The Weekly Watch

Corona Curiosities

It seems there's more that we don't know than we do know about the SARS-CoV-2 and the expression of COVID-19. There's several conspiracy theories floating around driven in part by the quarantine of healthy people and the huge role of the Fed in buying corporate debt and foreign central bank debt and artificial inflation of the stock market, all while throwing working people under the bus. It is suspicious. Let's look at some of the things we do know and speculate about the rest.

We can dream of the day when we are not
"six feet apart"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d9XjnV2iKA]

To me the issue of the origin of the novel corona virus is moot. My thought is lets look at what successful countries did and emulate them. Taiwan serves as a good example. They all wear masks. So why is there this origin controversy? Rumors from the origin being a virology lab in Wu Han to it being delivered by US military athletes to the wet market escape into the populace abound.

The potential of a corona virus epidemic has been understood for several years

Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985
Visit here to download a PDF.

I guess in an effort to better understand SARS scientist started collecting bat viruses in China in 2004...
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/mysterious-bat-...

In 2004, deep in the wilderness of China’s Yunnan province, a group of scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology discovered a cave full of wild bats carrying hundreds of SARS-related viruses. Their work, published in a draft paper in 2005, unearthed the link between SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and bats for the first time.

Now the virologist who led that study, Shi Zhengli, has revealed one of the strains found in that cave — the exact location of which is a closely guarded secret — is almost identical to the 2019-nCoV coronavirus which has so far killed at least 1,115 people and infected more than 45,000 worldwide.

Then they started trying to engineer those collected viruses...

...scientists investigated a virus called SHC014, which is found in horseshoe bats in China. The researchers created a chimaeric virus, made up of a surface protein of SHC014 and the backbone of a SARS virus that had been adapted to grow in mice and to mimic human disease. The chimaera infected human airway cells — proving that the surface protein of SHC014 has the necessary structure to bind to a key receptor on the cells and to infect them. It also caused disease in mice, but did not kill them.
...
Although almost all coronaviruses isolated from bats have not been able to bind to the key human receptor, SHC014 is not the first that can do so. In 2013, researchers reported this ability for the first time in a different coronavirus isolated from the same bat population.

https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky...

Given that this outbreak was said to begin in early winter when most bat species in the region are hibernating and the Chinese horseshoe bat’s habitat covers an enormous swath of the region containing scores of cities and hundreds of millions people, the fact that this Wuhan Strain of coronavirus, denoted as COVID-19, emerged in close proximity to the only BSL-4 virology lab in China, which in turn was staffed with at least two Chinese scientists – Zhengli Shi and Xing-Yi Ge – both virologists who had previously worked at an American lab which had already bio-engineered an incredibly virulent strain of bat coronavirus – the accidental release of a bio-engineered virus from Wuhan’s virology lab cannot be automatically discounted, especially when the Wuhan Strain’s unnatural genomic signals are considered.

https://harvardtothebighouse.com/2020/01/31/logistical-and-technical-ana...

Well regardless of the origin of this novel corona virus there are many more curiosities like the elite playing pandemic model games last October.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. The purpose of the exercise was to illustrate the pandemic preparedness efforts, response decisions, and cooperation required from global businesses, governments, and public health leaders that the world will need to diminish the large-scale economic and societal consequences of a severe pandemic.

October 18, 2019 https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/exercises/

This was about the same time that a pandemic program was ended.

Two months before the novel coronavirus probably began spreading in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.
The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified 2019-nCoV, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

https://archive.is/2kjWS#selection-1957.0-1961.395

There's no doubt the extent of the pandemic represents an epic fail of the intelligence agencies...
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-staggering-collapse...

Additionally, the White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive-...

There are many mysteries about COVID like how wide spread is the infection. Estimates as high as 50-80% have been floated, meaning that we should be near herd immunity. However, the antibody test may not be reliable and evidently some people don't develop antibodies.
Dr John Campbell discusses the lack of antibodies in the blood serum of people who have recovered. He also looks at a homeless shelter population that has 37% of the people testing positive none of whom show symptoms (10 min mark).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w7F_hzqIhM
We lack basic data and therefore have a poor understanding of the extent of the pandemic.

The Economic fall out also is very curious.

I mean the economy is at a stand still, but the market goes up (thanks to tax payers who are buying all the bad debts of banks, corporations, and oil wells)

Excellent episode of Max and Stacy with Micheal Hudson.

Max and Stacy look at how fairness is the basis of justice and how there is a fundamental unfairness in the never-ending bailout from the elites while the bottom 99% must suffer the risk offloaded onto them by those forever bailed out. In the second half, Max interviews Dr. Michael Hudson, author of 'Super Imperialism' , about ‘neofeudalism’ in the modern age. As big banks, hedge funds and private equity receive a ‘debt jubilee’ from the central bank, ordinary Americans are indentured servants to their unpayable debts.

25 min

Paul Craig Roberts thinks we need a debt jubilee too.
Former Assistant Treasury Secretary in the Reagan Administration Dr. Paul Craig Roberts says, “We need a debt jubilee. Debt jubilees were widely used in the ancient world. . . . Either the system goes into collapse or you write the debts down and you start over. . . . Again, either you paper it over again or you don’t succeed and everything blows up.... Bailing out debt with more debt is kicking the can down the road. How long can you kick it? We don’t know until we will find out you can’t kick it any further.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDBN5Zkxe5Q (41 min)

Mass hypnosis...

Nothing is as it seems! We begin with some of the companies advising the reopening of the economy - Apple, Bank of America, Google, Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, JP Morgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, and McDonald's. Big banks have been running this entire relief effort from black rock managing the Feds purchases to Kudlow on every committee. There is also an attempt to convince everyone the economy will be able to restart as it was. Not that that would be a good thing as the economy never recovered. The crazy part is there was an admission that the stock market was in a bubble until all of a sudden the entire narrative changed. They began repeating the script "the greatest economy ever" on a constant basis to convince everyone that the US economy was a tremendous success. Recently the script that has been running seems much more sinister as it will have some terrible consequences. Many people have come to believe there is nothing wrong for the time being but as Scott Minard even said once the people begin to awake from their stupor He thinks the S&P 500 will plunge to 1200. That's our biggest problem at this point a false understanding of reality that has been scientifically created and repeated until the people have fallen under its spell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rv6ZVOSn1U (19 min)

Jimmy talked with Mark Blyth about the economic horrors this week...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWDx3nKm_Gc (32 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZiEfayDf8 (13 min)

Fun discussion with Chris and Matt Taibbi (48 min)

"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

Ten years later, we find ourselves facing another crisis which, while triggered by the coronavirus instead of housing loans, has similar roots in a financial system made vulnerable by the unfair plunder of big banks and hedge funds -- who are now being bailed out at vastly higher expense than in 2008.

Sadly, it seems we've learned very little over the past decade.

And as $trillions and $trillions in "rescue" stimulus are starting to be deployed by Congress and the Federal Reserve, it's once again the financial power elite and corporate boardroom bigwigs who are receiving immediate and complete relief from the consequences of their actions.

But what will regular folks like you and me get? Crumbs, if anything.

And as taxpayers, we're ultimately footing the bill (once again).

Richard Wolff
In this interview we have an in depth discussion with Marxist economist, author and co-founder of Democracy at Work Richard D. Wolff about the U.S. healthcare approach to the coronavirus and its economic implications. Furthermore we examine the U.S medical industrial complex, globalisation and the role financialization has played on healthcare. We also talk about whether government intervention can lead to distortions in the economy and even authoritarianism. Additionally, we discuss whether the concept of democracy at work can function during imminent crises such as the recent pandemic. Lastly, Wolff provides his opinion on Bernie Sanders endorsing Joe Biden and voting for the lesser of two evils.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVr9hH6aBg0 (1.25 hours)

At least some of the billionaires see a little light..
Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO of Social Capital gives insight on how Congress should approach the bailout bills, after his CNBC interview went viral.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqJuY9FGG4I

Will the people revolt? There are some protests. I don't agree with everything Ron Paul pushes, but I find some common ground.

Mass protests are breaking out across the United States against the tyrannical "stay at home" orders and forced shut-downs of businesses deemed "non-essential." More than 20 million are suddenly unemployed and they are demanding to know why, with seasonal flu deaths often even higher than those predicted for coronavirus, they are forced into joblessness, poverty, and despair by a political class that faces none of these things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0OOqq29Ios

Truth tellers are persecuted...what's new?

Steven Donziger played a key role in winning the landmark $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador against Chevron, which operated in the country as Texaco from 1964 to 1992. Chevron deliberately polluted the Amazon by dumping 16 billion gallons of toxic waste into the rainforest. The dumping caused a massive health catastrophe and humanitarian crisis that has decimated Indigenous peoples. Instead of doing the right thing, Chevron withdrew its assets from Ecuador and refused to pay. To this day, around 1,000 of Texaco’s unlined toxic waste pits remain in the jungle where they continue to poison local drinking water.

As part of Chevron’s retaliation, a U.S. trial judge has now confiscated Donziger's passport, ordered him to turn over his email passwords, cell phone, and computer for review byChevron. Donziger has been convicted of no crime, yet remains under indefinite house arrest now three times longer in time than the longest sentence ever imposed on a lawyer convicted of the same charge. While under house arrest, Donziger has been unable to pursue justice for the Ecuadorians poisoned by Chevron. These calculated attacks from Chevron are not just targeting Donziger, they also target all human rights defenders who speak up and fight for justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrpLNMjH31U

Glenn on Assange
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAvJ4JdeVq0 (11 min)
This video is an excerpt of a recent interview (transcript here or video here) with Glenn Greenwald. Glenn provides his perspective on the Julian Assange case and why some on the left are not inclined to support him. Greenwald explains the importance of putting principles above personalities emphasising the grave threat the case presents to press freedom.

Aaron interviewed a CIA whistleblower who served time for his efforts.
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling is a double whistleblower: as an African-American, he challenged racism from superior officers; he also voiced concerns about a deeply flawed CIA effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. government retaliated by accusing him, without evidence, of leaking classified information. Sterling joins Pushback to discuss his ordeal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1GnPAGJeec (28 min)

Chris Hedges talks to William Binney, intelligence analyst and NSA whistleblower, about the Washington Post revelations over the CIA and West German intelligence (BND) setting up a Swiss company, Crypto AG, to sell encrypted machines to more than 120 governments worldwide. From 1970 to 2018, the CIA intercepted foreign government communications. Among the countries buying the machines were France, Iran, the Vatican, and Venezuela.
"It was the intelligence coup of the century," stated the CIA's own report on the program.
Russia and China did not buy the service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsbDRDNHGYc (25 min)

garden_0.jpg

Want to see a one acre farmstead that provides a living? (17 min)

The garden has been a place of comfort to me in these times. Geoff Lawton is caught in quarantine in Melbourne and did a series of discussions answering people questions about permaculture. These are packed with good information for those of you with an interest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avDe9aqDwGI (54 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NbCxtRL5s0 (41 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjq70G4ylSY (48 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YXGA74iNm8 (30 min)

curiouer and curiouser.png

So the more I ponder COVID-19 and the economy, the more curious I become. Perhaps I'm just getting comfortable with the idea of a deadly virus floating around, but I feel less worried about it killing me. Although I'm the right age, I'm metabolically healthy which seems a key factor in exhibiting symptoms. Ivor and Aseem discussed it this week. Ivor and another engineer also reviewed what is known and what is not. The bottom line in my mind is that the median age of death is 80, and almost all mortality occurs in people with one or more pre-existing conditions. My primary curiosity revolves around the economic and societal outcomes. We have seen the complete corporate capture of the US treasury, and an authoritarian approach to lock down people. My buddy wrote to me this week that a quarantine is supposed to be for sick people, not to lock up healthy folks.

Here's hoping you are all healthy and feeling fit. Skepticism is healthy but too much curiosity...you know the thing.

the cat.jpg
Share
up
26 users have voted.

Comments

Lookout's picture

Came across these to clips this week and thought the Prine fans among you would enjoy them. I did.

First a tribute to Hank from John and Steve Goodman (10 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U44iAtpj8Aw]

and then an hour concert...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy6unDTlRvU
JOHN PRINE & LYLE LOVETT plus JIMMIE DALE GILMORE
"The Session"
Point Depot Arena
Dublin, Ireland
Recorded & Broadcast 1989 (Exact Dates Unknown)
UK Channel 4 TV

01. Programme Titles
02. SPANISH PIPEDREAM
03. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE
04. UNWED FATHERS
05. SAM STONE
06. THE SPEED OF THE SOUND OF LONELINESS

07. Introducing Lyle Lovett
08. IF I HAD A BOAT
09. SHE'S NO LADY
10. YOU CAN'T RESIST IT
11. PONTIAC
12. SIMPLE SONG
13. SADDLE IN THE RAIN
14. THAT'S THE WAY THAT THE WORLD GOES ROUND

Jimmie Dale Gilmore
15. WHITE FREIGHT LINER BLUES
16. NOT A WAVE, JUST THE WATER

up
11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

gulfgal98's picture

There is so much excellent information about COVID-19 packed into this essay. What we are witnessing is a pandemic being used as an excuse to further impoverish the American people. I really think that the Chamath Palihapitiya, Founder and CEO of Social Capital video is particularly worth watching. Palihapitiya is a billionaire investor so his comments hold even greater water.

In this video Palihapitiya is being interviewed by Saager Enjeti on Rising. I am embedding this video for ease of watching.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqJuY9FGG4I]

I am giving extra credit for the Luke Combs video. Combs is a huge favorite of mine and his idol, Eric Church is my favorite country singer and writer. Good

up
13 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Lookout's picture

@gulfgal98

I loved Luke's song six feet apart and glad you liked it too. I just learned of him this week.

The Rising clip is good. I also recommend the clip of max, stacy, and hudson.

Hope all is well with you and yours. More rain here today. What a wet spring.

Glad you came by today!

up
11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

I urge everyone to check out the Harvard to the Big House article - I tried dangling that in front of some of our science types before but with no response..

Logistical and Technical Exploration into the Origins of the Wuhan Strain of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Good explication of that article (in the course of an impressive bike commute, no less) by J.C. - neurobiology prof at University of Pittsburgh Med School:

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

Not aware of JC so I'll look forward to watching it.

Another article that folks might miss is about why some think the virus came from the US
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/no_author/covid-19-further-evidence-...

Have a good one. Thanks for coming by.

up
9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

CB's picture

@Blue Republic
with that video I don't know where to begin. It is based entirely on circumstantial evidence and speculation (as J.C. admits throughout the entire video) with a strong anti-China bent.

I don't have the time to completely dissect it. Here's a few:

18:30 - He states Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security ran Event 201 "in October in China". The event took place in NYC, NOT China.

29:20 - "this could be the reason people are falling in the streets in China". We have absolutely no idea of why that person was laying in the street - heart attack or stroke would be a much, much better cause than the pneumonia caused by a coronavirus. (In fact, my dad died in exactely the same way from a massive stroke. He was walking from the gate guard house to the fire hall on a military base. One of the guards was watching him and he simply keeled over and fell straight on his face with no attempt whatever to break his fall.)

Here's J.C.'s sources:

Logistical and Technical Exploration into the Origins of the Wuhan Strain of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Posted on January 31, 2020 by harvard2thebighouse

An accessible and comprehensive YouTube summary of the report below by a Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Medical School is available here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlplnH3VYyc - the above YouTube link). And you can read our takedown of Nature magazine’s recent article claiming COVID-19 definitely wasn’t from a lab here.

Take note of the links on that web site where he gets his info to construct his case.

up
6 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@CB

As I began the piece I suggest the question of origin is really moot....unless it was some evil scheme engineered to wipe out older sick people and strengthen the Neo-feudalistic order (and in that case does it really matter if it was the US or China?). While I don't think that is likely, I don't reject the notion out of hand either.

Lots of other funny thing were happening as all this evolves. Last fall, CEO's are resigning in record numbers and the repro loans crank way up. Then congress critters start modifying their stock portfolio as they tell everyone how solid the economy was. Now looking at the outcome of a massive transfer of wealth, it is difficult not to buy into some sort of conspiracy mindset.

And the victims once again are the working people.

Hope you're escaping the ravages of the situation economically.

up
10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

CB's picture

@Lookout
that one of the prime reason stocks were rising was due to stock buybacks. There was not enough innovation and r&d investment to warrant this rise in stock value. The CEO's knew this because it was they themselves who authorized these buybacks and could watch their pockets fill in real time.

As the buybacks reached extraordinary levels last year, they got extremely nervous. They knew their companies were not worth the stock market value. A crash was inevitable and it would take little to trigger it. The nervous Nelly's ran for the door first. As more and more resigned, panic set in and the rest decided to bag their winnings and run.

The remaining CEO's also knew what was going on in China by the middle of January. Wuhan is the Chicago of China and is a major transportation hub in the country. Many American companies had extensive supply chains running directly from Hubei. Most of their income depended on the differential in production costs between China and the US - not innovation. Time for the last of the rats to abandon the sinking ship. China had sneezed and the remaining CEO's didn't want to catch a cold. These fuckers are in the same private club and you and I aren't in it.


The Controversy Around Stock Buybacks Explained

March 1, 2019

up
12 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@CB

Excellent description. And now the Fed is buying the debt incurred by those companies in order to buy their own stock. You can't make it up.

up
11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@CB
JC is sourcing anything at all from that FUD-filled lie-orama website, then everything he says should be ignored, because it would mean that he cannot discriminate between reliable information and pure bullshit, and would not himself be a reliable or useful aggregator of news and data.

up
6 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

CB's picture

@UntimelyRippd
of his bicycle report from that very website - 100%, almost word for word.

up
3 users have voted.

@CB
He's generally knowledgeable about those things directly in his domain, and he's obviously a skillful communicator, but it doesn't matter how good your analysis is, if the data are nonsense to begin with.

up
4 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Raggedy Ann's picture

The weather here is improving, but we still don't have leaves on the trees. Not warm enough - we had snow last Monday, after all. The trees are ripe with buds, so leaves will spring forth once the warming begins this week. If only the wind would subside.

The chickens are doing well and hubby got strawberries in the ground last week. The tender starts are still in the grow tent and won't be ready for prime time until late May, around here. We've planted a wheat and barley field for the chickens and they should be grazing it by the end of this week.

Granddaughter went shopping at Costco for me on Friday. I was grateful not to have to go myself and it gave her something to do. She lost her server job in CO and moved home so family could help her. As a 22 year old who has lived on her own and paid her own way since she was 18, this was a blow. She told me this wasn't in that contract to be an adult that she signed. Funny girl! I told her to be ready for a different world.

I'm happy, now that we didn't invest a lot in her going to college. Her friends that are graduating college now in May are graduating into a horrible depression. No jobs for them. It makes me wonder about university and how higher education will go after this.

The world is changing and the universe is in charge of that change. Live in the present moment and live in love.

Have a beautiful Sunday, everyone! Pleasantry

up
18 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

@Raggedy Ann

...and getting ready to build one and start with chickens (about 6).
Edit to add this clip just catch the beginning to see a design similar to my concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFhekYwXntk

The house portion I intend to have a solid floor with a removable linoleum type floor to collect some manure for compost and manure tea.

Next year I want to build a strawberry tower.

So many projects, but now we have plenty of time.

Hope warm weather is around the corner from you, and your garden grows well!

Bet the grandkid will benefit from gardening too. Nice to have family around in this situation. Wishing you the best as always!

up
12 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Raggedy Ann
like Master's degree required to bus tables or PhD to empty trashcans.

up
5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Granma's picture

And in the Amazon, I thought about the executives and owners responsible for doing that. The next thought that came to mind was that I understand why Mao Tse Tung's government sent rich people to work on farms and be re-educated. Makes sense to me. And was kind all things considered, kinder than just executing all of them. Something had to be done about people who cared so little for the welfare of their fellow humans.

I need to find something to read that gives me a better idea of the situation in China during that period and just before it.

Edit to fix typo

up
8 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Granma
What we've done to nature and indigenous people is appalling.

I often wish the greedy bastards would be transported into being a poor third world citizen and experience that side of life. Twain used that theme a few times -the prince and the the pauper, and Pudd'nhead Wilson come to mind. Finian's Rainbow is another.

Fun to imagine it anyway. The sun has come out here and it is pushing towards 60 degrees.

Hope you're having a nice day.

up
8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Granma Friends of mine were sent from Shanghai to the coal mines of Yunnan and communal farms, others sent out of Phnom Phen Cambodia, others to re education in Laos, always to get re educated. Most people rich or poor are not culpable for the decisions of the ruling class, people are shaped by the society they live in, but they don't make the rules. Most 1% ers are just lucky, not guilty. I'd agree about a million percent that they could use some education, I wouldn't call them guilty and deserving of justice, only of needing wealth redistribution. They won't gain anything by subjecting them to unnecessary hardships, nor will we. We all gain by not giving them the lion's share of resources earned by all.

up
10 users have voted.

@ban nock
She was the daughter of a university professor sent with her family for "reeducation" to live as a peasant. All it taught her was to hate and fear the regime.

up
8 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

CB's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness
when his well placed father was purged from power in 1962. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to remove any remnants of capitalism that remained. Xi, who was in high school at the time, was sent to work in a remote farming village doing manual labor and living on rice rations like the peasants for seven years. He spent 30 years in the trenches working with the people on his way up in the Party.

Here are videos on how China has developed over the last 4 decades and Xi Jinping's leadership in shaping it. You can see why he is such a popular figure in China

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrV5GpogjDg]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpGqc8BzZRU]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkGtD7HpdE]

China has taken socialism and integrated it with capitalism - "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". It remains to be seen if this will survive or if capitalism will, in the end, destroy what feeds it as was done in the US.

up
8 users have voted.

@CB
that i looked up.

https://allpoetry.com/Limerick:-There-was-a-Young-Lady-of-Niger

up
3 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@CB

Like Grandma, I've lots to learn about China too. I feel connected in a way because China and Alabama share common (rare) salamanders. We also share similar climates. I have looked into their early (1000's of years ago) water management systems, and agricultural systems. They are a long lived civilization.

The ancient civilizations here in NE AL were largely eradicated by disease, and their ancestors were deported to OK on a trail of tears.

Thanks for the Xi expose'

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Granma's picture

@ban nock and the reason I want to read more about China in that period is my awareness that I don't really know much about it. It sounds like a lot of people suffered for no good reason. It was just a brief fantasy on my part.

up
7 users have voted.
Azazello's picture

Here's some stuff I bookmarked for Weekly Watch.
Is this a Conspiracy Theory ? I don't know.
Here's a discussion at The Duran on Bill Gates and vaccines.
They're talking about this article: Gates’ Globalist Vaccine Agenda: A Win-Win for Pharma and Mandatory Vaccination
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TffC_aPLwU width:500 height:300]
Aaron Maté and guest on what Labour did to Jeremy Corbyn, much like what the Democrats did to Sanders.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKfBGxRL5Mw width:500 height:300]
And this, just for fun, a little film from Germany, 1939-40, half travelogue, half VW commercial. Who among us Boomer/Hippie types has not owned a KDF-Wagen ?
I've had three over the years, a '64, a '66 and a '67.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKxedoLkUE width:500 height:300]

up
11 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Lookout's picture

@Azazello

Loved the VW travel footage. Bet mimi will love that one too.

Aaron's interview really illustrates the global nature of the corporate coup with big media as it's megaphone. The parallels of Bernie and Jeremy are stunning.

Have not watched the duran piece yet but will. Met RFK when he was writing his Sr thesis on AL judge Frank Johnson.

He made a big impression on some of the locals when he was asked if he hunted, and he replied, "Only with hawks". Guess I found it pretty amusing too.

Have a good one and thanks for the clips!

up
8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello

Who among us Boomer/Hippie types has not owned a KDF-Wagen ?

Complete Vehicle History excluding bikes

'52 Plymouth Club Coupe
'55 MG Magnette
'52 DeSoto
'66 Chevy Bel Air Wagon
'53 International (I-500?)
'69 Chevy C-10
'80 Found On Road Dead F-150 POS
'94 Ram 2500 HD
'04 Ram 2500 (current vehicle)

up
6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

It is a bunkfest larded with lies, distortions and/or libels, not to mention bogus science like, "especially when the Wuhan Strain’s unnatural genomic signals are considered." This statement only barely means anything, and to the extent that it does, it is false. They're just relaying bullshit spewed by somebody else somewhere who doesn't know what they're talking about. There are no "unnatural genomic signals" to be found in the SARS-Cov-2 sequence. Stating it plainly as if it is a known fact, a given, a premise upon which any intelligent argument might be based is lying to their readers. They are liars. They don't know what they're talking about, and they don't care. Shun them.

up
11 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Lookout's picture

@UntimelyRippd

That is one of them. Folks here are able to read critically. I also showed the other extreme...
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/03/no_author/covid-19-further-evidence-...

This is the primary theory... (3 min) which just posted today
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA3oV3vTwmo]
full interview with transcript here
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/16/peter_daszak_coronavirus

Look, first, the idea that this virus escaped from a lab is just pure baloney. It’s simply not true. I’ve been working with that lab for 15 years. And the samples collected were collected by me and others in collaboration with our Chinese colleagues. They’re some of the best scientists in the world. There was no viral isolate in the lab. There was no cultured virus that’s anything related to SARS coronavirus 2. So it’s just not possible.

Sure doesn't jive with this evidence...
https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky...

The argument is essentially a rerun of the debate over whether to allow lab research that increases the virulence, ease of spread or host range of dangerous pathogens — what is known as ‘gain-of-function’ research. In October 2014, the US government imposed a moratorium on federal funding of such research on the viruses that cause SARS, influenza and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, a deadly disease caused by a virus that sporadically jumps from camels to people).

The latest study was already under way before the US moratorium began, and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed it to proceed while it was under review by the agency, says Ralph Baric, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a co-author of the study. The NIH eventually concluded that the work was not so risky as to fall under the moratorium, he says.

I'll say again the origin argument is moot to me. It is here. Is it as bad as everyone makes out? I'm beginning to wonder.

Dr Campbell posted another piece Friday that seems to indicate there are many more asymptomatic people than has been estimated.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38cb7_nmPh8]

Looking at all sides is helpful to me, but thanks for your caution about that source.
Edit to add: CB's comment above agrees with your analysis.

up
9 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
or trying to say, and I think the apparent conflict may come down to the meaning of two particular technical terms: "viral isolate" and "cultured virus".

First, though, note that the study involving the chimeric virus was not done at Wuhan, it was done in the US -- North Carolina, actually. The specific contribution of Shi Zhengli was:
A. Determined the sequence of the spike protein in the SHC014 virus
B. Synthesized "plasmids" containing only the DNA for that spike protein -- ie., none of the rest of the viral genome.

I believe this would be possible without Shi having ever created in the Wuhan lab a "viral isolate", nevermind culturing the virus -- it could all have been done working direclty with the samples that had been collected from the bat cave.

Unfortunately, without the opportunity to ask Daszak a couple of follow-up questions, I can't be sure if this is what he meant. This is WAY outside my area of expertise.

Incidentally, I've repeatedly seen claims that Shi Zhengli once worked in the US, but I can't confirm that this is true, and I wonder whether it's just people misunderstanding how global scientific collaboration works these days.

up
6 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@UntimelyRippd

To pick out a few of what would appear to me significant points asserted in
the Harvard to the Big House article - please enlighten us as to what is wrong/lies/BS with
each.

1 - That coronaviruses have been proposed and experimented with as a basis for vaccines - most specifically for HIV/AIDS.

The abstract for one of the studies linked tosays,

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection represents one of the major health threats in the developing world. The costly treatment of infected individuals with multiple highly efficient anti-HIV drugs is only affordable in industrialized countries. Thus, an efficient vaccination strategy is required to prevent the further spread of the infection. The molecular biology of coronaviruses and particular features of the human coronavirus 229E (HCoV 229E) indicate that HCoV 229E-based vaccine vectors can become a new class of highly efficient vaccines.

2 - That that Gain of Function experimentation has been conducted that succeeded in creating a modified H5N1 virus capable of aerial mammal to mammal infection (in ferrets) source even though

d. Epidemiological data suggest that the toll on human populations would be enormous if the H5N1 virus acquired efficient human-to-human transmissibility while retaining high human pathogenicity (25, 83).

source

3 - That it is highly unlikely for a zoonotic event to cause an epidemic and therefore the scenario of the sudden emergence of a naturally-evolved, highly-infective virus must also be considered highly unlikely.

up
1 user has voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@Blue Republic

3 - That it is highly unlikely for a zoonotic event to cause an epidemic and therefore the scenario of the sudden emergence of a naturally-evolved, highly-infective virus must also be considered highly unlikely.

I guarantee you no one was messing about with virus genetics in 1917-18 - they didn't even know such a thing was possible. The so-called "Spanish flu", the most devastating influenza epidemic in modern times, must have been naturally-evolved (unless you want to believe it was created by black magic).

up
2 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@Blue Republic
she suggests. So.

3 - That it is highly unlikely for a zoonotic event to cause an epidemic and therefore the scenario of the sudden emergence of a naturally-evolved, highly-infective virus must also be considered highly unlikely.

For starters, you don't indicate whether this is your own paraphrase, or a direct quote. For purposes of this rant, I will assume that it is at the very least a faithful paraphrase of what was said on the site. I am not going to go to the site, because they are liars and fools, incompetent as journalists and too ignorant of science be talking about any science, anywhere, ever, to anybody, even just their drunk friends out on somebody's deck somewhere.

Here is what is actually said in the (very interesting and informative) journal article that they sourced (emphasis mine):

Epidemiological data suggest that the toll on human populations would be enormous if the H5N1 virus acquired efficient human-to-human transmissibility while retaining high human pathogenicity (25, 83). Considered an archetypal host-switching virus for its ability to infect a wide range of avian and mammalian species and for causing frequent zoonotic infections and periodic human pandemic transfers (Fig. 1 and Table 2), the actual or threatened emergence of a new influenza A virus is a cause for alarm. Fortunately for us, most viral host transfers to infect the new hosts cause only single infections or limited outbreaks, and it is rare for a virus to cause an epidemic in a new host.

The critical thing to understand here is that host-host crossovers are common. They happen all the time, all over the world, between various vertebrates, including between humans and the miscellaneous critters with which we share habitat. What they mean by "rare for a virus to cause an epidemic in a new host" is not that it's rare for a new epidemic to be caused by viral crossover, what they mean is that is rare for any one of the uncountable viral crossovers that are constantly happening to cause a new epidemic. If that weren't true, there would be dozens or hundreds of novel epidemics all over the planet every year and simultaneously.

An extreme example of this sort of "likelihood" analysis is this: "It is rare for a Powerball ticket to win the top prize," but on the flip size, 100% of Powerball first prizes are won by Powerball tickets. In the case of epidemic diseases, it is not at all "rare" -- I mean, beyond the fact that novel epidemic diseases are themselves relatively rare.

The paper includes a table that lists several diseases that are currently believed to have been the result of viral crossovers. Among those that have crossed from critters to humans: Measles. Smallpox. Influenza. HIV-1. SARS Cov. Dengue virus. Nipah virus. Marburg and Ebola. CPV, a canine scourge, is believed to have crossed over the cat virus, FPV, and in less than a decade was present in canine populations all over the globe. Canine influenza is believed to have come from horses.

Those are the ones that are listed in that journal article, but I can also trivially name 5 more: the human coronaviruses HCoV-229E, HCov-OC43, HCov-NL63, and HCov-HKU1. These viruses have all been circulating in the human population for many years -- most of them for decades at least, or even centuries. For a long time they went unnoticed -- some were only identified after the SARS outbreak, when scientists started looking for them. At this point they aren't epidemic, they are endemic, continually circulating, but because their symptoms are generally mild (often diagnosed as common cold), nobody got too freaked out over them.

So that's the deal. The analysis from horsesasses.bs is completely fucking wrong. I don't care whether it is wrong because they're stupid, or because they're wicked -- the point is, they can't be trusted. What good is an aggregator if I have to go off and research every single one of their sources for every claim they make? There are two parts to that answer:
A. Not much.
B. None at all, if I'm not willing to do exactly that -- to research every cited source -- before relaying one of their claims to anyone else. Which means that if I'm not willing to do that, I shouldn't be relaying their claims -- and perhaps more significantly, if I'm unable to vet their claims because I lack the necessary competencies to read and interpret the source materials, Why the fuck am I talking at all?. Because I'm sure as hell not doing anybody a favor under those conditions.

up
2 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@UntimelyRippd

In your quasi response - insisting that the COVID-19 virus is naturally evolved and made the jump to human hosts in a highly infective form even while quoting (your emphasis) that

"most viral host transfers to infect the new hosts cause only single infections or limited outbreaks, and it is rare for a virus to cause an epidemic in a new host."

Which supports the article's contention that for the virus to appear in the form it did was *highly unlikely* and atypical of zoonotic events. Can you cite any zoonotic events where a disease emerged with such a high level of infectivity?

You completely fail to address the matter of how gain of function experimentation with the H5N1 was able to engineer a form of the virus that could be passed airborne between mammals, likely capable of of *causing the nightmare scenario (from the same article) that

"Epidemiological data suggest that the toll on human populations would be enormous if the H5N1 virus acquired efficient human-to-human transmissibility while retaining high human pathogenicity "
If this gain of function was achieved with H5N1, and by other means with SARS (the 2015 North Carolina work) why should we assume it could not have been done with bat coronavirus?

By the way, the incompetent liar who authored the article, one Dr. Karl Sirotkin , was until recently on the staff of the National Biotechnology Information Center (Part of NIH) where he somehow managed to co-author 42 research papers in the fields of Bioinformatics, Cell Biology, Cancer Research, Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry in addition to his main job, which must have been janitor or something.

https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/38135218_Karl_Sirotkin

up
0 users have voted.
TheOtherMaven's picture

@Blue Republic

The article is stated to be "the product of a collaboration between Dr. Karl Sirotkin...", citing his record at length -- but the other party or parties aren't named. A link in the opening statement leads to this person, implied to be the actual author: https://neurobio.pitt.edu/people/j-j-jay-couey - whose field of expertise has little or no connection to virology, epidemiology, or any other related field.

Experts, when working outside their field of knowledge, can be as error-prone as anyone else.

And, incidentally, the video link is to the author explaining his own article - which is hardly an unbiased peer review.

up
2 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

incidentally, the video link is to the author explaining his own article - which is hardly an unbiased peer review.

JC - the bike guy med school professor makes it clear at the beginning of the video that he is explaining (mainly) the article on Harvard to the Big House - he at no point claims authorship. He makes it clear at the end that although he is a biologist he is not a virologist. That seems like plenty of disclosure and even if this is not his area of specialization he should be in a far better position than most people to understand the articles cited. In any case, he is not explaining his own article.

After looking at a number of those papers even I get that there has been and is continuing to be a lot of work done (and lots of money at stake) on "gain of function" to enhance the infectivity of flu, SARS and bat coronaviruses and to see that some of the major players involved have discounted or failed to mention even the existence of such work while pushing the "naturally evolved random zoonotic event" scenario even though there is no actual evidence to support it and no precedent one occurring as this one did - with no closely related viruses and high levels of both infectivity and lethality from the jump.

Also - your Spanish flu reference is a something of a non-sequitur - while the Wuhan virus may have evolved from swine or other mammalian flu, it was evolving in humans for years before it emerged it a hyper lethal form - or so researchers believe according to the CDC:

Sequencing results suggested that the ancestor of the 1918 virus infected humans sometime between 1900 and 1915. Drs. Reid and Taubenberger noted that the 1918 HA gene had a number of mammalian as opposed to avian adaptations, and was more human-like or swine-like depending on the method of analysis. Phylogenetic analysis, which is used to group influenza viruses in accordance with their evolutionary development and diversity, placed the 1918 virus’ HA within and around the root of the mammalian clade. This means that it likely was an ancestor or closely related to the earliest influenza viruses known to infect mammals. However, the authors believed the virus likely obtained its HA from avian viruses, but were unsure how long the virus may have been adapting in a mammalian host before emerging in pandemic form.

Very unlike what we are being told happened with COVID-19

No Monkey Ever Reheated a Frozen Burrito

up
0 users have voted.

@TheOtherMaven
but check out my own response, parallel to yours -- the "author" was almost certainly Dan Sirotkin, whose blog it is. Karl Sirotkin, PhD is his father. For all we know, Dr. Karl doesn't even know that his son posted this "collaboration". Alternatively, Dr. Karl might have written half of it -- though I really doubt it, because Karl Sirotkin knows enough about bioinformatics that its extremely hard to believe he would have signed off on some of the BS in that article.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@TheOtherMaven
science, so it's fruitless to argue with him about it. He's just parroting nonsense from other places.

up
0 users have voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

@Blue Republic
Your presented three claims from horseshit.con, and challenged me to demonstrate that they were representative of my accusation that the site trafficks in lies, distortions and misrepresentations. I chose one -- the easiest one, because anyone who knows anything about statistics would immediately recognize it as a probable lie/distortion/misrepresentation -- and proceeded to demonstrate precisely how horsehockey.fud had distorted/misrepresented/misunderstood the meaning of the words "most" and "rare" in the context of the paper.

And then you failed to understand the childishly simple concept in play.

It is elementary:
You have a barrel full of jelly beans.
"Most" (999/1000) of the jelly beans are yummy, but the occasional "rare" (1/1000) jelly bean tastes like horse shit.
Every day, you reach into the barrel and take out one jelly bean.
"Most" of the time it does not taste like horse shit.
Indeed, it is "rare" that your jelly bean tastes like horse shit.
Nonetheless, about once every 3 years, you're going to bite into a horse-shitty bean. Fortunately, your having eaten a jelly bean that tastes like horse shit isn't going to kill hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions of people.

I suggest you review the probabilistic principle known as Bayes’ Theorem.

As for this:

Can you cite any zoonotic events where a disease emerged with such a high level of infectivity?

I already did, in the comment you characterized as a "quasi" response. I gave you a whole list. For starters, all human influenza is zoonotic, including the H1N1 variant that killed millions in 1918.

But hey, if you don't believe me or the authors of the paper, maybe you'll believe Dan Sirotkin, formerly of harvard and of prison, who wrote this on his odd little blog last August:

The proliferation of agriculture, both domesticating animals and growing crops, brought seismic and irreversible changes to early human societies. One impact was that that [sic] populations suddenly became much denser, another was that humans began to interact much more frequently and closely with domesticated animals. These two factors – population density and our cohabitation with the creatures that would become our beef, pork, and poultry – allowed contagious zoological diseases to kick a firm foothold into human societies and marked the beginning of an arms race between pathogens and immune systems that’s still ongoing.

“Diseases such as malaria, smallpox and tuberculosis, among others, became more virulent,” and we’ve since traced the flu back to ducks, pigs, and geese as its original hosts. Additionally, barnyard animals like cats, rats, horses, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and birds have all played roles in transmitting – in no particular order – anthrax, rabies, tapeworms, plague, chlamydia, and salmonella.

Meanwhile, your comment itself distorts something from the harvard2thebitbucket site.
YOU: "the [person] who authored the article, one Dr. Karl Sirotkin".
H2TBH: "the product of a collaboration between Karl Sirotkin blah blah blah"

That sentence from H2TBH, BTW, never properly closes the prepositional clause that begins with "between" -- but I think we can assume it should read "between Dr. Karl Sirotkin ... and me, Dan Sirotkin, the author of this blog, and the son of Dr. Karl Sirotkin."

So yeah, maybe you and Dan should start collaborating, because you seem to have a similar penchant for misstating information you've read elsewhere: The "report" does not state that Karl "authored" it. That was all you. Or maybe you got it from the “source” that first pointed you to Danny Boy’s palace of falsehood. I don’t know. Once distortions hit the infostream, they’re pretty hard to track, because they tend to cycle around and reinforce one another.

In any case, we have no clue what Dr. Karl's actual contribution was. I can find no other statement by Karl Sirotkin, PhD with respect to Covid-19, or indeed anything else by him related to coronaviruses or gain-of-function studies. He has, as stated on H2TBH, participated in the development of some well-regarded bioinformatics tools (he's most-often cited for his contribution to dbSNP, a database of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms -- i.e., one-base genetic variations), but if he has ever published anything having anything to do with viral genomics or epidemiology, I can't find it. Certainly, if Karl himself was responsible for any of the horrifically wrong stuff in this "report" he should be seriously fucking embarrassed -- but once you've seen your harvard-grad son convicted of sexually abusing a 14-year-old, I'm guessing you can muddle through merely having your name attached to a poorly reasoned pile of hooey such as this "report".

Anyway, I'm done with you, now and forever. Your disinclination to discern the straightforward and easily visible errors, lies, misstatements, distortions, overreaches, and general overall blatherness contained in this preposterous "report" has become tedious.

up
1 user has voted.

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Or the seriously uninformed. It's ok to want to endanger oneself, but there comes a time when we are only as safe as the last person to break quarantine. Most jobs aren't coming back, no matter how many signs people carry. And I like my AR and my Glock 20 just fine, but I sure wouldn't find a need to carry them to any sort of protest, and people who do maybe aren't seeing things through a realistic gaze.

Trump is trying to redirect anger at anyone but him, big business is not interested in anything except the bottom line, they had their run of things for quite a while, time to put people first. If JP Morgan Chase, Apple, and others are so concerned let them back the bill by Ro Khanna and that congressman out of Ohio to give everyone $2K monthly for a year and suspend mortgages and rent for the same.

up
12 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@ban nock

Wearing a mask is to protect others not yourself! I must admit to hating to wear one, but I do on my weekly outing (gloves too). I also must admit to liking some of the RW libertarian ideas like no war, following the constitution, getting rid of the Fed. We part company when it come to social policies that help people. They want every person for themselves. I want a gov't that...

establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,

up
10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

both virologists who had previously worked at an American lab which had already bio-engineered an incredibly virulent strain of bat coronavirus

Two months before the novel coronavirus probably began spreading in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.
The project, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified 2019-nCoV, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Bioengineered in the USA and released in China. More RWNJB's in this administration than all the others put together.

Not China attacked USA, but USA attacked China, and the CIA screwed up again!

up
7 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

that collected the bat virus and studied the genetic manipulation in the US before returning to Wu Han. As I've said several times it is difficult not to see (or create) a conspiracy about the event.

How the apple trees doing? Our new ones are blooming. I've started training them as an espalier.

up
8 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
I don't recall any below zero this year. The Chestnut crab has leaves and many flowers. Another source says its range is Zone 2 to 7. Zone 2 is hard to believe. Is any place on Earth colder than Northern Minnesota? Despite the name they are sweet and very popular in the Twin cities. My daughter has some scion so we will see in a few years how it does in Alabama. Peach flower buds about to pop open. They always flower before leafing. Very pretty. Many flower buds on the little M-27's planted as bushes next to the house.

up
4 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

the little M-27's planted as bushes next to the house

...root stock as fruiting trees. You've mention it before.

You mentioned some good Alabama apples which I've forgotten. I want to graft some different varieties on the dwarf gala and fuji trees I've planted. I would appreciate your advice. Thanks.

up
3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
I gave up on controlling the suckers and just graft new varieties on them. The ones that didn't take do grow edible apples. Bland, not sour, just bland. nutrition is still there.

My daughter attended a seminar that featured "Alabama apples". I'll check what apples the UAB guy recommended. But that Chestnut crab is very good and should grow. And try to use the G41 rootstock because it has proven resistant to common Southern diseases. it's small, so just plant more trees. They do require staking. espalier against a fence?

up
1 user has voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

allowing a walkway behind the trees to work them from both sides.

One of the new hazelnuts didn't leaf out. I've just now cut it back hoping the shock might spur it back to life. Not bad though - out of 25 new trees and bushes only one failed to grow.

up
2 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

up
1 user has voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@Lookout

Rusty coat, Grimmes Golden and Early June(which is probably 2 varieties because sometimes they are red & sometimes green)

up
1 user has voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Think I'll let the small trees better establish this year and develop a grafting plan for next year. Thanks for the recommendations. I thought I remembered you telling me of an old Alabama apple variety at some point.

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
Also called Carter Blue and Carter's Blue. Susceptible to fire blight so put it on Geneva G-41. I have it on M-27 but fire blight is rare here, common in the South. I believe it's a bacterial disease. Probably dies when the surface temperatures go below zero (Fahrenheit).

up
0 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Granma's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness in mid-March. The key take away from that article for me was this. Some of the spikes on the protein of Covid have a strong ability to attach to human receptor cells. The author, a scientist, says that we (meaning the science community) do not have the technology to create such a thing. He says it had to be naturally occurring. He believes the virus jumped from bats via some other animal host and from there to humans. It convinced me.

up
8 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Granma
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/16/peter_daszak_coronavirus
video or text

up
7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@The Voice In the Wilderness

would RWNJB's be?

up
0 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@Blue Republic

right wing nut job. JtC once asked for a volunteer to post a running list of all the abbreviations folks use. No one stepped up...including me.

up
4 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout

up
3 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

smiley7's picture

Before the ink dried on the first six trillion bill, a trillion a day went out the back door in debt purchases i recall reading from good sources and commenting at the time, a swindle, for sure and what will this congress do? Eat fancy ice cream in the comfort of their castles.

As to conspiracies, i ran across this cartoon and smiled:

Man, my sleeping clock knows not time anymore.

Have a good one.

up
14 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@smiley7

Healing is Morpheus domain.

It is a mostly gray wet day here...good for napping. I try to get in a nap before a late night music session but have no idea when that will ever happen again.

Yes the swindle is in. Woe be to us. My hope is people will refuse to accept our feudal lords. All the best my friend!

up
10 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@smiley7

from Gravity's Rainbow IIRC:

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you>"

up
2 users have voted.
magiamma's picture

Thanks for an amazing rundown and the great comments. So much to learn. It is hard not to think that there wasn’t some slight of hand in all this.

Getting lots done outside and I can’t get enough of it - the outside. Curative. Seems like that is where sanity lies.

Be well and tale good care.

up
6 users have voted.

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lookout's picture

@magiamma

Getting lots done outside and I can’t get enough of it - the outside. Curative. Seems like that is where sanity lies.

Nature heals us in ways we do not understand. Glad you came by!

up
0 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

smiley7's picture

apart, thousands of Israelis demonstrated against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu under strict coronavirus restrictions on Sunday.

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/apr/19/coronavirus-live-news...

up
6 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7 @smiley7

actually part of the US, and hence use the same measurement system as the entire rest of the world. I can't fathom why we stick to the imperial measurement system except that imperial has a certain ring to it. But if we must use such antequated measures, then they were keeping a fathom apart.

be well and have a good one.

up
5 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

smiley7's picture

@enhydra lutris

education made it so difficult for me to purchase cheese across the big pound and calculate the advertised discounts.

Fathom is good. Netanyahu is not.

A little tangent, i do wonder which novel i'll choose to memorize.

Have a good one

up
2 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

@smiley7

They locked down a state capitol with a large traffic jam.

Thanks for the photo and story.

up
3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
I was fuming being stalled in traffic on the GW Parkway.

Anyway, the farmers wanted a motorcade around the Capitol. Cops wouldn't allow it. They finally persuaded the farmers to park their tractors on the Mall and march around the Capitol, promising them that they could return to their tractors that would be untouched. So they did it and returned to find their tractors untouched but locked behind a ring of old Metra buses. War protesters would never have fallen for that. But deep down the farmers believed in police.
Before that there was some spectacular footage. i remember a farmer running over a cop's foot and then up onto the trunk of a cop car. Cops swarmed over the cab with nightsticks, smashing the windshield and beating the Hell out of the farmer. Didn't help that the farmers were mostly southern whites and the DC cops mostly black.

up
3 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Lookout's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

had to look it up. Nice piece here with photos
https://modernfarmer.com/2014/02/living-legacy-d-c-tractorcade-35-years-...

...damage to public facilities, much of which occurred as the heavy tractors rested on the National Mall. Washington billed the demonstration for $1 million dollars in damage, but a group of Maryland farmers volunteered to fix the national greens after the others had left.

This quote is certainly correct...
“When farmers have a good crop, they remember that crop and they talk about it. When they have a half crop, they don’t dwell on it or live in it…” he says. “Well politics doesn’t work that way. It’s always a half crop. It’s never a bumper crop.”

up
3 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”