Jan 252020
 
 January 25, 2020  Posted by at 10:53 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Harris&Ewing Happy News Cafe, “restaurant for the unemployed”, Washington, DC 1937

 

China Virus Death Toll Rises To 41, More Than 1,300 Infected Worldwide (R.)
UK Researcher: Over 250,000 Chinese Will Have Coronavirus In 10 Days (ZH)
GOP Senators Incensed By Schiff’s ‘Head On A Pike’ Remark (AP)
Adam Schiff’s Very Scary Warmongering Speech (Daniel Lazare)
Adam Schiff Is Turning Into A Tom Clancy Character (Tucker Carlson)
The Big Sleep (Jim Kunstler)
2016 WH Meeting with ‘Whistleblower’ and Ukrainians on Burisma (AG)
No One Has Suggested My Son Did Anything Wrong: Joe Biden Doubles Down (Turley)
Professors Donate To Democrats Over Republicans By A 95:1 Ratio (Turley)
Four Australian MPs Urge Britain To Ban Huawei (SMH)

 

 

Numbers growing by the hour.

China Virus Death Toll Rises To 41, More Than 1,300 Infected Worldwide (R.)

The death toll from China’s coronavirus outbreak jumped on Saturday to 41 from 26 a day earlier as the Lunar New Year got off to a gloomy start, with authorities curbing travel and cancelling public gatherings. More than 1,300 people have been infected globally with a virus traced to a seafood market in the central city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. Health authorities around the world are scrambling to prevent a pandemic. State-run China Global Television Network reported in a tweet on Saturday that a doctor who had been treating patients in Wuhan, 62-year-old Liang Wudong, had died from the virus. It was not immediately clear if his death was already counted in the official toll of 41, of which 39 were in the central province of Hubei, where Wuhan is located.

U.S. coffee chain Starbucks said on Saturday that it was closing all its outlets in Hubei province for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, following a similar move by McDonald’s in five Hubei cities. Wuhan, a city of 11 million, has been in virtual lockdown since Thursday, with nearly all flights at the airport canceled and checkpoints blocking the main roads leading out of town. Authorities have since imposed transport restrictions on nearly all of Hubei province, which has a population of 59 million. In Beijing on Saturday, workers in white protective suits checked temperatures of passengers entering the subway at the central railway station, while some train services in eastern China’s Yangtze River Delta region were suspended, the local railway operator said.


The number of confirmed cases in China stands at 1,287, the National Health Commission said on Saturday. The virus has also been detected in Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal, Malaysia, France, the United States and Australia. Australia on Saturday announced its first case of coronavirus, a Chinese national in his 50s, who had been in Wuhan and arrived from China on Jan. 19 on a flight from Guangzhou. He is in stable condition in a Melbourne hospital.


Fibonacci

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Very informative on contagion. We’ll see in 10 days if he is right.

UK Researcher: Over 250,000 Chinese Will Have Coronavirus In 10 Days (ZH)

When it comes to estimating the human capital and potential fallout from a highly contagious epidemic, arguably the most important variable is the R0 (“R-naught”) value of the disease, which represents the average number of secondary cases arising from an average primary case in a entirely susceptible population. That’s the technical definition, a simpler one is that the R0, or basic reproductive number, of a contagious disease is the number of cases that a case of the disease generates over the course of its infectious period in a susceptible population. The higher this number, the more dangerous the disease, the more lethal the outcome.

Some indicative R0s are 0.9 – 2.1 for the common flu while the 1918-1919 pandemic-causing Spanish flu was estimated to have ranged from 1.4 – 2.8, with a mean of 2. Some other notable R0s are shown below, and note that SARS was between 2 and 5:

So what about the R0 of 2019-nCoV, also known as the coronavirus that has claimed over three dozen lives in China and infected (at least) 1,000 people? Naturally, since the disease is most active in China which is notoriously opaque especially when it comes to matters that can cause a mass panic, the best one can do is guess, and that’s what the World Health Organization did yesterday when it issued a statement on the coronavirus epidemic with the following projection:

Human-to-human transmission is occurring and a preliminary R0 estimate of 1.4-2.5 was presented. Amplification has occurred in one health care facility. Of confirmed cases, 25% are reported to be severe. The source is still unknown (most likely an animal reservoir) and the extent of human-to-human transmission is still not clear.

Needless to say, while 2.5 is quite high, and in line with that of the Spanish flu epidemic which infected about half a billion people back in 1918, killing as many as 100 million before it eventually fizzled out, the real coronavirus R0 number may end up being far higher. That is the working hypothesis of Jonathan Read, a UK expert on the transmission and evolutionary dynamics of infectious diseases, who has published a paper with four colleagues that estimates transmission parameters for the Wuhan coronavirus, calculates that the R0 of 2019-nCoV to be between 3.6-4.0 or roughly the same as SARS, and reaches a conclusion about spread of the coronavirus epidemic that is frankly terrifying.

In “Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: early estimation of epidemiological parameters and epidemic predictions“, Reed et al, write that with an R0 of between 3.6 and 4.0, roughly 72-75% of transmissions “must be prevented by control measures for infections to stop increasing.”

This is a major problem because Reed estimates that only 5.1% of infections in Wuhan are identified (as of Jan 24), “indicating a large number of infections in the community, and also reflecting the difficulty in detecting cases of this new disease.” Furthermore, since all of this is happening in China which is not known for making the most socially-beneficial decisions under pressure, there is an ominous possibility that Reed is actually overly optimistic.

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Sounds desperate. But this is not new for Schiff, making stuff up.

GOP Senators Incensed By Schiff’s ‘Head On A Pike’ Remark (AP)

Senate Republicans said lead impeachment prosecutor Adam Schiff insulted them during the trial by repeating an anonymously sourced report that the White House had threatened to punish Republicans who voted against President Donald Trump. Schiff, who delivered closing arguments for the prosecution, was holding Republican senators rapt as he called for removing Trump from office for abusing his power and obstructing Congress. Doing anything else, he argued, would be to let the president bully Senate Republicans into ignoring his pressure on Ukraine for political help. “CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that key senators were warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’ I don’t know if that’s true,” Schiff said.

After that remark, the generally respectful mood in the Senate immediately changed. Republicans across their side of the chamber groaned, gasped and said, “That’s not true.” One of those key moderate Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, looked directly at Schiff, shook her head and said, “Not true.” “Not only have I never heard the ‘head on the pike’ line,” Collins said in a statement, “but also I know of no Republican senator who has been threatened in any way by anyone in the administration.” [..] “That’s when he lost me,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican moderate, said about Schiff’s remark, according to her spokeswoman. She denied having been told what the network reported about the White House. Schiff’s invocation of it, she added, ”was unnecessary.”

Collins, another moderate who is up for reelection this year, is one of the few Republican senators who has expressed an openness to calling witnesses in the impeachment trial. She had been listening intently to Schiff’s presentation and writing down some of his points. When he made the “pike” comment, she looked directly at Schiff and slowly and repeatedly shook her head back and forth. When he finished his speech and the trial adjourned, GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Barrasso of Wyoming made a beeline for her seat. Collins again shook her head and said, “No.”

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Schiff the neocon warmonger. Hard to deny by now.

Adam Schiff’s Very Scary Warmongering Speech (Daniel Lazare)

All the usual suspects are praising Adam Schiff’s marathon two-and-a-half-hour Senate speech on Wednesday to the skies. Neocon columnist Jennifer Rubin calls it “a grand slam” in the Washington Post. Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin describes it as “dazzling” on CNN. New York Times columnist Gail Collins says it was “a great job” and that Schiff is “a rock star” for pulling it off. But in fact it was the opposite – a fear-mongering, sword-rattling harangue that will not only raise tensions with Russia for no good reason, but sends a chilling message to dissidents at home that if they deviate from Russiagate orthodoxy by one iota, they’ll be driven from the fold.

What is that orthodoxy? It’s that Russia invaded poor innocent Ukraine in 2014, that it interfered in the US presidential election in 2016 in order to hurt Hillary Clinton and propel Donald Trump into the White House, and that it’s now trying to smear Joe Biden merely because he had allowed his son to take a high-paying job with a notorious Ukrainian oligarch at a time when he was supposedly heading up the Ukrainian anti-corruption effort.

[..] Schiff’s emergence as leader of the Democratic impeachment drive means that the party is re-grouping along the most retrograde Cold War lines. As reckless and appalling as Trump’s behavior is in the Persian Gulf, the emerging Democratic worldview is shaping up as no less extreme. Because it sees Russia as mounting a multi-pronged offensive, the clear implication is that the US must respond in kind. This means more troops deployments, more forces mobilized to counter Russian threats from Venezuela to the Middle East, more TV talking heads going on and on about this or that Kremlin conspiracy, and more labelling of people like Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein as Russian assets.

Remember, this is the Los Angeles neocon who backed the invasion of Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, and Saudi Arabia’s unprovoked war against Yemen, an assault that, since March 2015, has cost 100,000 lives and brought half the country to the brink of starvation. He supported Obama’s war in Libya and called for the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria and relies on arms manufacturers and military contractors for major financial support. But while Bernie supporters may have thought that Democrats were edging away from such views, they’re plainly in the wrong. Schiff’s new-found prominence shows that the neocons are back in the saddle. Impeachment advocates should be careful of what they wish for because the anti-Trump forces are turning out to be no less dangerous than those helping him to remain.

Read more …

Bob Mueller couldn’t lay Russiagate to rest.

Adam Schiff Is Turning Into A Tom Clancy Character (Tucker Carlson)

Tucker Carlson said the Democrats’ impetus for impeaching President Trump can be distilled to a policy disagreement since the president has inflamed permanent Washington by pledging to execute a foreign policy countering what the government’s “neocons” have done for the past several decades. “By now you may be wondering, ‘How is this the impeachment we were promised? Wasn’t it supposed to be the abuse of power, the contempt of Congress?” the host asked his “Tucker Carlson Tonight” audience. “The genesis of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, it turns out, wasn’t the now-famous Ukraine phone call or even his victory three years ago — It actually began February 13th, 2016. That’s the day that Trump debated Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz [and others] … in South Carolina,” he said.

“Trump said things that, until then, no major Republican candidate had been willing to say out loud – he said America should reach an agreement with Russia rather than fighting proxy wars against them. He called the trillions of dollars we spent in the Middle East a waste. At the time, it seemed like Trump was asked attacking Republican orthodoxy, but now it’s clear, and this impeachment makes it crystal clear, that Trump was attacking the consensus of both parties in Washington. It’s a neoconservative consensus. ” In that way, Trump also politically enraged Schiff, who spent much of this week making his case for removing Trump from office while speaking on the Senate floor.

“[Schiff] went on like this all day long — voice rising, eyes bulging — and over time he began to sound less like a congressman from Burbank and more like a character from a Tom Clancy novel,” Carlson said. “The greatest threat to America, Schiff said, is not Russia’s First Guard’s tank army, it’s the president of United States who quite possibly could be the first nonvoting member of the Politburo.” Carlson recalled that Schiff claimed Friday that Trump had been “manipulated to disbelieve his own intelligence agencies” and “accept the propaganda of the Kremlin” as fact. He warned that Schiff appears to want to continue in what he characterized as the problematic customs of the past — “keep[ing] America overextended abroad, stuck in quagmires across the world that [have killed] our finest young men.”

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“.. to make the forthcoming raft of indictments against RussiaGate coupsters look like a mere act of revenge rather than long-delayed justice..”

The Big Sleep (Jim Kunstler)

The impeachment case against Mr. Trump might mercifully spell the end of the Master Narrative the Democrats have been confabulating since 2016: that Donald Trump invited the wicked Vlad Putin to checkmate Hillary Clinton and thereby crushed the hopes and dreams of those wishing to make Ukraine the 51st state… or something like that. Because according to Mr. Schiff, there is no nation on this planet as dear to the interests of America than darling Ukraine, with its radioactive forests, decrepitating Soviet infrastructure, and dedication to liberty. Those who were only puzzling over Nancy Pelosi’s motives in bringing this case, and assigning it to the two sketchiest characters in her charge, Schiff & Nadler, must finally be convinced that she is no longer sound of mind.

What was she thinking? Did she really want to set up the voters to lose faith in the basic electoral process by preemptively delegitimizing the 2020 election? (“Trump can only win if he cheats!”) Is she that desperate to flip the Senate to prevent anymore judicial appointments? Could be. Or is the impeachment spectacle a different kind of set-up: to make the forthcoming raft of indictments against RussiaGate coupsters look like a mere act of revenge rather than long-delayed justice for a three-year campaign of perfidious sedition by some of the highest officials in the land? Anyway, after another day of this boresome torment, the Senate will get to hear Mr. Trump’s defense in a full-throated way — really for the first time since the whole nasty business began, and in a conspicuous venue where it can’t be ignored anymore.

If nothing else, it will probably be more interesting and certainly more dignified than the idiotic vaudeville put on by Schiff & Nadler. Even if the President’s managers move to dismiss the case out-of-hand for its utter lack of merit and the legal errors in its construction by two House committees, I doubt they will miss the opportunity to use the time allotted to lay out the story of what actually happened the past three years — a crime spree of government against itself. The temptation to call witnesses must be anguishing, though, from a legal standpoint the Houses’s case deserves to be thrown out summarily just to reestablish the principle that impeachment is not a frivolity. But the nation would miss the chance for Mr. Schiff to have to explain exactly what happened around the “whistleblower” episode and, of course, there would be no more possible excuses for producing the “whistleblower” him-or-herself in the witness dock. I think we would discover what an absolutely shady operation that was.

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“Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton.”

2016 WH Meeting with ‘Whistleblower’ and Ukrainians on Burisma (AG)

In an exclusive report, Wednesday night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham revealed that the New York Times last May quashed a story about a White House meeting in January of 2016 between Obama administration officials—including the so-called whistleblower—and Ukrainian officials that addressed Hunter Biden’s problematic position at Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings. Ingraham said she obtained a chain of State Department emails between NYT journalist Ken Vogel and State Department official Kate Schilling centering on the reporter’s request for comment on the story. [..] Democrats say the president withheld military aid from Ukraine until he could get a guarantee from the Ukrainian President Zelensky that the Bidens would be investigated.

However, a document unearthed last October shows that Ukrainian officials had actually opened a new probe into Burisma months before President Trump’s July 2019 phone call with the Ukrainian president. Some Republicans have called for Hunter Biden to testify in the Senate impeachment trial. Ken Vogel is the reporter who wrote the oft-cited January 2017 piece in Politico titled: Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire. Subtitled: “Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton.” Media reports referring to Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 election did not become controversial until Biden announced his candidacy for president in April of 2019.

Then, as President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani conducted his very public investigation into the matter throughout 2019, Democrats and their allies in the media started characterizing the claim that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election as a “conspiracy theory.” In Vogel’s May 1, 2019 email to Schilling about the Obama White House meeting, the reporter reportedly mentioned the name of the CIA analyst widely believed to be the anti-Trump whistleblower, whose complaint against the president sparked the Democrats’ impeachment efforts. Ingraham did not reveal his name because Fox News hosts are banned from doing so until the identity is confirmed, but she was likely was referring to Eric Ciaramella, who has been outed in conservative media as the whistleblower.

In the email, Vogel wrote, “We are going to report that (State Department official) Elizabeth Zentos attended a meeting at the White House on 1/19/2016 with Ukrainian prosecutors and embassy officials as well as … [redacted] from the NSC … the subjects discussed included efforts within the United State government to support prosecutions, in Ukraine and the United Kingdom, of Burisma Holdings … and concerns that Hunter Biden’s position with the company could complicate such efforts.”

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We all know many people have suggested just that. So why repeat that line all the time?

No One Has Suggested My Son Did Anything Wrong: Joe Biden Doubles Down (Turley)

We have previously discussed the denials of former Vice President Joe Biden that his son did anything wrong in Ukraine. As I have written, not only did Hunter Biden clearly enter into a corrupt (but arguably lawful) contract but Joe Biden did not do enough to confirm that his son was not engaging in influence peddling. Nevertheless, this week, Joe Biden continued this indefensible position and declared bizarrely that “no one has suggested my son did anything wrong.” According to the Washington Post, Joe Biden declared on the campaign trail that “There’s nobody that’s indicated there’s a single solitary thing that he did that was inappropriate, wrong … or anything other than the appearance. It looked bad that he was there.”

He then curiously added “He acknowledges that he in fact made a mistake going on the board.” So, in other words, he did nothing wrong but he apologized for it. Joe Biden continues to maintain that “no one” has accused his son of wrongdoing when there is a chorus of such allegations. He seems to be drawing a distinction between what is criminal and what is not — as if the criminal code is the only measure of wrongdoing or unethical conduct. Hunter Biden not only clearly engaged in influence peddling but he is clearly a relevant witness. Ukraine was a virtual gold rush for Washington’s elite and Hunter Biden was one of the first in line to cash in. Biden’s quest for a Ukrainian windfall took him to one of Ukraine’s most controversial and corrupt associates, Mykola Zlochevsky, who leveraged his post as minister of ecology and natural resources to build a fortune.

Before fleeing Ukraine, Zlochevsky paid Hunter Biden and several other Americans to be directors of his energy company, Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden had no experience in the field — but he did have a notable connection to the vice president, who publicly has bragged about making clear to the Ukrainians that he alone controlled U.S. aid to the country. A stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry also was asked to serve as a director but reportedly declined and warned Hunter Biden not to do it; Biden didn’t listen. He later told The New Yorker that “the decisions that I made were the right decisions for my family and for me.” His decisions certainly were profitable, but they were not “right” as an ethical matter for himself or his father.

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Woke education.

Professors Donate To Democrats Over Republicans By A 95:1 Ratio (Turley)

Diversity in hiring is the top priority of most colleges and universities. However, the effort to hire more women, minorities, and LGBT individuals notably lacks one group: ideological diversity. It is well-known that most faculty are composed of an overwhelming majority of liberal and democratic members. However, this view, while generally accepted, is largely anecdotal. Now a new study by Heterodox Academy Director of Research Sean Stevens and Brooklyn College Professor Mitchell Langbert claims to have put hard numbers on that lack of diversity. In reviewing records with the Federal Election Commission, they say that they found that professors gave to Democrats over Republicans by a 95:1 ratio.


The researchers looked at 2,301 political donations and found that 2,081 went to Democrats while just 22 went to Republicans. Only nine professors gave to both parties. An earlier study found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a 10:4 ratio. Business Management Associate Professor Mitchell Langbert reviewed the party affiliations of 8,688 professors at 51 of the top 60 liberal arts colleges listed in U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 rankings. [..] A recent study at Harvard found that only 35 percent of conservative students felt free to share their views on campuses. That chilling effect is the result of not just open hostility to conservative voices on campus but a striking lack of diversity among academics in terms of ideology.

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Ausralia panders to China on just about any other topic.

Four Australian MPs Urge Britain To Ban Huawei (SMH)

Four Australian MPs and chairs of parliamentary committees have launched an unprecedented combined intervention into Britain’s Huawei debate, urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to follow Australia’s ban. But their calls came amid further signs Johnson is likely to rebuff pleas from Australia and the United States and allow the Chinese telecommunications manufacturer to supply some parts of the country’s 5G network. Reuters, citing two sources, reported British officials had given the green light to Huawei involvement – the same position taken when Theresa May was prime minister but failed to resolve the issue after it split her National Security Council (NSC).

The NSC is expected to back Chinese involvement when it meets next week. The council’s decision will be announced in Parliament, prompting the last-ditch intervention from the quartet of Australian MPs. Liberal MPs Andrew Hastie, Tim Wilson, James Paterson and Labor’s Kimberley Kitching all issued statements to The Times of London explaining why Liberal and Labor Australian governments had banned the company from building the national broadband network and supplying the 5G rollout. Hastie, who chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, said it was about “digital sovereignty” and urged solidarity among the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, comprising Australia, the US, UK, New Zealand and Canada.

“Our membership of the Five Eyes community is central to our defence and security strategy,” he said. “In a time of growing strategic uncertainty, Australia values that membership more than ever.” Senator James Paterson, who chairs the Joint Corporations and Financial Services Committee, said the ban had been uncontroversial when imposed in Australia. “Successive Australian governments from both sides of politics banned Huawei from our broadband and 5G networks with very little controversy,” he said. “No one in the Australian political system regrets those decisions today.”

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 25 2020

Viewing 26 posts - 1 through 26 (of 26 total)
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  • #52992

    Harris&Ewing Happy News Cafe, “restaurant for the unemployed”, Washington, DC 1937   • China Virus Death Toll Rises To 41, More Than 1,300 In
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 25 2020]

    #52993
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Numbers growing by the hour…

    Are you sure this is the thing you want to communicate?
    Seems a bit like MSM bullshit; slightly alarmist…and it’s a byline.
    I would find it extremely difficult to think this was your intension…

    #52994

    huh?

    #52995
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    huh?

    My comment wasn’t meant as slight, just more a question about your wording…
    …and, given a few minutes to consider…never mind…
    😉

    #52996

    I’ve been trying all week to not be alarmist. But overnight the official death toll went from 26 to 41 (1 per hour?!). I also liked reading that official papers kept the news at page 4-5, because Xi’s New Year message had preference. Moreover, all the graphs I see are hockeysticks. And I like the Fibonacci sequence. 250,000 in 10 days? We’ll see. But imagine if that turns out true. 1.3 billion people under lockdown?

    #52997
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I’ve been trying all week to not be alarmist. But overnight the official death toll went from 26 to 41 (1 per hour?!).

    Yes, I know. I realised actual reporting was vital, regardless of big moves or small.
    That’s why I cut myself short.
    Thanks for the information.

    #52998
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Here’s something useful from The Guardian: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-case-for-making-low-tech-dumb-cities-instead-of-smart-ones?utm_source=pocket-newtab

    Just as well to go to low-tech now and beat the rush, since high-tech is spiral of both increasing failures and higher costs. What is is Tainter said about “Collapse”? That it was a result of outsized infrastructure that then saps too much daily support? Our answer: more centralization, more infrastructure, more GDP=more costs.

    So the article can indicate scores of solutions, but we cannot use them – yet – because we cannot let go of centralization and power concentration, and the mind that makes the problem cannot be the mind that sees the solution.

    A lot of hype and alarmism about my Corona. Let’s see what happens and what the real numbers are. People may “have it” but if if only gives you the common cold, then that happens already with all the existing flus. Kung-flu, as they’re saying. It’s probably worse, but how MUCH worse? I’m not getting good info, because without a test, no one knows how many have it. Could be the whole world has already been infected, and the hundred deaths are the cap. Not looking too hard, 3,000 deaths a year in Australia for the common cold, population 25M = 1:8300, or 0.0001% That would be 700k deaths worldwide. See what I mean? Does it go up by fibonocci? It’s cool numbers to put on a page, but can you back it?

    “was holding Republican senators rapt”

    That’s not what Kunstler and other leftists said. They thought if only someone should throw a brick and end it all, like a Vogon Poetry reading. The comment itself is pretty standard these days: IF anything I said/wrote/implied was true, THEN that would be quite a story! Yes, and IF aliens landed and made Fluffy the Shibu king of all earth, that would be a story too. But it didn’t happen, you didn’t have evidence, nobody said it was, and there was no reason to think it ever will. “You can’t make this stuff up!” –CNN reporter, on making all the stuff up.

    Example 5 minutes ago, MSNBC: “Gay teen’s family says his homicide may have been a hate crime” …Or it may not have been. Because I’m a journalist, I didn’t call anybody, collect evidence, or check. Even if there were evidence, that would have to be proven somewhere, presented by the D.A., confirmed by a jury, and might even then be wrong…but at least there would BE a story. The story here is, “If I invent and presume things, there might be a story.”

    Back to the point, yes, IF anything Adam Schiff said was true, that WOULD be interesting and incriminating. However, it’s Mr. Adam’s job to PRESENT EVIDENCE of…anything, frankly…but hopefully something relevant to the non-crimes and non-charges in the impeachment, and after 3 days has failed or forgotten to do so. I can’t help him in that case. Trump could be totally guilty, but you wouldn’t know it through Adam Schiff because he presented nothing to the jury.

    Not exactly sure who the speech was for. It’s a grand-slam to the Twitterati who already agree with him. Okay, great, but a) you need to convince people who do NOT agree with you, and b) the only practical audience is the Senate, because if you convince some voters but not the Senate, he’s going to walk free and undermine your gains with the voters.

    And yes, his whole premise is to bomb Russia, who is the size of Italy and hasn’t been Soviet for 30 years. Even if they were, Schiff’s party is literally the “Democratic Socialist” party, so maybe that’s what they’re mad about: that Russia is NOT communist, but vaguely authoritarian mixed-capitalist like we are. I guess Carlson is right? According to Schiff the impeachment is about nuking Russia, not any action by Trump? That’s what’s on trial here?
    Do we all want to die? Will we vote for WWIII?

    Per Kunstler, is it instead a plan to discredit democracy, government, elections, and therefore incite a civil war? Probably, that’s been the plan since Limbaugh in the 90s, but I don’t know if they can get that far from here. Even Antifa doesn’t seem to be getting lift-off, and it requires one side in government, and the outside faction to be armed and orderly, like Virginia. However, Virginia was so orderly they had no news and even picked up all their garbage before returning home.

    “Ukrainian officials had actually opened a new probe into Burisma months before President Trump’s July 2019 phone call”

    Hey no kidding. So how was he going to rig an election to open a case they already had opened, twice? Three, four times? Doesn’t matter. ‘Cause I want it to be true and thought it in my mind. That’s beyond whether IF we were eventually able to prove wrongdoing – and to do that someone would have to look – then it would STILL be appropriate. In fact, it’s legally required, both at home and via the Clinton-era treaty. Nevermind: facts, logic. We can’t look, so we can’t know, because looking at my side is a crime. We’re as pure as the driven snow.

    And since there’s more targets than gunsights in a field this dirty, remind that Ukraine has already legally established that they DID rig the ‘16 election, and that has also been established here, with the release of documents on Manafort. But the Ukrainians are Slavs and therefore not real human beings. What they say doesn’t matter and nobody pays attention to them anymore than pigs or untermench snorting. Ask the tolerant, diverse, inclusive left. Nope! Slavs aren’t people, their countries aren’t countries, their laws, opinions, or self-determination don’t count! We don’t even ignore them: they literally don’t exist as humans anymore than flies or bugs.

    no one has suggested my son did anything wrong.

    I have no idea what he’s doing any more then Sanders who tried to say Biden was “not corrupt in any way.” In any way? He’s a politician, no American or other person on earth is going to believe that. Who are you talking to and why did you say it? Jut say, “Your guy’s more corrupt, why are you singling out po’ Joe and picking on his kids?” See how easy that was? Btw, and speaking of the GAO, the ethics rules don’t just say you can’t take bribes(duh), they delineate in detail that IF you are in charge of an area, you CANNOT have family members there, and, covering all, cannot have even the appearance of corruption. Even if he’s completely innocent, which he is, since nothing’s been proven yet, we’re only asking to look. So there’s a real and defined breach of ethics, rejection of rules, and ignoring of oversight. …But we knew that, since the State Department said there was, was covering and responding to it, and briefing the Ambassador for the expected accusations and fallout.

    …Except none of all that happened, though widely reported by the NYT, Politico, in public government records, because if the things that happened, did, it would be legal, logical, and required to ask questions about it. But asking questions about public record and widely-reported stories is treason and impeachable.

    “Professors Donate To Democrats Over Republicans By A 95:1 Ratio (Turley)”

    I think this makes them the least diverse, least tolerant group on the planet. Also reminds me of “If everybody’s thinking the same thing, nobody’s thinking.” And that’s even if you don’t credit throwing all Republicans into re-education camps, which I’ve been hearing from them for decades, and not just from a few young kids in Bernie’s campaign. Where do you think the kids GOT the idea? From trusted professors, who are going to run away like little girls and deny everything like milk-sops, leaving Antifa and the Bernie Bros to swing for what they incited like little weasels. Don’t know what to do with that. It’s what happens when you’re allowed to speak, but no one thinks or expects words to be backed by actions, ever. Since they have no actions but evasion, they’re just chickenhawks. I can’t respect that.

    #52999
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    I wear ear protection with a radio as I labor, and normally listen to classical music. But I have listened to 95% of the presentation thus far, and will again when I get back from the feed mill this morning.

    In my mind Shiff & Co. have done an admirable job in making a case against the president and his abuse of power. Prior to listening I thought the charges were all made up and partisan.

    But I voted against Trump because of his character, and I voted against Hillary because of her neo-conservative foreign policy (thinking she’d quickly lead us to war against Russia).

    Sadly, I think we are now witnessing “prosecutorial over-reach” as Congressman Shiff reaches to connect all this to a “bad, bad” Putin. Conveniently left out are our walking away from treaties, including the promise not to expand NATO.

    I went into this believing that neither side wore the proverbial “white hat”, and Congressman Shiff proved me correct. The whole “Russia-gate” is an unsettled affair and it should have been left alone in this case, IMHO.

    A strategy I would have preferred would have been an open discussion of the hyper-partisanship, a search to mend that at the highest level. This same “use of presidential power” would be used to attack members of the president’s own party who “stepped out of line”, and the clearer minds of the world’s greatest deliberative body needed to stitch this country back together through compromise. Real leadership.

    But no…

    Instead, Shiff & Company opened up a huge, huge ‘nother, unsettled, partisan can of worms. It’s like listening to a person discuss a theory, and you slowly find yourself agreeing…and then next thing you know this seemingly rational person is talking about the “lizard people at the earth’s core in power” and NOW you need to dismiss their entire previous argument.

    So close, representative Shiff, so close…

    #53001
    zerosum
    Participant

    Duplicate/repeat
    STOP/PAUSE

    to pull the wool over someone’s eyes.
    If you say that someone is pulling the wool over your eyes, you mean that they are trying to deceive you, in order to have an advantage over you.

    If someone leads you up the garden path, they deceive you by making you believe something which is not true.

    ETHICS:
    the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.

    Ask yourself very important questions.

    Do you think that your ethics are the same as a politician?
    What are your rules of conducts compared to the rulers of your society?
    Do you think that the enablers, ( bankers, accountants, lawyers), have the same ethics as you?

    Do you believe/accept what you read/see/hear?

    Top Five Critical Thinking Skills
    Analytical. Part of critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine something, whether it is a problem, a set of data, or a text. …
    Communication. Often, you will need to share your conclusions with your employers or with a group of colleagues. …
    Creativity. …
    Open-Minded. …
    Problem Solving.

    An illusion is an act of deception. Some optical illusions are pretty cool to watch, but an illusion can also point to an erroneous belief or false perception of reality, which is where you start getting into hallucination territory — seeing things that aren’t there.

    Believe:
    to think that something is true, correct, or real

    Definition of photoshop

    : to alter (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)

    TIME TO GO BACK TO THE SCHEDULED PROGRAMS 🙂

    #53002
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/56-million-chinese-lockdown-virus-spreads-australia-malaysia

    As we move into Saturday evening on the ground in Wuhan, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to the broader global community that China’s authoritarian government has failed to contain this viral outbreak.

    Chinese authorities expanded the travel restrictions on Saturday to cover 56 million Chinese, Al Jazeera reports. At least 18 cities in central Hubei are now dealing with at least some level of travel restrictions.

    China’s authoritarian government has failed to contain this viral outbreak.
    If you think that your own gov. would be able to manage this viral epidemic better than China then I think that you are living in la-la-land. (The USA)

    #53003
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “and then next thing you know this seemingly rational person is talking about the “lizard people at the earth’s core in power”

    Well, after all, soneone has to be pulling Putin’s strings. It’s puppets, puppets, puppets all the way down.

    I mostly stopped watching the show when Bernie folded in ’16. I knew the odds were on his being a loyal sheepdog when push came to shove, but I also knew that dogs go rogue and Bernie really seemed to be doing that back then, so I banged the gong for him pretty hard until he folded after the DNC predictably gave him the official shaft.

    I didn’t expect Bernie to save the country but I saw how indies gathered around him, and indies are the only relic of moral sanity left in the USA’s pathetic plebescite. I didn’t grieve his political demise as much as one, including myself, might suspect, for the Russophobic reasons cited by Daniel Lazare above. Bernie’s weakest attribute as a candidate, for me, was his milquetoast acceptance of USA foreign policy, and Trump alone, iirc, was the only candidate who didn’t make the canard that Russia/Putin are evil incorporated the cornerstone of their foreign policy outside the usual, no longer sexy, who gives a fuck? War on Terror drivel except for Ron/Rand Paul, who are generally noninterventionist in their foreign policy, period.

    By fall of 2016, I was living alone in the woods of Pend O’Reille County, WA for several months per a colossal implosion of my marriage (now wonderfully restored and renewed to a very happy place). A man with daily, often severe nosebleeds living alone in a tent in the woods should be worried about things like bears but this area is also where the Air Force conducts survival school training and bears stay away. Too much disruption including fake bombs and lots of chopper traffic.

    When I came out of the woods in December, I stayed with a friend who was very ill and slept mostly around the clock with MSNBC or CNN on 24/7. I stayed away from that hypnosis but learned via the internet that Trump had actually maintained word-to-action consistency regarding Russia, something he has done consistently since, with some mild military farces to make it appear he isn’t retreating from Russian military influence (which we of course are, thank Allah).

    For all his saying this and doing that, Trump has done a fine job of reassuring Russia they won’t have to use those hypersonic missiles on us, and I find that alone reason to keep him in office under the circumstances. It’s not like the government will be able to avoid the main consequences of its Century of Folly (beginning, I say, with McKinley and the Spanish-American War, in which we showed the world we weren’t content to be a post-chattel slavery apartheid state willing to slaughter native populations if they don’t properly please us but were now determined to carry it abroad, although the policy-makers behind Commodore Perry’s trip to Japan deserve honorable mention). But we might, just might, avoid demanding the rest of the world nuke us into oblivion.

    If a certified lunatic can keep us out of nuclear conflict for awhile, I’ll vote for that. Not at the polls. I’m done with that quaint exercise in ritual magic. But I could stomach another 4 years of Herr Donald if it forestalls nuclear conflict until Skynet takes over.

    Lord help us when the videotapes from Pedophile Island get loose and make the rounds, which seems almost inevitable with so much chain-letter blackmail going on.

    Now, that said, if an actual Lizard Person should run for office, I will of course have to vote for that candidate. The only way to defeat the Lizard People is to subject them to the paralyzing petty apathetic hysteria of the American plebiscite.

    Vote for Gorn

    #53004
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    This intrigues me. The history itself I have no quarrel with, although I feel that attempts to define in B&W terms attitudes about the Negro Problem/Slave Issue fail. A people blowing smokes up their single and collective arse-holes are ambiguous at best.

    But it’s funny how both parties that wish to claim themselves as advocates of freedom have been anything but going back to when Jesus first learned to masturbate.

    As if there was ever a ruler who sincerely advocated freedom. Leaders? Yes. But rulers aren’t leaders. Big diff. Rulers make rules. It’s in their definition. Leaders are beings that other beings follow because they believe in them and their cause.

    #53005

    Tried to watch at least some of the “defense” lawyers in the Senate. They went for just 2 hours vs Schiff’s 23 or so, bless them. They seemed to be doing okay, I got my first glance of both Philbin and Purpura; the latter was strong, but both are in desperate need of advice on clothing, hairdo and glasses.

    The CNN afterward mainly pointed out that Joe Biden had not been mentioned at all, something they’d had their panties in a know for apparently. The only other topic they could come up with was that all 4 lawyers were white males. A key issue of course. Remind me to check for the number of transgenders among my local supermarket cashiers next week.

    #53006

    One last thing about coronavirus: the official number for patients is 1400 right now. Jonathan Reed appears to be ahead of that, the Fibonacci sequence says 2097. But what does that mean if anything? The time difference between China and EU/US alone could be a factor. When we woke up today the death number had been adjusted, when China woke up, from 26 to 41.

    There are many stories about people with complaints or even pneumonia being sent away from hospitals. The numbers are mere guesses and/or attempts to hide severity. Xi launched his first serious warning today, but it’s party time in China.

    More significant perhaps: with 1,400 acknowledged cases, Wuhan plans to build a new hospital in a week for 1,000 patients.

    Jonathan Reed predicts another 250,000 cases by Feb 4. Even if Reed is off by 50%, and only half of new cases are in Wuhan, what are they going to do? If they can’t lodge 1,000 patients, how about 60,000-odd in 10 days? Or what if Reed is right, and not off by 50%?

    #53007
    zerosum
    Participant

    next virus problem
    In Canada, the snow storm put Newfoundland in a week of siege.
    There were food, and gas shortages

    How many days can China be in lock down before there are serious delivery and accessibility problems of all kind of necessary resources.
    Where in “the rule of three” does it explain living in waste or surrounded by virus?

    Rule of three
    You can survive for 3 Minutes without air (oxygen) or in icy water
    You can survive for 3 Hours without shelter in a harsh environment (unless in icy water)
    You can survive for 3 Days without water (if sheltered from a harsh environment)
    You can survive for 3 Weeks without food (if you have water and shelter)

    #53008
    John Day
    Participant

    “No one has suggested my son di anything wrong.” Joe Biden

    “That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pin-ball!” Pete Townsend

    #53009
    John Day
    Participant

    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/01/year-of-rat-fink.html
    Belmarsh Prison inmates repeatedly protest solitary confinement torture of Julian Assange, resulting in his transfer to a regular cell-block with other dangerous criminals.
    (Something of a victory for Julian. As an Australian, he’ll have no freedom of speech or press in USA, USA, USA.)
    ​ ​Belmarsh is a notoriously harsh maximum-security prison full of violent offenders and prisoners convicted under anti-terrorism laws, one of many reasons that Assange supporters have so vigorously opposed his confinement there. What does it tell you about the society you are living in that this population has a superior moral compass to the people who are actually running things?

    Belmarsh Prison Inmates Prove More Ethical Than Entire Western Empire

    Thanks Eleni. How could such a terrible oversight have happened? What an embarrassment!
    A French publisher has apologised after a history textbook that appeared in bookshops in recent weeks suggested the 11 September 2001 attacks were probably “orchestrated by the CIA”…
    ​ ​The textbook is described as a complete course on the last century in French, European and world history. It was written by Jean-Pierre Rocher, a teacher of history and geography and a graduate of the Sciences Po university in Paris, and aimed at Sciences Po undergraduates as well as students preparing for France’s elite “grandes écoles”.
    ​ ​Although the book came out in November, it was not until the daughter of one of the secondary school teachers bought a copy that one of them spotted the reference to the CIA.
    ​ ​On page 204 the author explains the context of the creation of the jihadist group, al-Qaeda and the “quadruple terrorist attack of 11/9 2001 on New York and Washington”. He then makes the following statement.
    ​ ​”This global event – no doubt orchestrated by the CIA (secret services) to impose American influence on the Middle East? – hit the symbols of American power on its own territory.”
    https://www.sott.net/article/427777-France-apology-after-history-textbook-links-CIA-to-9-11

    They Killed King For The Same Reason They Killed Kennedy (“National Security” can’t afford peace breaking out.)
    ​ ​There is no doubt what both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. would have thought about a type of totalitarian-like governmental structure that has led our nation in the direction of state-sponsored assassinations, torture, invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, coups, alliances with dictatorial regimes, sanctions, embargoes, regime-change operations, and massive death, suffering, and destruction, not to mention the loss of liberty and privacy here at home.
    ​https://www.fff.org/2020/01/20/they-killed-king-for-the-same-reason-they-killed-kennedy/

    Bernie Sanders has 7 point lead in latest Iowa poll of Democratic voters.
    “The Horror, The Horror”
    No wonder it’s become open season on The Bern. He is presenting a credible threat to the Democratic party power machine, which is banking on a brokered convention, where they will choose a champion, as they did with Hillary Clinton in 2016. All those “superdelegates” know where their bread is buttered, and it ain’t by Bernie.
    Sanders could win on the first ballot, and all the bread and butter would immediately vanish.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bernie-sanders-surges-7-point-lead-iowa-times-poll

    Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) on Tuesday criticized former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for saying “no one likes” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with Gabbard seeking to defend her fellow Democratic presidential hopeful.
    “It’s time to grow up. This isn’t high school,” Gabbard said in an interview with WMUR News 9. “We’re talking about real challenges that our country needs to address and the need for real leadership to focus on them​.​
    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/479277-gabbard-knocks-clintons-jab-at-sanders-this-isnt-high-school

    What about the Wuhan coronavirus, the uncommonly bad cold? It seems to have jumped species, ​perhaps from bats, in a market selling live animals of various provenance to cook as delicacies.
    The current fatality rate is around 4%, weighted heavily towards older, and sicker hosts. It seems to reach peak infectivity around day #10. It attacks the lungs more deeply, with less upper airway irritation, which might make it fly under the radar until it is bad, a viral pneumonia. Antibiotics don’t work. There could be a vaccine by the end of the year, but…
    It has spread in Chinese hospitals, and some are now turning people away with those symptoms. It’s on the US east and west coasts, and I assume it’s in Houston, too.
    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2759815
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/please-help-us-supply-shortages-rock-wuhan-outbreak-overwhelms-chinese-healthcare

    #53010
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    Yes, yes, we all know that that “paragon of circumspection,” the Trumpster, would never lower himself to base threats and inflammatory language. Nor would Senators feign outrage at what is so clearly just another baseless attack on their fearless leader in his time of personal and professional crisis. I do so hope the burden of such an outrageous maligning of the Stable Genius doesn’t drive them to a rash reaction and not consider the merits as duly sworn to….you know, God, and everybody.

    #53011
    zerosum
    Participant

    CNN and MSNBC talking experts have already decided the truth.
    FOX talking experts have already decided the truth
    Both parties are on the side of truth and God.
    Nobody is going to change their mind and move to the side of the devil.
    Election by majority vote is yesterday.
    Impeachment is the new way of getting any one you want into or out of power
    Welcome to the new world order. (Unless the virus upsets the apple cart.)

    #53012
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    “Naturally, since the disease is most active in China which is notoriously opaque especially when it comes to matters that can cause a mass panic…”
    And this: “Furthermore, since all of this is happening in China which is not known for making the most socially-beneficial decisions under pressure”
    I was marched out of a UW hospital for correctly pointing out that an unlicensed high school grad inappropriately staffed in a management position should not be be telling concerned patients and staff made sick with respiratory illnesses during a hospital demolition/construction project to “suck it up”. Ya see since at least as long as I’ve been Dr. D even OSHA directives cite the risk for both infectious and non infectious pulmonary disease. The first medical center center I ever worked in as an MD although brand new was already colonized Aspergillus in 1988.
    Fast forward to late 2019 and look at the glacially paced response, coverup and foot dragging at Seattle Children’s to guess what, Aspergillus. I suppose the opacity of the Chinese government played a role with the families and attorneys of the injured children. Then you add the conceit of purposeful ignorance to the mix.
    From Seattle Times: “Aspergillus infections that happen while a patient is in the hospital aren’t widely reported or identified across the country and little is known about Aspergillus in hospital HVAC systems, according to Jeff Duchin, public health officer of Public Health – Seattle & King County.”

    So yeah China and Putin should be demonized

    #53013
    neoh
    Participant

    China doesn’t quarantine 50 million people unless something big is happening. The only numbers that are important at this point is that they have quarantined huge population centers. Probably the largest quarantine in history.
    tens of thousands of people die of the flu every year in China but they don’t quarantine. I suspect that something else might be happening.

    #53014
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Spooky this morning, 06:00; nothing about corona virus in any of the news sites.
    We’re +7:00 GMT

    #53015
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    One thing I’m thinking about, is how this CV is going to be used to manipulate the masses.
    A global scare is ripe for government chicanery…
    Keep your powder dry…

    #53016
    WES
    Participant

    Kung-Flu:. A Bad Dream. Imagine if you were put in charge of spreading the Kung-Flu virus as far and wide and in the shortest time possible.

    By picking China as your starting point you start with one great asset, communists. They come by the 3 monkeys naturally thus greatly helping to spread the Kung-Flu virus without any effort on your part.

    So far you have successfully spread the Kung-Flu virus to all corners of the world without doing anything!.

    Now you are presented with the greatest yearly migration of people in the world!

    During Chinese New Year, over 400 million people are expected to travel, an unbelievable gift toward helping you to spread the Kung-Flu virus beyond even your wildest dreams!

    So far you haven’t yet lifted a finger! You are still thinking about what you need to do to fulfill your job successfully! Well congratulations, you are going to get a gold star or something!

    P.S. At this point I would advise you not to do anything! Quit while you are ahead! Anything you ydo, mightI actually slow down the spread of Kung-Flu virus!

    Wake up! Wake up! You were just having a nightmare!

    #53017
    WES
    Participant

    Schiff had 3 plates of spaghetti.
    Not knowing what to do with them, natuarally being who he is, he threw them at the wall to see if any of the spaghetti would stick.
    Sadly all of the spaghetti slid down the wall onto the floor.
    Now the walls and floors of Schiff’s House are a steaming mess!
    Schiff now wants the Senate to clean up his mess!

    Warren has lately been playing with matches. She recently tried burning Bernie!
    Bernie has been burning red hot. Warren felt the Bern!
    Warren is now cooling off! It doesn’t pay to play with matches!

    Now that Bernie is red hot, Hillary is trying to cool down the Bern!
    Maybe Bernie doesn’t want to get burned like he got burned the first time!
    Once burnt, twice shy?
    Bernie was only meant to put on a good show to entertain the masses for Hillary in 2016.
    Nice cottage you got there, Bernie!
    Maybe Bernie is putting on too good a show in 2020?
    Where is old sleepy creepy Joe when you need him?
    But Hillary still owns all the super delegates!
    So, no worries, mate!
    Hillary to the rescue in round 2!

    #53018
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Very interesting link below; which confirms everyone should be very skeptical of all foreign media reporting on the corona virus.
    Just as with the coups here in Thailand; the foreign media was mostly, just full of shit; especially the U.S. media.
    If one really wants to know what’s what; talk to the expats…

    Wuhan Expats Fed Up With Foreign Media Hype

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