I wonder what that implies.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/trump-stimulus-check-prototype-trnd/index.html

Pastors sue California governor over coronavirus restrictions on church gatherings

Why are they doing this? Perhaps they realize that many people regard church as a social function that they go to mainly to get together, meet, and mingle with others in their community. With that aspect of church taken away from them they might succumb to the reality that church is really just a waste of time and money.

And anyway, doesn't Matthew 6:5 appear to forbid gathering together to flaunt your piety before others?

In short, I'll bet these pastors aren't worried about the Bill of Rights so much as losing their source of income.

The six days of creation and seventh day of rest tale in Genesis was probably meant as a bedtime story for Jewish children who wondered why nobody should work on the Sabbath, but I have a theory that the real origin of the Sabbath was as a sort of truce between workers to all take the same day off once a week so that they wouldn't steal business from each other and put pressure on everyone to work every day.

The current nationwide closing of non-essential businesses is in effect a sort of extended Sabbath, and I suspect that ending it prematurely will trigger that same worrying phenomenon. When some businesses and/or states reopen they will have a competitive edge against those who more wisely wait, pressuring all businesses and states to reopen. And that will only make the second wave worse.

It would be convenient if we could solve the problem like the ancient Jews did, by dreaming up a story that a supreme being has mandated that all non-essential businesses must stay closed, but that's not an option, and the only alternative is a nationwide government mandate that those businesses stay closed, which is the opposite of what our present government seems inclined to do.

So stand by for the second wave. It's going to be big.

Trump retweets call to fire Anthony Fauci after the coronavirus expert says earlier measures ‘could have saved lives’



If Trump were smart and evil (rather than stupid and evil), he'd remember the saying that goes "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Imagine the influence that Dr. Fauci could have if he were freed from the need to walk the line between telling the truth and keeping his job.

During video chats on news channels with people at home there are constant awkward moments with both sides talking at once, both sides apologizing, and neither knowing who should continue and who should stop. I just watched an exchange with Chris Jansing where she said "I'm sorry, go ahead" and then she continued talking. (DUH!)

I think they should establish a protocol to overcome that. In the old days of push-to-talk radio we used the word "over", but with video, maybe a hand signal would work better. For example, positioning a hand over one's mouth could be a signal that a person has finished and the other person is expected to speak.

Georgia Governor Claims He Was Surprised to Learn of Asymptomatic Coronavirus Carriers



I hope someone has informed the governor that the game changed several weeks ago.

... polls

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/25/trumps-positive-coronavirus-polls/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_politics

Damn! For a second there...

"The virus, we believe, is politically motivated," Tony Spell said. "We hold our religious rights dear and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/louisiana-pastor-defies-coronavirus-order-draws-over-1-000-people-n1168501

There are websites, such as this one, that show how things can appear to correlate even if they have no clear connection to each other. Some examples are the number of people who drowned in a pool vs. the number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in, and the divorce rate in Maine vs. the per capita consumption of margarine.

I seem to have discovered another inexplicable correlation. Of course it's not 100%, but it's close enough to create the amusing illusion of a cause-effect relationship. It's the political party that a state's governor belongs to vs. whether that state has told all of its residents to stay at home:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/12/why-cant-congress-vote-home/