Hi there, !
Today Sun 03/22/2020 Sat 03/21/2020 Fri 03/20/2020 Thu 03/19/2020 Wed 03/18/2020 Tue 03/17/2020 Mon 03/16/2020 Archives
Rantburg
533252 articles and 1860573 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 69 articles and 373 comments as of 18:38.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Migrants at Refugee Camp in Germany Riot,
Display ISIS Flags After They’re Put Under Coronavirus Quarantine
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
8 19:36 Raj [9] 
2 10:27 Besoeker [5] 
8 18:36 g(r)omgoru [1] 
1 09:08 Besoeker [4] 
3 11:58 g(r)omgoru [6] 
10 17:11 Mike Kozlowski [3] 
3 14:33 ranture [5] 
6 13:25 Woodrow [11] 
0 [] 
6 15:07 charger [5] 
6 16:40 g(r)omgoru [3] 
10 18:37 ruprecht [5] 
13 22:38 bbrewer126 [5] 
3 15:19 ruprecht [4] 
0 [9] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
7 19:51 jpal [10]
18 20:35 bbrewer126 [13]
3 16:37 g(r)omgoru [7]
0 [9]
1 12:59 Woodrow [2]
0 [7]
0 [10]
0 [8]
0 [12]
0 [14]
0 [7]
Page 2: WoT Background
7 18:58 Frank G [8]
2 13:07 g(r)omgoru [10]
14 15:40 Mullah Richard [13]
5 16:31 Skidmark [13]
1 07:44 Cesare [16]
6 19:11 Marilyn Elmeque9472 [18]
0 [12]
0 [7]
2 18:32 ruprecht [7]
8 14:00 ranture [12]
Page 3: Non-WoT
2 21:44 lord garth [11]
6 16:42 g(r)omgoru [7]
14 23:14 Marilyn Elmeque9472 [6]
8 20:49 bbrewer126 [2]
5 16:35 Skidmark [6]
1 09:10 USN, Ret. [5]
5 21:19 bbrewer126 [7]
3 19:47 swksvolFF [1]
5 13:00 Woodrow [5]
12 19:09 BrerRabbit [10]
12 21:25 bbrewer126 [6]
1 00:41 Woodrow [4]
4 14:43 g(r)omgoru [6]
12 22:59 Marilyn Elmeque9472 [8]
2 13:03 Woodrow [5]
1 14:59 charger [3]
0 [8]
9 14:20 ranture [6]
1 16:28 Marilyn Elmeque9472 [5]
1 05:27 g(r)omgoru [6]
50 20:25 trailing wife [5]
4 18:07 SteveS [4]
4 14:32 ranture [10]
Page 6: Politix
4 15:43 g(r)omgoru [5]
11 23:51 CrazyFool [5]
3 09:43 g(r)omgoru [8]
4 20:14 Marilyn Elmeque9472 [10]
3 20:21 ruprecht [4]
6 13:14 rjschwarz [7]
14 20:27 Procopius2k [13]
5 15:41 Anomalous Sources [10]
0 [5]
8 19:40 DooDahMan [6]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Trump Hits Back At China By Announcing U.S. Will Also Expel American Journalists
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2020 09:14 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  The Onion, not the Babylon Bee. The Onion used to be a premier satire site, til the Bee came along.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/19/2020 10:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Onion went SJW. This is a good example of what they used to do. Maybe they can get it back
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2020 10:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe they can get it back.

Competition from the Bee may be improving the breed.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2020 10:32 Comments || Top||

#4  even when the Onion was good they still occasionally used obscenities in their posts

they still sometimes do this
Posted by: lord garth || 03/19/2020 12:03 Comments || Top||

#5  The Onion only seemed to find the actions of Deplorables™ worthy of snark and this happened many years ago.
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2020 13:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Would have been the best dollar in the jar wrong guess.

Onion tried to bracket the college crowd or something.

What Bee does well is get everyone, including themselves.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/19/2020 16:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Most likely I'm overly optimistic but seeing a few liberals actually say positive things about Trump in recent days and I'm wondering if the Coronavirus isn't working as an antidote to Trump Derangement syndrome. Yeah, it won't cure all, and it won't make them like Trump, but hopefully they can get back to the old standards of simmering irrational hate.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/19/2020 18:26 Comments || Top||

#8  but hopefully they can get back to the old standards of simmering irrational hate.

Finally, Snark of the Day?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 18:36 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Making Sense with Sam Harris #191 - Early Thoughts On a Pandemic (with Amesh Adalja)
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Amesh Adalja about the spreading coronavirus pandemic. They discuss the contagiousness of the virus and the severity of the resultant illness, the mortality rate and risk factors, vectors of transmission, how long coronavirus can live on surfaces, the importance of social distancing, possible anti-viral treatments, the timeline for a vaccine, the importance of pandemic preparedness, and other topics.

Amesh Adalja, MD, is an infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity. Amesh has served on US government panels tasked with developing guidelines for the treatment of plague, botulism, and anthrax. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Health Security, co-editor of the volume Global Catastrophic Biological Risks, and a contributing author for the Handbook of Bioterrorism and Disaster Medicine. Amesh actively practices infectious disease, critical care, and emergency medicine in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 08:57 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Harris skillfully modulates his funeral director voice through the respirator.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 9:08 Comments || Top||


The CDC was Fighting Racism and Obesity Instead of Stopping Epidemics
[Sultan Knish] The Centers for Disease Control has a $6.6 billion budget and one job which it messes up every time.

The last time the CDC had a serious workout was six years ago during the Ebola crisis. Back then CDC guidelines allowed medical personnel infected with Ebola to avoid a quarantine and interact with Americans until they showed undeniable symptoms of the disease. There were no protocols in place for treating the potentially infected resulting in the further spread of the disease inside the United States.

At the height of the crisis, confidence in the CDC fell to 37%. Meanwhile, CDC personnel had managed to mishandle Ebola virus samples, accidentally sending samples of the live virus to CDC labs. And the heads of the health bureaucracy blamed the lack of funding for their failure to have an Ebola vaccine.

The self-quarantine measures adopted in response to the coronavirus outbreak are partially a response to the lessons of the Ebola disaster.

But during the Ebola crisis, Democrats tried to shift responsibility from the Obama administration by blaming Republicans for cutting the CDC’s budget from $6.5 billion to $5.9 billion. Sound familiar? Where do those billions for the CDC actually go? Among other things, pushing gun control. The terrible budget deal from December allocated $25 million to the CDC and NIH to study gun violence.

During the Ebola crisis, the CDC had been spending a mere $2.6 million on gun violence studies. But the CDC has a history of wasting money on everything from a $106 million visitor's center with Japanese gardens, a $200K gym, a transgender beauty pageant, not to mention promoting bike paths.

The occasional outbreak only calls the CDC’s general incompetence to everyone’s attention. The rest of the time its incompetence, like that of other government agencies, just ticks along wasting money.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 05:25 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Simply following the Deep State mantra like most federal agencies.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 5:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Centers for Disease Control

You had one job.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/19/2020 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  I smell oboz0 de zer0
Posted by: ranture || 03/19/2020 14:33 Comments || Top||


Coronavirus 'Natural Origins' article
[SF] JUPITER, Fla. ‐ Over the course of this Covid-19 ordeal, a number of outlandish conspiracy theories have emerged that the virus was produced in a Chinese, Canadian, or American lab. Conspiracy theories have become an increasingly common part of everyday life in recent years, but a new study on Covid-19’s origins is disproving this theory. A team of international researchers have concluded that the novel coronavirus has entirely natural origins through evolution.

Public genome sequence data on Covid-19, as well as similar viruses, was extensively analyzed for this study. The results show absolutely no indication that the virus was produced artificially or in a lab setting.

"By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes," comments co-author Kristian Andersen, PhD, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research, in a release.

Researchers from Columbia University, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Sydney also worked on this project.

Coronaviruses in general are nothing new. The two most recent examples of a new coronavirus popping up are the SARS outbreak in Asia around 2003 and MERS in the Middle East in 2012. This new strain, largely being referred to as Covid-19, was only brought to the WHO’s attention on New Year’s Eve 2019.

Chinese scientists were the first to sequence the new virus’ genome, and immediately made their findings available to scientists all over the world. Incredibly, this data indeed indicates that Covid-19 has spread to hundreds of thousands after initially being "introduced" to just one person.

It was this genetic template that allowed the study’s authors to investigate the virus’ origins. They discovered that Covid-19’s receptor-binding domain (RBD), a kind of "grappling hook" that attaches itself to host cells, had evolved to target a specific molecular feature of human cells. That feature is called ACE2, and it is a receptor involved in maintaining regular blood pressure. The research team believe this development was the work of natural selection, not some type of genetic engineering.

Why? The virus appears to be so efficient at its newly evolved skill, that it is essentially impossible that modern science could have created such a monstrosity.

Related: The Herald Scotland - Coronavirus is not a bioweapon created in a lab, scientists say
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 04:59 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Natural origins' theory supported by yesterday's posting of Joe Rogan Experience #1439 - Dr. Michael Osterholm's lengthy interview.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 5:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Why? The virus appears to be so efficient at its newly evolved skill, that it is essentially impossible that modern science could have created such a monstrosity.

Darwin says "Show me the intermediate stages", or - at least - describe a sequence of intermediate stages favored by selection.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 6:07 Comments || Top||

#3  p.s. I see a bunch of Chinese research grants in Kristian Andersen (the "scientist" not the fabulist) future.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 6:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Chinese laboratory that first shared coronavirus genome with world ordered to close for ‘rectification’, hindering its Covid-19 research

No reason was given for the closure of Shanghai facility, which released information about the virus ahead of authorities

One source at the laboratory said the closure has hampered scientists’ research when they should be ‘racing against the clock’

LINK
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/19/2020 7:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Chinese scientists were the first to sequence the new virus’ genome, and immediately made their findings available to scientists all over the world.

Would that be the same China that destroyed their research in December and that is now the one people are suggesting created covid-19 as a bio weapon? I'm not a scientist but they hardly seem an unbiased source.
Posted by: ruprecth || 03/19/2020 8:32 Comments || Top||

#6  The research team believe this development was the work of natural selection, not some type of genetic engineering. The "believe"? Get back to us when the can prove something.

The Jupiter Florida boy fails to address the destroyed Chi Com data. Usually when someone destroys evidence there is something to hide. A Perry Mason concept that somehow fails these folk.

Michael Osterholm mentioned 487,000 deaths.
Posted by: Woodrow || 03/19/2020 13:25 Comments || Top||


Chinese scientists destroyed proof of virus in December
[The Times UK] Chinese laboratories identified a mystery virus as a highly infectious new pathogen by late December last year, but they were ordered to stop tests, destroy samples and suppress the news, a Chinese media outlet has revealed.

A regional health official in Wuhan, centre of the outbreak, demanded the destruction of the lab samples that established the cause of unexplained viral pneumonia on January 1. China did not acknowledge there was human-to-human transmission until more than three weeks later.

The detailed revelations by Caixin Global, a respected independent publication, provide the clearest evidence yet of the scale of the cover-up in the crucial early weeks when the opportunity was lost to control the outbreak.

Censors have been rapidly deleting the report from the Chinese internet.

Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 04:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
I’m a Doctor in Britain. We’re Heading Into the Abyss.
[DNYUZ] Ten days ago, I was asked to see a patient. I’m a respiratory specialist in an intensive-care unit at a hospital in London, so it wasn’t surprising that the patient needed a ventilator. It seemed fairly typical. But the patient turned out to have the coronavirus
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
‐ our hospital’s first case and one of nearly 2,000 people who have so far tested positive in Britannia. I hadn’t worn a mask. Soon I developed a cough.

Though I experienced neither fever nor breathlessness, I was told to self-isolate for 14 days. That’s where I am now, in self-isolation. And I’m not the only one from my hospital. After just one patient with Covid-19, a quarter of our junior staff are off with coughs and sniffles we would normally work through. A single case of the coronavirus has wreaked havoc in our hospital.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2020 00:13 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, here we go again: apocalyptic doom-mongering because of this neo-flu, and the all-too-predictable rapid pivot from the topic du jour to My Pre-Existing Politucal Grievance.

We get it: you were unhappy about the state of NHS funding long before anyone heard of neo-flu aka COVID.

But stop prostituting yourself. The sky will not fall in. This virus will not deliver the nosectomy to spite your face that you so earnestly desire.

/rant
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  “You look into the abyss and the abyss looks back,” I said, shrugging. “Then you punch the abyss in the face.” - John Ringo "Grunge
(Monster Hunter Memoirs #1)"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Lack of funding?

When did you take a paycut to enable more beds?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/19/2020 6:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Another believer in the mystical, infinite, magical money tree.


Whinge, whinge, whinge....
Posted by: AlanC || 03/19/2020 9:24 Comments || Top||

#5  So much for the myth that socialized health care is superior.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2020 9:54 Comments || Top||

#6  ^Socialized health care IS superior - for affirmative action medical graduates and liberal studies graduates who gotta have an administrative job.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 10:06 Comments || Top||

#7  ...and liberal studies graduates who gotta have an administrative job.--g(r)omgoru

Exactly! Think of all of the money poured down this rathole in academia, government and industry.
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2020 12:38 Comments || Top||

#8  You never met affirmative action med students, magpie.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 12:41 Comments || Top||

#9  WELL.............UK, earned IT!
Posted by: ranture || 03/19/2020 14:34 Comments || Top||

#10  You never met affirmative action med students, magpie. --g(r)omgoru
My first dentist was an ex-Navy butcher, err, dentist and no I won't say anything else about him. But the thought of an "affirmative action doctor" only gives me shudders...
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2020 16:20 Comments || Top||

#11  I have fought this sort of thing for years. Now as the panic sets in people will do whatever to survive. Riots for food and sporting goods stores will and are currently not reported. National guards are deployed now in Maryland. Shortly national lock-down will happen. So what to do?. Food supplies for a month till end of April. Stay indoors. Sunlight kills this virus. Heat kills this virus. Pot of water on the stove simmering with white vinegar will kill virus. Apple cider vinegar a shot or two to an 8oz glass of water, say three glasses. This changes your chemistry to what the virus can't handle. Repeat as needed. Natural diuretic,pain killer, but the important part is how it creates a hostile environment for the virus like frost on a plant. I had this confirmed by a Bio Chemist. I have absolute control over a virus. Bacterial now that is a different animal. Antibiotic only way to fight back. So who am I?. What is my education?. That doesn't matter. Most people will do only what they believe no matter what you will say or your training. The new problem in China is that children are now becoming severely ill with a new variant.
Posted by: Dale || 03/19/2020 16:22 Comments || Top||

#12  ^Speechless
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 16:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Why is it time after time I read about a "professional" medical respiratory specialist coming into contact with a obviously sick patient.Yet not one of these fucks is wearing a mask to start with....only later to find out its the first case of Covid in their hospital.
Posted by: bbrewer126 || 03/19/2020 22:38 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Beijing Fears COVID-19 Is Turning Point for China, Globalization
[Real Clear Politics] While the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, China is fighting a propaganda war. Beijing’s war aim is simple: shift away from China all blame for the outbreak, the botched initial response, and its early spread into the broader world. At stake is China’s global reputation, as well as the potential of a fundamental shift away from China for trade and manufacturing. Also at risk is the personal legacy of General Secretary Xi Jinping, who has staked his legitimacy on his technocratic competence. After dealing with the first great global crisis of the 21st century, the world must fundamentally rethink its dependence on China.

After months of staying holed up in the Forbidden City, Mr. Xi finally ventured to Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, to declare victory over the virus as all the makeshift hospitals have been closed. Yet no one knows if Beijing’s claims that new indigenous cases are slowing down are true or not, given long-standing doubt about the veracity of any official Chinese statistics, and the party’s failure to act in the early days of the coronavirus.

The communist government instead is claiming that it has largely controlled the epidemic, even as it suspiciously now blames “foreign arrivals” for new cases of virus. Leaked video from China shows huge lines at a hospital in Chongqing, for example, raising questions about just what is happening around the country.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: 3dc || 03/19/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Well-founded fears.
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 1:08 Comments || Top||

#2  There is no upside to you, China
Posted by: newc || 03/19/2020 2:13 Comments || Top||

#3  "Tell me Xi, have you no fear of the loss of "The Mandate of Heaven " " ?
Posted by: Thaith Elmeresing6163 || 03/19/2020 3:51 Comments || Top||

#4  When this is over every country should cancel its debt to China.
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/19/2020 3:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Excellent article. Let's hope Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin are watching and listening.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 4:31 Comments || Top||

#6  We don't need China or any other nation for our food or energy supply.

We don't need China for economic growth. Not just our trade deficit, but also the loss of our IP and the danger to our security mean that the costs of trading with this shitty and dangerous nation far outweigh the benefits to our nation.

China threatens everything we hold dear. Time to undo the colossal mistakes that Trump's predecessors made, starting with revoking MFN status from this toxic waste dump of a nation.
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 8:00 Comments || Top||

#7  China DID do everything it could to give the world time to prepare. Europe acted like a 3 year old - "I'm not gonna do anything and you can't make me."

Trump banned flights from China and was promptly called a xenophobe for his trouble.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 03/19/2020 10:50 Comments || Top||

#8  China DID do everything it could to give the world time to prepare

Yuletide carol is back?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 11:01 Comments || Top||

#9  China DID do everything it could to give the world time to prepare ......except announce to the world what exactly it is and where it came from and what they know about it.

China has behaved like a 5 year old caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Or like Sgt Schultz "I see nuthin, I know nuthing"
Posted by: AlanC || 03/19/2020 12:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Someone on Rantburg yesterday suggested China might be buying up US stocks now that the market is going crazy. I'd suggest that a year or so of trade wars and such have limited their ability to do so.

Plus if they do buy up a bunch of US stock and we find they were behind any of this (bio weapon, cyber attacks) we might just nationalize stock purchased by China and use that stock to finance some of our recovery efforts. I don't think anyones done that sort of thing before but that doesn't mean it can't be done and with 3 out of 5 Americans ready to go to war with China over this thing he'd have backing for any such move.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/19/2020 18:37 Comments || Top||


Economy
How coronavirus is already threatening the housing market
[Market Watch] As the coronavirus pandemic threatens financial markets and sends the U.S. economy into a potential recession, those of us who lead mortgage firms must take swift action to prepare for the worst. The last time the financial markets suffered such a precipitous drop was during the 2008 Great Financial Crisis.

I was CEO of CitiMortgage during and after that crisis and saw firsthand how the housing market became paralyzed. I’m now CEO of the nation’s third-largest housing specialty lender (HSL), and I’m applying some of the lessons that I learned from the last crisis. Here is what we in the mortgage industry should consider doing immediately:
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 10:31 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here is what we in the mortgage industry should consider doing immediately:

How about encouraging builders to construct homes that the average working family could afford instead of HGTV mega tricked out homes?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/19/2020 10:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I sense great changes coming.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 11:53 Comments || Top||

#3  They should construct homes... somewhere other than California for awhile.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/19/2020 13:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe time for Heinlein's idea of houses made in a factory?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 13:19 Comments || Top||

#5  They can build the walls elsewhere and assemble them on site rapidly as is. Theres should be more of that if you ask me. Just not in the parts of california prone to wildfires.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/19/2020 15:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Tear down all the comdemned and substandard urban buildings in the worst areas. Plenty of work for demolition crews and it frees up the property for development later.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2020 16:08 Comments || Top||

#7  May be time to upgrade...
Posted by: Iblis || 03/19/2020 19:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Tear down all the comdemned and substandard urban buildings in the worst areas.

There goes half of Detroit.
Posted by: Raj || 03/19/2020 19:36 Comments || Top||


I'm a financial planner, and I'm giving all my clients the same advice for investing while the market is down: Think about how your decision will feel in 2023
[Business Insider] In my 20-year career as a financial planner, I have often been asked for advice on where to invest and what to buy.

But today, during this global pandemic, things are different. I am being asked not so much what to buy, but what to do with existing investments. And the answer is not so obvious this time.

To have a universal answer that will apply to all is impossible. Imagine your portfolio is cut by 50%, can you stomach that? If the answer is no, it does not matter what I say about long-term investing, Markowitz theory, or historical market turnarounds. If you are not 100% comfortable, you will never stop doubting your decisions.

This is why my one piece of advice is to think about what the consequences of your decisions will be in 2023.

There are some basics you should consider when taking this advice.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 08:36 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She's a lot cuter than Cramer, but I'm still holding out for the Money Honey.
Posted by: Matt || 03/19/2020 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Bogle - “common sense on mutual funds” 10% earnings - 3.5%Inflation - 3% sales frothing - 2.0% investment advisor = 1.5% return. Cut out the financial advisor and their company and you make a lot more. “YOU CANT BEAT THE MARKET”
Posted by: Pliny Grumble7994 || 03/19/2020 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  She has 20-year career as a financial planner?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 11:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
Germany has succumbed to panic
Sp!ked via Instapundit
Germany is in lockdown. The speed with which social life has been restricted as a consequence of Covid-19 is frightening. The first restrictions began on 8 March when the government banned events involving more than 1,000 people. Operas, theatres, trade fairs and sports’ events were closed or cancelled. In football, the term Geisterspiele (ghost matches) was coined to describe games being played in empty stadiums. Six days later, schools and kindergartens were shut. Only emergency childcare for certain families could be maintained, parents were told. Public gatherings of more than 50 people were forbidden.

All of this was soon superseded by the announcement on Monday that all pubs, cafés, private clubs, libraries, religious centres (churches, synagogues and mosques), and outdoor children’s playgrounds would have to close until at least 19 April ‐ a month away. Even funeral halls have been shut (only outdoor services with no more than 50 mourners are permitted).

...Now, the lockdown is here. The government’s change of mind came after it faced increasing attacks from sections of the press, claiming it wasn’t doing enough. For weeks, fearmongers in the media have been warning that we are only days behind Italy. Instead of taking a level-headed and rational approach, Germany keeps implementing ever-harsher restrictions. This is as frightening as the virus itself.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 03:09 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Panic? For now measures taken are less strict than in Italy, Spain and France.

Some things make more sense than others, but we must flatten the curve.

Mass meetings should have been banned much earlier.
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/19/2020 7:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Can we please get accurate numbers?

Specifically, numbers that reflect the enormous population of those who a) were definitely infected but who recovered, and b) likely to have been infected but who show no symptoms?

And also that the timeline us accurate when it comes to for adding and subtracting from the total # of infected for each day?

Are we sure that the curve that is being calculated has taken the above into account?

If not, then the ACTUAL curve is certain to be far different from what our policy makers are looking at: most likely far "spikier" in earlier/past periods, and far less spiky -- flatter -- today and in recent days.

Which means that we are almost certainly doing ourselves more harm by locking down everything and everyone right now than we would if we were to make selective, careful, and above all, DATA-INFORMED closures.
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Accurate numbers. From where? From the same media and government grant grabbing "scientist" community that has been pushing gerbil worming? Really?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa....
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2020 12:03 Comments || Top||

#4  MM there are no accurate numbers even in professional publications because most people who suffer from light form of cold/flu do not register. Don't blame the press (they've enough sins as it is).
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 12:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Can we please get accurate numbers?

The people who would otherwise be filling out the forms that get entered into computers to be sent to the various central authorities to be forwarded to WHO are otherwise occupied at the moment. And expanding on g(r)omgoru’s point, even the CDC’s annual flu numbers — except for hospital statistics (severe illness and death numbers) — are estimates spit out by computer models based on previous population samples.

Bottom line, we do not yet have the data to make truly data-informed decisions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2020 16:31 Comments || Top||

#6  ^Nor do we need to - all we need to know is how to twick the parameters of the model to make it behave in a desirable fashion.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 16:40 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Rep. Clyburn Compares Trump to Hitler, Warns U.S. ‘Could Very Well Go the Way of Germany in the 1930s'
[LI] House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the top black politician in America, constantly compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler during Axios on HBO.

He also warned that the U.S. "could very well go the way of Germany in the 1930s."

Axios CEO and founder Jim VandeHei could not hide the look on his face towards the end of the video. He tried to save Clyburn by reminding him that he is comparing Trump to Hitler.

Clyburn said he simply compared "the dynamic," but it does not take a genius to read between the lines.

Clyburn called Trump a racist who has hired white supremacists to work in the White House. He refused to name them, though.

Clyburn then said he often wondered "how could the people of Germany allow Hitler to exist." The way the Republicans join together around Trump makes him "understand how," which is why he is "trying to sound the alarm."

The proof for Clyburn came during the State of the Union. He insisted that Trump spewed over 30 lies and the Republicans kept cheering him even though they knew the truth:
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 06:04 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wakandan logic.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 6:13 Comments || Top||

#2  We are ruled by mendacious, cowardly, shitty little morons.

JFK's/Arthur Krock's book needs a sequel: Profiles in Idiocy.
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 9:16 Comments || Top||

#3  The graphic that somehow 'fell off' of comment #2.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 9:20 Comments || Top||

#4  One of the worse cases of projection I've seen since the impeachment 'investigation'.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/19/2020 9:20 Comments || Top||

#5  'Social distancing' from House Majority Whip James Clyburn should be handsomely rewarded.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 9:23 Comments || Top||

#6  If Trump was Hitler, why hasn't this fool been put in the oven? Cause he's not Hitler.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 03/19/2020 11:25 Comments || Top||

#7  I would make an exception for people this hateful to be taken away by the police and never to be seen again.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2020 12:46 Comments || Top||

#8  A proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus where no honkies whites or Republicans can join their racist exclusive ranks.
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2020 12:51 Comments || Top||

#9  I would point out that Clyburn is a racist bitch. But I'm worried some libs would consider being honest as, racist.
Posted by: Woodrow || 03/19/2020 13:07 Comments || Top||

#10  ...This tells me that the Dems know that this hasn't really done Trump any harm, and may in fact be increasing his popularity.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/19/2020 17:11 Comments || Top||


Bauer: Biden Must undergo the Same Cognitive Test that Trump Aced
[TheFederalist] I don’t claim the expertise to assess to what degree Biden’s 'gaffes' are a concern, but they're numerous. With all the speculation about cognitive impairment, there's a way to find out so we can drop the subject.
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 00:10 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If Biden tried and failed would Hillary or Sanders take over as the nominee at the convention? Or would they just throw in the towel realizing they pushed a dementia patient as the leader of their party and obviously their judgement is crap.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/19/2020 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it a rhetorical question, RJ.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 13:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Retrospection is not in their nature, so its down to Biden or Clinton.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/19/2020 15:19 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iran’s puppets pushing Iraq into failed statehood
[THEBAGHDADPOST] Is Iraq on course to becoming a failed state? The Kataib Hezbollah Death Eaters (part of the Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
Militia in Iraq and Syria) who killed several coalition troops last week are closely allied to Iran, as well as to powerful elements within Iraq’s parliament. This is just one of many warning signs of how Iraq is devolving from nation state to a warring cluster of paramilitary fiefdoms under Iranian hegemony.

Iraqis demand effective governance and an end to institutionalized corruption. Yet, whoever is appointed to the premiership faces insurmountable pressures to dole out ministries among clientelistic factions as lucrative cash cows and sources of employment for unqualified foot soldiers. Prime minister-designate Mohammed Allawi was angrily rejected by Iraq’s Shiite-majority protest movement, yet he tried and failed to cobble together a government anyway. The fragmented outcomes of the 2018 elections make it well-nigh impossible for any candidate to gain a functional majority. The Shiite political house is intransigently divided, with diametrically opposed views on fundamental issues like ties with Iran and the demobilization of militias.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies


Government
Hillsdale College: The Depth of the Swamp by Open The Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski
[OpenTheBooks.com] Adam Andrzejewski, CEO & Founder of OpenTheBooks.com, addresses the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Naples, Florida on February 20, 2020. There were approximately 900 people attending the seminar.

The title of the presentation was The Depth of the Swamp. Topics covered included the federal funding of the Ivy League, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, U.S. farm subsidies, "small" business lending, top "non-profit" hospitals making huge profits, and mis-allocation of resources at Veterans Affairs.

Furthermore, Andrzejewski described his organizations efforts to map the San Francisco human waste challenge and their lawsuit to force open California state checkbook expenditures.

We believe that Transparency is Revolutionizing U.S. public policy and politics. We published an Open Letter To President Donald Trump and 100 Examples of outrageous federal waste in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today six-times. We encouraged the President to embrace the Transparency Revolution, declare War on Waste, and as Commander in Chief, to defend the American taxpayer against waste, fraud, corruption and taxpayer abuse.

Andrzejewski describes the target-rich environment to expose government waste and corruption within federal grants, improper and mistaken payments, and the $100 billion spent on year-end use-it-or-lose-it spending sprees.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 09:32 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And to think we used to be worried by the $800 government hammer.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/19/2020 10:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting Zipp code search page found here.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2020 10:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The Media Is Even More Garbage Than Usual
It's Kurt
[Town Hall] - It’s like the moronic mandarins of the mainstream media ‐ luminaries like Honest Dan Rather, Brian "Badass Like Buttigieg" Williams, and Zombie Cronkite ‐ got together to create a plan to make people hate the media even more than they already did. It was a daunting challenge, since people view the mainstream media as something akin to syphilis without the upside. But it’s as if they finally succeeded, accomplishing, against all odds, something besides failure, leveraging this pandemic to destroy the media forever. The Chinese Coronavirus Bat Soup Syndrome has taken what’s left of the media’s reputation, poured gasoline on it, then lit it on fire before flattening it with a bulldozer and finally having a Scat Francisco hobo download last night’s free bologna sandwich on the remains.

...I wish I was exaggerating. I wish my ability to generate hyperbole in the pursuit of critiquing our failed establishment was so great that I could construct a sublime image of allegedly serious reporters, in a time of national crisis, forgoing the chance to disseminate lifesaving 411 to the masses and instead, and on purpose, choosing to pursue the fevered SJW obsessions of daddy-issued Wellesley sociology sophomores.

...On Tuesday, the Chinese government decided to toss a bunch of American media types out of the country. Talk about a betrayal of one’s own friends. But it just goes to show that everyone hates the media ‐ and that even the damn communists think our media sucks.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 03:15 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You know when some punk misuses a constitutionally protect item like a gun, we get loads of proposals for restricting the object. When the Legacy Infotainment Enterprises goes whole Chicken Little how about treating them the same. A SCOTUS opinion already states - you have no right to scream fire in a crowded theater. Just remove any protections for lies, misrepresentations, and libel that any other business is subject to.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/19/2020 7:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Ariel Sharon agrees.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2020 7:50 Comments || Top||

#3  What P2P said.

There's a point at which the media Shitshow becomes a Horror Show: when they incite panic by with lies that spread fear uncertainty and doubt.

The media f---ers have passed that point. Their lies are creating real and present danger now.
Posted by: Lex || 03/19/2020 9:42 Comments || Top||

#4  The penalties for malpractice should be as egregious and draconian for lawyers, journalists and financial executives as they are for physicians. Throw in aircraft and automobile manufacturing executives while we're at it.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2020 9:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Shades of 2004 when the MSM dropped their masks and revealed their roles as willing agents of the Democratic Party. Remember all of those questions shouted at Bush to "Tell us what you did wrong (and give us a soundbite for the DNC ads...)"?
Today it's yelling at Trump to "Tell us ...etc etc etc" reprising the 2004 election cycle.
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2020 12:47 Comments || Top||

#6  #1 If they complain, just tell 'em the Constitution is a "living breathing document" crafted by a bunch of dead white slaveowners.

And hey, there was no social media or TV networks or streaming or radio or even a New York Times or Washington Post in 1787.

According to one of their key arguments against gun rights, technological change somehow mitigates against strict adherence to the Bill of Rights, right?

Apply their own rules to them.
Posted by: charger || 03/19/2020 15:07 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
45[untagged]
5Commies
4Houthis
4Sublime Porte
3Govt of Iraq
3Govt of Iran
2Islamic State
1Moslem Colonists
1TTP
1Govt of Iran Proxies

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2020-03-19
  Migrants at Refugee Camp in Germany Riot,
Display ISIS Flags After They’re Put Under Coronavirus Quarantine
Wed 2020-03-18
  Manchester Arena bombing: Hashem Abedi guilty of 22 murders
Tue 2020-03-17
  China expels ALL American reporters!
Mon 2020-03-16
  Saudi Arabia detains 298 officials in new corruption cases
Sun 2020-03-15
  Hezbollah commander prosecuted in Austria for terror finance
Sat 2020-03-14
  Violence by Taliban Spikes Despite Peace Efforts
Fri 2020-03-13
  Sudan moves against Bashir loyalists after assassination attempt
Thu 2020-03-12
  4 Iranian proxy forces HQ hit in airstrikes along Iraq-Syria border
Wed 2020-03-11
  Rocket attack in Iraq kills two Americans and a British citizen
Tue 2020-03-10
  US begins military pullout from two Afghan bases
Mon 2020-03-09
  Turks Use Drones in Tear Gas Attacks on Greek Border Guards
Sun 2020-03-08
  Leb defaults
Sat 2020-03-07
  Saudis reportedly detain three royal princes over ‘coup plot’
Fri 2020-03-06
  Tunis: suicide bomber explodes near U.S. embassy
Thu 2020-03-05
  Russia sends reinforcements through the Bosporus
Wed 2020-03-04
  4 L-39's and 18 Su-24's left in Syrian Airforce


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.
3.144.86.138
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (11)    WoT Background (10)    Non-WoT (23)    (0)    Politix (10)