Time is of the essence.

While Republicans and Democrats are waging a war to decide when to restart the economy and the media is covering the battle, we are losing precious time to self-quarantine, to put a dent in the number of infected.

The best thing I’ve read today is Ezekiel Emanuel’s piece in the “New York Times”:

“Fourteen Days. That’s the Most Time We Have to Defeat Coronavirus – These decisive measures can prevent a decade of dislocation and extraordinary levels of death.”

Zeke lays it all out, but his wise advice is superseded by the battle between science and the economy, between freedom and “lock us up,” between one side hating the other so much and vice versa that nothing can be done.

Meanwhile, too many Americans are living in darkness.

Did you see Jackson Browne’s got it?

“Jackson Browne Tests Positive for Coronavirus – ‘It’s important for us all to be pretty forthcoming about what we’re going through,’ singer-songwriter says”

Browne’s crime? He flew back and forth to New York to do the “Love Rocks” charity show. Do a good thing and you pay for it.

Once again, Andrew Cuomo is leading:

“We’re Going to Get through It Because We Are New York”

Ignore the headline and watch the clip, Cuomo only goes on about the strength of New Yorkers at the very end. Before that, he talks about protecting our parents. Dan Patrick wants oldsters to die, Cuomo wants them to live.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking.

The canard is this is a coastal elite problem, that it just can’t happen at scale in the red states.

But there are now infections in every state of the union. Once again, just because you feel different, that does not mean you are.

Also, youngsters think they’re immune, but that is far from the case, it appears that a 12 year old died today of Covid-19 in California:

L.A. County reports first death of a possible coronavirus patient under 18 as COVID-19 cases top 660

I’ll be honest, today’s news just washed over me. I read the stories, but I was numb. But then I saw tonight’s “New York Times” editorial and I got agitated:

“Coronavirus Is Advancing. All Americans Need to Shelter in Place – The worst of the pandemic is yet to come. Listen to the medical experts. It’s time for a national lockdown.”

The “New York Times” runs the country. And now, with Bezos’s investment and Marty Baron at the helm of the “Washington Post,” the “Times” is getting a run for its money. Fox News does very little newsgathering, and neither does MSNBC, instead they reference what’s reported in the “Times” and now the “Washington Post.” As for other papers? “USA Today” is a meaningless pamphlet. The “Wall Street Journal” has cut stories short to fit the printed page, it’s a shame what they’ve done to the paper. Used to be the “Journal” was the business paper of record, no more. Now the “Journal” is the news source for Republicans. It’s got some worldwide and national news followed by pages of opinion, and then another section where there are brief stories about business. Oh, occasionally they go deeper, they break a story, but if it’s not business, the “Journal” is irrelevant, and oftentimes the “Times”‘s business coverage is superior, if for no other reason than it’s longer and more in-depth.

So, the editorial in the “Times” is trying to jawbone the country into taking action. But it’s going to take days for the “Times” editorial to work its way through the system, if it does so at all. I would say the President could push the button, but he took himself out of the leadership position by ceding decisions and implementation to the States. This has come back to bite him on the ass, because he’s got little power. Of course he could appoint a Covid-19 czar, but you just know it would be one of his cronies with no experience. Fauci is tolerated. We need the equivalent of a special prosecutor here. Oh, that’s right, Trump stonewalled Mueller and beat impeachment, not because the facts were in his favor, but because of the tribal loyalty of his fellow Republicans. Cool, but this is a HEALTH issue, that is not partisan, that involves all of us. Suddenly, it’s about Republicans and Democrats. Actually, that’s the tack the right has taken from the beginning, the virus is a hoax and it’s all about bringing down the President.

Well, just wait until people you know start dying. It’s gonna happen. And then we’ll see all this footage of families crying, it will be a national tragedy, but we won’t be able to blame Trump for dilly-dallying because it would be inappropriate.

This should not be a partisan debate, but it is. My inbox is filled with Trumpers angry I’m beating up on their guy. This is how we got into this mess, with outlets doing their best not to piss off these people, this is where false equivalencies come from. In what fakokta world do we have to stifle what’s right because we don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings?

As for Fox News, there’s no one at the helm, did you read today’s story about Rupert Murdoch?

“As Fox News Played Down the Coronavirus, Its Chief Protected Himself – The cancellation of an 89th birthday party for Rupert Murdoch highlights a disconnect between his family’s behavior and statements made on air by some Fox commentators”

Read the article, Rupert’s not in charge, Lachlan is. And Lachlan is nearly completely hands-off. We haven’t even been yelling at the right people!

As for self-quarantining…

What part about staying in your house do you not get?

I continue to hear from people who say they’re taking this very seriously, then they talk about the errands they run, the frequency with which they go grocery shopping and the people who come to their abode. Rupert Murdoch is taking it seriously, why can’t you?

This Is Tom Odell – Spotify

Tom Odell – Another Love – YouTube

“Another Love” was a hit everywhere on the continent, going to #10 in the U.K. and #1 in Belgium, as well as being #11 in France and Germany and #6 in the Netherlands. But in America? Crickets, the track did not chart.

I was reading this story in “Rolling Stone” about Elton John being appreciative of the Weeknd sampling his music and the article ended with this:

“and then John also expressed admiration for the next generation of talented U.K. artists following in his footsteps, including Tom Odell, James Blake, Lewis Capaldi and Sam Smith.”

Tom Odell?

So I fired up Spotify and heard “Another Love.” I was stunned, because Elton was right, Tom Odell is following in his footsteps, I love this music, nobody is making this at this level of quality in the U.S., even the singer-songwriters have gone all beats, chasing the trends, although mostly unsuccessfully. A piano and a vocal? How retro, how right!

Why does this stuff always come from the U.K? Not only Sam Smith with his giant hits, but Ed Sheeran, even though Ed plays nice with the beatmasters. Who is to blame? The musicmakers themselves, record labels or the radio or all of them?

Now “Another Love” was a hit back in 2012, and Odell has not had this level of success since, although he’s had charting records.

And “Another Love” is not perfect, it’s not “Your Song,” then again it’s better than so much of the dreck paraded as popular music today.

Popular. Now that we’ve figured out music distribution, now that recording revenue is going up, we need to focus on creativity and broadening the kinds of music paid attention to. But the big labels are only putting their energy behind hip-hop and obvious pop, and their publicity people are promoting these to media outlets which basically just puppet priorities or promote obscurities and radio is so tight and so reactive that all we get is pop and hip-hop, but there’s tons more out there, and some of it is really good.

The web is all about niches, narrow verticals, but for some reason the big music business and the media refuse to adjust to this change, they believe there’s one top ten that everybody in America is listening to, but it’s not 1965 anymore, never mind 1995, the internet blew a hole in that paradigm. However, in the U.K., maybe because there’s state-controlled radio, a much greater swath of music is exposed.

The first crisis we’ve got today is connecting the music with the listener, and so far the music industry has done a piss-poor job. Playlists were supposed to be the panacea, but they are not. Too many songs, too many skippable, who can endure so much crap? And what is promoted on streaming sites, that which gets banners, is the stuff the major labels promote, everything else lies in a backwater. With so much music out there we need to hear less, not everything is entitled to the same exposure, couldn’t these streaming services feature great music in other genres? Not a ton of acts in those genres, just one at a time, to make it easy for the audience to listen and embrace.

And then we need more people making quality music in more genres in America. In an era where everything is available, we gravitate to greatness, good is not good enough. Listen to “Another Love,” and then try the wannabes, you’ll hear the clear difference.

Now the funny thing is we saw this movie again after Tom Odell. Rag’n’Bone Man’s 2016 single “Human” was number one literally all over the world, but it was a stiff in the U.S. Columbia was so busy working the track slowly from format to format that it never broke through on the only format that matters, Top Forty. “Human” made it all the way up to #74 on “Billboard”‘s Hot 100, whew! And the funny thing is both these records were on Columbia, was it the marketplace or did the label blow it both times? And do you need a major label to push something and is that why we’ve been exposed to one-dimensional music ever since streaming services gained a toehold?

Because of the coronavirus, my interview with Bob Geldof was broadcast last week, this week is “Sgt. Pepper.”

Tune in today, Tuesday March 24th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive

“When asked if he would make the decision to loosen social distancing recommendations even if it went against the advice of federal public health officials, Trump said: ‘If it was up to the doctors they might say shut down the entire world.'”

“‘We haven’t yet even seen signs that the growth is slowing, much less reversing. Now is the time to tighten restrictions on contacts that could transmit the virus, not loosen them,’ Lipsitch said. ‘If we let up now we can be virtually certain that health care will be overwhelmed in many if not all parts of the country. This is the view of every well-informed infectious epidemiologist I know of.'”

“Trump weighs restarting economy despite warnings from U.S. public health officials”

Yesterday the narrative was we all need to go home and stay there.

Today the narrative is we can’t ruin the economy, when can we restart it?

You can’t find a Democrat taking Trump’s position, unless you consider Lloyd Blankfein, who recently left his position as head of Goldman Sachs, a Democrat. Then again, these Wall Streeters have it good either way. Trump is on their side, Biden took all their money, they’re gonna win no matter what. But you? You’re screwed.

I just got an interesting e-mail from Matt Pyken:

“Did you hear him today?

Trump’s gonna ignore everything the doctors say and restart the country – why? Because the ONLY THING he cares about is getting re-elected, and he’s made the calculation that if the economy fully tanks he’s toast. And what do NY, CA and Washington State have in common? Almost all the cases and ZERO chance of ever voting for Trump – so he could give 2 shits if people here live or die. Now, does this backfire? Does the whole country get it and it’s a disaster? Maybe. Probably. But if they can deal with it a little better everywhere but CA, and NY and Seattle, then they’ll leave us to die – 70% Biden voters anyway.”

I’m don’t wear a tin foil hat, and I think the whole country is going to endure massive coronavirus infection, but unfortunately I think Matt is on to something.

We’ve got a divided country. The right doesn’t care if the left falls, and to a degree the left doesn’t care if the right falls, although nowhere near as much. We’re playing team sports when the last I checked we were all human beings and in it together. But that’s today’s selfish ethos: “It’s what’s good for me, I need to pay less taxes and get the government out of my hair and…when I have a loss, someone has got to pay, I can’t endure, I never sacrifice, I need to be made whole.”

This is how we got into this mess. America told everybody to shop, so they had no savings, especially after they saw what their neighbors possessed and were doing. And the penalties for missing a payment are so severe, but no one is standing up for them, other than Elizabeth Warren (and a few more, but Liz has been the most vocal). And the right has turned Warren into a pariah, and the left wing media bought it, promoting the idea that she was a schoolmarm, strident and unelectable. And when she failed, they changed their focus to Bernie Sanders. He’s a socialist in bed with Cuba and no one likes him and nothing will get done and no one will vote for him, so his candidacy must be killed, and when he’s done we’ll say nice things about him, like we do at anybody’s funeral.

Did you see Biden speak today?

Biden – twitter

He looks just as bad as Trump, reading the teleprompter badly. We laughed at Trump two weeks ago, do you think people are not laughing at Biden?

Furthermore, you had to scroll down the website/app to find this story, Biden may have finally spoken, but he’s far from controlling the narrative.

This is a game folks, and you’ve already lost.

First and foremost, the rules have been eviscerated, facts don’t matter, and we can argue all day what’s real and what’s not but the truth is those in power have moved beyond, are laughing at us as they pull the strings to screw us.

And of course the right is getting screwed too, but they don’t want anybody to get social welfare, they don’t want people of color and immigrants getting a leg up, so they can’t vote Democratic, no way.

And the Democrats are an elite tribe who have contempt for everybody else, paying lip service to the little people and then lining their own pockets. Once again, Wall Street got money after the crash of 2008, you lost your home. Socialism for the rich, and capitalism for the poor. And somehow Bernie is the enemy.

So what we need is a consistent counternarrative. But just like the auto workers in the south refuse to unionize for fear the company will take revenge, people are scared to stand up to the DNC. Let’s go with old Joe, progress must be slow, everybody likes him. Huh?

So, once again, the narrative is now different. It’s not about whether you’re gonna die, whether we have enough medical equipment, but just when can we reopen America to boost the economy. If you’re dead, too bad, money talks, even though you’re not getting this money because if the corporations don’t exist you don’t get paid and riches trickle down and therefore, STFU!

The person with a real bead on this is Naomi Klein, she wrote a book called “The Shock Doctrine” back in 2007. She posits when there is a crisis, the bad actors, the government, institute changes to their advantage that ultimately hurt the people. Everybody’s so confused and uptight they’ll go along with anything that ensures their safety. Give you some money, stop your responsibilities so we can stay at home and ride this out? No, the media will keep telling you how you’re gonna go broke and the world is gonna fall apart and people die in car crashes so therefore, suck it up and do what’s right for the country, which they say is you, but it’s not, it’s them.

No, now is the time for the news media to stand up to Trump, to not only point out the fallacies and untruths he is proffering, but to promulgate a counternarrative that they drill into people’s heads!

But no, they won’t do that! Because they say they’re “fair,” in a world where Fox News is anything but. Take a stand, come on, the “New York Times” did against Bernie, then again, the right has neutered the NYT and WaPo and driven their constituents to not only Fox, but insane websites.

This is a fight for our lives.

And it’s also a fight for our souls.

Now is the time to stand up, now is the time to get organized.

But musicians are seen as mercenary, and everybody with a buck is in cahoots with someone else with a buck so they won’t take a stand. Yup, don’t want to give up those privates!

This is the world we live in, I’m just pointing out the truth.