The Western Word is coming to you, STILL, I repeat STILL, coronavirus free, from deep inside an underground bunker in Montana. The bunker also serves as the worldwide headquarters for The Western Word blog!

Quote of the day…

Every time you are able to find some humor in a difficult situation, you win. – Unknown

Today’s independent commentary deals with these people/issues:

• Coronavirus Projections
• All-Mail Ballots
• Thomas Modly
• One More Thing

CORONAVIRUS PROJECTIONS:

Several sources including MTN News are reporting that the projection for Montana COVID-19 cases and hospital impact is looking better.

MTN says that on Monday the model shows the number of projected deaths in Montana falls dramatically from 268 to 22. It also shows the peak resource need for hospitals moved from April 26 up to April 13.

That’s good news unless you are one of the 22 who are projected to die, I guess.

I hope with these “looking better” reports people don’t start doing dumb things by not following the rules. We don’t want to take a step back.

I still think we are quite a ways away from normal. I don’t see things starting to go back to normal until May or maybe June.

You can access the COVID-19 Projections page HERE.

ALL-MAIL BALLOTS:

MTN News is reporting that all 56 Montana counties are planning to use mail ballots only for the June 2 primary election, to avoid having polls open and possibly exposing voters and poll workers to the coronavirus, the secretary of state’s office said Monday.

This is a good thing and it should be this way all the time all across the fruited plains.

Democrats want vote by mail nationwide and Republicans do not. Democrats tried to add provisions in the coronavirus stimulus bill for vote-by-mail, same-day registration, and early voting, but it failed because Republicans are afraid to make it easier to vote. (Source)

It was even reported that President Trump told Fox & Friends, “The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

The way Trump and the Republicans are handling this pandemic, that might be a good thing.

THOMAS MODLY:

Thomas Modly is the Acting Navy Secretary. It seems there are a lot of people in the Trump administration who are “acting,” but that is not the story here.

Earlier this week, after firing the former captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt for going outside the chain of command to report a coronavirus epidemic on board his ship, he called the Captain, Brett Crozier, “too naive or too stupid” to command the ship.

While I agree that Crozier broke the chain of command rules to help his sailors and deserved punishment, calling him “too naïve or too stupid” to command the ship was wrong and also deserves punishment.

Modly is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served seven years in the Navy. Crozier also graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. Each man should know how the system works. Each man failed.

Modly backtracked on his “too naïve or too stupid” remark and apologized.

That was the right thing to do, but that does not mean the “acting” Secretary of the Navy should not be punished. He will probably never be confirmed now, so he might as well step down and let Trump find someone else.

If not, fire his ass.

ONE MORE THING:

I follow “The Babylon Bee” on Facebook. I get a laugh almost every day from them! “The Babylon Bee” touts itself as the world’s best satire site, totally inerrant in all its truth claims. They write satire about Christian stuff, political stuff, and everyday life.

It’s amazing how many people believe the articles they publish. I often write “Satire” before I forward any articles from the site because some people are idiots.

Recently they posted an article saying that Facebook was awarding medical degrees:

Medical degrees used to be hard to get, but now, all you need to do is comment your medical opinions on Facebook. Then, you’ll automatically get a message with a link to your very own M.D. You can print it out and hang it on your wall.

If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.

We have a President who gives medical advice almost every day and many of his followers do the same. It’s ridiculous that in 2020 we have so much fake news and information being spread when it only takes a few minutes to verify it.

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