Author: Kim du Toit

Not-So-Splendid Isolation

Disaster

Sorry to start the day on a downer, folks, but this Chinese virus [cf. POTUS]  is screwing with my life, bigly.

With no travel going on and people working more and more from home, my Uber income has fallen off the cliff.  From a seven-hour workday net (after expenses) income of around $20/hour, the past few days have seen it fall to nearly zero.  I mean zip, zilch, nada:  two hours’ waiting between calls, on a good day, and those trips are all short ones — nurses to and from hospitals, etc.

I’m not the only one, of course.  The Son&Heir, who’s the F&B manager at a large restaurant, told me yesterday that their hourly staff (waiters and hosts) are having their hours cut by 80%, and layoffs may follow in about a week’s time — and I have to think that other similar establishments are faring even worse, as his place does significant home- and office delivery sales.

I, of course, don’t have any of that kind of thing to fall back on.  New Wife had her residence application finally (!!!!) approved and got her temporary green card;  not that it helps, though, because she works in — ta-da!!!! — elementary schools, and guess who’s not hiring at the moment because Chinese virus?  At best,she’ll be hired in July for the new school year, but until then…

Frankly, nobody is hiring at the moment, of course, so even if I was able to, I can’t find any kind of full-time work.  (I’m kicking myself for not getting my trucker’s license many years ago — supermarkets in the area are experiencing supply bottlenecks because of a driver shortage.  That’s why there’s no bogroll in the stores.)

So I’m doing what I swore never to do again, and asking for financial assistance from you, O My Long-Suffering Readers.  Without that, our modest savings will be drained and we face financial ruin within two or three months.  (Forget indulgences like takeout food or trips to Boomershoot;  we’re talking rent, car payments and utilities here.)

I know that everyone is suffering at the moment in one way or another;  but if you can see your way to helping us out over the next couple of months until sanity returns to our world, all contributions will be most gratefully received.  You can contribute a small amount monthly via Patreon (over on the right-hand side of the page under Links), or with one-time amounts through PayPal or by check to the sooper-seekrit mailing address.

I hate to have to do this, but I have no other alternative.

But I Thought Guns Were Eeeevil

Funny Stuff, The Gun Thing

I see with interest that inhabitants of Los Angeles, New York and other liberal shitholes have suddenly discovered the value of guns:

Americans are starting to panic-buy guns with sales rocketing across the country and shoppers lining up around the block outside hunting shops amid coronavirus fears.
California, New York and Washington – the states hardest hit by the deadly bug – all saw a massive surge in gun sales.
Some buyers sought to ‘protect their families’ from looters should food and supplies run out due to coronavirus panic.

Of course, there’s always some wiseguy ready to poke fun at their plight:

Ahead Of The Game

Politics

Clearly, someone — doesn’t matter who — in the Trump administration saw something coming when the Chink Wuhan virus started to spread back in November 2019.  But that’s not as important as what POTUS did — and over at the Treehouse, Sundance explains how lucky we are.

In early 2017 President Trump and his administration coined the phrase: “economic security is national security”, and the economic team set about starting a very complex process to ensure the past three decades of trade policy was reversed.

Because the Left controls the history books as well as the media, it will never happen;  but in a saner world, Trump may well prove to have been one of the most successful U.S. presidents ever.

Once again, something to remember come November 2020.

Crisis Not Being Wasted

Gummint, Marxists, The Gun Thing

“Never let a crisis go to waste [when furthering your own objectives]” is the mantra of the Socialists, and indeed they grab it whenever they can.  Thus:

The mayor of Champaign, Illinois has declared a town emergency over the Wuhan coronavirus that includes a potential ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition.
According to a local report from WAND 17, Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen has issued an executive order that would give her office “extraordinary powers.” She has issued the order despite the town and surrounding area not having a single case of the disease.

Of course, controlling gun- and ammo sales would do nothing, nada, zip and zilch to contain, cure or prevent the Wuhan virus, but the point is not about relevance, but about opportunity.

So of course the Marxists in government are going to grab at it with both greedy little hands.

I imagine that the road traffic between Champaign and, say, Indiana is going to increase rapidly, and Illinois is going to lose serious money in taxes stemming from lost gun- and ammo sales;  but that doesn’t matter, comrade, as long as the aims of The Movement are being satisfied.

And to all Commies, of course, if there’s a problem only Gummint can fix it:

“There should be a national approach to ensuring every factory that can make hand sanitizer should be on 24/7 shifts and the distribution could go to the places that need it most” [Chief Commissar of NYFC] de Blasio said.

You want to see real shortages?  Let the State decide on selection, production and distribution.  I can see the headlines already:

Government Announces 5-Year Plan To Make Hand Sanitizer;  Production Slated To Begin In Fall 2052

Government Hand Sanitizer Factory Sends 60,000 Empty Bottles To Restaurant In North Dakota;  Owner Mystified

Government Hand Sanitizer Factory Makes 2 Million Bottles Of Hand Sanitizer;  Government Trucking Center Has No Trucks Available To Deliver Them, And Government Railcars Busy Delivering Sand To Canada

Government Hand Sanitizer Factory Makes 2 Million Gallons Of Mouthwash By Mistake, But Has No Bottles On Hand To Fill Anyway;  Uses Mouthwash To Clean Factory Floor, Pours Remaining 1.99 Million Gallons Into Town Reservoir

Congress Appropriates $250 Billion For Hand Sanitizer Production;  Government Factories Only Able To Produce 20 Gallons, Total

And finally:

CDC Finds That Government-Formulated Hand Sanitizer Causes Skin To Blister;  U.S. Forced To Import Sanitizer From… China 

Let’s hear it from Comrade Stalin:

Poxy little statists.