…in these virus-centric days I guess it’s safe to say that sometimes the little things are proving to be a bigger deal than we’d like…& it’s not as though there’s any shortage of big deal stuff going on in the land of mr bigly but if you’d indulge me briefly I’d like to take moment to look across the waters to the tiny little rain-swept island that thinks it’s not in Europe…despite the even smaller bit of Europe that’s still on the other side of it last time anybody checked…but that’s a whole other thing I won’t get into right now…maybe think of it as an example of the micro to the US macro
…someone once described the two places as being divided by a common language but now more than ever there are things that make the two seem closer in nature than perhaps any other two places in the world…not the least of which, of course, being the fact that both have made the unaccountable choice to place in a position of effective authority a jowly individual with a ridiculous haircut & an abilty to render the most finely-tailored garment into a shambling mass of cloth merely by putting the thing on
…as you can see he’s an inspiring sort of a figure…all recovered from having shrugged off the virus with barely a week of being at death’s door…or probably through it were it not for the miraculous attentions & interventions of a couple of immigrant nurses…you, know…the sort of immigrants risking their lives even now that he’s recovered & for some time before he was ever at risk…for increasingly shitty financial compensation thanks to his party’s decades-long project to mortally wound the NHS & force it into the predatory embrace of private finance…& increasingly overworked & under-resourced thanks to their more recently punitive approach to what they euphemistically refer to as “austerity” vis a vis budgets & public spending in their much beloved do-less-with-more magical-thinking club
…that guy…being terribly grateful & all…& with his new found insight & charactistic care & attention to detail…has made an announcement…from Wednesday the UK lockdown will be relaxed…it’s all very clear, he & his little monstrous regiment told everyone they could get to listen to their “stay alert” message…”we” need to get on & get back to work…but also definitely stay home as much as possible & maintain all the good work “we’ve” done on that side of things so as not to overtax that life-saving health service, obviously…but some people can’t work from home & those people need to be getting back to work now because “we” need the economy to get moving & that means “we” need people to get moving…on top of the people who are already moving of course….those people are heroes for making sure that more of us didn’t die…or starve…or lack for the results of late-night drunken amazon purchases…they’re heroes & we owe them an incredible debt
…which those of you who can’t work from home need to get out there & repay them by vastly increasing the chances that this thing will burn through the island in a second wave of virulence & destroy the very service I can’t stop stressing they’re the very backbone of
…but that’s the price you pay in a mostly service economy where pretty much everyone Boris knows personally can work remotely…& are all waiting with bated breath to be given the okay to relocate to their second home in the countryside where the kids could have a bit more fresh air & there’s a larder & a second freezer in the garage
…oh, yeah…but if you arrive from another country you’ll definitely need to be isolated for a couple of weeks…unless, you know, that wouldn’t work any better than the post-brexit customs thing with the stacked up truck-loads of goods causing gridlock from the south coast all the way to London…so, there’ll be “common-sense” exceptions….& really now I think about it perhaps releasing the 50-odd pages it took to fail to be clear about all this on paper before trying to waffle my way through my little moment here might have been a good idea after all…where was I?
…oh, yes…no I don’t think I need to listen to the people from Health & Safety who you might think would be the obvious choice to direct a lot of this what with them having been required to be present in every business because it turns out a lot of those folks don’t seem to agree that their businesses can get on & drastically cut the 80% of their payrolls my governement agreed to underwrite for the duration of our totally-led-by-the-science response to this virus that’s seen us *checks notes* respond better than Italy, the US & possibly even Belgium managed to
…so I’m sure that’s going to go just swimmingly for all concerned & absolutely won’t blow up in anybody’s faces because there are no bears in the cave & viruses – much like lions – are absolutely terrified of things that make sense to people
Boris Johnson speech: PM unveils ‘conditional plan’ to reopen society
…I know it might seem like a sideshow to a lot of folks…& given the lack of gun-toting morons on hand over there I’d understand if the stakes seemed lower…& the fact that for the most part the Brits have seemed to take the view that putting on a mask & assuming you’re basically good to go is a false sense of security & have been out there on their “necessary” trips out of the house in a largely un-masked kind of a way might make a few of you inclinced to hoard your sympathy for those closer to home…so apologies for going on about it for so long & all but I have family & friends scattered about that part of the world & it’s been kind of hard to think about a lot of things this morning until I get through a quick bout of feeling like if somebody’s head has to explode from irreconcilable logical differences I’d just as soon it was his
…anyway…back in the realm of the other artificially touseled blond mop-headed pork-‘er there’s all the fun & games you’ve come to expect
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/10/will-supreme-court-permit-trump-be-above-law/
…meanwhile
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/10/coronavirus-attacks-body-symptoms/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/naacp-leader-tennessee-finds-target-front-yard-n1204061
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/10/six-flaws-arguments-reopening/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-gop-may-lose-everything/2020/05/10/story.html
…&…ah, fuck this fucking virus the fuck off, already
Kudos on this caption “man resembling the wet fish he just got slapped with…or Britain’s Prime Minister…you decide…”
More from that concert in Manchester where Sister Rosetta Tharpe perfomed:
I’ve always loved this video of her – she looks so glamorous and cool at the same time.
I sort of like hearing how countries other than the US are screwing up. It makes me SLIGHTLY less ashamed of being an American, for a second. And then I remember that it’s really, really bad that the lunatics are running the asylums around the world. I should go back to bed.