Jan 272020
 
 January 27, 2020  Posted by at 9:55 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Lewis Wickes Hine A heavy load for an old woman. Lafayette Street below Astor Place, NYC 1912

 

China Extends Holiday, Businesses Shut As Virus Toll Rises To 81 (R.)
Coronavirus Latest: Over 2,800 Global Cases Resulting in 80 Fatalities (ZH)
Coronavirus: 100,000 May Already Be Infected, Experts Warn (G.)
Chinese Nurse Says 90,000 Already Infected (ZH)
WHO To Hold Special Meeting In Beijing As Death Toll Jumps (G.)
Bolton’s Manuscript Leaks On Same Day Amazon Sales Begin (Fox)
Fed Trying to Stop Global Economic Contagion – Martin Armstrong (USAW)
ECB’s Knot: Don’t Expect Real Change In Rates In Coming Years (R.)
French NGOs, Local Authorities Take Court Action Against Oil Giant Total (G.)
Locust Swarms The Size Of Cities (AP)
Julian Assange: ‘Unofficial’ Solitary Confinement as Torture (Cross)

 

 

Going through the latest corona numbers today, mostly released at midnight local time by the Beijing government, we now have:

• 81 deaths (round numbers, up 25 from yesterday, previous 2 days were both up 15)

• 2,744 infected (bit less than the 3,390 predicted by the Fibonacci sequence, but there’s a new category):

5,794 suspected infections (if only half are confirmed, this would blow Fibonacci out of the water)

• 461 critical patients

• reports of 90,000-100,000 infected in Wuhan (see articles below) and virus is spreading fast beyond Wuhan

• reports of 5 million Wuhan residents having left the city for the holiday, prior to the lockdown

Moreover, as Tyler remarked on Twitter: “Coronavirus mortality rises above 5% with 76 dead on 1,423 confirmed Hubei cases. Was 2% three days ago.”

Numbers from Beijing:

And the Fibonacci numbers again:


Fibonacci

Another 3-4 days of holiday. What good can it do with that 2-week incubation time? One thing is sure: it’s going to hurt the economy: “On Saturday, overall transportation dropped by 28.8% from the same day last year. Railway transportation fell by 41.5%, roads 25% and passenger flights 41.6%.”

China Extends Holiday, Businesses Shut As Virus Toll Rises To 81 (R.)

The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 81 on Monday, as the government extended the Lunar New Year holiday and more big businesses shut down or told staff to work from home in an effort to curb the spread. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, as the government sought to signal it was responding seriously. But Asian shares tumbled, with Japan’s Nikkei average sliding 2.0%, its biggest one-day fall in five months, as investors grew increasingly anxious. Demand spiked for safe-haven assets such as the Japanese yen and Treasury notes. The total number of confirmed cases in China rose about 30% to 2,744, with about half in Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan.


As worries grew around the world, Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which has had eight confirmed cases, banned entry to people who had visited Hubei in the past 14 days. The ban did not cover Hong Kong residents. The nearby gambling hub of Macau, which has had at least one case of the flu-like virus, imposed a similar ban on those arriving from Hubei, unless they can prove they are virus-free. The city of Haikou on Hainan island in southern China said tourists from Hubei would be quarantined for 14 days. “Hubei people are getting discriminated against,” a Wuhan resident complained on the Weibo social media platform. The number of deaths from the virus in Hubei climbed to 76 from 56, health officials said, with five deaths elsewhere in China.

Read more …

Slightly different numbers here and there, but the trend is clear:

Coronavirus Latest: Over 2,800 Global Cases Resulting in 80 Fatalities (ZH)

• In China there are now 2,744 confirmed cases as of 1200am on Jan 27, an increase of 39% resulting in 80 deaths, up 43%. This is triple the 916 mainland China cases reported late on Friday. Across the globe, there are now 2,807 confirmed cases and 80 Chinese fatalities, as so far nobody outside of China has died from the disease (that we know of).

• Some very unpleasant math: in China’s Hubei province where Wuhan is located, epicenter of the coronavirus breakout, there have been 1,423 cases and 76 deaths, resulting in a mortality rate of over 5%.

• 5th US Coronavirus infection confirmed by CDC in 4 states (AZ, CA, IL, WA)

• Incubation is asymptomatic, contagious, and can be as long as 14 days

• 5 million may have left Wuhan for Lunar New Year

• 1st case was Dec 1 NOT Dec 31 so infect pop may be much bigger

• 3 Beijing hospitals using AIDS drugs to treat virus

[..] the outbreak-related news out of China went from bad to worse on Sunday, as Wuhan’s Mayor not only informed the public that he suspects the number of cases in the city to increase by a considerable margin (as we mentioned below), but also that some 5 million residents of Wuhan – roughly half of the city’s population – had already left the city before the quarantine was fully implemented. Some left early last week for the lunar new year holiday, while others fled after learning about Beijing’s plans to cut off the city from the outside world (except for the flow of personnel and supplies needed to fight the outbreak). Anybody who tries to leave Wuhan on Sunday will find the roads blocked and guards ordering them to turn back.

The barricade, at one of the tolls for highways exiting the city, was blocked with red and yellow plastic barriers and cones. “Nobody can leave,” a policeman told AFP. But that’s far from the only disturbing news to emerge in the past few hours. To try and assuage citizens’ frustration about the virus overshadowing the LNY holiday, Beijng announced an extension of the holiday. That should take a bigger bite out of China’s GDP as factories, offices and government services will remain shuttered – but ideally China’s battered travel and tourism industry might be able to make up for some of the hit. As we noted earlier, Suzhou, a factory hub, was the first city to announce a holiday-like shutdown of industry until Feb. 8. China’s top transportation official confirmed on Sunday that travel has plummeted for the holiday. On Saturday, overall transportation dropped by 28.8% from the same day last year. Railway transportation fell by 41.5%, roads 25% and passenger flights 41.6%.

After the third case was confirmed in California on Sunday, health officials in Virginia have announced that three patients suspected to have contracted the virus are under observation, according to Fox. More alarmingly, a student at Connecticut’s Wesleyan University is being monitored for the virus after reporting a fever and a cough. Though it has yet to be confirmed, this underscores the difficulty in stopping the spread of the virus to the US, as Chinese students return to their American schools for the new semester, as the Hartford Courant reports. More suspected cases have been reported in California and Texas (though the Texas cases have mostly been cleared).

Read more …

Neil Ferguson. Note: no separate reports on infection rates among children.

Coronavirus: 100,000 May Already Be Infected, Experts Warn (G.)

About 100,000 people could be infected with the new coronavirus around the world, experts have warned, as the UK government faced calls to reassure people that the NHS is ready to deal with any British cases within days. Prof Neil Ferguson, a public health expert at Imperial College, said his “best guess” was that there were 100,000 affected by the virus even though there are only 2,000 confirmed cases so far, mostly in the city of Wuhan in China where the virus first appeared. “Sooner or later we will get a case,” he said. “There are very large numbers of Chinese tourists across Europe right now. Unless the Chinese manage to control this, and I’m sceptical about whether that is possible, we will get cases here.”

Ferguson, whose team have been modelling the disease for the World Health Organization, said they estimated the virus had a reproductive rate of 2.5-3, meaning that each person infected would potentially transmit it to up to three others. “My best guess now is perhaps 100,000 cases right now,” he said, although it could be between 30,000 and 200,000. “Almost certainly many tens of thousands of people are infected.” Most of the cases that have been exported to other countries from China have been mild, he said. That could mean mild cases of disease spread more easily than severe, life-threatening cases, which sounds like good news. But on the other hand, it means it is possible there will be a reservoir of mild disease in the country that goes unnoticed and can spread until it affects somebody vulnerable because of underlying poor health, who becomes seriously ill.

“People looking for people with a travel history to China are not necessarily looking in their local population,” he said. There is a lot still unknown, he explained. “We don’t have reports as yet as to the extent to which children are becoming infected, probably because of the bias towards severe cases.” Unlike Sars, which made everyone who contracted the virus severely ill, the new virus appears to be able to slip under the radar, he said. Firstly, there are the many mild carriers, who will infect other people without necessarily being recognised. Secondly, there are reports from China of people who have infected others before they have experienced any symptoms.

Ferguson said it was possible this is not quite as it appears. It may be that the authorities have not actually identified the index case – the person who infected a group of people – making it look as though they picked up the virus from someone who had no symptoms.

Read more …

This is from a few days before Ferguson gave his 100,000 infected estimate. The lack of medical supplies is also noteworthy. Stories about “amateur” equipment.

Chinese Nurse Says 90,000 Already Infected (ZH)

A viral video, reposted on Twitter 48 hours ago, has more than 800k views and reveals an urgent message from a Wuhan nurse, who claims more than 90,000 people in China have been infected with the fast-spreading coronavirus. An unverified translation of the nurse, posted by @purplelovehime, has been retweeted more than 13.7k times since Saturday, states: “I am Jin Wei. I am currently inside the Wuhan outbreak region, Han Hou area. I would like to describe the condition inside the Hubei province, as well as the outbreak situation in the entire China. Currently, there are already 90,000 cases of pneumonia contraction.”

“What is the rate of contraction? If one person contracted this disease and is not properly quarantined and treated, this I individual will infect 14 people that came in contact with him. That is a significant multiplier. During the spring festival, in our culture, families like to get together, dine together. But this is unlike any other years. I hope that people can stay home, do not gather, and do not visit families. There is a spring festival every year. If everyone can stay safe, you can always get together later,” the unverified translation of the nurse said. The translation went on to say that medical supplies from bio suits, medical masks, goggles, and gloves “are in great shortages.”

The nurse, in an emotional plea, said everyone in Wuhan and surrounding cities to “not go out! Stay home!” The translation ended with the nurse delivering some “very bad news:” “The coronavirus has mutated. It is now a second-generation virus. When it was still in its first generation, we were still able to treat this… However, after the last mutation, it became deadly… The rate of infection are now increasing exponentially. So please remember do not go out, do not visit people, do not gather in a group, do not have dinner party.”

Read more …

60 million under lockdown now? hard to keep track.

WHO To Hold Special Meeting In Beijing As Death Toll Jumps (G.)

The head of the World Health Organisation will hold a special meeting with officials in Beijing on Monday to discuss how to contain the coronavirus that has killed 80 people and left more than 400 in a critical condition. In an effort to reduce chances of infection during what is China’s busiest travel season, officials announced the end of this week’s lunar new year holiday would be postponed until at least 2 February. Authorities have also widened sweeping restrictions that have curbed the movement of tens of millions of people. A total of 17 cities are now under lockdown, with several areas banning long-distance bus services, including Beijing, Shanghai and the eastern province of Shandong, home to 200 million people.


On Monday, Chongqing municipality, which has a population of 30 million, adopted similar measures. The municipality borders Hubei province, where the vast majority of deaths, have been recorded. The suspension of long-distance bus services, the cheapest way to travel, is likely slow down the return of millions of migrant workers who have visited their families over the lunar new year. By postponing the end of the holiday to Sunday from Friday, officials hoped to “effectively reduce mass gatherings” and “block the spread of the epidemic,” a cabinet statement said. Many of China’s big retail chains have also said they will temporarily close their stores, while some online businesses and banks have advised employees returning from Hubei province to work from home.

Read more …

As the “trial” restarts today, Bolton will hover in the background. From the Dems’ worst enemy to their best hope.

Aaron Maté: “Bolton news is fuzzy. Bolton isn’t saying Trump tied Ukraine weapons $ to opening a Burisma/2016 probe. Bolton says Trump wanted Ukraine to “[turn] over all materials they had about the Russia investigation that related Mr. Biden & and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine.” Huh?”

Bolton’s Manuscript Leaks On Same Day Amazon Sales Begin (Fox)

Former national security advisor John Bolton’s team was under fire from conservative commentators Sunday night, after a report in The New York Times revealed a bombshell excerpt from Bolton’s forthcoming book that could prove pivotal in President Trump’s impeachment trial — just as the Amazon product page for the book went live. The drama began earlier Sunday when the Times exclusively reported that Bolton’s manuscript included a claim that Trump explicitly linked a hold on Ukraine aid to an investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden. Trump told Bolton in August, according to a transcript of Bolton’s forthcoming book reviewed by the Times, “that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.”

The Times further claimed Bolton had shared a manuscript of his forthcoming book with “close associates” — prompting Bolton’s team to deny the claim, and assert that the National Security Council’s [NSC’s] review process of pending manuscripts is “corrupted” and prone to leaks. A “pre-publication review” at the NSC is standard for any former government officials who held security clearances and publicly write or speak publicly about their official work. The review typically would focus on ferreting out any classified or sensitive material in advance of publication, and could take from days to months.

Conservatives, however, suggested Sunday evening that Bolton’s team may have leaked the information themselves while using the media as unwitting tools to juice their book sales. Online merchants began taking orders for Bolton’s book, entitled “The Room Where It Happened,” just as the Times’ story broke, with a March release date. Sarah Tinsley, a senior adviser to Bolton, told Fox News he had submitted a hard copy draft of his manuscript to the NSC several weeks ago for “pre-publication review,” but had not shared it with anyone else. The NSC is the White House’s internal national security and foreign policy arm.

[..] “Just like James Comey, John Bolton is trying to get rich off of a lie- and leak-fueled campaign to overturn the 2016 election results,” wrote The Federalist’s Sean Davis.”I suspect it will work out as well as all of Bolton’s other wars.” Davis added: “John Bolton is running the exact same revenge playbook against Trump that James Comey used. He’s even using the same agent and leaking to the same reporters. All because he’s mad Trump fired him for leaking and trying to start new wars. It’s so boring and predictable. … If you think anyone other than Bolton’s lawyer, publisher, or agent leaked this to 1) juice sales of his book, and 2) get revenge against Trump for firing Bolton and refusing to start a bunch of new wars, you’re an idiot.”

Read more …

You don’t think they’ve given up yet?

Fed Trying to Stop Global Economic Contagion – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

Legendary geopolitical and financial analyst Martin Armstrong says, “The Fed is trapped. If it stops (injecting money into the repo market by billions of dollars daily), interest rates will rise.” Armstrong goes on to explain, “The Bank of Japan came out and said we’re going to buy government bonds unlimited. They, too, are trying to prevent interest rates from rising. . . . The ECB cannot afford rates to go up. . . . This is a global contagion that’s developing, and it’s pretty serious. The rise in interest rates has tremendous implications all the way around the globe. . . . Interest rates are rising because there is increased risk – period.” The big risk, according to Armstrong, is global governments, including the U.S., Armstrong says.

“You have to understand, at some point in time, capital begins to figure out who is the greatest risk, and the risk is government. At that stage in the game, when that point is reached, then you have shifts. The capital will move from public types of investments, such as government bonds and things of that nature, and then will move into the private sector. That’s equities, and that can be gold and real estate in different places. You try to go to tangible assets.” So, what could go wrong with the Fed trapped in the repo market and cannot stop liquefying bad debt? Armstrong says, “What can go wrong is that they lose the game. They are doing this to try to prevent interest rates from rising. If they did not do this, the short term rate would be up dramatically.”

What could go wrong is the Fed can continue to fuel the repo market with cheap money and interest rates can rise anyway? Armstrong says, “Correct. They have already lost control, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing this. . . .They are trying to keep rates down. If the Fed loses, rates are going to go up, and you are going to see this in the Treasury auctions. Then it won’t matter what the Fed is trying to do in the repo market. You will see this stress in the Treasury auctions, and the government will have to start paying higher prices. This is what’s going to take place.”

Read more …

The ECB is using Bernanke’s “savings glut” boondoggle to destroy your savings and pensions. Lagarde said it very clearly: jobs are better than savings.

What actually IS happening is they protect bankers’ profits by annihilating (your) savings in a broad sense. Pitchforks!

ECB’s Knot: Don’t Expect Real Change In Rates In Coming Years (R.)

European Central Bank policymaker Klaas Knot on Sunday said he does not expect interest rates to fundamentally change in the coming years. “I don’t see any move towards fundamentally different rates in the coming years,” Knot said in an interview with Dutch television program Buitenhof. Rates could go up again in the future, the Dutch central bank governor said, but for now are being kept historically low by an abundance of savings and by a structurally low inflation rate in the euro zone. Knot also warned of the lingering threat of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit at the end of this year, which he said could lower economic growth in the Netherlands by 0.5%. “The imminent threat of a no-deal Brexit on Jan. 31 is negligible”, Knot said. “But the Brexit risk has only been postponed, as it seems impossible to have a comprehensive trade agreement that includes financial services in 11 months.”

Read more …

This might work in France. But how about the EU?

French NGOs, Local Authorities Take Court Action Against Oil Giant Total (G.)

An alliance of 14 French local authorities and several NGOs will take unprecedented court action this week against the French oil firm Total to try to force the firm to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. It is the first climate change litigation against a private company in France. Campaigners want the court to ensure Total does more to curb its emissions. Total is on the list of top 20 global fossil fuel companies whose joint exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era, according to analysis last year. The towns and local authorities that have brought the case range from Bayonne, in the south-west, to La Possession, on Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, and Sevran, north of Paris.

They argue that the climate emergency is already being felt by ordinary citizens and not enough is being done by large firms. Under a French law called the duty of vigilance, large companies must set out clear measures to any prevent human rights violations or environmental damage resulting from their activities. The non-governmental organisations bringing the case said Total had not included enough substantial detail in its vigilance plan to curb emissions, and the firm was out of step with the Paris climate agreement’s goals on limiting global heating. On Tuesday, a court summons will be made in Nanterre, outside Paris.

Sandra Cossart, the head of Sherpa, a French NGO working on economic transparency and corporate-related human rights, said: “It’s the first climate litigation in France against a private company, and it aims to change that company’s strategy in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.” Sandra said that under the duty of vigilance law, “Total is legally required to identify the risks resulting from its contribution to global warming and to take the necessary measures to reduce its emissions.” She said the case was an “important moment” to show that big companies have to step up on the climate emergency. “The more impact you have, the more responsibility you have.”

Read more …

Best line of the day: “Even cows are wondering what is happening..”

“One especially large swarm in northeastern Kenya measured 60 kilometers long by 40 kilometers wide (37 miles long by 25 miles wide).”

Locust Swarms The Size Of Cities (AP)

The worst outbreak of desert locusts in Kenya in 70 years has seen hundreds of millions of the bugs swarm into the East African nation from Somalia and Ethiopia. Those two countries have not had an infestation like this in a quarter-century, destroying farmland and threatening an already vulnerable region with devastating hunger. “Even cows are wondering what is happening,” said Ndunda Makanga, who spent hours Friday trying to chase the locusts from his farm. “Corn, sorghum, cowpeas, they have eaten everything.”

When rains arrive in March and bring new vegetation across much of the region, the numbers of the fast-breeding locusts could grow 500 times before drier weather in June curbs their spread, the United Nations says. “We must act immediately,” said David Phiri of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, as donors huddled in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, a three-hour drive away. About $70 million is needed to step up aerial pesticide spraying, the only effective way to combat them, the U.N. says. That won’t be easy, especially in Somalia, where parts of the country are in the grip of the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group.

Even a small swarm of the insects can consume enough food for 35,000 people in a single day, said Jens Laerke of the U.N. humanitarian office in Geneva. Farmers are afraid to let their cattle out for grazing, and their crops of millet, sorghum and maize are vulnerable, but there is little they can do. About 70,000 hectares (172,973 acres) of land in Kenya are already infested. [..] A single swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer of farmland, an area the size of almost 250 football fields, regional authorities say. One especially large swarm in northeastern Kenya measured 60 kilometers long by 40 kilometers wide (37 miles long by 25 miles wide).

Read more …

Quite afew comments on this, but I would be careful linking street protests to changes in Julian’s conditions. The imates may have helped.

Julian Assange: ‘Unofficial’ Solitary Confinement as Torture (Cross)

The sustained violation of the human rights of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, has been carried out in full view of the world throughout his arbitrary detention in HMP Belmarsh. Until now, condemnation of his treatment and pleas to end his suffering have been met with denial and silence by the British authorities. But the announcement this week that Assange has been moved out of Belmarsh healthcare unit where he has been detained in solitary confinement since May, is a sign that the campaign to stop his persecution is gaining traction.

Also of significance is the involvement of his fellow inmates in helping to secure Assange’s release from solitary confinement, which suggests that within the walls of Belmarsh it is understood that the healthcare unit has been weaponized to arbitrarily isolate and punish a prisoner. Moving Assange from solitary confinement shows a shift from official government position that solitary confinement ‘does not exist’ Until now the British authorities have not only denied that Assange has been detained in solitary confinement, but that solitary confinement is not practised in British prisons.

In an attempt to mitigate growing public outrage, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has been sending out letters in response to the influx of complaints it has been receiving regarding the abuse of Assange. In its response it refuses to address his case and produces a list of standards and laws written for the protection of prisoners as evidence he is in ‘safe hands.’ However, anyone who has followed the continued arbitrary detention of Assange in Belmarsh will know he has been placed effectively outside the reach of laws and standards; even access to his lawyers and legal documents, normally preserved by statutory prisoner rights – has been harshly restricted, all of which has had a crippling effect on preparation for his defence in a case of historical significance.

Read more …

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1221454003491540992

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle January 27 2020

Viewing 29 posts - 1 through 29 (of 29 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #53056

    Lewis Wickes Hine A heavy load for an old woman. Lafayette Street below Astor Place, NYC 1912   • China Extends Holiday, Businesses Shut As Virus
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle January 27 2020]

    #53057
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Lewis Wickes Hine A heavy load for an old woman. Lafayette Street below Astor Place, NYC 1912

    The depth of field is perfect, in this photo.
    Quite remarkable actually…
    Belated kudos to Lewis Wickes Hine for this fine picture…

    #53058
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I know people have to eat and protect crops but at some stage in the future aerial spraying of pesticide is gonna produce worse outcomes than we are getting now. Feedback loops etc. Crazy times indeed

    #53059
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    It’s all like “reality” television, a format Mr. Trump seems to love, but only when he’s the only writer, or has final edit powers. We await his Midwest peace proposal where, again, he seems to think he has final editing power (over his ghost writers).

    Sadly, he’s clearly incapable of learning the fact that others have agency, no matter how limited.

    On the issue of rising interest rates, I couldn’t help but make a comparison between the apparent “prairie fire” growth of coronavirus and a coming worldwide debt contagion.

    Add locusts and it just gets really depressing (if it’s possible to get more depressing).

    #53060

    Charles Alban, do you know why you have no Profile Page at TAE?

    #53061

    As for John Bolton, it would seem that the NYT has allowed itself to be used by Bolton and/or his agent/publisher for the sake of selling books. There doesn’t appear to be any underlying proof for Bolton’s claim that Trump tied aid to an investigation (or he wouldn’t/couldn’t have held to it for so long. That in turn makes it another he said/she said topic, and we’ve seen enough of those in this “trial” process.

    Moreover, if Trump would have asked for an investigation into a guy who was kicked out of the Navy for cocaine abuse only to land a very plush job just months later at a very corrupt company operating in a field and a country that he knew nothing about, while his dad was US VP, would that have been a high crime?

    #53062
    zerosum
    Participant

    Coronavirus

    The standard solution, increase liquidity.
    Don’t panic. As I type, Dow is lower by -450.
    Some one is buying the lows.

    ” .but the sooner it’s, (lockdown), taken the less-dramatic the damage”
    The answer, more deficit spending.
    Panic will happen When transmission occurs by private jet.

    Shower room trash talk – Donald J. Trump
    • Bolton’s Manuscript Leaks On Same Day Amazon Sales Begin (Fox)

    #53063
    zerosum
    Participant

    The USA help is on the way
    Shower room trash talk – Donald J. Trump
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/wuhan-mayor-offers-resign-coronavirus-death-toll-accelerates-supply-shortages

    And right on time, here comes President Trump, with a weak attempt to pump the market.

    Minutes ago, the president tweeted that the US had offered China “any help that is necessary”, while advising that the US is “strongly on watch” for signs that the virus is spreading.

    NOTE:
    Per the SCMP, the virus was detected in 35 of the 585 environmental samples collected on Jan. 1 and Jan. 12, with 33 of the positive samples taken from the market’s western zone, where the wildlife trading business was concentrated.

    Question: Did humans infect the environment or (as suggested) did the animals infect the environment.

    #53064
    zerosum
    Participant

    India
    More than 500 Indian students are studying in colleges and and universities in Wuhan.
    But, official sources said that most of them had left the city before the outbreak for the Chinese New Year holiday.

    ” monitoring about 60 persons in Kozhikode who have returned from China”

    Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is an Indian city, second-largest urban agglomeration in the State of Kerala and 20th largest in the country with a population of 2 million as of 2011.

    #53065
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “French NGOs, Local Authorities Take Court Action Against Oil Giant Total (G.)”

    Desperate for austerity, Climate Austerity. Since that’s going so well since the gas tax hike! Don’t shoot ‘til you see the whites of their eyes. We’ll ruin this economy somehow! Then MORE government to fix that!

    “Locust Swarms the Size of Cities (AP)”

    Apparently locusts occur when there IS good weather. Rain = grass = locusts, who because it only just happened and is unusual, have no natural predators, who lag. That’s also why locusts are a predictable cycle, and show up in history in war and famine cycles. But note, this locusts ironically happen when there’s GOOD weather, and the desert first greens. …Don’t worry, won’t be reported. New lakes and grasslands aren’t news. Feel for them though: must seem like you can’t get a break.

    “NYT has allowed itself to be used by Bolton”

    The latest leak – again – shows that State Dept. people were openly obstructing and undermining the elected president, and that he was responding to this since the beginning of his presidency, months, years before Biden, and on issues not related to Biden.

    So…argument this is about election – afraid of a guy who slurs, doesn’t know where he is, smells little girls, and can’t think straight: not so good. I wouldn’t be afraid of him, I could only dream he would the DNC candidate. And that second level (that it’s election-related) has never been established. But this latest leak does establish the time: years before Biden declared. That leaves the question: does the President have the right to fire ambassadors? Yes he does, unquestioningly. So…did you just harm your own case leaking facts again?

    Since when have facts mattered? RussiaRussiaRussia. Bombshell. Walls closing in.

    Is it not JUST candidate that can never be investigated, not JUST every member of their family, but every person and every family member that MIGHT candidate, someday, years from now?

    Why can’t we pin Kung-Flu yet? Is it 50 people dead (world’s biggest joke) or 10,000 (worth locking down 50M) as random youtube clips are attempting to lead? Okay, something else? Need an excuse as to why China is slowing to collapse that isn’t the Chinese government? Can’t figure.

    #53066
    zerosum
    Participant

    John Bolton
    Since when have facts mattered more than money.
    Since when do these people never tell lies.

    I’m going to heaven. Your going to hell/prison for lying.

    #53067
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Regarding “good weather”:

    “Rainfall from October to mid-November was as much as 300% above average.
    Locusts thrive in wet conditions.
    A single swarm can contain hundreds of millions of locusts.”

    Good weather is relative to inclusive fitness. Super good weather for locusts means bad weather for a species itself breeding like a runaway locust plague.

    The problem with global climate disruption isn not so much the much-touted, supposedly terrifying consequences of climax results. By the time sea levels have risen to here or shrunk to there, ice caps shrunk to here or risen to there, a whole buncha people gonna die because our civilization requires as much external stability as possible. This is because we humans living within civilization are ridiculously unstable.

    Like (segue alert). remember how outrageous it was that the Taliban was explosively destroying those Buddha statues in one of my favorite romantic locations? But we didn’t say much about the USA directly and indirectly stealing/bombing the fuck out of irreplaceable Syrian/Iraqi artifacts going back to the early Fertile Crescent’s Dawn of Western Civilization era.

    What kind of crackpot species does that?

    ***

    Everybody was kung-flu flighting… if the government let them.

    ***

    It’s a shame the church I attend isn’t one of those End Times/ Rapture congregations. I could hear some godamighty Prepare Ye for the End pulpit braying if it were. Locusts! Plagues! War! Rumors of wars!

    Waiting for some serious famine so we can all get jiggy with eschatology.

    From the side of a Ukrainian Baptist Church in my former town of residence, Spokane:

    King of Glory

    It’s starting to become an icon. Back when, my skate-punk son and his buds enjoyed it as their private circle’s little joke.

    But all things must pass. When I first visited Portland in 2004 for a laser zap inside my nostrils (I do this every year or so), the following still existed in its original deacadent glory as shown here:

    Now it's gone

    Now it is gone, although dear old Chinatown still has a block or three of seriously seedy slum streets, bless it’s heart. Gotta have some place to warehouse drugs and hookers, I reckon.

    ***

    Meanwhile, we are steadily being kicked out of the Middle East, and there ain’t a durn thing we can do about it except retreat to Saudi Arabia for awhile before going home, sulking like Great Britain yearning for their old queen:

    Victoria

    ***

    One more thing. Someone expressed absolute dismissal of the Nazi death camp thing. While I fully agree that the Shoa PR Industry is real and pernicious, and that Zionists were a part of exacerbating the Jewish Problem in Nazi Germany, there’s no doubt that there were death camps as classically described. How many Jews were actually murdered this way, can’t say, and don’t care. A single death is a tragedy, and a thousand deaths is far too often a damn good business for some buncha creeps, far too many of them Jewish (and if that sounds Anti-Jewish, I recommend a head count of ethnic affiliations of the reigning neocons back in the early 21st century when torture became the new (old) norm.

    DO eyewitnesses count?

    das judens speak

    #53068
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “isn not ”

    That’s, like, colloquial Dutch Arizonan or something?

    #53069
    zerosum
    Participant

    Pam Bondi Impeachment Hearing
    Explaining all of the Biden/Burisma timeline scam to all the senators
    Someone should be going to hell/prison for lying/stealing even if the enablers made the laws to allow this kind of behavior.

    #53070
    zerosum
    Participant

    GO HOME
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iraq-protest-death-toll-soars-past-600-after-fresh-weekend-unrest

    This brings the total death toll since protests began in October to more than 600, according to the commission as well as Amnesty International.

    Despite Friday’s anti-American protests being impressive in size, with many pundits claiming anywhere from hundreds of thousands to over a million in the streets mainly in Baghdad, mainstream media in the West downplayed the numbers, with the Associated Press even falsely saying a mere “hundreds”.

    ——-

    #53071
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    I wonder if there will be something like an Arabian Gandhi or such. Just idle speculation driven as much by the weirdness factor as by similarities between USA now/Britain 1930s-40s.

    #53072
    restless94111
    Participant

    Dude. You are going to look really stupid when this plague turns out to be not a plague. Why are you freaking out? All your postings is Corona? How bout you just drink a Corona and chill at the beach?

    #53073
    WES
    Participant

    Bosco::. I can relate to your nose bleed problems.

    When I was a kid, I lived up in northern Labrador where the winters are long and the air cold and very dry. I had blood vessels too close to the surface of my nose, so I suffered constant nose bleeds for no reason at all. The doctors said there was nothing they could do for me until I grew up.

    My nose bleeds were so bad that my Mother, a nurse, would pack my nose with 5 foot long narrow strips of cotton coated with vasoline just to stop the bleeding! They stayed there for days before being removed.

    When I was 19, studying electrical engineering in Toronto, my uncle, a doctor gave me a referral to a nose specialist.

    I remember that visit very well! The doctor used the medical equivalent of an electrical soldering gun to burn the skin over the blood vessels! I got to smell my own burning flesh!

    Then after I recovered from that surgery (felt more like a butchering job!), I stopped having so many nose bleeds! Those that I did have stopped as quickly as they started!

    Now I was a free man, no longer burdened by constant fear of sudden nose bleeds!

    I did several follow ups every 5 years or so where the doctor did quick 10 second touch ups using a Q-tip dipped in a mild acid on any trouble spots.

    Now 45 years later, I remain basically free of nose bleeds and remain forever grateful to that doctor for improving my quality of life!

    Bosco, from what you say, I guess lasers have replaced soldering guns and acid Q-tips!

    I hope you are able to achieve the success that I have experienced. Best wishes!

    #53074
    WES
    Participant

    Raul:. Isn’t it strange that Britain’s worst criminals still have a basic sense of injustice! Doesn’t say much for justice does it!!

    #53075
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Before the Internet and satellite communications the infectious deaths of 82 Chinese that started in a ground zero city of 11 million people (that I never heard of) would have been blissfully ignored until boatloads of infected survivors entered America’s West Coast ports. The Quarantine of tens of million people, preparing 100,000 hospital beds for Hubei Province and extending the national Lunar New Year holiday by three days indicate that the Chinese government is treating the Wuhan Coronavirus as a full-blown deadly pandemic.

    The USA should be quarantining all airline passengers from China for two weeks or until a CDC blood test showed they were not infected. But that would cost money and impact the economy. It hasn’t been reported yet if there has been any transmission to others in the other 16 nations that are treating infected patients. If spreading, the global pandemic is on.

    With a know nothing, anti-science, stupid, American President the possibility of the government providing an effective anti-virus protection program is nil. To be re-elected Donald Trump must be blessed by neither a pandemic nor a Holy Land Rapture happening in the next 10 months.

    #53076
    zerosum
    Participant

    TESTING
    IS THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF A PANDEMIC?

    https://www.who.int/ihr/about/en/

    The International Health Regulations, or IHR (2005), represent an agreement between 196 countries including all WHO Member States to work together for global health security.

    Through IHR, countries have agreed to build their capacities to detect, assess and report public health events. WHO plays the coordinating role in IHR and, together with its partners, helps countries to build capacities.

    IHR also includes specific measures at ports, airports and ground crossings to limit the spread of health risks to neighboring countries, and to prevent unwarranted travel and trade restrictions so that traffic and trade disruption is kept to a minimum.

    #53077
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    IHR also includes specific measures at ports, airports and ground crossings to limit the spread of health risks to neighboring countries, and to prevent unwarranted travel and trade restrictions so that traffic and trade disruption is kept to a minimum.

    All of the above is worthless; given the present information, that contagion happens pre-symptomatic appearance.
    In the meantime, I’ll keep my powder dry…
    Nothing happening seems to follow any of the predictions…

    #53078
    zerosum
    Participant

    Nothing happening seems to follow any of the predictions…

    That’s why testing and then refining is required. Also, there is always a need for more money.

    #53080
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Hung Far Low’s was an iconic part of Portland’s China Town. RIP
    Spent many an underage drunken weekend night sobering up with food there (they were open until 2 or 3 in the morning). 1960 onwards through uni days/nights…after ’63 it was likely drugs instead of alcohol; lot’s of excellent smoke et al to be had…
    If one could manage the long flight of stairs to the 2nd floor restaurant, then you weren’t too drunk.
    It was a favorite because the staff didn’t give a shit how drunk (or stoned) you were as long as you behaved yourself; we never got kicked out…
    That picture is a genuine flash from the past.

    #53096
    Dr. D
    Participant

    We’re getting kicked out of the Middle East, and what are we going to do about it?

    Speed it up and make it irreversible of course! This is what the voters wanted. So the Shia were divided all over the map, are now united not only in themselves, but with the Sunni in gracefully requesting the Americanos hit the road back home. Thank God. Even Bolton cannot effectively reverse this move without tremendous work. And we got that by doing exactly what Bolton and the Neo-cons most requested. Savage win. Their little brains are still trying to figure it out.

    Speaking of, I guess we see him filled up with salted disinfo and shoved out the door just in time to write (and leak) his books. Leaked? To whom? Well Mr. Vindman, Col. Vindman’s twin brother, IKYN. But nobody nowheres ever expected he would a) authorize everything Bolton said as the legal censor and b) leak it all to the NY Times. Naw! Nevah. So as certainly as a train coming down the tracks you couldn’t have anticipated this in your strategy and legal defense. Nope, not when you sit around watching cartoons all day.

    Certainly is a show. A sham. A con. A put-up. WWE at its finest.

    Like the Kung-flu fighting? 40 days later they estimate possibly 200,000 “have” it. Death toll at 100, as statistically close to zero as possible. So statistically, 2,000 deaths / 365 = 5 deaths per day getting hit by lightning = 220 people, twice as likely as Kung-flu, officially.

    Are y’all serious here? Since I don’t hear vaccine manufacturers hovering, like we did in ebola, etc, who vanished with the disease the second they were paid, what’s it all about, Alfie? To generate a media spin cycle from thin air? For the impeachment? That seems extreme. For the imploding economy? Darned if I can tell right now, but let’s pick a real CoD: there are 3,424 traffic fatalities per day worldwide. There are 49,000 deaths/day from combined heart diseases, CVD. There were 27 deaths/day in 2019 from wars, low estimate of direct fatalities. So eat a burger, stand in the middle of the road on a high hill in Aleppo with an umbrella. If anything they’re saying is within a 100 fold of correct, you’re not going to die of Corona, because officially, according to them, nobody yet has any more than the common cold. If they said it, it’s a lie. They are saying it, LOUD, therefore ….

    #53100
    zerosum
    Participant

    rigor mortis
    My old brain requires unusual stimulation before my old body can be activated by fakery.

    #53113
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “My nose bleeds were so bad that my Mother, a nurse, would pack my nose with 5 foot long narrow strips of cotton coated with vasoline just to stop the bleeding! They stayed there for days before being removed.”

    Horee sheeyit. The discomfort and depression of that is beyond my comprehension.

    “I remember that visit very well! The doctor used the medical equivalent of an electrical soldering gun to burn the skin over the blood vessels! I got to smell my own burning flesh!”

    My nosebleeds didn’t manifest seriously until my late 20s. I had, I dunno, 4-5 electro-cauteries, some with caustic agents as well. Yeah, smelling your nose burn is different.

    Then we learned I have HHT and those rude electrocauteries had created scar tissue that only made the HHT worse as I grew old. Fortunately, by the, they were learning how to use lasers to gently bake the offending bleeders shut instead of searing them like steak.

    I’d say I’m the luckier man in that my childhood was mostly carefree. I ran and played like any kid. It wasn’t until I settled in the arid West in the mid-80s (Yakima, WA, a natural resting place for lost vagaabonds such as I was) that the bleeding became significant.

    We moved to Portland last year, once opportunity arose, for the chronic humidity, which really helps.

    Three days plugged. (shudders)

    #53114
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “If one could manage the long flight of stairs to the 2nd floor restaurant, then you weren’t too drunk.
    It was a favorite because the staff didn’t give a shit how drunk (or stoned) you were as long as you behaved yourself; we never got kicked out…”

    I have never been inside but heard a story or two. I plan to use it in a story someday, and am sad I wasn’t able to insult my body and mindt here in the glorious fashion it seemed to encourage.

    Portland now is just another urban nightmare, an over-priced and over-crowded cram of people, money, and utopian delusions. But I’m glad to be here, and there an awful lot of sincerely kind people.

    I live in Beaverton, so there is a healthy neo-redneck counterbalance and a residue of general old-school urban dirt and disarray to preserve my sanity.

    When we first moved here, however, we stayed in a nicely provided company apartment smack on the edge of metastasizing Slabtown. If not for the vacated industrial property literally across the street from us, I would’ve had a rough go of it. But the industrial wasteland had genuine old-fashioned winos and such amid genuine rust and machinery that used to perform industrially meaningful work not directed by robots.

    #53115
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “So eat a burger, stand in the middle of the road on a high hill in Aleppo with an umbrella.”

    That sentence has a unique and curious charm. Like Kurt Vonnegut being channeled through a reanimated George Carlin. If I had a bucket list, fulfilling that sentence’s content would be on it.

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