ih8music

the number of infected is doubling every 2 days

and this is the key point.  if left unchecked (i.e. mandatory quarantines like they did in China and Italy) this will get out of hand quickly.

My son's HS just announced they're closing down campus until April 20th and will be transitioning to online classes.  Waiting for my daughter's grade school to say something similar. (EDIT - they did.  Both kids home for over a month... yay?)  

And of course this was the week we started demo on a major home renovation project that's expected to take 5 weeks, assuming the contractors (and city inspectors) don't put things on hold.  Yay.

cool. best of luck to them. i haven't written about this here but i live in seattle. due to immune system issues  & drugs for that, i'm high risk & indeed may already have the virus. i haven't been able to get tested yet due to lack of testing kits in the US. i have some symptoms but not quite enough to hit the testing threshold. supposedly that is going to be lowered by next week. i go see doc on tuesday & am going to insist on test. if nothing else for peace of mind. i haven't felt well though & its been slowly getting worse. so, fingers crossed for vaccine. & test kits in US!

wow, scary - hope you feel better. 

Well, it's finally hitting the US with a vengeance.

Universities closing and/or going to online-only instruction.

NBA season cancelled; other sports playing to empty stadiums & arenas.

Wall Street tanking - Dow down ~20% from one month ago.

And this is just the start of it "getting bad" in the US

... as predicted by everyone who wasn't a politician or media talking head

Stay safe, folks.

Watched the first couple episodes of “Devs” on Hulu/FX and I’m hooked. Nick Offerman is really great in it and the storyline is very intriguing.

Well Bloomberg just dropped out. Hope the $500+ millions he spent on his campaign was worth it. Oh wait, he's worth $60+ billion. The amount he spent on his campaign is less than 1% of his net worth. 

yeah, do the math for your own net worth and see what that amount equates to.  not trivial, but also not a loss that would drastically affect your life situation.  crazy.

When it means 'the most', or 'the greater number'. A majority is only 51% when the contest is between two people or groups. Our politics is so binary people have a hard time picturing one winner in a 7-way contest having clearly the most, the majority, and less than 50%.

Right, what you’re talking about is a plurality, not a majority. If a candidate leads the pack with only 30% of the vote because there are so many other people running, that still means that 70% of the voters wanted someone else. That’s why the requirement is 50% plus one. If the candidate is under that threshold, they need to convince enough of the 70% to come over on the second vote to get a true majority.

I feel the same way. There's a bit of rhetorical slight of hand when they say you need a 'majority'; a candidate could have the majority of the delegates but not have 51%, which is not 'the majority'. If having the most delegates is not reason to be the nominee, then what reason should someone else with fewer votes be considered instead?

not sure I understand.  when does "majority" not mean 50%+1?

What gets me annoyed about the Bernie camp warning about getting "screwed" at the convention is that they knew those were the rules getting into the race.  If he arrives with a majority of delegates, he gets the nomination - period.  Anything less goes to a second (or third, or ...) vote - which he could still win. 

None of this was created to prevent Sanders specifically, but it was created to reduce the chance that someone who comes in with, say, only 30% of the party's support gets the nomination.  If enough of the majority agree that they want someone else, that's what the convention is for.

These are the same rules that have given Sanders 45% of the available delegates thus far, despite only getting 29% of the popular vote.  (And if they were following GOP primary rules, he'd have 100% of the delegates right now -- i.e. how we got Trump)

you could ask the same thing about gun control. it's more about starting to change the direction than pull a 180 just as you take the steering wheel.

I agree.  And as we (hopefully) change direction, I think we will need to take incremental steps to get there. 

My biggest issue with Bernie is that he's against incremental change.  Yes, his healthcare plan has a phased implementation up front, but it is with the end goal of wholesale, systemic change. 

I don't see him willing to support a compromise that gets us a step closer (e.g. public option) and that's incredibly frustrating to me.  It simply will never pass.

Nope, but the conversation will be front and center. Also, I want some progressive judges, and with Ruth Bader Ginsburg aging, I’d like Bernie to pick a Supreme Court justice. I’d also love for my student debt to be wiped so I can you know, spend money and contribute to the economy. I also feel that Bernie isn’t bought and paid for by corporations/banks.

Thanks. I agree about the SCOTUS nominee, too. Wouldn’t student debt forgiveness also need to go thru Congress?

Genuine question for the Bernie supporters here. If he wins, do you expect a single payer healthcare bill to actually get passed? And if so, which 60 senators will vote for it?

Bloomberg will not win one primary.

He doesn't have to "win" to have a major effect on the race.  He's polling at #1 or #2 in a number of the Super Tuesday states.  If that holds, he might be the only viable alternative to Bernie 2 weeks from now.

Sanders has energy behind him, that's more than we can say for anyone else right now.

Bloomberg has about 55 billion other things in his favor, and I’m not yet convinced that his awful performance last night (and of course the underlying reasons he was attacked in the first place) will be enough to counter his ability to flood the airwaves with positive messages.

Well, we’ll see if debate performances actually matter. Because if so, Bloomberg is done. Ouch!

New single just dropped: Be Afraid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPek7jto9l0

We don’t take requests
We won’t shut up and sing
Tell the truth enough
You’ll find it rhymes with everything


Love it.

That's what dictators do. Or narcissistic babies.

A dictator would have them killed.  Stay tuned, I guess.

Al Franken concurs.

You mean that monster who once took a mildly inappropriate photo?!?!?

And as more revelations come out of the Bolton book (like the one today that Trump contacted him about Ukraine in May), be prepared for widespread dismissal of it all as just Bolton "trying to sell his book."

If only there was a way to get him to tell his story under oath, under penalty of perjury...

Super, super, super stoked to see Jason Isbell tonight in LA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  It'll just be him and Amanda Shires for an all acoustic show.  No opener.

This will be my 3rd time seeing Isbell (easily my favorite current artist) and my wife's first time. 

It will also be my first time at this venue, which supposedly has world-class acoustics.

Can't wait!

I'm wondering if Bolton's willingness to testify is a result of his calculation that the situation in the Senate is so in the GOP's pocket that he'll never have to.

Schiff should invite him to testify to house intel, now that he’s had this change of heart.

Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm.

Perhaps the silence of this thread is an indication of the weakness of the Democratic field?

Speaking personally, I’m finding it hard to get passionately behind anyone in the race. They’re all ok with their own mix of strengths and weaknesses. All I care about is beating Trump — and unfortunately I’m seeing that as less and less likely as we see these candidates on the campaign trail.

“At least I’m not that guy” is rarely a winning campaign strategy.

Kinda surprised I'm the first to mention Jason Isbell, as I consider him to be the best artist of the '10s.  All three of his albums were magnificent, and Southeastern is easily my #1 overall.

1. Jason Isbell - Southeastern
2. Brandi Carlile - By The Way, I Forgive You
3. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth
4. Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
5. Jason Isbell - The Nashville Sound
6. The Replacements - Dead Man's Pop
7. Drive By Truckers - American Band
8. Deer Tick - Black Dirt Sessions
9. Langhorn Slim - The Way We Move
10. Justin Townes Earle - Nothing's Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now
11. Jeff Tweedy - Warm
12. Jason Molina - Autumn Bird Songs
13. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
14. Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
15. Glossary - Feral Fire
16. Lucero - Among the Ghosts
17. Wilco - Star Wars
18. TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
19. Wilco - The Whole Love
20. Craig Finn - I Need A New War