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Like a lot of folks, my wife and I enjoy a good restaurant meal. In fact, one of my bucket-list items is to become a Tokyo Ramen King, which requires one to eat a ramen bowl in each of Tokyo's 23 city wards (it's a completely unofficial title, but I still plan to do it). Every Saturday, we enjoy lunch in a lodge to the north, which is on pretty safe ground, businesswise, due to a healthy summer tourist trade and its location right on the Parks Highway.
But in many parts of the United States, restaurants, especially small, locally owned ones, are suffering under inflation and Bidenomics:
Visits to sit-down restaurants were down nearly five percent in 2023 from the year prior, according to location analytics firm Placer.ai.
Even big metropolitan areas in the US known for their great dining spots are struggling to maintain an environment where it's profitable to run a restaurant.
Eater NY reported that over 40 bars and restaurants closed in New York City from December 2023 to January 2024, with some of the owners saying business simply never picked up after the COVID lockdowns in 2020.
Earl getting the DUmmies all worked up
Two of the key figures in the story of Covid’s origins gave away vital new information last week before the US Congress.
One of these figures is Ralph Baric, the University of North Carolina professor who invented ingenious techniques for genetically altering coronaviruses. He effectively taught scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China how to do ‘gain of function’ experiments with bat-derived sarbecoviruses to make them more infectious or lethal in humanised mice. The other figure is Peter Daszak, the highly paid president of the non-profit, EcoHealth Alliance. Over many years, EcoHealth Alliance has channelled large sums of US taxpayer money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for ‘gain of function’ experimentation, and for finding new sarbecoviruses in bats.
Up until now, Baric and Daszak have taken slightly different approaches to (hardly) helping the world understand what went on in Wuhan before the Covid-19 outbreak in November 2019. Baric has remained largely silent, refusing to do interviews or sign up to articles in the scientific press. He remained silent last week, too, but the Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released the transcript of a lengthy closed-door session it held with him in January.
Daszak, by contrast, has adopted a high profile, organising round-robin letters defending his friends and colleagues in Wuhan, giving interviews, writing articles and getting himself appointed to not one but two commissions investigating Covid’s origins, despite a glaring conflict of interest. He appeared before the subcommittee on 1 May.
Leftist outlet The Huffington Post is upset that Donald Trump has suggested that the death penalty should be extended to drug kingpins and child sex traffickers.
In an article headlined “There’s A GOP Plan For An Execution Spree If Trump Wins The White House,” the outlet points to remarks Trump made two years ago.
The Huffington Post is freaking out that #DonaldTrump allies are planning to expand the #deathpenalty to include sexual abuse of children – There's A #GOP Plan For An Execution #Spree If Trump Wins The White House – https://t.co/07ovo9g9Sv
— Jeff Hertzog (@_jeffhertzog) May 11, 2024
He stated that while it “sounds horrible” to advocate for the death penalty, countries that don’t have a “drug problem” are “those that institute a very quick trial, death penalty sentence” for traffickers.
“You execute a drug dealer, and you’ll save 500 lives, because they kill on average 500 people,” Trump asserted at the time.
EarlG Behold my glorious new meme creation!
kpete (thinking to herself) Don't quit your day job, EarlG.
