* This video was passed around all over the place yesterday (it was even posted in comments here this morning before I deleted it). But notice the date when it was first posted on Facebook: February 19th…

😳😲😥 look what the freight just brought in..

Posted by Alex Hampton on Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Many, many thanks to SEIU Local 1 Communications Director Izabela Miltko-Ivkovich for tracking that down. I got so tired of receiving it yesterday that I started scolding everyone who sent it to me. The only thing that was forwarded to me more than that has been that stupidly ubiquitous Blagojevich meme. Please, stop sending that to me. Many thanks.

* The online uproar got so intense that the Illinois National Guard had to take to Twitter…

The Illinois National Guard IS NOT moving Chicago to enforce a quarantine. The train moving military equipment is not moving National Guard vehicles. We have 60 troops activated for COVID-19. Most are medical. The military moves vehicles all the time. Relax, folks!

— IL National Guard (@IL_Natl_Guard) March 19, 2020

The governor’s office should put a prominent link to Snopes on its COVID-19 website.

* From a family member…

I am hearing on this group that ISP has shut down background checks.

* Illinois State Police…

The Firearms Services Bureau is still working diligently to process Firearm Transfer Inquiry Program submissions as quickly as possible. We have experienced a high volume of requests recently and are working to process these requests as efficiently as possible. Please remember not to calculate weekends and holidays when determining an approximate date for response. Temporary fluctuations in staffing made in response to COVID-19 may temporarily result in fluctuations in processing times, but FTIP submissions and processing have not stopped and continue in earnest. ISP also is rolling out telework capabilities as quickly as possible to increase efficiency in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you for your patience as we work to respond in as timely a manner as this emergency situation allows.

* This trailer was parked outside of Sycamore and some locals were freaking out…

Explanation…

* My all-time “favorite” however, is this, which was sent to a legislator who forwarded it on to me so I could mock it…

Stop being idiots. Grow the heck up! pic.twitter.com/QvbIm9L9ua

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) March 20, 2020

Great retort by a Golden Horseshoe Award winner…

this is like a conspiracy theory turducken

— Jake Lewis (@jake____lewis) March 20, 2020

…Adding… Thanks to a commenter for pointing to this Dahleen Glanton column…

Some folks actually believe that black people, either by genetics or some favor of God, cannot catch the coronavirus. Or if black people do get it, they are more likely to fully recover from it than other racial or ethnic groups. […]

Here’s the truth, according to the World Health Organization: Anybody can contract the coronavirus. People over the age of 60 are at a higher risk of developing a severe case of illness, and the highest death rate is in people over 80. But anyone who suffers from chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart disease, cancer, diabetes or asthma is likely to get very sick or die.

Black people rank at or near the top of just about every one of these conditions. That places them among the most vulnerable groups for which the virus could be fatal.