Wondering on Wednesday (v200)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

So, what's on your mind tonight?  Are you wondering about the coronavirus pandemic? You know, the one about which the president said. 

I've always known this is a real - this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.

He might have known it was a pandemic, and he might have felt it was a pandemic, but he sure as heck didn't say anything about it being one. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Barry Rubin of The Bulwark put together this video showing us just what the president was telling us all this time he had those feelings. No need to wonder why he never said anything - it wouldn't have put him in a good light - and as the video shows, he'd give himself a perfect 10 for how he's handled this.

I should note that at least they've changed the podium used for the president's press briefings, so every speaker doesn't have to adjust the microphones to talk. But the task force members are still standing right next to each other, some of them are still touching the sides of the podium, and of course Trump lurks next to whoever's at the podium the entire time. Which is even more odd when you see that the reporters have been separated by an empty chair or two, allowing them to practice the social distancing that the task force is literally begging us to follow.

But the big news from the perfect 10 response? Mar-a-Lago will FINALLY close, after being a hot spot of sorts with several positive tests for the virus among attendees of various events. Here's a note about this from the Palm Beach Post.

...Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach has notified members it will close its restaurant and spa and cancel aerobics classes starting Thursday in response to health concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak.

I wonder if he decided to close now because he thought it was a pandemic a long time ago?  Or because he thinks it would be poor form to keep it open while he's telling the rest of us to stay home? Although, I must add, many Florida beaches are still open for spring break, so maybe he's just keeping up with the Joneses.

Some other wonderings, starting with them Dems.

• Papa Joe Biden won the primaries yesterday - Arizona, Illinois, and Florida, picking up another 281 delegates to That Guy from Vermont's 140.  Biden is now up by nearly 300 delegates, and right now we don't really know what to expect going forward as far as potential impact from the pandemic. I wonder if any other governors will do what Ohio's Mike DeWine did - declare a public health emergency and postpone their primaries for a month or nearly three? 

• For his part, TGFV is having to take a look at what his options are, if there are any, and he'll have to wonder whether it's worth it to continue. The margins of victory from yesterday's votes - 11.9% in Arizona, 23% in Illinois, and a whopping 39% in Florida - seem to suggest there's little hope left, but we'll see what happens. 

• Maybe the best thing he can do is to inspire others to attack the "establishment" Dems, get them out of the way, and then let AOC run for president in '24 or '28... and now I'm wondering if maybe that's the plan she's been working towards all along, since it was reported she wasn't all that interested in helping out the Vermonter's campaign when he needed her most?

Meanwhile, Fox News was happy to report, president Trump clinched the Republican nod Tuesday night. I wonder, does anyone even remember who was running against him?

In not-political news, Tom Brady has announced his career as a New England Patriot is over, and he's up for grabs. The problem is not a lot of teams want to grab him - looks like he's going to end up with the Tampa Bay Bucs (probably the most likely outcome) or the Los Angeles Chargers (I think the only other team that's still remotely interested. So, what's the wondering?

Well, for starters, why does he want to keep playing, at this stage of the game? 20 years, six Super Bowl wins, the Greatest of All Time, etc. etc. etc. And then, on the flip side, if you're Tom Brady, would you be able to resist the chance to turn around a team that only won seven games last season?

Elsewhere in the sports world, there's good news to report from the NBA, particularly in how some of the players are responding to the league's suspension of play.  As we learn in this CBS Sports article, a number of the guys have stepped up to assist others in need. One of them is New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson, a 19-year-old kid, who is paying the salaries of all the folks who work at the Smoothie King Arena for 30 days.

Why, you wonder, might he do that? Because, he said, his mom "has always set an example for me about being respectful for others and being grateful for what we have." Good for her, good for him, and good for everyone who's doing things large and small to help others during these crazy times.  

Wondering, on Wednesday (v30)

Well, let's see, what do we have tonight?

The New England Patriots were fined $1,000,000 for 'deflategate' and lost a couple of draft picks. Tom Brady was suspended for four 'real games' (meaning, he can play in the pre-season but will sit out the first four games after that), unless he wins on appeal. 

I'm wondering, this Wednesday, what the heck the NFL was thinking? I mean, suspending a QB for four games that matter?  Sheesh.  Don't they know anything about suspending players? 

Look at Major League Baseball. MLB, as we know, suspends pitchers for three or four games for things like throwing fastballs at heads - knowing, when they do this, that the suspended pitcher will almost never miss a game. Why? Because of the rotation that allows them to only pitch after half a week or so of rest between games.  Who woulda thunk that the NFL actually wanted to punish someone?

Brady's appeal, which is almost inevitable, is being met with both support and derision. On the one hand, he didn't actually touch the footballs himself, but apparently put big-league pressure on the locker room staff to the point where they decided to manipulate things to Brady's liking.  And since he wasn't culpable in the act, he shouldn't be suspended, or shouldn't be suspended so harshly, or something.  

On the other hand, there's this sentiment, eloquently expressed by Ian O'Connor (via ESPN):

This isn't Pete Rose gambling on baseball or Lance Armstrong and Alex Rodriguez pumping one illegal drug after another into their bodies for a competitive edge. Brady should tell the public that he thought he was merely driving 63 in a 55 mph zone, that he didn't realize taking some air out of the ball was a big deal, and that he now realizes it is a very big deal. 

He should apologize to (Pats owner Robert) Kraft for lying to him and making the owner look and sound like a fool...He should apologize to (the locker room guys) for putting franchise-player pressure on employees in no position to resist it...and, importantly, to fans everywhere who thought Tom Brady would be among the last quarterbacks to spike the integrity of his sport.

'Franchise-player pressure' is an understandable concept, right? It's the kind of pressure that 'allows' a manager to harass an employee. It's the kind of pressure that 'compels' people to lie for their bosses, or shred documents, or to erase a tape while doing a previously undefined yoga pose, or any of a host of things along those lines.

I don't think, though, that 'franchise player pressure' is what Texas Senator and Republican Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz exerted when he questioned whether the training exercise known as Jade Helm 15 was in fact a cover for an Obama administration military takeover of Texas. (I wondered about a related issue last week). Cruz has been assured by the Pentagon that everything's on the up and up, he said.

I'm wondering, though, how the person at the Pentagon who responded to Cruz's staff on this managed to do it with a straight face. And whether, in the end, the person would really rather have responded with this:

Perhaps, then, you would prefer not an official proclamation but a reasoned answer. As a master debater in college (Princeton, right?), you surely appreciate the reliability of logic, your public statements over the past few years notwithstanding. If you are disinclined to take the United States Armed Forces at their word when we promise no ill intentions towards Texas, then perhaps your considerable and vaunted intellectual powers, which once posited the regrowth of hymens as a guard against unauthorized incursions in domestic affairs, could be swayed by incontrovertible fact. 

That's just one small portion of a hysterical response offered  by "Secretary Ashton Carter" on Huffington Post the other day. I'm sure the Secretary wishes he could get away with saying something like that. Heck, I can think of lots of times I would love to be able to respond like that, can't you?

The post ends with a comment about Cruz being "the rudest Canadian we've ever run across."  And I wonder, is that last point debatable?