Summer of Roses.

 Before we get started, here's this week's News:

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Check it out. Most of it's concerning the COVID-19 business that's turning out to be a much bigger deal than people figured, how badly the federal government and my state's government is handling it, and the utter rat-bastardry of the billionaire class and Corporate America. None of that comes as a surprise, granted, but I've been taken aback at what kind of craven boob Tate Reeves is turning out to be. Admittedly, I was giving him a low bar from the get-go but this is ridiculous.

 The internet's been blinking on and off since Thursday night, and it's driving me up the wall. It's never that long, mind. Just long enough to disrupt any downloading or uploading I might be doing. Plus, every time her country classics internet drops, Momma hollers to ask me if it's down again. First world problems, I know.

 The issue is, one, no radio reaches out here. Two, we're too far out to get cable and digital television is spotty. Me, I can read or play video games or, do like I did today, nap all day. Momma reads a good deal, too, but she goes through periods. Furthermore, she gets all her books from the library and hasn't been since this whole COVID-19 business started. She's big into the self-distancing and my sister-in-law (who works in the health industry) is freaking out a bit over it, which makes Momma freak out even more. Me, I just want quiet since I can't get any weed.

 It's 81 degrees at 7 p.m. near the end of March. That's too damn hot. We had a very mild winter and I imagine we're going to have one mother of a summer. We're supposed to get some rain tonight and possible bad weather, so it's muggy as well, too Apparently they had a pretty nasty tornado up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, because the weather trying to wipe us all out is all we need.

 Dammit, there it goes again. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't being throttled down due to heavy use or because the telephone company that provides it is a bunch of bastards. Whoops, now it's back. Momma ran into an old buddy of mine from way back who works for the area power company says we'll be getting broadband by the end of the year, and we might get it before the end of the summer. This was, of course, before the Plague settled in, so who the hell knows.

 For the record, I'm digging the new format and think it's working well. More than once, because of the frame of mind I'm in, I've been able to knock out the Daily Peace before my nap and spend the evening just adding little touches. I think tomorrow I'll do a short post over at the WordPress site bringing it all back home tomorrow, linking everything there, here and the Tumblr site in one place, if I wrote anything at the Tumblr site, I don't remember if I did and I'm not in the mood to go looking anything up.

 Speaking of writing, I got some good news. I'm not going to go into detail until I get it nailed down. Not because I'm worried about jinxing it so much as things usually just don't work out for me. If there's two bowls of chili left, I'm the third guy in line, that sort of thing. It's nothing major but if it does come across, it'll not only be a good step in my mental health but will also bring a bit loose change in, and that ain't bad a'tall.

 Otherwise, that's about it, I guess. Watching the federal government and 150 years of competent central government, at least (and at best), fall completely to pieces because of the truculent, petty dickhead in the White House is something else. He's basically gone in front of the entire country and said if the states want federal help, their governors need to be nicer to him. That's just goddamn crazy, and what's crazier is he's talking about actively punishing governors who're mean to him or have been a thorn in his private side.

 There is a discussion to be had about how powerful the federal government should be and how much power it should have. That's pretty much been at the heart of the American Question, one way or another. I vacillate, admittedly, and my problem is that the federal government can be a force for good and help people get by with gettin' by, but ours is more concerned with a twisted version of Jefferson's Agrarian society, where the rich are rich and the poor can get bent. I can actually understand the libertarian argument against a strong centralized government, I just don't trust corporations to be any better and, indeed, have shown themselves to be worse by miles with what regulation they have now.

 Still, I don't think anyone can argue that this is the way to approach it and if they're fine with it, they're much too garbage a person to deserve anymore of your attention. People are getting hurt and are increasingly finding themselves up against the wall as Big Business doesn't even pretend to care about anything beyond increasing their profits and just being dicks. I am seeing a lot libertarians crawling out from under their rocks to cheer for this collapse because they think they'll come out on top rather than as mulch for someone's garden.

 Anyhow.