Archive for 2020
March 10, 2020
WELL, SOCIALISTS SAY A LOT OF STUPID THINGS: Socialist students claim ‘safety will deteriorate’ with new police station. Though I once would have expected less silliness from Utah. Not any more.
GIVEN HIS TRACK RECORD, THIS IS THE BEST NEWS I’VE SEEN IN WEEKS: Paul Krugman: Market signaling a ‘permanent recession.’
UPDATE (Charlie): Dow jumps more than 800 points after Wall Street’s biggest rout since 2008.
(Bumped.)
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: My Wuhan Joe Biden Election Conspiracy Theory. “I think they’d prefer to get the elderly white man into the White House with one of their preferred diversity candidates as his vice president. Once in, they can suddenly become aware of his cognitive decline and begin publicly expressing concerns about his health, all dutifully abetted by their flying monkeys in the media.”
Yep.
RAPTOR MIST OVER SINGAPORE: Maj. Josh Gunderson, F-22 Demonstration Team pilot, performs during an aerial demonstration at the Singapore Airshow 2020 near the Changi Exhibition Center, Feb. 11, 2020.
AND THEY’LL BE DOGPILED IF THEY ADMIT IT: Diversity Problem: 1% Of Harvard Faculty Support President Trump’s Reelection.
COMMUNISTS: As Beijing claims credit for beating coronavirus, Chinese people are outraged: ‘Fake! It’s all fake!’
Chinese diplomats have meanwhile begun a campaign — giving more than 400 media interviews and publishing more than 300 articles in recent weeks, according to China’s Foreign Ministry – to praise China’s virus control methods. State media recently celebrated the publication of a book by the central propaganda department about China’s successes against the coronavirus, titled “A Battle Against Epidemic: China Combatting COVID-19 in 2020.”
The book will be published in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic, according to a Feb. 26 Xinhua news release, so that the world could learn from China’s disease control methods. But at home, skepticism and anger run deep, so much so that the party has been forced to backtrack several times on its propaganda.
Critics on WeChat circulated images of the “Battle Against Epidemic” book cover with the comment “Totally shameless,” possibly prompting a reconsideration of timing for the book’s publication. As of Monday, it still was not available for purchase.
Backlashes have surfaced in other places too. Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, one of the party’s highest-ranking officials, was touring a residential compound in Wuhan last week, the epidemic’s ground zero, when residents began shouting from their apartment windows: “Fake! Fake! It’s all fake!”
Local news media reported that residents were protesting because the compound’s management had done a last-minute cleanup and orchestrated a fake setup of grocery delivery to locked-down apartments, when in reality residents were being confined and neglected.
Thomas Friedman, call your office.
TIM CARNEY ON THE UNANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL CHANGE: Stay-at-home parents could keep us safer amid coronavirus outbreak.
The coronavirus is killing people and spreading rapidly. In Seattle, 14 people have died as of Friday morning amid at least 75 confirmed cases. The number of Seattle residents infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 is probably far, far higher because testing is so scarce.
So the area is faced with a lethal and contagious virus for which no treatment is available, and unknown hundreds or maybe thousands of people are infected.
That’s why the county government is telling people to “avoid bringing large groups of people together” and encouraging everyone to work from home as much as possible. If you’re curious, “large groups” are defined as gatherings of more than 10 people.
Yet Seattle Public Schools announced on Thursday that they are keeping schools open. While canceling all school district gatherings, they’re keeping school, childcare, and aftercare open.
Why would you say 12 people can’t get together but say that we should keep open schools, where hundreds of children, teachers, staff, parents all are in close proximity, eating, chewing on pencils, and using the bathroom? Ask the superintendent of schools.
School is basically daycare.
WUHAN CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: Italians barred from Austria to stop spread.
Global coronavirus cases exceed 114,000.
As Italy locks down 60 million people over coronavirus, parts of China return to normalcy.
China’s President Xi visits Wuhan as number of new coronavirus cases tumbles.
D.C.-area coronavirus cases spike; hundreds of churchgoers told to quarantine.
Pelosi says Dem coronavirus package could be released this week, as Schumer attacks Trump.
Iran Coronavirus Deaths Reach 291, Cases at More Than 8,000: Health Ministry.
South Korea reports fewer than 150 new coronavirus cases.
Freezer sales rocket amid coronavirus stockpiling.
Spirit abandons 2020 forecast due to coronavirus outbreak.
RBS to allow customers to defer mortgage payments.
Apple reportedly offers retail workers unlimited sick leave for coronavirus symptoms.
Physician on coronavirus: We must ‘brace for a three-month problem.’
American Airlines To Cut Domestic, International Capacity Due To Coronavirus.
I’M NOT SURPRISED: Make No Mistake, China Really Does Want to Dominate the Pacific.
THE REASON WON’T SHOCK YOU: Now we know why Kamala Harris endorsed Joe Biden. “She wants a prominent role in his administration.”
AT AMAZON, Deal of the Day, Marino’s Men Genuine Leather Dress Belt with Single Prong Buckle.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Coronavirus Is Very Different From the Spanish Flu of 1918. Here’s How.
In 1918, the world was a very different place, even without the disruptive influence of World War I. Doctors knew viruses existed but had never seen one — there were no electron microscopes, and the genetic material of viruses had not yet been discovered. Today, however, researchers not only know how to isolate a virus but can find its genetic sequence, test antiviral drugs and develop a vaccine.
In 1918, it was impossible to test people with mild symptoms so they could self-quarantine. And it was nearly impossible to do contact tracing because the flu seemed to infect — and panic — entire cities and communities all at once. Moreover, there was little protective equipment for health care workers, and the supportive care with respirators that can be provided to people very ill with coronavirus did not exist.
With a case fatality rate of at least 2.5 percent, the 1918 flu was far more deadly than ordinary flu, and it was so infectious that it spread widely, which meant the number of deaths soared.
Researchers believe the 1918 flu spared older people because they had some immunity to it. They theorize that decades earlier there had been a version of that virus, one that was not as lethal and spread like an ordinary flu. The older people living in 1918 would have been exposed to that less lethal flu and developed antibodies. As for children, most viral illnesses — measles, chickenpox — are more deadly in young adults, which may explain why the youngest were spared in the 1918 epidemic.
Regardless of the reason, it was a disaster for life expectancy, which plummeted. In 1917, life expectancy in the United States was 51 years. It was the same in 1919. But in 1918, it was just 39 years.
The new coronavirus tends to kill older people and those with underlying medical conditions, and it does not seem to kill children. All of which means it will have far less effect, if any, on life expectancy.
To riff off Salena Zito, treat this coronavirus seriously but not hysterically.
THERE MAY BE A HOUSE VOTE ON THIS TODAY: Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) describes the modernization measures to be considered.
A MAN’S REACH SHOULD EXCEED HIS GRASP, OR WHAT’S A HEAVEN FOR? PURCELL, OK COUPLE CRASH CAR INTO HOUSE WHILE ATTEMPTING 69 SEX POSITION WHILE DRIVING. “According to eyewitness testimony, both passengers were allegedly locked into a sexual position and showed signs of advanced intoxication to alcohol but also possibly crystal meth.”
Injuries were described as “non-life-threatening.”
CHINA’S FORCED ORGAN DONATIONS WORSE THAN THOUGHT: A new data-driven study for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation finds strong evidence that Beijing continues to make Falun Gong followers and Muslim Uyghurs the main victims of this barbaric practice:
“In examining the extraordinary growth of organ transplantation and rapid availability of organs in China, the report asks one overarching question: What is the most plausible explanation for the source of the organs? The report examines the evidence of blood-testing and medical examinations of Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs in custody, and finds that extrajudicial organ sourcing from these populations is the most plausible and parsimonious explanation.”
‘ENVELOPE EXPANDED!’: Say what you will about Elon Musk and Tesla, his SpaceX endeavor just achieved its 50th successful launch rocket retrieval landing. The Epoch Times quotes Musk as saying this one took place despite strong cross winds in the retrieval landing area.