Tag: The Endless Emergency
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Indecency Plus Blue Fragility
Governor Cuomo’s “Marie Antoinette” moment: The Democrat fielded questions Wednesday while angry protesters outside expressed their displeasure with ongoing shutdown policies. A reporter said she spoke to many of the protesters and found them to be “regular people who are not getting a paycheck.” “Some of them are not getting their unemployment check and they’re…
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The Governor We Really Need
Bud Grant – the last person in public life who ever managed to portray Minnesotans as “tough”, with his bans on gloves and heaters on the sidelines at Vikings games in frigid Met Stadium in the dead of winter – is still at it. Asked whether Covid gives him pause at 93, he responded: “I’ve…
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A Bit Of Advice
Back in 2010, when the Tea Party was at high tide, there was a wave of sightings of some disturbingly racist and violent signs at Tea Party rallies. These signs got all kinds of media attention. Thing is, when people were able to crowd-source the people carrying the signs, a huge portion of them turned…
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If The Tables Were Turned, Part 56,334,631
“Governor Walz hates Black people and wants them to die.” You know that would be the headline, if Walz were Republican. Shutting down the schools is resulting in kids missing class, mostly Black children. Walz is widening the achievement gap and condemning a generation of Black children to poverty and despair. Shutting down business resulted in…
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Stunning
“That which is not prohibited is permitted.” It’s the underlying principle of American law. We inherited it from English constitutional law, which goes back at least 500 years. I suspect it was also Norman law and Roman law, going back more than 2,000 years. Certainly, there were variations. And subpopulations had restrictions, there have always…
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The Free Market Will Find A Way
Bars and restaurants are struggling with Minnesota’s fairly draconian pandemic restrictions. People are pretty ingenious though – especially when their livelihoods are at stake.The “Black Hart“, a bar down by Saint Paul‘s new soccer stadium, hobbled both by the quarantine restrictions and the canceling of major league soccer, is…well, adapting: The bar’s inaugural drag delivery…
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Shutdown: Racist!
It is well-established law that a policy which appears to berace-neutral, but which has a disproportionately large adverse impact onracial minorities, is a form of racial discrimination. Governor Walz’ Stay Home order, which ordered the closure ofnon-essential businesses, has resulted in nearly half-a-millionMinnesotans losing their jobs, 25% of them racial minorities as opposedto only 12%…
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Big Left’s Gooey Intellectual Core
C-list “celebrity” Patton Oswalt’s profound wisdom was on display over the weekend: Anne Frank spent 2 years hiding in an attic and we’ve been home for just over a month with Netflix, food delivery & video games and there are people risking viral death by storming state capital buildings & screaming, “Open Fuddruckers!” — Patton…
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Transmission
So the assumption that’s driven a lot of the models regarding the spread of Covid so far has involved the idea that transmission might be “Aerosol” – that the virus might hang suspended in the air for a period of time, until it latches onto a passing human, who might inadvertently ingest it into vulnerable…
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More!
Governor Walz extended the Stay Home order again. But this time, hespecifically invites the Legislature to step up. That’s the right thingto do, they should be involved. They should be weighing costs versusbenefits. Now, who will be the first legislator to introduce a resolution toterminate/modify the order? Joe Doakes New House GOP Caucus? It’s your…
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Moot Points
As Minnesotans – among whom Covid has taken a fairly minimal toll, in population-wide terms – start to protest the economic toll of government’s response, New Yorkers, who’ve suffered relatively terribly, may be showing the real end-game of the government’s shutdowns – ignoring the whole thing and seeing to their own survival, medically and econmically:…
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Current Events
I went online to watch Governor Walz March 25 video explaining why theStay Home order was required. I think it’s useful to remember why westarted down this road. In the video, Governor Walz explained that if we did nothing, upwards of74,000 Minnesotans of all ages would die, from 6 months to 90 yearsold. It was…
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Another Modification
This is weird – I keep finding these modifications but they’re notmentioned in the media. Attention Subjects! His Royal Highness, Timothy Walz the First, proclaims a modification ofExecutive Order 20-20 requiring Minnesotans to Stay Home. It has come to Our attention that some of Our subjects are in flagrantdisregard of Our proclamations. In one such…
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New Properties In Material Physics!
This just came out from the State of Wisconsin: Because glass, apparently, isn’t virus-proof. No. It’s because while science is vital, government bureaucracy is all the things we do together, stupidly.
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For Services Rendered
Democrat senators – including Amy Klobuchar – push for direct federal subsidies of local newspapers: The senators wrote that “local journalism has been providing communities answers to critical questions, including information on where to get locally tested, hospital capacity, road closures, essential business hours of operation, and shelter-in-place orders.” Recent media reports indicate that local…
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Modification Of Order
Just came across this announcement, haven’t seen it in the media yet: Attention citizens. Governor Walz has announced a modification ofExecutive Order 20 – 20, requiring Minnesotans to Stay Home. Our computer model indicates the people most likely to catch theCovid-19 virus and use precious hospital resources, have an existingco-morbidity, specifically, obesity. In order to…
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Declaring The Causes That Impel Us
We’re into month two of the “State of Emergency” in Minnesota. Let’s stipulate in advance – government does have emergency powers, and should have them, at least as a broad concept. One of government’s few genuinely legitimate roles is to exert its power to react to things that are beyond the power of the individual,…
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The New Stasi
Last week, it was Governor Walz’s snitch line, urging MInnesotans to rat out people violating the nebulous and ill-defined shutdown restrictions. This week? The “insta-hatecrime line!”: When this epidemic is over, we’re going to have to have a serious discussion about civil liberty.
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Wascally
The CDC advises people over 60 to avoid crowds, stay home to avoid the virus.If all of us old people are going to be sitting around in our bathrobes, self-quarantined, Netflix should bust out the good stuff. Pajama party! Joe Doakes Sometimes I wonder if kids today would know what to make of Warner Brothers…
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Wipe Away Those Presumptions
Like many of you, I’ve wandered past the toilet paper aisle, seen the Venezuelan-style devastation, and wondered “what the flaming hootie-hoo are people DOING with all the TP? Are they fixing to eat the stuff?” Well, no. Hoarding isn’t the problem. A supply chain built on maximum efficiency and minimum reserve inventory – pretty close…
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Modeled To Death
Minnesotans know from experience that computer models are not perfect predictors. Every winter, the weatherman tells us, “We’re tracking a storm out of the Rockies that could bring between 2 inches and 9 feet of snow, depending on which direction the storm tracks.” We don’t shut down schools and churches and businesses Just In Case…
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Sort Of A Good News / Bad News Situation
As I discussed on my show on Saturday, I see potential good and potential immense bad coming from the Covid19 epidemic. It’s almost like one of those cartoon characters, with an angel sitting on one shoulder and a devil on the other, trying to convince the character of their next action. Good Angel On the…
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Get The Pitchforks
Is “ICU bed” a technological term, a medical definition, or a billing code? I’m beginning to wonder if it’s not something like: “In order to receive reimbursement at ICU rate, the facility must pass a Level Three inspection and be certified as having X equipment and Y level of dedicated staff holding Z certificates, and…
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Minnesota Passive Aggressive
Governor Walz unveiled a Social Distancing Violators Stasi. Er, I mean a Social Distancing Violators hotline. I’m gonna report the Green Line.