5 Things on a Friday: Cancel Everything

I wrote this on the train yesterday on my way in to work.  It's been so totally overcome by events in the last 24 hours that I'm just gonna publish it as it was originally intended, and you can all laugh or cry as you see fit.

The original into said simply, "Well.  That escalated quickly..." 

1. Joe Biden Has Cured Democrats of Their Belief in a Savior President (Slate)

The Biden 2020 campaign isn’t about following its nominal leader, or even listening to him; it’s about the party pushing him over the line collectively—and about making plans to give him the necessary support once he’s in office, as Booker’s endorsing statement alluded to in references to “winning races up and down the ballot” and thinking of a presidential victory as the “floor” rather than the “ceiling” of Democratic Party potential. Biden’s sudden viability coincided with popular Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s announcement that, after fending off months of entreaties to enter his state’s Senate race, he will go ahead and attempt to flip the seat, while Arizona and Maine flip-aspirants Mark Kelly and Sara Gideon have also expressed a preference for running down ballot of Biden rather than Sanders. Progressives eulogizing Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign have emphasized the prominent role that she can still play, going forward, in the Senate.

On Monday, Axios published a list of figures, compiled via Biden “confidants,” that he’s said to be considering for Cabinet positions. The list made no sense ideologically—Warren and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon are both under consideration to run Treasury, apparently, while both Warren and the avowedly moderate Amy Klobuchar are in the mix for vice president—but made a lot of sense as a signal that the prospective nominee’s camp knows he’ll be judged by the helping hands he surrounds himself with, and that he’ll need to maintain a connection to all the party’s factions, if he reaches the Oval Office. It’s not him, in other words—it’s us.

So the party is going to have to work as an actual party?  Shocking!  

Eh.  It's actually good news on the whole.  Probably.

2. South Korea has 'passed the peak' of the coronavirus outbreak, health minister hopes (CNN)

The South Korean government has been among the most ambitious when it comes to providing the public with free and easy testing options. It has the ability run about 15,000 diagnostic test per day and has conducted 196,000 tests to date nationwide, free of charge. Authorities in the city of Goyang even set up drive-thru testing booths.

"Detecting patients at an early stage is very important and we learned the simple lessons by dealing with this virus that this is very contagious -- and once it starts, it spreads very quickly and in very wide areas," Park said. "Raising the testing capability is very important because that way, you can detect someone who's carrying the virus, then you can contain the virus."

Bottom line, they tested everyone, and by doing so, they were able to contain the outbreak in the city of Daegu (about an hour south of Seoul) without massive national-scale quarantines.  This, to me, is what a serious response to this crisis looks like, and what we see now in Italy and will see soon in America and across Europe is not.

In the last 5 hours the coronavirus took the NCAA tournament, Europe, and Tom Hanks. Motherfuckin statement day.

— Feitelberg (@FeitsBarstool) March 12, 2020

Happily, my little town of Stratford now has drive-thru testing.  In fact, the whole State of Connecticut is rolling it out as we speak.

3. New Mutants

There’s some good news, am I right?

4. XFL Preview: NY Guardians vs. Houston Roughnecks

The New York Guardians (3-2) host the undefeated Houston Roughnecks (5-0) this Saturday in what has the potential to be a legitimate statement game for both teams.  

Houston has been by far the best team in the League, but XFL teams mostly struggle on the road.  Indeed, even the Roughnecks looked vulnerable on the road last week, though they ultimately came away with the win.  Meanwhile, New York’s defense has been good all season, while their offense has been slowly but surely started showing signs of life.  That’s important because Houston’s got a great offense but arguably the league’s worst defense.  Thus, this game pits strength against strength -- Houston’s offense vs. New York’s defense -- and weakness against weakness -- New York’s offense vs. Houston’s defense.  Add in the fact that New York is undefeated at home, and this is a potentially interesting game.

We're a tough team to beat when our offense and defense operate like they did in Dallas 👏

As we turn the page to Houston, here is what we can take away from the Week 5⃣ win. #ForTheLoveOfFootball

READ: https://t.co/1lillUMJOE

— New York Guardians (@XFLGuardians) March 11, 2020

5. Consulting the Tarot

Here’s the problem.  I got tickets to the Guardians game, but I’m not sure if we should go.  Is that simple prudence talking, or am I taking counsel of my fears?  Granted, the coronavirus is unlikely to have an out-sized effect on anyone in my family.  Still, this is a mass-appeal spectator event just outside New York City, which is fast becoming a viral hotbed.  Among other serious considerations, potential exposure could put my workplace in jeopardy as well as our upcoming vacation.

I consulted the Tarot.  Not that I believe in the power of the Tarot, mind you.  But whatever.  I did it anyway.

Standard Celtic Cross via an iPhone app.

This was a somewhat fearsome reading.  I’ll spare you the details because reading Tarot is a lot like storytelling.  The cards all have at least three interpretations, and there’s no particular science to the way those meanings interact.  There’s never one obvious way the cards all fit together.  However, this particular reading implies that I’m surrounded by ominous and foreboding circumstances, and that when I have a choice to make, I’m all but certain to make the wrong one, hence getting trapped in a bad situation.  

That seems fairly straightforward, right?  Especially in the context above?

And yet, the cards pertaining to me and my future imply that I’m fine, in a creative headspace, and that whatever happens will open up new creative outlets.

So.  Does that mean that I skip the game, or that I go, take lots of pictures, and write about it extensively because this XFL stuff will slowly build an audience?

Alas, as I said, I don’t actually believe in the power of the Tarot.

* * *

I don't know about you, but I feel like I now need a good cry.  RIP XFL season.  RIP Army Sports season.  RIP sports overall.

What the Hell are we gonna do with ourselves these next few months?