Quick Note

We're still getting an awful lot of purity shit from (largely) the Bernie maniacs because "we just can't go on voting against the GOP - we have to have someone we can vote for..."

Hard to argue with it, especially when there seems to be a pretty good case behind it.

But if it's not to be, then it's not to be, and I'm going to stay with the basics: When presented a candidate whom I identify as the lesser of two evils, I'm going to take the opportunity to vote for that lesser of two evils because I know "the other side" will jump at the chance to vote for the greater of the two evils.

Because my preference is for - and will always be for - less evil.

I'll continue to be frustrated and I'll go on bitchin' about it, but I feel I have a duty to resist the best I can, and that resistance manifests itself in voting for a Joe Biden because he's what I've got.

And also too - Frederick Douglass once referred to Abe Lincoln as a "craven, capitulating compromiser...".

Douglass would break with the Abolitionist Party in 1860 to support the Republican nominee because he knew an ally when he saw one, and he thought Lincoln had a real chance to win.

As she was packing to leave Washington in the spring of 1965, Mary Todd came across her husband's favorite walking stick, and told her dressmaker to make a gift of it for Mr Douglass - because she was sure Mr Lincoln would want a truly great friend to have it, and she couldn't think of anyone who would appreciate it more.

Today's GIF

Celebrations are taking on some very odd aspects.

Some COVID-19 Fallout

Bryan Tyler Cohen

They're really scared. It's always interesting to see this technique though. 

Acknowledge the anger, but redirect it. Tell us we're not mad at what we're mad at.

"You're mad? Well, so am I. I'm really mad - and here's what we're mad at..."

We need a target for that anger, so the new script is, "Yes, this pandemic thing is pretty awful, and you have good reason to be really mad - so what we're gonna do is rebrand the thing in an attempt to deflect your anger away from us and our completely fucked up response, and onto those rotten Chinese people who started this horrible horrible problem - cuz foreigners are bad. Remember - they're not sending us their best - they're bringing drugs and crime and disease..."

This Bozo45 keeps telling us that BRANDING is at the root of his genius, so here we go:

Everything you need to know about the Chinese coronavirus can be found on one, regularly-updated website: https://t.co/nGCCDVqcqe

— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 9, 2020

We must remain calm but not complacent about the Chinese Coronavirus. We addressed it on tonight’s show. We hope you’ll watch if you missed it.https://t.co/elhyObX1oV

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 10, 2020

You might be getting a weird swirly feeling right about now - because of the rapid pivot these clowns are trying to execute.

Today's Tweet

Preet Bharara is not known for having a temper. He never gets his hackles up and he always comes across as Mr Keep-It-Together.

If that guy's pissed, we all need to step back and wonder.


Click on the tweet and follow the thread.

Donald Trump is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on America

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) March 9, 2020

Today's Quote

Beliefs make history, especially when they are wrong; it is for errors that men have most nobly died.

-- Will Durant

Today's Tweet

What gets the white folks movin'

I’ve determined that Coronavirus doesn’t sound black enough to get the Republicans to take it seriously. But it’s a close thing. If we were fighting “Africanized Coronavirus,” we’d be preparing appropriately.
But if it was Tyrone’s Virus they’d be ready to nuke Seattle.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) March 7, 2020

COVID-19 Update

A webinar hosted by The American Hospital Association (the biggest player in the accreditation business) leaked.

Business Insider:

Hospitals are bracing for millions of Americans to be hospitalized as part of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The American Hospital Association, which represents thousands of hospitals and health systems, hosted a webinar in February with its member hospitals and health systems. Business Insider obtained a copy of the slides presented.

The presentation, titled "What healthcare leaders need to know: Preparing for the COVID-19" happened February 26, with representatives from the National Ebola Training and Education Center.

As part of the presentation to hospitals, Dr. James Lawler, a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center gave his "best guess" estimates of how much the virus might spread in the US.

Lawler's estimates include:

• 4.8 million hospitalizations associated with the novel coronavirus
• 96 million cases overall in the US
• 480,000 deaths
• Overall, the slide points out that hospitals should prepare for an impact to the system that's 10 times a severe flu season.

These numbers are actually a little better than the ones I put up a few days ago - except for the Deaths. That one's pretty fuckin' scary.

One thing that could be in the works to make the problem a lot worse than it has to be:

People are being advised to self-quarantine for 10-15 days.

I'd like to know what genius thinks a guy barely scraping by on 10 or 12 bucks an hour is going to bite the bullet - for the greater good of course - and miss 2 weeks of work when his "benefits" don't include sick days.

Now factor in the chance that that guy has the insurance necessary to pay for a visit to his doctor - and for the cost of the test itself - which the doc may not even have because we haven't been able to scale up the manufacture or the distribution of the fucking test kits in the first fucking place.

Veep Mike Pence was asked the other day if people would be tested even if they couldn't pay for the tests, and Pence wouldn't answer the question.

And we're hearing stories of people knowing they've been exposed, but going about their daily routines like they're happy to be the designated Typhoid Mary.
The probability of containing this thing, and minimizing the destruction, is dependent directly on the people least likely to be of any help at all.

Good News: this is not an existential threat to humankind, or to civilization. Living out your fantasies about surviving in the aftermath of the apocalypse will just have to wait.

Bad News: it's looking like 6 million people could die because of it.

Worse News: don't believe for one fucking minute there's no one looking to make bank and lots of political hay from it. Rent-Seeking Authoritarians love a good threatening situation that makes us think in terms of "running to Daddy's arms for that warm fuzzy feeling of comfort and security."

Today's Pix

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Overheard

If millions of monkeys sat at millions of typewriters for millions of years, one of them might produce a Shakespearean sonnet, but not one of 'em would come up with a Donald Trump tweet - because monkeys aren't stupid.

Pony Up

Whatever else you wanna say about Mike Bloomberg, the guy's putting his money where his mouth is.

There's a good probability (in my little brain) that he's mostly hedging his bets. He's trying to short-circuit the kind of backlash that makes the pendulum swing wildly away from the nice well-ordered environment that plutocrats need to foster - the kind that still eats everybody who hasn't scrambled into the upper echelons, but eats them at a slower pace than what a guy like 45* is pushing for.

Bloomberg (et al) can't afford to let Trump push too many of us into Bernie's Revolution.

What I hear from Bloomberg is: "Yes, I'm a top-down authoritarian, but I'm pretty gosh darned benevolent about it."

Which is kinda weird, cuz that's what I used to complain about when I referred to the Dems in the 90s, when it first really started to look like the parties were losing their differentiating features.

"Vote for Democrats - we're slightly less asshole-ish than those other guys."

Anyway, it appears Mike is going to put some of that $60,000,000,000 to "good use".

WaPo, Greg Sargent:

It has long been an open question whether Mike Bloomberg would actually make good on his promise to spend lavishly from his fortune to defeat President Trump, should he fall short of the Democratic nomination. Now he’s fallen short — he dropped out on Wednesday — and we have our answer.

It’s a resoundingly good one, as The Post’s Michael Scherer reports:

Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg has decided to form an independent expenditure campaign that will absorb hundreds of his presidential campaign staffers in six swing states to work to elect the Democratic nominee this fall.

The group, with a name that is still undisclosed because its trademark application is in process, would also be a vehicle for Bloomberg to spend money on advertising to attack President Trump and support the Democratic nominee, according to a person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

It seems clear that Bloomberg believes he can make himself useful by using his fortune to rattle Trump, to get in his head, causing him to make mistakes or, better yet, perform even more spectacular meltdowns than usual.