the battle is not just about a virus…
*Some cities are filling skate parks with sand [37 tons??!?] rendering them unskateable but not enough to make them sledable. No word about when said cities will begin hollering that it’s too expensive to remove said sand.
– There is a claim that the reduction in traffic, therefore in crashes, is “saving” $1 billion. [doesn't even pay for PrettyPrettyGavin's ironic "PPG" masks]
– Bill Cosby is requesting “compassionate release.” [do we get to drug him into unconsciousness first? eww...]
That’s the …humorous side of Premier Xi’s BatLab OopsieFlu. OTOH, stories are beginning to appear in even the corporate media about the businesses that just won’t be there when we are all allowed out into the sunshine. I’m guessing the stories cover about 1 in 10, but running a small business is a treacherous and difficult undertaking in the best of times.
And as the virus numbers begin to look better [granting that there are very few reliable facts available about this thing] *some* governments are creating even stricter rules with greater penalties. Power.
Let’s remind ourselves [and everyone we talk to] that these are ‘rules’ — not Laws: they are recommendations made by unelected bureaucrats. [Who in some places have instituted threats of $1,000 fines??!? or jail??!?!?!?] Bureaucrats who may know something or many things about science and health and disease but appear to know absolutely nothing about economics and what it takes to keep a country being a country.
Apparently it must be explained that without an economy — or with a badly faltering economy — it is much more difficult to fend off say, invasions. Perhaps invasions that might be likened to bacteria or, oh, I dunno, a virus or something. Only in the economic/political arena as opposed to the biological.
People accepted this “lockdown” at first in order to “Flatten The Curve” and prevent needless deaths due to overwhelmed medical systems. We’re past that point [as some hospitals are laying off workers] so the narrative has quietly “evolved” to something resembling “Preventing Even One Death.” The bit they have clenched in their teeth is “Essential vs Non-essential.” Why not use Safely vs Unsafely? If it’s possible to sell scones and bread and fabric in a ‘safe’ manner — with masks, table outside, creditcard sales, curb service — why not books or flowers or any number of other things?
People do indeed die from a bad economy.
Ya can’t commit suicide because you’re afraid of dying.
People in CaliZuela are responding [Yes! in CaliZuela!].
Yesterday there was a march in San Diego, and there is a big one planned for the state capital today. [Operation Gridlock California on the F/B; maybe they'll have updates.] Apparently a / the tipping point has come.
Because this.
8 Comments!
Good a place as any to drop this:

Nice warm and sunny day, here. Just got back from taking El Pooper for a walk – and neither of us were wearing masks.
Bureaucrats – or lifer government flunkies – live to make rules that I ignore.
I flatten the curve by ignoring the bureaucrats.
Amber Baggs?!??
Sheesh, get married! Or divorced! Anything!
Nomen ^
Any relation to Amber Lamps?
Claire
UPDATE: skateboard park
Bwahahahahahaha!
+10 Doug for remembering Amber Lamps.
We need to hear Jack Palance “In China!”
^^ Doug – Bwa-ha-ha indeed. Lemons, lemonade. Fricking classic!
^4., Doug M.: gives me some hope for Generation Z.
^4., Doug M: Think about this – local authorities used earth-moving equipment to cover this skate park with tons of sand and within a day or so, a bunch of kids with shovels and buckets moved enough of this sand to make the park usable again (I bet a number of parents were thinking, “Geez, we can’t even get him to mow the d@mn lawn!”).