It’s perfectly clear that in order for him to put Americans through another four years of crazy-ass, un-governing fueled by erratic populism, Trump has to recoup at least some of last year’s financial momentum and reduce the massive post-shutdown joblessness. So, like a mobster, a likeness I think he would be perfectly comfortable with, the douche-in-chief is putting the squeeze states, cities, schools, and businesses all the while ignoring overwhelming scientific evidence how bad it already is and how easily it could get much, much worse. Clearly, his MO is to rely heavily on statistics that show how most people that catch the virus survive it without (at least as far as we know) long-term consequences. As usual, Trump’s rolling the dice. But make no mistake, behind the scenes, he’s simultaneously making sure he has a barrage of scapegoats and fall-guys when his gamble fails. The Hammer and the Dance theory has proved frighteningly accurate, however hard Trump tries to ignore it:

Tomas Pueyo is the author of the “The Hammer and the Dance” — an explainer article on “Medium” that has been viewed millions of times since it was posted in March and translated into dozens of languages. He has famously dubbed the period of lockdown to squelch the disease as “the hammer” and the subsequent period of living with it as “the dance.”

I read the New York Times religiously. It’s biased, I know, I know. But I still think the paper’s journalists are doing a Nobel Prize-worthy job sifting through and compiling numbers provided by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Here’s news on the seriousness of the situation in some of the southern states along the sunbelt.

As President Trump continued pressing for a broader reopening of the United States, the country set another record for new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, with more than 59,000 infections announced and some states’ final numbers still unreported, according to a New York Times database. It was the fifth national record set in nine days. The previous record, 56,567, was reported on Friday.

Tom Hanks has a new WWII movie out called Greyhound. I listened to Conan O’brien’s interview with him yesterday while manually mowing our giant lawn. Tom and his wife Rita were possibly the first celebs to catch COVID-19 and here’s what he has to say about not taking the pandemic seriously.

Although the screen icon believes the “vast majority of Americans” understand the importance of protecting themselves and others from COVID-19, he didn’t mince words when laying out the dangers some have chosen to ignore.

“Look, there’s no law against ignorance. It’s not illegal to have opinions that are wrong,” Hanks said. “But there is a darkness on the edge of town here folks, and … let’s not confuse the fact: It’s killing people. … Yeah, that’s right. It’s killing people.

The shot above is from a sacred bamboo forest on the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan.