Key paragraphs:
[AndMagazine] ...According to the Chinese government, a grand total of somewhere around 1500 Chinese have died in two months from the coronavirus. China is a nation of 1.4 billion people. In the sixty days that have elapsed since the Chinese admitted they had a problem with this disease probably more than 1500 people have been run over crossing the street or died of food poisoning. In the grand scheme of things, one thousand five hundred people out of a population the size of China’s is nothing. Certainly not to a brutal Communist regime that imprisons, tortures and executes its citizens as a matter of routine.
And, yet, the Chinese, while continuing to claim that the situation is under control and everyone should relax, have taken measures that are mind-boggling in scope. In effect, they have shut down virtually all daily activities, including manufacturing, in a very large part of the country. Entire cities with populations of millions of people are under lockdown with barriers and checkpoints on roads to prevent anyone from breaking quarantine...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/18/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
Making a few quick calculations, we found that averages out to 1.3% of the population dying per year. That about 143,980 per year or 394 people per day on average.
High levels of sulfur dioxide are detected around places in Wuhan, indicated lots of bodies are being burned at various locations 24/7. That means thousands of bodies are being cremated. This epidemic is way beyond the ability of the Chicoms to control.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2020 0:48 Comments ||
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#2
My early sentences were dropped out. Should read that the population of Wuhan is 11 million. Life expectancy is 76.4 years.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2020 0:50 Comments ||
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#3
Hopefully our Homeland Defense Modeling and Simulations 'Lessons Learned' people are busy mapping and charting Bio Level-4 lab populations centers globally.
A "Defense and containment measures" Call For Papers should be going out soon.
h/t Instapundit
[Economist] - In both 2018 and 2019 nominal wages rose by more than 3%, the fastest growth since before the recession a decade ago. Americans at the bottom of the labour market are doing especially well. In the past year the wages of those without a high-school diploma have risen by nearly 10%. Intriguingly, this has come as America has turned considerably less friendly to immigrants, who are assumed by many to steal jobs from natives and lower the wages of less-educated folk. The two phenomena may be connected‐but only for a while. Sun rise and temperature rise - are they related?
George Borjas of Harvard studied this DECADES ago and demonstrated that illegal immigration in this country results in, on average, a 9% reduction in wages.
Anyone with a functioning brain could have seen this: decrease supply of a commodity, hold demand equal, watch the market-clearing price increase.
Instead we've seen US real wages decline for over 30 years - until Teump reminded the nation of what Congresswoman Baebaea Jordan of Houston said in the mid-1990s: illegal immigration is a scourge.
It is devastating this nation. It is the biggest threat, by far, to the prospect of a normal life for every member of our native-born working class.
[American Thinker] If you really want to shock leftists, tell them Europe does not have, and has never had, socialized medicine or, indeed, socialized anything. European nations certainly had government-controlled medicine. They also boasted short work weeks, long vacations, year-long maternity leaves, early retirement, fully-paid-for old-age care, and all sorts of other things that made them feel superior to Americans.
However, contrary to Europeans' self-satisfied faux-socialist vision of themselves, Europeans didn't fund their so-called "soft socialism." Instead, for the most part, Americans did. During the Cold War, the government collected taxes from Americans to pay Europe's defense costs, allowing Europeans to spend their tax money on all those little socialist luxuries. Americans, meanwhile; worked 60-hour weeks; got short vacations; and paid for their own medical care, old-age care, and maternity leave.
Meanwhile, even as the Europeans were luxuriating in the lap of America-funded social welfare programs, they constantly criticized America for seeking to have a bigger say in world affairs. As has been the case since WWI, which was the first time America rode to Europe's rescue, Europeans complained that Americans were unsophisticated bullies lacking in nuance. The general attitude was "pay the money, man the guns, and shut up."
With the Cold War's end, American spending dropped in Europe ‐ a drop that coincided with Europeans beginning to have problems funding all their social services. Trump has taken things to the next level by demanding that Europeans start helping to pay for their own defense. (Indeed, Europeans have long promised to pay for that defense, but they have consistently failed to fulfill those promises.)
It turns out that Europeans are not pleased to be called out to make good on their promises. In addition, they're discovering that those gauche, bullying Americans were, in fact, a useful bulwark against evil in the world:
#1
...As I see it - YMMV, of course - with the qualified exception of the UK, the western European nations have no interest whatsoever in changing their ways, indeed, they would rather go down conquered than throttle back the bennies. No politician there is going to risk losing power by transferring money from benefits to defense. They cannot conceive of a world where we don't come charging to the rescue one more time.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2020 4:33 Comments ||
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#2
Europeans are like a child who grew up in a wealthy home. They very quickly became used to someone else spending money on them, and got very angry when Daddy threatened to stop it. It's not something special, it's just how things must be.
Trump told them to their faces that they must carry a fair share of the load. They flat-out refused. What can one say? The Americans have been so effective that they don't see any threats. Thus they don't understand why they should need a military. It looks horrifying and uncivilized from their perspective.
They think the US doesn't have bases in Europe to protect them, but as springboards for military adventures in the Middle East. Wars which do nothing to help Europe, but generate endless masses of refugees. It's hard to contradict them on this point.
It is very satisfying to tell off the Americans for being baby-killing warmongers. They love feeling superior more than anything else.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/18/2020 5:14 Comments ||
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#3
Germany, France, Italy, many other NATO partners are against using their own militaries to defend against an attack on NATO. However they expect that America will respond with its military. What can men do against such reckless hypocrisy?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/18/2020 5:20 Comments ||
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Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/18/2020 5:22 Comments ||
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#5
Let's face it, colonials providing any type of instruction to Europe has never been popular. I suspect categorical rejection could be said to be a given.
I blame 2.5 bathrooms and $2.19 per gallon petrol.
#7
Sound an argument as any for dissolving NATO. Make a mutual defense pact with the Eastern European nations that actually still give a damn about existing and let the rest of Europe continue its slide into hell.
#10
/\ The Poles, Bulgarians, ..., and Estonians may be more interested in making sure they aren't the first meal the Soviet Russian Bear gobbles up to care about other peoples' problems.
#12
When the US goes to war we prefer to do our own thing and act like our allies are in the way. We want them around to show whatever conflict is an international one but we don't want them at the planning table. ...and the US would absolutely smash anyone that conventionally attacked any of our allies. We wouldn't even need to be asked. ...and the biggest mover and shaker in the EU is embarrassed about anything military because of their own history.
With all that it is hard to fault the Europeans for not paying to keep their militaries funded.
Still they know they've gotten away with this game for a long time and shouldn't resent being called on it.
#13
The poll is not BS. You should look at the other one that states that Europeans very firmly think Americans should come to the rescue of embattled NATO countries.
They don't want to have a military, they don't want to use their military to help, but boy oh boy they expect the USA to be Johnny-on-the-spot when trouble rears its head. It's complete bullshit and it needs to come to a screeching halt.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/18/2020 15:01 Comments ||
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#15
^ Can't stop grinning here, either. Filthy, irrational behavior -- any monkey can do it! -- that doesn't even make it onto the pyramid, wot? Feels profoundly stupid GREAT!
#17
Nice picture of a French waiter. They don't make good fighting men anyway. Then about Napoleon...he wasn't even French was he? Was he a Corsican or an Algerian? I forget, something like that. Or he may have been a Waiter like the one in the picture.The French serve Frogs and snails that are delicious, ( so I have heard ) a lot like the Chinese who will eat anything too.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Standing on the White House lawn with the black and white striped mascot next to him, President Donald Trump made it official: the Hamburglar has been pardoned of his crimes. "It's long past time a great injustice was corrected," Trump told the gathered press. "The only thing the Hamburglar is guilty of is loving hamburgers. And occasionally taking them."
The Hamburglar had been sentenced to nine years for the theft of thousands of hamburgers. He was arrested as part of a "tough on hamburger theft" movement, and many felt the Hamburglar got an overly harsh sentence due to profiling since he wore a black and white prisoners outfit, a mask, and his name is a portmanteau of "hamburger" and "burglar." There has long since been a movement to see him freed, of which Donald Trump was a member.
"Free the Hamburglar!" Trump used to chant at campaign rallies, "And put Hillary in his place!" (Trump later found out he could not "reverse-pardon" Hillary, though).
The move to pardon the Hamburglar was not supported by everyone. Thousands of Justice Department officials have decried the move, calling for Trump's resignation. Also, Mayor McCheese wrote a long letter against the pardon, though most of it seemed to be an ad for McDonald's new Bacon Smokehouse Burger.
"Me and the Hamburglar are kindred spirits," Trump said at the press conference. "And yeah, just like him, I might occasionally swipe a hamburger if no one is looking. That's not my fault, though. That's yours for not keeping an eye on your burger."
The Hamburglar himself had little to say on his newfound freedom, his only statement being, "Robble robble."
#1
Sure, it's the Bee. But you know this could actually happen:
Reporter: Have you decided to pardon $CONVICTED_PERSON?
Trump: No decision has been made, but I could certainly do it. I could pardon the Hamburglar if I wanted to.
Twitter Outrage ensues... OMG!..Threatens to pardon Hamburglar...Hamburlar not real person...1930s Hitler reference...career officials...Orange Man bad!
[WND] Now that the three-year deep state coup against President Trump has been defeated, and the whole world knows the "Russian collusion" hoax was pure Democratic propaganda, it is time to revisit what I believe was the single most treasonous act by Barack Obama of his traitorous two-term presidency. I am speaking of Obama's attempt to trigger a hot war with Russia in late December 2016 in what I believe was a gambit to initiate martial law and prevent the transfer of power to Donald Trump, and I am speaking of Gen. Michael Flynn's heroic intervention on Dec. 29 of that year, which thwarted Obama's treachery and brought down the full wrath of the deep state upon himself. I believe Gen. Flynn is one of the greatest heroes in American history and that he literally saved us from a shooting war with Russia that could have very easily and quickly spiraled into World War III.
Let's take a careful look back at that dangerous season when the narcissist megalomaniac Obama and the power-mad Clintons were seething with rage at Hillary's defeat in the November election, incredulous that they would not only be forced to surrender power to Trump, but that all of their criminality, and that of their Democratic co-conspirators, might very well be exposed and punished.
Thanks to what appears to be an act of political revenge by Bernie Sanders supporter (and soon to be murder victim) Seth Rich, the fallout from Hillary's world-shaking WikiLeaks email scandal had not only cost the Clinton/Obama/Biden team the White House, but opened a Pandora's box of multiple existential crises. Faced with this massive swarm of threats, the greatest criminal minds of our generation launched a massive and multifaceted conspiracy that would eventually bring every asset in their considerable arsenal to bear against Donald Trump.
Importantly, the first objective was to prevent President-Elect Trump from ever taking office, and only when that failed did their treasonous efforts shift to the now-defeated coup d'etat.
The key to both phases was Russia. After the Clintons had sucked all they could from the so-called "Russian Reset" policy (e.g., boatloads of cash from the sale to Russia of massive quantities of U.S. uranium), the Obama/Clinton/Biden/Pelosi/Soros machine reversed course and reignited the Cold War by staging a coup to oust the pro-Russian president of Ukraine.
That forced Russia to annex Crimea to preserve its centuries-old essential military interests there, allowing Obama to cast Russia as the aggressor and justify a campaign of political chaos in Ukraine as a cover for plundering its national resources.
So Russia was already Obama's patsy since 2014 and became the logical scapegoat for the DNC email hack in the summer of 2016. He merely tasked his corrupt intelligence agencies to say Russia did it, and the "conspiracy theories" surrounding Seth Rich's murder were officially buried. And who, prior to the recent stunning revelations about FISA fraud by the intelligence community, would dare to question the integrity of those agencies? Besides President Trump, I mean, since he had the courage to do so all along.
#1
by staging a coup to oust the pro-Russian president of Ukraine
Not so. The wheels turning in Kiev had nothing to do with Nuland or any other American. Ukraine has been embroiled in its own tortured (you could say Byzantine) internal clusterfook that has nothing to do with us, for good or ill.
We didn't create Maidan, we didn't create the earlier aborted botchjob at reform, the Orange Revolution (remember that? Bueller?), and we won't solve their problems either.
Zero's errors in Ukraine have more to do with the man's usual laziness, ignorance and incompetence than with anything like sins of commission.
#4
"that forced Russia to annex Crimea to preserve its centuries-old essential military interests there"
this was the second annexation of Crimea, the first was in 1783
the 2014 annexation was recognized by Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, North Korea, Zimbabwe and a few others
the various sanctions placed on Russia post annexation have hurt Russia economically
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/18/2020 10:02 Comments ||
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#5
Actually it is a little more complex. There was a portion of the tsarist empire populated by "Little Russians" that is Ukranians.
The Bolcheviks created a Republic of Ukrania but applying the rule of "divide et impera" they included in it,zones populated by "Grand Russians" that is what was call Russians. Came ukranian Krhoushov and he gave Crimea to Ukrania in order to please his power base. Crimea had never been ukranian and was never populated by Ukranians.
Came implosion of USSR and the new states kept their soviet drawn borders but the Russians in Ukrania were not particularly happy about it. In fact in the last elections before the civil war: ALL of the districts populated by Russian speakers voted for a candidate and ALL of regions populated by Ukranian speakers voted for the other one. The "Russian" candidate was elected but he was deposed and replaced by an Ukraniand speaking woman named Timoshenko. At this pont Russian speakers decided they had had enough
2. partitioned a la postwar Germany, with each part free to make its own military and foreign policy decisions, and therefore in a state of perpetual tension
3. the current situation in which it's neither independent nor peaceful
Our foreign policy geniuses - note how many of the current coup plotters are billed as "Ukraine experts" - have helped us slouch into the worst possible outcome, #3.
It's Flynn, Trump et al. who, I wager, would best position us to get to #1: Ukraine as a neutral, nonaligned, unified nation that poses no threat to anyone.
No NATO membership - ever. No EU membership now or at any foreseeable time. Limited autonomy for the Donbass.
Why is this so hard for our "Ukraine experts" to see?
Why does absolutely everything have to be a source of conflict with Russia?
Too bad we did anything in 2001. We wouldn't have this problem now. [LasVegasSun] In 2001 and in 2002, Congress passed authorizations for war. While not declarations of war, these mandates, each titled an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) provided the legal framework for attacks against al-Qaeda for the Iraq War. Both AUMFs are still in effect today. As Congress considers its annual authorization to fund the Pentagon, our current members of Congress, both in the House and the Senate, are in positions of responsibility and ability to repeal these AUMFs.
The effect of the AUMFs: Based on FBI and journalist investigations, al Qaeda had 200-400 members worldwide in September of 2001. It now has affiliates in every corner of the world, its strength measures in the tens of thousands of members, and it controls territory in Yemen, Syria and parts of Africa. In Afghanistan, the Taliban now controls as much as 60% of the territory and, with regards to international terrorism, where there was one international terror group in Afghanistan in 2001, the Pentagon now reports 20 such groups.
#9
If the ‘war on terror has done nothing but create more terrorists’ the we can all agree a very secure closed border with No illegal immigrants and very few vetted legal immigrants is required for at least 2 generations.
#10
The central premise is "Why we should repeal the AUMF as a legal declaration".
The two best arguments, casualties and cost, are only valid if the primary argument, more terrorists, is correct.
Besides the first question, What is a terrorist?, the stats given are spurious at best.
Afghan used to have just one terror org now they have 20! can be argued that the US/Coalition demanded that the locals could not have a strong central leader without getting whooped so they reverted to traditional clan territories of control. Or, we thought it was one homogeneous happy family when really there was a lot more going on. Or, a power vacuum attracted flies. Or, Karzai's extended family should count.
AlQ Iraq and ISIS were two different, competing entities. In fact, AlQ Iraq warned us (McCain) against arming them, "We may be jerks, but those guys are cat in a yarn barn crazy." That's all Obama administration doing; include killing Qadaffy and Libya now.
There is no mention of the rise of groups like Boko Haram or other horn of Africa baddies - would they or would they not be around without US in Iraq/Afghan? Topic not even approached. MILF seems to be getting along on their own.
As fore number of AlQ increasing after 9/11, win the lottery and find out how many people want to be your friend.
So its all imagination land for cost/benefit, which can be countered with "How many more terrorists would there have been without US/Coalition thumping them." Or, "Unrestrained Bin Laden joins with Pakistan to unleash waves of terror against India, prompting nuclear exchange."
So back to the premise, do we do away with the current AUMF and any future versions thereof? Argue the reasons and/or results, a resolution went before Congress and was voted on. Done. When McCain started banging the war drums and attempted to expand the AUMF to include Syria, congress gave the administration the finger, a hardy no (look up France, Britain as well), and that adventure never officially happened which would have been US equipment and air strikes at the very least. So the AUMF works.
#13
My thought is that we should have bombed the F*** out of AQ and Taliban, enough that they (and others)would think twice about attacking the USA again, then be done with it after less than a year or so. We now have small tactical nukes we could use nowadays.
My objection is to spending all that money over 19 years for what, we coulda have nice things for US citizens instead and perhaps a much smaller national debit.
WWII only lasted six years, if we put in a fraction off the effort into this, this war would have been done and over with years ago.
Come to think of it, where did all that money go anyway?
#14
Come to think of it, where did all that money go anyway?
Ask Karzai. Hmmm. For that matter, ask Biden.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/18/2020 19:26 Comments ||
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#15
swksvolFF: good argument. Let's see more of these kinds of comments.
Frank G & Dron66046: ridiculous strawman. F.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
02/18/2020 19:51 Comments ||
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#16
Quit putting words in my mouth; I was very careful to not make an argument, but to point out that you are off topic and the points made are made on a flawed premise. You know, straw man.
SCfI, I bet a lot of that money went into flying things half way 'round the world. In fact, I'd like to know who said, "Yes sir, I do believe we can sustain a major operation in the middle of Asia completely upon airlift resupply.
That person should not only have been laughed out the room right there, but there should have been a rubber stamp made in his likeness and every cadet who turned in a stupid flawed paper would get this stamp. For each stamp earned that cadet should have to perform a combat dressing drill and carry 200lb bag of sand 1/4 mile because if you are going to be that stupid, and least be able to carry your wounded off of the battlefield 'cause your getting people killed.
Should have built a super highway from Karachi to Kabul. Pull down the very mountains it would pass through to make the road. 8 lane, safety perimeter 1/4 out. Strongpoints at ambush sites, and I mean mines and everything. Then, spokes out from Kabul, connecting to an eventual circuit. Now you have your heavy equipment, you have your big supply by land. Use airlift to concentrate on QRF supplies needed. Sic Paladins on Korengal instead of outpost theory, f'em. Burn the poppies, thump anyone who looks at that road. Goat herders dead? Here's a picture of one of our highly educated top tier merchants jumping from a 100 story oven. Karzai your family supplies road material in abundance ahead of time or your family gets pressed into blocks to be used as counterweights and we get someone who will, and since the Colorado Highway Department doesn't seem to find any work we'll just fly them out here and put them on the road machines and drills hauled up from Karachi.
#17
I think it's great that you guys are getting lifestyle coaching to improve your commenting. If we're going to have a brave, new world, we can't have soggy commenting now, can we? Carry on!
I suppose you could try it and find out. [DAWN] THE resolution from the National Assembly to publicly hang those convicted of murdering and sexually abusing children reflects how brutalised our society has become. While the world is forming a general consensus against cruel and inhumane punishments such as hanging, the majority of our politicians feel that a criminal’s barbarity should also be answered with barbarity by the state.
The fact that hangings have shown no decrease in the level of crime is ignored for the sake of rhetoric. If our politicians were indeed perturbed over crimes against children, more funds and attention would have been allocated towards the criminal justice system and the child protection legislation that is already in place.
It has been clear to our policymakers that what is needed is a rethink of the criminal justice system and to implement better child protection laws. For starters, it must be the police’s duty to report a crime related to a child; a hotline should be established for children’s cases in all provinces; identities of children should be kept confidential in closed hearings; there must be better training of law-enforcement agencies, and better and more available forensics; more female medico-legal officers and more women police personnel are required; and there should be a special code for examining vulnerable witnesses in court. This is not news but the lack of real priority accorded to children makes it easier to resort to rhetoric than actual work.
The facts of the Zainab Ansari case are telling. Zainab was the 12th victim in one year in an area of just two kilometres. The same murderer’s DNA had been found in the previous six cases. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, then chief justice of the Lahore High Court, while hearing a petition in Zainab’s case, expressed surprise that despite reports of similar incidents in Kasur, none of the cases were brought to court. The state was missing until social media created a public uproar and the ensuing rioting was reported widely on mainstream media. The lesson was that it is better to riot and take to social media than report a crime to the police.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Standing on the White House lawn with the black and white striped mascot next to him, President Donald Trump made it official: the Hamburglar has been pardoned of his crimes. "It's long past time a great injustice was corrected," Trump told the gathered press. "The only thing the Hamburglar is guilty of is loving hamburgers. And occasionally taking them."
[WND] Now that the three-year deep state coup against President Trump has been defeated, and the whole world knows the "Russian collusion" hoax was pure Democratic propaganda, it is time to revisit what I believe was the single most treasonous act by Barack Obama of his traitorous two-term presidency. I am speaking of Obama's attempt to trigger a hot war with Russia in late December 2016 in what I believe was a gambit to initiate martial law and prevent the transfer of power to Donald Trump, and I am speaking of Gen. Michael Flynn's heroic intervention on Dec. 29 of that year, which thwarted Obama's treachery and brought down the full wrath of the deep state upon himself. I believe Gen. Flynn is one of the greatest heroes in American history and that he literally saved us from a shooting war with Russia that could have very easily and quickly spiraled into World War III.
[LasVegasSun] In 2001 and in 2002, Congress passed authorizations for war. While not declarations of war, these mandates, each titled an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) provided the legal framework for attacks against al-Qaeda for the Iraq War. Both AUMFs are still in effect today. As Congress considers its annual authorization to fund the Pentagon, our current members of Congress, both in the House and the Senate, are in positions of responsibility and ability to repeal these AUMFs.
[DAWN] THE resolution from the National Assembly to publicly hang those convicted of murdering and sexually abusing children reflects how brutalised our society has become. While the world is forming a general consensus against cruel and inhumane punishments such as hanging, the majority of our politicians feel that a criminal’s barbarity should also be answered with barbarity by the state.
