Grated Oranges, Blood, and Covid-19

So, I was dancing around whether or not I would make hamantaschen this year. My familial duty overruled my desire to take a nap and I found myself doing a chore I rather enjoy: grating an orange. 

It's the smell. I know this. For years, it used to also be the smell of my blood on the ol'box grater because invariably, I grated my knuckles as well. I was slow to get a micro-plane because when it comes to kitchening, I lean toward old-fashioned. I tend to do things by hand. I use a stand-mixer instead of a food processor...which i don't even own any more. I like the aroma of spices I smash in a mortar with a pestle. I use the wooden rolling pin my Great-grandma Nechama brought with her from Russia. It's got a notch; it's dairy.

I am old fashioned enough to hope tomorrow I will cast my primary vote with the same kind of paper ballot we've been using here as long as I can remember. It's a piece of paper, you color in the circles, and the machine reads it. And if something goes wrong, it's easy enough to count those suckers by hand. 

Which they may have to do. With the mass exodus from the Democratic primary tomorrow, there are a whole lotta people in this state who voted early whose candidate has bailed...including the guy for whom I would probably have voted. So now, we're back to a bunch of old white guys, one seriously dynamic woman, and a certifiable nut job. Do I need to explain which is which? 

At a moment in our history, when we are faced with a pandemic heading toward us like an ocean wave, when we are faced with a president who has no clue as to the seriousness of such an event, when we are faced with news organs more interested in tweets than facts, serious Democrat contenders are bailing in favor of an old white guy who they think is "electable." Good ol'Uncle Joe is looking more like Grandpa Joe every day. Bernie looks like an old version of Bert, and behaves like a Muppet. And any hope of having a fresh perspective, a vigorous human, and someone who, like President Obama, can present a cogent, progressive vision to lead us out of the putrid morass in which we are standing...has vanished into three old white guys.

Meanwhile, back at the White House, the moronic brotherhood is busy back-slapping over this Afghanistan deal while the wheels are already coming off. I don't know who the more gullible people are in this deal, but it sure ain't the Taliban. These guys are gonna sign anything that gets the Americans out, and then they are gonna blow that government sky high and introduce a stricter, more militant version of sharia while they're banging their child-brides and selling their prisoners of war into slavery. That behavior isn't exaclty old news. These guys are not the stupid ones in this misadventure. All they have to do is sit back and wait. And you thought ISIS was bad. 

Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia."   

For the record, Vizzini may have said it in The PRINCESS BRIDE, but the quote itself is attributed to multiple military thinkers, including Dwight D. Eisenhower. Not like any president has ever taken that particularly sage advice.  History cannot be undone, much less changed. As a result, we are damned if we leave and damned if we don't.

And this election is just like that. We are mired in a morass that seems to only deepen every time Feckless Leader's fingers touch phone keys, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. All indications are that, unless the Covid-19 pandemic proves to be horrendous here with people dying in droves (much like the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918,) the White House will continue to blame the Democrats for a health hoax as they are already doing. People are dying in Washington state. We are pretty sure community contagion is already happening in California. Hello? Anyone out there noticing?

On Wednesday, Alex Azar, President Trump’s secretary of health and human services, testified that he could not guarantee that a covid-19 vaccine would be made available to all Americans who need it. “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable,” he said, “but we can’t control that price, because we need the private sector to invest. The priority is to get vaccines and therapeutics. Price controls won’t get us there."                                                                                      The  Washington Post, March 2, 2020    

So, people, be prepared. Not everyone will get the vaccine because, after all, we are all subject to the laws of supply and demand. Supply the people with the money while the rest of us demand proper burial. 

Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!

Take a moment to watch this. It's the best information on COID-19 out there. I'm not kidding: John Oliver: THIS WEEK TONIGHT on Corona Virus.

I will go to the polls tomorrow, but I have no idea who is gonna get my primary vote. I still suspect that if the Dems win the popular vote and/or the electoral college in November, Barr will set the election aside. I suspect that at this same time next year we will still have our own confederacy of dunces running the country. And the action's not going to be directed toward the good and welfare of We, the People. 

And now to clean up the kitchen where the aroma of hamantaschen lingers seductively. I may make ugly hamantaschen, but boy, are they good. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Gird up your loins, folks; the worst is yet to come.