing Governor Hogan of policies that ended up deliberately endangering nursing home residents, like they are with Governor Cuomo and Whitmer, but even if no such policy is in place, our nursing homes took the Covid in the shorts.  So maybe even if Whitmer and Cuomo DIDN'T screw up, they'd have at least a similar shambles.  To one degree or another.

Not that I want to excuse either of them tyrants.  Hogan isn't even that high on my list, he's indulged because alternatives are worse.

I do want to know what Maryland's policy was.  We know from stated policy that regarding Nursing Home the gov ordered "do what the health secretary says!"  Did we get New York Outcomes with Florida Policies, or were what the Secretary-Stated policies close to New York's anyway?

What?! LIVE ammo?

So. I was in a wiki wander and reading the article on James Cagney.  Neo-neo had referenced Hope and Cagney dancing, as is her wont... highlighting dance.

So Cagney became a star when he did the movie Public Enemy and I was looking for a movie where he displayed his Yiddish skills.  Turns out it was the next one.  Taxi!

I came across this bit:

"Cagney's first film upon returning from New York was 1932's Taxi!. The film is notable for not only being the first time that Cagney danced on screen, but it was also the last time he allowed himself to be shot at with live ammunition (a relatively common occurrence at the time, as blank cartridges and squibs were considered too expensive and hard to find to use in most motion picture filming). He had been shot at in The Public Enemy, but during filming for Taxi!, he was almost hit."

What?  Blanks and squids are expensive.  Worth much more than the life of a mere actor.  Well, a mere actor that is just paid middling.  If a big star requests it we'll stop shooting em at him.

The absolute hell...

I know in Wild Bill Hickok's stage days in Cody's Wild West Show he'd shoot a lot of wax rounds, but it sorta sounds like Cagney dodged lead.   Actual lead.  Down range.  For the realism.  And for budgetary economy.  Wow.  It was the Depression and all.  Glad to have a job making $1000 a week.

No Range Time

I haven't been to the range in a while.  I can feel my meager skills fading.  I'm sure I can sharpen them up, but that entails going shooting.

I haven't even swung by my range.  Larry Hogan, the Guv, left gun stores open as essential bidnesses.  And my range is also a gun store.  Let me swing by, now, virtually...  Nope, store is open but range is closed.

No matter.  I wasn't going to go anyway until this clears up a bit more.

"Why, T-Bolt?  Do you hate freedom?  Are you scared?"

Well, no, but...  I have gone to work in an office with a full compliment of people every workday without fail.  Other parts of the enterprise have either been non-essential and stayed home throughout, or went alternating watches.  Half come in one week, the other half the next week.  Not us.  Too much stuff to keep running.  We are like the electric company.  People don't like it when you turn off their power for seven days every other week, they don't like it when I don't do my stuff.  Keeping my part of the whole IT department running.

Well, it would be bad if I went to the range and caught the Sino Lung-AIDS, then spread it to co-workers.  Or went to a restaurant, or a bowling alley, or what have you.  Management would forbid it  if they had the power to, but the hell with them.  They have done a poor job during this whole thing, and would piddle on them if their hair was on fire.  No, I refrain from going so as not to endanger my co-workers.  Not for me, not for management, but for them.  And to keep them servers running.  If the lot of us went down sick at once that would be sub-optimal.

I don't like how this whole thing went down, but I don't want to be inconsiderate to my co-workers.

 

Wuhan Coronavirus AAR

Two years from now, when the dust settles, what will be the After Action Report for this pandemic?

A buncha obvious ones.  Don't trust China.  Have extra TP and masks at home, just in case.  Keep up with the good handwashening techniques all the time for the next hundred years, minumum.  All that.  I don't think it will be "NEVER EVER go to a live concert again."

Two years from now we will better know what degree of shutdown will be optimal, but we don't know what this level is now.  We are still finding out.

My personal biggest takeaway will be...  Avoid going to a nursing home for as long as possible.  Absolute death traps depending on the policy of you governor, and that policy is out of your control.  If you were in a nursing home in New York on January 2020 your life expectancy is VERY different than if you had moved to Florida for your nursing home needs.  And that is arbitrary and scary to T-Bolt, 30 years from now.

What else?  Keep CDC focused on the D part of their name.  That D stands Disease.  Not "advocate for gun bans".  We gunnie types have known that for a while, naturally, but now we can better convince the straights that CDC got out over their skis. 

I better put this marker down

I think Neil Ferguson said there would be 2.2 million US deaths from WuFlu because he extrapolated from from the Spanish Flu in 1918 and adjusted for population inflation, and then made his computer model hit that number.  He faked it.  And has since come a cropper.

I could be wrong, but when he is exposed in 3 months for exactly this, I can't just say "I thought so" and have you believe me without this here.

Tar and Feathers

How come that went out of favor?  Tar and feathers. I feel like that could make a comeback.  I would properly re-focus recalcitrant officials.

"It went out of favor. T-Bolt, because it is felonious assault and battery.  You don't see as many fist fights these days, either."

Yeah yeah, I know about that.  Crime and all.  And if you were to tar and feather a governor, say, well that governor has a whole State Police infrastructure to draw on, after.  Sub optimal.  You have to have the law enforcement apparatus sort of on your side to pull this off.

"You know those people were stripped nekkid and SCALDING hot pitch was poured on them, right, T-Bolt?  Serious injury potential."

Yeah.  Agreed.  But modern problems can require modern solutions.  Instead of severe burns, maybe use a room temperature construction adhesive for the stickum.  Or gallons of maple syrup!  And feathers aren't as readily available now.  How bout blown pink fiberglass insulation?  It won't kill, but you'll wish you were dead for a few days from all the itching.  Failing that... dried onion bits?  Source from home centers or grocery stores

Victim selection is very important.  You have to pick someone pretty universally disliked.  No one liked tax collectors 250 years ago.  They had no real constituency.  If you 'tar and feather' a Governor Cuomo or Whitmer, for example, for killing grandma, expect some swampy group of Antifa types to return the favor to a Senator Cruz or Representative Scalise at a future date, for not passing a Universal Basic Income bill. 

So who would be universally disliked and a proper candidate to get coated with Corning insulation these days?   I can think of plenty of pols I personally dislike, but they all have hordes of people that DO like them.

So, maybe you are right.  It's not a very workable scenario.

JMB pbuh

Filling in the Blanks

This Mike Duncan guy.

I raved about his History of Rome podcast.  It fills in a section of history I was weak in.

Now he is filling details in another section.  Europe after Napoleon and before Bismark.  In his Revolutions podcast.  Plus I was weak on the nitty gritty of the French Revolution, and he ties in Haiti's and South America's revolution and ties them all together.

"But wait!  Yoorip was all peace and happiness after Napoleon until 1914, T-Bolt."

They should BE so lucky. Sure they wasn't megadeath continent raging battles, but it sure wasn't boring.

He's totally hooked me.  Like listening to a GOOD History professor.   In my car in the 40 minutes of commute I have to get to work.  Then back.

And I am serious about that.  If he was standing at a lectern doing the same stuff with more details to take notes about, I could study those notes, read the required reading, then take the test...  Pretty much like any 200 or 300 level college course I sat in 30 years ago.

But it is eating into my NPR time, which I listened to to see what was going on on that side of the political spectrum (Heh!  to-to, on-on...)

Hey, if you know a history podcaster as good as Mike and aren't sharing?  Foul!  Gimme the deets!  Expand ol' T-Bolt's mind.  Tides of History?  Ever listen to that one?  Duncan doesn't pull down modern politics into his stuff, I don't want that.  I don't want to hear about cis gendered Napoleon or that Julius Ceasar was one quarter plains Indian so he got his first Praetorship as a diversity hire, or summat.

His Revolutions series is at 10 separate revolutions, so far.  He's on the Russian right now, in real time.  But I am only up to 7, so far, his back catalog.  The 1848 revolution.  And he is going in chronological order for the most part.  English, then American, then French, then Haitian... etc.  I kinda hope he eventually expands to the Industrial Revolution, but kind of doubt it.  The interplay between people in that kind of revolution is vastly different than between folks in say...  a Bolivarian revolution.  Duncan seems to enjoy the latter style or interaction over the former. 

Grain

There are 435.5 grains to an ounce.

POINT FIVE?  Sheesh.  Why a half grain?  Now I gots to know.

The two were units linked.  32 grains makes a silver penny, and 20 pennies makes and ounce.  640 to an ounce.  But that's 1200 years ago, and the two plainly shifted in intervening centuries...

Ah, in 1824 and 1855, one pound was set to 7000 grains.  And a 16th of 7000 is....    435 and a half.  After 1855 metric starts to infect proper management as it crosses the channel like a panicky Wuhan resident fleeing his home country for Western medicine.

SCOTUS watch

10 gun cases SCOTUS might consider.   To maybe grant them a writ to be heard before the larger court.

That Mance one is one of my faves.  IF that one goes through and wins I am taking a road trip.

Though the split Circuit stuff about CCW is also good.  SCOTUS is gonna have to face those one day, maybe it is now.  More than half of the potential case involve that.  People suing to make May-Issue into Shall Issue. 

WuFlu by Zip

Here is a map of the zip codes in my state.  I've showed it before.  I'm in the dark blue areas circled in red.  We have lots of apartments, lots of Central American immigrants, and lots of old folks homes.

But, hey, what the deal with with that one area in the flat, agricultural Eastern Shore part of the state?

That's Salisbury, Maryland.  A smallish town, surrounded by 'country.'  But like Logansport Indiana, it is the headquarters of a particular industry.  Chicken processing, instead of pork.  Purdue is headquartered there.  So they get a few cases, too, because of peculiarities of that industry.




"What peculiarities T-bolt?"

Well, killing and cutting up animals for food is a hard job, but does pay at least somewhat decently. It attracts poor people that want to go to the next step up above flying a cash register at WalMart or Family Dollar. And it doesn't require much education. You can be a 6th grade dropout and get work. But, no, it isn't pleasant, and folks burn out or get hurt with all the repitition. There are incentives besides personal ones of self enrichment to keep you from tapping out for a day, taking a break. Some places pay you an extra dollar or more an hour if you work a full 40 hour week. To cut back on absenteeism. But these perverse incentives work against a community during an epidemic. Because it encourages folks to work even when sick. And then the virus spreads among workers, who take it home to the small apartment with roommates, and the not so good healthcare coverage... So you get a darker blue zip code.

Panic buying ammo

April was a good month for gun sales.  And at the beginning of this panic ALL the ammo was gone.  Just like last time... 2013?

But ammo is back!  Lots available from online purveyors.  Even .22.

I suspect there was a lot of new gun buyers recently.  And new owners aren't like gun nuts laying in 2,000 rounds when they get jittery about future availability.  Since the last panic us gun nuts took it to heart and have had 5 years to top off the stocks and we did, so the panic only made us surge a little bit.  That's by theory at least.  I didn't even look for ammo back in March.  And if I was I wouldn't be shopping for something 10,000 this time.   Maybe I'd have gone for 1,000 of practice ammo and a few hundred HSTs?  If I was needing to top off, and, like I said, no need. 


-----

"Have a baseline in stowage, T-Bolt, just draw from that in lean times."

True.  And I did, last panic.  But last panic coincided with me going to practice nigh-weekly.  After a few months of even light practice weekly, I was eroding the stocks too much and Causing Concern.  I should have readjusted my mindset before that panic when I had ramped up my usage.

Good for you Larry

Governor Hogan vetoes the ban on private sales of rifles and shotguns in Maryland.

It'll probably get overturned, but it's better than going along with it.  And hey, maybe it won't get overturned.  The legislature is a bit distracted. 

He vetoed other stuff.  Like a big education spending thingy that give teachers raises and pays for Pre-K daycare.  Good idea since state tax revenues are gonna crater. 

Cost Disease

So if increasing productivity causes manufactured goods prices to fall and wages in those areas to rise, but that in turn causes costs and prices in high labor service sectors to RISE.  If we make TVs and hamburgers more expensive, then musical theater and college education and nursing homes will get cheaper.

Mehhh, I'm talking out my butt, I am sure.   And if we actuallly did let gov't get on the tariff merry go round, it would just go faster and faster until we Smoot our Hawley.  Politician can't be trusted not to screw it up.  I'm always trying to think of way to encourage policy makers to do LESS.

Regarding General Flynn

Obviously, Barack Obama is at the center of all the FBI criminality we are looking at, post Flynn vindication.  Looks like the former president committed major crimes on his way out that would have made Nixon blush in shame.

Go after Obama?  Naw.  What Trump should do is let his AG go after everyone, but cut the Obama prosecution off at the knees and preemptively pardon him for any crimes he may have committed, ala Ford.  Like, do this next week/month.  Trump should claim he is trying to 'heal' the nation.  It makes Trump look merciful and make Obama look SUPER guilty without garnering him or the Democrats any sympathy if he is the target of a LONG investigation.

Then go after everyone else involved and throw them in Leavenworth.

The sputtering will be epic.  "I don't need a pardon" he insists.  Oh?  you want to bring this up now that you are out and safe?  Ok. Let's examine YOUR role then...

Obama can't win, and Trump can't lose. Folks that want to see Obama imprisoned for his crimes will enjoy watching him squirm over a pardon just as much.  And that he owes everything he has after today to Trump.

"a pardon carries an imputation of guilt and that its acceptance carries a confession of guilt"

Lessons

Ok, what did he do wrong?


Minor issue, played the piano.  Fixing his position to anyone familiar with the derelict building and it's contents in earshot.

He fled.  Good.  Looks like he's got a .22 bolt action, and he's alone.  (Keep your finger off the trigger buddy, I bet there is no more ammo down at the store.)  But he fled in a straight line out in the open.  Keep to cover.

Fire at night in hostile country.  Shoulda cold camped, even with the discomfort.

"You got no weapons, that means you're not here to kill me."  He is close enough to you that he could get your rifle and kill you with it.  He has a weapon.  There are sticks and rocks all about.  He has a weapon.  He can throttle you with his hands.  He may well have a WWI era bayonet in his boot the way you searched him.

Let his guard down.  Out of lonliness, and what can you do about that?  Lonliness can getcha kilt tho.

Traps?  Good.  Why didn't it get the mute guy, tho...?

Yeah, madness is not a good survival skill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVlzqev8npM

Grocery report

I needed eyedrops.

Paper towels there, but TP gone again

No pork, but lots of beef.

No buttermilk, but they had butter with a picture of an Indian maid on it. 

Wait wait wait...

You snitched on people to the cops.  People weren't behaving exactly like you thought they should, so you informed men with guns they might want to take their guns and go investigate that behavior.

But then your snitch report went public because it is a public record.  Now your neighbors and the person you snitched on know it was you.

And now you feel threatened.

Well, at least people KNOW you feel threatened.  You initiated the whole thing with what you thought was a SECRET threat.  Those people were blissfully aware that you put them in danger. Exposed snitches are at least forewarned

Data!

My State's health department has some DATA under its belt now.

Snapshot:  1290 deaths.

Here is the age breakdown:

Check out a close up of that showing deaths a bit closer:

Over age 60:  553+311+199 = 1,043

Under age 60:  86+32+17+9 = 144

(83 insufficient info on age)

Wow.  

No kids.  Gen Z bounces back.  Millennials at 26, Gen X at 118.

The old people are hit hard.  And nursing homes extra hard.  They are taking it in the shorts.  525 residents struck down:

My zip code is one of the hardest hit in the state.  What lies in my zip code?  Leisure World.  A very large retirement and assisted living community.

So far, for every 10 Marylanders that die from the Chinese Communist Covid 19, 1 is under 60, and 4 lived in a nursing home.

Hey T-Bolt!

"Maybe check the grocery store on a day that isn't Thursday?  Maybe they have TP on Mondays."

Capital idea, citizen!  And you were right.  The sign said to take no more than 3 packs.  But I am not a total sociopath.  I took a single 24 pack of Quilted Northern and was pleased enough. 

Also, taco fixins'.  For tomorrow.  You know. 

Walking in the tall cotton.  So to speak.

They got the Chinese bug

"After exposure, didn't know it, had no symptoms, and recovered with no difficulty."


You've all heard reports like that.  If true, it is great news.  If.  I don't trust the veracity of most of the very good or very bad news anymore.  I barely trust the middling news.  Sweeping conclusion-guesses on little data is only part of it.  Ration of static to signal is another. 

Anyway.  Beyond Covid 19.  Does this sort of thing happen frequently?  In my fiddy years have I been exposed to scores of varieties of virii I have no antibodies for, contracted said virii, but my immune system fought off the buggers without me even noticing or exhibiting the least symptom?

Is this just normal operating procedure?

If so, this is kinda neato.

It'd be cool if one day science could have a quick and easy test of a person's blood and catalog all the hordes of anti-bodies accumulated due to successful exposure outcomes.  I remember getting chicken pox, and I've had flu a time or two in my life, and a head cold more, so those would be there.  All my vaccinations would show.  But then a big long list of mystery exposures listed. 

Law == Force

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to people breaking social distancing orders:

“We will shut you down, we will cite you and if we need to, we will arrest you and take you to jail.”pic.twitter.com/BVX2ntIY14

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 3, 2020

So she will have her cops shoot and kill people that defy her will and commit the crime of... visiting people and drinking a beer?

You dared to have a drink at a friends house and now you are dead because you wouldn't follow her rules.

Game of Thrones

It's been over for a while.  The TV show, the books are never going to be finished, you will never see another one by GRRM. 

Know what I know now, which faction would I back? 

You know, none of them are any good.  The Starks are sort of the least bad, but even them... meh.  Cersei?  No.  Daenarys?  No.  The Crows?  No.  The Greyjoy?  No. 

All awful in their own way.  Let the zombies have them.

What a great dream

I dreamt I moved into a new house, and my bedroom was extra long.  Door at one end, windows along one wall that faced northeast, and an alcove at the far end with a wrap around window that was shaded by the building a bit to the northwest.

It was probably 12 feet wide, but 4 or 5 'bedrooms' long.

The southwest wall was shelves for books, and doors for closets and a small alcove or two, an enclosed phone booth, and one for a bathroom.

I was setting it up like I was some kind of powerful official that summoned underlings to his chambers.  A sitting area or lounge near the door, desk and file cabinets in the middle, bed at the window end.  All decorated in Art Deco style.

Even with the simple Deco lines it still seemed too fancy.  Opulent, even.

But at least I was able to keep all my books in one room.

No way I could afford this.  Unless that was the ONLY room in my house. 

---

Heh.  Sorta like this but less tall and wide

I got a Mantis in my pantis

Any of youse ever try out the Mantis trainers?

I've seen this gizmo before, but now it is popping up more prominently.  Online reviews are pretty positive but I was wondering if folks I 'know' through here have played with it.



Or have you tried any other types of apps on your phone for dry fire tuning?

I'm looking for some social distance toys to play with that are on topic.

PM

I loved Popular Mechanics as a kid. 

Dad had some back issue from before I was born.  He saved them like some save National Geographics.

Fusion power has been right around the corner since long before I was born more that fiddy years ago.

First

First, the IHME models were wildly pessimistic.  Looked like you'd be lucky to get a spot on the linoleum in a hospital in Maryland when you need an ICU bed.

Now are they wildly pessimistic?

The increasingly implausible IHME model with which we’re all familiar imagines deaths in the U.S. dropping below 1,000 per day just three days from now. Yesterday we registered 2,700. Today, according to the latest data, we’re slightly north of 2,000, which is worse than the 1,700-1,800 we were registering on weekdays last week. If you believe IHME, we should see daily deaths nationwide sink below 500 on May 10, then below 100 on May 25, and then reach single digits on June 13 before dipping to zero on June 30. That seems wildly unlikely.

These dang predictive models have sure done a lousy job predicting.  And I don't know about you, but I find that frustrating.  Are we gonna drop to near zero, have a slow but constant burn for months with occasional spikes, or just get another hump?  Dunno.  Ask the experts?  They appear to be guessing and doing about as well as me.

Also, that linked pessimistic article is Allahpundit, so assign credibility based on that as you may.

How I become part of the problem

I eat bacon and eggs.  I normally store the bacon and eggs I am going to eat in two weeks at the grocery store.  There in the refrigerator cabinet there that holds it for me.

But because there appear to be shortage on that shelf, I get worried.  When I go shopping in two weeks will there be fewer choices of thick cut?  No extra large eggs laid by organically fed happy hens?  There was bacon last week, but few eggs.  There is plenty of eggs this week, but low on bacon...  Maybe instead of storing my bacon and eggs for May, here, at Harris Tweeter, I'll store them in my fridge at home.

I have no idea if the guys killing pigs or gathering eggs are going to be able to keep that up.

Yeah, I better get all of May's now.  Maybe some of June.

BOOM!  Same amount of eggs and bacon in the world, but it looks all gone because it is in a million packed home refrigerators.

Same with the other stuff.

Now, if the pig and chicken farmer DO fail as a business and have to close.  And no one else steps up to take their place.  Yeah, I might never see another egg I don't rob myself, from a nest.  But I don't think that is going to happen.  I think all this blows over, sooner or later.  I hope sooner.

-----

Grocery Report:


No pork chops.  Or pork.
No chicken thighs.
Otherwise meat was ok. 

Hey, look, baloney!

A tiny bit of flour, no yeast yet.  People at work say their grocery is low on spices, but mine was fine. 

A tiny bit of paper towels

Not much regular cooking oil

No TP.