https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/28/i-have-coronavirus-so-far-it-isnt-that-bad/

My treatment has largely consisted of drinking gallons and gallons of Gatorade



By Carl Goldman

I have the coronavirus. And it hasn’t been that bad.

I am in my late 60s, and the sickest I’ve ever been was when I had bronchitis several years ago. That laid me out on my back for a few days. This has been much easier: no chills, no body aches. I breathe easily, and I don’t have a stuffy nose. My chest feels tight, and I have coughing spells. If I were at home with similar symptoms, I probably would have gone to work as usual.

I caught the virus on the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was quarantined outside Yokohama for 14 days, at the end of a 16-day cruise I took with my wife, Jeri. When I left the ship a couple of weeks ago, I felt fine. We checked our temperatures throughout our quarantine. Jeri and I got a swab test for the virus. Our temperatures were normal; they’d get the swab results back in 48 hours. Our test results had not arrived before we boarded buses for the airport, where two U.S. government planes waited for us.

As we took off from Tokyo, I had a bit of a cough, but I chalked it up to the dry air in the cabin. I felt pretty tired — but who wouldn’t, in our situation? I dozed off.

https://www.vox.com/2020/2/27/21150341/elizabeth-warren-procedural-reform-social-trust

Rebuilding social and political trust requires procedural reforms that don’t excite voters.

The biggest problem facing US democracy did not come up at the Democratic debate in Charleston this week. It hasn’t really been discussed in the election at all. But it lurks behind all the more specific issues, an unwelcome presence no one quite wants to acknowledge.

It is simply this: The US is in a period of declining social and political trust. Americans increasingly think the system is rigged and that their fellow citizens don’t necessarily share their basic values and presumptions. This makes them strongly disinclined to invest their hopes in political promises of common good.

Everything progressives want — from getting humane policies passed to executing on them effectively — requires a foundation of social and political trust. The erosion of that foundation must be reversed if the left ever hopes to lead the country through big, transformative changes.

All the candidates sense the distrust and disengagement on some level. But the candidate most preoccupied with it, with the most developed plans to address it, is Elizabeth Warren.

It doesn’t seem to be helping her much, politically speaking. She’s has fallen back in the polls and faces rough sledding on Super Tuesday. But whatever the fate of her candidacy, her focus on rebuilding trust is something that the eventual winner should adopt as their own. Without trust, nothing else is possible.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/business/stock-market-by-president/index.html

President Donald Trump has repeatedly pointed to the stock market as one of the best ways to measure his administration’s policies. Even amid global fears about coronavirus, he tweeted on February 24, “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

In the days that followed, stocks declined significantly, paring back some of the gains Trump had previously celebrated. On February 27, the S&P 500 declined 4.4%, its worst day since August 2011.

Overall, during his presidency, the S&P 500 has gained 31% from inauguration day through the market close on February 27. (Just a month earlier, that number was 45%).

How does that gain stack up to stock performance at the same point in other modern presidencies? (781 trading days, to be exact).

Stocks were stronger under Barack Obama as they recovered from the depths of the financial crisis, with the S&P 500 up 69% at this same point in his presidency. And they were far weaker under George W. Bush, down about 14% in the aftermath of the dot-com boom and bust.

CNN Business updates this tracker periodically.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/27/business/goldman-sachs-trump-election-coronavirus/index.html

New York (CNN Business)A market meltdown. Surging recession fears. And a sudden spotlight on America's health care system. Goldman Sachs is warning Wall Street that the coronavirus could cost President Donald Trump the election.

The potential political fallout from the coronavirus adds yet more uncertainty for investors trying to assess the impact of the fast-moving epidemic.

"If the coronavirus epidemic materially affects US economic growth it may increase the likelihood of Democratic victory in the 2020 election," Goldman Sachs analysts led by Ben Snider wrote in a report published Wednesday night.
That could be a negative for stocks because investors have been hoping for a continuation of the low-tax, light-regulation approach of the Trump administration. And Trump of course has been laser-focused on boosting stock prices.

It's no secret that a slowing economy can deal a fatal blow to the candidacy of a sitting president. That's what happened in 1992 when Bill Clinton unseated President George H.W. Bush.
In particular, Goldman Sachs notes that economic growth during the second quarter of an election year has been a "key predictor" of past presidential races.

Recession fears rise
Economists are warning that the coronavirus could spark an imminent economic slowdown or even recession. Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said he now sees a 40% chance of a US recession during the first half of 2020, up from 20% previously.

Even former Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen has acknowledged the outlook for the US economy is darkening.
"It's just conceivable that it could throw the United States into a recession," Yellen said at an event in Michigan Wednesday, according to Bloomberg News.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/success/recession-proof-investments/index.html

No one knows when the next financial downturn will hit, but everyone can take steps now to prepare for it.

With markets becoming more volatile this week, it's a good time to figure out if you're ready to weather an impending storm.

"Recession-proofing your portfolio and financial life is particularly important during a time like this, when everyone knows a recession will come eventually, but no one knows when," said Ben VerWys, senior financial adviser at Action Point Financial in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

While the economy is still strong and unemployment is still relatively low, it's a good opportunity to re-evaluate your goals, rebalance your portfolio and review your debt and cash levels.

Re-evaluate your goals
First, consider how many years away you are from needing to take distributions from your portfolio in retirement, said Jarodd White, financial planner with Vitalize Capital Management in Milwaukee. "The shorter your time horizon, the higher the need is to move assets from more volatile to less volatile strategies."
Next, consider whether you're taking on the right amount of risk.

You can stress test your current holdings in a variety of ways, but looking at how you may have fared in past downturns is a simple way to do it.

Brett N. Fry, a certified financial planner at Forteris Wealth Management in Dallas, said he shows his clients how their portfolio would have performed during past downturns, like the recession of 2008 or the bursting of the tech bubble in 2001.

"Often the investor says they could not stomach that sort of loss or volatility," he said. "Then we know their current portfolio is too risky and they should dial back."
Based on your financial goals, set out a plan for when you plan to withdraw your money and put it in writing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/with-little-left-to-lose-elizabeth-warren-rolls-the-dice/2020/02/21/74ac5f8c-5435-11ea-b119-4faabac6674f_story.html



LAS VEGAS — Everybody loses some of their inhibitions in Las Vegas. Even Elizabeth Warren.

This is where the Democratic senator from Massachusetts shrugged off her reluctance to criticize rivals and eviscerated them during a debate, landing precision blows one after the other. This is where she accepted the help of a super PAC, reversing a central tenet of her presidential campaign about the corrupting power of money. And this is where it started to look like she was having fun for the first time in months, just ahead of Saturday’s Nevada caucuses.

After moping two weeks ago through New Hampshire, where she stressed to audiences that she hasn’t spent her career pining for the White House, she was suddenly making changes that could expand the possibility that she gets there.

Allies say Warren’s demeanor changed after disappointing results rolled in from gray and snow-covered New Hampshire. Already upset with herself for a lackluster New Hampshire debate and down about her disappointing third-place finish in Iowa, she made a case to her staff that this was the time to fight.

“There’s going to come a time when it is clear what’s going to happen in this contest, but that time is not now,” she said, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss it. “We are nowhere near that moment. We are not close. We’re not even within shouting distance.

“These are the moments we find out who we are.”

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/22/us/portland-train-stabbing-jeremy-christian-guilty/index.html

Portland, Oregon (CNN)A man has been convicted of killing two people who confronted him for harassing a Muslim teen and her friend in a Portland train.

Jeremy Joseph Christian was found guilty of 12 counts, including two murder charges and an attempted murder charge, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office said in a statement Friday.
The jury will begin considering his sentence Tuesday.



Jeremy Joseph Christian shouts at the end of a court appearance.
"Our community continues to feel the profound impact from this violent and racist attack that happened more than two years ago," Multnomah County District Attorney, Rod Underhill, said in the statement.
On May 26, 2017, Christian boarded a MAX light-rail train in Portland and then went on a tirade directed at two African-American teenagers, one of whom was wearing a traditional Muslim hijab.

One of the girls, Destinee Mangum said he "told us to go back to Saudi Arabia and told us we shouldn't be here."
She said he told them, "Get the f*** out," "Pay taxes," "Go home, we need American here," "I don't care if you are ISIS," and "F*** Saudi Arabia," police said in a probable cause affidavit.
When Ricky Best, 53, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, tried to defend the girls, he fatally slashed their throats.
Micah Fletcher was stabbed in the neck but survived.

https://ronproject.com/two-kittens-raccoon-bodyguards/



Back in 2009, an Illinois-based woman started caring for a blind raccoon that would frequent her backyard. Eryn’s yard is bordered by a thickly wooded area, and she noticed that the raccoon displayed some pretty odd behavior.

Not only would the raccoon come out during the day, but it would also constantly bump into things and be spooked by perfectly normal, natural sounds. Then, Eryn realized that the raccoon’s eyes would glow bright green during the day.

“There is something wrong with his tapetum lucidum. His eyes shine bright green during the day. He is at least partially blind. He walks into things. He is afraid of the wind, high grass, birds, and snow,” Eryn explains.



When she realized that her daily visitor was a blind raccoon, Eryn began leaving him little meals on her porch.
“He comes to our house for food early in the morning usually around 6-9AM. He often returns for seconds and sometimes comes back for thirds. His bottom lip is missing so we feed him soft pasta noodles soaked in cream of chicken soup. We often cut up small pieces of hot dogs, ham, pork, etc. He refuses to eat canned cat/dog food,” she continues.
Eryn also goes on to firmly state that the blind raccoon doesn’t have rabies or distemper. She points out that raccoons are frequently out during the day in early summer after giving birth to a litter of kits, and that if the raccoon did have rabies or distemper, it would have perished long ago.