The Virus Goes on Holiday: New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved gatherings of up to 10 people just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, a time when Americans traditionally travel, and hit the parks, beaches, and lakes.

  New Jersey, the state hit second hardest by the coronavirus, opened campgrounds and approved gatherings of up to 25 people.

  But what the weekend will look like is anyone’s guess. For the first time in 20 years AAA skipped its Memorial Day travel forecast. They merely tweeted, “The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to significantly suppress travel over the Memorial Day weekend.” 

  Many annual Memorial Day events have been cancelled; everything from parades to yacht races. Some beach towns and areas with a concentration of vacation homes have asked non-residents to stay away. Public health officials warn that large gatherings could result in a surge of infections.

The Children’s Virus: A frightening syndrome related to the coronavirus that affects children is on the rise in New York State.

  The state has had 157 cases of a severe inflammatory syndrome, a 53 percent increase in just nine days. The Centers for Disease Control has labelled affliction Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children. It causes inflammation throughout the body and can severely damage the heart.

Pakistan Crash: Two men who sustained minor injuries survived the crash of a Pakistani airliner into a crowded neighborhood in Karachi.

  Muhammad Zubair, one of the survivors, said “No one was aware that the plane was about to crash; they were flying the plane in a smooth manner.” 

  The Airbus A320 was carrying 91 passengers and eight crew. Zubair said that when he woke up after the crash, “I could hear screams from all directions. Kids and adults. All I could see was fire. I couldn’t see any people – just hear their screams”.

Praying for Votes: President Trump, who’s rarely seen in church himself, yesterday declared houses of worship to be essential to American life and threatened state governors who will not allow them to re-open. He’s clearly playing to the religious vote as he sees ways to run for re-election without being able to gather large crowds.

  Trump said, “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now for this weekend.” Then he threatened, “If they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”

  Trump has repeatedly said the federal government is just a backup to the states and how they handle the pandemic. In this case, he has no obvious constitutional power to do as he claims he will. 

Truth or Consequences: The lawyer for Tara Reade, the former Senate aide who accuses  former Vice President  Joe Biden of sexual assault, has quit representing her just two weeks after taking her on as a client.

  The lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, previously represented claims against former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly Fox and movie producer Harvey Weinstein.  Regardless of the truth about her claims about Biden, a lot of reporting about Reade has damaged her overall credibility. For one thing, Reade has worked as an expert witness in criminal cases and there are questions about whether she lied about her educational credentials. 

The Bulletin Board: Hong Kong’s stock market took a dive yesterday after mainland China said it will exercise stricter control over the semi-independent territory. People with money in the Hong Kong markets are getting it out of there. The US indicated that it will punish China for the new security measures. — The rental car company Hertz, one of the original rental car companies in the world established 100 years ago, has filed for bankruptcy as the result of business lost during the coronavirus shutdown. — Hundreds of millions of cicadas are expected to complete their 17-year cycle of dormancy and emerge in the southeast this spring and summer. — Suffering foot in mouth disease, presidential candidate said on a radio show popular with black listeners, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” The reactions have not been good.

Bending Time and Truth: As part of the deification of dictator Kim Jong-un, the North Korean people have been told for years that their dear leader and members of his family are capable of bending time and space. It’s called “chukjibeop”, a method of folding space and travelling great distances in a short period of time.  

  The newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the North’s ruling party, said, “In realistic terms, a person cannot suddenly disappear and reappear by folding space.”

   He is, however, capable of keeping his country stuck in the 1950s.

Positively Negative: In the words of President Trump: “I tested very positively in another sense. I tested positively toward negative, right? So no, I tested perfectly this morning. Meaning I tested negative. But that’s a way of saying it. Positively toward the negative.”

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