Donald Trump's Coronavirus Task Force is scheduled to speak to the nation in a few minutes. You can watch live online here.

The procedural vote on the Republican's Trillion Dollar [Corporate] Aid bill has been delayed. ET.

I hope everyone reading this is feeling okay.

Update: Trump was abysmal in his delivery. He read from his speech, not a teleprompter, which it sounded like he hadn't even read before taking the podium. He rambled on about something having to do with rescuing a woman who was "horribly treated" and "terribly abused" somewhere and we needed Honduras' government's approval to "get her out of there". (Maybe that was the reason the presser started an hour late? This must be her.) [More...]

I think America will recover from the coronavirus much faster than the economic calamity that is befalling the country. I think we passed recession months ago and are now headed into a 1920's style depression. For more technical explanations, see Axios here . I don't know how the economy bounces back after this. This is not like fighting a world war -- it seems like Americans will soon be fighting a domestic economic battle, for food, shelter and other basics of life. [More...]

I'm not sure what the point is of tonight's "debate" given the modifications and that everyone believes Biden has this sewn up.

Calls for Bernie to suspend his campaign are premature. He's helping Democrats by staying in. He obviously knows the math as well as anyone. And that despite his army of followers, they aren't turning out to vote. That will be a problem for Democrats in November.

By staying in, Bernie can try to keep his fans energized and encourage them to turn out and vote. [More...]

Now that testing is available in Colorado (albeit limited and involving long waits), the Colorado Department of Public Health is reporting results online with updates every five minutes. Denver and Eagle County (Vail) each have 24 cases. Total for Colorado as of today, March 15, 2020: 131. One elderly woman at increased risk due to a history of pulmonary issues has died in El Paso County (Colorado Springs).

On March 13, 2020 there were 5 new cases. On March 14, 2020 there were 24 new cases. Today, there are 30 new cases confirmed by testing.

Here is a realtime updated map and infographic by the Colorado Department of Health and Public Safety. [More...]

The White House is holding a press conference today on the coronavirus. If you are online now, you can watch it live here.

Trump begins with what he calls great news and he's very happy, the Federal Reserve has lowered the treasury rate to 0.

He wants to thank Google because they substantiated what he said on Friday (it was fake news that Google denied it.)

This is quite an explanatory multi-media graphic from the South China Post on the beginning and evolution of the Coronavirus. It is updated daily.

Also interesting, again from the South China Post, is an article on the search for "Patient Zero" who authorities now believe contracted the disease on November 17, 2019 (rather than December as previously believed).

According to the government data seen by the Post, a 55 year-old from Hubei province could have been the first person to have contracted Covid-19 on November 17.

...While the government records have not been released to the public, they provide valuable clues about how the disease spread in its early days and the speed of its transmission, as well as how many confirmed cases Beijing has recorded.

Donald Trump says he did not contribute to the coronavirus pandemic by removing the office created to deal with such things that had been established under Obama.

To the suprise of no one, the coronavirus is spreading around the globe. Now that three people Donald Trump shook hands with or was otherwise close to at Mar-a-Lago have tested positive, Trump changed course (yet again) and announced he has been tested. (Update: His results were negative according to his personal White House physician, Sean P. Conley, reports his tests were negative. (This is after yesterday when he said Trump didn't need to get tested.)

Spain and France have announced partial shutdowns. France has ordered all restaurants, bars, and shops closed (except grocery stores). Here is how it has been growing. [More...]

The company that physically hosts TalkLeft's server is in the process of moving its servers a short distance from where they are presently located. Our server was not scheduled to be moved until midnight tonight, but apparently someone pulled the wrong plug somewhere when moving another server last night, and TalkLeft was down for several hours last night and this morning.

Obviously, we are back up now, but we are still on schedule to be moved tonight around midnight, and we should be down for only 90 minutes or so (n a perfect world).

I apologize for any inconvenience to those of you who clicked this morning and got no response -- I only realized it around 9:00 am, by which time Colin, our webmaster, was already on it and we went back up soon after.

This is now an open thread, all topics welcome.

An automatic circuit tripper was triggered this morning when the NYSE opened due to the worst drop in the Dow Jones average since the financial crisis of October, 2008 (and before that, 9/11):

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked 1,247 points — 4.8% — on pace for its worst day since December 2008, while the S&P 500 plunged 4.9%. The massive sell-off triggered a key market circuit breaker minutes after the opening bell. Trading was halted for 15 minutes until reopening at 9:49 a.m. ET. At one point in morning trading, the 30-stock Dow dropped 2,046 points and the S&P 500 cratered 7.4%.

This is the first time the trigger was activated since 1997.

As for why the Dow freaked out, it's fears over the oil trade deal and the coronavirus.[More...]

It's down to a two man race for the Democratic nomination -- Elizabeth Warren has suspended her campaign,

She didn't make an endorsement but said there's no rush to do so.

So after all the hub-bub with a diverse field of 20, we are down to two white almost-octogenarians. What a disappointment.

Super Tuesday results are streaming in. Sanders has Vermont and Utah and Biden has Virginia.

What about Mike? Will his cash seal the deal?

How was the turnout? What do the exit polls show? Most importantly, did those of you in the Super Tuesday states remember to vote?

Will whatever went down today at MSNBC between the network and Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, ever be fully explained? I'm not sure. But I suspect Matthews' sexist comments to a certain female and his inappropriate remarks about Hitler and Sanders, for which he apologized, are merely examples of why the network decided he was so incompatible with the politics of now as to have become obsolete.

Matthews seems to believe that covering politics today is the same as it was 20 years ago and the only changes are the names and faces of both those in front of the camera and those being interviewed. He likely believes his institutional knowledge of politics makes him a hugely valuable asset.