Ladies and Gentlemen, We Regret to Inform You…

The news has become so one-note the past couple of days that I am tempted to spend a day just drinking and writing about beer. The slightest bit of encouragement from you, dear Morning Briefing readers, could flip this to a beer blog in a heartbeat.

Actually, it’s a two-note news cycle we are dealing with here today: coronavirus and the Democratic presidential primary. Sure, people like me look at both as illnesses that need to be cured, but the latter seems to be chronic.

Tuesday was cancellation day for both the virus and the Democrats.

The week began with the St. Patrick’s Day parades in both Dublin and Boston being canceled, which should have been an omen. The parades may be no more, but people will still be in bars drunkenly sharing air and Lord knows what else. Canceling things makes everyone feel better about how they are handling the containment of the virus, however.

By Tuesday the cancellations began spreading much faster than the virus itself. The huge Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals scheduled for next month were canceled, then rescheduled for the fall.

Hot on the heels of Monday’s cancellation of my hometown Tucson Festival of Books (one of the largest such festivals in the country), the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books followed suit.

The NCAA Men’s basketball tournament — March Madness — is about to begin and the idea of playing games without any fans in attendance has been floated.

A couple of universities (my daughter’s included) canceled classes on Monday, and the number of schools doing so on Tuesday picked up quite a bit. Students and professors are being transitioned to a virtual classroom environment, which should be fun to see happen on the fly.

On it went.

Concerts, business conferences, and other public gatherings got the ax.

Yes, several of the larger events like Coachella have been rescheduled, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who arranged their vacation time and travel to go next month can make it in October.

While I have been advocating for erring on the side of caution, I wonder how long this cancelation fever is supposed to go on. Do we keep doing the social distance experiment until the rate of new cases slows or stops completely?

If things are still escalating in a month do summer concert and theater seasons start getting canceled?

There is money being lost all over the place here, which certainly plays into the theory we’ve been discussing the past two days about the media trying to create a frenzy that turns into an overwhelmingly negative economic impact. Look at this:

Airline passengers shared images on social media showing flights with rows of empty seats amid coronavirus concerns. https://t.co/BQWsD4aQx0 pic.twitter.com/G1AWTH9PQJ — ABC News (@ABC) March 11, 2020

If there is an endgame it would be great if someone would articulate it. If no one does, I’m sticking with the conspiracy theory I floated yesterday.

Another Cancelation of Sorts

Michigan was supposed to be the defibrillator for Bernie Sanders’s campaign, but it may have been a dagger in the heart of it. The contest wasn’t even close, which probably has the Sanders people prepping for an exit sooner rather than later. Sanders said last night that he has plans to participate in the next debate, His biggest cheerleader wasn’t feeling it, though:

"There's no sugarcoating it. Tonight's a tough night," says Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Bernie Sanders' highest-profile supporters. "Tonight's a tough night for the movement overall," she said on Instagram. "Tonight's a tough night electorally." https://t.co/03xlCb6jpe pic.twitter.com/Xz97aS9K6Q — ABC News (@ABC) March 11, 2020

Sanders and AOC love to talk about the “movement” that they are building. They don’t have a movement, they have a bunch of noisy kids.

A true movement is more than big rallies. Its members have to get into the weeds of politics, doing things like knocking on doors and making phone calls. That’s boring. Rallies are adrenaline rushes and fun.

The youth demographic loves fun but doesn’t really have the attention span for the nuts and bolts of politics.

They will grow up one day, however, and then we will really need to worry.

Grandpapodganda, FTW

Crazy Joe the Wonder Veep had another embarrassing off-leash moment yesterday, filled with more incoherence and that weird tough-guy posturing he’s fond of doing.

My friend and colleague Cam Edwards, who is the Editor at our sister site Bearing Arms, provided a nice synopsis:

In the span of 90 seconds Biden managed to misrepresent his own position, refer to AR-15’s as AR-14’s, call semi-automatic rifles machine guns, and insult a voter who knows more about the issue than he does. https://t.co/d2INsxQ3sh — Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) March 10, 2020

As always is the case these days, someone from the MSM quickly rushed in to defend Biden’s latest senior moment, prompting this gem of a response from Cam:

Grandpapoganda: the attempt to convince the American people that Joe Biden said something completely different than what you heard. https://t.co/nh142Vr0PA — Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) March 10, 2020

Grandpapoganda is now my favorite political word for the rest of this interminable cycle.

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Smells Like Onion

Report: Strongest Human Relationships Emerge From Bashing Friend Who Couldn't Make It Out https://t.co/yto06LlOYZ pic.twitter.com/AenGzGfSQm — The Onion (@TheOnion) March 10, 2020

The Kruiser Kabana

By Yayoi Kusama and Louis Vuitton. Amazing pic.twitter.com/UpRedwUhGp — Street Art Magic (@streetartmagic) March 11, 2020

This just seems appropriate during all of this Wu Flu madness.

Most guys named Randy have a hidden agenda.

___

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PJ Media Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.”