One More Truck Stop

Missed exits 

Pop up billboards 

Of one more truck stop. 

 

The wheels that carry 

Souls across lifetimes. 

 

Banana bazooka 

Gunshot wounds 

After one more argument.

Fights are not supposed to be settled

On this side of the fence. 

Submission is peace. 

Hurl the red flag

The white and the green

Against the blue sky.

Fathom the bottom of seas

While you reach for

The stars.     

Coronavirus News (290)

Stephen Colbert Anxiously Reads the Latest Polls The “Late Show” host tossed some table salt and knocked on wood so as not to jinx Biden, who currently leads the president by 10 points in the polls. ..............  “According to most national polls, Joe Biden is leading President Trump by about 10 points. And based on the last election, that means Biden’s losing by four points.” — JIMMY FALLON ............... “Yep, for Democrats it still feels eerily similar to the 2016 election. It's like ‘Friday the 13th’ when the kids think Jason’s finally dead and you’re like, ‘He’s right behind you!’” — JIMMY FALLON ............  “Trump referred to Fauci and other scientists as ‘idiots’ — then he planned another giant indoor rally in a Covid hot spot.” — JIMMY FALLON “Trump then added, ‘Listening to scientists is the craziest thing in the whole wide flat world.’” — JIMMY FALLON ............  But I don’t know why Donald Trump still thinks he can ignore this virus and it will go away. I mean that strategy — it didn’t work with Don Jr. and Eric and it isn’t going to work here.” — JIMMY KIMMEL 

Trump Is Giving Up Against both the coronavirus and Joe Biden, the president’s strategy increasingly accepts defeat. ......... what we’re watching is an incumbent doing everything in his power to run up his own margin of defeat. ..........  The resulting incoherence just feeds his tendency to return to old grudges and very online grievances, as though he’s running for the presidency of talk radio or his own Twitter feed. Without Steve Bannon to keep him grounded or Clinton to keep him focused, he’s making a closing “argument” that’s indistinguishable from a sales pitch for a TV show or a newsletter — suggesting that even more than four years ago, the president assumes he’ll be in the media business as soon as the election returns come in.............. argues that we’re overtesting, overreacting and probably close to herd immunity anyway.  

Life (and Death) Without God The philosopher Todd May is an atheist who rejects the supernatural, but not the people who believe in it. .......... My particular atheism commits me to thinking that those who believe in the supernatural are mistaken. ......... I have been involved in grass-roots political movements for decades and some of the most courageous people I know act out of their religious conviction. ......... Atheism, in short, is a view — or a set of views — about the supernatural; it is not a view about people who believe in the supernatural. ......... The Soviet Union, for instance, persecuted Jews and other believers in the name of a doctrine that they at least saw as tied to atheism, and today the Chinese government is committing genocidal acts against the Uighurs for related reasons. ..........  I do volunteer teaching in a maximum-security prison, where faith among the incarcerated men often plays an important role in sustaining them psychologically.    

My party may have given up it’s voice on things that matter but I have not. This election is about the course of a nation and the character of her people reflected in the leader they choose. America matters. I’m voting for ⁦@JoeBiden⁩ https://t.co/0sEy7D0bOk

— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) October 20, 2020

Why Biden Will Need to Spend Big The economic case for deficit spending is overwhelming. ........ For now, and for at least the next few years, large-scale deficit spending isn’t just OK, it’s the only responsible thing to do. ...........  we won’t be able to have a full economic recovery as long as the pandemic is still raging. ......... another round of large-scale fiscal relief, especially aid to the unemployed and to cash-strapped state and local governments ........... will also help avoid a downward economic spiral, by heading off a potential collapse in consumer and local government spending. ..........  think of what smart businesses do when they face great investment opportunities and have access to cheap capital: they raise a lot of money. ............   there’s a global savings glut — the sums individuals want to save persistently exceed the sums businesses are willing to invest .......... this situation — private savings all dressed up with nowhere to go — translates into extremely low government borrowing costs  

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