The data is showing that things are looking up in Oregon related to the number of reported new coronavirus cases and the number of tests performed. Yesterday, April 27th, saw a drop to 43 new cases reported for the day from 58 the day before and 76 new cases the day before that. The trend is definitely looking favorable. This, as well as the testing availability, is the data that the governor is looking at as she makes decisions on the easing of the current restrictions. The number of citizens tested in Oregon has shown an upward trend, which is also a positive sign. As of this morning there were 2,354 reported cases in Oregon with 92 deaths. Keep up the good work, comrades. Continue washing your hands frequently, stay home if you can, and if you do go out, use the social distance guidelines.

I would venture to guess that besides cooking more, trying new recipes, and experimenting with new cocktail recipes, folks are doing more reading as they are in quarantine. If you like mystery crime fiction and need suggestions for a new author, I highly recommend James Lee Burke. I have been reading his work for years and always can hardly wait for his next novel to come out. He has several series of characters, with the Dave Robicheaux series having the greatest number of novels. The settings are mainly in Louisiana, Montana and Texas, places JLB has lived. He currently lives on a 120 acre ranch in Lolo, Montana with his wife, Pearl, who he has been married to for sixty years, four horses and a number of cats. Often called the best mystery writer in America, he’s written 39 books, with 23 about Dave Robicheaux, a former alcoholic cop with flashbacks to his soldier days in Vietnam, four about Texas attorney Billy Bob Holland, six about Billy Bob’s family, six stand alones, and a number of short stories. I have just finished reading a 38 page short story by JLB titled “The Assault” in the new issue of the Southern Review, and boy does it keep you on the edge of your seat. Trust me, if you like good mystery novels with an author who writes the best descriptions of weather, nature, and scenery, you will love Jim. He recently (April 18, 2020) wrote an essay in The Missoulian newspaper titled ‘We don’t let fear into our hearts.’ If you would like to read it, go here. And that, my friends. is the Arts and Entertainment portion of this blog for today.

The missus baked 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies yesterday for the bake-a-thon that I mentioned last week. Tracie, the owner of Skyway Bar and Grill, had the idea of doing something special as a thank you for some of our local community businesses and services that have stayed open because of being considered essential. She shot the idea out to a few of the ladies up here and they all wanted to participate, so this afternoon she came by and picked up the missus’ load, will put all of the goods together in a little box with a tag attached that the missus made with her card making stuff, and deliver them all tomorrow. What a great little community we have up here on the mountain!

Okay, I can’t leave without commenting on the hypocrisy once again from this White House. Today VP Pence visits the Mayo Clinic and defies their policy on wearing a mask. Instructions on the Mayo Clinic website request that all patients, visitors and personnel bring and wear a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The CDC also recommends that everyone wear a mask in public to help prevent the spread of the virus. What instructions do you think this little twerp is giving the doctor here? I’ll bet it’s something like “do as I say, not as I do;” or perhaps, “I know I’m a moron.”

Stay safe and stay sane out there. And ponder this while you are sipping your 5 o’clock cocktail or glass of wine or sparkling water.

Do you know what the 58,220 American Dead from the Vietnam War will have in common with the 58,220 American dead expected this midweek? Donald Trump refused to fight for either one of them. Moral: Stay Home! it’s what tRump would do! Ziggyman

Happy Monday!! Getting geared up for the weekly battle, are ya’? I do have some good news for you if you’ve been conflicted about rushing to the television each afternoon to watch the daily “COVID-19 briefing”, aka political rally. I have not been conflicted, since I refused to watch after the first few s__tshows, and instead read about or watched the highlights that evening. What is the good news? It looks like they ain’t going to happen anymore after Donnie through a tizzy fit Friday afternoon and walked off the stage without taking questions from reporters. Saturday and Sunday briefings also did not happen, Don was too busy tweeting. Woo hoo!!

It looks like we are beginning to enter into the next phase of the coronavirus situation and that is the stage that we begin opening up the country. I would say Phase I was from January through mid-March when people in the U.S. began getting the virus and spreading it to other people. There was not social distancing and no active management. We are now in Phase II, people are social distancing and we have ‘Stay at Home’ orders throughout the country. In Oregon, Phase II started March 23rd with the governor’s order, and my guess is it will be mid-May before we start seeing a gradual reopening. Some states started Phase II earlier and others later. Some states have begun to ease their shutdown orders, allowing some businesses to reopen. Those being Alaska, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina. It seems to me the governors of those states are bowing to the pressures coming from workers and business owners wanting and needing to get back to work and business reopened for financial reasons. I understand and can empathize with these folks, but they are defying the advice of the medical community and the experts. In Georgia, you have the governor, Brian Kemp, who didn’t issue a shelter-in-place order until April 1st, effective April 3rd, after he said he had just learned that people could be asymptomatic with the virus. Funny the rest of the nation knew it in January. Georgia must be on another planet. Now he’s one of the first governors to open up his state, allowing some businesses to reopen, but is thankfully getting pushback from mayors and business owners. If our governmental decision makers would review the history of the 1918 flu pandemic, they would hopefully be more cautious in moving to Phase III. In 1918 there was a large resurgence of the virus in many cities when restrictions were lifted too early and, as a result, many more people died. Like I said earlier, I see Phase III in Oregon probably beginning in the middle of May and lasting into 2021. During this phase, ways of working, socializing, traveling, eating, congregating, and so on, will be developed by governments, companies, schools, and other affected organizations. It will definitely not be the ‘normal’ we had, but will become the new reality. What it will look like we don’t know at this point. Will we be wearing gloves and masks everywhere in public? Will we have our temperature taken when we enter a restaurant? Will there be large public gatherings at sporting events, concerts, weddings, and so forth? What will air travel look like? I feel for the business owners, school district administrators, processing plant managers, and all of the folks who will be working hard to develop the management protocols during this chapter. As I write this, there are many efforts to get us to Phase IV, the eradication of the virus via a vaccine. I don’t believe people will be comfortable returning to any kind of normalcy until a vaccine is developed, and who knows when that will be. For now, we just need to ‘hang in there’ and trust our government officials will make the right decisions for reopening the country, scientists are able to develop a vaccine sooner than later, and we don’t get into a civil war before this is over. Have faith, comrades!

Having been in a position of leadership during my career and a longtime student of leadership qualities and styles, I have been fascinated watching Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York as he guides his state through this crisis. He sits at his table and provides facts, statistics from experts, empathy, encouragement, humor, tough love, all done in a manner of calmness. He takes tough questions from reporters and he answers them without making snide remarks about that reporter or the news station he or she is associated with. I think his constituents trust him and believe in his leadership during this time of uncertainty. I won’t even do a contrast with the person who should be exhibiting these qualities because you know the difference. I know he has not always been thought of as a Saint, but New Yorkers are lucky to have this kind of leadership at this time.

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”
— Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and motivational speaker

Somebody better take that phone away from the “stable genius” or delete his twitter account. It would be a noble act for the country. Like I said earlier, Donnie had a busy tweeting weekend. Saturday he tweets that it’s not worth the time and effort to hold White House Press Conferences, and on Sunday lashes out at the media on Twitter, calling for journalists to be sued and demands they return their “Noble Prizes” for their work reporting on the Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Okay, so he misspelled Nobel only four times, like he knew the correct spelling, but obviously not the meaning of the Nobel Prize. I don’t think the journalists he was referencing received ‘Noble Prizes.’ Pulitzers perhaps? After getting filleted on Twitter, he deleted the posts, and guess what his defense was? For the second time in three days it was basically, ‘don’t you dumbs__ts know sarcasm? I was just joking.’ Won’t y’all please join me and Nancy Pelosi and say a prayer for Donald tonight?

Okay, that’s enough for today. Have a great evening!! Ziggyman

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” – Isaac Asimov

Sadly, in the year 2020 our present leader and his followers seem to fit this statement that Mr. Asimov made to Newsweek in 1980. A couple of days ago in this blog I did a brief comparison of the leadership presented by Angela Merkel in Germany with that of the leader of the United States. Ms. Merkel, a physicist by training, has followed scientific advice, the knowledge and best practices from others, and an early and extensive testing program. She created a multidisciplinary team of scientists and scholars to advise her in the effort to save her country and the people who live there. The United States has some of the brightest minds in science, but our leader does not listen to them. Instead, he uses his gut hunch or listens to some huckster promoting industrial strength disinfectant. Our leader is lucky to be the President of the United States. He is a man who has no use for scientists, is inarticulate, coarse, a colossal liar, dictator worshiper, and seemingly quite proud of all these things. Unfortunately for all of us, even with these characteristics, he is a formidable force in our country. Where and how does he get his power to cause us to get up every morning in shock, anger and disbelief? I thank my friend, RT, who referred me to the Bedlam Farm Journal, a blog site by Jon Katz, a former TV news producer and political writer. In a post he made yesterday, Mr. Katz did a very articulate analysis of how the president gets his power, causing me to rethink some things I have said about his intelligence. I still don’t think he is that intelligent, but he also is not a dummy. After reading the post, I can see that the president does have expertise in an area that gives him great power. He is an expert at modern media. He knows how to use Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, Twitter, etc. to his advantage. I now see how the outrage he creates is a calculated action and the media takes the bait with an expected response depending on whether you are Fox News or CNN. “For President Trump, being outrageous is like pushing a button and watching Times Square light up at night. He can grab his remote switcher, lie in bed, watch the fireworks,  and see his image everywhere.” This is a post I highly recommend reading. Disinfecting The News: “Tearing Our Minds To Pieces…”

Several days ago the missus found a deep dish pizza pan that we have had for probably 40 years up on a shelf. We’ve had a hankerin’ for some pizza the last couple of days, so yesterday I looked up ‘Chicago Deep Dish Pizza’ online and found a pizza dough recipe to try. It didn’t turn out that well, but I used it anyway and we had a pizza for dinner last night while we watched Friday night television. I’ll be looking for a new pizza dough recipe for future pizza baking. The topping I did was very good, however. Smoked brisket, smoked pork, onions, peppers, kalamata olives, 3 different cheeses, tomatoes and bbq sauce.

Yesterday was our daughter’s 45th birthday. We feel bad that we couldn’t go out to celebrate it with her, her husband, and our grand dog Charlie, but she knows we are that age of high-risk with this virus and she felt we should stay home and celebrate later. She said she’s been reading my blog and we need to follow what I write . So, we’ll celebrate birthdays when we get the ‘all clear.’

Took a walk through the back yard to the creek this afternoon to clear the brain fog and feed the soul. I had an idea on the walk. For those of you who have saved $$$$$ during this shutdown by not spending the weekend at your favorite gathering place and spending $$$$$, consider making a donation with those savings to a social service agency. These agencies are in dire need of contributions, as the need in the community has skyrocketed during this time. If you need an idea, a couple of agencies that we support are Snowcap Community Charities and Portland Rescue Mission. Enjoy your evening. Ziggyman.

You knew it was comin’. After Dr. Don, at yesterday’s propaganda show, prescribed disinfectant injections or Clorox cocktails and UV enemas, or however one was to have them ingested, today we get that shit eatin’ grin with an ‘oh, I was being sarcastic.’ That is tRump’s modus operandi after he goes off on some batshit riff. And you also knew that his new White House press secretary tool, Kayleigh McEnany, would attack the media and say something to the effect of ‘the President was just testing to see how the press would respond,’ and sure enough her statement was “President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment … Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.” At least two Faux News commentators weren’t buying it, saying ‘he was not joking.’ You can read this article to see where tRump got the idea which pretty much blows up his satire response. In a letter to tRump, Mark Grenon, the leader of an outfit that peddles industrial bleach, told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”. This continues to unbelievable.

I sure miss the sporting events at this time of the year. We would have had the NCAA basketball championships, with Oregon and Oregon State women’s and men’s teams competing that had teams this year that could have gone all the way. I feel bad for them, as this was a top goal for Sabrina Ionescu and the Duck’s women’s team. It will be fun watching her in the pro league playing for the New York Liberty next year, as well as Justin Herbert with the Los Angeles Chargers. The Blazers were playing pretty pitiful before the virus shut down the NBA, so it may have been a lucky break for them. Baseball should have started on March 26th, but the opening of their season has been pushed back. It’s good to know, however, that wrestling is an essential business and can resume filming in Florida after being declared an essential business by their governor.

I watched two interviews on the tube last night. One was with Alicia Keys, who performed her new song ‘Good Job’ during a global Town Hall on CNN. Here is a link, but be warned, it will bring tears to your eyes. The other interview was with a young nurse at a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona by the name of Lauren Leander, who stood silently, arms crossed wearing her scrubs, in front of protestors wanting the governor of Arizona to reopen the state. Here is a link to an interview on one of the local stations. These two ladies are my heroes.

HERE’S WHY WE NEED TO CONTINUE DOING WHAT WE’RE DOING
You wake up with a terrible cough, a fever, and severe body aches. Immediately, you rush to the doctor. Unfortunately, you’re diagnosed with COVID-19. For the last two weeks, you’ve been unaware that you were infected. For the last two weeks, you’ve ignored “the rules,” gotten together with some close friends for pizza, had a few people over, even visited some parks and beaches. You figured, “I don’t feel sick,” and “I have the right to keep living my normal life!”
With your diagnosis, you spend the next few days at home on the couch, feeling pretty crappy; but then you’re well again because you’re young, healthy and strong. Lucky you.
But your best friend caught it from you during a visit to your house, and because she didn’t know she was contagious, she visited her 82-year-old grandfather, who uses oxygen tanks daily to help him breathe because he has COPD and heart failure. Now, he’s dead.
Your co-worker, who has asthma, caught it too, during your little pizza get-together. Now, he’s in the ICU, and he’s spread it to a few others in his family, too–but they won’t know that for another couple of weeks yet.
The cashier at the restaurant where you picked up the pizza carried the infection home to his wife, who has MS, which makes her immuno-suppressed. She’s not as lucky as you, so she’s admitted to the hospital because she’s having trouble breathing. She may need to be placed in a medically-induced coma and intubated; she may not get to say goodbye to her loved ones. She may die surrounded by machines, with no family at her bedside.
All because you couldn’t stand the inconvenience of a mask; of staying home; of changing your familiar routines for just a little while.
Social Distancing — It’s not about YOU.

Have a nice Friday evening. Pour yourself a cocktail, or three, as at the present time liquor seems to be the glue holding this shit together. Stay healthy, stay safe, stay home. Ziggyman

OMG, It’s 9:30 PM and I already published my post for the day, but I can’t resist while it’s hot on the burner. First we find out that a Labradoodle breeder is heading up the HHS pandemic team, but now I just hear that Dr. Don is suggesting disinfectant be injected into the bodies of humans to cure the coronavirus. “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning,” the president said during his daily briefing. “You see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number [on the] lungs, so it would be interesting to check that,” he said, appearing to refer to the disinfectant idea. “We’re going to have to use medical doctors, but it seems interesting to me.” Holy shit! And then he basically said we should all head to tanning beds, because the UV light will kill that nasty lil’ bug just like that. Like I said in my earlier post, you can’t make this stuff up.

Night Night. I’m going to take my disinfectant cocktail. Ziggyman.

I’m starting this post today feeling sad after reading an article this morning in the New York Times titled ‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership. We have gone from being the country that the rest of the world looked to for guidance and assistance in times of crisis, to a country that is being looked upon as a cluster f__k. Why is this? One simple answer. King Don. The “America First” theme that he has espoused since his candidacy and then followed through with since his election; his lack of or erratic leadership throughout this crisis; his continual blame of others for his missteps have all contributed to a shift in the way we are seen throughout the world. Since World War II we have had the role of global leader and an example of what other countries aspired to be. Today we are seen as an example of what and how not to be. Donnie always wants to be number uno. Well we now hold that position of being number one. We have more cases of the coronavirus, and more deaths from it, than anywhere else in the world. Thanks to the stable genius, our economy is in the toilet, our unemployment rate is through the roof, we have been locked in our homes for over a month, we can’t get the testing that needs to happen in order to get out of lockdown, we have a huge budgetary deficit that will have a serious effect on future generations, we are losing our global leadership to communist China, the weakness of our healthcare system compared to European countries is on full display, and so on and so on. We have a reality show barker as our leader who won’t listen to the real experts. Germany has a physicist who has been praised for a near-textbook response to the pandemic. As the leader of her country, Angela Merkel has done everything tRump hasn’t. She has put in place a strategy for mass testing. She has rallied her state governors around her, rather than looking for a daily fight and trying to place blame on them. She has followed scientific advice and looked at the best practices of other countries. Our guy has put together an advisory panel of business executives and cronies with the number one priority, not being the health aspect, but rather getting the economy going before the election. Germany’s leader has put together a multidisciplinary advisory panel made up of 26 academics from Germany’s national academy of science. The panel includes not just medical experts and economists but also behavioral psychologists, education experts, sociologists, philosophers and constitutional experts. Yes, getting our economy going again is important, but so is saving lives and dealing with the aftermath of this crisis. I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer, but the article is a good read and causes you to think about us as a one time global leader to a country that might be seen as the laughingstock.

We all know what a disaster the response to this pandemic has been from our “esteemed” leadership team at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but I just found out last night how crazy these dimwits are. A story from Reuters posted yesterday afternoon, that when you see the headline you would think is satire. Unfortunately, my comrades, the story is not satire. Special Report: Former Labradoodle breeder was tapped to lead U.S. pandemic task force. You’ve gotta read the article, but to summarize and give you the Cliff Notes version. Alex Azar, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in January after going on television and assuring the American public that “we’ve got this under control,” appoints an aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had no formal education in public health, management or medicine and only limited experience in the fields. You wanna know what his qualifications were? From 2012 until 2018 he ran a company called Dallas Labradoodles. I guess other folk’s in the agency weren’t that impressed with him, as he was referred to as “the dog breeder” around the department. Read the article. You just can’t make this shit up unless you’re tRump or Kellyanne.

We now have Moscow Mitch suggesting that states and local governments get no more help from the federal government, and instead be forced to declare bankruptcy. Helping them would be, in the words of Turkey Neck’s office, a “Blue State Bailout.” Unfortunately, that idea is picking up some steam from some other Republicans, so I’m sure we’ll be discussing this over the next few days. And, I’m being kind using the following photo, but will be dusting off my collection to use in an upcoming article about this worthless POS.

Now, a nice news story. Our friend Tracie, owner of Skyway Bar and Grill, is organizing a bake-a-thon with a group of ladies up here on the mountain. They want to take cookies to businesses that have provided essential services in the community. The missus is participating and will hopefully save a cookie or two for me, because I provide her with an essential service (I open the bottle of wine for her). Tonight we’re gonna party hardy. I’m taking her “out on the town.” Keep smilin’ y’all. Ziggyman

HAPPY EARTH DAY 2020!! Today is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the annual celebration of the environmental movement that began on this day in 1970. The theme of this year’s Earth Day is ‘Climate Action.’ Despite the naysayers’ perception that climate change is overblown or their flat out denial of global warming, this issue represents one of the biggest challenges to the future of humanity. The debate will certainly continue between the skeptics and the climatologists in the science community in the future and will perhaps be one of the issues debated between presidential candidates as we approach November. The folks who started Earth Day in 1970 are now in their 70’s, so a new generation of environmental activists are coming on the scene. Probably the most popular is Greta Thunberg, the 17 year old Swedish environmental activist who has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change. We were in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a Friday last September where we witnessed a large turnout of middle and high school students participating in Fridays for Future, a strike movement founded by Greta. It was very cool watching these students march to the steps of the capital in Santa Fe, chanting and carrying their homemade picket signs. Kinda reminded me of the 60’s and 70’s. What tickles me pink is that she was named Person of the Year 2019 by Time Magazine, which just pissed tRump to pieces. When he learned that she had been named the Person of the Year, instead of him, here is what our sitting president tweeted about a 16 year old girl (at that time), “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” Greta, being a much more intelligent young lady than the stable genius, following the President’s tweet, updated her Twitter bio to reflect Trump’s comments: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.” Love it!

Pope Francis even made an impassioned plea today for protection of the environment, recounting a Spanish proverb that God always forgives, man sometimes forgives, but nature never forgives. Pope Francis said: “If we have deteriorated the Earth, the response will be very ugly,” and “I think that if I ask the Lord now what he thinks about this, I don’t think he would say it is a very good thing. It is we who have ruined the work of God.”

We knew when tRump got elected there would be issues involving his family business interfering with his presidency. I see today that the Trump Organization wants the Trump Administration to give them a break on lease payments due for their Washington D.C. hotel. The Trump’s own and operate the hotel, but lease the federally owned building for about $268,000 per month from the General Services Administration. The organization has approached the government entity asking for a renegotiation of the terms of the lease due to the drop in business as a result of the coronavirus. I understand that they have a right to try to get a break, just as other businesses across the country are probably doing, also. The problem is the conflict this creates now, because the agency that would make the decision for a break, run’s the risk of pissing off tRump if it denies a break; and who appoints it’s leader? And who holds grudges and fires anyone who pisses him off? You guessed it. If it does accommodate the request, then the agency will get filleted for showing favoritism. This is exactly why there was so much concern about entanglements with his public office and his private business early on.

In yet another effort to distract the nation from his complete failure to lead during the outset of the coronavirus, he is once again playing to his Faux News crowd and white nationalist supporters, with a ban on immigration for the next 60 days to solve the economic crisis. He says he is doing this to save American jobs. The majority of jobs our immigrants are performing, however, are the low paying, but essential jobs that put food on our table from their work in the fields and meat processing plants, their healthcare jobs in hospitals and assisted living centers, construction, and hotel service. These are jobs that have been shown to not interest most white American folks, as it is hard work with low pay. This is an attempt to show his crowd that he is looking out for them and saving their jobs. With the expanded unemployment insurance and other stimulus dollars being deposited in bank accounts, I think his crowd is just happy sitting at home eating their chips and dips and drinking their Lone Star beer, without having to work in 90 degree weather or stand in blood and guts. But, we also have immigrants or children of immigrants who are not in the service industries, but rather the medical field, engineering, science, technology, etc. To quote Linda Chavez, the director of the Becoming American Initiative, “A 2018 study by the Brookings Institution indicates that nearly a third of our STEM workers and students are also immigrants or the children of immigrants. When researchers find a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19, we shouldn’t be surprised that an immigrant or first generation American will be on the team, or even leading it.”

Enough rambling for today. The missus has a milestone birthday coming up and since shopping at the malls is out of the question, I need to get online and see if Victoria’s Secret can get a delivery to me in time. Bye, Bye. ByeDon. Ziggyman

I hope y’all survived 420 yesterday. I checked on Willie today and it looks like he made it through okay. How about this morning’s early tweet (note the time),

Excuse me while I go vomit. Can you friggin’ believe it? This narcissism would be funny if it were coming from a co-worker or neighbor or friend, but this is the POTUS for God’s sake. And not to burst Dr. Don’s bubble, but that medicine he has been prescribing, hydroxychloroquine, has shown no benefit in an analysis of its use in U.S. veteran’s hospitals, as reported by the Associated Press this afternoon. In fact, there were more deaths among those given the drug than those who just received standard care. In the study of 368 patients. 28% who were given the drug along with the standard care died, versus 11% of those getting just the routine care. Many doctors have been saying that they are leery of the drug, as it has been known to have serious side effects, including altering the heartbeat in a way that could lead to sudden death. Dr. Don and that dimwit governor of South Dakota think they know better than the real medical community because y’all know that Dr. Don is a stable genius and the gov is best bud’s with Jared K.

And then we have the Lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, who now feels “vindicated” for his comments he made last month on Faux News, saying it was worth risking lives to return to work if that meant saving the economy. “When you start shutting down society and people start losing their paychecks and businesses can’t open and governments aren’t getting revenues…I’m sorry to say that I was right on this,” he said. Texas is one of the states now starting to lift some of the restrictions that were in place, with 517 coronavirus deaths there as I write this. I think he would proud if his family puts on his tombstone “There are more important things than living.”

The missus and I got in a nice 2 mile walk today before the rains start coming in tomorrow. I guess we are going to get a bunch of the wet stuff over the next four or five days. After the fire across the road last week, I don’t mind getting some moisture on the trees and vegetation. Here’s a view from yesterday’s walk.

As we remain “on hold” and history is being made, we must remember that we will get through this by supporting each other and doing whatever we can to help our neighbor. The friends that I have communicated with seem to be adapting pretty well to the current situation. What will be more important, I think, is how we will respond in the coming months as we begin to move back out into the “world.” Life as we have known it will be different. Men of my generation shake hands when greeting someone. That will probably be past history. Hugging has become the primary social greeting over the past few years. That will probably be past history. Social distancing to a degree will probably continue when we come out of this. Gatherings of more than 50 people may be prohibited. Travel by airplane, bus, commuter trains, etc. may be restricted. And on and on — but we will be resilient and adapt to the new normal. For Dan Patrick, I bet that Yogi Berra would tell you that living is more fun than dying, you moron.

I hope you are finding some enjoyment with my ramblings. Talk to ya’ tomorrow. Ziggyman

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the President of the United States,

Happy Weed Day!! I heard that Willie Nelson is doing a 4 hour 20 minute streaming concert today in celebration of his favorite hobby. I did some research on the origin of the term 420 and found many stories about this term that is celebrated around the world by pot smokers every April 20th. Who knows, who cares.

The missus was busy last week painting the guest bedroom at the hacienda, something she has been talking about doing for several years. Since we are in the middle of the “stay-at-home,” it seemed like the perfect time to get the project done. She did every bit of it by herself, as she knows I hate standing and watching paint dry. Anyway, it looks really good. Now maybe I can get her to go out and wax my truck (just joking).

If you will recall, in Saturday’s post I mentioned the beer bread I made that afternoon and that I was going to be making salmon chowder for dinner. Well, the bread was good and so was the chowder, and the missus did make a nice healthy salad. The wine I opened for the dinner was superb — Thurston Wolfe 2016 Reserve Petite Sirah. I went online to see if I could order more, but none left. They only produced 50 cases of this wine.

Okay, I’ve really got my bowels in an uproar. This weekend I read various stories about the despair small business owners are feeling as they are having to shutter their doors during this crisis. As I’m sure you are aware, Congress passed a $2.2 trillion package titled the CARES Act, the largest financial support package in U.S. history. Included in that Act was the Paycheck Protection Program, which was intended to help small business get back on their feet and survive these difficult times. Having been an independent restaurant owner at one time, and the missus having had a flower shop, I have often thought over the past month what it would be like if we still had those businesses at this time. I read stories this weekend of restaurants all across the country shut down and their owners not knowing if they will be able to reopen. What really got me going was an article that mentioned Ruth’s Chris Steak House getting $20 million in government aid, a chain that has 150 restaurants and is valued at $250 million. Shake Shack, a $1.6 billion chain, received $10 million. I did see this morning, however, after complaints from small business groups, Shake Shack has made the decision to return the money. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, more than 70 publicly traded companies have reported that they have received money from the program. The program ran out of money in the first week and some small business owners who submitted applications on the first day of the process have still not heard back from their bank. In typical fashion, just like the process for handling the coronavirus has been a disaster by this administration, the program intended to benefit workers at small businesses and nonprofit employers as a result of said coronavirus has been a cluster f__k by this administration.

As we continue to be “holed up” during this thing, emotions are going to get ramped up, as evidenced by the morons who were protesting this weekend. I am not opposed to peaceful protest, but what I saw at these events was an “in your face” mentality. The folks I saw doing their thing kind of reminded me of the movie Deliverance. You know, the ones who have stockpiled their beans and ammo and have been making preparations to get in their bunkers for the “big one”, but now have their panties in a bunch because they can’t go to their favorite tavern or TGIF’s. But hey, if you’re getting up there in years, consider this MAGA program,

Well, I have some reading to do, so I will bid you adieu. Stay healthy. Ziggyman.

Well I guess the nice weather couldn’t last forever. It’s kind of a dreary day up here, so it is perfect for lounging, cooking, reading and gettin’ ready for tonight’s Lady GaGa special. I smoked some salmon on the stovetop smoker this afternoon to use in a salmon chowder for tonight’s dinner delight. I also saw a post for making beer bread on a FB group I follow, so thought today would be the perfect day to try out this recipe. I added diced jalapeno peppers and cheddar cheese to the basic recipe and have it baking in the oven as I write. The missus will probably make us a nice healthy salad to go with the meal. We haven’t had salmon for awhile, mainly because we haven’t been down to the flatlands, but did venture down yesterday to load up on provisions for the next week. Sooooo, last night we had salmon with a mustard sauce, baby potatoes done in the air fryer, a piece of filone bread toasted in the air fryer, and a nice healthy salad. The wine pairing was a Pinot Gris from Y Knot Winery, a little winery in Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho that we visited on our fall trip last year.

The night before, I did a clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry meal. Some shrimp from the freezer; sausage, chicken, celery, bell peppers, and onion from the fridge; and rice, a can of tomatoes, and cajun spices from the pantry. Mix it all together and wadda ya got? Jambalaya, of course.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT!! Our niece, who lives on the north side of the Columbia River, sent a “head’s up” that beginning May 1st, the toll for crossing the bridge from Hood River to Washington in each direction is being raised to $5.00, up from the current $2.00 rate if paying by cash. The announcement below is from the Port of Hood River website – FYI

On May 1, the Port will resume tolling, but will implement a Pay-by-Plate billing system for all vehicles that do not have a BreezeBy transponder. Pay-by-Plate bills will be sent in the mail to the registered owners of those vehicles with charges for the $2 base toll rate plus a $3 ancillary fee per crossing. BreezeBy toll rates will remain the same, at a $1 base toll and no ancillary fees. Base toll rates are for 2-axle vehicles.Read More

So, let’s say that you are a visitor to the area and don’t have a BreezeBy transponder, and want to go from Hood River to White Salmon, you will be shelling out $10.00. Not sure what effect this will have on businesses on both sides of the river, but seems like a pretty extreme increase. Probably just some Democratic Hoax.

Hey, have you heard that there is a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers during this crisis? Did you know that U.S. manufacturers of face masks and other personal protective equipment were encouraged by the federal government in January and February to send millions of dollars worth of this equipment to China? Do you remember reading about or seeing on the news that Peter Navarro, tRump’s director of trade policy, wrote memos in January warning that the coronavirus could impact millions of Americans and required increased supplies of protective equipment? In other words, despite what the “stable genius” has said about acting as soon as he was briefed about the virus, which is total bs..t, the Commerce Department and other’s in the administration totally ignored the warnings and instead were more concerned on keeping the economy strong going into November’s election. An article in the Washington Post today states that “the value of protective masks and related items exported from the United States to China grew more than 1,000 percent compared with the same time last year— from $1.4 million to about $17.6 million.” The need for personal protective equipment for Americans was apparent in January, but as a result of this administration’s lack of any kind of leadership, we now have over 38,000 deaths in the U.S.

VP (Very Pathetic) Pence continues to report that anyone can get the test, there are plenty available says he. I just found out how you can get a quick test done if you need one done. I suggest you jump up and prepare that test for immediate delivery. Here is what you need to know

As I finished my last sentence, the timer went off and the bread is now out of the oven. Oh baby, how does this look? I will let you know in my next post if tastes any good or not. It smells beautiful, very beautiful, probably the most beautiful smelling bread you have ever smelled.

Keep smilin’. Don’t forget Lady GaGa tonight. 8:00 pm. Ziggyman