AMERICANS TODAY ARE IN A SITUATION THEY HADN’T BARGAINED FOR, and they are rapidly losing control of their destiny.

Once whatever challenges Americans face are declared medical emergencies, it now appears they have no constitutional rights. All individual actions can now be controlled by executive fiat. If behavior that runs contrary to the objectives of America’s most powerful establishment institutions can be declared a pathology, the inconvenience of due process can be discarded. They’ll just put you in an asylum and throw away the key. They’ll lock you down. They’ll tell you where you can go, who you can see, what products you can consume, and what content you can watch.

If you want to enjoy a look at our dystopian future-to-come, buy and read Ward Moore's Caduceus Wild.

MICHAEL BARONE: Excessive risk aversion is producing a more unequal society.

He's right.

JOE BIDEN CHANNELS NANCY PELOSI: You'll have to vote for me in order to find out what I'll do as President.

JUDGE AMY CONEY BARRETT ESPOUSES 'hard-right' view of the Second Amendment.

So 'as written' is now 'hard-right'?

OUR SOCIALIST FUTURE -- facilitated by “never let a crisis go to waste” opportunism.

BEFORE THIS WEEK'S EDITION of PowerLine's Week in Pictures, here are my favorites from last week's edition.

Go see the rest.

I WONDER WHO THEY MIGHT BE: Ammo Grrrll calls out a few terrible, terrible people.

WUHAN FLU [CORONAVIRUS] UPDATE for October 9, 2020:

I see I've failed (again) in my desire to update twice a week -- the last update was October 2nd.

Nonetheless 'same old, same old' holds again. Daily deaths remain at about 700; the percentage of positive tests remains about 7% and is slowly decreasing, and the survival rate is an astonishing 99.81% of [all] confirmed cases.

Trends remain positive -- meaning continuing to decline -- albeit slowly. The same is true for global data, which I also track.

In Georgia, the data (except hospitalizations, which are still declining) hasn't been updated since October 7th. No reason has been given.

JOURNALISM: Smirks are mandatory when the target is a Republican.

IT'S EASIER to be a Bin Ladin than a conservative.

But this Bin Ladin is not the Liberals' friend.

KURT SCHLICHTER: They want you to be afraid.

What they got is 'pissed off'.

THE DIPLOMAD: Pence for President -- in 2024.

CONGRESSWOMAN IDIOT? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stamps her feet and demands to be called by her proper title.

ILLINOIS GOVERNOR says federal government should help bars and restaurants.

Pritzker is a billionaire and obviously eats well -- maybe he should spend some of his own money so I can go to McDonalds occasionally....

BIDEN VOWS TO SHARE COURT PACKING VIEWS -- after the election.

He won't. There'll be no reason after he loses.

CORONAVIRUS OBITUARY:

Seen on the Washington Times cartoon page.

FROM BAD TO WORSE: Or as Instapundit co-blogger Stephen Green puts it, "Gooder and harder".

POWERLINE'S STEVEN HAYWARD on the dumbest tweet of 2020.

From the comments:

(1) Steven, you're out on a limb picking the dumbest tweet of 2020 when we have almost 3 months left in the year....

(2) Hey Jay, pot is legal in WA, not mandatory.

ME AS WELL: I'm a Januarian.

KEITH OLBERMANN? Don't I remember him from somewhere?