“If you happen to utter the word “coronavirus” while waiting, say, for the bus in the white-marbled capital Ashgabat, there’s a good chance you’ll be arrested. Plainclothes police officers are also arresting people who wear face masks.”

The Turkmen government has been run since 2006 by “the flamboyant dentist-rapper strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.”

Heckuva job, Gurby!

SIDEBAR: I’m pretty sure than I’ve never typed “dentist-rapper-strongman” before. That’s almost as rare as my position as “philosopher prince / masked luchador” (emeritus).

Yesterday’s talking point was that Trump couldn’t devote the proper attention to the virus because he had to focus on the fake impeachment.

Update:

As many of us expected, Trump has called “shenanigans” on that particular talking point, because he couldn’t possibly have done any better. The Dems and their wimpy impeachment are too puny to distract him. His response was even better than his phone call, which was merely “perfect” and therefore a lackluster 100%. This time he’s up around 175%.


So, it turns out we have NEVER been at war with Eastasia.