Coronavirus daily update: Wednesday, Jan. 26

The angry mob has spoken, part II

I believe I could have written a few thousand words on this week’s Game Stop saga, which has already stripped billions form short-selling hedge funds and created more than a few Reddit millionaires. I settled for these 550 words, which is 200 above my usual weekly count.

I really want to explore the similarities between the Game Stop Squeeze and the Capitol Insurrection: Both involved large numbers of regular people connecting and educating each other through the internet, a call to action that upends the status quo — or, at least, attempts to, a collective movement that changes the rules of the game.

Now the short-sellers have re-upped, betting that the redditors won’t have the discipline not to cash out. But the redditors seem to understand that if they play out the squeeze, there will be another spike in price when the shorters have to pay up. This will likely be followed by another short play, which basically means that the New York Stock Exchange has been reduced to the world’s most expensive game of chicken.

Do people still know what a game of chicken is?

The numbers

• After three days of decline, North Carolina curves upwards again with 5,587 new cases, 733,010 total. With 8,915 deaths (+139)
  • 11.1 positive test rate. Still too high.
• Guilford County sucks with 608 new cases today. This is way too high. 31,618 total, 355 deaths (+0) and 5,121 active cases.
• Forsyth adds 73 for 26,992. 276 deaths (+1), 3,758 current cases.

A diversion

In the mood for a little escapism, so here’s a throwback to a much more innocent (racist) time. The Smothers brothers were progressives in the 1950s and ’60s, and having Harry Belafonte on their show was sort of groundbreaking and overtly political. Still, it feels a little racist. Judge for yourself.

Program notes

• “1807, Friedland” depicts one of Napoleon’s most famous victories. By Ernest Meissonier, 1861-75. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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