Thursday, February 27, 2020

Run On Chloroquine

Thinking Prophylactically,

A post on The Automatic Earth yesterday included this link, which is incomplete information about the treatment of novel coronavirus 2019 with chloroquine phosphate, failing to reveal the dose.

That's OK. Let's wing it with the highest standard sustained dose in general use, the dose for amebiasis. 
That is 500 mg twice per day for 2 days, then once per day for 2-3 weeks. It looks about right for the job.

Both local pharmacies I called here in Austin this morning say the wholesaler expects to have some on March 3 
("I should gladly repay you Tuesday"). This online pharmacy says they have it, according to the online chat lady. 
It costs about $15/tablet and you need a prescription to send in with the printed form.

I'm awaiting a call back from a human supervisor about getting a supply for the clinic. 
I'd find it useful to have around, for sure.

Do take 5000 units per day of vitamin-D3, available over the counter and cheap. 
Take 2 per day for a month if you have not been taking it, to try to get up into the normal range.

Here is the latest story about how to tell that this virus was created in a lab. There are more and more specific fingerprints of genetic engineering. Nope, the pangolin didn't get it from the bat and mutate it to infect humans.

Do you think Japan will host the olympics this summer? I don't.
Saudi Arabia just quarantined Mecca. No Hajj.

Iran's Ambassador to the Vatican just died of n-CoV-2019 disease, and their Vice President for Women & Families has it.

UK National Health Service says what must obviously be true. In case of shortage of life support equipment, healthy young people will be prioritized over sick old people. Each hospital will have committee of "3 wise men" to decide priority.

Yesterday's news was that Japan, then Germany gave up on containment of cases and switched to damage control, since new cases were untraceable. Japan is closing schools, too. First "community acquired" case announced in US.

A Japanese tour guide, treated for the virus, recovered and tested negative, has become symptomatic again. It looks like this virus may go dormant, "play possum", as well as have a long and variable latency, and be spread by those who don't feel sick.

In June 2017 the World Bank sold about $450 million of pandemic bonds, that pay if there is no pandemic, but poor sick countries get the money if there is a pandemic. There are 3 tranches of these. No pandemic by this July means big money to big investors. Declaration (unavoidable soon) of pandemic triggers means poor, devastated countries get some of the money that is left after fees and coupon payments, already disbursed.

Seeking Chloroquine

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Brief Opportunity Window

Seizing the Day,

I work in public health, garden 3 vegetable gardens, and bike commute. I’m outta’ bandwidth.
This morning I have to go get beans, rice, oil, salt, Thai red curry in little jars, bar soap, shampoo... 
Jenny scored toilet paper and mixed nuts at Costco yesterday, and I ordered $1300 of things that I would be ordering soon for the family homestead in Yoakum. A Pioneer heat pump and 5 stainless steel shelving units seem to be available, so I put them on the credit card.
I tended the vegetable garden there at People’s Community Clinic for an hour and a half yesterday afternoon, after finishing all my patient care work, then rode the hour home. 
2 people really almost hit me on the way home. Distracted and in a hurry, I guess. 
It makes me ready to fight.
I’m glad I’m not on a Chinese or American nuclear sub with one infected mate. 
I have made suggestions for a mobile viral assessment unit in the parking lot at People's Clinic, and how to run it, weekend before last. Haven’t heard bac 
I also said I anticipated we’d need to work out home visits for our patients. No reply yet. 
I volunteered. I’m a fatalist. 
We have no test kits, but we can report suspicious people who traveled to Wuhan, I guess. 
Who makes the test kits?
Jenny listened to NPR on her way home from work last evening. The CDC was advising Americans to hoard, er, “stock up for a quarantine at home”.  
  Get stuff you’ll need now. Window of opportunity.   
This morning after coffee, Jenny wished me a good day as she headed to work. 
“I love you”, I said. “I hope you don’t die of coronavirus”.

I think everybody will get exposed within a few years.
Harvard Professor Says 40-70 Per Cent of People Worldwide Will Be Infected With Coronavirus
Says asymptomatic nature of virus means it “will ultimately not be containable.”


​Japan has about 171 confirmed cases and 1 death, but they have done the analysis. They can't tell where the new cases are coming from. It's in the community and invisible.
"We Can't Stop This": Japan Rolls Out New 'Harm Reduction' Policy Aimed At Limiting Virus-Related Deaths
"We shouldn’t have illusions," said Shigeru Omi, a senior government adviser. "We can’t stop this, but we can try to reduce the speed of expansion and reduce mortality."
In keeping with this maxim, hospital space will be reserved for patients with the most serious symptoms, while those with simple colds and fevers have been asked to rest at home. They're only to contact health authorities if a fever persists for four days. Or two for the elderly, people with chronic diseases or pregnant women .


​"Rage, rage against the dying of the light!"
Coronavirus: Xi Jinping rings alarm on China economy as country shifts priority to maintaining growth
President Xi Jinping has acknowledged the ‘unavoidable’ impact of the coronavirus epidemic on China, but implored local officials to resume production where possible
Xi’s comments come as concern grows that the economy could be dragged into a deep slowdown, threatening the country’s 2020 development goals

I don't think we have good healthcare infrastructure at all. What a delusion! 
Sure you can get a coronary bypass if you have good insurance, but a hundred million cases of a sometimes-fatal cold virus? Wake Up!
 "I've been saying that it's all about health care infrastructure, that China doesn't have it, we have it, other Western countries have it. Well, guess what, South Korea has a fantastic health care system. They tested over 20,000 people and ended up with over 800 positive cases. That's showing that this is a highly contagious virus that is spreading despite the best efforts of top health systems to contain it," he said.
 
​We can presume that it is getting bad in North Korea, probably Libya. Remind me who is in "The Axis of Evil".
Venezuela?
How Iran’s coronavirus death toll came to be the highest behind only China
Iran’s health minister says the infections are believed to be linked to a merchant who bypassed travel restrictions by making indirect flights to China
Qom, south of the capital Tehran, has been identified as the centre of contagion, but authorities have warned it is possible the virus is present in all cities


​Italy was the European adopter of China's New Silk Road, remember? They must regret that now...
European borders remain open, as Italian coronavirus outbreak kills 11 & infects HUNDREDS

What? This can't be serious. Certainly risk-investors stand prepared to take their losses in the face of a global pandemic. The truth is the truth. Nobody would try to hide that for another 6 weeks, just for hundreds of billions of dollars.
Here Are The 425 Billion Reasons Why WHO Refuses To Call The Covid-19 Outbreak A "Pandemic"


This just in​, and a US soldier in South Korea is infected, too​:
Secretive Cult Linked To Coronavirus Outbreak In South Korea Held Meetings In Wuhan
Following reports that a strange Christian cult might be behind the outbreak in Daegu that kickstarted South Korea's COVID-19 crisis, readers around the world have been curious to learn more details about the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the small but surprisingly extensive church that follows a man named Lee Man-hee who claims to be the second coming of Jesus Christ.  

Craig Murray​ managed to get one of 16 public seats at the first day of Julian Assange's extradition hearing yesterday, a very long and intimidating ordeal out in the cold and dark for hours before it opened. There were lies aplenty from the prosecution, not detected from the distant and isolated press room, linked by a video feed just for them, and us.
This is really heavy. The press was fed exactly the wrong "facts" and reported them as FACTS.

​They moved him to 3 different prison cells in the night, too. No sleep for tortured Julian.​
Julian Assange was handcuffed 11 times, stripped naked twice and had his case files confiscated after the first day of his extradition hearing, according to his lawyers, who complained of interference in his ability to take part.  

​How would RT know this, and why should we believe it?
Assange lawyer brings up claim US mulled ‘kidnapping and poisoning’ of publisher

Congresswoman US Army Reserve Major, and  Iraq War  Veteran Tulsi Gabbard is excluded from the Democratic Debates, still, in perpetuity, because that's the easiest way to avoid letting people hear what she says. 
She says what she thinks, and that's off-the-reservation, for sure.
​ ​So not only is Tulsi Gabbard in good company when she expresses doubt about the official JFK story, but she is also talking about an issue that will confront the next president.
​ ​In October 2017, Trump broke a promise to release all the JFK files. Instead, he quietly issued a White House order saying he had “no choice” but to permit the CIA and FBI to keep secret thousands of JFK documents until at least 2021. According to the latest figures from the National Archives, 15,834 JFK files remain wholly or partially classified. In other words, it would be a crime to disclose their contents or talk about these JFK files on the presidential campaign trail in 2020 for reasons of “national security.”
​ ​And why, you might ask, are the government’s JFK assassination secrets still unspeakable today? That’s a very good question. Tulsi Gabbard has offended conventional wisdom by seeking the answer.


​The Syrian army, with Russian air support and diplomacy, is re-taking the part of Syria that Turkey wants, and pretty fast.
The U.S. has made clear that it will not support Erdogan's Syria adventure except by words. This was evident last week when the spokesperson of the U.S. anti-ISIS campaign said that Idleb governorate is a "magnet" for terrorist groups who are a "nuisance, a menace and a threat" to the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria.
 Erdogan's threat to attack with his whole army should Syria not withdraw to the previous lines by March 1 is obviously empty. The Russian airforce would pulverize the Turkish forces before they could reach the front lines.
 Erdogan is in a challenging position. If he orders his army to attack in full force he will have to justify the likely very high losses in an unwinnable war. If he retreats from his harsh rhetoric and accepts the Russian points those nationalists who still support him will have further doubts about his leadership.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov won't budge at all on freeing Syria. No more negotiating with terrorists/mercenaries, while they are being routed from Syria. (Get 'em out, before the virus gets in.)
US proposals to start dialogue with terrorists in Idlib are unacceptable – Russian FM

​Going For Supplies Now​

Monday, February 24, 2020

Communist Virus For President

Preparing For Worst,

 A lot of powerful flows are suddenly feeding into the year 2020, here in Exceptional America, the home-base of the New-World-Order. 
 The NWO is getting long in the tooth, and the petrodollar has been ideologically threatened for decades by oil-producing countries like Iran, Iraq , Libya and Venezuela threatening to sell oil in some currency that is not the $US. Still, it's still how the game is played, and all those countries have been made to suffer intensely for their attempts.
China has posed an imperial threat with the New Silk Road plan, so now there is a "trade war", which China is inconveniently losing, due to this lab virus that either got out of their bioweapons lab a few months after they obtained it, or was seeded near the lab by the sneaky NWO, to put them in their place.
 That epidemic is out of the bag now, and it is destroying China's real, productive economy, the one that sends things at all levels of almost all production chains all over the world. 
How many things need just a few Chinese parts? What happens when those production lines stop? 
Fix global warming?
Americans who lost their jobs to the NWO outsourcing to China are still out of jobs, or selling some meth to keep themselves supplied, but it's a lousy life. 
 Nobody is really putting a good alternative up for them this election year, except "Crazy Bernie", who "Crazy Donald" would like to run against, but the Democratic Party deep pockets would sooner fold the party and go home than let Bernie Communist Sanders use their hard-earned (by somebody else) money to un-billionaire them. 
It's survival-of-the-richest, after all.
 As far as the billionaire-class in the NWO sees, everybody needs to keep manning their battle stations and drive-through-service-windows while this storm from China blows over. China is breaking all the rules. It's China's fault. Communist China's virus is going to break Communist China's economy and will to steal American patents.
Trust capitalism. Socialists are stupid, everybody knows that.
 That pervasive doctrine has sure worked well for the last 40 years or so, but the wheels are about to come off the American economy, too, since maximizing-shareholder-value required moving all those factories and jobs to China over the last 30 years. Without flows of goods and services, all those just-in-time efficiently coordinated global supply lines freeze, and those workers don't get paid, and they are living paycheck to paycheck, so they don't pay rent, utilities, can't get groceries or gas, and so on, everywhere...
Dividends stop. Stocks plummet. Shareholder value is minimized. Defaults, defaults, defaults. 
 That's OK, America has socialism-for-the-rich. Remember the bank bailout that Barack Obama MADE all those powerless elite bankers accept, even though they felt so small being made to do so? 
 It's socialism for deplorables that's the existential threat to The American Way Of Life. 
We all know that.
Americans Hate Socialism, right? We've said it a million times.

 So the stage is set. If the billionaire-class gets distracted by the implosion of their rent-collection on all the working parts of the global economy, and all those stupid young people, and Hispanics, and welfare-mothers keep actually voting, Bernie Communist Sanders will keep getting too many votes to deny. He'll win on the first ballot at the Democratic convention, and the Democratic Party will get it's life support withdrawn. 
 POOF! No more Democratic Party. Bankrupt, so how can their candidate beat Donald Trump the Capitalist Evil Clown?
How can anything happen at all? The election might have to be postponed this year due to circumstances beyond our control.
 Sanders will just keep promising free socialized Medicare for All, and food stamps for all, probably gasahol for all, free college, massive jobs program to put everybody to work. 
He runs his mouth like that day and night, and these kids and minorities and poor white trash are fool enough to believe it and vote for him.
 You see how this could turn out, right? 
They'll be stringing you up and burning you alive if you let this happen. Your kids, too, maybe even in front of you.
Anyway, Putin wants Sanders to run against Trump so he's in total control of the whole situation.

 ​ ​ Just before Tulsi Gabbard announced her candidacy for the presidency as a Democrat, NBC ran a smear piece that suggested Vladimir Putin and the Russians loved her.  This smear was then repeated and amplified by Hillary Clinton, who suggested Gabbard was being groomed by the Kremlin to run as a third-party candidate, thereby ensuring Trump’s reelection in 2020.  There was no evidence for any of these claims — none.  Yet Gabbard was put on the defensive and her campaign (still ongoing) has been essentially redlined by the mainstream media.
​  ​Now it’s Bernie Sanders’s turn.  Bernie is much better known than Tulsi with a much larger movement behind him, so the DNC and the mainstream media have a modified tactic: rather than smearing Bernie as a Putin puppet, they’re suggesting the Russians are boosting his candidacy without his knowledge — the end game, naturally, is Trump’s reelection.  This was reported yesterday by the Washington Post and echoed today by the New York Times...  

​  ​Anyone who criticizes or threatens the power and privileges of the military-industrial complex, the IC, and the MSM must be attacked and defeated.  There are literally trillions of dollars at stake here.  This is why other candidates issue no criticisms of these powerful entities.  Can you recall Mayor Pete, or Joe Biden, or Amy Klobuchar, or even Elizabeth Warren saying anything truly critical about the MIC, the IC, and MSM?  For the acronym-wary, that’s the military-industrial complex, the intelligence community, and the mainstream media.

​  ​Several outside groups are trying to slow the momentum of current Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) by spending millions on ad buys, as he continues to dominate the polls.
​  ​The campaign against Sanders originated with hybrid PAC Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel moderate group, that spent over $1.4 million against Sanders. The group spent over $800,000 running ads against the frontrunning Democratic presidential candidate in Iowa and it’s spending $600,000 in Nevada, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission...
  Sanders has long questioned American policy toward Israel and advocates an approach that addresses both Israeli security and a “pro-Palestinian” perspective. His criticism has made pro-Israel Democrats and supporters anxious, resulting in a surge of anti-Sanders ads.
​  ​As Sanders is projected to win the upcoming contests, big Democratic donors have concerns about him being the presidential candidate, Politico reported.  

AIPAC: 'TRULY SHAMEFUL, ODIOUS ATTACK'
Sanders says AIPAC gives platform to ‘express bigotry,’ won’t go to conference

Vermont senator says pro-Israel confab allows ‘leaders’ to speak who ‘oppose basic Palestinian rights’; AIPAC blasts statement, says he is ‘insulting his very own colleagues’


​Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd, gives a speech in support of Julian Assange at protest march in London:
​ ​Those of us who have never compromised our liberty in the cause of freedom, who have never picked up the burning torch and held it trembling over the crimes of their superior officers, can only wonder at the extraordinary courage of those who have.
​ ​There are other speakers here, so I will make way, I could stand here all day railing against the dying of the light should we not stand Bulldog like, with arms linked, ranks closed in front of our brother and comrade Julian Assange. And when the lackies of the American Empire come to take him, to destroy him and hang him in the hedge as a warning to frighten future journalists, we will look them in the eye and steadfast with one voice we will intone.
“Over our dead fucking bodies.”​ 
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/roger-waters-on-julian-assange/ 

Why are there no honest, anti-war retired generals, like Smedley ("War is a racket") Butler, these days?
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176665/tomgram%3A_danny_sjursen%2C_why_no_retired_generals_oppose_america%27s_forever_wars/  

​Moon of Alabama:
​  ​The economic ripple effect of this epidemic and of the enormous quarantine in China will be huge. It will be felt everywhere but especially in highly developed industries:
​  ​The impacts on China both intrinsic and psychological are still vastly under estimated. This is the largest containment/effective imprisonment via quarantine of human being in world history. People are assuming no ripples from that.
​  ​The biggest factor that's not understood is the non linearity of supply chains. A two week total shut down *does not* mean a two week delay in products to consumer. This is very different from the tariff impacts, where pricing was adjusted.
​  ​A single component missing in a 500+ part product means all levels of production are moot. Autos and consumer electronics are obvious examples. We have heard from multiple auto players and Jaguar has publicly stated they have sub 2 weeks of operating inventory.
​  ​Just In Time (JIT) production is a form of operational leverage. And like all forms of leverage, there is a non linear downside effect. People are not putting it together that this is a very big deal. It's not a 1 month hit. It's not a 1 quarter hit. It's an annual hit *right now*.
​  ​Some large factories which depend on parts from China will soon have to shut down. Then their other suppliers will also have to cease production. The loss of income will be felt throughout the local economies.
​  ​The effects of the epidemic may well lead to an end of the globalization of production processes. Companies will go back to buy locally to be as unaffected as possible from similar future incidents. This might well be the most positive long term outcome of this epidemic.

​Here is a really clear case of a young woman who went home to visit family, leaving Wuhan, infected the whole family, and never had symptoms. She tested negative the first time, too. Invisible spreader...
​ ​All five of her relatives developed Covid-19 pneumonia, but as of 11 February, the woman had still not developed any symptoms, her chest CT remained normal and she had no fever, stomach or respiratory symptoms, such as cough or sore throat.  

​Some cured patients get viral recurrence. False negative test?​ Reinfection?
Wuhan will add 2 more weeks of quarantine after "cure".

​Iran has a problem like China had 5 weeks ago, maybe more.
Iranian Lawmaker Says 50 Have Died From Coronavirus Outbreak In Qom
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranian-lawmaker-says-50-have-died-coronavirus-outbreak-qom  

​Charles Hugh Smith presents this detailed and thoroughly considered article. 
It's enough to make you think of socialism, grasp at straws, and so on...​
When Will We Admit Covid-19 Is Unstoppable and Global Depression Is Inevitable?

​Depressed Vegetable Gardener​

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Not Like Mini Mike

Buying Love,

Perloff on Bloomberg, Thanks Eleni: 
And a market crash could not only sweep Bloomberg into the Presidency, but give the Democrats strong control of both houses of Congress, meaning easy passage of harsh gun control legislation. In addition, a Bloomberg Presidency would mean a huge slide to the left, with a full-blown push toward more socialism, abortions, transgenderism, mandatory vaccination, “drag queen story hours,” etc.
Of course, Bernie Sanders is also Jewish and pro-socialist; however he has made remarks critical of Israel and supportive of the Palestinians, and is unfriendly toward Wall Street. And unlike Bloomberg and Hillary, Bernie lacks the cold-blooded temperament suited to ushering in a Trotskyite police state.
I know that with the potential for Hillary on the ticket, some people are already making jokes about Hillary later “suiciding” Bloomberg. That would never happen. Even Hillary knows where the line is drawn.


Bernie Sanders says things we never hear, vaguely diplomatic things... Thanks Michael  (but could he be different?)
Sen. Bernie Sanders told a CNN town hall in Las Vegas on Tuesday that if elected president his foreign policy would prioritize justice and peace in the Middle East and not reflexively back Israel against the Palestinians.
"What American foreign policy has got to be about in the Middle East, is bringing the Israelis and bringing the Palestinians together under the banner of justice," said Sanders. "We could do it, we have the wealth to do it. It cannot just simply be that we're just pro Israel and we ignore the needs of the Palestinian people."
The senator also said his administration would call on Saudi Arabia and Iran to set aside their differences and find common ground.


1930s capitalist power elites considered FDR to be a traitor, or at least a class-traitor, and tried to recruit General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup against Roosevelt. Butler flatly refused, busted them publicly and said he'd raise an army against them. Can Bernie Sanders be a class-traitor?

Bernie Sanders led in 10 of 10 national polls yesterday before the Las Vegas debate last night, about equal to no-candidate-on-first-vote at Democratic Convention.

What happened in Vegas...
Right out of the gate, Bloomberg was under attack with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren landed perhaps the biggest (and first punch), making the former Big Apple mayor visibly squirm and roll his eyes in frustration.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians,’” she said from the Paris Theater.
“And, no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

I voted early in the Texas Democratic Primary yesterday. ​N​o line at lunchtime.
Tulsi Gabbard got my vote for President​. S​he is climbing in polls despite being media blacklisted.
If you are in Mike McCaul's Congressional District 10, you can vote for Pritesh Gandhi MD, with whom I work, and who has been reading this blog for 4-5 years. He's bright and quick and talented, with a good heart.
I'm in Congressional District 17, which is up for grabs this time. 
Of the 3 Democratic candidates, I chose William Foster III, because he listed JFK's assassination, when he was 14 years old, as his first formative political experience, his academic​ (Math at Prairie View A&M)​ and work ​(NASA) ​credentials​,​ and his dedication to public and humanitarian service, as apparent in his answers to questions. 
The other guys are superficial by comparison.

​Charles Hugh Smith on state of global financialized economy just prior to Wuhan coronavirus.
​ Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the global economy was slowing for two reasons: 1) everybody who can afford it already has it and 2) overcapacity. One word captures the end-of-the-cycle stagnation: saturation.
 Everyone who can afford a smartphone (or can borrow to buy one) already has one. Everyone who can afford an auto loan already has a car. Everyone who could afford an overpriced house already bought one. Everyone who can afford a tablet or laptop already has one. And so on.
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb20/retrenchment2-20.html  

​Looking at the Wuhan coronavirus news. It's worrisome that there is so much agreement between the US government, mainstream media and alt-media. It's still too early for conclusions, but this looks like WAR.
​ Is China the culprit, or is China the victim, or is this a virus that spread from animal to human or has it escaped from some or other lab by accident (or on purpose)? We do not know any of this and this trope just creates more FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt).

It looks like it was spreading through the ventilation system on board The Diamond Princess​ ​
​ ​Unlike Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which causes infections deep in the lower respiratory tract that can result in pneumonia, COVID-19 appears to inhabit both the upper and lower respiratory tracts. That would make it not only capable of causing severe pneumonia, but of spreading easily like flu or the common cold.
 Researchers in Guangdong province monitored the amount of coronavirus in the 18 patients. One of them, who had moderate levels of the virus in their nose and throat, never had any disease symptoms.
​ ​Among the 17 symptomatic patients, the team found levels of the virus increased soon after symptoms first appeared, with higher amounts of virus present in the nose than in the throats, a pattern more similar to influenza than SARS.
​ ​The level of virus in the asymptomatic patient was similar to what was present in patients with symptoms, such as fever.
​ ​“What this says is clearly this virus can be shed out of the upper respiratory tract and that people are shedding it asymptomatically,” Poland said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-study-idUSKBN20D2W6  


Iran Reports 9 Coronavirus-Linked Deaths As WHO Warns Number Of Cases Outside China 'Won't Stay Low For Very Long'

​Moon of Alabama:
Erdogan continues with his wild rhetoric over Syria.
#ERDOGAN: "#Turkey cannot be confined within the 780,000 km2 border. #Misrata, #Aleppo, #Homs & #Hasaka are outside our actual borders, but they are within our emotional & physical limits, we will confront those who limit our history to only 90yrs."
The Turkish talks with Russia have not gone well. Russia had proposed the following points:
1- 16-km border strip in Idlib under Turkey control
2- Russia controls crossing between Idlib strip and Afrin
3- M4 and M5 opened under joint Russian-Turkish supervision
4- Retreat of observation points to border strip
Some ten of Turkey's observation points are currently surrounded by the Syrian army. If Turkey starts to escalate they will be in a dire situation.

Turkey rejected the Russian proposal:
President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said on Feb. 19 that talks with Russia on the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib were far from meeting Turkey's demands and warned that a military operation there was a "matter of time".

​Sucking up... In Surprise Flip, Turkey Asks US For Patriot Missiles "To Deter" Russia In Idlib
 
Israeli political grandstanding invites risks of losing the occupied Golan Heights back to Syria through hubris.
Israel To Step Up "Offensive Action" - Will Turn Syria Into "Iranian Vietnam": Israeli Defense Chief

​ ​Israeli caretaker prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted for corruption and is facing an election soon, just boasted that his ministry of strategic affairs has managed to undermine First Amendment protections for free speech in the United States by lobbying state legislatures to pass laws forbidding the boycott of Israel.
​ ​Anti-boycott laws of the Old South were used against Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists in the civil rights movement to keep African Americans subordinate and segregated. The right to boycott establishments over civil rights was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1982 in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware.


​Advocating Boycotts

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Experiences Transform Society

Changelings,

I am beholden to an essay Charles Hugh Smith sent to subscribers, where he discusses the societal trauma now being experienced by human beings throughout China. He was deeply touched by the video of a young girl weeping as her mother's body was taken to cremate, after having lost her father not 3 weeks before that. The children of the children-of-the-Cultural-Revolution have known a hopeful period of growth in their lives, similar to what baby boomers like myself knew until about 1971, when everything began to stall and unravel. 
 Their parents wanted the best for them, not the world they had just lived through. This shock ends that dream, which was already weakened, and had become based on speculative investment bubbles, as much as on actual economic development, which has stagnated in the past few years.
 In the west, we remain preoccupied on containing the Wuhan coronavirus to over-there, and hope that "they" get their economy back together before our bubble economy goes "pop".
However, history is already over-extended for us in this recovery round of an old economic paradigm, gamed into financial speculation, far from the productive world of work, into which I was born.
 We baby boomers had our fade-of-expectations through stagflation in the Ford and Carter years. Our world became more marketing-oriented under Reagan, and left reality behind after 2008.
We will experience the truth we denied in the early 1980s, that the cookie jar is full of worthless IOUs, not retirement security. Many of us are already working at some lower-level job to help provide what Social Security does not. We need not do so in the formal economy. 
Growing vegetables and fixing things gets you more value than working for somebody else. Really.
Prepare today. When there is virus in your community, everything will suddenly become unreliable and uncertain from day to day.

 It's early voting in Texas, so I'm going out to do so. 
Vote for somebody who seems to see the potential for troubles, and has the toolkit to work with it, not a sales pitch. 
 If you are in Congressional District 10, Mike McCaul's district, I endorse Pritesh Gandhi MD in the Democratic primary. He works with me at People's Community Clinic, caring for people who need care. He is a good human, honest, bright, talented, hard-working and realistically-idealistic, if I may say that is possible. (Pritesh has been reading what I send out for some years, maybe five.)

This release of an academic paper, laying out the case for the Wuhan coronavirus having escaped from the Level-4 viral pathogen lab in Wuhan, tells me that there is a power struggle going on in Chinese elite circles, and one side is attacking the exposed flank of the side that covered this up for a month, and worsened the current epidemic by that cowardice. (It's the same cowardice I am seeing in Hawaii, it's normal if you are invested in a business.)
This is good information, and it refutes the New York Times, which has been presenting this theory as tinfoil-hat paranoia. 
(In my mind, it is still fairly likely that this is a western attack on China. China and the west both have SARS-coV-2)
Smoking Gun? Chinese Scientist Finds "Killer Coronavirus Probably Originated From A Laboratory In Wuhan"

​GOTCHA!  ​The deadly new coronavirus is up to 20 times more likely to bind to human cell receptors and cause infection than severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), a new study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin has found.
The novel coronavirus and Sars share the same functional host-cell receptor, called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

Marjorie sent me a link to BMJ, British Medical Journal, which is continuously updated. The viral outcomes outside of Wuhan are much, much milder in the tested population. Personally, I think this is due to only testing the sickest people in Wuhan, and testing broadly in the rest of China. It could also be that the virus is mutating to a less fatal form, which viruses often do. It improves their success to kill fewer hosts.
Conclusion As of early February 2020, compared with patients initially infected with SARS-Cov-2 in Wuhan, the symptoms of patients in Zhejiang province are relatively mild.  

​This is a perspective piece from the BMJ, and says that no mutation to lessen mortality rate has been detected. This virus is therefore vastly more prevalent in Wuhan than is reported. We all need more and better information.
 Among cases reported to the World Health Organization, 15% are severe, 3% are critical, and 82% are mild (press conference WHO, 7 February 2020. https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1225797786903277568). The estimated overall case fatality rate is around 2% but outside of Hubei province the figure is around 0.05 or less, not so far from the mortality observed with seasonal influenza. We should not be lulled into inaction by this low fatality rate, however: no cross protection by a common human coronavirus infection is expected and SARS-CoV-2 can theoretically infect any one of us. As with influenza, the complications from covid-19 target particularly older people, but the disease can also strike unpredictably in younger age groups.  

The story of the Japanese couple who got diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 in Japan, after over a week in Hawaii has now faded away. No reports in recent days. Hawaii is trying hard to sustain business as usual. DO Shop in Chinatown! 

Wiggs sent this article about GMO foods not being militarized,but having originated from American military research ("Department of Death") I like to grow heirloom varieties adapted to central Texas, when available.
​ ​GM seed was conceived, promoted, researched and funded by the US Department of Defense – the American War Department. GM seed was never meant as a way to feed the hungry, but was instead conceived and developed as a weapon or, more precisely, as a weapons-delivery system. Genetically-Modified seed was never intended to support human life, but to eliminate it.
​ ​GM seed is neither more productive nor healthier than traditional heritage crops, and is far more expensive and destructive, but it presents almost irresistible military advantages against any nation that becomes dependent on this source of food grains. One is that the US can use it as a political weapon, refusing to supply seed to a disfavored nation, perhaps causing widespread famine and dislocation. The other is more sinister, in that many groups have experimented with gene-splicing technology, inserting unrelated DNA into various seeds.


Charles sent this out. The American Life Is Killing You
 In the words of the great propagandist himself, Bernays writes:
​ ​“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”​ ...​

​ ​As Joseph Campbell so poetically voiced, “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.” ​...
 Become the person you are, and perhaps would have been, before culture contaminated you and brought you into disharmony with yourself.

​Tom and I both found this article today. Power elites have not merely destroyed government institutions...
​ ​Recent research indicates that family and faith (attending church or other place of worship and defining oneself as a very religious person) play a larger role in educational achievement than school-based efforts to close the gaps among racial and ethnic groups.
​ ​A meta-analysis (study of studies) examined 30 studies of attempts to bridge the achievement gap between white students on one hand and Black and Latino students on the other. It “revealed that, if an African American or Latino student was a person of faith and came from a two-biological-parent family, the achievement gap totally disappeared, even when adjusting for socioeconomic status.” [emphasis added]
​ ​Yet progressive elites beyond the administrative state—in academia, law, media, sports, big business, and entertainment—have targeted, unrelentingly, just those institutions that are most important in the lives of ordinary people.


​Our girl, Helen of DesTroy has this article for RT. Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd says that what Israel is doing with apartheid policies against native Palestinian inhabitants shows that "some people have rights and some don't".
​ ​Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, facing a campaign to deplatform him from SXSW after B’nai B’rith got his ads pulled from Major League Baseball, told RT the accusations of anti-Semitism are a distraction from human rights.
​ ​The musician and activist slammed the campaign by the pro-Israel activist group B’nai B’rith to smear him as an anti-Semite and have him removed from the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas, where he is scheduled to give the keynote speech to an audience of hundreds of thousands of people.


Singing Truth

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Alohavirus

Global Tourists,

Dr Clif on Oahu sent me this story last night about a Japanese tourist who landed in Japan with a 102 fever, and tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus on 2/8/20. He had been in Hawaii from 1/28/20 to 2/7/20, on Maui, then Oahu. He got a fever in transit to Japan, it seems (Tylenol before?) and wore a mask on the plane, since he had gotten cold symptoms on Oahu.
Authorities counting the days think he got infected in Japan, but the spread of incubation estimates I’ve seen is 6-24 days. It’s probably not the same for everybody.
Dude-San had a cold at a resort on Oahu for 4 days. What a great place to meet people from all over the world!
Does Hawaii get quarantined now? Just Oahu? What about Maui? Cats out of bag?  

Uh-huh...  
China Vows To Put An End To "Lab Leakage Of Pathogenic Microorganisms And Various Samples"

 US Defense Secretary Robert McNamara executed 150 top-secret bio-weapons programs in the 1960s, performing bio-weapons experiments and field tests on an unwitting public, sometimes in foreign countries but most often against American citizens. McNamara ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff  “to consider all possible applications” of these agents against enemy nations in a coherent plan for a total “biological and chemical deterrent capability”, the plan to include cost estimates and an “appraisal of international political consequences”. (4) (5)
​ ​In the year 2000, The Project for the New American Century (6) (7) produced a report titled, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”, which contained a radical and belligerent Right-Wing policy ambition for America. Their report called itself a “blueprint for maintaining global US preeminence … and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests.” The authors, their genocidal mentality obvious, stated:
“Advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare … to a politically useful tool.”​...

​ Founded on Ishii’s human research, the US military developed an entomological (insect) warfare facility, and initially prepared plans to attack Russia and the Soviet States with entomological bio-weapons. The facility was designed to produce 100 million yellow fever-infected mosquitoes per month, its output tested on unwitting American civilians by dropping infected mosquitoes and other insects over large portions of the US. As is so typical for the US military, these projects beginning in the 1950s and 1960s were given juvenile appellations like “Project Big Buzz” and “Project Big Itch” and “Operation Mayday”.

CDC director says coronavirus could stay in US through this year and beyond​ 
(Huh, What? We're keeping it OUT! OUT! OUT!)
"Right now we're in an aggressive containment mode," CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN. "This virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we will get community-based transmission."  

​Therapeutic Strategies against 2019-nCoV include getting plasma from somebody who just got over it, AIDS antivirals that have been broadly tried in Chinese hospitals with no consistent breakthroughs, and fresh ideas that might or might not help keep the virus from binding ACE2 receptors and getting into human cells through that channel.​ Remdesivir trial is underway, but we're not hearing much about it in recent days. Also, what is the most approved name for the virus, not the illness, this morning?
​Lots of fresh viral cases are diagnosed every day on Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokohama harbor. It does not seem like their quarantine is going to end on schedule. Other rolling updates are also here.

I really am ​touched to the heart​ by the first 30 second video, with awkward Syrian women in head scarves and long skirts​ picking up rocks and throwing them at a massive ​American ​armored personnel carrier in their town. As it drives off, they give chase, hobbled in their skirts. Some boys and men​ ​run after it, heaving a few more rocks toward it. 
I am crying for their victory.
​ ​As resistance to U.S. troop presence in both Iraq and Syria gains steam, a rare scuffle between Syrian civilians and U.S. forces broke out on Wednesday resulting in the death of one Syrian, believed to be a civilian, and the wounding of another. A U.S. soldier was also reportedly injured in the scuffle. The event is likely to escalate tensions, particularly in the Northeastern region where the incident took place, as Syria, Iraq and Iran have pushed for an end to the U.S. troop presence in the region following the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
​ ​The clash between U.S. forces and Syrian locals took place near the town of Qamishli where the U.S. forces were conducting a patrol that, for reasons that are still unclear, entered into territory controlled by the Syrian government instead of territory occupied by the U.S. and its regional proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). At a Syrian military checkpoint, the U.S. patrol was met by Syrian civilians of a nearby village who gathered at the checkpoint and began throwing rocks at the U.S. convoy. Then, one Syrian took a U.S. flag off of one of the military vehicles.
​ ​Reports from activists on the ground and Syrian media then claim that U.S. troops opened fire using live ammunition and fired smoke bombs at the angry residents, killing one and wounding another. A U.S. soldier was said to have received a superficial wound, though the nature of the wound was not specified.

​It crossed my mind just now how rapidly and thoroughly Wuhan coronavirus will spread through refugee camps.
In February 2020, the Syrian Army reached the vicinity of the main stronghold of anti-government forces in Syria, the city of Idlib. This development plunged into shock supporters and the leadership of Idlib armed groups and became a visual confirmation of something that Western powers and their media structures do not want to admit. The government of President Bashar al-Assad not only survived the 9 years of the bloody war but also appeared on the winning side.​..
The Syrian Army currently has two main priorities:
​-​To secure the entire M5 highway, which links the cities of Hama and Aleppo. This will allow government forces to freely redeploy troops and equipment just along the current frontline. Thus, they will have an additional advantage in maneuverability;
​-​To increase pressure on the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham hive, Idlib city, which is now located in about 8km from the active frontline. This is an unprecedented situation, which had not happened since 2015. All the previous year the city remained in a permanent safety from any ground offensive by government forces. So, its current rulers did not bother itself with creating strong fortifications. The same approach explains why the speed of the Syrian Army’s offensive increased after it had passed the main defense line of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies near Khan Shaykhun.
​ ​The rapid advances by the Syrian Army caused a strong negative reaction among the powers not interested in removing the Idlib point of instability, including Turkey.

It is a pretty desperate move to give these weapons to mercenary-Jihadis. They can be aimed in any direction.
​ ​Another Syrian military helicopter has been shot down by the jihadist insurgents now threatening western Aleppo amid fierce fighting in both Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
​ ​A surface-to-air missile, likely a MANPAD, was fired on the chopper by Turkish-backed militants in the countryside of the major northern Syrian city, in the second such rare helicopter downing in only a few days.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/2nd-syrian-helicopter-brought-down-manpad-only-few-days  

Philip Giraldi looks at how the US government protects Americans from the Israeli government. 
​ ​In June 1967 Israel was at it again, attacking the intelligence gathering U.S. naval vessel the U.S.S. Liberty in international waters, killing thirty-four American sailors, Marines and civilians in a deliberate air and sea onslaught that sought to sink the intelligence gathering ship and kill all its crew. It was the worst attack ever carried out on a U.S. Naval vessel in peace time. In addition to the death toll, 171 more of the crew were wounded in the two-hour assault. The Israelis, whose planes had their Star of David markings covered up so Egypt could be blamed, attacked the ship repeatedly from the air and with gunboats from the sea. When one Israeli pilot hesitated, refusing to attack what was clearly an American ship, he was instructed to proceed anyway.
​ ​The most disgusting part of the tale relates to how U.S. warplanes sent to the Liberty’s aid from an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean were called back by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara acting under orders from President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who declared that he would rather see the ship go to the bottom of the sea than embarrass his good friend Israel. Ironically, the first ship to reach the Liberty and offer assistance was from the Soviet Union, an offer that was declined.
​ ​More recently there have been a number of killings of Americans. In a bizarre incident in August 1988, an elderly Palestinian-American with a heart condition died after being forced to climb stairs to paint over anti-Israeli graffiti on a school wall. Rebhi Barakat Kaid, 67, of Columbus, Ohio, was on the West Bank visiting relatives. He died of a heart attack after three Israeli soldiers ordered him and his 14-year-old Chicago-born grandson at gunpoint to climb the 22 steep steps that led from the house to the street above without his being allowed to take his heart medicine first.
​ ​Much better known is the March 2003 killing of Washington State’s Rachel Corrie, who was deliberately run over by an Israeli military bulldozer when she was protesting the destruction of a Palestinian village. A month later there was an incident in which Brian Avery, a 24-year-old from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was shot in the face in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli soldiers in an armored personnel carrier firing machine guns at protesters.


Reflections on declining empire, art and culture. Pepe Escobar rambles some, but it's good again.
​ ​It’s sobering to consider that Pax Americana may be destined to a shorter historical existence than Pax Mongolica – established after Genghis Khan, the head of a nomad nation, went about conquering the world.
​ ​Genghis first invested in a trade offensive to take over the Silk Roads, crushing the Kara-Kitais in Eastern Turkestan, conquering Islamic Khorezm, and annexing Bukhara, Samarkand, Bactria, Khorasan and Afghanistan. The Mongols reached the outskirts of Vienna in 1241 and the Adriatic Sea one year after.
​ ​The superpower of the time extended from the Pacific to the Adriatic. We can barely imagine the shock for Western Christendom. Pope Gregory X was itching to know who these conquerors of the world were, and could ​they ​be Christianized?
​  ​In parallel, only a victory by the Egyptian Mamluks in Galilee in 1260 saved Islam from being annexed to Pax Mongolica​...

​ Yet when Kublai Khan died, the empire fragmented into rival khanates. Islam profited. Everything changed. A century later, the Mongols from China, Persia, Russia and Central Asia had nothing to do with their ancestors on horseback.

​Gone Tomorrow​

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Smoking Wuhan

Losing A Battle,

Last night China capitulated on the narrative theme of new viral cases declining. A massive report of new cases and more deaths followed low and mid-level official firings to assign blame.

​You may recall Ben Hunt's analysis, which I posted yesterday. 
China needs a new narrative for this exponentially growing problem.
I believe that the Chinese government is massively under-reporting infection data in the pandemic regions of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces.
Just like the American government massively over-reported North Vietnamese casualty data in the Vietnam War.
It’s not only that I believe the numbers coming out of China are largely made up.
More importantly, I also believe that Chinese epidemic-fighting policy – just like American war-fighting policy in the Vietnam War – is now being driven by the narrative requirement to find and count the “right number” of coronavirus casualties.
https://www.epsilontheory.com/body-count/

​ ​The reported militarization of Wuhan's P4 Lab has raised new questions about the origin of the Covid-19 virus and the apparent cover-up that has occurred since it was first made public.
​ ​Following the removal of the most senior health officials in Wuhan yesterday, Chinese State Media has just reported that Chen Wei, China's chief biochemical weapon defense expert, is now to be stationed in Wuhan to lead the efforts to overcome the deadly, pneumonia-like pathogen.
​ ​According to the PLA Daily report, Chen Wei holds the rank of major general, and along with reports that Chinese troops have started to "assist", it strongly suggests that the PLA has taken control of the situation.

 ​ ​U.S. Northern Command is executing plans to prepare for a potential pandemic of the novel coronavirus, now called COVID19, according to Navy and Marine Corps service-wide messages issued this week.
​ ​An executive order issued by the Joint Staff and approved by Defense Secretary Mark Esper this month directed Northern Command and geographic combatant commanders to initiate pandemic plans, which include ordering commanders to prepare for widespread outbreaks and confining service members with a history of travel to China.
​ ​The Navy and Marine Corps messages, issued Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, reference an executive order directing U.S. Northern Command to implement the Department of Defense Global Campaign plan for Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Diseases 3551-13.


White House Believes China Underreporting Virus Cases By Over 100,000

​This is very important basic science research. Wuhan coronavirus binds to ACE-2 receptors, deep in the lungs. Everybody has them. Some people have more. 
It has been speculated that older men and Asians have more.
Well, yes, if older Asian men smoke more tobacco. BINGO!​
 In this study, we investigated the disparities related to race, age, gender and smoking status in ACE2 gene expression and found significantly higher ACE2 gene expression in lung tissue of smokers compared to that of non-smokers. This may explain the reason why more males (56% of 425 cases) were found in a recent epidemiology report of 2019-nCov early transmission by China CDC11. We didn’t observe significant disparities in ACE2 gene expression between racial groups (Asian vs Caucasian), age groups (>60 vs <60) or gender groups (male vs female).

​Elijah Magnier has Syrian-war update:
​ It is a new strategic turn in the Syrian war that Maarrat al-Nu’man, Khan Touman, Saraqeb, Tel el-Eiss, Rashedeen 4&5 are now liberated. It is an indication that Turkey will find it hard to protect its jihadists in the long run. The stability of Syria requires the liberation of its entire territory. Syrian stability is in the interest of Russia and its national security objectives. Russia walked into the Levant to stop the war. Its credibility is on the line. It has a large naval base offering unique access to the Mediterranean. It is also in the interests of Russia to eliminate al-Qaeda and all groups adhering to their takfiri ideology, notwithstanding their different priorities and names. The Uzbeks and Uighur jihadists in the Levant have no place to go and are expected to fight to the last man.
 Turkey is showing its teeth to Russia by refusing to recognize Russian sovereignty of Crimea and offering 33$ billion to Ukraine in arms. Turkey is aiming for a more effective and recognized role in Libya where the central government is officially requesting Ankara’s support. However, the situation in Syria is different. Turkey knows its presence in Syria cannot last for long, and that the liberation of Idlib, even if it is not on the agenda today, will happen soon. It is only a question of time.

The Belief that Everything Will Be Fine Once Trump's Gone Is More Dangerous Than Trump, Caitlin Johnstone

War Correspondent 

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Swimming Under Water

Gasping For Air,

The Hermit Kingdom is locked down and apparently sick, too. Humanitarian aid is likely to be in order. Can that be done? This is actually a big chance for mending inter-Korean relations, if the US can allow it.
Kim Jong Un canceled a big parade with no real explanation just as the South Korean press reports coronavirus has hit North Korea hard and could explode there.

​These numbers are weeks old. It's bound to be huge.
At least 500 Wuhan medical staff infected with coronavirus
Medical sources in the city confirm rate of infection, but say they have been told not to release the full picture to the public


​As infections continue to surface on quarantined Diamond Princess, I feel the dread of confinement of the elderly passengers, but can you imagine being on a Chinese nuclear sub with contagion onboard, and an extended mission? Yeah, the Chinese military is infected at every level, and at every post and remove. The enforcers are sick. 
The machine translation does fine on this Falun-Gong, Epoch Times article.

Ben Hunt of (excellent) Epsilon Theory, looks at Chinese epidemic number management. Everybody knows the numbers are massaged, but just how, and how much and what are the real drivers of government policy?
​ ​I believe that the Chinese government is massively under-reporting infection data in the pandemic regions of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces.
Just like the American government massively over-reported North Vietnamese casualty data in the Vietnam War.
It’s not only that I believe the numbers coming out of China are largely made up.
More importantly, I also believe that Chinese epidemic-fighting policy – just like American war-fighting policy in the Vietnam War – is now being driven by the narrative requirement to find and count the “right number” of coronavirus casualties.


​Charles Hugh Smith:
​ ​Ending the limited quarantine and falsely proclaiming China safe for visitors and business travelers will only re-introduce the virus to workplaces and infect foreigners.
​ ​China faces an inescapably fatal dilemma: to save its economy from collapse, China's leadership must end the quarantines soon and declare China "safe for travel and open for business" to the rest of the world.
​ ​But since 5+ million people left Wuhan to go home for New Years, dispersing throughout China, the virus has likely spread to small cities, towns and remote villages with few if any coronavirus test kits and few medical facilities to administer the tests multiple times to confirm the diagnosis. (It can take multiple tests to confirm the diagnosis, as the first test can be positive and the second test negative.)
​ ​As a result, Chinese authorities cannot possibly know how many people already have the virus in small-town / rural China or how many asymptomatic carriers caught the virus from people who left Wuhan. They also cannot possibly know how many people with symptoms are avoiding the official dragnet by hiding at home.
​ ​No data doesn't mean no virus.

​A truly critical factor in the spread of newly-christened COVID-19​ is how long it remains invisible before surfacing as symptoms of illness, like fever, cough and abdominal pain. The shortest incubation-period being advertised is 6 days, and this may be the minimum of a spectrum. Most viruses you catch will make you sick 3 days after exposure. 6 days is a lot of time, life activity and distance covered. It gives an epidemic long legs.
However, the most commonly quoted incubation period is 14 days, 2 weeks, almost unbelievably long. Now there is good data that incubation can take 24 days in some cases, more than 3 weeks. 
Will quarantine periods be increased to 25 days? Will cases become apparent in those released from quarantine?

Survival rates being over 95%, we can probably agree that most people who drink cow urine for COVID-19, or plaster themselves with fresh cow dung, will get over the virus, but...
India's Leaders Claim Drinking Cow Urine Will Cure the Coronavirus

The political left is adrift, without a compass or star to follow, having abandoned support for working people as a class. 
It is sick with it's own progressively disfiguring disease.
How Privilege and Woke Politics are Destroying the Left

Little red rooster of the financial elites, former Goldman Sachs CEO tweets in favor of continuity for his pals. 
Lloyd Blankfein is (somehow) a registered Democrat, and supported Hillary Clinton enthusiastically in 2016.
"He'll Ruin Our Economy": Lloyd Blankfein Warns "Russians Will Reconsider Who To Work For" If Sanders Clinches Nomination

​New Hampshire Primary takeaways: Sanders won, and is probably the only candidate that can take the Democratic Party to a real contest against Donald Trump, but "centrists" don't want him (yet). 
Big winner on all counts? Donald Trump, so far.​

New Hampshire Primary Democratic voters support Bernie Sanders in inverse proportion to age. The older voters, more vested in current system and retirement arrangements are wary, whereas younger voters, who know they can expect to get nothing-ever, support Bernie enthusiastically. 
Will there be a sudden inflection in expectations before the Democratic Convention this summer?
Wuhan COVID-19 or global financial crisis breaching the walls of fortress America might change perceptions and votes.

Older Outlier