Okay, I might be wrong, but I think he’s missing the point here.

Never once in the history of America has a president sat on his thumbs for two months when he had been warned that the enemy was coming.

So now we know how that worked out.

Thanks to Deb for the heads up.

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In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats have desperately tried to get vote by mail passed in states that don’t have it in time for the November presidential election.  It’s a non-starter with Republicans lead by Trump.  At the same time, the Postal Service is losing $2 billion per month with reduced volumes of mail.  Democrats tried to put a $15 billion bailout in the relief bill, but Trump threatened to veto the entire multi-trillion dollar bill if it included any money for the Post Office.  The bill finally got passed with a $10 billion loan, by Mnuchin is holding it up in Treasury, and Trump fired the IG assigned to oversee the distribution of funds from the relief bill last week.

Republicans have been trying to kill the US Postal Service for decades, trying to privatize it and hand it over to some of their largest donors.  In 2006, the Republican controlled Congress passed a law that required the Postal Service prefund 75 YEARS of anticipated pensions, totaling $72 billion.  They then diverted that money to paying down federal debt caused by GWB’s slashing tax cuts.  Even though the Postal Service is no longer a full federal agency the Congress still controls its budget, continuously starving it for funding.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused mail volume to plummet,  Republicans, lead by Trump, have stonewalled any support to keep the service alive, and without funding, it will run out of cash in September.  At the same time, Democrats are trying to introduce voting reforms that allow vote by mail for the November elections.  Of course, Republicans are also stonewalling that.  About 20 states already allow voting by mail.  Why in the world would Republicans want to kill the Postal Service?  That answer is now crystal clear – no Post Office?  No voting by mail.  Trump’s plummet in the polls can be offset by making it almost impossible to vote during the pandemic.

Yep, Republicans figured out many years ago that reducing turnout through voter suppression, as well as radical gerrymandering, improves their chances of hanging on to power.  This effort is that strategy on steroids actually taking away Americans’ Constitutional right to vote.

There’s naked people in the Czech Republic prancing around outside but that’s not a problem.  They relaxed some of the rules there  However, if the naked people are unmasked …

Czech law enforcers issued a warning after officers were called out on March 27 in the small town of Lázně Bohdaneč, east of Prague, because of complaints about maskless naturists basking in warm weather.

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“Unfortunately, many of the sunbathing citizens were gathered in large groups, and some were not wearing face masks.,” a police statement said. “Upon the arrival of the police, everyone agreed to respect the government regulation [that face shields are compulsory outside the home].

I think we should have that kind of party here.  And there’s a Florida woman who wants to join in.

Uh, are you waiting for me to say something about this?

The 42-year-old woman, who Sheriff Rick Staly called a “deranged offender,” told police she was simply “educating people,” according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

Welcome to Florida.  Here’s how you do it.

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, told the Times of London today that she’s 80% confident they have the vaccine and that human trials begin in two weeks.  The vaccine could be ready for distribution as early as September.  Oxford is in discussions with the UK government to begin production of the vaccine even before human trials are complete.  Here’s hoping…

SquirrelRanger sent a post this morning I want to share with you.  My anger at Jerry Fallwell Jr and Sr causes my hands to shake when I type.

On the subject of the warrants that Jerry Falwell, Jr., has issued for the New York Times staffers who were alleged to have trespassed at Liberty University (as I think I understand it, at the invitation of a student there, so as to do a coronavirus story, with photos):

Reports now (today) are that the warrants were signed by a “magistrate,” Kang Lee. So says ABC News:

That would be Kang Hwan Lee of District 24 in Virginia’s Magisterial Region 2.

Well, first of all, as at least one commenter at the bottom of the RawStory.com article has pointed out, the two Kang Hwan Lee signatures on the two warrants are very different from one another. Look for yourself.

And then, second of all, Wikipedia says, as regards managerial districts in Virginia, “Magisterial districts are defined by the United States Census Bureau as a minor civil division that is a nonfunctioning subdivision used in conducting elections or recording land ownership, and are not governments.”

So yesterday the issue was that the police officer who signed the warrants was (an in-house) Liberty University policeman, not a policeman from the city or county. Well, maybe that distinction’s not important. But now the “magistrate,” who I didn’t see identified in the articles I looked at yesterday, turns out to be a non-judge.

From which it looks to me that Falwell and university have been trying to make their action against the alleged New York Times trespassers look like there’s an officialdom to it, city or county or state law enforcement and judiciary…when there’s not that ring to it. And so far it doesn’t look like the media is calling them on the point. ABC, for instance, seems to be going along with the “magistrate” lingo as if it were an honest-to-goodness judge, when that’s not the case.