So It's a Pandemic

Viral Musings: The Q train is right outside my window, thus the name for this blog.  Well, it looks like I better get used to the view because right about now, travel plans are off the table.  Last night in a speech crafted by the sterling writing team of “I hate all immigrants” Stephen Miller and “Middle East peace maker” Jared Kushner, Trump announced that due to the invasion by a “foreign” virus, that for the record he has been dealing with, with “professionalism and speed,” we’re all in deep sh-t. As to all that professionalism, though we all know that no one knows how many people in the US have been infected due to the shortage of testing kits, Trump added that because of his quick actions, the number of cases here is way lower than anywhere else attributing that “success” to the restrictions he and he alone earlier placed on travel from China and Italy. Trump then added that he was placing a 30 day ban on travel from Europe, except for travel from the UK.  A reward to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for finally getting Brexit done? He also talked about some measures he was taking to help small businesses and individuals withstand the financial hardship of dealing with the “foreign virus” while taking full credit for the $8.3 billion package that Congress passed even though he initially said that he only needed $2 billion.   Most of what he said lacked much detail except for a promise that health insurance companies would step up and cover virus related testing and treatment.  Since my “pay for almost nothing” insurance company blast emailed a note saying the same earlier in the day, that at least appears to be true.  Trump also said that he was suspending most trade from Europe, but later issued a clarifying statement saying that he wasn’t.  And of course, he threw in an advertisement for his wonderful economy, the one that he created, before ending with a reassurance that “the virus will not have a chance against us because we are the best,” or something like that.

Dazed and Confused:   I thought Trump’s speech was disjointed and bizarrely delivered but then again I think everything Trump says and does is bizarre, but it turns out that I wasn’t the only one with that reaction. Notably, the Conservative pro-Trump Washington Examiner said the speech was “one of the worst Oval Office addresses, terrible on both style and specifics,” before going on to call Trump “completely out of his element in trying to lead during a crisis.” They added that in “both rhetoric and action” Trump looked “frightened and confused.”  To be fair, this virus stuff is frightening and confusing but right about now wouldn’t it be nice to have someone other than a science denying scam artist in charge? And of course, stock futures are signaling another down day, or at least a down open and, yes, the market is now officially a big ugly bear.  In other news, the NBA season was suspended suddenly last night after the Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert who had mocked the whole virus scare by playfully touching a bunch of broadcaster microphones days earlier tested positive.  And the NYC St Patrick’s Day parade was finally cancelled after someone, probably the Governor, made it clear to Mayor Bill De Blasio that having two million people traipsing around Fifth Avenue was less than a good idea right about now.  Today would be a good day to stock up on chocolate Easter eggs, because at times like this chocolate helps, or at least it helps me.

Demo Dance:  Bernie Sanders is still at it, or plans to stay at it through Sunday night’s debate and next week’s primaries.  Yesterday he admitted that he had done very badly in Tuesday’s primaries, though he took a lot of solace over his North Dakota win and the fact that he was leading Biden by 2000 votes in Washington although he might have to take that part back since as of this morning with 77% of the Washington votes counted Biden now leads Bernie by around 17,000 votes.  Bernie argued that since young people really like him and his progressive policies and since he, despite his age, represents the future, he owes it to them to push Joe Biden to explain how he would deal with health care, inequality, climate science and all the country’s other woes.  Bernie said all that after first slamming Trump as “the most dangerous president in the modern history of our country,” adding that “he must be defeated.”  Though he didn’t say it, I got the impression that he knows his campaign is doomed, that the odds that he’ll be able to win the nomination are remote even if he has a stellar debate performance but that he wants to go out in style and wants to push the party as far to the left before doing so.   That’s not to say that his base won’t celebrate each and every gaffe that comes out of Biden’s mouth on Sunday, and there probably will be a few cringeworthy ones to note, but Bernie, like Biden seems to recognize that the times call out for conciliation and party unity.  Or at least I hope he knows that, we’ll know more next week.  For his part Biden appears to be counting those not yet hatched chickens, he’s assembled his own Coronavirus team, one with some real heavy weights including Dr Zeke Emanuel, brother of Ari and Rahm and the vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school; Dr Rebecca Katz, an associate professor in Georgetown’s department of microbiology and immunology; Dr David Kessler, the former commissioner of the FDA; Lisa Monaco, Obama’s former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser; former surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy; and Dr Irwin Redlener, of the Columbia University Public School of Health.     

Stay healthy, wash your hands a lot, and, please, send jokes, lots of them!