In this, our 16th episode of Madness Chronicles, we’ll take a look at the insanity of simply looking at today’s news reports. Remember, insanity is an especially severe state of mental illness, extremely foolish behavior, and a state of frenzied or chaotic activity. Let’s take a look at the news in America.

Outside of Baltimore, the mayor is frustrated with more gang shootings over the weekend. The Independent Sentinel reports: “Mayor begs criminals to stop shooting, so they have beds for virus patients.” He is a new mayor, the previous one has just been sentenced to prison for corruption. The mayor says they need beds for virus patients. Maryland has a total of five coronavirus cases.

Later in Philadelphia, we learn that the City Council decided on a couple of unique approaches to virus control in this headline from the City of Brotherly Love. “Philadelphia will not arrest thieves, looters, drug dealers, but it will try to eat a hamburger in a restaurant.” It seems that the petty criminals will go free, but now they can arrest him for eating at a restaurant. Isn’t that maddening?

One more hour north and we are in Brooklyn, New York, where the District Attorney legalizes robberies and other crimes. He refuses to prosecute low-level crimes in reaction to … you guessed it, the coronavirus. In a recent tweet, the ACLU calls for prisoners to be released from jails across the United States. They say it will help stop the spread of the virus. Interestingly, no one in prison to date has tested positive for the crown?

Next door in New York City, Mayor de Blasio warned New Yorkers that he could issue a shelter-in-place warrant. California Governor Newsome is making the same saber rattling by announcing that he is considering martial law. The announcement came after a total of 13 deaths attributed, but not confirmed, from the virus. Of which, more than half were 70 years of age or older and had other contributing physical problems. Is it just me, or is there some real, hectic, chaotic activity going on?

One of the best I’ve read is that the FBI is reducing online investigations into its system as a result of the crown’s folly. They want all these applications to be processed by mail while the crisis lasts. A question comes to mind. The World Health Organization strongly recommends that we use credit cards and debit cards because cash handling passes COVID-19. Wouldn’t it be riskier to have more mail in the system than to use online services? Not to mention, handling mail is more time consuming than letting a computer process your queries.

There are many things we do not know about the coronavirus. It is mortal? Obviously, a segment of the population. Are you killing Americans? As of today, they are reporting around 150. Is it the 150 deaths from coronavirus? You cannot get a direct answer. Did all 150 people die completely from the virus? The reports we receive suggest that more than half of them died from complications of other physical illnesses they had before the illness, and more than half are over 70 years old and many are over 90 years old.

Our current charades remind me of many years ago in the jungles of Vietnam serving as a Marine. We were a company of infantry, about 150 marines, about ten kilometers from the friendly ones that established our perimeter for the night. It was in the badlands of the DMZ. Just before dark, our Captain called a big meeting. He had received word from G-2, the Media Intelligence Section, that a force of 10,000 NVA would attack us that night. He ordered everyone to be on high alert all night. That meant no sleep after being in the mountains all day.

We feel how most Americans feel right now. Stop. 10,000 of them, 150 of us, who cares. We had two options. In fact, believe those hills around us somehow had a Bad Guys Division, or we could roll the dice, it was silly. Most of us went to sleep. That is what most Americans are doing right now. There is something wrong with our current situation.

May we wake up from this madness before it is too late. I wish you good health and until next time … have fun, enjoy life and watch out for the madness between us.