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Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is calling on China to forgive its share of the U.S. debt, which she says would be a “good solid step” toward "restitution" for the loss of life and economic distress that Beijing's mishandling of coronavirus has caused America. The virus started in Wuhan, China, and was first reported by Chinese officials in late-December. Some U.S. officials and others suspect China was later to make public the outbreak and under-reported the number of cases. “We do know that there is a growing opinion among our colleagues that China needs to be, first of all, held to...

One of the least appealing aspects of the American character is the residual Puritanism that still compels a certain percentage of our countrymen, women and others, to nag, pester, and generally annoy the rest of us by trying to make us conform to their stick-up-the-Lieu vision of propriety. These people – these obnoxious Karens, for lack of a better FCC-compliant term – are delighted by the Chinese Bat Biter grippe and the opportunity it presents for them to try to impose their arbitrary will upon the rest of us. These mewling Mussolinis need to be slapped back, verbally if not...

PING LIST Some of you have asked to be placed on the COVID-19 Update Ping List. Those who give me a request, will be placed on the list before the next Update is posted. If a person has expressed an appreciation for the data I'm presenting, I may add that person to the Ping List. Some folks don't like to be on ping lists, and I won't mind if you would rather I remove your name from the list. COVID-19 Update As of 04/11/2020 23:24 PDST (taken at 23:59) Good morning everyone. Thank you for stopping by to check out...

Its Swingin' Monay and we have Ole Rasmussen & His Nebraska Cornhuskers with Sleepy Eyed John (1950). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

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Re Dems Blocking Relief Funds for Small Businesses: “TWO CAN PLAY AT THIS GAME”. Attention President Trump, VP Pence, Senate Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader McCarthy: In our humble estimation, this should be your reply to the Democrats’ previous stall and loading up of the first China Virus Relief bill (with the hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for illegal immigrants and other assorted far-Left garbage), as well as in response to Schumer & Pelosi’s latest attempt to stuff the followup bill with scads of money for election fraud (via “ballot harvesting), “gun control,” and the tens of millions...

The Vietnamese ship was sunk near the disputed Paracel Islands, an island chain which has been one of the hot points of tension in the area.

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Subtitle: The Insidious 17th Amendment. The 17th Amendment did to federalism what the 13th Amendment did to slavery. Both are long-gone vestiges of our framing era. Tenth Amendment? States’ rights? Poof, and not only long-gone but neither slavery nor federalism can possibly return without repeal of their respective amendments. Conservatives would do well to consider the 13th – 15th Amendments. Beginning with freeing slaves, then prohibiting state violations of privileges or immunities, securing due process, equal protection and entitling blacks to vote, the post-civil war amendments fundamentally altered society and the federal/state government relationship. Unlike the pre-civil war Constitution, the...

....a South Florida police chief tried minimizing their worries by claiming a Broward County deputy’s COVID-19 death was caused by his “homosexual” lifestyle... ...Tommy Reyes, the president of Miami’s Fraternal Order of Police — and a personal friend of Bennett — called Engle’s alleged comments about Bennett “disrespectful.” “Shannon was my friend... ....Bennett was 39 and a member of the LGBTQ community and had announced he was to marry in December. He contracted the virus while “in the line of duty,” BSO Sheriff Gregory Tony said....

Ten foreigners who broke a coronavirus lockdown in an Indian town made famous by the Beatles, were forced to repent by writing "I am so sorry" -- 500 times, officials said Sunday. The nationwide lockdown was imposed near the end of March, with residents permitted to leave their homes only for essential services such as buying groceries and medicine. The travellers -- from Israel, Mexico, Australia and Austria -- were caught taking a walk in Rishikesh, where the Beatles sought spirituality at an Ashram in 1968. Local police officer Vinod Sharma said they were each made to write "I did...

President Trump now knows who his general election opponent will be and, to hear his campaign and its allies tell it, it’s a Democrat who is just not that with it. The Trump War Room video mashups are dominated by montages of former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, stumbling and fumbling his way through speeches and debate responses. Interspersed throughout the greatest hits - “Make sure you have the record player on at night,” odd references to primary opponents Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker as “president,” failing to correctly identify his current location, such as when he...

MOORS murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were the subject of of tense discussions as Downing Street debated the merits of releasing them from prison, unearthed files reveal.The Home Office proposals were put to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985 only for her to pour cold water on them. Hindley could have been out for her final seven years while Brady could have been free for 12 years. Previously classified files from Cabinet meetings – released in 2017 by the National Archives – show that Home Secretary Leon Brittan suggested Hindley could go free after 30 years while Brady could...

Thurston County commissioners voted 2-1 on Thursday to reopen the county’s three trails and many trailheads it manages, which have been closed along with most of the county’s facilities in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. **SNIP** During this shutdown, he said, mental and physical health are important. “I think it’s critical that we have access to these trails to the extent possible,” Menser said. That opened a discussion that Commissioner Gary Edwards rapidly expanded. Edwards posited that perhaps the county should open all its parks, too. The decision to close county parks was “stupid,” he said, and...

The pandemic and the nation's brutal economic collapse are combining to crush the college hopes of low-income and first-generation students. Some high school seniors are dropping their first-choice schools in favor of colleges that are cheaper and closer to home, early surveys have found. Others are thinking about going part-time, or taking a gap year so they can work and bail out families whose breadwinners are suddenly out of work. Those who work with low-income students worry freshmen from poor families who were sent home this semester may never return and high school seniors won't get the hands-on help they...

Anthony Causi, a longtime photographer for The Post whose prolific talent and larger-than-life personality made him a beloved and respected figure throughout the New York sports world, died Sunday from the coronavirus at North Shore University Hospital. He was 48. Causi is survived by his wife, Romina, and their children John, 5, and Mia, 2, as well as his parents, Lucille and John Causi, and sisters Maria Marangelli and Dianna Marotto. “Anthony Causi was our colleague, our friend, and a brilliant journalist,” Stephen Lynch, The Post’s Editor-in-Chief, said. “He was, quite simply, one of the best sports photographers in New...

The Virginia town of Christianburg is getting a preview of what life will be like when delivery by drone becomes practical. Forced to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, more residents are ordering from a pilot residential delivery service run by Wing, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, the company says. The most popular items: Coffee, toilet paper and cookies.Wing says it’s made more than 1,000 deliveries over the past two weeks in Christianburg and at test sites in Helsinki and two Australian cities where movement has also been restricted to stem the spread of the disease. “That’s a dramatic...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former aide to Joe Biden is accusing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexually assaulting her during the early 1990s when he was a senator. Biden’s campaign denies the charges. In two recent interviews with The Associated Press, Tara Reade alleged the assault occurred in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the spring of 1993. She filed a police report in Washington on Thursday saying she was the victim of a sexual assault by an unnamed person in 1993, a copy of which was obtained by the AP. It’s not the first time...

PALM BAY, Fla. - A Brevard County woman says another woman became upset with her for wearing medical scrubs to the grocery store. The encounter at a Palm Bay Winn Dixie Wednesday was captured on camera and has been viewed thousands of times. Juliann Roberts says she wears scrubs because she works at a hearing aid practice. She says the woman first made a comment as Roberts and her friend walked into the store. "As were in the produce section she came up to us again. She started saying its not right to wear scrubs in the grocery store. We're...

Taiwan has reportedly scrambled its warships to monitor a Chinese aircraft carrier strike group, as the two US aircraft carriers in the region have been docked by the coronavirus. China's first ever aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, led the group through the Miyako Strait near Japan, the South China Morning Post has reported. The current location and destination of the carrier group is unknown, but Taiwan has sent its own vessels to monitor them.