This blog is certified as ‘Almost Essential.’
Another week on lockdown
The Squire of Stately Blaska Manor is letting himself go, courtesy of the novel coronavirus. Aside from the occasional Zoom teleconference, he has not been seen in public for Lo, these many weeks now. (That 1960s song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs comes to mind.)
Blaska is a human EPA Superfund clean-up site. The techies at the Policy Werkes are working on substituting his disturbing image with something from PhotoShop, depending on whether they deliver.
Today, Monday, April 13 (a day that will LIVE … in Infamy!) is Spring Election Day, Part 2. Some time late this afternoon returns will roll in from voting that took place six days ago. We can hardly wait but we must because there is no other choice, which is the only reason people wait.
Part 3, we expect, will occur on another month or six weeks when the candidates are allowed to celebrate their victories or drown their sorrows in election parties limited to 10 participants at a time, rotated in every two minutes.
Part 4 will be the courts ruling on who won and who did not — at which point it will be time for another election.
Here at Stately Blaska Manor
My mind wonders and wanders
Speaking of which, President Trump on Sunday night retweeted a post that called for the ousting of Dr. Anthony Fauci after the infectious disease specialist appeared on CNN. Donald Trump can shoot that random person on Fifth Avenue in NYC but he fires Fauci and it is game over for him.
We are no big fan of Chris Cuomo or of his fake news CNN but his quarantined interview with brother Andrew, governor of New York, is a stitch. (Does anyone say that any more?) A lot of good-natured, brother-to-brother dissing. (“You’re going to pay, Chris. One day you’re going to be better!”) A fun watch (8:41) but, then again, we’re somewhat bored.
How does Tony Evers ban exercising in state parks when Dane County and Madison parks remain open? His Democrat(ic) counterpart in Michigan won’t let you buy garden seeds in grocery stores. The California gendarmerie plucked a solitary wind surfer out of the Pacific Ocean and led him away in handcuffs. The mayor of Louisville banned Easter services Sunday …
… including “drive-thru” services in which worshippers remained in their vehicles. In public parks in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, police officers are prohibiting locals from sitting on park benches, even if they are alone. It’s still America, virus or no, The Wall Street Journal comments.
Waiting for the WI State Journal to demand the Madison school board start over and search for a school superintendent that refuses to see everything through the distorting prism of identity politics. I.E. a reformer. We can’t lose another generation of kids at risk.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation paraded 25 vehicles around the county jail downtown Madison on Saturday [04-11-2020] honking horns and demanding the release of inmates at the Dane County Jail during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Free them all,” they chanted, according to WISC-TV3. No word if Mayor Satya was among them or not.
That would include the two West high school kids accused of killing Dr. Potter and Mr. Carre? Their preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday. Ought to be streamed live on local Court TV.
It’s a fact! More Americans are infected with Trump derangement syndrome than the coronavirus.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
The Lefty lockdown on our liberty is even worse than you think. Last night Mrs. GDHM set up a sobriety checkpoint between the kitchen refrigerator and man cave, … “that’s your THIRD beer!”
What doesn’t make any sense at this time is Gov. Evers closing down the state parks. First they waive the entrance fee, then they shut it down over a fake claim of vandalism, litter and overuse.
While we might have exceeded the carry capacity for some vulnerable natural areas, Evers has certainly exceeded the carrying capacity for an rational thought.
Maybe David Horowitz is correct, “Scratch a Leftist, a control-freak fascist is just dying to escape.”
LikeLike
Third beer? THIRD BEER??
Is Mrs. GDHM (whom The Gotch calls a friend) familiar with a little document called the Constitution, which protects Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of BEER???
The Gotch
LikeLike
Patience, Wooly-Bully.
LikeLike
We must burn the village to save the village…
LikeLike
Food is of no use to a man who has just starved to death.
LikeLike
I am very torn about what the right thing to do is after being home pretty much the last few weeks except to go to the grocery store. My husband & I are mourning the death this weekend of a dear friend who lived in a small town near Milwaukee. Her death was from COVID. She was in her upper 70s but was one of the healthiest people I knew of any age.
She did all the right things to stay healthy; was not on any meds for heart related things, suffered from some arthritis but that’s it. Her age was the only thing I can think of that made her susceptible. Gives me incentive to stay home since I probably have more risk factors . Working in my backyard has given me an outlet when the weather is nice. Stay well, my friends!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Two weeks ago, The Lancet, published revised fatality rates for Covid-19 much lower than originally thought (1.38% average; higher for high-risk populations, almost zero for young healthies). Last week, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation revised the anticipated total US deaths from Covid-19 to 61,400– a significant reduction from previous models. It is even more clear to me now that the extreme lock down we’ve had in this country was a hysterical overreaction and needs to end before we have nothing to come back to. Sadly, our milquetoast Governor lacks the strength of will to admit his mistake and back away. Instead he continues to give weak and conflicting messages like state parks are closed, but Dane County parks are open; liquor stores are essential whereas libraries and schools are not. Can someone in our legislature please stand up and point out The Emperor Wears No Clothes?
LikeLike
IHME at University of Washington has drastically downgraded their predictions for Wisconsin. Less than 2 weeks ago they were predicting more than 1,000 deaths in our state with the peak being late April.
IHME at Univ of Washington has been widely cited as the reason for shutting everything down.
Yesterday they drastically modified their Wisconsin numbers.
They say WE ACTUALLY PEAKED MORE THAN A WEEK AGO.
They say by the first week of May we will be down to virtually 0 deaths a day in Wisconsin.
These are the national experts whose earlier predictions were used to scare us half to death last month and that we needed to crash the economy or we would all die.
Time to loosen the restrictions in the next few weeks and open up this state in May.
LikeLike
Totally disagree. Until we can buy n95 masks and ppe for home use. No way should we lift the stay at home. Numbers have not even bent the curve yet.
Cripes u can still barely buy hand sanitizer yet. Leave it closed until at least after memorial day.
Then u can re evaluate things. Somethings yes have to be re opened like farmers have to plant. Stores need supplies. Bit to say the govenor is doing the wrong things on the plaque wuhan virus is off base.
This is about the only thing i will ever agree with him on
LikeLike
Balboa, I disagree with you but would curious to hear your reasoning for continuing the lockdown.
BTW, I’m still waiting for A-Bob and Stevie to chime in and see if they’ve changed their minds.
LikeLike
My reasoning is this is a brand new Plague, that is highly, highly contagious. It is not like the FLU or a cold. So that actually makes it deadlier than the flu, also 15+ day incubation periods where you can spread it like wild fire. Treatments to keep people alive are just becoming available and finally being agreed upon although reluctant politicians have been making doctors jobs even harder. This is brand new virus, scientists and doctors barely know anything about this and if re-infection, long-term effects, etc.
Instead of saying well estimates are off so let open up society completely again. The reason why they are going down is BECAUSE we have closed things down and because the united states took extraordinary measures. It is not down because some bean counter was bad at math. The number of new cases per day finally dropped yesterday in WI. I think regionally things can start to open once we get the number of new cases in the single digits. That has not happened yet. Hospitals are taxed right now, there supplies for treatment are low, they might be getting by with what they have in stock.
If we opened it up in 2 weeks and without an overstock of PPE for individuals, businesses and hospitals, within 20 days the number of new cases will again begin to spike again. There has to be a coordinated efforts by public and private partnerships. I want to be able to buy PPE for myself and family anywhere.
We have finally turned a corner, why not stamp it out until the end of May, so we can go into the summer knowing the USA defeated this virus thoroughly. Giving us time to actually create hopefully a vaccine this deadly virus. Before it hits us again this fall. It is not going away and hopefully it will not mutate.
LikeLike
Koots, listen to Balboa. He’s been doing his homework and is completely right (boy, the world is upside down). It’s good news that projected deaths have been lowered from 100,000-200,000 to 60,000. It proves the extreme shut down measures are working.
And Evers doesn’t control Dane County parks. Talk to Parisi. (Joe, what’s the deal?) And hell yeah liquor stores are essential. But virus factories like schools and libraries? Not so much. It’s called science.
LikeLike
Some hospitals are busy but most are dead (no pun intended) shutting everything down waiting for the catastrophe that never came (talk to the general surgeons at UW who were forced to renegotiate their contract and take a pay cut subsequently). I bump into more people more close together at a liquor store (agree essential) then my local library by a mile. Currently, on average, out of 100 infected people, 1.38 die. Not ideal, but not panic-lock-the-world-down numbers either. One could look at the reduced fatality numbers and say its due to the lockdown or you could look at the numbers de novo and say it was never that lethal to begin with. You choose the former, I choose the later. The lockdown effects number of cases, it does not effect the mortality rate. Mortality rate is independent of incident rate: Its called science.
LikeLike
I tell my Lefty pals that to REALLY stick it to President Trump they should refuse the stimulus money and refuse to take chloroquine because Trump.
LikeLiked by 1 person