On my drive back from a conclave deep in the mountains Saturday, the car radio scanned to a classic rock channel out of Knoxville(?) broadcasting a Rolling Stones weekend:
Oh, a storm is threat’ning
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away
The DJ immediately afterwards read a public service announcement for coronavirus preparedness. Store two weeks’ worth of food and water, as many extra over-the-counter and prescription medications as you need, and wash your hands regularly, etc., etc.
Knoxville. Jesus.
“And if zombies attack, a head shot works best. A jacketed, low-velocity round leaves less brain spatter,” he might have added.
I once visited a militiaman’s compound east of Knoxville (long story) where he was prepared for just that. Or for Obama’s jack-booted thugs to come to the end of the valley to confiscate his guns. He’s still stockpiling and waiting, one supposes. Since there are no cases reported within miles of East Tennessee, there’s still time to grab extra ammo at the Newport Walmart.
The rest of you, grab your Clorox wipes and hang onto your bank balances.
Global Markets Plunge as Cornavirus and Oil Shake Investrors, reads the New York Times landing page at this writing. “London and Frankfurt Stock Markets Were Down 8 Percent” reads the subhead.
Meanwhile, the acting president is over his head, as usual. After his CDC freakshow on Friday, Adam Rogers wrote for Wired:
As a reporter, in general I’m not supposed to say something like this, but: The president’s statements to the press were terrifying. That press availability was a repudiation of good science and good crisis management from inside one of the world’s most respected scientific institutions. It was full of Dear Leader-ish compliments, non-sequitorial defenses of unrelated matters, attacks on an American governor, and—most importantly—misinformation about the virus and the US response.
The germophobe-in-chief may have more than his rally schedule disrupted by the virus. An attendee of last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus:
Trump was photographed shaking hands with Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, who confirmed that he had been in direct contact with the infected man during the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.
The handshake at CPAC put Trump just two degrees of separation away from the virus that he has sought to minimize as it has rocked financial markets and tested his leadership skills. While the White House has maintained that Trump was never in direct contact with the infected person and does not have any symptoms, the potential close call at a political event underscores how the outbreak threatens to upend the president’s routine as he campaigns for reelection.
On the upside, there’s a John Carpenter movie in there somewhere. Perhaps Trump Jr. will open a chain of Trump-branded outbreak hotels.
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