It’s one of the funnier jokes presented in the hilarious The Naked Gun:

The not so funny thing is that the Trump administration seems to have decided that if they can’t figure out the Coronavirus situation, their best strategy is to deny reality and act like its already done and the vaccine is just about here and, as Frank Drebin said above, “there’s nothing to see here.”

If only.

I truly don’t like to wade into politics that much and for the same reason I don’t like discussing religion. If people are perfectly capable of losing their minds over whether or not you like Batman v. Superman, then moving into the realm of religion and politics is just supercharging that nerve.

But, I’ll do so anyway…

At least in politics.

So, yeah, that seems to be the Trump message of late. Don’t worry about Corona. Absurdly, they state the only reason we’re seeing larger amounts of Corona cases is because of testing. If we eliminate testing, then everything will be fine and we won’t see those numbers (huh?!).

They plan to continue their rallies in closed off/indoor stadiums. They encourage people not to bother with masks (Trump himself seems allergic to them, I suppose macho-man thinks it makes him look like a pussy or something) and if/when those rallies come to be, we’re going to have a bunch of folk who feel Covid-19 is “fake news” and I doubt we’ll see too many of them bother with masks.

Which makes the fact that Trump and company are forcing people who do come to his rallies sign a contract which absolves them of getting sick or dying that much more hilarious…

…if it weren’t so fucking sad.

Yeah, I’m surly today.

We’ve got a guy in the White House who gassed peaceful protesters so he could do a stupid photo op in front of a church… where he looked like it was the first time he held a book, much less a bible.

This is a guy who is repeating stupid conspiracy theories about Martin Gugino, the 75 year old man who was pushed by police, and whom the police subsequently lied about what happened to him, claiming -until the video proved otherwise- he “tripped”…

It’s been reported the man suffered a skull fracture, brain damage, and is unable to walk.

But… let’s scream Antifa, amiright?!

Here’s the thing, though: It seems like Trump’s latest moves have exposed him to a very harsh backlash. His approval numbers are going down to historic (for him) lows. Polls in must win states are dropping and in some, he’s losing.

By a lot.

All this while Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, is essentially invisible.

Thing is: why should Biden do more than he is at this point?

The saying goes when your opponent is falling, give them space. Let them do your work for you.

Problem is: The election isn’t today. It’s in November, five months from now. An eternity in politics, surely.

Hopefully, Biden’s “down time” will allow him to sharpen his rhetorical knife and create a more powerhouse public machine to promote his candidacy.

At this point I’m at least cautiously optimistic that perhaps -maybe!- those people who voted for Trump because “what the hell, he’s better than Hillary” (as opposed to those who are still his most rabid fans, who will obviously vote once again for him) are finally waking up to what Trump is really all about.

I doubt very much there are many who did vote for Hillary Clinton who will now back Trump. He’s done nothing at all to make them want to vote for him… indeed, quite the opposite.

But again: November is still a long way away.

And it can’t come quick enough.

Please, don’t do as Trump. Wear your masks. You’re helping yourself, you’re helping others around you.

The Covid-19 pandemic isn’t through. It isn’t over. Magically thinking doesn’t stop it but wearing a mask might just help do so.

Please.

If not for your sake, then for your family members (elderly or not), friends, and co-workers.

Seems like a very long time since normalcy.

In the past week plus we’ve had the death of George Floyd which has touched a very raw nerve, leading to major protests and, hopefully, a re-examination of the way we police ourselves.

Lost, it seems, in all this furor was what led the police to be called on Mr. Floyd: My understanding is that he was at a store and tried to pay for items with a false $20 bill.

The man lost his life for $20, something so hard to get into your head that even the store that called the police on him have stated they wouldn’t have called had they know the over-reaction (to put it bluntly) it would have caused and have sworn off calling the police for any minor matters like this.

Its incredible, nonetheless, that someone lost his life for a measly $20.

While it is certainly possible the man knowingly tried to pass off the phony bill, its just as possible he received it in a transaction beforehand and innocently tried to use it.

I’ve worked in places where we have received phony bills. Hell, I recall one person tried to pass off a $100 bill that was actually -believe it or not- a $1 bill which was bleached clean and then the $100 pictures were pasted on it. Thus, the bill would, if the clerk checked, come out as “real” even if the value of it was phony.

Other times, the person who tried to pass it to us was -we thought- genuinely shocked to see the bill wasn’t real.

And there have also been times where I’ve gone to make a deposit in the bank and found that among the bills we had for the business, there was one -usually a high value bill- that was phony.

The bank didn’t call the police on us and we lost the money and time spent writing where we likely collected the bill and, if we could recall who gave it to us. Understand, this doesn’t happen every week but in some 30 years of business I’d say its happened at least two dozen times. Not bad, I suppose, for the length of time, but it happens and it sucks and I wish people wouldn’t do it but to lose your life for $20?

No.

Moving along, we are also seeing some weird reactions.

“President” Donald Trump has been consistently doing the wrong thing, it seems, but its almost like we expect it from him now, so inept is his administration and he in particular.

It is disheartening to see looters setting fire to stores and robbing all items within, but it appears these provocateurs were a small number and, as time goes on, it appears they are being frozen out of the major protests which are -again it appears from watching the many news stories/perusing the internet- being led by people who don’t want these characters around them.

It is also disheartening to see some of the Police Officers and their overreactions, another number I fervently hope is very small when compared to the total number of people in the force.

Granted, no one wants to stand at the front lines and have people yell and curse -or worse- at them but some of the images we’ve seen, of officers abusing protesters who clearly weren’t doing anything that merited their overreaction, has been chilling. No one wants to see images of people bleeding or the aftermath of being hit with a rubber bullet and having their eye explode in its socket.

What has been heartening, however, is seeing the police officers who have shown empathy to those protesting or have maintained order without going crazy.

Yeah, I feel like there are more of them.

Reforms will come, I’m confident, because this time around we’re seeing almost everything filmed and no longer can a “bad apple” try to lie their way out of something ghastly they did.

Louis Brandeis is credited with writing sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants and, while he wasn’t necessarily writing about social movements, it applies.

Which brings us to the next thing, and its another depressing one: While one appreciates the peaceful protests and the changes they seek, we are still in the middle of a pandemic and I can’t help but think that in the next few weeks we are going to see a significant rise in people infected with Covid 19.

Perhaps the numbers won’t be so bad but I worry.

I really do.

We’re still in the middle of it, sadly, and the end doesn’t look to be in sight.

Yet.

That day will come.

Soon, I hope.

A while back and on March 26th I mused (you can read it here), that I, and many of the people around me, might have already been exposed to the Coronavirus already. From around early/mid January and through February, our business and many of the people working within it -including my father- caught a nasty bug that lasted weeks to get rid of. In my case, I didn’t suffer high fevers and cough but was really fatigued and completely wiped out at by the end of each work week, something I can honestly say had never happened to me to such a weird extent before.

Now, understand: I knew this post might come across as far fetched or perhaps even wishful thinking on my part. After all, if I and the people around me were exposed to Coronavirus, then we’d be immune to the virus and therefore, we shouldn’t have much to worry about it.

However…

That does NOT mean I’m taking things easy. Even if there is a possibility I was exposed to the Covid-19 virus and have “defeated” it, I have to assume I didn’t and keep myself self-isolated as best as possible.

After all, and as I said before, the first official appearances of the Coronavirus were far after January, so I have to be wrong, right?

Well…

I stumbled upon this fascinating article by Chris Persaud on The Palm Beach Post which states…

Coronavirus Florida: Patients in Florida had symptoms as early as January

The upshot of the article?

The novel coronavirus could have infected as many as 171 people in Florida as long as two months before officials announced it had come to the state.

The author of the article has examined new tests done on individuals within the state and determined the very first “positive” of the Coronavirus was found on a 4 year old Duval County girl who had the positive test all the way back on January 1.

The first “official” appearance of Covid-19 in Florida is currently listed as April 3rd.

Here’s the thing: It takes between 4 and 14 days for the virus to incubate in a person and they then get “sick”. So if this little girl had the virus on January 1, it is possible she was infected earlier than that, into perhaps mid-December.

Which means that my musings about the weird illness we experienced in early/mid January and through early February are suddenly not so crazy sounding.

Again, and as I stated in the original post: We have a tourist related business and we see a lot of people from all over the world. Suddenly, the notion we might have been exposed to the Coronavirus isn’t quite so far fetched.

Still, there isn’t a sense of triumph within me. There isn’t a sense that I’m “out of the woods”.

I haven’t been tested for anti-bodies and, given that I’m healthy at the moment I don’t want to waste any first responders’ time checking to see if I had the disease before.

They have more than enough to worry about with the actual sick!

Still, its an intriguing thought, if nothing else.

If you’ve followed me here for a while… yadda yadda…

Welp, you know I drive a Tesla Model 3. I’ve been driving since 1982/3 or thereabouts, my first car being a 1981 Ford Mustang. In the (too) many years since I first started driving, I’ve driven all kinds of vehicles, good, mediocre, and terrible.

But nothing –nothing– to my mind is like my Model 3. I’m absolutely floored by the car and the tech behind it. I love the car. Moreso: I’m positive I will never again buy another internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle ever again.

I love just about everything about the car and wish the other car companies would follow Tesla’s lead and jump on board the EV revolution… these cars are truly the next level.

But…

Man, does Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, make me sometimes scratch my head. He’s clearly a very sharp/smart individual. Getting a company like Tesla, much less Space X, off the proverbial ground and making them create such astounding things (cars and spacecraft) is nothing at all to sneeze at. It takes large investments and considerable brain-power (not just Musk’s, but employing smart people to make these things a reality).

The fact that he has potentially upended one industry -the automotive industry- and may well lead them kicking and screaming into the EV market is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Yet we get moments like this one, presented on gizmodo.com and written by Matt Novak, wherein we find that…

Elon Musk Tweets “Free America Now” as his Coronavirus predictions prove very wrong

Elon -I can call you Elon, can’t I?- Why dude?

Why would you go around saying things like this? I’m tired of being locked in. I wish we could go back to the way things were. Yes, I know Coronavirus isn’t, say, Ebola and that the percentage of people who contract it and subsequently die is a low percentage, around 3-4% and often those who succumb are elderly or infim…

…however…

In just a few months, we’ve had worldwide deaths linked to Covid-19 at 225,000. In the U.S., that number is as of April 29th an astonishing 61,421.

That’s a lot of fatalities in what amounts to, what, 2-3 months at most?

There are some indications that the self-isolation has helped the numbers come down, but there are many, including Musk, who clearly are itching to have industries/stores/etc. open back up to full.

I can’t help but wonder if maybe they feel the fatalities aren’t that big. But consider this: In one year between 3000 to 49,000 people may die from the flu. Pretty startling numbers but, again, this is for a year.

Covid-19 is simply a far more deadly virus and the idea of opening everything up, frankly, scares me.

We’re risking a lot more lives and the possibility of once again seeing a jump in infections and hospitalizations.

Do we really need that? Isn’t it safer to hang back, economically painful as it may be, to try to tramp this down as much as possible and/or hopefully buy time to develop effective treatments?

I know, I’m just another voice out there and a small one at that.

Someone noted that the self-isolation was like jumping out of a plane and pulling open a parachute.

We’ve slowed down the descent yet there are people who feel now they can release the parachute even though we’re not even halfway to the ground.

Might they be right?

Ho boy…

After plenty of …uh… push back to this incredibly insane suggestion that people should somehow “inject” themselves with some kind of cleaner -Which, let’s be perfectly clear: WILL INJURE AND/OR KILL YOU!- “President” Trump now claims he was being “sarcastic”.

Here we have an article by Daniel Dale presented on CNN.com which pretty much debunks that claim:

Fact check: Trump lies that he was being “sarcastic” when he talked about injecting disinfectant

Of course, Fox “News” is trying to spin this but… its horrifying.

This is our “President”, and clearly he has no fucking idea what he’s talking about.

Worse, we haven’t, as President Obama stated, no clear path to dealing with the Covid-19 virus from the federal government… even to this point!

It’s the local Governors and Mayors that are dealing with this versus the Federal Government which, I have to say: I don’t know what they’re doing.

We hear about shortages of supplies, of supplies being snatched away from states/cities. We have a “President” who doesn’t seem to know or understand medicine, much less the numbers of dead and infected.

Nor does he seem to care.

Has he even once noted or said anything about the horror medical hospitals are facing? Has he expressed any sympathy at all?

What we get are increasingly ridiculous ramblings. What we got yesterday was a sure way to put yourself at risk of actually killing yourself.

How does one defend any of this?

If you’re a masochist, here’s some more, also from MSNBC’s Morning Joe show:

This is our leader, folks.

I mentioned before that if there was one positive about this whole Covid-19/self-isolation situation its that I’ve been afforded much more time to devote to my writing.

This morning it occurred to me that I look forward to getting on the computer and typing away. The process allows me to take my own personal flights of fancy, moving away from the realities facing everyone.

While this is my own personal escape, I sincerely hope everyone else out there has found their own little hideaway to escape to, whether it be in catching up on reading, movies, TV shows, knitting, drawing, playing video games or board games, listening to music, playing your music, etc. etc.

Each day I do wonder when we’ll get out of this self-isolation and each day it seems to me that day lies further and further in the future.

Sadly, until there comes an effective treatment -a vaccine likely will not be ready until at least next year- we’re in this for a longer haul than anyone would like.

Oh, and to those who are spending this time reading my stuff, a sincere thank you.

It’s most appreciated and I hope to have a new book for you soon!

I suppose it was a matter of time but, as the heading above tells you, there is evidence all this social distancing/self-isolation is starting to make some people crack.

Sadly, we have a “President” who feel the need to use this to his advantage, so desperate is he to get re-elected.

First up, in Michigan some yahoos protesting against the supposed harshness of self-isolating decided to protest. Among other wonderful things they did was block access to a hospital with their barricade of vehicles.

Read all about it in this article by David Neiwert and presented on dailykos.com:

Fringe right closes down Michigan Capital with ‘gridlock’ protest against coronavirus measures

Thankfully, it appeared that no ambulances involved in an emergency situation were slowed/delayed in arriving at the hospital but it could have easily happened. Imagine you or a loved one desperate to get to the hospital because of some emergency (whether Covid-19 related or not) and you’re delayed by a bunch of idiots blocking the streets.

Worse, some of these protesters, like these…

Weren’t following proper distance from each other.

The irony of this whole situation is that the self-isolation/social distancing measures were not created to screw with people’s freedoms. It is intended to keep people -even these people- from getting sick and spreading this disease around.

By doing what they’re doing, they’ve just endangered themselves and their communities.

All because they can’t handle being indoors a little more than usual?

And these same right wing heroes are the ones that bash liberals as snowflakes?

…Hmmmm…

Anyway, “President” Donald Trump added fuel to the proverbial fire by tweeting a bunch of shit about “freeing” Michigan and other places and…

…sigh…

You know what? You want to go out and hang around with people and don’t fear getting sick? You’re convinced the Coronavirus is a liberal scam? Then by all means hang out with your fellow extremists.

It’s Darwinian selection at its finest, I suppose. The only negative is that these fools may give the disease to others who did observe proper precautions. All because of their selfishness and carelessness.

*****

Speaking of which, over in my home state of Florida, our “Governor” decided to allow Jacksonville beaches to open though there are certain restrictions.

Welp, though there were plenty of people cheering and frolicking on the beach, these scenes, presented in this article by Lee Moran on CNN.com, sure do make me sweat…

Yup, here we got a bunch of people hanging around really close to each other, most without masks or any sort of protective gear.

I wonder how many new cases of Covid-19 are going to pop up in the next two weeks.

I suspect we’ll see a rise.

But, hey, at least these separate groups of people have the comfort of their guns and beaches.

Saturday, nowhere to go other than a few places to stock up.

First, though, we do a little exercise, walking a few miles. Thankfully we have a nice park nearby and there aren’t too many people around.

We then proceed to Costco, intent on buying just a few things, but of course we wind up getting far more. Costco opens very early on Saturday, used to be 9:30 AM but now they open around 9 AM. I guess. We arrived just a few minutes after nine and there was a line of people already waiting to go in.

Since the last time I went to Costco, they now allow a certain number of people in at a time, then stop the line and make people wait for others to leave the store. Further, they have created a long line area which keeps people separated. You’re asked to stay behind your cart and its a prudent measure for sure.

Once inside, it was a breeze looking through everything and buying stuff for the week -or longer. Today they had both toilet paper and paper towels (!!) so we took advantage and bought. There is a limit, however, of only one of each per customer.

Mind you, we have enough for ourselves but we’re no hoarders: We bought extra a week ago for one of my wife’s co-workers who had surgery on his ankle and can’t get around too well… and was running out of toilet paper.

This week we bought for her parents (they’re elderly and are isolating almost completely) and they’re running out of the stuff.

It was also, I might add, the first time we entered one of these stores with both gloves and a mask. While I’ve made it a habit in the last week plus to wear gloves when out to a store, we decided it was prudent to go the extra step and wear a mask as well.

We weren’t the only ones.

The other thing Costco is now doing is only allowing two people to enter the store per membership card so my daughter, who accompanied us, headed back to my car and hung out there while we did our shopping.

I suppose that’s one of the good things about having a Tesla: There’s a lot of entertainment/video games to spend the time with there.

Regardless, we made our rounds, picked up a bunch of stuff and headed out…

…and stopped at Target.

Target is on the way from Costco back home and since it was still pretty early (maybe 9:40 AM by that time) there weren’t all that many people at Target.

Like Costco, it appears Target is also counting the number of people within the store but, at least when we went, it wasn’t very busy at all and entered without waiting in any line.

We had a few more odds and ends to pick up (including food for the pets) and, again with mask and gloves, we finished our major shopping and headed home.

On the way back, it occurred to me the reality of the situation is certainly becoming real to many.

As I mentioned, most if not all the people in both Costco and Target had at least gloves. Many also had face masks and, thankfully, they all kept their distances from each other… and we certainly did the same.

But a weird sense of paranoia does begin to enter one’s head, doesn’t it?

You’re looking around, making sure there aren’t people coughing and making sure the guy/gal just over there doesn’t get too close.

And if they do, even if its unintentional, one can get annoyed and stop moving and/or move away, grumbling about how careless these people are, especially if it seems they’re not being proactive in their social distancing.

Social distancing. Self-isolating.

Two terms that were -to my mind anyway- never used much if at all have become the terms of this era.

Now and again I like to think about how much longer this is going to go on.

In the last entry (you can read it here) I figured we would be self-isolating and social distancing into May and likely the summer months as well.

My opinion hasn’t changed much.

I strongly believe April is gone in terms of the possibility we emerge from this.

If -and its a HUGE if- some kind of medication/treatement is discovered that deals well with Covid-19, then maybe we start emerging from this self-imposed exile in May. But if not, add May to the list of months we’ll be practicing both self-isolating and social distancing.

Two full months.

I suspect by then we must reach a point where the virus has gone through most communities and the larger number of people will have been affected and -hopefully- most will be through with it and essentially immune.

Hopefully –hopefully– the number of dead will be on the low end of the estimates and we can perhaps start to emerge a little from this daze.

But, again if there is no clear medicine or treatment available, we may see June and July join in the exiled months.

As always, keep safe out there.

I know there are those -especially on the Fox “News” and in this current administration- that tried to soft-pedal the disease and make it seem like it was no worse than getting the flu.

They’re changing their tunes but we still get stories like this one, by Matt Novak and presented on Gizmodo.com:

Georgia’s Idiot Governor says he didn’t know people could spread Covid-19 without symptoms

Yikes.

Keep informed -and stay away from anything that uses the two word combination of “Fox” and “News” together and we’ll hopefully get out of this fine.

Hopefully!

April Fool’s Day.

Not be be a downer, but it sure seems like there’s not much to have fun to be had today and I truly hope no one out there decides it would be really funny to do some kind of Coronavirus-type joke.

“Coughing” on your friends, etc.

The other day the Trump administration finally seemed to admit the reality of this situation, that if everything goes well, we can expect some 100,000 to 250,000 dead.

I know there still exist those out there who aren’t taking this very seriously and, truly and honestly, I hope they come out of this unscathed.

But given the ease in which this virus seems to be transmitted, the odds sure seem like they might catch up with you. And sadly, it doesn’t end with people catching the illness, it continues as they spread it to others.

*****

Last weekend, it was our intention to take a mini-vacation, ie something that would last maybe two or so weekdays and the weekend. We had marked the date and were planning to do some Florida driving, including going to the parks (Disney World, Universal).

Obviously that didn’t happen.

We also were considering taking a longer vacation later on, perhaps a week or so, and fly up to New York and visit that area. Maybe even make our way to Boston.

Obviously, that’s not going to happen now.

Today, I feel like we’re going to be under a lockdown through this month, April, and likely the entirety of May. The disease will still be out there, but by that point the raging fire will have spread through and, hopefully, care will be easier to provide.

Even so, we will continue to be isolating, I feel, well past May and into the summer months.

It feels like the world itself has hit the pause button and we’re just keeping our heads down and hoping for the best while fearing the worst.

Some random thoughts (!) here:

Nintendo’s timing in releasing Animal Crossings may well have been incredibly fortuitous for the company. I don’t mean to step on the misery and misfortune brought on by this pandemic, but when locked up and isolated, one hunts for anything to pass the time and Animal Crossing’s release was a godsend to many.

******

With the good comes the very bad. We’re starting to see many celebrities who have contacted the Coronavirus, including big names such as Tom Hanks and his wife Rita WIlson, Idris Elba, Prince Charles, etc.

More depressing is that like many other “regular” victims, some celebrities have fallen to the Coronavirus.

Christie D’Zurilla at latimes.com offers a list of some of the celebrities who have fallen from this virus:

Celebrities who died from Coronavirus

******

Now for a bit of better news, also found on latimes.com and in an article written by Sonia Kelly:

Powell’s Books rehires more than 100 employees as online orders soar

The article’s title says it all and, I wonder, if maybe this event will truly transition people from “going out” to buy certain items and, instead, they realize its not worth going out to pick up some things.

Granted, I’m not talking about all things here.

But in recent times I’ve noted that I no longer have much of a desire to visit bookstores. While Amazon.com makes me nervous about their overall size and monopolistic bend, the reality is that whatever book/comic book/graphic I may want, there it is.

And I don’t have to order physical copies of them. I can order the digital version and be reading the book/comic book/graphic novel in a matter of seconds.

Same with music.

Same with movies (though in this case I tend to use VUDU).

Same with video games (though I don’t seem to have as much time nowadays to play all that much as before).

The reality is that going out even before the Coronavirus for us tended to be so we could a) eat out/buy food and/or groceries or b) see a movie (that’s done for now) or c) buy clothing.

Otherwise, there really wasn’t much of a need to go out at all.

That was obviously for us.

Will it be like that for others now?