You Don’t Need A COVID-19 Test

…probably.  Yes, one or two of you do, but if so you’re in the hospital right now because you can’t breathe, and so you’re probably not reading this.

Bear in mind:  I’m writing this with a persistent sore throat, bad lungs, and a massive case of paranoia.  It might just be the damned cherry blossoms and the annual pollen dump; it might be the coronavirus.  I have no (more…)

F&L: The Secret Of PersistPAC

Now that the news has broken (props to Lee Fang of The Intercept), it’s finally OK for me to write this.  It’s been killing me for weeks, knowing that I’d never get confirmation.

A week before Super Tuesday, the big news was the formation of two SuperPACs designed to inject life into campaigns that had started to founder:  PersistPAC and (more…)

F&L: Tulsi Gabbard Suspends Campaign

I thought it would never happen.  Either Gabbard or Yang was going to stay in way too long and then endorse Sanders, was my prediction.  And now they’ve both let me down.

I mean, yeah, sure, nobody could have predicted the election would pivot to be about the Coronavirus.  Taking down Trump I can see, and I even anticipated that the Democratic establishment would fear a Sanders presidency even more than a Trump (more…)

Some Notes From A Siding

I’m on a rail siding just outside of Toledo, just kinda sitting here, watching an empty parking lot.

No, not just me.  There’s a whole train here, waiting for a heavy freight to get past.  But everyone else on board is asleep (not that there’s many of us) so it might as well just be me.  I just finished my book — rereading John Steakley’s “Armor”, one of the best (more…)

F&L: Ohio Is –NOT– Still Voting, And Other News

You may have heard that Ohio is delaying its primary.  It is not — yet.  At the eleventh hour, a judge has blocked the governor’s petition to reschedule in-person primary voting.  Not long after, the state health department ordered all polling places closed and the governor ordered that no results be posted until June 2 so an alternative could be generated.

This proposal wasn’t made from whim, but rather according to CDC guidance and with the concurrence of both state Republican and Democratic parties.  Regardless, the (more…)

The CDC Isn’t Understaffed, And Other Myths

It’s social media; I should just let it go.  People hear something that supports their biases so they Share it without checking, and it becomes common wisdom.  Sometimes it’s gets to a point where everyone knows is true so it’s no longer even discussed, and if you argue you’re nuts.

(more…)

F&L: Two Angry Furbys

Tomorrow, the 53,000-odd residents of the Northern Marianas will hold their Democratic Caucuses.  Curiously, this territory, which is strongly Republican and has no sway in the November elections, will award 6 at-large delegates and another 5 superdelegates.

Nobody’s running here; nobody’s done any serious polling.  Bloomberg had operatives (more…)

COVID-19: Flattening The Curve

Here’s what is meant by mitigating and flattening the curve.

COVID-19 has between a 5 and 20% hospitalization rate for severe symptoms.  If it infected as many people in the U.S. as influenza we would be looking at a minimum of 1.7 million people in need of hospitalization — and not just for a few days.

No country in the world is prepared to take on this kind of caseload quickly. (more…)