Containment Areas and Toilet Paper

Demo Dance:  Joe Biden waltzed one step closer to securing the Democratic nomination for president last night.  He decisively won primaries in Michigan, Missouri and Idaho and trounced Bernie Sanders in Mississippi by so much that Sanders is teetering on the brink of receiving less than the 15% necessary to earn any of that state’s delegates.  The night wasn’t a total loss for Sanders, he appears to be leading in too early to call North Dakota.   As of now, Washington is locked in a three way “tie,” Sanders and Biden each have about one third of the vote, with the remaining third split between Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg, with those votes cast in early voting before the two dropped out. The Michigan loss has got to be particularly painful for Sanders, he beat Clinton there in 2016 and, after his Super Tuesday losses he double downed there, hoping to stage a repeat. Though Bernie and his progressive policies continue to be very popular among the younger set, Biden dominated with every other key group most notably African Americans, suburbanites and rural white voters. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, both candidates cancelled planned rallies in Ohio, with Biden going on to a smallish reception composed of supporters and campaign workers in Pennsylvania and Sanders retreating to Vermont.  

Biden delivered a “sober” celebratory speech, reaching out to Sanders’ supporters, noting their enthusiasm and reminding them that they share a common goal, defeating Trump.  Though Bernie, who now has little if any chance of hauling in enough of the remaining delegates to beat Biden, remained uncharacteristically silent last night, in classic Bernie Bro form a number of his supporters made it clear that they aren’t ready for him to concede.  Despite the evidence that Bernie has not expanded his voting base, last night film maker Michael Moore, an ardent Bernie supporter,  emotionally insisted that Bernie is “inspiring to people who don’t usually vote.”  The problem with that is that those inspired people still aren’t voting.  And of course the twitterverse was filled with promises from Bernie Bros and bots far and wide that they would stay home or support Trump or a third party candidate before ever voting for Biden.  Don’t count Andrew Yang among that set, last night he endorsed Biden calling him “the right man for the job to help us not just defeat Donald Trump, but govern the country in the years ahead."  Biden is expected to receive another endorsement this morning from Arizona’s Gabby Giffords, the former Congresswoman and gun control advocate who was severely wounded in a shooting eight years ago.  Her endorsement should help him pick up some votes in next week’s Arizona primary, a state where Sanders maintains an edge especially among Hispanic voters. St Patrick’s Day Primaries are also scheduled to take place in Florida, Ohio, and Illinois.  Unless he throws in the towel beforehand Bernie will have at least one more opportunity to dent Biden on Sunday night during their one on one debate/fisticuff which is scheduled to take place in Phoenix. Given virus concerns, yesterday CNN announced that the debate will be held without a studio audience.  For his part, Trump, who seems really rattled by Biden’s climb back from the abyss, took to twitter last night.  He blamed Bernie’s losses on “Pocahontas” Warren citing her failure to push her supporters into the Bernie camp and endorsed Jeff Sessions’ run off rival former football coach Tommy Tuberville in the Alabama Senate runoff primary because he still hasn’t forgiven Sessions for that whole recusal thing.  And because he’s the healthiest man in the universe Trump plans to continue holding large rallies, he just put a Wisconsin group grope on his schedule.  

Viral Musings:  The Coronavirus continues to do what nasty viruses do, it’s spreading like wildfire.   The New York City Half Marathon has been cancelled but the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade is still on, possibly because Mayor De Blasio has been too busy campaigning for Bernie and calling for Biden to be “vetted” to focus on local logistics. Not to worry though because NY’s Governor Cuomo remains on the case.  He’s sending the National Guard to New Rochelle, the location of a cluster of cases, to establish a one mile containment area, which is not to be confused with a hard quarantine.  As of yesterday somewhere  around thirteen Governors have declared statewide emergencies.  It’s still not clear how many people have been infected with the Covid 19 virus because despite assertions from Trump and VP Pence’s virus squad that millions of test kits would be made available this week, the test kits remain in short supply.  To make matters worse, Politico reports that a shortage of lab materials is threatening to delay coronavirus test results.  It turns out that poor planning and health care budget cuts really do have consequences.  Anyway, at some point test results will come in, we’ll find out that far more people have been infected and we’ll all freak out even more.  Have you tried to buy toilet paper lately? Maybe the National Guard can help with that. 

The stock market/roller coaster went up yesterday but is expected to open down today.  To stimulate the economy Trump wants to give money to the leisure industry, possibly because he owns/brands lots of hotels, and the fracking industry because who doesn’t want to bailout carbon emitters.  In addition Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and economic advisor Kudlow are pushing a payroll tax cut proposal while Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer are all in on paid sick leave, broadened unemployment insurance, free coronavirus testing, and treatment for those who cannot afford medical help.  As to health costs yesterday Pence said that insurance companies will waive copays for virus testing and cover the cost of related treatment. Medicare and Medicaid will also cover costs without copays. All good for people with insurance, but just a reminder this is the administration that is currently suing to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional.

Et Cetera:  The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that Congress should receive the “secret” Mueller information that they requested but still haven’t received.  Don’t hold your breath waiting to learn about any of it as the decision will probably be appealed.  Yesterday acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell skipped out on election threats from foreign sources briefing to Congress saying that he doesn’t really know anything about any of that stuff and anyway Trump would be upset with him if he cooperated with any of those House Democrats. A profile in complicit idiocy?