Farewell 2020

The best way to end 2020 is with a column by Victor Davis Hanson.

Listen to me, I agree with experts

View social media and you see the conflict bubbling up.
"I saw people not following the guidelines."
"Don't they care?"
Then come the responses.
"The government doesn't have a right to control what I do in my house."
And the counters.
"It's not okay to be a mass murderer. Don't you see gathering during COVID is the same thing.?
And so on and so on.
And it's going to get worse into January.
It's all a matter of trust.
We don't have any in each other.
If you support the lockdowns, you use government action to try and enforce your way.
If you don't, and want to continue living life somewhat as you did in the past, you point to Florida and other areas where people are trying to do that.
We don't trust others to act thoughtfully.
Instead, each action outside our comfort zone becomes a threat.
Either a threat to our way of life.
Or a threat to our life.
When there's speculation - "your actions could harm me" - versus reality - "I missed my family members final days because of your rules." - who holds the upper hand?
In an ideal world, we would trust our neighbors to be making good decisions and let them following their reasons.
Instead of watching them out our window, and tattling.

Climategate Carol

Our neighborhood held a contest over the weekend to see who had the best light display. 

The Green New Deal crew won't be pleased. 

Al Gore speaks, no one's listening 

In the lane, lights are glistening 

Oh what a sight 

With houses really bright

Seeing all the Christmas lights are on 

 Gone away is good science 

Here to stay, blind allegiance 

We're singing our song 

Yet lights come on 

Look how all the Christmas lights are on 

On computers we can cook some data 

then pretend that it is warmer now 

They'll ask: Are you sure? 

We'll say: You know, man 

And here's the hockey stick that we have found 

 Later on, we'll conspire, 

With warnings, that are dire 

Make the people afraid 

We'll pass cap and trade 

No more seeing Christmas lights turned on 

 On computers we can cook some data 

And say skeptics are just circus clowns 

We'll have lots of fun with our bad data 

Until our own emails knock us down. 

 When we speak, ain't it thrilling 

People's hearts, they are chilling 

We'll frolic and play, the socialist way, 

No more seeing Christmas lights turned on

Wanted - three ghosts

Can we get some ghosts to visit Democratic governors this Christmas season? 

California and New York top the list. 

Pennsylvania has lots of offices needing to see the ghosts.

Bad news for Democrats

It's always nice to remind Democrats they failed at a major mission this year - winning state legislature races. 

This year, Democrats targeted a dozen state legislative chambers where Republicans held tenuous majorities, including in Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Minnesota. Their goal was to check the power of Republicans to redraw congressional and legislative districts in 2021, and to curb the rightward drift of policies from abortion to gun safety to voting rights. 

In all cases, Democrats came up short. None of their targeted legislative chambers flipped, even though Biden carried many of the districts that down-ballot Democrats did not. It could make it harder for Democrats to retain a House majority in 2022.

Now, it's two years until Demcrats get neutered.

Ain't that a kick in the head?

Jason Whitlock wasn't impressed with the pooch kick heralded by ESPN as an historic milestone.
Sarah Fuller received a standing ovation for kicking the ball 30 yards or so and high-tailing it to the sidelines to be greeted by the winless head coach using her to save his job.
This wasn’t Jackie Robinson 2.0. It was Make A Wish.

Saturday song

A free weekend of SiriusXM gives you a chance to hear long lost songs, like this one from LeBlanc and Carr.

Release the Kraken

Looks like noon Thursday is the time. 

You want proof? 

You can't handle the proof.

Looks like they are going to get it.

The big question for Biden

Joe Biden - there's 70 million Americans who think you're an incompetent old fool with crazy friends.

How to do unify us?

Today's question

 Does Bidencare cover premature celebration?

Stick together with your friends

Legal Insurrection made its blog debut in October 2008, two weeks before I started. 

He remembers the rough days of 2009 and offers hope. 

Yet this is not 2008. One of the benefits of having been at this at Legal Insurrection since October 12, 2008, is that we’ve been through several cycles. Unlike Obama’s victory in 2008, we are starting out in a much better position in the House, and in state legislatures and statehouses that will influence redistricting. The massive red wave of 2010 could be replicated in 2022. The Senate will depend on the two Georgia runoffs on January 5, 2021 — if Republicans win at least one of them, the Senate is secure at least as a blocking mechanism against leftism. There are risks of defections and wobbliness, but no one knows how to use a slim majority to advantage as much as Mitch McConnell.

No shame

The left has moved onto wanting to shame President Trump. 

Don't they realize that doesn't work? 

Ask Bill and Hillary.

60 days until Cocaine Mitchmas

It looks like control of the Senate will boil down to the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia Jan. 5.
Democrats may think they have an advantage, but they forget their liabilities.
By then, at least some of Biden's Cabinet picks will be known.
Who's going to be Energy Secretary?
After spending the campaign offering platitudes and no specifics, his direction will begin coming into focus...
Instead of anti-Trump thoughts motivating Democrats, they'll have to join candidates with ideas that may not follow the electorate.
Plus, there's history.
In 1992, after George W. Bush lost, Republicans won a runoff for Georgia's Senate seat. That started the momentum to winning the House and Senate in 1994.

I'm sure McConnell remembers.

So much for privacy

The best story of the day - Democratic House members blistering each other in their private call.
Which was immediately leaked to reporters.

They are through in '22.

Election Day song for Democrats

They want just a little more time - to create the needed votes.

Ready for a 13th year

 My blogging has dropped greatly this year.

What more can be said about coronavirus and Trump?

Besides, I'm not thrilled with our posts look with the latest Wordpress upgrade.

But Tuesday marks the end of our 2020 nightmare.

What nightmare awaits in 2021?

We'll know soon enough.

What's the news?

Facebook and Twitter want to contain news about Hunter Biden's emails.
Too bad
Is there anyone on the right side who is not

1. Posting it on Facebook
2. Talking about it on Twitter.
3. Posting in their blog?

Sorry Hunter.

You're no Beau, that's for sure.

I gotta get out of this place

Cheers to President Trump for getting out of his hospital suite to wave at the supporters outside Walter Reed Army Hospital.
The better he feels, the worse the media feels.

Trust the Monster accountant

Confused about President Trump's taxes.
Larry Correia can help.

Living in Joe's world

Rod Dreher finds a better use for his time on the radio than listening to NPR - the Joe Rogan Experience.
It feels like every time I get in the car and turn on the radio, I don’t have to wait long before I hear a story that highlights in some new way what a racist country America is, or how hard illegal immigrants have it in America, or how put-upon sexual minorities are, and so forth. I don’t know if NPR’s liberalism has always been like this, or if it has gotten worse — or if I have simply become thin-skinned about these issues. I have always known NPR was liberal, but that didn’t stop me from being a big fan, and even a contributing member. I feel that my NPR — the NPR that I cherished, even though it was liberal and I am conservative — has gone away, and I don’t know why. I used to love listening to it in the car, and not conservative talk radio, because I don’t want to have a voice on the radio rubbing my nose into some political narrative. NPR used to stand out because it proposed new ways of seeing the world, or at least ways that seemed new to me as a conservative. Now listening to NPR is giving oneself over to hosts who seek to impose a worldview that constantly says, about people who don’t fit the progressive narrative, that you aren’t worthy of our consideration or attention. That you are what’s wrong with America.
I switched over to Spotify to listen to Joe Rogan’s September 17 podcast episode with Douglas Murray, on the advice of a friend. It was excellent! Murray is more conservative than Rogan, but still, he’s a gay secular Briton, and Rogan is a pro-drug, pro-gay marriage, comedian and MMA commentator who has some conservative beliefs (or at least instincts), but who, above all, seems curious about the world. On paper, neither of these guys has a lot in common with me, but I hated for their conversation to be over, because they sounded like people I either know, or would like to know. They talked for a while about how bonkers the left has become, but neither one sounded like right-wing zealots, not in the least. What they sounded like was real people who were broadcasting from the real world, not from an aerie in the thin, cold air high atop Mount Progressive. Joe Rogan is profane, but when I listen to him, it feels like I’m listening to an actual person I might meet, and with whom I might enjoy a robust discussion, like people used to have. With NPR, it’s like listening to the Vatican Radio of the Religion Of Secular Progressivism, and you get the idea that if you met one of its young reporters, you would feel like a pot dealer who wandered into a Police Benevolent Association fundraiser.

Lots of knowledge, little wisdom

Daily Wire features a sermon from John MacArthur on our society's current problem.

You might assume the average person today knows more and understands more than all his ancestors because of the vast wealth of information on the Internet. That’s an illusion. It’s true that almost any tidbit of data you want can be called up instantly by a search engine. Wikipedia will give you a marginally reliable crowdsourced overview of practically any topic in summary form (with large headings that facilitate speed-reading). Thus without any real intellectual effort, you can appear to know far more than you truly understand.

Such a casual, superficial approach to learning feeds the worst tendencies of a pragmatic culture. People see no need to master any field of knowledge or remember specific facts. Old-style education seems a waste of time for a generation weaned on smartphones. Why study mathematics — or anything, for that matter — when you can get speedy answers to almost any question on a hand-held device?

Undefeated team watch

Through two weeks, 11 teams won both games.
This weekend, there's two matchups between 2-0 teams - the Rams at Buffalo and the Monday Night matchup between Baltimore and Kansas City.
The 1972 Miami Dolphins are watching.

Booger

From the debut of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Saturday song

A reminder to Democrats today - you can't always get what you want.

Let my people go

I have friends and family in Pennsylvania.
Trapped by their governor under burdensome lockdowns.
Not in the future.
While those restrictions were "well-intentioned," wrote U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, "good intentions toward a laudable end are not alone enough to uphold governmental action against a constitutional challenge. Indeed, the greatest threats to our system of constitutional liberties may arise when the ends are laudable and the intent is good—especially in time of emergency."

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most

Try searching "Does Joe Biden have dementia?"
Or "Joe Biden dementia"
Google is not very helpful.
Maybe Google has dementia.
If you persist, you can find information on the topic.

Boos and more

 You may have heard fans in Kansas City boo the "unity" moment between the teams.
Did you catch them doing the "Tomahawk chop" right after that?
The players want to be heard about their concerns.
So do fans.

Tale of two brothers

Joe Biden has two sons.
One he talks about - Beau.
One Republicans talk about - Hunter.
Both sons fit the narrative each side wants to tell.
Joe hides behind Beau, now deceased.
Republicans highlight Hunter as what a Biden presidency will offer.

Shave and a haircut, two bits

Who had the most famous visit to a hair salon in 2020?
Nancy Pelosi appears to top the list.
A clean win for President Trump in this story.

Saturday song

It's summer of 2020. Can anybody say this?

Know your protesters

The Other McCain gives the background on one of the men shot and killed in Kenosha Tuesday.

And wonders about the other shooting victims.
Now, let’s ask what should be an obvious question: What are the odds that a guy opens fire at a mass gathering and all three of the people he shoots turn out to have criminal records? Doesn’t this tell you something about who is engaging in these “mostly peaceful” protests?

How Trump wins

Kurt Schlichter gives the reasons for Donald Trump winning big in November.

I'm nice and you're not

The Democratic National Convention's message was quite simple - Joe Biden is nice and Donald Trump is not.
What will the Republican message be at their convention?
Has to be better.
Much better.
Hard to think how it could be worse.

What's happening here

 Powerline likes this video that mixes the Democrats' closing song Monday with the events of the summer.

Let's ride

Powerline has a clip from Sturgis, where a few members of Antifa visited - with help from the police.

Of course, the Antifas were counting on law enforcement to protect them. Some might find this ironic.

What to watch

 Should sports have returned earlier to the schedule?
Probably.
But instead of watching sports in June and July, TV viewers watched Fox News.
And lots of MyPillow commercials.

You've got to get to the future to worry about it

President Trump signed his executive orders Saturday and Democrats immediately had their talking point -  he was going to destroy Social Security and Medicare with this order.

Forget their proposal of $3 trillion in spending on their wish lists.

Trump is destroying the future.

To destroy the future, we have to get there.

While many are afraid to return to work and outside activities, you've got to focus on the fiscal problems.

Not mail-in voting and other Democratic priorities.

Did you ever have to make up your mind?

 Althouse features two posts today about the last presidential team - and their lack of quick decision making.

Joe Biden is still working on his vice presidential pick - after first saying it would be announced August 1.

Why the delay?

This kind of approach — being openly meditative about the issue at hand, with a penchant for missing his own deadlines as he mulls his options — is in line with how Mr. Biden has made other big political choices throughout his career. Those who have worked with him over the years describe nonlinear decision-making processes with input from allies and family members, a barrage of questions from Mr. Biden, and a habit of extending deadlines in a way that leaves some Democrats anxious and annoyed, while others say it brings him to a well-considered decision, eventually.

But Biden is a speed demon compared to Barack Obama - still working on his memoir about his eight-year term. It might take eight years for him to write.

If you're looking for decisive leadership, it's not on the Democratic side.

Dutch treat

What spread faster than Coronavirus in July?

Mask nannies.

Wear the mask was the cry. If not, people will die.

What can slow their spread?

Maybe Dutch scientists?

Dutch people agree.

'I like it when people can decide for themselves,' said Jesus Garcia, wielding the clippers in Barbershop Jordaan filled with mask-free staff and customers. 'You would have to really educate people how to use them properly for safety.' 

 He said he had worn masks during a trip to Spain. 'I did not feel it was really helping since people were wearing them all wrong, putting them in their pockets, placing them under their noses. It defeats the purpose.' One customer having a trim agreed. 'I find face masks absolutely awful. They're claustrophobic and don't work,' said Mark Casey, corporate finance partner at a major accountancy firm.

Saturday song

Today's news includes how white collar jobs will be leaving New York.

Working Girl's commute will be different in the future.

Rocked him like a Herman Cain

The editor of Hermancain.com tells what he knows about Herman Cain's final days.
It’s not impossible he contracted it at the Tulsa rally. But most of us on his team tend to think it happened on one of the plane trips, or possibly during his stop in Las Vegas. That’s for several reasons, one of which is simply the inherent (and to me at least, obvious) risk involved with being on an airplane these days. Another is the fact that, for all the attention on Herman contracting the virus, we haven’t heard of a major outbreak of Tulsa rally participants who came down with it.

Bring on the new schedule

The ACC has brought forth a new football schedule for the Coronavirus mangled campaign.

Unfortunately, Virginia and Virginia Tech don't get contests with Notre Dame.

Let's see how things stand in a month.

Outkicking them all

I've begun listening to the Outkick the Coverage podcast each morning, but Monday is the best.
That's when Jason Whitlock joins Clay Travis to celebrate their partnership.
And this week, to take names of their critics.
Whitlock blasts the Daily Beast writer who dared take them on.
With his own history lesson.
As it relates to race, America’s narrative arc is a story of Believers of all races methodically shaping this country into the world’s leader in equal opportunity, justice and freedom. The abolitionists who fought to end slavery were mostly Christians. The men (on both sides) who sacrificed their lives in our Civil War were mostly Christians. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the black church ended Jim Crow.
Is America perfect? No. Has it improved in each decade since its inception 244 years ago? Yes. Is the secular movement championed by liberals flirting with throwing away that progress? Absolutely.

Pod people

With schools unsure if they can open five-days a week in September, parents are working on their own solutions.
Pods.
The solution gets criticism - how dare they pull money from public schools.
At some point, we need to have adult conversations about education policy in New York and elsewhere that don't immediately default to the single most incendiary topic in American life. Parents are podding up not because they want to separate their children from people who don't look like them, but because the damn schools aren't open, and they would rather eat razor blades than experience another season like this spring.

Washington (pause) Football Team

Back in 1994, Baltimore had a Canadian Football League team when the NFL didn't grant the city an expansion team.
The new owner decided to call them the "Baltimore CFL Colts."
The NFL Colts didn't like that and sued, so the team began the year without a nickname.
At games, the announcer would say here's your Baltimore CFL (pause) team.
The fans took advantage of the pause to yell Colts.
The Redskins have a lot longer history - and probably fans will call them that name for a while.

Enough is enough

President Trump launched Operation Legend Wednesday, planning to bring more police into the field.
Looters and Democrats griped.

Saturday song

I've been listening to old American Top 40 shows from the 70s, and got reminded of this hit from 1976.

Hot Dish

Andrew Sullivan bids adieu to New York Magazine and goes back out on his own.
Why?
Since I closed down the Dish, my bloggy website, five years ago, after 15 years of daily blogging, I have not missed the insane work hours that all but broke my health. But here’s what I do truly and deeply miss: writing freely without being in a defensive crouch; airing tough, smart dissent and engaging with readers in a substantive way that avoids Twitter madness; a truly free intellectual space where anything, yes anything, can be debated without personal abuse or questioning of motives; and where readers can force me to change my mind (or not) by sheer logic or personal testimony.

Can students change their behavior?

There's unhappiness in Charlottesville this week - after the Midsummer's Celebration last weekend.
Students acted like students - at multiple locations around town.
“All of this will come to nothing if reckless behavior as was seen this past weekend continues,” he wrote. “If such behavior continues, we will not make it long into the fall semester before a significant outbreak occurs and we then need to send students home. That's the self-interested motivation to do better.”
Wonder if any locals were handing out free beer, hoping to get students sent home.

Karen goes to Advance Auto

The News Virginia has the trials of a woman who needed a windshield wiper - and found people not wearing masks.
In public.
And no one heeded her complaint.
“I really needed that windshield wiper, and I really needed it that day because of the heavy showers. I needed something so ordinary, but in the end people’s masks were pulled down and five people came through the door with no mask whatsoever.”
On a weekday between 11:15 a.m. and noon, only one out of seven customers was observed entering with a mask on. That one customer exited with an employee, who also wore a mask, and helped the customer outside on a vehicle. While working on the vehicle outside in the parking lot, both the customer and employee moved their masks below their chin.
Nice to see our local newspaper can have a reporter spend 45 minutes counting who has a mask on.
No mention if social distancing was followed, which makes it easier to go without a mask.

Warren Buffett smiles

The cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was bad news for Dominion Energy, which saw stocks drop Monday.
Is it because they spent too much on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline the past six years, or giving up on potential growth?
Blue Virginia celebrates the end of the pipeline.
I think Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway will be celebrating with the money they make in the future.

Baby we love fireworks

The helicopter over Los Angeles tells the story - people love fireworks, even when government says no.
Think it's Trump voters shooting off the fireworks?

Saturday Patriotic Songs

Kate Smith and friends sing songs from sea to shining sea.

NFL leadership takes a knee

Jason Whitlock laments the leadership void in the NFL.
So the NFL is going to start its season with all of its employees standing for the “black national anthem” and a majority of its on-field employees immediately taking a knee for the American national anthem?
That’s the game plan Smith and Goodell cooked up?
It feels as devoid of foresight and substance as the trial balloon floated two months ago to reward teams that hire black or female head coaches and executives enhanced third-round draft picks. That failed trial balloon was pinned on NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent.

That's one

Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain is in the hospital due to Coronavirus.
That he attended the Trump rally in Tulsa has sparked attention.
There's a picture of him with a bunch of people at the rally.
Have any of them gotten sick?
There's some contact tracing to do before hyping his illness.

Let's get back to work

What's the Trump plan for dealing with Coronavirus?
Get back to work.
June numbers show that is working - even with all the other troubles going on.

Watching the ship sink

Jordan Peterson tells of the latest woes among higher education - what he's feared was coming.
Twitter seems to exist primarily for the purpose of generating mobs — composed primarily of individuals who are hungry for blood and desiring to bask in the joys of reasonably risk-free reputation destruction, revenge and self-righteousness. Furthermore, as far as Twitter mobs go, those who complained about the Angewandte Chemie publication were by no means numerous, constituting perhaps less than a dozen.
No matter: once the complaints emerged, the editor of the journal in charge of Hudlicky’s work — Dr. Neville Compton — removed the paper from the journal’s website, and offered an abject apology for daring to have published it.

Saturday Coronavirus song

Everything in life now seems to have us hurting each other - statues, food, even conversations.

Life's a beach

Via Instapundit, government coming to its senses.
"We had hoped to continue the beach closure until after Fourth of July weekend, but it's become impossible for law enforcement to continue to enforce that closure," said Santa Cruz County health officer Dr. Gail Newel. "People are not willing to be governed anymore in that regard."
If the rules make sense, they can be followed.
If they are arbitrary, then government can pound sand.

When legal authority goes bad

Do you want to join the fight against a system that nearly destroys an innocent man's life.
Then celebrate with Michael Flynn today.
The Justice Department wants to dismiss the case, after finding evidence not provided to Flynn's team before he pled guilty.
The system worked against Flynn.
Supporting Flynn will help bring us to a system we can support.
You want that, right?

You can't escape the news

MASN is showing Game 1 of the 1970 World Series, something to keep my mind occupied while live sports remain on hold.
The replay includes news breaks - of the October Crisis in Canada.
Terrorism and kidnapping in 1970 interrupt my attempt to escape from the news of 2020.

Do something that matters

Jason Whitlock, now part of Outkick with Clay Travis, offers some ideas for the athletes trying to change the world.
Change Nike.
Despite being from blue-collar Akron, LeBron James has been pampered since he was 12 years old. He can’t speak for the black factory workers who frequented the Masterpiece Lounge, the bar my dad owned the last 25 years of his life. Neither can Colin Kaepernick. He barely speaks for himself let alone for manufacturing workers of any race.
What LeBron and Kap can do, if they want to use their voice and platforms in a meaningful way, is demand that Nike build manufacturing plants in Akron and Oakland. 
 Will they listen?

After the rally

Plenty of people watched President Trump's rally speech Saturday, even if the upper deck wasn't filled.
He got his time to speak to those who wanted to hear - and those he needs in November.
The President put the Democrat left neatly in a trap yesterday firmly linking them to the violence and arson and solidly linking himself and the GOP with law and order, bluntly stating that to elect Democrats is to export this mob violence to the rest of the country. This is a nightmare for every Democrat in congress who is not on a deep blue district who will now have to choose between the radical left or the swing voters who like police and on’t like riots.

Saturday Coronavirus song

The theme song for contact tracers all across the country. Thanks, Police.

The systematic problem

The new explanation is "systematic racism."
Scott Adams has been trying and failing to get modern examples of what it means.
What's something that happens to a poor black man but not a poor man of other races.
I think I've figured out what "systematic racism" means.
It's an excuse.
Used by Democratic politicians.
To explain why, 55 years after the Civil Rights Act passed, that things aren't getting better.
Democrats have been in power of government in multiple cities and states.
They want to change things.
But they can't.
Due to "systematic racism."
If you think the system is too powerful and needs to be broken up, I have a candidate for you.
Donald Trump.

Looking good for re-election

Powerline finds two signs that Republicans will be happy on November 4.
But as usual, the Democrats can’t help themselves. They have gone much too far with absurd proposals to abolish the police, and with essentially insane attacks on white people–who, last time I looked, comprise two-thirds of the electorate. And I do think you have to get outside of D.C. to get a sense of the electorate’s mood.

Saturday Patriot Song

Save the professor

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has come under fire for his posts about Black Lives Matter.
How dare Cornell Law employ someone who disagrees with them?
The professor has run his blog since the fall of 2008, knowing these enemies were out there.
We are living in extraordinarily dangerous times, reminiscent of the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution, in which professors guilty of wrongthink were publicy denounced and fired at the behest of students who insisted on absolute ideological orthodoxy. It’s a way of instilling terror in other students, faculty, staff, and society, so that others shut up and don’t voice dissenting views. We are seeing monuments destroyed in Taliban-fashion because they represent an uncomfortable history, movies and TV shows cancelled, and individuals disappeared from employment due to even the slightest deviation from the prevailing political culture.
This is not going to end well unless people of good conscience, who support black lives but not the Black Lives Movement as it was founded and currently operates, to speak up and refuse to cower in fear.

Trump contact tracing

President Trump plans to hold a rally next Friday in Tulsa.
Indoors.
A crowd without social distancing.
Masks not required.
But you know there will be great contact tracing.
The Trump campaign will get the name and contact information of everyone who attends.
If any of them get sick, we'll know.
Trump will probably encourage attendees to talk to their friends about our economic revival.
More contact tracing.
Just one question.
Will the media show up in Hazmat suits?

Buying time

Critics like to mention Donald Trump's bankruptcies.
They miss that there's a lesson to be learned from bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy gives you time to get your plan back together.
We're in the bankruptcy phase of the news cycle.
Trump is getting battered from all sides, trying to find a way to improve his coverage.
And he's got to wait for Democratic unity to splinter as each group brings their desires to the fore - like "defunding the police vs. police unions."
A few more weeks and he'll be on the campaign trail, with new energy and support from his favorite people.
And Joe Biden can't keep hiding forever.

Buffalo fritters

President Trump picked up the case of the elderly man in Buffalo - whose head appeared to hit the pavement after police began marching.
Trump suggests he was an agitator.
People who saw the initial video disagree.
As more reporting comes out, the information Trump has will move to the focus.

With all due respect

Now that the funerals are done and protesting has slowed, we're getting the real story of what's going on behind the scenes.
Things weren't very friendly in Chicago.
One Alderman demanded to know how she was supposed to convince Walmart and CVS to rebuild in her precinct, after having lobbied to bring them in previously while implicitly guaranteeing "Your stores won't be nearly razed to the ground by barbarian hordes supported by the local and state governments."
There will be more unhappy interactions in the future.

Understanding "defund the police"

In the future, if you try to pass a counterfeit $20 bill, the social worker will come and ask if you're ashamed of your actions.
And how you made the shopkeeper feel.
Who's going to volunteer to be the social worker on call for this?

Do you want Frey with that?

How do you feel about Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey?
Probably not as mad as this writer.
Frey, a former civil rights attorney, is the city’s mayor. And during what feels like eternity since mobs took to the streets, burning and/or stealing everything in sight, he has shown himself to be one of the weakest and most indecisive leaders in the history of the universe.
He would get a prize for that, but someone already stole it from him.

Defund politicians, not police

The protests have entered the silly season.
Defund police.
Politicians thinking they can shift blame to police instead of their system.
Activists with no clue what will happen if they get their way.
If politicians go along with this demand, many people will be hurt - and they'll continue to dish out their power.
Take away their money and see if we can survive without them.

Bring on the troops

Andy McCarthy explains what President Trump could do - if needed - in using the military to help stem the rioting.
The contentions that invocation of the Insurrection Act would be unconstitutional, unlawful, or unprecedented are legally and historically ignorant. And how ironic is the notion that a president’s doing so over the objection of state governments would be racist? Historically, the president’s power has been deployed against the forces of racism that state governments either could not suppress or actually supported — in response to the Ku Klux Klan after passage of the 1871 Civil Rights Act, and to enforce desegregation and civil rights in the years following the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Please don't go

Chicago mayor is asking Wal-Mart to rebuild and not abandon stores destroyed by looters.
Maybe she should have thought of that before the looters arrived.

Looters' greatest hits

An Instapundit reader collects a bunch of videos from the looting from different parts of the country.

Time for moms to crack down

How many members of Antifa live at home, likely in the basement?
Mom does their wash and they run around the streets, making messes.
Should we ask the moms of these guys to ground them until the protests are over.
It's for their safety, anyway.

Question that needs to be asked

Has CNN asked Dr. Fauci his opinion on the protests?

Saturday song

We've got to wait a few more months for the new Top Gun to take our breath away.

Florida shows the way

What state deserves praise for its Coronavirus effort?
Florida.
So far, fewer Floridians have died of the novel coronavirus than in New York’s nursing homes alone (2,259 compared with 5,800, at least). More than half of the state’s known cases of Covid-19 are found in just four South Florida counties—the top out-of-state destinations for fleeing New Yorkers. As Politico recently concluded, “Florida just doesn’t look nearly as bad as the national news media and sky-is-falling critics have been predicting for about two months now.”
Remember the early hysteria was quite wrong.

Unmasked

MSNBC tried to shame Wisconsin park goers for not wearing masks.
Except most of the crew didn't have on masks.
You'd think the reporter would notice it when looking into the camera - and seeing the cameraman's mouth and nose.

Happy days are here again

Democrats have a new reason to panic - thanks to one of their economists.
Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim.
"We are about to see the best economic data we've seen in the history of this country," he said.

Get your masks here

CNN went to an Alabama beach Monday and found - surprise - people weren't wearing masks.
The reporter tried to tell people why it was so important.
Wrong way to persuade.
CNN should buy masks with Alabama and Auburn logos.
People would be lining up to get those.

Fall in line

Every day, President Trump tells his team's thoughts on Coronavirus.
And there's always pushback.
In Virginia, Prince William County had a protest against the continuing lockdown.
And Democrats fuss about the protest.
How dare people disagree with our leaders?
Only if they're waving Trump 2020 flags.

Placebo news

If you're tired of hearing "fake news," maybe it's time for a new term for the Coronavirus era.
Placebo news.
CNN and MSNBC are the control group, showing the influence of news without context.
Fox is the group where the truth resides.
We see daily how people struggle when they only get placebo news.
They miss the truth of how President Trump has improved the country - and will continue to improve it.

Stomping on the message

For weeks, Democrats have blasted President Trump for not wearing a mask.
Saturday, Virginia governor Ralph Northam was in Virginia Beach - not wearing a mask while meeting the public.
Democrats saw and shuddered.
It also makes it harder to go after Trump for being a “sociopath,” “irresponsible,” etc. because *he* refuses to wear a mask in public. Now, all the Trumpster have to say is, “what about YOUR governor?”
The mask comes off for Democrats.

Memorial Day weekend song

Trace Adkins' "Arlington" gets its deserved spot on Memorial Day weekend.

Staunton makes big news

Tuesday's city council elections in Staunton earned national notice this week - thanks to Republicans sweeping the seats.
Daily Caller and Ace of Spades let the nation know of the good choices made.

Good job, Big Ben

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is in trouble with Pennsylvania Governor Wolf.
Big Ben dared to get a haircut and his beard trimmed.
How reckless.
I usually don't like the Steelers, but Big Ben gets kudos for this action.

Let's go racing, boys

NASCAR hits the track Sunday afternoon, marking the return of professional sports.
May the race go well and more sports join our schedule in the next few weeks.

Looks like Georgia's doing fine

The Other McCain gives us an update on Georgia - the predicted devastation has failed to materialize.
As of 10 a.m. today, Georgia’s per-capita death rate from COVID-19 (measured in deaths per million residents) was 150, which was 88.5% lower than the state of New York’s death rate of 1,417.
Oh, and just for your information, the daily number of U.S. coronavirus deaths nationwide peaked at 2,683 — on April 21, which was 25 days ago. The highest daily number of deaths in the past week was 1,772 on Wednesday (May 13), and that number was 34% below the April 21 peak.

Can you find the information

Powerline continues looking behind the number on Coronavirus - and the ages of the patients dying.
In both Minnesota and Massachusetts, the average age is above 80.
Have you heard that on the major networks?

Undoing unjustice, 24-7

Attorney General William Barr undid an injustice in dropping the charges against General Michael Flynn.
He did again when Chuck Todd misrepresented Barr's quote about the Flynn matter.
Todd’s comments were false because the very next thing that Barr said, which Todd did not show his viewers, was: “But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It helped, it upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.”
Barr spokeswoman Kerri Kupec responded to the segment by posting screenshots on Twitter of the transcript from what Todd said and what Barr said in his CBS News interview last week, writing: “Very disappointed by the deceptive editing/commentary by @ChuckTodd on @MeetThePress on AG Barr’s CBS interview. Compare the two transcripts below. Not only did the AG make the case in the VERY answer Chuck says he didn’t, he also did so multiple times throughout the interview.”

We're all in this together, Arlington

With Governor Northam finally loosening his restrictions for Virginia, Arlington County's board says they aren't ready.

What does Northam do with this request?

When rural parts of Virginia wanted to open earlier, Northam said no.

We are a state and we are together.

If he had let those regions open sooner, it would be easier to let Arlington lag behind due to local conditions.

We're a big state, with different needs. Northam should have realized this prior to Arlington's request.

Shave and a hair cut, two bits

Shelley Luther caught the ire of a Texas judge, but before that she caught the mood of many Americans stuck at home.
Before she was ever arrested, Shelley Luther evidently sensed she could turn her story into a more universal one and change the conversation. She knew she was in a big city, Dallas, which is one of the nation’s largest media markets, so she could push her story to a national audience. And she did. She sensibly prepared by setting up a GoFundMe account, anticipating legal and other expenses (and she’s now being criticized for thinking ahead by the same people who wanted to see her spend a week in jail). She’s also being criticized for owning a nice home — a home she worked for and was paying for before the government shut her business and the whole economy down. She would like to continue paying for it, but can’t because she wasn’t allowed to work.

Truth about Flynn

John Solomon lists the reasons Michael Flynn's legal odyssey will end with charges dismissed.

Congratulations, General Flynn

The Department of Justice threatened General Michael Flynn's family in 2017, and he plead guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI.
Today, the DOJ recommended dropping the charges, and Flynn shows his young grandson doing the pledge of allegiance.
He protected his family and proudly shares their accomplishments today.

Judge Karen

Don't you feel bad for the poor judge in Texas?
He ruled one day, and the next the governor slaps him down.
The salon owner had been sentenced to a week in jail.
Is the judge ready to apologize now?

Do the Bristol stomp

Salena Zito visits State Street in Bristol - where the Tennessee side is open and the Virginia side - across two lanes of traffic - is still on lockdown.
There are a lot of towns in our country that border neighboring states, but few quite like this one, where the town sits in two states and shares the same name and traditionally vibrant business district along State Street.
Thanks to very different approaches to reopening their states, the businesses on the Tennessee side were open Saturday, while the Virginia side businesses, with the exception of curbside pickup operations at The Burger Bar and the legendary Blakey-Mitchel men’s clothing store a few blocks away, are nearly all closed.

Location, location, location

Fox News held a town hall Sunday with President Trump answering questions at the Lincoln Memorial.
Joe Biden is in his basement in Delaware.
So unfair for slow Joe.

Saturday Coronavirus song

Helen Reddy sings the Anthem of some during the Coronavirus situation - leave me alone.

Give this story an F

The News Virginia advises Waynesboro and Staunton of their failing grades in the travel metric of "safe distancing."
What's our number of coronavirus cases again?
On scales of 0-100, single digits are an F.
Guess we're failing that too, with so few positive cases.
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are the only grades that really matter.

Reade it and weep

Chris Hayes got plenty of bad attention Thursday following his segment on Joe Biden's accuser.
Liberals being unhappy is a good feeling.

Georgia on my mind

In a few weeks, people will forget Georgia led the way out of the coronavirus lockdowns.
Now, too many are hoping for death and destruction of those trying to restart their lives.
These writers forget

• The weather's getting warmer.
• We're learned a lot in the past six weeks.
• We have more medical equipment and masks.
• We have a good idea where the trouble spots will pop up.

May will be better.

If we ignore what these writers produce in the future.

Tired of being alone

Powerline is tired of people complaining about the people who have quarantine fatigue.
Trump’s support for protesters in Minnesota and Michigan was not an attack on social distancing. Rather, given what Trump has said about Georgia, it is best understood as an expression of sympathy for residents in those states who have been subjected to arbitrary shutdown policies.

Saturday Coronavirus song

The Lovin' Spoonful asks the question we all have for governors struggling with the decision to open up the economy.

Relax, don't do it

Trump critics have erupted about him talking about possibly injecting disinfectants to stem coronavirus.
Did he recommend or mandate it?
No.
He's doing what he does, talking out loud.
Asking why and why not.
Maybe not his best idea, but we need to relax.
Trump's leadership has the number of hospital admissions dropping across the country.
That's what matters.

Ready to help the people

Hospitals in Virginia said Thursday they are ready and able to treat patients they've been prohibited from seeing for 30 days.
Governor Northam said no for seven more days.
Is he following the data and the science with this decision?

Let us out or we'll be back

Protesters visited Richmond Wednesday afternoon, seeking to ease restrictions that closed many businesses.
Will they convince the state's leadership?
“We’re calling this the American spirit parade because the American spirit is based on freedom and we’re asking the governor to open churches and businesses to allow adults to take personal responsibility for their health and well being,” said Diana Shores, executive director of the Virginia First Foundation, as she helped coordinate protesters staging at Willow Lawn Shopping Center.
If not, they'll be back.

Take a deep breath

Rich Lowry looks at how the ventilator crisis eased.
Another important realization was that FEMA could do just-in-time delivery. It could get states and hospitals ventilators within 24 or 48 hours. This created a lot of flexibility. The administration could wait to see how things really played out rather than making decisions based on models that forecast what the demand might be two weeks in the future. “When you started looking at it like that,” the official says, “the numbers went down dramatically.”
And this is the key thing: The strategy was based on not sending states what they requested on their say-so. That was the opposite of the normal FEMA operating procedure. Usually, state and counties ask for things in a natural disaster, and FEMA sends them along as a matter of course. With an epidemic threatening the entire country, that way of doing things would have exhausted the federal resources immediately.
Step back.
Things are better than the media make them appear.

United - against the governor

Of the governors who seem to have let power to go their heads, Virginia's Ralph Northam leads the way.
He's wanted Virginia closed longer - June 10 - when others are waiting to see how things go May 1 or May 15.
Now he's drawn the attention of President Trump.
And trying to say Trump's politicized things, not him.
“You know, our president obviously has been unable to deliver on tests. Now, he has chosen to focus on protests. And this is not the time for protests, this is not the time for divisiveness. This is time for leadership that will stand up and provide empathy, that will understand what’s going on in this country of ours with this pandemic. It’s the time for truth. And it’s the time to bring people together. And that’s what I’ve done as the governor of Virginia."
People in Virginia are together - wondering how long these orders will last.
While watching most of the death and illness happen either in nursing homes or New York City.
We have masks and we have not gotten sick over the last month. We want to start the path back to post-pandemic life.

Saturday song

Have you reached the Lionel Richie stage of lockdown? Dancing on the Ceiling.

Let my people go

Powerline plans to be at Minnesota's capital Friday at noon to protest the continuing shutdown of the economy.
Pressure to stop devastating the lives of hundreds of millions of people will grow inexorably. Minnesota is a classic instance: our governor shut down the state on the basis of an alleged model that claimed 74,000 people would otherwise die–but only 50,000 with a shutdown! In fact, there have been fewer than 100 deaths, more than two-thirds in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. If our government had shut down access to nursing homes and assisted living facilities–which it didn’t effectively do, apparently–it would have saved more lives than the absurd cessation of economic and social activity that our feckless governor implemented. One more time: that’s noon tomorrow, at the governor’s mansion in St. Paul.

Give Michigan a hand

Good job by Michigan residents protesting their governor today.
Unfortunately, I just watched the governor on MSNBC.
She claimed - people were giving out candy with their bare hands.
The horror.
Way to pour gasoline on this fire.
All she had to do was let them get seeds to plant their gardens.
Instead, with nothing else to do, they visited Lansing.
And empowered their fellow citizens.

We've learned so much

Powerline turns a skeptical eye toward those who assume the worst will happen when shutdowns are lifted.
I think many of us will want to proceed somewhat cautiously with our daily lives even after the government restores our full freedom to move and congregate. We will not behave like coronavirus fatalists.
I think we will be wise not to.

Who do you trust?

After articles casting doubt on President Trump's early response to the coronavirus, he came out blazing in Monday's press conference.
"The media minimized the risk from the start,” the text of the video read, prior to featuring a series of flashback clips to prominent media professionals downplaying the threat posed by the virus.
As the country begins to open up, it's a matter of who you trust.
By emphasizing what they see as Trump's failures, it makes it harder for him to lead the country back.
As Trump shows the media failures, it's a reminder not to trust them completely.
We're going to need to trust Trump to successfully open the country.
Trump's doing the best he can to build that trust - and keep the media from tearing it down.

Eyes on Texas

While the government starts planning to reopen the economy, Texas will be taking the lead this week.
“Next week, I will be providing an executive order talking about what will be done in Texas about reopening Texas businesses,” Abbott said Friday, saying economic activity can resume “in a way that will be safe for that economic revitalization.”
“We will focus on protecting lives while restoring livelihoods. We can and we must do this,” said Abbott.
The rest of the country wishes you well - and wishes our leaders were like you.

Easter Sunday in a Holy Saturday world

It's a totally different Easter Sunday throughout the world.
Instead of gathering together, Christians are hunkered down at home.
Watching services via computer instead of praising from the pew.
We're locked away from our hope.
Just like Holy Saturday.
That day, the disciples were locked down - hoping to avoid the authorities who had just killed Jesus.
What terrible fate awaited them?
From almost 2000 years in the future, we know.
Resurrection and revival were their future.
May it be our future as well.

Easter song

For my blogging Easter tradition, Keith Green's Easter Song.

Saturday song

Jim Stafford fights off the spiders and snakes.

Target date

When should the country's revival hit full stride?
Obvious isn't it?

How many anecdotes make data?

Should we use hydroxychloroquine?
It's helped some people.
How many people need to get off their death beds for the drug to be appreciated?

Better than Eeyore thought it would be

Victor Davis Hanson sees how pessimists can claim victory even when better news happens.
If the Eeyores are proven right, then, they are seen as not only prescient but sanctified — the voices in the wilderness who spoke the inconvenient truths that saved lives.
The sunnier prognosticators suffer a lose-lose dilemma rather than the pessimist’s win-win chances. If one doubts these original nightmarish Imperial College worst-case predications of 2 million-plus deaths in the United States, and is proven correct, it matters little. The pessimist argues that it was only his bleak forecasts that changed behaviors and that, without such changes, the optimist’s obviously faulty data and poor reasoning would have led policymakers over a cliff.

He should have gone with Barbie pink

Governor Northam modeled a facemask today.
A black one.
He stood in front of the cameras in blackface.
That's the man who wants Virginians to shelter in place for 65 more days.

How long do you want to wait?

Yahoo has another Trump-bashing article on hydroxychloroquine.
It's unproven, they say.
There haven't been months-old clinical trials to fight a virus we just discovered a few months ago.
How many people should die while awaiting trials be done?
How many should die while being given placebos during correct studies?
Several doctors have had success with the treatment. Let's continue and see how it works.

Don't be dense

Coronavirus warnings about social distancing may kill - government plans for dense development.
The holy grail for the Met Council’s urban planners, and their allies at the Minneapolis City Council, is “densification.” They seek to engineer a world in which we increasingly abandon our single-family homes for stack-and-pack, multifamily apartments, and our private automobiles for jampacked mass transit.

Check out this crap

Need a better way to check for Coronavirus?
How about wastewater treatment plants?
Analysing wastewater—used water that goes through the drainage system to a treatment facility—is one way that researchers can track infectious diseases that are excreted in urine or faeces, such as SARS-CoV-2.
One treatment plant can capture wastewater from more than one million people, says Gertjan Medema, a microbiologist at KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. Monitoring effluent at this scale could provide better estimates for how widespread the coronavirus is than testing, because wastewater surveillance can account for those who have not been tested and have only mild or no symptoms, says Medema, who has detected SARS-CoV-2 genetic material—viral RNA—in several treatment plants in the Netherlands. “Health authorities are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

Briefly speaking

The daily presidential briefings on Coronavirus have become a topic - based on your opinion of the president.
Viewers are relying on that stream of news; they are communing with their president and the federal government in a way we rarely see. It is not clear how this virus will progress, when we can get back to work or how bad the economy will be over the next several months. But Americans see Trump fighting for them, every day, as hard as humanly possible.
Democrats know that will help him win four more years.

Why June 10?

Governor Northam pushed out the date of June 10 as the length of time the current stay-at-home order could last.
Why June 10?
It's a weird date.
It's a Wednesday. Middle of the week.
Deadlines end on a weekend, so you start the week fresh on a Monday.
A full week of work.
It's one day after the next set of primary elections are scheduled.
That makes the timing even weirder. 
I doubt we'll go that far - we'll see the worst in April and open May with brighter horizons.

Idea for inventors

We have need for masks and ventilators.
Inventors are searching for new ways to increase supply.
Can you make a ventilator using empty toilet paper rolls?
We seem to have a large supply of that..

Get ready to work

Governors across the country are telling their residents to stay at home.
It's rest time.
We'll be working hard very soon to build back our economy.
We can do it.

I missed Earth Hour

Apparently, last night was Earth Hour.
People were supposed to turn off lights at 8:30 p.m.
I forgot about it.
Canada's Justin Trudeau didn't.
I need to give Trace Adkins his chance to shine.

Thrills from the pills

Via Powerline, more good news from France.
In 80 in-patients receiving a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the team found a clinical improvement in all but one 86 year-old patient who died, and one 74-year old patient still in intensive care unit. The team also found that, by administering hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin, they were able to observe an improvement in all cases, except in one patient who arrived with an advanced form, who was over the age of 86, and in whom the evolution was irreversible, according to a new paper published today in IHU Méditerranée Infection.

Saturday Coronavirus song

The Police give the advice real police now give - don't stand so close to me.

Looking for a hero

Kurt Schlichter tells us who stepped in to save the world - and who stepped in it.
A big hero is Dr. Anthony Fauci for going everywhere and talking to everyone. Yeah, he’s a liberal in his personal life. He seems to like Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit for some reason but he does what you should do in his position and plays it straight. Where he disagrees with the president, he does it respectfully and without the spittle-spraying insanity of the Never Trump set, and where he thinks the president is right, Dr. Fauci says so. Sure, some conservatives are suspicious of him, and that’s no surprise. What is shocking is seeing someone not being a liberal hack.

Looking for good news

Instapundit has some morning links about people working together to fight Coronavirus and the impacts.

Do we need big cities?

Once we get through Coronavirus, what's next?
The areas getting hit hard are big cities like New York and Seattle - where lots of people cram into a small space.
If you look at the map of Virginia cases, all counties west of Roanoke are clean - except for Lee in the far southwest.

People who love New York like being where the action is.
But being stuck in a small one-room apartment isn't the big city life.
Will companies stay in the big cities, or seek wide open spaces?
Prepare for plenty of changes in the coming months and years.

Great American Resurrection

Can we begin reviving the country's economy by Easter - April12?
We have needed a date for hope - that this will end.
We have enough bad news on a minute-by-minute basis.
Great phrase by Trump.

Saturday Coronavirus song

When you need to keep your distance, "invisible touch" is a good idea.

It's the perfect time to panic

PJ Media looks at the matchup between President Trump and NBC's Peter Alexander.
President Trump described himself as optimistic and full of hope. He believes the people are with him and not scared, but acting in a prudent and measured way in a difficult time. "When, not IF, when we win the war," he said he is confident that jobs will come back.
The president wants the media to share the good news with the country and stop fear-mongering and searching for the worst-case scenarios and instead focus on the enormous efforts that are underway to bring this crisis to a swift end. No U.S. hospitals have been overwhelmed thus far, supplies are on the way, and American companies are stepping up to fill in any shortage gaps by manufacturing anything that is needed. Cruiselines are offering ships for more hospital space, Navy ships are being deployed to the places hardest hit, and millions of masks for medical professionals are on the way. But none of the reporters in that room wanted to focus on these amazing developments and instead were single-mindedly trying to trip Trump up and get a viral clip of themselves on social media because "orange man bad."
Good times are coming.
Even if the media can't see it.

Virus flies over flyover country

Ron Brownstein sees the difference in reactions between red and blue states.
Republican-leaning states to this point are displaying notably less urgency about the outbreak. Of the states that have taken the fewest actions to restrict public gatherings or limit restaurant service on a statewide basis—such as Texas, Missouri, and Alabama—almost all have Republican governors, according to research by Topher Spiro, the vice president for health policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, where he directs a program that examines state health initiatives. That’s left Democratic-run cities in those red states—such as Houston, Tucson, Nashville, and Atlanta—to try to impose their own rules on public gatherings. Yet all those local limits face an obvious problem: People from elsewhere in the state can still travel to their jurisdictions. “We can’t seal our borders,” acknowledged Lina Hidalgo, the chief administrator in Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, when she announced county-wide closures on Monday.

Hope is on the way

As the days go by, more scientists are trying more ways to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Remember that as you see the daily bad news.
The better we get at interventions to identify and isolate specific people with the virus, the less we should need to rely on interventions that isolate the entire population. That’s a reason the ramp-up of widely available testing remains such an important goal for the U.S.: More testing should, in time, allow for more normal living.

Still the one

Eighty people in West Virginia have been tested for coronavirus.
None have tested positive.
Is it time to head for the hills?

Here come the germs

Penelope Trunk thinks surviving the pandemic might be hard for her and her teenage sons.
But at least Boston's quiet.
And the streets of Boston are quiet now that the students have all flown home to deliver coronavirus from the petri-dish dorms to little houses full of old people all over the country.

Saturday Coronavirus song

Long before Coronavirus, there was Rockin Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu

Keep calm and trust Trump

Friday's press conference boosted the stock market in the final hour before closing.
The president and his all-star CEOs said they were going to work together to get us through the situation.
But media members who haven't trusted Trump before look for items to continue criticizing him.
Maybe it's time to quarantine complaints?

Weekend watchdog hiatus

A full Weekend Watchdog column was ready to go for its Friday morning slot on the blog.
Then the NBA cancelled Thursday night games.
And basketball tournaments were scrapped.
And NHL.
And baseball.
and soccer.
Will NASCAR run this weekend? That's one sporting event with little contact between fans and competitors on race day.
The watchdog will break for a while as the sports world tries to figure its place in Coronavirus world.

Leave me alone

Powerline asks if self-quaranting strikes some people as the perfect opportunity to do what they prefer to do.
Why go out? You can save a lot of money cooking at home, you’ve got a giant flat-screen TV (or several), there is beer in the fridge, you would rather spend time with your wife and kids than attend boring business or social events. So why not stay home? To the extent you want to keep in touch with other people, you can do it via email and text. You can post photos on Instagram to let them know what you are up to (i.e., staying home). You can Face Time, Tic Tok, or whatever. “Social distance” is much what most of us are increasingly used to. Why risk personal contact?

Death takes a holiday

Lileks gives his takes on movies to watch while self-quarantining.
Start with Andromeda Strain.
The discovery of the bug remains one of the great unnerving moments of sci-fi — you’re terrified not so much by the green Jell-O (the props were clichés, too), but what it does.

Not bugged by coronavirus

The Other McCain attended CPAC.

He's not panicking.

While fear-stricken hypochondriacs are stampeding Costco to buy out all the hand sanitizer, I’m endeavoring to remain calm and doing no more than routine hygiene. What is the responsible thing to do? Am I supposed to be worried? Am I like Gen. Sedgwick, foolishly joking about something that might actually kill me? Germs are not bullets and, as dangerous as coronavirus may be, its lethality seems mainly limited to the elderly. Well, I’m 60, but still vigorous enough to feel confident that my immune system can cope with a virus (to which I may or may not have been exposed).

Remember Little Sisters of the Poor

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick whines about the latest abortion case before the Supreme Court.
It's so unfair that doctors at clinics need admitting privileges at local hospitals.
She tells how safe the clinics are.
This very proficiency is part of the reason they cannot obtain admitting privileges and the record shows that they did in fact try and were refused. Hospitals don’t want to give such privileges to physicians who almost never need admit a patient. As Breyer noted in Whole Woman’s Health, doctors at the El Paso clinic in Texas performed 17,000 procedures in the preceding 10 years and not one had to be transferred to a hospital. That made admitting privileges impossible to obtain.
So the rules aren't needed because they are necessary.
An extra financial burden.
Yet Obamacare demanded the nuns at Little Sisters of the Poor have birth control and contraception in their health plans.
For that group, it wasn't needed. It was just an extra financial burden.
Liberals can't push rules to promote abortion and then complain when the same logic is used against abortion providers.

Milking the problem

There are protesters who shout "Let Dairy Die."
The explanation is here.
I'm not moo-ved.

Saturday song

You'd think this would be a great song for Donald Trump to use at rallies, thanks to Charlie Daniels Band.

Weekend watchdog

Who's going to Dayton?
Usually Dayton is known as the host the First Four, where four conference champions from lower ranked leagues start their NCAA tournament experience.
This year, the hometown Flyers ranked among the best in the country, and ESPN's College GameDay will be there Saturday morning before the Flyers' regular season finale.
The first bids for the 68-team NCAA tournament will be issued this weekend. The Mountain West holds its championship game on CBS Saturday at 5:30 p.m., with the Missouri Valley title contest Sunday at 2 p.m.
ESPN2 has the Ohio Valley championship game Saturday at 8 p.m.
The Big South championship will be Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN, followed by the Atlantic Sun. There's a West Coast Conference quarterfinal game Saturday at 10 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. on ESPN2.
As the regular season winds down in other conferences, Georgia Tech clashes with Clemson on ESPN2 Friday at 7 p.m. and VCU meets Davidson at 9 p.m.
SEC regular season champion Kentucky faces Florida on CBS Saturday at 1 p.m., followed by UCLA-USC.
Villanova visits Georgetown on Fox Saturday at noon and Creighton clashes with Seton Hall at 2:30 p.m.
ESPN starts its day at noon with Wisconsin facing Indiana and Kansas tangles with Texas Tech at 2 p.m. Virginia hosts Louisville at 4 p.m. before Duke and North Carolina battle at 6 p.m. It's Washington-Arizona at 10 p.m.
Auburn takes on Tennessee at noon on ESPN2, then it's Georgia-LSU and Texas' contest with Oklahoma State at 4 p.m. Oklahoma faces TCU at 6 p.m.
FoxSports1 has DePaul-Providence Saturday at 6:30 p.m., then Butler meets Xavier at 8:30 p.m. before Stanford-Oregon at 11 p.m.
Marquette battles St. John's on MASN2 Saturday at noon.
Memphis meets Houston Sunday at noon on CBS and it's Ohio State against Michigan State at 4 p.m.
Michigan battles Maryland on Fox Sunday at noon.
The Wizards meet the Hawks on NBC Sports Washington Friday at 7 p.m. and host the Heat Sunday at 7 p.m.
The Heat take on the Pelicans on Friday at 8:15 p.m. followed by the Bucks against the Lakers.
The Warriors host the 76ers Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC and it's Lakers-Clippers Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
The ACC women's tournament continues Friday with quarterfinal play at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington, then games at 6 and 8 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington-plus.
Texas Tech tangles with Oklahoma on MASN2 Saturday at 2 p.m. and Baylor battles Iowa State Sunday at 1 p.m.
ESPN2 has five women's conference games Sunday, starting with the ACC at noon. The best of the SEC battle at 2 p.m., then it's American Conference at 4 p.m., Big Ten at 6 and PAC-12 at 8 p.m.
The Big East semifinals are on FoxSports1 Sunday at 6 and 8:30 p.m.
The Orioles meet the Yankees on MASN Sunday at 1 p.m.
ESPN has Red Sox-Braves Friday at 1 p.m.
The Capitals battle the Penguins Saturday at 1 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington.
 NBC Sports Washington also has Ottawa-San Jose Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Blues face the Blackhawks Sunday at 7:30 p.m. followed by Colorado-San Jose.
NBC has the PGA tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
 The XFL season reaches its halfway mark this weekend, starting Saturday at 2 p.m. with Seattle's visit to Houston on ABC. New York takes on Dallas at 5 p.m. on Fox. St. Louis tangles with Washington Sunday at 3 p.m. on FoxSports1, with Tampa Bay-Los Angeles on ESPN at 9 p.m.
NASCAR visits Phoenix, with the Cup Series on Fox Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and the Xfinity Series goes Saturday at 4 p.m. on FoxSports1.
The United States faces Spain on ESPN Sunday at 5 p.m.
In the MLS, Portland tangles with Nashville Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
Premier League play begins Saturday at 7:25 a.m. on NBC Sports network when Liverpool faces Bournemouth. It's Arsenal against West Ham United at 9:55 a.m. and Burnley battles Tottenham Hotspur at 12:25 p.m.
Chelsea clashes with Everton Sunday at 9:55 a.m. on NBC Sports network and NBC has Manchester City-Manchester United at 12:30 p.m.
In the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg meets Leipzig Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on FoxSports1.
Florentina faces Brescia in Italian Serie A Sunday at 7:25 a.m. on ESPN2.
There's Pro Series swimming on NBC Sports network Friday at 7:30 p.m.
MASN has the Tampa Bay Derby Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and it's the Santa Anita Handicap at 8 p.m.
The Big 12 men's wrestling championships are on MASN Sunday at 7 p.m.
The American Cup gymnastic meet is on NBC Sports network Saturday at 5 p.m.
Daytona hosts motocross racing Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports network.

Warren campaign's last meeting

Warren: We've got to find a way to get more votes.
Staffer: How?
Warren: We've got to tell our story.
Staffer: How?
Warren: We've got to do this without money to pay for TV ads and other usual campaign aids.
Staffer: How?

Late night with DaTech Guy

Want to cap your day with political insight?
DaTech Guy has resumed podcasting, now at 12:35 a.m. after his second shift job.
It may not help you wind down after a long day, but it's there on YouTube when you're ready.

Bloomberg's business case

Michael Bloomberg suspended his presidential bid Wednesday.
So many lessons to learn.
Let Don Surber teach.
Mini Mike made a big deal about self-financing his campaign. 
President Donald John Trump initially made the same mistake. Then he realized, the guy giving you five bucks is going to vote for you come hell or high water. He got Hillary had the big donors. The Donald had the small donors. Who won? It takes a helluva salesman to get waitresses to donate to a billionaire.

Inside the Warren campaign - final edition?

Staffer: We need to make a big splash before Super Tuesday.
Warren: How?
Staffer: We need to mute the publicity going toward the Biden campaign since Saturday.
Warren: How?
Staffer: We need to talk about why people should vote for you.
Warren: How?

No hope for Bernie

Establishment Democrats have accelerated their plans to stop Bernie Sanders.
Two more moderators have dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden.
Even Andy Schmookler has given up on Elizabeth Warren a day before Tuesday's primary.
Why?
Because he thinks it's likely President Trump's team will destroy Sanders.
But at least as plausibly, one can imagine Sanders being annihilated by Trump’s propagandists, who whip up a big chunk of America that doesn’t like the word “socialist,” doesn’t trust someone who had good things to say about the Castro regime, and who would make “radical” changes to America.

Now the fun begins

Joe Biden finally has a primary state victory.
Now the fun begins.
Lots of states will vote Tuesday.
Bernie Sanders will win delegates.
Joe Biden will win delegates.
Mike Bloomberg might win delegates.
The rest will likely disappear from the campaign trail.
It will be a long march to Milwaukee in July.

Saturday song

Jump into Leap Day with Van Halen.

Weekend watchdog

February 29 only comes around once every four years.
This time it's on a Saturday, with a full slate of basketball on TV.
CBS has a Big 12 battle between Kansas and Kansas State at 1:30 p.m., with Auburn against Kentucky at 3:45 p.m.
Providence tangles with Villanova on Fox at noon and Seton Hall meets Marquette at 2:30 p.m.
The College GameDay crew visits Maryland for the 8 p.m. contest with Michigan State on ESPN. The today's schedule begins in the Big 12 with Texas-Texas Tech at noon and Baylor tangles with TCU at 2 p.m. It's off to the ACC at 4 p.m. for North Carolina's contest with Syracuse and Virginia hosts Duke at 6 p.m. Arizona faces UCLA in the nightcap at 10 p.m.
Texas A&M takes on LSU at noon on ESPN2, followed by Florida facing Tennessee and West Virginia-Oklahoma at 4 p.m. Northern Iowa duels with Drake at 6 p.m., then it's San Diego State against Nevada and Saint Mary's meets Gonzaga at 10 p.m.
NBC Sports Washington has a pair ACC contests, with Florida State-Clemson at 2 p.m. and Wake Forest tangles with Notre Dame at 4 p.m. Massachusetts meets Richmond at 6 p.m.
Butler battles DePaul on FoxSports1 at 6:30 p.m.
In the NBA, the Rockets visit the Celtics on ABC at 8:30 p.m.
There's women's basketball between Mt. St. Mary's and St. Francis at 2 p.m. on MASN.
Saturday's XFL slate brings Los Angeles' contest with New York on ABC at 2 p.m. and Seattle-St. Louis on Fox at 5 p.m.
It's NFL combine week, with coverage on ABC at 5 p.m.
The MLS regular season starts on Fox at 8:30 p.m. with Nashville against Atlanta.
NASCAR's Xfinity Series takes the track on FoxSports1 at 4 p.m.
NBC Sports network has three contests from the Premier League, starting with Crystal Palace's clash with Brighton & Hove Albion at 7:25 a.m. Bournemouth battles Chelsea at 9:55 a.m. and it's Watford-Liverpool at 12:25 p.m.
In the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich battles Hoffenheim at 9:30 p.m. on FoxSports1.
The World Rugby Seven Series starts on NBC Sports network at 8 p.m.
There'll be plenty of leaping as NBC Sports network covers motocross racing from Atlanta at 5 p.m.
For the days around Leap Day, the Thunder battle the Bucks on ESPN Friday at 8:15 p.m. and it's Nuggets-Clippers in the nightcap.
The Wizards visit the Jazz Friday at 9 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington and meet the Warriors Sunday at 8 p.m.
The Clippers host the 76ers on ABC Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and ESPN has Lakers-Pelicans Sunday at 8 p.m.
Davidson and Dayton duel on ESPN2 Friday at 7 p.m. and Texas State takes on UT-Arlington at 9 p.m.
FoxSports1 has Washington-Washington State Friday at 9 p.m.
Xavier tangles with Georgetown Sunday at 2 p.m. on CBS, followed by Michigan-Ohio State.
 Cincinnati clashes with Houston on ESPN Sunday at 1 p.m.
It's Creighton-St. John's on FoxSports1 Sunday at noon.
On the women's court, Villanova visits Creighton on FoxSports1 Friday at 7 p.m. and James Madison hosts Drexel at 9 p.m. on MASN.
There's three contests on ESPN2 Sunday, with Texas A&M-South Carolina at noon followed by Duke against North Carolina and Maryland's meeting with Minnesota at 4 p.m.
NBC Sports Washington offers Virginia against North Carolina State Sunday at 2 p.m. and Boston College takes on Syracuse at 4 p.m.
Fox has the NASCAR race from Fontana Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
There's a pair of contests Sunday, with Capitals-Wild at 8 p.m. and the Kings' contest with the Golden Knights at 10:30 p.m.
The Flyers face the Rangers on NBC Sunday at noon.
On the college ice, Notre Dame hosts Michigan State Friday at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports network.
The Nationals have a spring training game with the Rays Friday at 1 p.m. on MASN.
NBC has the Honda Classic Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m.
Houston visits Dallas on FoxSports1 Sunday at 4 p.m. in XFL action, and the Defenders visit the Vipers on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.
MLS opening weekend continues with two matches on ESPN - Seattle against Chicago at 3 p.m. followed by Los Angeles FC against Inter Miami. FoxSports1 offers Portland meeting Minnesota at 7:30 p.m.
Norwich City battles Leicester City on NBC Sports network Friday at 2:55 p.m.
Everton meets Manchester United Sunday at 8:55 a.m.
Union Berlin meets Wolfsburg at 7:30 a.m. Sunday on FoxSports1 and it's Leipzig-Leverkusen at 9:30 a.m.
NBC Sports network has the second day of the rugby Seven Series from Los Angeles at 11:30 a.m.