“Yesterday, COVID-19 seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though it’s here to stay,
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, there’s not half the shops there used to be,
And there’s slippers where my shoes should be,
Oh yesterday, came suddenly.

Why it had to grow, I don’t know,
We couldn’t say,
While we stay at home,
How I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play,
My girlfriend lives more than 2k away
Oh how I long for yesterday.

Why it had to grow, I don’t know,
We couldn’t say,
While I stay at home,
How I long for yesterday.

Anyway, we have lots and lots of games to play,
And we have a place to hide away,
Tomorrow there’ll be brighter days.’

Kevin Herm Connolly – Yesterday 2020

Kevin writes:

 My Dad came up with the idea and we finished it together (remotely) over the last few days. I thought it would be fun to record and share :)

In fairness.

The Barbiturates – And So Six Months Pass

DIY guerilla punk rock.

That’s how Derry band The Barbiturates describe themselves.

Led by Geoff Street (top), the group are about to release their new album Your Now Entering Free Derry.

The psychedelic vibe here is very pleasing to the ear.

Nick says: Medication for the nation.

The Barbiturates

A stylish take on the dystopia genre by French-Japanese illustrator and artist Kajika Aki Ferrazzini with a nod to a Japanese cultural tradition called mono no aware wherein a beautiful sadness is tempered with the impermanence of all things.

shortoftheweek

This afternoon.

Meanwhile…

Minister for Education Joe McHugh has concluded discussions with parents, teachers, school managers and students over plans to hold the Leaving Cert at the end of July.

A “plan B” option of awarding grades to students, in the event that the exams being cancelled was one of the items on the agenda.

The practicalities of running the exams in the context of social distancing and public health advice were also discussed….

Leaving Cert: No decision on exams following meeting (irish Times)

Not for the likes of you.

This afternoon.

Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2

Fintan Warfield tweetz:

Lunchtime thought: It is something else that Fitzwilliam Square is a private garden with access only for those with a key.

FIGHT!

Fitzwilliam Square?

This morning.

On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

The Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe (above) was interviewed by Bryan Dobson. It followed his department saying that it expected Ireland to run a deficit of at least 7.5 per cent or €23 billion this year.

They had this exchange:

Bryan Dobson: “The supports that are available to people who are losing their jobs or are on short time payment, the pandemic payment, unemployment payment. And the wage subsidy – more than a million people now receiving some sort of payment from the State and it expires in the middle of next month. Will it be extended?”

Paschal Donohoe: “Well, we’re going to be dealing with this now across the next few weeks, Bryan. And then we’ll be in a position to outline a pathway for both of those payments. They are going to continue in a form but the level of those payments and how they will be made available to the economy is something that the Government will make a decision on soon.

“The reason why we need to be careful about these payments is two-fold. The first one is they’re working, they’re working keeping people in a job or if you have lost a job, they’re working in helping our citizens cope with huge change in living standards that nobody was expecting.

“The second reason we have to take care with their future is because of their cost. They are costing many hundreds of millions of euros per week and what I and the Government will aim to do is change those payments in a way that is affordable but also makes sense for our citizens.”

Hmm.

Listen back in full here

Rollingnews

RTÉ website this afternoon

Um.

Via RTÉ

Speaking to RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme, Danielle Kennedy said hairdressers are being offered up to €200 for a haircut from clients, compared to the regular price of €40-€50 before Covid-19.

She said the black market has “erupted” since the Government’s announcement that salons will not reopen until the 20 July.

“It erupted even further since the announcement that we aren’t going to open until the 20th July. People just aren’t prepared to wait that long for a haircut.

“Roughly €150 to €200 for a haircut compared to €40 to €50, so three and four times the normal price to get it done.

“It’s putting salons under an awful lot of pressure because there is a fear that the owners are going to crumble and will just try and look after their clients.”

Black market in haircuts has ‘erupted’ under lockdown (RTÉ)

 

This afternoon.

Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheá. Martin and Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan are greeted at Leinster House by Debenhams workers picketing outside the Dáil after they lost their jobs last Thursday when the retailer applied to be liquidated.

Previously: Regarding Henry Street

Leon Farrell/RollingNews

An especially succinct précis of the Trump administration’s unhinged approach to the COVID-19 pandemic (published two days before today’s proclamation from Trumpton) by NYU Professor of Journalism, Jay Rosen.

The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible — by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the zone with shit,” Steve Bannon’s phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial, which boosts what economists call “search costs” for reliable intelligence.

Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign.

MORE: The Plan Is To Have No Plan (Jay Rosen, Pressthink)

(Pic: via New Yorker by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty)

kottke

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