GIVING IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS: China forces Italy to buy same coronavirus supplies it had donated to Beijing a few weeks ago.
Author Archive: Stephen Green
April 7, 2020
THE GHOST OF WALTER DURANTY SMILES: In Which the New York Times Morphs Into a Total Propaganda Tool for China’s Communist Government.
April 6, 2020
I’M AT A TOTAL LOSS FOR ONCE ON THIS ONE: Erick Erickson Celebrates Act of Charity. Libs Accuse Him of Erecting ‘Burning Cross.’
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A SMALLER BLOG: Democratic Presidential Clown Car Update for April 6, 2020. “The frozen campaign continues. Slow Joe racks up Pinocchios and launches a podcast, the Democratic Convention has been moved back a month (and may turn into a virtual-only affair), and Bernie’s doppelganger says it’s time to throw in the towel.”
HE’S LOSING IT: Biden Tries To Slam Trump, But Cruz Takes Him To Truth Town.
WHY, IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH TRUMP HAD BEEN RIGHT ABOUT CHINA ALL ALONG:
(Neoclassical reference in the headline.)
GLOOM AND DOOM GOT YOU DOWN? How About Some Good News on the Economy?
I CERTAINLY HOPE NOT: Bronx Zoo Tiger Infected with COVID-19 by Zookeeper. Could Your Cat or Dog Be at Risk?
MINXIN PEI: Competition, the Coronavirus, and the Weakness of Xi Jinping.
During the multidecade competition of the Cold War, the rigidity of the Soviet regime and its leaders proved to be the United States’ most valuable asset. The Kremlin doubled down on failed strategies—sticking with a moribund economic system, continuing a ruinous arms race, and maintaining an unaffordable global empire—rather than accept the losses that thoroughgoing reforms might have entailed. Chinese leaders are similarly constrained by the rigidities of their own system and therefore limited in their ability to correct policy mistakes. In 2018, Xi decided to abolish presidential term limits, signaling his intention to stay in power indefinitely. He has indulged in heavy-handed purges, ousting prominent party officials under the guise of an anticorruption drive. What is more, Xi has suppressed protests in Hong Kong, arrested hundreds of human rights lawyers and activists, and imposed the tightest media censorship of the post-Mao era. His government has constructed “reeducation” camps in Xinjiang, where it has incarcerated more than a million Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities. And it has centralized economic and political decision-making, pouring government resources into state-owned enterprises and honing its surveillance technologies. Yet all together, these measures have made the CCP weaker: the growth of state-owned enterprises distorts the economy, and surveillance fuels resistance. The spread of the novel coronavirus has only deepened the Chinese people’s dissatisfaction with their government.
The economic tensions and political critiques stemming from U.S.-Chinese competition may ultimately prove to be the straws that broke this camel’s back. If Xi continues on this trajectory, eroding the foundations of China’s economic and political power and monopolizing responsibility and control, he will expose the CCP to cataclysmic change.
FLASHBACK FROM YOURS TRULY: Coronavirus, Xi Jinping, and the Mandate of Heaven.
Xi has another problem on his hands: His own overweening ambition. From the death of Mao until Xi himself, the CCP leadership functioned largely on consensus between the top men. Nobody wanted to see a return to one-man totalitarianism, when Mao was free to murder on a whim while the country barely subsisted. But the CCP was hardly willing to surrender any power, either. Consensus was a way to show the CCP as a whole enjoyed the Mandate: The economy began its long and unprecedented boom, guided by a ruling clique that agreed on all the big details. When trouble erupted, a head or two might roll, but the consensus continued unchanged except for a new head or two to replace the rollers.
But Xi has moved from consensus to one-man rule. No rival power centers remain within the CCP, so there’s no consensus committee to roll on if Xi’s head rolls off. If Xi stumbles badly, whether it’s due to coronavirus or some other crisis in the future, he’ll leave behind nothing but untrusted, untested yes-men.
That one is just for our VIP members, and I hope you’ll use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Virtual(ly Empty) Coronapocalypse Holy Week Begins. “I think what may get really weird for people this week is that Easter Sunday is a big social gathering day for secular people too. Of all the things we’ve been told not to do, avoid family and friends on Easter Sunday is one of the biggest tasks. Yes, we had to get through Saint Patrick’s Day, but Easter is a bigger deal because it ropes in all of our relatives who don’t party.”
DON’T BE CRUDE: Saudi Arabia, Russia push negotiations for global oil pact.
Saudi Arabia and Russia both say they want the U.S., which has become the world’s largest producer thanks to the shale revolution, to join the cuts. But Trump had only hostile words for OPEC on Saturday, and threatened tariffs on foreign oil.
“If the Americans don’t take part, the problem which existed before for the Russians and Saudis will remain — that they cut output while the U.S ramps it up, and that makes the whole thing impossible,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a research group that advises the Kremlin.
It’s not clear if Russia and Saudi Arabia will require the U.S. to publicly commit to cut production — a challenge in the private, fragmented American industry — or if a compromise gesture would be enough. Alexander Dynkin, president of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow, a state-run think tank, said Moscow would like the U.S. to lift some sanctions as a compromise.
There’s so much oil being produced, and so much less than usual being consumed, that somebody somewhere has to cut because we’re running out of places to store the stuff.
THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM: Surgeon General Warns That This Week Will Be ‘Our Pearl Harbor’ Moment as Virus Deaths Will Spike.
April 5, 2020
April 3, 2020
TAKE A BREAK FROM THE SERIOUS NEWS FOR A FEW MINUTES: Florida Man Friday: Drone Delivery TP Is Just What the Doctor Ordered.
AND FOR OUR VIPs: Debt Takes a Holiday. “The weak spot of a credit-based economy is that when the economy stops moving, the whole credit structure can collapse.”
That one is just for our VIP members, and I hope you’ll use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: How To Make Sure You Get The Largest Possible COVID-19 Stimulus Check.