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Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by H. L. Mencken. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. H. L. Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements, mainly for the Baltimore Sun back when it was part of America. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent...

“The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die” (Proverbs 15:9-10).

"Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course." – Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III But embracing adversity does not require the abandonment the principles that brought us this far. A gentle reminder: once we’ve forgotten how you got here we are doomed. “If the provisions of the Constitution be not upheld when they pinch as well as when they comfort, they may as well be abandoned.” — Justice George Sutherland (1862-1942)Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

...Major news outlets are blaring news of the economy’s demise non-stop, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has openly worried that the coming downturn could be worse that the 2008 financial crisis. However, to scholars of American politics, this fits with a consistent pattern of polarized partisan perceptions. Over the last 20 years or so (and particularly over the past 10), partisans’ economic perceptions have consistently tracked partisan control of the White House. As Figure 1 demonstrates, Democrats have generally felt positively about the economy only when a co-partisan controls the White House—the opposite is true of Republicans...Other research has suggested...

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.President Xi Jinping warned the public on the seventh day, Jan. 20. But by that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and expert estimates based on retrospective infection data. 

We’ve reached that point in the Wuhan pandemic when we start talking about how the world will change after the crisis passes. The impact on everything from the media to globalism is being reassessed, and prognostications about the future, both good and bad, are being promulgated. But those hoping for improvement are likely to be disappointed, just as those who said “this changes everything” were after the terrorist attacks on 9/ll. To quote Adam Smith, “there is a lot of ruin in a nation,” as stubborn inertia created by entrenched vested interests and received wisdom protect the status quo. The...

PRC moral turpitude forces us to consider the unthinkable.We often ascribe a basic level of humanity to even the cruelest leaders, but People’s Republic of China leader Xi Jinping’s actions have forced us to rethink this assumption. Although the emergence of the novel coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2 was probably not due to China’s actions, the emphasis that its authoritarian system places on hiding bad news likely gave the disease a sizable head start infecting the world. But most ominously, China’s obsession with image and Machtpolitik raises serious questions about its lack of moral limits.At some point the Chinese Communist...

Concerned Women for America (CWA) General Counsel Mario Diaz, Esq. takes us on a journey to understand America’s founding documents and the principles which guard our liberty. Part I focuses on the Declaration of Independence by way of introducing us to the concepts that undergird the U.S. Constitution.

New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio abruptly added 4,000 deaths to the city's roster of Wuhan virus deaths. He did this even though there are no tests proving that these 4,000 people died because of the virus. The mayor claims he made changes to increase statistical accuracy, but he may have been acting upon baser motives. One problem with getting a handle on the Wuhan virus is that we have no accurate count telling how many people have become sick with or died from it, whether at home or abroad. Different countries use different tests; different tests have various...

One small town in Southeast Kansas looked at a restrictive cruise night ban from their local government and said, “No, enough!” And a little help from the Kansas Justice Institute made it stick. The cruise night ban was issued even though it was not planned for anyone to leave their cars. Samuel G. MacRoberts, litigation director and general counsel for KJI, the legal arm of the Kansas Policy Institute, which also owns the Sentinel, sent a letter to the city on April 9, noting that the city’s order to prohibit car parades or cruise nights was worded in such a...

Our tune today is Just Like Taking Candy From A Baby by Wade Ray (1951). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

This may be the new normal for quite a while. The US may have to endure social distancing measures -- such as stay-at-home orders and school closures -- until 2022, researchers projected on Tuesday. That is, unless, a vaccine becomes quickly available. That's according to researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who published their findings in the journal Science on Tuesday. Those findings directly contradict research being touted by the White House that suggests the pandemic may stop this summer. The team at the Harvard School of Public Health used what's known about Covid-19 and other...

As the Trump administration tries to figure out when to reopen the economy, and Democrats try to blame President Donald Trump for every coronavirus death, there’s another question lurking in the background. What if we learn that trillions of dollars in economic costs from the coronavirus shutdown bought us little or nothing in terms of public health? As the disease progresses and our understanding of it increases, that possibility grows. Consider these facts: Death projections were wildly exaggerated. On March 16, epidemiologists at Imperial College London predicted that 2.2 million could die here if the country didn’t impose draconian lock-down...

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday endorsed Joe Biden for president, more than a month after ending her own presidential bid. "In this moment of crisis, it’s more important than ever that the next president restores Americans’ faith in good, effective government—and I’ve seen Joe Biden help our nation rebuild. Today, I’m proud to endorse," she tweeted, along with a video. The Massachusetts senator had withheld an endorsement ever since ending her campaign in early March, even as the race narrowed to essentially a contest between Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders. But with Sanders dropping out last week, Biden became the...

The mayor of a Northern California city said this week that he'll step down after posting social media messages comparing supporters of President Trump to members of the Ku Klux Klan, a report said. Angry residents in Auburn, about 33 miles northeast of Sacramento, confronted Mayor William Kirby during a city council meeting conducted by video because of coronavirus concerns, FOX 40 of Sacramento reported. Kirby appeared remorseful as he addressed the council and residents, the report said.

Ever since a “senior official in the Trump administration” penned an anonymous 2018 New York Times column attacking President Trump as unfit for office, Washington has been engrossed in a high-stakes whodunit. After an exhaustive investigation, the White House believes it’s cracked the case, identifying Trump's turncoat as his former deputy national security adviser, Victoria Coates, according to people familiar with the internal probe. Rather than fire Coates, the White House has quietly transferred her to the Department of Energy, where she awaits special assignment in Saudi Arabia -- far from the president. Trump effectively demoted Coates just four months...

President Trump’s decision to suspend funding to the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus crisis touched off an international war of words overnight as Democratic lawmakers in Washington as well as international bodies like the European Union condemned the move. The president announced Tuesday that the United States would immediately halt funding for the health organization, saying it had put “political correctness over lifesaving measures,” noting that the U.S. would undertake a 60-to-90 day investigation into why the “China-centric” WHO had caused “so much death” by “severely mismanaging and covering up” the coronavirus spread. Republicans on Capitol Hill, many of...

Taneytown (Maryland) Police are reminding residents to wear pants when checking their mailbox. In a Facebook post, police said "please remember to put pants on before leaving the house to check your mailbox." Police also stated "You know who you are. This is your final warning."

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the latest comments from JBS officials, and the date of the re-opening has also been updated as that timeline shifted since the original release. The JBS Swift beef plant in Greeley was ordered to close this past Friday, April 10, through Wednesday, as a result of the spread of COVID-19 in the plant, according to a letter released by the Weld health department Monday afternoon. The company says it will close through April 27. The official public health order, signed by both Weld Department of Public Health and Environment director Mark...