August 22, 2020 --

Former Vice President Joe Biden spoke for a reported 20 minutes, accepting the Democratic nomination for president.  And so, Mr. Biden has proved that brevity is not always the soul of wit.  Someone said on radio, following Mr. Biden's remarks, that now that he has shown he can read from a teleprompter, he should let himself be tested in tv interviews.  LPR doubts, however, that one of the regular talking heads on tv would ever ask a challenging question of the former vice president.

Did anyone else have the sense that Biden's acceptance remarks were more like a Democratic response to a Republican president's State of the Union Address, than a political speech standing on its own feet?

Always Blame Trump

If Joe Biden could tell the truth he would have noted that the highest Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. were in New York and New Jersey, states with Democrat governors.  He would also have recognized that unfortunately Gov. Cuomo's decision to order Covid 19 patients to nursing hopes apparently caused thousands of Covid-19 deaths in those nursing homes.  Instead, he lies like a rabid Rejectionist and ties the Covid-19 blame on the president.

And it is unfortunate that Mr. Biden continues to blame the president for praising neo-Nazis as well as people protesting a Robert E. Lee memorial in Charlottesville,  Virginia.  It simply did not happen.   It is also unfortunate that Mr. Biden, in his acceptance remarks propounded the unsubstantiated claim that the Russians offered bounties for dead American soldiers.

NPR, in its version of the Biden acceptance, raised high the Biden banner in the guise of fact-checktng.  For example, they asserted, without supporting evidence, that Russia interceded in the 2016 election to help President Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.  And then went further to insinuate that the Russians are doing it again to help defeat Biden.

But are we our own worst enemy?

Mr. Biden said he will institute a mask mandate "as a patriotic duty to protect one another."  Are masks to be a permanent adornment?

And does the underlying purpose suggest that each of us is capable of being the killer of family, friends, associates, co-workers, strangers on a train? 

If so, how could masks not be permanent accoutrements? 

Another question: are eat-in restaurants to become relics.  In winter, will heaters be placed next to the tables on the sidewalks the former indoor dining establishment?   If masks are imposed on people, just what is it a tyrant can't impose on a formerly free people?

Alas, one good Covid-19 by-product in New York City since March, is soon to end.  Buses have been free since March, boarded at the rear door to keep passengers as far as possible from the drivers. On August 31, bus fares, sad to relate, will return. 

(It is not clear if fares will be paid at the rear doors,)