Some semi-regular musings on racing and life in a COVID-19 Pandemic Quarantine World
Ok, fine, we keep talking about eRacing here. I mean, as far as racing goes it’s pretty much what we have right now.
Word on the street is that Stafford Speedway – or we should say eStafford Speedway – will be continuing their live iRacing action regulary on Friday evenings for the next three weeks. Stay tuned for more details.
And we’ve said before again, and we’ll say it again. Some people really need to stop taking eRacing so freaking seriously.
It’s entertainment. Fun entertainment and a break from all the seriousness of quarantine life right now.
It’s amazing how many people apparently hate it but watch every second of it possible.
Liberty Lunacy
NASCAR might be on hiatus, but one well known NASCAR sponsor is making some news for some not so positive reasons.
While most large universities and colleges across America have closed campuses up and allowed for very limited amounts of students to stay in dormitories, Liberty University – which sponsors Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron – reopened last week to the dismay of many students, faculty and those around the Lynchburg, Va. community where the school is located.
Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. has continued to forward his belief that the COVID-19 global pandemic is a political hoax.
“It’s just strange to me how many are overreacting” Falwell said on March 10 on Fox News. “It makes you wonder if there is a political reason for that. Impeachment didn’t work and the Mueller report didn’t work and Article 25 didn’t work, and so maybe now this is their next attempt to get Trump.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how many lawsuits result from Falwell’s decision to reopen the campus and demand that faculty be on campus.
Bravo!
Throwback
Before we get to the Binge Watching Guide, here’s something else to watch for racings fans.
Binge Watching
Let’s start today’s Binge Watching guide with Hunters from Amazon Prime Video.
So basically you’re either going to get scared away immediately from the first scene of the 10-episode series or you’re going to be gripped to it all immediately.
Based in the late 1970’s, Hunters follows an peculiar group banded together to hunt down Nazi’s and come to the realization that a group of former Nazi War Criminals are conspiring to create the Fourth Reich in the United States.
Al Pacino masterfully plays the role of the group’s leader Meyer Offerman.
While dark and downright gruesome at times, the storylines are gripping throughout and the character development from start to finish is masterful yet consistently mysterious right to the end.
And by the way, if you don’t come away just wanting to beers sometime with Lonny Flash, something is wrong with you.
Hunters easily earns five out of five on the Quarantine Snacks rankings
Hunters
We’ll stay for the moment on the theme of dark and go with The Last Days of Phil Hartman which can be found on Hulu.
The two-part ABC News special released last September takes a chilling look into the life and death of the former Saturday Night Live star who was tragically murdered by his wife Brynn in May 1998.
The Last Days of Phil Hartman dives deep into the reserved and somewhat shadowy personality of Hartman away from the screen. Once you start watching you’re going to finish this.
The Last Days of Phil Hartman grabs four out of five on the Quarantine Snacks rankings.
The Last Days of Phil Hartman
This is a racing website after all, so how about a racing documentary.
Winning: The Racing Life Of Paul Newman pretty much says it all in the title. The documentary examines the 35-year racing career of actor Paul Newman. The 2015 documentary produced by Adam Carolla
It’s a pretty outstanding look at Newman’s unending passion for motorsports and how that passion wasn’t just about his own racing exploits, but also his support of so many others in the sport. Plenty of great names of motorsports involved and tons of amazing old action footage, especially from Lime Rock Park.
Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman earns three out of five snacks on our Quaratine Snacks Rankings.
Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman
Stay safe everyone. Keep positive. Help your neighbors if you can. And wash your damn hands.
You got any Bruce blasting over the loudspeakers at RaceDayCT HQ yet or are you waiting for the right day? It’s a definite pick me up. We are in for the long haul. Have to pace ourselves.
Had a little Joe Diffie going yesterday in honor of his passing. Yes, I’m a Pickup Man. He had a Nascar connection way back when too.
JD,
I’ve definitely had some stuff from The Rising CD going.
Yes, Shawn, Everyone wash your hands often. If possible, stay home. Take every precaution you can. Jerry Fallwell Jr must have just returned from Mars, to still think this is all a political hoax. Even Trump knows this ain’t a hoax. Covid has made its way to the town where I live. Worst part is they are not identifying the people who have it, or the places they’ve been. This makes things very stressful indeed. I’ve been home bound for a little over a week now, and even with 200+ TV channels, and PlayStation, I’m going bonkers. Try not to watch much news, only enough to stay up to date. The weather sucks, so no yardwork. Worried about family and friends, and have not allowed visitors. Life with Covid. Through it all though, I’m grateful. Grateful for what I have, and what I don’t. Grateful that both my local, and State government are taking this seriously. Some day this will pass, and life may return to normal. For now all we can do is fight. Stay safe, strong and sane. I pray all of you are well. Hope to meet you all some day soon. Thanks again Shawn and the RacedayCT crew, your articles bring some joy in an otherwise bleek time. Stay safe everybody.
Great, my laser pointer just died, can’t even drive my cat nuts anymore.
Shawn wrote, “It’s amazing how many people apparently hate it but watch every second of it possible. ”
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
They watch it to complain about it!!!!
Liberty lunacy… Yep, Jerry doesn’t wanna give out refunds. A portion of the student body has returned, about 800 then left, and so far a dozen have fallen ill with CVD-19 symptoms. Pray it away? This could be the end of Liberty University.
Just heard an audio of Dr. Fauci in a conference call with State Governor’s. Montana Governor Bullock stated that Montana needs tests, they still haven’t received nearly enough tests. Trump breaks in and says ” I haven’t heard of any lack of tests. We have an abundance of great tests. This is news to me”. He must have gone to Mars with Fallwell Jr. Trump still can’t admit he f..Ed up. This is sad, very sad. His ignorance will lead to many unnecessary deaths. Sad, very sad indeed.
Rob p , noticed how Dr Fauci has not been on his nightly campaign speeches .he’s replaced him with Dr,s that start out with thanking him for his leadership, he’s not interested in the truth,
VA governor has PUT A STAY AT HOME ORDER UNTIL JUNE 10TH
SO GUESS NO MARTINSVILE IN MAY!!!
Just when you think…hey, he gets it…Trump opens his mouth again. Yesterday’s screw ups included: The population of Seoul South Korea is 38 million. Actually it’s around 9.8 million. The U.S. has conducted more testing than any other country. We have tested less than 1 million people, while South Korea tested around 3 million people, and Germany is approaching 2 million tests. Governor’s from every state are praising Trump for his outstanding leadership. We all know that’s a lie. There are more than enough tests, anyone who wants to get tested can. Again we all know that too is a lie. Thank God for local government, otherwise we’d all be screwed.
Rob p., Trump just can’t stay focused on the simple READING of the daily presser. He has to ad lib along the way with all the stupid superlatives, and constantly going off on tangents.
Trump is going to have a hard time suppressing the death statistics and then spinning the death statistics as a great result. But he is already trying.
One thing I noticed yesterday… he did NOT refer to the virus as the China virus, as he has insisted on. He referred to the virus as the Coronavirus. And when it came time to say coronavirus, he paused and choked, then finally said coronavirus instead of China virus. 🦠
The #TrumpPandemic continues to march through the population of the United States of America. 🇺🇸
Protect yourselves. Wash 🧼 your hands. Do not touch your face. Stay away from other people.
☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️☣️
A Prime show review. Like it. Falwell, his ignorance, the infections and blowback as well as the pastor in Florida arrested for holding services doing unintended but valuable public service messaging. Like it. Round two in the Stafford sim series with a first race point of reference and an understanding of the rules. Like it.
The United States can only afford to keep the economy closed for another month or so. Otherwise, we are looking at 5-6 yr depression/ recession potentially. Locking people down for months on end won’t work either. Maybe large crowds will be limited but there will be a revolt come May. I’m not staying in my house all summer. At a certain point people will take back their lives regardless of risk.
If we do all the right things right, we may get away with *only* 200,000 deaths. If nothing was done and we stayed open, we’d end up with six to eight million deaths, or more.
Which one can we not afford?
There really is no linear middle ground. We need to be so very close to perfect or the deaths will be far above the optimistic 200,000. We aren’t that close to perfect. The preliminary numbers look pretty grim as a precursor to what’s coming. Our numbers are tracking Italy, and Italy is being destroyed. We have a population of 330,000,000 that this virus is hunting down.
I will gladly social distance for several months to increase my chances of being around for many more years.
Reagan/GHW Bush were disasters, caused a depression.
Clinton fixed it. Clinton left office with a huge surplus.
GW Bush caused a depression.
Barack Obama fixed it.
Don Trump 💩💩💩💩💩💩 all over the place.
Can you predict the future?
According to Fauci we should anticipate a peak somewhere around April 15-21st. If you do the math, based on a bell curve it brings this out to the end of July before the first wave ends, and they anticipate a second wave in the fall. German researchers are trying to figure out if people who have had the virus will be imune. Johnson & Johnson hopes to have a viable vaccine by years end, and ready for use about this time next year. All we can do is try to stay uninfected, which becomes harder every day. STAY HOME, WASH HANDS. Hope everyone is safe and sane. See you in July?
Virginia Governor orders the end to in-person classes, effectively shutting down Liberty U. campus.
Why does religion think it is immune from law and order, and responsible citizenship?
These people claim they are being unfairly persecuted, and then they go and do this stupidity to themselves. Why don’t they just go and feed themselves to some lions? 🦁
The Governor shouldn’t have had to do anything, common sense should have told Liberty not to resume classes. But when the guy who owns the university is a nut job, then you get what we have here. Too bad they couldn’t charge Falwell with criminal negligence or something to set an example. Too many STUPID people have too much power. I really think before too long we will see social uprisings in some of the larger cities. People can only take so much.
Want to send a shout out to all the medical professionals, first responders, grocery store workers gas station attendants and all the other “essential” people putting their lives on the line every day…THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Rob, people are stupid and have to be told what to do. Why do you think there are so many whackos out there taking advantage of people that will follow a light to the flame and self immoliate?
Isolation has been extended to 30 days, with no end in sight.
What a lying sack of ..it. it’s 6:30 Tuesday night. Trump is live on TV saying that allot of his advisors, and friends told him to ride this out and do nothing, it will go away, and luckily he had the common sense to take action. Absolutely absurd comment, quite frankly at a time when we really don’t need to be hearing his B.S. Please remember the past few months come November people. Another 4 years of this and there won’t be a U.S.A. . He will reduce us to a fourth world country.
I disagree there is no end in sight. Look who is not getting sick. All the people working in the grocery stores. Business operators are going to see this and start to open their doors. Some will have to open to save their businesses. The economy will become the driving force, not corona. At some point the lockdown becomes ineffective. At some point it will become proceed at your own risk. I think we will hit that point in mid May myself.
The NFL plans to open on schedule now. NCAA Football maybe not. We shall see which one wins out. I think Nascar will eventually open back up with capacity restrictions.
Agree with you both, Dareal and JD. At this point it’s a wait and see. On one of the morning news shows they interviewed a famous NY restaurant owner. He said by the time this is over we may see a 70% reduction in the number of restaurants and bars Nationwide. The government stimulus designated to help these small business’s is by his estimate after talking to his bank, months away and there are allot of stipulations to the grants or loans that most restaurant owners will not sign up. I guess it really is a wait and see situation.
JD, how do you know that the people at the grocery stores are not getting sick? Nobody wants to work at the grocery stores and Walmarts. There is probably tremendous churning, people leaving for numerous reasons, illness or safety, and then need to be replaced. The grocery stores are offering a couple dollars more per hour as incentives. My local grocery store has signs all over, you can be hired on the spot. They are desperate for employees. They are desperate for employees because they are losing employees.
It has to be wait and see. We have no therapy and simply have to let the virus run its natural course. We are not in control of this at all. We are in a total defensive position, reacting to the virus. That is totally wait and see. The projections presented today show that there will still be a significant death rate at the end of July. We can not dictate a timeline. A timeline is dictated by the virus and when its safe to go out without causing a resurgence in infections. If people go out before it is safe, they can refuel a resurgence, like feeding the virus. Not a good idea.
The first case in the USA was identified on January 20, 2020. We didn’t take action until mid March. The virus had two months to spread unfettered in the USA. That is deadly.
The GOP is now blaming the Democrats for the pandemic, saying that the Trump Impeachment was a distraction that prevented the Government from addressing the coronavirus. The first virus 🦠 case was identified in the USA on January 20. The Senate impeachment vote was February 5. I don’t think so. Furthermore, the USA was sending plane loads of medical equipment to China to help them deal with the pandemic. Look up the Twitter feed of Sec. Pompeo, on Feb 7, where he posted about a 747 unloading in China with PPE, ventilators, and other equipment from the USA. 🇺🇸 Since the plane in this instance was being unloaded on < Feb 7, clearly the plans for that shipment were made a couple weeks earlier. Since the US Government, during the Trump impeachment, was sending plane loads of medical equipment to help China deal with the pandemic on their soil, they certainly could have been focusing on dealing with the pandemic here, on USA soil.
JD, nobody is out there. I went grocery shopping and was very surprised at how few people were out and about. Roads are empty, shopping areas are empty, so many stores are closed. Even if stores were open now, I doubt people would be going out as if there was no pandemic. Nobody should believe Trump if he should say it is safe to go out. By now it should be clear people need to listen to the Governors, local officials and authorities. I just checked some text messages with a friend, and we started our own social distancing way back in February. This is while Trump was saying it was going to go away on its own.
It's crazy to be out among people now. The morbidity and mortality numbers are skyrocketing. This is a very contagious virus. 🦠
Here we are 18 days after Trump declared a national emergency. The Pentagon has over 2000 ventilators ready to ship, no one has told them where to ship them. The U.S. military has 16 labs capable of processing the Covid tests, no one has ordered them to do so. The list goes on and on. It’s like we have a bunch of children in charge. That 100,000- 200,000 death figure, if the inadiquate response continues we will greatly surpass those figures. Call your Senators, call your Congressmen. He’ll, call the Whitehouse. Demand action. If enough people call maybe, just maybe we’ll catch up to this and keep the death till below a million. In the meantime, stay safe, wash your hands, sanitize everything But most of all pray for those on the front lines, thank them if you see them. Remember they are putting their lives in jeopardy to try and save ours, and they are doing it without a compitent leader. Again stay safe, strong and sane. Ape alone weak, Apes together strong. Learn from the Apes.
” For whatever reason New York got off to a late start, and we see what happens when you get off to a late start”. Golly…wonder why they got a late start? Could it be because someone lacked the common sense to see this for what it was? Could it be that someone fired all the infectious disease people 2 years ago? Could it be that someone’s administration lagged on getting tests available? Could it be all of the above?
One doctor interviewed by CNN, don’t know his name, put things in perspective when he said: ” We need PPE, plain and simple, if we die, then you die”
NYS did NOT get off to a late start. Cuomo has been holding press briefings for WEEKS, making it clear that there will be emergency field hospitals. I’ve been watching the Cuomo briefings. Cuomo has been saying this for WEEKS AND WEEKS while Trump has been saying all is good, it will go away like a miracle.
Trump is spreading 💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩.
I wonder now if the GOP Senate regrets acquitting Trump?
I was at Market Basket yesterday. Every lane was open. 1 cashier and 1 bag person per aisle. A few managers roaming about. Another dozen or so employees throughout the store. They were fully staffed as far as I could see. I saw all the regular faces. The store wasn’t crowded but maybe 90 customers or so. Everyone was doing their thing but being safe. For many, it’s not a death sentence. Tom Hanks survived. Chris Cuomo is still on TV. Sean Peyton survived.
Listen, the government is incompetent at times. They said all the same things about Bush during Katrina. The government is not one person. Im a 26 year gov employee. I see it everyday, even in good times. It isn’t going to be perfect. By all means do what you have too but we can’t cancel life after a certain point.
The GOP is now blaming the Democrats for the pandemic, saying that the Trump Impeachment was a distraction that prevented the Government from addressing the coronavirus. The first virus 🦠 case was identified in the USA on January 20. The Senate impeachment vote was February 5. I don’t think so. Furthermore, the USA was sending plane loads of medical equipment to China to help them deal with the pandemic. Look up the Twitter feed of Sec. Pompeo, on Feb 7, where he posted about a 747 unloading in China with PPE, ventilators, and other equipment from the USA. 🇺🇸 Since the plane in this instance was being unloaded on < Feb 7, clearly the plans for that shipment were made a couple weeks earlier. Since the US Government, during the Trump impeachment, was sending plane loads of medical equipment to help China deal with the pandemic on their soil, they certainly could have been focusing on dealing with the pandemic here, on USA soil.
Doing ok today. Have elected not to watch any news coverage. Cannot stand to listen to Trump’s B.S. anymore. Only seeing 2-3 min. updates from local news. Figure I’ll try tuning out to get stress level down. So far so good.
People, go watch the White House press briefing from March 31. Trump admitted he has known about how deadly this pandemic was going to get, but he chose to be positive and be a cheerleader. He has known for months.
The USA sent plane loads of medical equipment to CHINA in very early February to help China, while doing nothing here. The planes were flying in early Feb, meaning plans were made in January. The USA Governors were BEGGING for help all along, making it perfectly clear they were preparing plans for triage facilities, field hospitals, etc. for MONTHS. And since January, the Trump Admin was working with China to send plane loads of medical equipment to China.
You know who was an actual cheerleader? GW Bush. He was a cheerleader at Yale.
Trump just wants to cheer people on, have them keep spending money to keep the economy afloat, and just expire along the way. He still does not understand that he can not control the press and suppress all the results of his incompetence.
Rob, watch the NYS Gov. Cuomo press briefings. They usually happen around 11 am. They are daily.
You can stream them, just do a search. I use CBSN stream from NY.
The 6:30 national news will give you the highlights. CNN and Fox are just opinion tv based on your political stance. Not a bad idea Bob.
Crime will be the next thing. It’s going to spike due to the lockdown. I heard domestics are already up in Texas. By nature, we are not meant to live like this. Another month might be ok but then…
Whether it’s the Yahoo or the MSN round up, cable or nightly broadcast news the concentration is always on the biggest stories and the biggest stories coming from hot spots. Equipment shortages, dire predictions, stressed medical professionals, insufficient safely garments and masks, temporary hospitals and refrigerated trailers for bodies. After watching it for a time you come away with a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness.
That’s why it’s healthy to limit exposure to it. For me it’s the first 15 minute segment on broadcast news each night. It’s bad in some places for sure. However seeing the suffering of medical professionals in hot spots that can’t be with their families, interviews with family members that couldn’t say goodbye to their dead grandparent, various notable people that have died of the virus after a point becomes counter productive. For most of us we need helpful information that is actionable with regard to our behavior. We need to be aware of the suffering but not drowning in it.
The National Guard does not have road blocks. Police are not using force to shut down businesses that are not deemed essential. We are not on the edge of revolt and anarchy. Some people are working, not everyone is at home shaking huddled in a corner and you can go out and do what you have to do. You may not get everything you want but you can certainly get everything you need.
For me I look at the reports for my area. 24 cases as of yesterday in Enfield. Obviously many more considering those unreported but we’re definitely not a hot spot. Armed with the knowledge of social distancing, no hands to the face and all the rest I head out. Picking up some food, hardware store to get a C clip for my Wheel Horse tractor and pick up a bottle of 190 proof grain alcohol to make wipes. Not without risk but risk managed by information and common sense.
There are not just two choices. Huddle in your house in fear or out an about with no regard to the virus. There’s a third. Assessing the risk in your area. Limiting your exposure to that which is necessary. Doing what you have to do being knowledgeable, showing good judgement and doing what needs to be done without inordinate risk to yourself and others.