Sometimes, a good rant is all a writer can offer. Bear with me.
Last Friday morning, some 3,500 New Yorkers lined up at a Catholic church in Queens to receive free food hours before it even opened, according to the New York Police Department. Catholic Charities has reported a 200 percent increase in demand over the past month and a half.
By prolonging the coronavirus shutdown long after its core mission was accomplished, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have plunged tens of thousands of New Yorkers into poverty.
It needs to end. Now.
In mid-March, we were told we have to endure a lockdown to ensure that hospitals didn’t get overrun. We did. The hospitals were not overwhelmed. We turned the Javits Center into a hospital. We didn’t need it. We brought in a giant Navy ship to treat New Yorkers. We didn’t need it.
We were told we were moments away from running out of ventilators. We weren’t, and now the United States has built so many, we are giving them away to other countries.
Meanwhile, the Big Apple is dying. Its streets are empty. The bars and jazz clubs, restaurants and coffeehouses sit barren. Beloved haunts, storied rooms, perfect-slice joints are shuttered, many for good. The sweat equity of countless small-business owners is evaporating. Instead of getting people back to work providing for their families, our mayor talks about a fantasyland New Deal for the post-coronavirus era.
Open the city. All of it. Right now. Broadway shows, beaches, Yankees games, the schools, the top of the freakin’ Empire State building. Everything. New Yorkers have already learned to socially distance. Businesses can adjust. The elderly and infirm can continue to be isolated.
For two months, we have waited for Cuomo and de Blasio to tell us how this ends. Where is ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg with his alleged army of tracers that the governor told us was the key to reopening? And why did he hand that responsibility over to Bloomberg, whom nobody elected anyway?
What the hell is going on? Is anybody in charge of this situation? Or are we just left with the governor and his talking-head brother arguing on CNN about which of the two Ma loves best? (Who cares?)
In late April, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defied experts by opening his state. The Atlantic magazine, once a serious publication that should now come with a stick of stale bubblegum, accused him of engaging in “human sacrifice.”
You want to guess what happened? Guess, come on, take a guess. Instead of the predicted spike in deaths, the number of cases of coronavirus and associated deaths declined.
We should always consider that we are led by idiots, as one of my friends likes to remind me. Cuomo and de Blasio have no plan. There is not a single question about when New York can get back to normal to which they have a straight answer. Not one. They cash their taxpayer paychecks while immiserating the rest of us.
If our elected leaders won’t save the world’s greatest city from a slow death by economic strangulation, then the people of New York must do it themselves. Barbers, tailors, nail salons, sporting goods stores, movie theaters and others should open their doors — while maintaining social distancing, of course — and dare the state to shut them down.
Our politicians serve by our consent; we don’t run our businesses or live our lives by their consent. The suggestion to the contrary is an affront to Americanism.
It has been a long time since this country, let alone this city, really had to deal with the prospect of mass starvation. This isn’t about the stock market — it’s about parents putting their kids to bed hungry and hoping tomorrow there will be something for them to eat if they get up at 4:30 a.m. and get in line at the food bank.
We did what we were asked. We flattened the freakin’ curve. There is no longer any reasonable justification for the government to deprive us of our livelihoods. And our rights aren’t the government’s to grant or take away. They belong to us — the free grant of nature and the God of nature. We’re Americans. More than that: New Yorkers, goddammit.
Are absolutely, positively revolting ‘leaders’ justification for revolution?
Askin’ for a friend.
ghostsniperMay 21, 2020, 12:48 PM
“Is anybody in charge of this situation?”
=========
Yeah.
YOU are.
Open your restaurant.
Post 12 heavily armed guards at all entryways.
If any gov’t thugs appears dispatch them post haste.
Go all Snake Plisken on that ass.
“Escape From NEW York City!”
Donald SensingMay 21, 2020, 1:57 PM
Earlier today I posted this link on my FB page and asked an Ohio Methodist minister who is a FB friend, “Any insights on this?” That was all I typed along with the link. (I am also an ordained UM minister in Tennessee.) Here is the article: “Ohio Judge Deems the State’s COVID-19 Lockdown ‘Arbitrary, Unreasonable, and Oppressive’ – Reason.com — The ruling says the state’s top health official exceeded her statutory authority by ordering “nonessential” businesses to close.”
Here is the unedited text of responses I received; except I have removed his name:
[Him] Whatever. I wish we could let natural selection kick in for the naysayers, but the Innocent will also be victims.
The judge is just a naysayer? Not sure I understand. The innocent are already victims from the lockdowns. I learned this morning of a man who was scheduled for a heart stent but it was canceled because it was “elective.” Now his cardiologist says he needs open-heart surgery. It is not scheduled yet. His hourglass is running out. But apparently his life – which is very definitely in danger – is less valuable than a **possible** C19 patient who **might** need that hospital bed. Maybe.
Can anyone explain how that can possibly be justified?
[Him] Donald, no decision is easy, but I am tired of the Trumpanistas. I say let them gather together and let them reduce their ranks since COVID-19 is just like the flu, so that finally in November we will be done with incompetent amateur hour and get back to a semblance of competent governance. I am done with this immoral semblance of incoherent populism disguised as serious conservatism. By all means, let the Trumpkins gather together since this is all an over-reaction. Let them infect each other so that there will less of them to vote in November. It works for me. I say that Darwin was right– the survival of the most intelligent. Let those in the shallow end of the gene pool pontificate until they are no more.
________________
Mind you, it was a vicar of Christ writing that. Anyone who thinks that TDS is not real, let me tell you, it is far more real than you can imagine.
Lance de BoyleMay 21, 2020, 2:41 PM
“Aye, those were the days, my Boy. Arrrr. Why we’d shove those traitors into Madame Gibbet, haul ’em up high for all to see, and let ’em swing in the hot sun, flies buzzin’ in their smug faces, for a week or so, just to get the meat good ‘n tender and the skin nice ‘n crackly. Then we’d drizzle fresh pitch over ’em and light ’em up. Har har. And a fine end it was to their miserable lives. A good show for the kiddies, too.
“Look at that fat bitch burn, Pa! There goes her heinous mumu! Wooohaa. Boy, howdy. Jeez, Pa. Her nether regions are SO hideous. And that string bean with the fine pants creases. He’s a hootin’ and a hollerin. Listen, he’s tryin’ to give a speech!”
“Yar, Boy. Well, THAT was a short speech! ‘Bout all he got out was, ‘I was the one we’ve been waiting AHHHHH!’ A fine lesson in science. Purty soon, he’s gonna look like a burned up wooden match.”
“What’s the lesson, Pa?”
“Fuck with an armed People long enough and you finally cross the line with a last-straw provocation, and all fuckin’ hell rises. And onc’t it starts, Boy, it ain’t over till the place is rotten with corpses. And dasn’t you tell your Ma’am that I said fuck. That’s just our word, hear?”
“Okay, Pa. Got any other words just between us?”
“Yar, here’s a good’n. ‘Suck this one time, asshole.'”
Lance de BoyleMay 21, 2020, 3:11 PM
Not necessarily armed and bloody, James McNeil, but firm resistance that says,
“Fuck no. Make me. See what happens then.” Let them fire the first shot.
nunnya bidnez, jrMay 21, 2020, 3:35 PM
mr Sensing…
you forgot to tell us his name.
also his address if you have it
DrTedNelsonMay 21, 2020, 3:54 PM
I think that stupidity would tend to thin the ranks of the left more. They know they’re idiots and need handrails, training wheels, instructions on shampoo, etc.
CKMay 21, 2020, 4:40 PM
You want your city back, you’ll have to execute all your communist leadership.. And stop voting them back in..
DWEEZIL THE WEASELMay 21, 2020, 5:25 PM
The only person who makes slavery possible is the slave(H/T to Boston T. Party). The Blue Hive voters have the “government” they asked for. If these leftist septic tanks are circling the bowel, the populations only have to look in the mirror to see who is responsible. As far as fighting back, it will be a personal decision each citizen has to make. Whether that decision is pranking, graffiti, vandalism, or violence just remember to plan accordingly for the consequences. “If ye love wealth greater that liberty…” Bleib ubrig.
VanderleunMay 21, 2020, 5:33 PM
That’s one evil vicar, Don.
AnonymousMay 21, 2020, 7:14 PM
r/K Theory
The rabbit can never communicate with the wolf for their brains are in opposite universes.
TerryMay 21, 2020, 7:33 PM
Some of the most evil people who ever walked the earth wore robes of various religions. Christians included. Read a detailed history of the Spanish Inquisition.
The tyrants in power currently within various US states and cities are no different other than their means of viciousness. And I believe there is a supreme leader orchestrating this tyranny.
May be time to show some anger via dirty tricks to start with. Good old American ingenuity in revenge may be interesting.
RKMay 22, 2020, 4:30 AM
Aren’t you Commies in New York the very ones who voted these baby-butchering granny-slaughtering leftard goose-steppers into power?
Sit quietly in your coffin and rot, New Yorkers; you deserve everything these vermin you elected are doing to you, good and hard.
nunnya bidnez, jrMay 22, 2020, 7:22 AM
not all of us are commies.
i have access to all the voter registrations in nyc, and it’s obvious that 75% of the voters are Dems; however a substantial percent of the population are non-citizens, arent registered/can’t vote. The political persuasions of those are hard to judge, but speaking to some I know (e.g. Haitian UPS driver, S.American factory worker, Romanian Rite-Aid clerk), it’s equally obvious that they aren’t leftist Dems.
I’ve worked with Dem CityCouncilMembers and StateAssemblymen, I find that they are hardcore liberals, and can’t be persuaded to go against the party line on any policy position, no matter how much it ignores common sense. We are powerless to change the political currents, the structural rules and regs that define the city, the social ambiance of the elites that have the largest say in everything; we have no voice in the local media.
So it’s glib to say we’re all commies and deserve to get what we want, good and hard.
But many of us are just prisoners here, unable to emigrate to greener pastures.
ghostsniperMay 22, 2020, 6:29 PM
“But many of us are just prisoners here, unable to emigrate to greener pastures.”
======
I understand.
Just stay back out of the impending fray and gird thine loins while necessary work gets done.
Dora GlasbergMay 25, 2020, 6:58 PM
Stop pointing fingers to deflect from TRUMP’S FAILURES.
Trump is no leader and Marcus is a Federalist Society member and shill.
If everything in NYC opened up tomorrow – you still couldn’t FORCE people
out until they felt safe.
“you still couldn’t FORCE people out until they felt safe.”
W.H.O. scared ’em?
Who screwed the pooch?
CNN MSNBC, NY TIMES, De Blasio, Cuomo, et al.
They could rip their faces out of the smartphone, the Television, NYT, & Twitter feeds, and get the Truth. But they don’t.
The lie is so seductive. The herd is so comforting. The sanctimony is so uplifting, and the rage is so intoxicating.
Oh.
I forgot to add
OK, Karen.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Sometimes, a good rant is all a writer can offer. Bear with me.
We were told we were moments away from running out of ventilators. We weren’t, and now the United States has built so many, we are giving them away to other countries.
What the hell is going on? Is anybody in charge of this situation? Or are we just left with the governor and his talking-head brother arguing on CNN about which of the two Ma loves best? (Who cares?)
If our elected leaders won’t save the world’s greatest city from a slow death by economic strangulation, then the people of New York must do it themselves. Barbers, tailors, nail salons, sporting goods stores, movie theaters and others should open their doors — while maintaining social distancing, of course — and dare the state to shut them down.
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Minor error in one of your images. The health minister for Alberta is no longer the fatty in the picture, she got unelected in 2019, we now have this guy.
https://twitter.com/shandro?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Are absolutely, positively revolting ‘leaders’ justification for revolution?
Askin’ for a friend.
“Is anybody in charge of this situation?”
=========
Yeah.
YOU are.
Open your restaurant.
Post 12 heavily armed guards at all entryways.
If any gov’t thugs appears dispatch them post haste.
Go all Snake Plisken on that ass.
“Escape From NEW York City!”
Earlier today I posted this link on my FB page and asked an Ohio Methodist minister who is a FB friend, “Any insights on this?” That was all I typed along with the link. (I am also an ordained UM minister in Tennessee.) Here is the article: “Ohio Judge Deems the State’s COVID-19 Lockdown ‘Arbitrary, Unreasonable, and Oppressive’ – Reason.com — The ruling says the state’s top health official exceeded her statutory authority by ordering “nonessential” businesses to close.”
Here is the unedited text of responses I received; except I have removed his name:
[Him] Whatever. I wish we could let natural selection kick in for the naysayers, but the Innocent will also be victims.
The judge is just a naysayer? Not sure I understand. The innocent are already victims from the lockdowns. I learned this morning of a man who was scheduled for a heart stent but it was canceled because it was “elective.” Now his cardiologist says he needs open-heart surgery. It is not scheduled yet. His hourglass is running out. But apparently his life – which is very definitely in danger – is less valuable than a **possible** C19 patient who **might** need that hospital bed. Maybe.
Can anyone explain how that can possibly be justified?
[Him] Donald, no decision is easy, but I am tired of the Trumpanistas. I say let them gather together and let them reduce their ranks since COVID-19 is just like the flu, so that finally in November we will be done with incompetent amateur hour and get back to a semblance of competent governance. I am done with this immoral semblance of incoherent populism disguised as serious conservatism. By all means, let the Trumpkins gather together since this is all an over-reaction. Let them infect each other so that there will less of them to vote in November. It works for me. I say that Darwin was right– the survival of the most intelligent. Let those in the shallow end of the gene pool pontificate until they are no more.
________________
Mind you, it was a vicar of Christ writing that. Anyone who thinks that TDS is not real, let me tell you, it is far more real than you can imagine.
“Aye, those were the days, my Boy. Arrrr. Why we’d shove those traitors into Madame Gibbet, haul ’em up high for all to see, and let ’em swing in the hot sun, flies buzzin’ in their smug faces, for a week or so, just to get the meat good ‘n tender and the skin nice ‘n crackly. Then we’d drizzle fresh pitch over ’em and light ’em up. Har har. And a fine end it was to their miserable lives. A good show for the kiddies, too.
“Look at that fat bitch burn, Pa! There goes her heinous mumu! Wooohaa. Boy, howdy. Jeez, Pa. Her nether regions are SO hideous. And that string bean with the fine pants creases. He’s a hootin’ and a hollerin. Listen, he’s tryin’ to give a speech!”
“Yar, Boy. Well, THAT was a short speech! ‘Bout all he got out was, ‘I was the one we’ve been waiting AHHHHH!’ A fine lesson in science. Purty soon, he’s gonna look like a burned up wooden match.”
“What’s the lesson, Pa?”
“Fuck with an armed People long enough and you finally cross the line with a last-straw provocation, and all fuckin’ hell rises. And onc’t it starts, Boy, it ain’t over till the place is rotten with corpses. And dasn’t you tell your Ma’am that I said fuck. That’s just our word, hear?”
“Okay, Pa. Got any other words just between us?”
“Yar, here’s a good’n. ‘Suck this one time, asshole.'”
Not necessarily armed and bloody, James McNeil, but firm resistance that says,
“Fuck no. Make me. See what happens then.” Let them fire the first shot.
mr Sensing…
you forgot to tell us his name.
also his address if you have it
I think that stupidity would tend to thin the ranks of the left more. They know they’re idiots and need handrails, training wheels, instructions on shampoo, etc.
You want your city back, you’ll have to execute all your communist leadership.. And stop voting them back in..
The only person who makes slavery possible is the slave(H/T to Boston T. Party). The Blue Hive voters have the “government” they asked for. If these leftist septic tanks are circling the bowel, the populations only have to look in the mirror to see who is responsible. As far as fighting back, it will be a personal decision each citizen has to make. Whether that decision is pranking, graffiti, vandalism, or violence just remember to plan accordingly for the consequences. “If ye love wealth greater that liberty…” Bleib ubrig.
That’s one evil vicar, Don.
r/K Theory
The rabbit can never communicate with the wolf for their brains are in opposite universes.
Some of the most evil people who ever walked the earth wore robes of various religions. Christians included. Read a detailed history of the Spanish Inquisition.
The tyrants in power currently within various US states and cities are no different other than their means of viciousness. And I believe there is a supreme leader orchestrating this tyranny.
May be time to show some anger via dirty tricks to start with. Good old American ingenuity in revenge may be interesting.
Aren’t you Commies in New York the very ones who voted these baby-butchering granny-slaughtering leftard goose-steppers into power?
Sit quietly in your coffin and rot, New Yorkers; you deserve everything these vermin you elected are doing to you, good and hard.
not all of us are commies.
i have access to all the voter registrations in nyc, and it’s obvious that 75% of the voters are Dems; however a substantial percent of the population are non-citizens, arent registered/can’t vote. The political persuasions of those are hard to judge, but speaking to some I know (e.g. Haitian UPS driver, S.American factory worker, Romanian Rite-Aid clerk), it’s equally obvious that they aren’t leftist Dems.
I’ve worked with Dem CityCouncilMembers and StateAssemblymen, I find that they are hardcore liberals, and can’t be persuaded to go against the party line on any policy position, no matter how much it ignores common sense. We are powerless to change the political currents, the structural rules and regs that define the city, the social ambiance of the elites that have the largest say in everything; we have no voice in the local media.
So it’s glib to say we’re all commies and deserve to get what we want, good and hard.
But many of us are just prisoners here, unable to emigrate to greener pastures.
“But many of us are just prisoners here, unable to emigrate to greener pastures.”
======
I understand.
Just stay back out of the impending fray and gird thine loins while necessary work gets done.
Stop pointing fingers to deflect from TRUMP’S FAILURES.
Trump is no leader and Marcus is a Federalist Society member and shill.
If everything in NYC opened up tomorrow – you still couldn’t FORCE people
out until they felt safe.
“you still couldn’t FORCE people out until they felt safe.”
W.H.O. scared ’em?
Who screwed the pooch?
CNN MSNBC, NY TIMES, De Blasio, Cuomo, et al.
They could rip their faces out of the smartphone, the Television, NYT, & Twitter feeds, and get the Truth. But they don’t.
The lie is so seductive. The herd is so comforting. The sanctimony is so uplifting, and the rage is so intoxicating.
Oh.
I forgot to add
OK, Karen.
JWM