The night before Phase 1
Tomorrow at 5 p.m., North Carolina enters Phase 1 of its recovery process, introducing two key differences: You can gather in groups of 10 or more — social distancing, please — and some retail will be opening, though with reduced capacities. Some will have mandatory mask policies. Try not to be a dick about it. Still no bars, no restaurants, no hair salons, no swimming pools or gyms.
Some news
- You heard that right: Greensboro’s Louis deJoy has been named postmaster general. DeJoy, along with his wife Aldona Wos, are perhaps best known as prolific GOP fundraisers, regularly holding events in their Irving Park home.
- How do you think that mail-in voting decision is going to go?
- Another totally normal thing happened: The Justice Department dropped all charges against Trump’s first national-security advisor Michael Flynn, who had twice pled guilty to lying to the FBI about meetings with a Russian diplomat. It’s all over, as soon as this guy signs off on it.
- Three weeks ago FEMA and the CDC made a plan to reopen the country, with guidance for business owners, local and state officials, churches and other concerns. But its authors were told last week that it would “never see the light of day,” according to the AP. The federal government issued… nothing… in its place.
The numbers
- North Carolina in brief: 639 new cases, most ever, but we’re increasing testing so that’s the way that goes. And 30 new deaths, according to the N&O, another high-water mark.
- And dig it: 171,328 completed tests. That’s 6,846 new ones today.
- Guilford County jumps from 527 to 551, meaning 24 new ones. 228 recoveries, one new death for 31.
- Forsyth County has 18 new ones. Forsyth hasn’t clocked a new recovery since April 18.
A diversion
Hey! Let’s all watch the 1954 BBC adaptation of George Orwell’s novel 1984! For no particular reason!
Program notes
- I’m getting my public-domain images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City these days. We just call it “the Met.” Tonight we’ve got “The Temptation of Eros,” by Angelica Kauffmann, 1750-75.
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Sad was looking forward to mail-in ballots. Flynn cleared sad, sad, day