GOOD ADVICE: STOP Hoarding Toilet Paper, You Sick Freaks! TP Will Not Save You From Coronavirus.

WATCH: MSNBC Host Nicole Wallace Hopes Coronavirus Tanks Trump’s Presidency.

GIVEN HIS TRACK RECORD, THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I’VE SEEN IN WEEKS: Paul Krugman: Market signaling a ‘permanent recession.’

UPDATE (Charlie): Dow jumps more than 800 points after Wall Street’s biggest rout since 2008.

(Bumped.)

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: My Wuhan Joe Biden Election Conspiracy Theory. “I think they’d prefer to get the elderly white man into the White House with one of their preferred diversity candidates as his vice president. Once in, they can suddenly become aware of his cognitive decline and begin publicly expressing concerns about his health, all dutifully abetted by their flying monkeys in the media.”

Yep.

COMMUNISTS: As Beijing claims credit for beating coronavirus, Chinese people are outraged: ‘Fake! It’s all fake!’

Chinese diplomats have meanwhile begun a campaign — giving more than 400 media interviews and publishing more than 300 articles in recent weeks, according to China’s Foreign Ministry – to praise China’s virus control methods. State media recently celebrated the publication of a book by the central propaganda department about China’s successes against the coronavirus, titled “A Battle Against Epidemic: China Combatting COVID-19 in 2020.”

The book will be published in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic, according to a Feb. 26 Xinhua news release, so that the world could learn from China’s disease control methods. But at home, skepticism and anger run deep, so much so that the party has been forced to backtrack several times on its propaganda.

Critics on WeChat circulated images of the “Battle Against Epidemic” book cover with the comment “Totally shameless,” possibly prompting a reconsideration of timing for the book’s publication. As of Monday, it still was not available for purchase.

Backlashes have surfaced in other places too. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, one of the party’s highest-ranking officials, was touring a residential compound in Wuhan last week, the epidemic’s ground zero, when residents began shouting from their apartment windows: “Fake! Fake! It’s all fake!”

Local news media reported that residents were protesting because the compound’s management had done a last-minute cleanup and orchestrated a fake setup of grocery delivery to locked-down apartments, when in reality residents were being confined and neglected.

Thomas Friedman, call your office.

THE REASON WON’T SHOCK YOU: Now we know why Kamala Harris endorsed Joe Biden. “She wants a prominent role in his administration.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Coronavirus Is Very Different From the Spanish Flu of 1918. Here’s How.

In 1918, the world was a very different place, even without the disruptive influence of World War I. Doctors knew viruses existed but had never seen one — there were no electron microscopes, and the genetic material of viruses had not yet been discovered. Today, however, researchers not only know how to isolate a virus but can find its genetic sequence, test antiviral drugs and develop a vaccine.

In 1918, it was impossible to test people with mild symptoms so they could self-quarantine. And it was nearly impossible to do contact tracing because the flu seemed to infect — and panic — entire cities and communities all at once. Moreover, there was little protective equipment for health care workers, and the supportive care with respirators that can be provided to people very ill with coronavirus did not exist.

With a case fatality rate of at least 2.5 percent, the 1918 flu was far more deadly than ordinary flu, and it was so infectious that it spread widely, which meant the number of deaths soared.

Researchers believe the 1918 flu spared older people because they had some immunity to it. They theorize that decades earlier there had been a version of that virus, one that was not as lethal and spread like an ordinary flu. The older people living in 1918 would have been exposed to that less lethal flu and developed antibodies. As for children, most viral illnesses — measles, chickenpox — are more deadly in young adults, which may explain why the youngest were spared in the 1918 epidemic.

Regardless of the reason, it was a disaster for life expectancy, which plummeted. In 1917, life expectancy in the United States was 51 years. It was the same in 1919. But in 1918, it was just 39 years.

The new coronavirus tends to kill older people and those with underlying medical conditions, and it does not seem to kill children. All of which means it will have far less effect, if any, on life expectancy.

To riff off Salena Zito, treat this coronavirus seriously but not hysterically.

LOVELY FAMILY: Biden’s Brother Allegedly Defrauded Medical Firm, Leading to Bankruptcy, FBI Raid on Rural Hospital.

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update for March 9, 2020. “EVERYBODY DROPPED OUT, except Grandpa Simpson, Grandpa Commie, and…Hot Surfer Girl? It’s Clinton-Sanders II, except Biden isn’t as widely loathed and Hillary was only physically decrepit. It’s no longer a clown car, but I’m going to keep the name because, you know, tradition.”

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: MSNBC Scaremonger Claims Millions of Americans Could Die of COVID-19.

Spoiler Alert: I ran the numbers, and he’s wrong.

This one is just for our PJMedia/Townhall VIP members, but that VODKAPUNDIT promo code is still good for a little discount if you’ve been thinking of joining.

YOU GET ONE GUESS: Biden Shares Manipulated Video of Trump, but Guess Who Twitter Flags for Sharing ‘Manipulated Media’?

COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: Coed Threatened with Violence by Peace-Loving Socialists.

Duffy says one commenter warned she should have to face “a brick wall,” which is clearly a euphemism for summary execution, something at which socialists excel. They also told her the she must “support a movement [socialism] that eliminates violence on a systemic level or face the consequences.”

I’ll let you try and wrap your head around that sentence while I pour myself a shot of something strong. Needless to say, claiming that you’re eliminating violence on a systemic level by threatening with violence everyone who doesn’t go along…

…you need a drink, too?

Much more at the link.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Colorado gun owners who don’t safely store their weapons could face jail time under new bill.

It would certainly make law-abiding households safer for burglars, thieves, and intruders.

THE RETURN OF SCRAPPLEFACE: Face-Touch Ban Drains U.S. Disposable-Hand Reserves.

SHADOW CABINET: Joe Biden’s secret governing plan. “Biden advisers describe a Return to Normal plan — a reversal of President Trump’s unorthodox, improvisational style. Biden wants known, trusted people around him — many from the Obama years.”

HMM: Your Fitbit Could Be Used to Monitor the Spread of Coronavirus. Is That Really What We Want?

ED MORRISSEY: FBI Raid, Middle East Mystery Money, And Biden’s Brother All Raise Questions. “Joe Biden might enjoy improved electoral math these days, but the math around his family’s fortunes doesn’t add up at all — and it’s not just Hunter, either. Politico’s Ben Schreckinger has spent months tracking how Biden’s relatives got wealthy on their connections to the new Democratic frontrunner, including Joe’s younger brother James, who finds himself in the middle of a meltdown at a hospital firm. James Biden has been accused of running out on a personal loan of $650,000 after promising his older brother would arrange for a big influx of ‘Middle East money’ that never materialized.”

Much more at the link.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Joe Biden Owes Clarence Thomas an Apology.

In 1986, the year before Biden was lifted to chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Antonin Scalia had been approved 98–0 by the Senate. There weren’t really any Supreme Court confirmation battles before then. A year later, in 1987, Robert Bork — who, Warren Burger, the former chief justice, claimed was the most qualified jurist he’d seen in 50 years — would be grossly caricatured by real-life sexual harasser Ted Kennedy, who warned that “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids.” Thomas would be accused of being a puppet of his white colleagues, among other racist stereotypes, merely for his ideological outlook. In those days, hyperbolic statements from Senators were somewhat rare. Now they are a modus operandi.

To be fair to Biden, he was an exceptionally incompetent and indecisive chairman, easily cowed and unable to control the hearings. After promising to support Bork, he switched his vote. After promising to afford Thomas some semblance of due process, he presided over what the future justice famously called a “high-tech lynching.”

Biden owes the entire nation an apology — and do read the whole thing.

EXACTLY: Health Care Is a Right Only if Doctors Surrender Theirs.

WHAT AWFUL PEOPLE: ‘Giddy’ Libs Mock Ted Cruz, Paul Gosar Over Coronavirus Self-Quarantine.

THE 21ST CENTURY, PRODUCED AT SCALE: Inside Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week—and settle Mars.

Compare that to NASA and its Space Launch System, the big rocket that the space agency has been developing for a decade and for which Boeing only recently completed a single core stage. This core stage is about 15 meters taller than Starship but lacks its complexity. NASA will, in fact, toss each SLS core stage into the ocean after a single use. And Boeing doesn’t have to make the engines, as the rocket uses 40-year-old space shuttle main engines. Despite this, and with nearly $2 billion in annual funding from NASA, Boeing’s stretch goal for building core stages is one to two per year… some time in the mid-2020s.

SpaceX’s stretch goal is to build one to two Starships a week, this year, and to pare back construction costs to as low as $5 million each.

“That’s fucking insane,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s insane,” Musk replied.

“I mean, it really is.”

“Yeah, it’s nuts.”

“As I look across the aerospace landscape, nobody is doing anything remotely like this,” I said.

“No, it’s absolutely mad, I agree,” Musk said. “The conventional space paradigms do not apply to what we’re doing here. We’re trying to build a massive fleet to make Mars habitable, to make life multi-planetary. I think we need, probably, on the order of 1,000 ships, and each of those ships would have more payload than the Saturn V — and be reusable.”

“Faster, please,” seems a bit presumptuous here.

GOVERNMENT: Why Is the CDC Lowballing Numbers for the Coronavirus?

Related (From Ed):

Coronavirus: Head of NY-NJ Port Authority Rick Cotton has coronavirus.

15 new coronavirus cases in Massachusetts, doubling overnight.

California has 114 coronavirus cases, L.A. County has 14: Here is what you need to know.

MAYBE HE WASN’T A RACIST-RACIST: Kamala Harris Endorses Biden Even Though She Accused Him of Being Racist Last Year.

BIDEN FAMILY VALUES: Ex-stripper who had Hunter Biden’s baby says former vice president’s son missed deadline to file financial paperwork in child support case.

THE FIX IS IN: DNC Changes Debate Format — Bernie Staffer Says They’re Protecting Biden.

According to the Democratic National Committee, the next debate — which is all but certain to be a head-to-head matchup between Sanders and Biden — will allow both candidates to be seated and take audience questions. This would be a dramatic change from the previous debates, during which the candidates faced questions from the moderators and stood behind lecterns for several hours.

“The DNC has changed the format for the next debate, where Joe Biden would have had to stand at a lectern for two hours and answer questions from professional moderators, to one where both men will be seated and answer questions from the audience,” tweeted Common Dreams senior editor and writer Eoin Higgins.

At the first presidential debate this fall, maybe Trump should come out on stage carrying a chair for Biden.