Gov. Cuomo To Tax Volunteers Fighting Coronavirus

                New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is quite a guy. First, he put people diagnosed with coronavirus into nursing homes, killing thousands. Now, he’s planning to tax volunteer workers who have come to his state to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, which has hit New York harder than any state in the union. That’s right, even if you aren’t being paid by New York, but are being paid in your home state, you will need to pay New York state taxes. That’s quite a thank you to those risking their own health and lives to help out their fellow man. It is also taxation without representation. This is not an effective way to ensure that volunteers will continue to come to your aid in the future. Apparently, Cuomo doesn’t care.

                At a recent news conference, Cuomo stated: “We’re not in a position to provide any subsidies right now because we have a $13 billion deficit. So there’s a lot of good things I’d like to do, and if we get federal funding, we can do, but it would be irresponsible for me to sit here looking at a $13 billion deficit and say I’m gonna spend more money, when I can’t even pay the essential services.”

               So, he’s going to take money from the very same people who the Empire State has asked to come to the American Wuhan to help fight the pandemic. Classy. That’s worse than asking someone to help you move and then demanding they buy the beer. It’s as if someone pulled your daughter out of the way of a speeding vehicle and you asked that person to pay to fix the resulting rip in her coat. On a scale writ large.

   Let’s be clear: not taxing volunteers is not the same as providing subsidies, Governor Asshat. The reason your state is $13 billion in the hole is because you have been irresponsible, spending money like a drunken sailor on a 24-hour shore leave. You’ve funded colossal entitlement programs. Your “public servants” (trying not to gag) have been granted massive pension plans. You provide illegal aliens with a variety of “subsidies,” granting them free driver’s licenses, services, and sanctuary in your cities. And the right to vote. I wonder if that has anything to do with the “free” stuff you’ve bestowed upon them.  

              It is amazing that our political rulers think all money belongs to them, the only ones who don’t produce anything or generate wealth. Ah, but how they love to confiscate it. Criminal. It is preposterous—and entirely immoral—that they so often say things like, “we can’t afford a tax cut.” They should have neither the power to make that decision, nor the gall to utter those proclamations.  What if the poor working slob thinks he or she can’t afford to have more of his or her money confiscated?

 You can’t afford to give volunteers a break, Gov. Cuomo? Give me a break! You’re taxing my sanity. Of course, that’s not a surprise. You tax everything else, too.  

               

ESPN8 Airs Alternative Sports Programming

                A couple of weeks ago I noted that, due to the dearth of sports in our COVID-19 world, ESPN was planning on televising a H-O-R-S-E competition among several NBA stars. I posted a “funny” parody of one night’s sports programming on the iconic network. Turns out, my “programming” was less outré than what they actually aired a couple of weeks later. Apparently taking a cue from the movie “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” which featured a channel broadcasting weird sports, ESPN launched its own faux network it calls ESPN8, “The Ocho.” This was The Ocho’s schedule for Saturday, May 2nd: 

12:00 p.m.: World Record Deadlift Attempt by Thor Bjornsson--live. (The man, better known as
“The Mountain” from Game of Thrones, succeeded in hoisting an incredible 1,104 pounds.)

1:00 p.m.: Professional Arm Wrestling

1:30 p.m.: 2006 Krystal World Hamburger Eating Competition

2:30 p.m.: E:60 -- Cheese Rolling, Frog Jumping, and Japanese Monster Wrestling

3:30 p.m.: 2018 Classic Tetris World Championship

4:00 p.m.: 2019 Golden Tee World Championship

4:30 p.m.: 51st Annual Stone Skipping Competition

5:30 p.m.: 46th Annual Cherry Pit Spitting Championship

6:00 p.m.: Dodge Juggle (Jugglers try to continue with their routines as dodge-balls are hurled at them.)

7:00 p.m.: Putt-Putt Championships

7:30 p.m.: 2019 Stupid Robot Fighting league

8:00 p.m.:2019 World Sign Spinning (Say what?)

8:30 p.m.: 2019 Jelle's Marble Run (Marbles race…with other marbles as fans attending)

9:00 p.m.: Lawn Mower Racing (“It’s A Kick in The Grass!”)

                Here is what a well-placed source tells me we can expect from ESPN8 on Saturday, May 16^th:

12:00 p.m.: Turtle Racing (Re-broadcast of the thrilling 2017 final heat from Longville, Minnesota)

12:30 p.m.: 1974 World Pong Championship

1:00 p.m.: Duck Racing—live (from Climax, Pennsylvania)

2:00 p.m.: Pick-up Sticks, Eurasian Quarterfinals

3:00 p.m.: Catching Tennis Balls Bouncing/Rolling Off After Being Thrown on The Roof

3:30 p.m.: NCAA Beer-Pong Play-Offs (2018)

5:00 p.m.: Minnow Races- live (From Jerry’s Bar, Dallas, Texas)

6:00 p.m.: Junior League “Crazy Eight” Tournament

7:00 p.m.: 2019 Wisconsin Sack-Racing League (Pre-season workouts from Menominee)

7:30 p.m.: Senior Pickle Ball Action- live (From Ft. Myers, Florida; singles only!)

8:30 p.m.: Nighttime Frisbee Golf Pro-Am

9:30 p.m.: Wood-tick Races- live (From Houghton, Michigan)

10:00 p.m.: Fart Flamethrower Contest (Bob’s backyard, July 22^nd, 2019)

10:15 p.m.: Skinny-dipping 400-Meter Breaststroke

10:30 p.m.: Lawn Jarts: Old School (circa 1979…not for the faint of heart)

11:00 p.m.: Noodling Finals (From the Arkansas River in Oklahoma; filmed 6/20/2019)

12:00 a.m.: The 100-Yard Dash for Those with A Very Poor Sense of Direction (H/T Monty Python)

                Who needs baseball? Am I right? 

California Lists Approved Outdoor Activities

                Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsome recently instructed residents of the formerly Golden State to read a list of outdoor activities that the state says are still permissible during the shelter-in-place order. The menu of state-approved activities includes throwing a baseball or softball, singles Badminton, tree climbing, car-washing, and gardening-- if not done in groups. Newsome told Californians, “We want you to see sunsets.” As long as social distancing is practiced, he added. Seeing the sun rise is also okay with the powers that be in Sacramento. How benevolent. How magnanimous. Big Brother is so kind and generous.

    “Walking the dog” is okay, if it’s not used as a double entendre or in reference to a hidden meaning. (Don’t look it up in the “Urban Dictionary!”) Yoga made the list, too. Duh! I mean, like, it would have so totally pissed southern Californians off if it hadn’t. The same goes for meditation. Newsome is allowing his citizens to meditate. Table tennis—singles only—made the cut, though I personally don’t consider it an “outdoor activity.” Individual “soft” martial arts are tolerated (but apparently not ”hard” ones, whatever those are), as is “scootering,” though not in groups in excess of one. “Crabbing” isn’t supposed to bring Der Kommissar to your door in the middle of the night, either, but, if he should show up anyway, running is permitted, too.

                 Apparently, gnat-swatting is also okay, as is croquet if limited to 3 wickets total and played by no more than two people. I am assuming that mowing the lawn is an approved activity, too, provided one uses an electric mower, of course. (Watering your lawn is strictly verboten, and watering bans are firmly in place.) But I wonder if washing exterior windows is okay? Two-person hide and go seek if the person being sought does not venture more than 25 feet from their starting spot? Small group tag if each participant is clad in a hazmat suit? Can a child play in a sandbox or use the swing-set, if he or she is wearing a mask and gloves?

                One thing we do know: lurking outside while observing and reporting on your neighbors is not only okay, but state-sanctioned. “Outdoor photography” is alright with the Gov, too, particularly if one is photographing one’s neighbors in non-compliance with his mandates prior to sending the pics in to him (along with the neighbor’s names, addresses and social security numbers).

                Snitching has replaced baseball as the new American pastime. An attitude akin to “better red than dead” is back in a big way. And, sadly, this time it’s here to stay.

Russian Doctors Falling Out Of Hospital Windows

                Russian President Vladimir Putin claims he has the coronavirus under control and that everything is just fine in the former Soviet Union. He recently stated: “All levels of power are working in an organized, responsible and timely way. The situation is under full control. All of our society is united in front of the common threat.” Nothing to see here. It’s all good, says Vlad.

                Well, three doctors who were treating coronavirus patients have fallen out of hospital windows lately. But that could happen anywhere, anytime, right? Doctors fall out of hospital windows all the time, no? Surely it is just a coincidence that at least two of the three and maybe all three had recently complained about the lack of personal protective gear in the country.

                In all seriousness, this sounds Clintonesque. Doctors do not, in fact, simply fall out of hospital windows. (“Damn, that’s the fifth one we’ve lost this week!”) I’ve never heard of this happening before. If Russian hospitals are anything like those in America, their exterior walls are built out, leaving a shelf for patients’ flowers, etc., and the windows, if any, don’t come down very far from the ceiling. And those windows are thick double-panes. It would be damn near impossible to accidentally fall through or out of one, even if it were open…to take advantage of the warm Russian April air, no doubt. Funny that they just happened to question their government’s readiness to combat COVID-19 before accidentally stumbling out the windows.

                Alexander Shulepov, a doctor in Voronezh, located roughly 320 miles south of Moscow, is currently in serious condition after tumbling from a second-floor hospital window, according to local state television. He was reportedly receiving treatment for coronavirus at the time, yet had been forced to continue working.

                Elena Nepomnyashchaya, acting head doctor of a hospital in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, recently died after allegedly falling out a window during a meeting with health officials in which they discussed turning the clinic into a facility for treating the coronavirus. Nepomnyashchaya was supposedly against the idea, due to the lack of protective gear in the hospital. Apparently, the meeting with officials somehow caused her to lose her balance and sense of direction.

                Natalya Lebedeva was the head of the emergency medical service at Star City, the main training base for Russian cosmonauts. She, too, was being treated for coronavirus, according to a hospital within the Federal Biomedical Agency, when she, too, suffered a “tragic accident.”

                It would have been easier—and more believable-- if government officials had said these doctors were all hit by lightning or were abducted by aliens. (Shulepov could be recovering or have escaped.)

    It’s not just the three Russian doctors who went out the window. In fact, they almost certainly did not. The credibility of the government officials, on the other hand, most certainly did. 

Samaritan's Purse Booted From New York

                Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian relief organization run by the Rev. Franklin Graham, established a field hospital in New York City’s Central Park a few weeks ago to help fight the coronavirus epidemic afflicting the city. Despite the organization’s desire to help those in need of medical care and its commitment to serve every single patient without discrimination, it ran afoul of leftists who disdain the organization’s Biblical views on sexuality.

                On Saturday, May 2^nd, the Mount Sinai Health System (MSHS) announced it was shutting down the field hospital, due at least in part to its Christian beliefs, even though the several other field hospitals that were activated to treat COVID-19 patients will remain in place. The day before that announcement, Corey Johnson, speaker of the New York City Council, issued a remarkably vile, hypocritical and tone-deaf statement of his own. Johnson said, “It is time for Samaritan’s Purse to leave New York City. This group, which is led by the notoriously bigoted, hate-spewing Franklin Graham, came at a time when our city couldn’t in good conscience turn away any offer of help. That time has passed. As a city that values diversity and compassion for all, we cannot continue to allow a group with the track record of Samaritan’s Purse to remain here when we are past the point they are needed. Hate has no place in our beautiful city.”

                So, MSHS is shuttering a field hospital that an organization gifted them after taking advantage of that same field hospital and organization’s largess and compassion when it was “needed,” and is purporting to do so out of its tolerance and compassion? MSHS, and by its inference the city, obviously does not value diversity and compassion when it comes to Christianity and Samaritan’s Purse. Hate does indeed have a place in “your beautiful city,” Mayor de Blasio and MSHS, and that place is now on display front and center. Your actions and preposterously asinine and disingenuous characterization of Franklin Graham and Samaritan’s Purse proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. You use the despicable, “bigoted, hate-spewing” group when you need it most, then cut it loose and blast it for its "intolerance." Who, in “good conscience,” could do a thing like that? You make decent people sick.

    Samaritan’s Purse tries to heal them.

China Also Ate Rats

                It was not just bats being consumed in China. Apparently, rats were considered a dietary staple prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports say that tens of thousands of Chinese farmers and chefs sold and cooked them before the trade was halted with the outbreak of the coronavirus. “Umm, rats…not just for breakfast anymore!” Chinese bamboo rats were widely lauded for their nutritional value and some chefs touted “100 reasons to eat them.” There were an estimated 25 million bamboo rats on Chinese farms when the prohibition went into effect.

               The nation’s long and storied history of consuming vast quantities of rodents, winged or otherwise, may be coming to an end. The sale of the rodents was banned after a leading epidemiologist claimed that the epidemic could be linked to the eating of bamboo rats… or badgers. Seriously. Badgers?! Who the hell eats a badger?

   Memo to those in the Middle Kingdom: stop eating effing rodents! And badgers! And dogs, for that matter! Stock up on Ramen noodles. Maybe mix in a salad or two. Bust out an avocado. Or head to McDonalds or the Olive Garden for the love of Pete!

Giant Asian Hornets Invading The U.S.

                As if SARS and the coronavirus weren’t enough, the United States is now being invaded by giant Asian Hornets, hailing from—you guessed it—China. These hornets measure nearly two inches in length and are expected to cost the economy many millions of dollars per year. What’s more, they will likely have a devastating impact on the native honeybee population…since they eat them. Oh, and they can potentially kill  people—even those not allergic-- with a single sting, thereby earning the nickname “murder hornets.” So we have that whole thing going for us, which is nice.

                The alien intruders were accidentally introduced to France from China in 2004 and have been spreading rapidly throughout Europe and other parts of the world ever since. And now they have arrived on our shores. Washington state to be precise. The same state that saw the first coronavirus case. Yet another gift from China.

   “Experts” warn that the Asian Hornets will start swarming soon, as their life cycle begins in April. They say that the invasion is mainly controlled by destroying the critter’s nests, an effort which cost France more than $25 million over the ten-year period from 2006 to 2015, but which isn’t enough to kill off the species. French scientist and lead research professor Franck Courchamp, head of a team studying the economic costs to the E.U. and the U.S., said: "The current study presents only the first estimates of the economic costs resulting from the Asian Hornet, but definitely more actions need to be taken in order to handle harmful invasive species - one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning." (To which Democrats and other leftists would quickly add, “This in no way translates to human immigrants, who are always nothing but a great positive for the E.U. and the U.S., economically and culturally!”)

                Washington State University Extension entomologist and invasive species specialist Todd Murray stated that, once invasive species take a foothold, they cause “forever changes” to agriculture and ecosystems. Murray added, “We need to teach people how to recognize and identify this hornet while populations are small, so that we can eradicate it while we still have a chance.” While we still have a chance? Sounds ominous.

               Upon hearing of the infestation, CNN & MSNBC immediately cautioned people not to use the term “Asian Hornets,” as it is insensitive, xenophobic and racist. They suggested use of the term “undocumented species” instead.

   If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Oh, well. Maybe we can shelter in place until the threat is gone.

Biden, Dodd, And The Waitress Sandwich

                Former Vice-President Joe Biden has chosen former Sen. Chris Dodd to head up the advisory committee to help him select his vice-presidential running mate for the upcoming election. This is a particularly interesting choice given the fact that Biden himself has been accused of sexually harassing his then-Senate staff member Tara Reade in 1993. Why? Because Dodd allegedly tag-teamed with his close friend, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, in assaulting a female restaurant employee in 1985. Reports say Kennedy and Dodd were drinking in a private room of the La Brasserie restaurant when the attractive young waitress entered the room. Kennedy allegedly grabbed the petite woman and threw her on the table before picking her up again and tossing her on Dodd, who was sprawled out on a chair. Kennedy then jumped on top and started rubbing against the young lady, making a “waitress sandwich” out of her. She screamed, bringing several restaurant employees into the room, at which point Kennedy got up and he and Dodd proceeded to leave the premises.

                This is the Era of #MeToo. Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein have been convicted and destroyed. Biden himself has been accused of sexual harassment. The accusation appears to have recently been corroborated. Then Bill and Hillary Clinton endorse him. Biden has repeatedly stated he will pick a woman as his running mate. And now this. The waitress sandwich “incident” is not exactly unknown. Reports of it are all over the internet, and on popular and reputable sites. How in the hell would someone in Biden’s position opt to make Dodd an adviser on anything?

                What I—and other inquiring minds—want to know is: who advised Biden on who to pick to advise him on who to pick for his Vice-Presidential running mate?

                Incredible.

   Strike that. Nothing is incredible anymore.

Headlines And Breadlines

Headlines and Breadlines:

*Incredibly, in the midst of a pandemic-- a worldwide health crisis-- many hospitals across America are having to reduce doctors’ pay, cut back on hours worked and even furlough their employees. All because governments mandated that they shut down all but coronavirus-related activities. For most hospitals in most states that isn’t near enough to keep everyone employed. The mandate for no elective surgeries, no physical therapy or routine visits, etc., is idling even the biggest and best medical centers such as the Mayo Clinic. But, hey, government knows best, right?

*Question #1: Why do those in the mainstream media believe it is okay to die of anything but the coronavirus? Over 19.3 million people have perished this year (as I write this on April 29^th, 2020), 227,368 of them from the coronavirus. Compare that to the 5.6 million folks who died due to cardiovascular disease and the 2.5 million who have lost their lives to cancer. Or, perhaps, to the nearly 14 million who have been aborted.

*COVID-19 is, ironically, making us more like the Chinese. Or, more accurately, revealing our experts and elites in positions of power to be more like those in the Chinese Communist government than most would have expected. Seeing this crisis play out has been like watching a slow-moving Chinese version of The Body Snatchers.

*YouTube pulled a video by two California doctors who argued that it was time to end the coronavirus lockdown. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN that “anything that would go against the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations would be a violation of our policy.” Think about that. The WHO is essentially a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist government at this point. Scary.

*Question #2: In past pandemics, we have always quarantined the sick. This time, we have quarantined the healthy. Why?

*The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has nearly destroyed the world’s best-ever economy in six short weeks. The United States went from having millions more job openings than people to fill them… to people waiting in food lines. Bernie Sanders must be pleased. After all, he once said breadlines were “a good thing.”  

*Question #3: So, what really happened and why? Consider who has the most to gain by the shutdown. Think long and hard.

Westworld, Women's World

                It seems one can’t watch a major motion picture or a popular television show these days without witnessing a woman beating the crap out of a man or twelve. Or otherwise making him look like a weakling, fool, and/or blithering idiot. I knew that this anti-men assault was coming in the post #MeToo Era, as I had read some about the shows being produced. It also made sense as a piece with the current climate, which has changed dramatically in recent years, not from cooler to hotter, but from “men are kinda cool at times” to “men are effing scum.” 

                Take, for instance, the last couple episodes of HBO’s popular “Westworld” series. Please. Dolores Abernathy and Charlotte Hale semi-casually fling men’s bodies around like substantially less hirsute female versions of King Kong. If he had PMS. They easily dispense with several to many men at once. They are crack shots with any firearm, of course, but prefer to do their wet work up close and personal.

                For my money, this trend is just another sad example of the breakdown of the family-- and society as a whole. I’m sure progressives think, “What could be wrong with pitting the sexes against each other? I mean, we’ve already decided that identity politics is the wave of the future.” But this clash is particularly troubling as it cuts across all races and ethnicities, and since men and women depend on each other for procreation, love and various other symbiotic advantages. At least they used to.

   Sadly, today, even the propagation of our own species is not universally considered a good thing. Many progressives believe we are what’s wrong with the world. Is it really just a coincidence that we in the West have lost our confidence-- our ‘Mojo’ if you will-- our sense of purpose, our religion, and even our will to exist since men have become ever more feminized and women ever more masculine?

   As I have previously written, we have gone from “Father Knows Best” to “Heather Has Two Mommies” in a few short decades. Now it is the woman who has to show the man how to start the lawnmower, change a tire…… and use a spoon.

  Perhaps we have just exchanged one stereotype for another. In any case, it is anything but a step forward. Perhaps we need to take a step back.