Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Get ready to work

Governors across the country are telling their residents to stay at home.
It's rest time.
We'll be working hard very soon to build back our economy.
We can do it.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

I missed Earth Hour

Apparently, last night was Earth Hour.
People were supposed to turn off lights at 8:30 p.m.
I forgot about it.
Canada's Justin Trudeau didn't.
I need to give Trace Adkins his chance to shine.





Saturday, March 28, 2020

Thrills from the pills

Via Powerline, more good news from France.
In 80 in-patients receiving a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the team found a clinical improvement in all but one 86 year-old patient who died, and one 74-year old patient still in intensive care unit. The team also found that, by administering hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin, they were able to observe an improvement in all cases, except in one patient who arrived with an advanced form, who was over the age of 86, and in whom the evolution was irreversible, according to a new paper published today in IHU Méditerranée Infection.

Saturday Coronavirus song





The Police give the advice real police now give - don't stand so close to me.

Friday, March 27, 2020

Looking for a hero

Kurt Schlichter tells us who stepped in to save the world - and who stepped in it.
A big hero is Dr. Anthony Fauci for going everywhere and talking to everyone. Yeah, he’s a liberal in his personal life. He seems to like Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit for some reason but he does what you should do in his position and plays it straight. Where he disagrees with the president, he does it respectfully and without the spittle-spraying insanity of the Never Trump set, and where he thinks the president is right, Dr. Fauci says so. Sure, some conservatives are suspicious of him, and that’s no surprise. What is shocking is seeing someone not being a liberal hack.

Looking for good news

Instapundit has some morning links about people working together to fight Coronavirus and the impacts.

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Do we need big cities?

Once we get through Coronavirus, what's next?
The areas getting hit hard are big cities like New York and Seattle - where lots of people cram into a small space.
If you look at the map of Virginia cases, all counties west of Roanoke are clean - except for Lee in the far southwest.



















People who love New York like being where the action is.
But being stuck in a small one-room apartment isn't the big city life.
Will companies stay in the big cities, or seek wide open spaces?
Prepare for plenty of changes in the coming months and years.

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Great American Resurrection

Can we begin reviving the country's economy by Easter - April12?
We have needed a date for hope - that this will end.
We have enough bad news on a minute-by-minute basis.
Great phrase by Trump.

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Saturday Coronavirus song





When you need to keep your distance, "invisible touch" is a good idea.

Friday, March 20, 2020

It's the perfect time to panic

PJ Media looks at the matchup between President Trump and NBC's Peter Alexander.
President Trump described himself as optimistic and full of hope. He believes the people are with him and not scared, but acting in a prudent and measured way in a difficult time. "When, not IF, when we win the war," he said he is confident that jobs will come back.
The president wants the media to share the good news with the country and stop fear-mongering and searching for the worst-case scenarios and instead focus on the enormous efforts that are underway to bring this crisis to a swift end. No U.S. hospitals have been overwhelmed thus far, supplies are on the way, and American companies are stepping up to fill in any shortage gaps by manufacturing anything that is needed. Cruiselines are offering ships for more hospital space, Navy ships are being deployed to the places hardest hit, and millions of masks for medical professionals are on the way. But none of the reporters in that room wanted to focus on these amazing developments and instead were single-mindedly trying to trip Trump up and get a viral clip of themselves on social media because "orange man bad."
Good times are coming.
Even if the media can't see it.

Virus flies over flyover country

Ron Brownstein sees the difference in reactions between red and blue states.
Republican-leaning states to this point are displaying notably less urgency about the outbreak. Of the states that have taken the fewest actions to restrict public gatherings or limit restaurant service on a statewide basis—such as Texas, Missouri, and Alabama—almost all have Republican governors, according to research by Topher Spiro, the vice president for health policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, where he directs a program that examines state health initiatives. That’s left Democratic-run cities in those red states—such as Houston, Tucson, Nashville, and Atlanta—to try to impose their own rules on public gatherings. Yet all those local limits face an obvious problem: People from elsewhere in the state can still travel to their jurisdictions. “We can’t seal our borders,” acknowledged Lina Hidalgo, the chief administrator in Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, when she announced county-wide closures on Monday.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Hope is on the way

As the days go by, more scientists are trying more ways to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Remember that as you see the daily bad news.
The better we get at interventions to identify and isolate specific people with the virus, the less we should need to rely on interventions that isolate the entire population. That’s a reason the ramp-up of widely available testing remains such an important goal for the U.S.: More testing should, in time, allow for more normal living.

Monday, March 16, 2020

Still the one

Eighty people in West Virginia have been tested for coronavirus.
None have tested positive.
Is it time to head for the hills?

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Here come the germs

Penelope Trunk thinks surviving the pandemic might be hard for her and her teenage sons.
But at least Boston's quiet.
And the streets of Boston are quiet now that the students have all flown home to deliver coronavirus from the petri-dish dorms to little houses full of old people all over the country.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Saturday Coronavirus song





Long before Coronavirus, there was Rockin Pneumonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu

Keep calm and trust Trump

Friday's press conference boosted the stock market in the final hour before closing.
The president and his all-star CEOs said they were going to work together to get us through the situation.
But media members who haven't trusted Trump before look for items to continue criticizing him.
Maybe it's time to quarantine complaints?

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Weekend watchdog hiatus

A full Weekend Watchdog column was ready to go for its Friday morning slot on the blog.
Then the NBA cancelled Thursday night games.
And basketball tournaments were scrapped.
And NHL.
And baseball.
and soccer.
Will NASCAR run this weekend? That's one sporting event with little contact between fans and competitors on race day.
The watchdog will break for a while as the sports world tries to figure its place in Coronavirus world.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Leave me alone

Powerline asks if self-quaranting strikes some people as the perfect opportunity to do what they prefer to do.
Why go out? You can save a lot of money cooking at home, you’ve got a giant flat-screen TV (or several), there is beer in the fridge, you would rather spend time with your wife and kids than attend boring business or social events. So why not stay home? To the extent you want to keep in touch with other people, you can do it via email and text. You can post photos on Instagram to let them know what you are up to (i.e., staying home). You can Face Time, Tic Tok, or whatever. “Social distance” is much what most of us are increasingly used to. Why risk personal contact?

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Death takes a holiday

Lileks gives his takes on movies to watch while self-quarantining.
Start with Andromeda Strain.
The discovery of the bug remains one of the great unnerving moments of sci-fi — you’re terrified not so much by the green Jell-O (the props were clichés, too), but what it does.

Monday, March 9, 2020

Not bugged by coronavirus

The Other McCain attended CPAC.
He's not panicking.
While fear-stricken hypochondriacs are stampeding Costco to buy out all the hand sanitizer, I’m endeavoring to remain calm and doing no more than routine hygiene. What is the responsible thing to do? Am I supposed to be worried? Am I like Gen. Sedgwick, foolishly joking about something that might actually kill me? Germs are not bullets and, as dangerous as coronavirus may be, its lethality seems mainly limited to the elderly. Well, I’m 60, but still vigorous enough to feel confident that my immune system can cope with a virus (to which I may or may not have been exposed).

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Remember Little Sisters of the Poor

Slate's Dahlia Lithwick whines about the latest abortion case before the Supreme Court.
It's so unfair that doctors at clinics need admitting privileges at local hospitals.
She tells how safe the clinics are.
This very proficiency is part of the reason they cannot obtain admitting privileges and the record shows that they did in fact try and were refused. Hospitals don’t want to give such privileges to physicians who almost never need admit a patient. As Breyer noted in Whole Woman’s Health, doctors at the El Paso clinic in Texas performed 17,000 procedures in the preceding 10 years and not one had to be transferred to a hospital. That made admitting privileges impossible to obtain.
So the rules aren't needed because they are necessary.
An extra financial burden.
Yet Obamacare demanded the nuns at Little Sisters of the Poor have birth control and contraception in their health plans.
For that group, it wasn't needed. It was just an extra financial burden.
Liberals can't push rules to promote abortion and then complain when the same logic is used against abortion providers.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Milking the problem

There are protesters who shout "Let Dairy Die."
The explanation is here.
I'm not moo-ved.

Saturday song





You'd think this would be a great song for Donald Trump to use at rallies, thanks to Charlie Daniels Band.

Friday, March 6, 2020

Weekend watchdog

Who's going to Dayton?
Usually Dayton is known as the host the First Four, where four conference champions from lower ranked leagues start their NCAA tournament experience.
This year, the hometown Flyers ranked among the best in the country, and ESPN's College GameDay will be there Saturday morning before the Flyers' regular season finale.
The first bids for the 68-team NCAA tournament will be issued this weekend. The Mountain West holds its championship game on CBS Saturday at 5:30 p.m., with the Missouri Valley title contest Sunday at 2 p.m.
ESPN2 has the Ohio Valley championship game Saturday at 8 p.m.
The Big South championship will be Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN, followed by the Atlantic Sun. There's a West Coast Conference quarterfinal game Saturday at 10 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. on ESPN2.
As the regular season winds down in other conferences, Georgia Tech clashes with Clemson on ESPN2 Friday at 7 p.m. and VCU meets Davidson at 9 p.m.
SEC regular season champion Kentucky faces Florida on CBS Saturday at 1 p.m., followed by UCLA-USC.
Villanova visits Georgetown on Fox Saturday at noon and Creighton clashes with Seton Hall at 2:30 p.m.
ESPN starts its day at noon with Wisconsin facing Indiana and Kansas tangles with Texas Tech at 2 p.m. Virginia hosts Louisville at 4 p.m. before Duke and North Carolina battle at 6 p.m. It's Washington-Arizona at 10 p.m.
Auburn takes on Tennessee at noon on ESPN2, then it's Georgia-LSU and Texas' contest with Oklahoma State at 4 p.m. Oklahoma faces TCU at 6 p.m.
FoxSports1 has DePaul-Providence Saturday at 6:30 p.m., then Butler meets Xavier at 8:30 p.m. before Stanford-Oregon at 11 p.m.
Marquette battles St. John's on MASN2 Saturday at noon.
Memphis meets Houston Sunday at noon on CBS and it's Ohio State against Michigan State at 4 p.m.
Michigan battles Maryland on Fox Sunday at noon.
The Wizards meet the Hawks on NBC Sports Washington Friday at 7 p.m. and host the Heat Sunday at 7 p.m.
The Heat take on the Pelicans on Friday at 8:15 p.m. followed by the Bucks against the Lakers.
The Warriors host the 76ers Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC and it's Lakers-Clippers Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
The ACC women's tournament continues Friday with quarterfinal play at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington, then games at 6 and 8 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington-plus.
Texas Tech tangles with Oklahoma on MASN2 Saturday at 2 p.m. and Baylor battles Iowa State Sunday at 1 p.m.
ESPN2 has five women's conference games Sunday, starting with the ACC at noon. The best of the SEC battle at 2 p.m., then it's American Conference at 4 p.m., Big Ten at 6 and PAC-12 at 8 p.m.
The Big East semifinals are on FoxSports1 Sunday at 6 and 8:30 p.m.
The Orioles meet the Yankees on MASN Sunday at 1 p.m.
ESPN has Red Sox-Braves Friday at 1 p.m.
The Capitals battle the Penguins Saturday at 1 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington.
 NBC Sports Washington also has Ottawa-San Jose Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Blues face the Blackhawks Sunday at 7:30 p.m. followed by Colorado-San Jose.
NBC has the PGA tour's Arnold Palmer Invitational Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
 The XFL season reaches its halfway mark this weekend, starting Saturday at 2 p.m. with Seattle's visit to Houston on ABC. New York takes on Dallas at 5 p.m. on Fox. St. Louis tangles with Washington Sunday at 3 p.m. on FoxSports1, with Tampa Bay-Los Angeles on ESPN at 9 p.m.
NASCAR visits Phoenix, with the Cup Series on Fox Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and the Xfinity Series goes Saturday at 4 p.m. on FoxSports1.
The United States faces Spain on ESPN Sunday at 5 p.m.
In the MLS, Portland tangles with Nashville Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
Premier League play begins Saturday at 7:25 a.m. on NBC Sports network when Liverpool faces Bournemouth. It's Arsenal against West Ham United at 9:55 a.m. and Burnley battles Tottenham Hotspur at 12:25 p.m.
Chelsea clashes with Everton Sunday at 9:55 a.m. on NBC Sports network and NBC has Manchester City-Manchester United at 12:30 p.m.
In the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg meets Leipzig Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on FoxSports1.
Florentina faces Brescia in Italian Serie A Sunday at 7:25 a.m. on ESPN2.
There's Pro Series swimming on NBC Sports network Friday at 7:30 p.m.
MASN has the Tampa Bay Derby Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and it's the Santa Anita Handicap at 8 p.m.
The Big 12 men's wrestling championships are on MASN Sunday at 7 p.m.
The American Cup gymnastic meet is on NBC Sports network Saturday at 5 p.m.
Daytona hosts motocross racing Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on NBC Sports network.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Warren campaign's last meeting

Warren: We've got to find a way to get more votes.
Staffer: How?
Warren: We've got to tell our story.
Staffer: How?
Warren: We've got to do this without money to pay for TV ads and other usual campaign aids.
Staffer: How?

Late night with DaTech Guy

Want to cap your day with political insight?
DaTech Guy has resumed podcasting, now at 12:35 a.m. after his second shift job.
It may not help you wind down after a long day, but it's there on YouTube when you're ready.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Bloomberg's business case

Michael Bloomberg suspended his presidential bid Wednesday.
So many lessons to learn.
Let Don Surber teach.
Mini Mike made a big deal about self-financing his campaign. 
President Donald John Trump initially made the same mistake. Then he realized, the guy giving you five bucks is going to vote for you come hell or high water. He got Hillary had the big donors. The Donald had the small donors. Who won? It takes a helluva salesman to get waitresses to donate to a billionaire.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Inside the Warren campaign - final edition?

Staffer: We need to make a big splash before Super Tuesday.
Warren: How?
Staffer: We need to mute the publicity going toward the Biden campaign since Saturday.
Warren: How?
Staffer: We need to talk about why people should vote for you.
Warren: How?

No hope for Bernie

Establishment Democrats have accelerated their plans to stop Bernie Sanders.
Two more moderators have dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden.
Even Andy Schmookler has given up on Elizabeth Warren a day before Tuesday's primary.
Why?
Because he thinks it's likely President Trump's team will destroy Sanders.
But at least as plausibly, one can imagine Sanders being annihilated by Trump’s propagandists, who whip up a big chunk of America that doesn’t like the word “socialist,” doesn’t trust someone who had good things to say about the Castro regime, and who would make “radical” changes to America.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Now the fun begins

Joe Biden finally has a primary state victory.
Now the fun begins.
Lots of states will vote Tuesday.
Bernie Sanders will win delegates.
Joe Biden will win delegates.
Mike Bloomberg might win delegates.
The rest will likely disappear from the campaign trail.
It will be a long march to Milwaukee in July.