Feb 062020
 
 February 6, 2020  Posted by at 10:06 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Seattle, WA during Spanish Influenza. No ride on street cars without wearing a mask 1918/19

 

China May Delay Annual Meeting Of Parliament Due To Virus Outbreak (R.)
“Leaked” Infection Numbers Over 154,000; Deaths Approach 25,000 (NN)
Major Mainland Chinese Airlines Place All Foreign Pilots On Unpaid Leave (SCMP)
With Virus Deaths At 565 China Considers Trade Deal Disaster Clause (SCMP)
Chinese Scholar Blames Xi Jinping, CCP For Not Controlling Outbreak (SCMP)
Who Owns The Coronavirus Cure? (SCMP)
Pelosi Shreds Decades Of Tradition In Demonstrating Against Trump (Turley)
Buttigieg and Sanders Separated By Razor-Thin Margin In Iowa (Pol.)
Biden Vows To Press On Despite Iowa ‘Gut Punch’ (BBC)
In This Impeachment, People Only Heard What They Wanted To (Turley)
Nancy Pelosi Should Resign (Turley)
Bloomberg Surrogates Have Seats on DNC Rules Committees (Sludge)

 

 

There we go again:

• 565 deaths (up 72 from yesterday, biggest increase in official numbers to date)

• 28,339 cases (up 3,797 from yesterday’s 24,542, and yeserday’s rise of 3872)

• There are suggestions from China that the increase in cases is slowing, but that’s after yesterday’s record increase. We’ll see.

• At the same time, the increase in severe cases appears to be accelerating.

• 10 more infections on cruise ship off Yokohama

• One thing that’s certainly increasing is the skepticism about the official numbers.

 

 

 

Some interesting things in this article:

1) Officials returning to Beijing from other provinces after Lunar New Year are in 14-day quarantine. First time I see mandatory quarantines for Beijing.

2) There’s talk of delaying the (10+ days) National People’s Congress, which only starts on March 5.

Events have been cancelled as far out as April 15. That syncs quite well with what I said in my article The Big Lockdown.

China May Delay Annual Meeting Of Parliament Due To Virus Outbreak (R.)

China is considering delaying the annual meeting of its top legislative body, five people familiar with the matter said, as it grapples with a coronavirus epidemic that has forced drastic curtailment of travel and other activity to curb its spread. The National People’s Congress (NPC), made up of about 3,000 delegates, typically gathers for a session lasting at least 10 days in Beijing, beginning on March 5, to pass legislation and unveil key economic targets for the year. A postponement would be the first since China adopted the current March schedule in 1995 for the meeting of parliament. “The focus remains on taking steps forward towards meeting on schedule, but we are discussing a range of options as the (virus) situation doesn’t look likely to be contained by March,” a senior government official told Reuters, declining to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

“A delay is one of those options,” the official said. “It should come as no surprise given that we are in a very difficult time.” Many officials who would ordinarily be involved in preparation for the NPC are staying at home under 14-day mandatory quarantines after returning to Beijing from their home provinces following the Lunar New Year holidays. Central government officials in Beijing were told to resume work on Feb. 3. China has already postponed a high-level business event, the China Development Forum, which is usually held in late March, and the venue for the Canton Fair, a trade fair in the southern city of Guangzhou, has been suspended until further notice. The spring session of the trade fair was due to begin on April 15.

The NPC gathering is crucial this year, as it is set to ratify China’s first-ever civil code, a key milestone in President Xi Jinping’s legal reform effort. The NPC is also widely expected to discuss the months-long protests in Hong Kong, and to announce the annual economic growth target along with China’s defence budget. Under China’s constitution, a full plenary session of the NPC must be held every year. Chucheng Feng, a partner at Plenum, an independent research firm in Hong Kong, put the chance of a delay at just 10% because of the meeting’s political importance. “However, as the epidemic extends into February, the gathering of China’s entire political elite in a confined Great Hall of the People for over a week looks quite dangerous,” he said.

Read more …

Tyler broke the story. This is a handy write-up. It’s the smaller numbers above the big ones that all but prove we’re looking at an automatically updating database.

“Leaked” Infection Numbers Over 154,000; Deaths Approach 25,000 (NN)

Zero Hedge reported this morning, “As Taiwan [News] reports in a report first spotted by user @TheHKGroup, over the weekend, Tencent “seems to have inadvertently released what is potentially the actual number of infections and deaths, which were astronomically higher than official figures”, and were far closer to the catastrophic epidemic projections made by Jonathan Read.” According to official numbers from mainland China, which are updated daily, the current number of coronavirus infections is still under 25,000. Even then, it currently appears to be expanding at roughly 20% per 24-hour period, which represents a doubling of infections every 3.5 days (because the growth is compounded). (The left column is infections, and the right column is deaths.)

However, observers have noted that the official numbers reported by the communist Chinese government recently slipped into the “real numbers,” suddenly showing far higher confirmed infections and deaths: 154,024 infections and 24,589 deaths. Here’s a screen shot that was captured before the numbers reverted back to the lower, “official” numbers:The initial reaction from observers might be something along the lines of, “That was just a typo. So they corrected it.” However, there’s more to this story:

The higher numbers didn’t merely appear by themselves, out of context. Above each number is an “increase” factor that calculates how much larger today’s numbers are compared to yesterday’s numbers. For the 24,589 deaths, located at the lower right of this graphic, you’ll notice a number above it that states, “+1546.” The Chinese characters next to the numbers explain, “Compared to yesterday.” This means there is an underlying database that’s tracking daily numbers and being used to calculate the day-to-day differences. Similarly, there’s a number above the infection count of 154,023 that explains, “+20979.” This indicates the day-over-day increase from the previous day.


These numbers are clearly being automatically calculated, because if human error were to blame for typing the wrong numbers representing infections and deaths, it would be extremely unlikely that two more typos would coincidentally appear above those numbers, accidentally showing day-to-day increases that are consistent with a second set of numbers that are obviously being stored in parallel.

Read more …

The highest paid.

Major Mainland Chinese Airlines Place All Foreign Pilots On Unpaid Leave (SCMP)

All foreign pilots working for China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, and a host of smaller mainland Chinese carriers have been placed on indefinite unpaid leave, according to multiple sources and a memo seen by the Post. With the coronavirus crisis forcing airlines to slash flights, several hundred foreign pilots have seemingly become surplus overnight, with some telling the Post they were considering their options amid the uncertainty now facing the world’s fastest-growing air market. “All foreign pilots, including those who have applied for leave exemption and those who have not, shall start a non-fixed term leave without pay as soon as possible,” a Tuesday memo to a batch of foreign pilots for China Southern, the country’s largest carrier, said.


Their grounding was effective that day, with the pilots told they would “return to work when [the] situation gets better.” Xiamen Airlines along with Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines (BCA) – a trio of carriers owned by debt-laden HNA Group – have also placed foreign aircrew on unpaid leave, according to multiple sources. A source at BCA said their pilots had been offered the option of taking a significant pay cut that would bring them in line with their Chinese counterparts. China Eastern Airlines, meanwhile, was understood to have offered unpaid leave to its foreign pilots but had not made it mandatory at this point.

Read more …

The trade deal should be the least of Beijing’s worries by now.

Also, there are suggestions here that new cases rise less fast than before. But severe cases seem to rise.

With Virus Deaths At 565 China Considers Trade Deal Disaster Clause (SCMP)

Daily deaths caused by the new coronavirus have reached another record in China, with 73 fatalities confirmed in figures released by health authorities on Thursday morning, taking the death toll in mainland China to 563. The number of new infections in mainland China and Hubei province both fell on Wednesday compared to the day before, with 3,694 additional cases in the country and 2,987 in Hubei, national and provincial health authorities announced Thursday morning. The last time new infection figures dropped was January 28, with the daily increase in confirmed cases in China and Hubei steadily rising to a record high on Tuesday – 3,887 and 3,156, respectively. The deadly new coronavirus, which first emerged at the end of December, has killed at least 565 people worldwide, and sickened more than 28,000.

Mainland media on Tuesday reported that China may consider using a disaster-related clause in the phase one trade deal with the US because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Global Times, a nationalist newspaper affiliated to People’s Daily, cited an unnamed Chinese trade expert close to the government as saying a decision on launching a consultation with the US on the disaster clause was unlikely until the end of the first quarter. In a commentary published on Wednesday, the newspaper said that even if China was unable to reach the goal of increasing purchases from the US, there was still a sensible path forward without jeopardising the agreement and the negotiation process.

“The phase one agreement clearly stated that the two parties would consult with each other, ‘in the event that a natural disaster or other unforeseeable event outside the control of the parties delays a party from timely complying with its obligations under this agreement’. Without doubt the epidemic fits this scenario,” it said.

Read more …

Very popular man, I’m sure.

Chinese Scholar Blames Xi Jinping, CCP For Not Controlling Outbreak (SCMP)

A prominent Chinese scholar has published an article criticising the country’s leadership for failing to control the coronavirus outbreak that has infected almost 25,000 people around the world. Xu Zhangrun, a law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who has been under close surveillance by the authorities, blamed Communist Party leaders for putting politics ahead of the people in his strongly worded piece, which was published on several overseas Chinese-language websites this week. “The political system has collapsed under the tyranny, and a governance system [made up] of bureaucrats, which has taken [the party] more than 30 years to build has floundered,” he said in a reference to how reform-minded leaders sought to rebuild the country and modernise the government after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and moved away from one-man rule to collective leadership.

Xu was suspended from teaching at Tsinghua University in 2018, after the publication of an article in which he criticised the decision by party leaders to lift the two-term limit for presidents, allowing Xi Jinping to remain in office beyond his second term, which ends in 2023. His latest criticism came as China’s leaders and law enforcement officials warned that internet controls must be tightened to prevent the spread of rumours and misinformation. On Monday, Xi chaired a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee at which it was agreed that officials must maintain a tight grip on online media and direct public opinion about “winning the war over the virus”.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Security held a meeting to remind all police officers that political security was of utmost importance in handling the outbreak. The police would “strike harshly” on any and all disruption by “hostile forces”, according to a report by Xinhua. One of Xu’s close friends confirmed on Wednesday that the professor had written the article. “He has already been stripped of his teaching position but he is likely to face more punishment this time,” said the person, who asked not to be named. “We are concerned they [the police] will take him away now that he has published this article.”

Read more …

There’s no such thing. Ridiculous headline.

Who Owns The Coronavirus Cure? (SCMP)

China has applied to patent a drug candidate being developed by Gilead Sciences as the government rushes to find the cure for the deadly coronavirus, a move that could raise questions on intellectual property and marketing rights. The state-backed Institute of Virology in Wuhan filed the patent for using remdesivir to fight the novel coronavirus on January 21, according to a statement posted on its website two weeks later on February 4. If approved, the drug will be used to facilitate its potential global market entry, it added. Studies have been conducted outside the human bodies and found that Gilead’s remdesivir compound and the off-patent chloroquine malaria drug are both “highly effective” in the control of coronavirus infection, the Wuhan institute and the Beijing Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology said in a research published in Cell Research Journal.


“Since these compounds have [separately] been used in human patients with a safety track record and shown to be effective against various ailments, we suggest that they should be assessed in human patients suffering from the novel coronavirus disease,” the researchers wrote. Remdesivir has not been approved anywhere globally and has not been showed to be safe or effective for any use, Gilead’s chief medical officer Merdad Parsey said in a statement on Friday. The firm is working with Chinese health authorities to conduct a clinical trial on patients with pneumonia symptoms to test its safety and efficacy, it said. Past clinical data on other coronaviruses give it “hope,” it added.

Read more …

3 Turley articles today. One at the Hill, one at the BBC, one on his own site.

When The Dems lost to Trump in 2016, I said his role was to show how rotten the entire system is. And that they should take a good look at themselves, and try to figure out how that loss could ever come about. They never did, they only ever and exclusively looked at Trump, not themselves. This will not change as long as Hillary, Biden, Schiff et al lead the party.

Pelosi Shreds Decades Of Tradition In Demonstrating Against Trump (Turley)

Forty-four years ago, I walked on to the floor of the House of Representatives as a new Democratic 15-year-old page from Chicago. I stood and marveled at the beehive of activity on the floor in the People’s House. I can still remember that moment because it forged a bond and reverence that has never weakened for me. As a Democratic leadership page during the speakership of Tip O’Neill, I watched some of the most passionate and important debates of the generation from the Neutron Bomb to civil rights legislation to sweeping national park bills. The country was deeply divided, but both parties maintained the tradition of civility and decorum. I was struck how members, even in the heat of furious debates, would not attack each other by name and followed rigid principles of decorum.

They understood that they were the custodians of this institution and bore a duty to strengthen and pass along those traditions to the next generation. That is why I was (and remain) so offended by this display. I believe that President Trump himself is worthy of criticism for not shaking the hand of Pelosi. I also did not approve of aspects of his speech, including bestowing the Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh in the gallery like a reality show surprise scene. There was much to object to in the address, but presidents often make comments that enrage or irritate speakers. However, none of that excuses Pelosi. At that moment, she represents the House as an institution — both Republicans and Democrats. Instead, she decided to become little more than a partisan troll from an elevated position.

The protests of the Democratic members also reached a new low for the House. Pelosi did not gavel out the protest. She seemed to join it. It was the tradition of the House that a speaker must remain in stone-faced neutrality no matter what comes off that podium. The tradition ended last night with one of the more shameful and inglorious moments of the House in its history. Rather than wait until she left the floor, she decided to demonstrate against the President as part of the State of the Union and from the Speaker’s chair. That made it a statement not of Pelosi but of the House. For those of us who truly love the House as an institution, it was one of the lowest moments to unfold on the floor. That is why I argue in the Hill that, if Pelosi does not apologize and agree to honor the principle of neutrality and civility at the State of the Union, she should resign as speaker.

Read more …

Tweet: “Buttigieg campaign manager’s wife owns the app company that ruined the Iowa caucuses, and his campaign DONATED $42,500.00 to that same company, Shadow Inc.”

The video is educative.

Buttigieg and Sanders Separated By Razor-Thin Margin In Iowa (Pol.)

Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are running neck and neck in the Iowa caucuses with almost all of the votes counted. Buttigieg has 26.23 percent of the state delegate count to 26.06 percent for Sanders with 97 percent of precincts reporting, making the race too close to call, according to The Associated Press. Elizabeth Warren is in third at 18 percent of the state delegate count, followed by Joe Biden at nearly 16 percent and Amy Klobuchar at 12 percent. After a technical meltdown created significant delays in the reporting of results in Monday’s caucuses, the Iowa Democratic Party released almost all of the remaining data Wednesday night. The latest results came as CNN wrapped up a series of town halls with candidates in New Hampshire.

Earlier results came Wednesday afternoon as Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar were in the Senate voting in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The Republican-led chamber ultimately voted to acquit Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress as the numbers from Iowa were released. The latest results don’t change the order of the top five candidates, but they do show a razor-thin race at the top, where both the Buttigieg and Sanders campaigns have already declared themselves winners. Buttigieg insisted as early as Monday night that he was the clear victor, and he reportedly reassured supporters of that in a phone call on Wednesday. Sanders, meanwhile, told supporters in New Hampshire that he was leading in popular-vote totals and would come out of Iowa with the same number of national convention delegates as Buttigieg.


In terms of raw votes, Sanders leads in by more than 2,500 votes in the final alignment of Iowa caucus-goers, after supporters of non-viable candidates had the chance to realign at their precincts on Monday night.

Read more …

The entire impeachment trial was based on Trump wanting dirt on his “main political rival”. But Biden was never that. At the time of the Trump/Zelensky call, enough was known about Hunter/Burisma to realize Joe had no chance. And there was very little to suggest that Hunter/Burisma did not warrant an investigation. But Dems keep on saying it was “debunked”, without being able to suggest who did the debunking.

Biden Vows To Press On Despite Iowa ‘Gut Punch’ (BBC)

White House hopeful Joe Biden has called his poor performance in the Democrats’ first 2020 leadership vote, in Iowa’s caucuses, a “gut punch”. Mr Biden has come fourth, according to incomplete results from the election to pick a Democratic presidential nominee. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Mr Biden said. “This isn’t the first time in my life I’ve been knocked down.” With most results declared in Monday’s glitch-plagued caucuses, Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are neck and neck. But Mr Biden told an audience in New Hampshire: “I’m not going anywhere.”

According to partial results from Iowa, the former US vice-president under Barack Obama has failed to pick up a single one of the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic White House nomination under America’s quirky political system. New Hampshire will be the next state to vote on 11 February in a string of nationwide votes culminating with the crowning of the party’s presidential candidate in July. Eleven contenders remain in the race to challenge President Donald Trump, a Republican, in November’s election.

[..] On Wednesday, Mr Biden sharpened his attacks, targeting the two Democratic front-runners by name. “We need a nominee who can help Democrats up and down the ticket,” Mr Biden said. He suggested that self-described democratic socialist Mr Sanders would be unelectable in a general election. Mr Biden also said it would be a “risk” to nominate 38-year-old Mr Buttigieg, “someone who’s never held an office higher than mayor of a town of 100,000 people”. Mr Buttigieg responded by saying “the bulk of the credit for the achievements of the Obama administration belong with President Obama”.

Read more …

As go strictly partisan battles.

In This Impeachment, People Only Heard What They Wanted To (Turley)

Recently, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell declared that his show will not allow Trump supporters on as guests because all Trump supporters are “liars”. Likewise, Trump recently denounced Fox for even interviewing Democratic senators. When that is the state of our news, why should trials be any different? In our hardened political silos, even Framers are bit players in a crushingly formulaic play. Witnesses are as immaterial as facts when the public demands the same predictability from politicians that they do from cable hosts. We are all to blame. Politicians achieve their offices by saying what voters want to hear and today voters have little tolerance for hearing anything that contradicts their preset views of Trump.

As a result, the trial was pre-packed by popular demand. Speaker Nancy Pelosi even declared that Trump would “not be acquitted” even if he was acquitted. When the actual vote doesn’t matter, why should the actual testimony? Just as voters get the government that they deserve, they also get the impeachment trials that they demand. Watching on their favourite biased cable networks, voters raged at the bias of the opposing side in the impeachment as refusing to see the truth. Viewers thrilled as their side denounced their opponents and hissed when those opponents returned the criticism. The question and answer period even took on a crossfire format as senators followed up one side’s answer with a request for the other side to respond.

It was precisely the “fight, fight” tempo that has made cable news a goldmine. As the trial ends, perhaps justice has been done. The largely partisan vote showed that the trial could have had the sound turned off for the purposes of most viewers. We are left with our rage undiluted by reason. It really did not matter what anyone had to say because we were only hearing half of the trial anyway. It provided the perfect verdict on our times.

Read more …

Nancy should go home and be a grandma. She acted like a 5-year old during and after the SOTU. You don’t express your “hatred” of someone by imitating their behavior. Grace.

Nancy Pelosi Should Resign (Turley)

The House has its share of infamies, great and small, real and symbolic, and has been the scene of personal infamies from brawls to canings. But the conduct of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the State of the Union address this week will go down as a day of infamy for the chamber as an institution. It has long been a tradition for House Speakers to remain stoic and neutral in listening to the address. However, Pelosi seemed to be intent on mocking President Trump from behind his back with sophomoric facial grimaces and head shaking, culminating in her ripping up a copy of his address.

Her drop the mic moment will have a lasting impact on the House. While many will celebrate her trolling of the president, she tore up something far more important than a speech. Pelosi has shredded decades of tradition, decorum and civility that the nation could use now more than ever. The House Speaker is more than a political partisan, particularly when carrying out functions such as the State of the Union address. A president appears in the House as a guest of both chambers of Congress. The House Speaker represents not her party or herself but the entirety of the chamber. At that moment, she must transcend her own political ambitions and loyalties.

Tensions for this address were high. The House impeachment managers sat as a group in front of the president as a reminder of the ongoing trial. That can be excused as a silent but pointed message from the Democrats. Trump hardly covered himself with glory by not shaking hands with Pelosi. I also strongly disliked elements of his address which bordered on “check under your seat” moments, and the awarding of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom inside the House gallery like a Mardi Gras bead toss. However, if Trump made the State of the Union look like Oprah, then Pelosi made it look like Jerry Springer.

Read more …

Yeah. Buttigieg’s campaign manager is married to a woman who owns Shadow Inc. , which produced an app developed by among others Hillary’s campaign manager Robby Mook. And Bloomberg has his people inside the DNC. As does Biden, obviously. It smells like incest.

Bloomberg Surrogates Have Seats on DNC Rules Committees (Sludge)

As the Democratic National Committee establishes procedures for the Democratic presidential nominating process, two members of DNC rules committees simultaneously work on the campaign of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Having surrogates on the Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee and the Standing Rules and Bylaws Committee could be a boon for Bloomberg if nominating rules are re-opened for amendment ahead of the July convention. Some DNC members who are concerned about the polling support of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) have discussed reversing rule changes limiting the power of superdelegates that were put in place after the 2016 election, according to a report from Politico. Those discussions have been sharply rebuked by DNC leadership.

The DNC passed intensely-negotiated rule changes in August 2018 that sought to reduce the influence of superdelegates—appointed at-large delegates whose ranks include influential party consultants—primarily by preventing them from casting votes on the first nomination ballot, as they did in 2016. If no candidate receives a majority on the first ballot at the upcoming convention, which will be voted on by 3,979 pledged delegates, then the 771 superdelegates—including some lobbyists for corporate clients—can vote on the second ballot, under the new rules. If the superdelegates were to vote as a block, they could add over 16% to a candidate, potentially pushing their favorite over the top.

Michael Nutter, the former Mayor of Philadelphia who is a member of the Standing Rules and Bylaws Committee, was selected by Bloomberg in December 2019 to serve as his campaign’s national political chair. “Nutter will advise the campaign on policy development and strategy, and serve as a national surrogate on behalf of the campaign, recruiting key voices to join the campaign and traveling to field offices and events, speaking to constituents and press about why Mike Bloomberg is uniquely qualified to unite and rebuild the country at a time when it is more divided than ever,” the Bloomberg campaign said in a December statement.

Nutter was nominated by former DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) in 2013 and he has served on the rules committee since 2017. Nutter co-hosted a kick-off fundraiser for former vice president Joe Biden in April 2019 after Bloomberg announced a month earlier that he would not run for president, but he quickly switched to Bloomberg’s camp after the former New York mayor reversed course and entered the race.

Read more …

 

Who needs drug labs?

 

 

 

Please donate what you can.

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle February 6 2020

Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #53581

    Seattle, WA during Spanish Influenza. No ride on street cars without wearing a mask 1918/19   • China May Delay Annual Meeting Of Parliament Due
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle February 6 2020]

    #53582
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Seattle, WA during Spanish Influenza. No ride on street cars without wearing a mask 1918/19

    Very telling photo from the past; it is relevant to today…

    3 Turley articles today. One at the Hill, one at the BBC, one on his own site.

    When The Dems lost to Trump in 2016, I said his role was to show how rotten the entire system is. And that they should take a good look at themselves, and try to figure out how that loss could ever come about. They never did, they only ever and exclusively looked at Trump, not themselves. This will not change as long as Hillary, Biden, Schiff et al lead the party.

    Ya think? Democracy died (in the U.S.) on Nov. 22, 1963…

    On another note; we went to a university dental school today in Salaya (50 kilometers from home) (near Bangkok) and they were scanning everybody with temperature probes aimed at our foreheads.
    Very happy to see that…
    Many patients wearing masks. Do they actually work? I have my doubts…

    #53585
    oxymoron
    Participant

    So I guess it’s time to start taking Zinc and vitamin D 3 then…… I mean I’m very fit and healthy ( install edible food gardens for my day job and homestead other times) but I’m not eating enough greens.
    On another note – If nicole and Raul were advocating for a little cash hoarding and paying down your debts last time round – what is the best thing that China supply that I should stock up on so I can make a killing when it all runs out? Oh hang on that is like everything
    Maybe it’s just mung beans, rice and some safety masks. A sense of humour has gotta be worth somethin’ too. World is getting heavy as shit right now.

    #53586
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    A sense of humour has gotta be worth somethin’ too. World is getting heavy as shit right now.

    Hell yeah; a sense of humour is key, IMHO…
    😉
    I for one, think humour is what being human is all about.
    But, I also realize we’re in unprecedented times; which makes it harder, but even more important…
    I’m seriously working on it…

    #53587
    oxymoron
    Participant

    And Respect and gratitude which you have tonnes of V.
    Peace

    #53588
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    @ oxymoron

    Very kind of you; and back at you…

    #53593
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    So the alleged Dem candidate frontrunner is a gay man whose last name starts with Butt. Reminds me of how Obama rhymes with Osama. Apparently, thay have high hopes for this individual.

    #53594
    Dave Note
    Participant

    Original China Virus Whistleblower Doctor Dies

    https://www.zerohedge.com/health/original-china-virus-whistleblower-doctor-dies

    Talk about shooting the messenger. The guy was only 34.

    As a reminder, Li Wenliang – who warned the public of a potential “SARS-like” disease in DECEMBER! 2019 – was questioned by local health authority, and warned:

    “We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice – is that understood?”

    Dr, Li was later summoned by Wuhan police to sign a reprimand letter in which he was accused of “spreading rumors online” and “severely disrupting social order.”

    Don’t ya love totalitarian communism?

    #53596
    Dave Note
    Participant

    The Cocaine cures Coronvirus news bulletin is precious.

    Pure for LA, NYC and DC

    Talk about “grasping at straws”

    #53597
    lasttwo
    Participant

    If you live in a primary state you may want to consider voting for Gabbard. Here is a rare non derogatory article.
    https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/tulsi-gabbard-new-hampshire-primary/

    besides having the opportunity to piss off the idiots at the DNC, CNN, MSM, and the Queen (Hillary) is worth a few minutes of your time not to mention the warmongers that have wasted a large portion of our future.

    #53598
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “This means there is an underlying database”

    Good catch. Often I’m so stupid. And the death rates were suspiciously level, not lumpy. Unfortunately, no more definitive than the leak itself. Again, it’s their level of response that supports the higher numbers. What’s with the West being so placid, then? Is it a racial virus like SARS sort-of was? Still fishing for a model that fits all parts.

    This will not change as long as Hillary, Biden, Schiff et al lead the party.”

    Unfortunately, a single coherent response has not materialized. Instead it’s fractured, which will take longer.

    “they were the custodians of this institution”

    This is separating the office from the men. Just as we have a nation of laws, not men. It’s difficult, but important and things go off the rails otherwise. On the speech: gag me, treacly political garbage dumpster fire of BS American boosterism. …But that’s what these rah-rah “vote-for-Burr” addresses are historically, and are supposed to be. Since there’s no accurate information – ever – I skip them. I don’t understand the decorum. Sure, whatever, but they’ve been acting like spoiled children since before I was born. Yes, it’s slightly worse now, but they’re not fighting duels and beating each other with a hickory cane, either. So? What about the facts, the address, your intelligent, adult response line-by-line if he’s lying? I thought you didn’t like his rude, boorish, tantrums, so you tantrum? Whatever. Just the facts, ma’am. But resign, arrest, censure? Puh-lease. Already I’m going to have to attack the Right side as they only begin to be the one-party system. No rest for the Devil’s own Advocate, that’s for sure.

    Buttigieg and Sanders Separated by Razor-Thin Margin in Iowa (Pol.)”

    As we find out, not really. Sanders won the popular by a good margin, yet somehow – shucks Gomer – Pete won all the delegates! By these weird coin-tosses and by rounding up by 6% and so on. Who knew? Except Pete himself of course, an old Navy Intel nobody coming from nowhere, working for Brennan. Okay, great: and you think Bernie Bros will come out in the general if you do this? That the party will even exist in two years as Kunstler (a lifelong Democrat) suggests? And by the way, I thought you hated the electoral college and needed the vote to go to the popular. But now that Sanders is definitively the winner of the popular, you’re for the electoral (ish) system? Funny ol’ world. Add it to the list.

    By the way, doesn’t this crush the story that Biden is a “main rival”, since he’s coming in 5th? I mean beyond that he wasn’t a candidate when he, or even Ukraine, was investigating, and beyond it was Hunter, not him the (non)candidate that they were after. Facts. Details. Nevermind.

    “Don’t ya love totalitarian communism?”

    I live under it so, “Yes sir, Comrade sir! I certainly love it sir!”

    #53599
    Dave Note
    Participant

    The more I read about Dr Li Wenliang and the way he was treated by the CCP, it is proof positive to me that the ‘official’ (cough,cough, gag) Chinese government stats on nCoV are absolute dripping poison crap.

    “Leaked” Infection Numbers are real, (and probably even worse) and as events unfold it will be impossible to hide such villiany. So the damage to the CCP’s reputation for honesty will be MORTALLY wounded around the world with the person in the street.

    The world map as of a couple days ago showed NO cases in all of South America and prettty much the entire African continent.

    That is simply not believable. The Chinese have a very heavy presence in both continents with lots of air and sea cargo exchange. The governments in those countries are in serious denial if they think they are squeaky clean from nCoV, they just have such bad health care reporting.

    How does that pan out for believing China’s CCP on economic stats?

    Once you lose the “Trust Horizon” on a scale like this, it’s never coming back.

    Liar, liar, your country is on fire.

    #53600
    John Day
    Participant

    Very good picture today, Ilargi. Most appropriate.
    I do not have a lot to add. I took a special picture at dawn this morning, though.
    We should see this differently if the tencent numbers are right.
    This really does force us all to consider the nature of existence, urgently and profoundly.
    http://www.johndayblog.com/2020/02/falling-down.html

    #53601
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “The trade deal should be the least of Beijing’s worries by now.”

    I read earlier that China is slashing tariffs. To the extent that social cohesion is crucial to dealing with a pandemic, and to the extent that maintaining certain levels of employment is critical to social cohesion, China may not be so irresponsible or foolish to spend energy on this matter.

    #53602
    Dr. D
    Participant

    From Mish. Again, if true:

    “MediaReader 17 hrs

    Apparently there are 7 crematoriums in Wuhan operating 24/7. Given 11MM people one could expect 350-400 deaths without nCoV. At least one has 30 furnaces and typical creation times run 1 – 3 hours. Assuming 5hrs total for start to finish 24/5×30 furnaces x 7 sites about 1k per day. For 1 week that’s 7k – normal of 2k so about 5k per week potential for nCoV cremations. 10 weeks extends that to 50k deaths. Now consider double or triple cremations at a time and backlogs?”

    #53604
    WES
    Participant

    Dr. D:. I saw a report saying there was considerable amount of fog (smog?) in Wuhan. They wondered if it was because of these furnaces going 24/7?

    I did see a video showing a backlog of bodies waiting to be burned.

    I suspect your figures are closer to the truth than the so called official figures are.

    #53605
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    My Tencents Worth

    I think the alarming figures are fake news.

    Most importantly, why on earth would Tencent have access to this information?! If you want to suppress information you do not give it to an internet company!

    Also, it takes time between developing symptoms and dying. It implies more people died than had developed the disease!

    One thought is that the 154023 refers to people under observation and the 24589 are confirmed cases.

    It could even be a deliberate fake. We are talking about a single static image.

    Finally, the reaction is ridiculously bland. It seems more about pointing at the Chinese government and NOT that these figures would imply a disease much more deadly than the Black Death and which would kill over half of the World’s population!!!!

    #53606
    WES
    Participant

    Observing China’s response to the coronavirus one can’t help but notice the predictable manner in which the CCP has reacted.

    The CCP stays in power via it’s police state. Whenever the CCP sees anything that it perceives is a threat to its power, it’s first reaction is to deploy it’s police state.

    The coronavirus was perceived to be a threat. The CCP quickly deployed it’s police state.

    The number of people that die is basically irrelevant. Staying in power is the only thing that is relevant.

    So if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

    #53607
    WES
    Participant

    Anti:. No, this didn’t just happen once! It has happened before! That is why people have take note!

    #53608

    SCMP is one of the sources that say Dr Li Wenliang is not dead, but in critical condition.

    #53609
    WES
    Participant

    I am always greatly amused when I read about the DNC and democracy.

    First the DNC is a private club (and you ain’t in it!). It is free to set it’s own rules.

    The DNC is also free to change the rules in the middle of the game! It has been doing this like, forever!

    As such, there is nothing Democratic about the DNC! It is as Democratic as is the communist party!

    Bernie will get a winter cottage in Florida!

    #53610
    WES
    Participant

    Raul:. The WHO supposedly acknowledged his passing!?

    #53611

    Then CNN contradicts WHO.

    #53613
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    People are dying. People are lying. People are trying. People are buying.

    Well, it rhymes. More than one can say for both CNN and the WHO.

    I think it is impossible for any of us to grasp how sensitive our global civilization is to disruptions that have real physical consequences. The (almost unconscious) belief is that Civilization is bigger than Reality. Almost everyone believes this concept in at least one of its many forms. Most people’s belief system is Do What You’re Told (except in secret). Those that Tell Us What to Do are naturally assumed by the Told that they will Do Something that will make everything more or less OK.

    When they discover that the Tellers are much better at Telling than Doing, and simply can’t Do Enoguh nor Do It Right, the Told stop listening and being doing things. Not being used to doing other than what they’re tood, their actions mostly are inept at best and gruesome at worst. The pain from life ripping one’s head from its comfortable anal sinecure is intense, and people in intense pain tend to be irritable, a temper fit waiting to happen.

    Our leaders strike me as no better than China’s, and not nearly as well equipped. China has authorianism hardwired into its structure and people. Cooperation for the greater good, even under oppression and chaos, is easier for them to maintain that here in l’etats unis, imo.

    If the Chinese lose too much faith in their Do-Tellers, lord have mercy.

    I call myself liberal so as not to confuse people. I don’t fit in anywhere but we’re a labeled society, a literally numbered people. I have mostly been a conservative in the true sense of the word, one who understands that people can’t live without social structures, and social structures are difficult to put together. The doing so tends to yield horrific side effects.

    So I embrace, short term, the emerging, growing authoritarianism. By the time people radically rebel in revolution against this tyranny, they’ll at least have some idea of What To Do after torturing and slaying anyone perceived as a fomer Do Teller.

    #53614
    WES
    Participant

    Raul:. CNN isn’t what it once was! Owned by Amazon! Serves it’s owner! Seems rundown! More like a DNC news outlet now!

    These three news outlets primarily serve these three US government departments!

    CIA primarily leaks to Washington Post
    FBI primarily leaks to NYT
    State Dept. primarily leaks to CNN

    #53615
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “By the time people radically rebel in revolution against this tyranny, they’ll at least have some idea of What To Do after torturing and slaying anyone perceived as a fomer Do Teller.”

    Surely a fear of this is part of why the Communist Part in China is so obsessed with maintaining control. They’re terrified of what can happen to them if reform happens too swiftly. They’re terrified of what can happen to the people.

    But such terror doesn’t seem to give them the courage needed to face up to the corrupt cronyism at the core of their government. Not doing so guarantees they will face the music they so dread. I don’t think the CPC will last many more years. You can funny money economies but you can’t fake your way through a major epidemic.

    #53616
    zerosum
    Participant

    IOWA RESULTS

    Recanvase?

    The result will be Biden first, with the support of Hillary.
    Because Hillary said,” First, Pick the one that can beat Trump, secondly the one that has experience to govern.”
    Geeee!
    I figure that if Biden cannot govern then the V.P. (heheh Hilary) will step in with her experience.
    Do you want another democratic idea for president? Nancy + Hillary

    #53618
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    MAJORITY OF DEMOCRATIC VOTERS ‘MORE LIKELY’ TO VOTE FOR BERNIE SANDERS AFTER IOWA CAUCUSES: NEW POLL

    The way my tinfoil hat is cut, I want to go parzanoiac and see this as intentional,m that the DNC wants to rise Bernie up now in the spotlight so they can drag him down as a socialist and god knows what else, maybe even as a registered Democrat, a designatyion of shame indeed. 😉

    But that’s probably because I can’t quite comprehend the level of stupidity the DNC has shwon for some time, a stupidity based on the old Herbertism from Dune: “Fear is the mind killer.”

    So… they’re really that stupid, eh? This makes the GOP clowncar candidate lineup of 2016 resemble aline-up of movie-star handsome political geniuses made of raw charisma and moral fiber. It’s downright infantile.

    Makes me feel like this:

    Nye Guy

    #53619
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    It used to be more fun:

    ed asploder

    #53620
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    If I were Ms. Pelosi, I’d have torn up those speech notes too. About the only thing right those two have done to each other is to snub and belittle the other. Takes the load off of us to keep them properly mired in shame.

    Being a crude son of a bitch, I’d like more teeny-weenie and sagging tit insults, though.

    “I hear Nacy’s hang so low that when she wakes u they hit the floor before her feet.”

    “I hear it’s so small the doctors tried to remove it as a mole.”

    And so on…

    #53621
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    It doesn’t help that as Nancy ages, she grows a rsemblance to Ayn Rand:

    nancy

    Ayn

    #53622
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    aynn

    nanncy

    #53623
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #53624
    lasttwo
    Participant

    many things stink
    2 days to get caucus numbers it is obvious to me that bernie is getting burned again. Wall street and the elite do not want a Bernie president. the dnc does not want bernie or gabbard or warren they do not want a well a democrat they want Clinton not Johnson. and lets face it the pendulum has swung too far and we need a liberal democrat the income inequality will not stand not for ever either politically or thru revolution it will change.
    shutting down the worlds most populated country for a flu – either it is much worse that 30000 people much deadlier than 500 people or it is a distraction slight of hand for something we are not seeing

    #53625
    lasttwo
    Participant

    here is the average flu numbers

    https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

    China shut itself down over this virus — it is not the flu I think it may be much worse or it is slight of hand

    #53626
    zerosum
    Participant

    “China shut itself down … a slight of hand”???
    Only in China
    My first impression was “a test of the emergency response system”
    Then
    something went wrong

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