TGIF 4/3/20

A little over a year ago, I joined my husband in retirement.

Before  that, I worked at home for several months, and so my husband and I have had a lot of time to get acclimated to this #AloneTogether stuff that many of my friends, and possibly many of yours, are now being forced to get used to -- and I'm glad that we didn't have to learn how to do this under the pressure of a pandemic, I've got to tell you. I hope you and yours are doing well, and hanging in.

Anyway...What a week, right?

More states have moved to mandatory statewide social distancing, but there are still eleven states where no such requirements are in place, or where only certain regions of the state is under some kind of requirement. Which is confusing to the experts on the White House Task Force, for sure, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who thinks we should be under a national order.

The tension between federally mandated versus states' rights to do what they want is something I don't want to get into, but if you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that — we really should be.

Now, about the argument about whether the feds or the states should be making the decisions? I stumbled upon this commentary by Stephen Moore, formerly of the Wall Street Journal and now of the Heritage Foundation. Like former House Speaker Paul Ryan, he's an Ayn Rand devotee. He notes in his commentary that, in many surveys, Rand's Atlas Shrugged "rates as the second most influential book of all time, behind the Bible." I'm not well versed enough on either book to comment, but anyway -- here's what he has to say about all of this.

We are living through the Ayn Rand dystopia right now. We have given police-state powers to the government to shut down "nonessential businesses" and tell the people whether they can play golf or go for a hike. Some of these measures may make sense based on public health, but at what point are we degrading the rights of individuals to choose risks for themselves? 

I'd say we're at the point when allowing people their selfish rights can unnecessarily endanger the rest of us, but maybe that's just me. Like I said, I'm not big on the Bible, but I know about that Golden Rule thing, and since I wouldn't ignorantly infect anyone else with the coronavirus, I don't think anyone should be selfishly giving it to me.

Meanwhile, speaking of Dr. Fauci, he's being memorialized with a bobblehead, and at the same time he's getting a security detail, due to threats from, well, from people I don't even know how to describe. The bobblehead, though? For every doll sold, $5 of the purchase price will be donated to the American Hospital Association for their efforts to obtain PPE for healthcare workers.

The pandemic is making a mess of our election processes; 15 states have postponed or changed how they're holding primaries. Not only that, but the DNC has pushed out their convention from mid-July to mid-August. The RNC is still planning on holding theirs as originally scheduled, in late August, although I supposed both of the events are still subject to change. And of course, it makes one wonder whether these are even necessary anyway?

On the Dem side, there's no official indication yet on whether That Guy From Vermont will step aside and endorse Papa Joe Biden, but there is indication that he still gets grumpy whenever people ask him about it. When Whoopi Goldberg demanded to know what his path to victory was, "because this feels a little like it did when you didn't come out when Hillary Clinton was clearly the person folks were going for," he 'sniped'

People have a right, last I heard, people in democracy have the right to vote for the agenda that they think can work for America, especially in this very, very difficult moment. We are assessing our campaign, as a matter of fact, where we want to go forward, but people in a democracy do have a right to vote. 

He also pointed out, or snapped, the article linked above says,

I'm sitting in my home right now. I'm not holding a rally in Wisconsin because of the nature of campaigns right now. 

And speaking of Wisconsin, that's the only state still holding a primary next Tuesday, out of the eleven that were scheduled. A federal judge has declined to delay the primary, but he's not really happy about it, it seems. US District Judge William Conley made clear that he disagreed with the state's decision to go forward with the election, but he explained that he was constrained to consider only the constitutional rights of voters - not public health." In his decision, he noted

Without doubt, the April 7 election day will create unprecedented burdens not just for aspiring voters, but also for poll workers, clerks and indeed the state. As much as the court would prefer that the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor consider the public health ahead of any political considerations, that does not appear in the cards. Nor is it appropriate for a federal district court to act as the state's chief health official by taking that step for them. 

On, Wisconsin, or something.

Back to the presidential race, I will echo the thoughts of many that Papa Joe is in a horrible position here. First of all, he's not good sitting in his basement trying to connect - he's old school, and does better in person. Second of all, he's not in office now, and so can't point to all of the things he's doing to make a difference, like TGFV can do. And third, and maybe most importantly, he's stuck in Delaware while the president is babbling on television for as long he wants, every day. Every. Single. Day.

TGIF, everyone. Be safe.