Here Comes Corona
At a press conference in the White House briefing room, president Donald Trump pats self on back and then passes the buck to vice president Mike Pence. He’s nobody’s fool.
“We’ve done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum,” Trump said, crediting his early curbs on travel from China.”Had I not made a decision very early on not to take people from a certain area, we wouldn’t be talking this way. … I took a lot of heat; some people called me racist.”
Meanwhile, the first communally spread case of COVID-19 spread in the U.S. has been confirmed and the coronavirus is now in more countries than Netflix (don’t fact-check me on that one… it’s a good line, yo). The planetary death toll has eclipsed 2,800.
Catholics Versus Catholics
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Notre Dame played Boston College on Ash Wednesday, and for the second game in a row the Fighting Irish delivered in the closing seconds. The Irish (now 18-10) won on senior T.J. Gibbs’ clutch shot with 0.1 on the clock for the 62-61 final.
The NCAA tourney remains in play for the Shamrocks. The Irish, who have lost six games this season by three or fewer points, have now won two of their last three by one point. Both on game-winning shots in the closing seconds.
Notre Dame plays at Wake Forest, then closes with home games versus top 10 Florida State and Virginia Tech. Sweep them and win at least one game in the ACC tourney and it’ll look pretty good for Mike Brey’s boys.
Senior John Mooney (22 and 12) had what I believe was his 22nd double-double of the season last night, which is first or second nationally.
Moderna Times
The Dow Jones has lost more than 2,000 points already this week and it’s set to drop another 300 points at today’s open. It could lose a full 10% this week from its all-time high 29,551 set on February 12. This morning it will open below 27,000. The president, when asked yesterday if that is due to the coronavirus, chose instead to blame it on Tuesday’s Democratic debate.
One bright light in this abyss of darkness: biotech company Moderna, which uses messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA… see, Moderna…mRNA? Ahhhh……ahhhh), which I have not thought too much about since Linda Hunt’s biology course in 1985-1986 in college.
Anyway, as the market has tanked all week, this Cambridge, Mass., based company, which may or may not have developed a useful coronavirus vaccine, is up 100%. Last week you could’ve owned it for $18 per share. Today it is scheduled to open above $36. Susie B. says, “tulips,” and maybe she’s correct. But the hysteria is creating a market. It’s all about knowing how long to ride the rocket ship (advice Mad Mike Hughes tragically chose to ignore).
Severe Severino Severance
New York Yankee ace Luis Severino will miss the 2020 season due to Tommy John surgery. You may be asking yourself, Didn’t he miss most of last season? Why yes, yes he did. Severino only started three regular season games last year, near the end of the season.
Severino, who just turned 26, is already a two-time All-Star and went 19-8 his last full season. No Sabathia and no Severino this summer.
Your Next Jon Krakauer Cover Story
Last Friday afternoon trail runner Joseph Oldendorf, 26, embarked on a long run on the Duckabush Trail in the Olympic National Forest west of Seattle. He was alone.
About two hours into his run on the 16-mile trail Oldendorf slipped on ice and heard his lower leg snap. Uh oh. He’d broken it. No one was around. It was getting dark. Temperatures would soon plummet below freezing.
Knowing he was in this one alone, Oldendorf began crawling. After awhile he tied his running shoes to his knees to alleviate the rawness on his kneecaps. Smart. He kept crawling. It kept him warm.
Oldendorf would crawl for 10 hours before rescuers finally located him along the trail at 4:45 a.m. They would then airlift him out.
“I didn’t want my family to hear that I died alone in the wilderness,” he would say from his hospital bed later. “I think it’d be unbearable.”
Of course, this entire scenario may just well be next year’s novel new adventure race: run two hours, break a limb, then crawl 10 hours. We can think of a few masochists we know who’d sign up for this.
Could this be the next 127 Hours? No. Good story, but Oldendorf didn’t actually saw his foot off, so Hollywood will pass.
Um, I did not call “Tulips” on Moderna; that’s currently reserved for TSLA & Bitcoin. However, I DO wonder why this stock has shot up SO much when my GILD, which has the ONE DRUG THAT “WHO” (i.e. the World Health Org) HAS SAID IS LOOKING THE MOST PROMISING AGAINST THE CORONAVIRUS has gone up less than a quarter of that! Explain that, Obiwanjdubs. Humpfh.
Anyhoo, did you see/hear what human excrement Limbaugh has publicly said about the virus? That it’s “nothing more than a bad cold” & that is was “devised” for “use against Trump”. On a day-day basis, I can’t decide who is WORSE among Trump’s collaborators – McConnell, Graham, Barr, Limbaugh, or that new POS just put in charge of the “intelligence branch” to be Trump’s OWN spy (kinda ironic) & to shut down any investigations that would come too close to him. Any minute now, I’m expecting to read that every employee of a federal agency must take a “loyalty oath” NOT to the USA but to THE SOCIOPATH. Welcome to Nazi America.
Admittedly, Susie B., I take some of my cues from Cramer and Faber, but I cannot answer your queries. I radically reduced my position in MRNA after a near 80% leap, bought some GILD and some CLX. We’ll see. The virus ain’t going away any time soon. I think the Olympics will be postponed. Or moved. They can’t wait too much longer and the news won’t improve enough. Just my feeling.
In addition to watching my 401-k, ROTH & stock portfolio all go down in ‘flames’ the past week, I am VERY worried about this virus, much more than any of the others from the past 10 years (Bird flu, SARS, the one that began with a “Z” & was carried by mosquitos & affected pregnant women & which “blew up” right before the last summer Olympics, etc). That it now seems almost inevitable that the Olympics will be, at best, postponed & at worst, cancelled, has me in tears & I can’t imagine how this is affecting the actual athletes as they TRY to train. I’ve read that cancellation would be the likely fate which I do NOT understand! Why can’t they just move it to next summer?! Sure, next year’s World Championships in various sports would have to get rescheduled or cancelled but ask ANY elite athlete & there’s no question – the OLYMPICS are worth more than 10 world championships to them.
Also, how much do YOU think China is lying about the number of dead from this virus? Do you think they’d REALLY close down entire cities for 2700? Heck, their yearly floodings kill 10 times that amount. I believe the spread of this epidemic is TOTALLY China’s fault & they should have to pay a penalty. Instead of punishing the original Drs who tried to inform the public of the problem, they should have quarantined that area immediately & sought assistance immediately from the world’s leading infectious disease specialists. But no, they are just like friggin Russia (& our current Nazi regime…) – everything’s a secret to protect the power structure until it gets out of control & then it’s too freakin late.
I agree with everything you say, Susie B. (mark this date, 2/27/20, down in history). As for your accumulated wealth going down the drain, I’ll pass on the best financial advice I ever received, from former NBC Sports producer and noted bon vivant Michael Weisman: “Marry rich!”