Citizens seem to be clamoring for shutdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19. There is one major difficulty, however. Once an economy has been shut down, it is extremely difficult for the economy to recover back to the level it had reached previously. In fact, the longer the shutdown lasts, the more critical the problem is likely to be. China can shut down its economy for two weeks over the Chinese New Year, each year, without much damage. But, if the outage is longer and more widespread, damaging effects are likely.
A major reason why economies around the world will have difficulty restarting is because the world economy was in very poor shape before COVID-19 hit; shutting down major parts of the economy for a time leads to even more people with low wages or without any job. It will be very difficult and time-consuming to replace the failed businesses that provided these jobs.
When an outbreak of COVID-19 hit, epidemiologists recommended social distancing approaches that seemed to be helpful back in 1918-1919. The issue, however, is that the world economy has changed. Social distancing rules have a much more adverse impact on today’s economy than on the economy of 100 years ago.
Governments that wanted to push back found themselves up against a wall of citizen expectations. A common belief, even among economists, was that any shutdown would be short, and the recovery would be V-shaped. False information (really propaganda) published by China tended to reinforce the expectation that shutdowns could truly be helpful. But if we look at the real situation, Chinese workers are finding themselves newly laid off as they attempt to return to work. This is leading to protests in the Hubei area.
My analysis indicates that now, in 2020, the world economy cannot withstand long shutdowns. One very serious problem is the fact that the prices of many commodities (including oil, copper and lithium) will fall far too low for producers, leading to disruption in supplies. Broken supply chains can be expected to lead to the loss of many products previously available. Ultimately, the world economy may be headed for collapse.
In this post, I explain some of the reasons for my concerns.
[1] An economy is a self-organizing system that can grow only under the right conditions. Removing a large number of businesses and the corresponding jobs for an extended shutdown will clearly have a detrimental effect on the economy.
Figure 1. Chart by author, using photo of building toy “Leonardo Sticks,” with notes showing a few types of elements the world economy.
An economy is a self-organizing networked system that grows, under the right circumstances. I have attempted to give an idea of how this happens in Figure 1. This is an image of a child’s building toy. The growth of an economy is somewhat like building a structure with many layers using such a toy.
The precise makeup of the economy is constantly changing. New businesses are formed, and new consumers grow up and take jobs. Governments enact laws, partly to collect taxes, and partly to ensure fair treatment of all. Consumers decide which products to buy based on a combination of factors, including their level of wages, the prices being charged for the available goods, the availability of debt, and the interest rate on that debt. Resources of various kinds are used in producing goods and services.
At the same time, some deletions are taking place. Big businesses buy smaller businesses; some customers die or move away. Products that become obsolete are discontinued. The inside of the dome becomes hollow from the deletions.
If a large number of businesses are closed for an extended period, this will have many adverse impacts on the economy:
- Fewer goods and services, in total, will be made for the economy during the period of the shutdown.
- Many workers will be laid off, either temporarily or permanently. Goods and services will suddenly be less affordable for these former workers. Many will fall behind on their rent and other obligations.
- The laid off workers will be unable to pay much in taxes. In the US, state and local governments will need to cut back the size of their programs to match lower revenue because they cannot borrow to offset the deficit.
- If fewer goods and services are made, demand for commodities will fall. This will push the prices of commodities, such as oil and copper, very low.
- Commodity producers, airlines and the travel industry are likely to head toward permanent contraction, further adding to layoffs.
- Broken supply lines become problems. For example:
- A lack of parts from China has led to the closing of many automobile factories around the world.
- There is not enough cargo capacity on airplanes because much cargo was carried on passenger flights previously, and passenger flights have been cut back.
These adverse impacts become increasingly destabilizing for the economy, the longer the shutdowns go on. It is as if a huge number of deletions are made simultaneously in Figure 1. Temporary margins, such as storage of spare parts in warehouses, can provide only a temporary buffer. The remaining portions of the economy become less and less able to support themselves. If the economy was already in poor shape, the economy may collapse.
[2] The world economy was approaching resource limits even before the coronavirus epidemic appeared. This is not too different a situation than many earlier economies faced before they collapsed. Coronavirus pushes the world economy further toward collapse.
Reaching resource limits is sometimes described as, “The population outgrew the carrying capacity of the land.” The group of people living in the area could not grow enough food and firewood using the resources available at the time (such as arable land, energy from the sun, draft animals, and technology of the day) for their expanding populations.
Collapses have been studied by many researchers. The book Secular Cycles by Peter Turchin and Sergey Nefedov analyze eight agricultural economies that collapsed. Figure 2 is a chart I prepared, based on my analysis of the economies described in that book:
Figure 2. Chart by author based on Turchin and Nefedov’s Secular Cycles.
Economies tend to grow for many years before the population becomes high enough that the carrying capacity of the land they occupy is approached. Once the carrying capacity is hit, they enter a stagflation stage, during which population and GDP growth slow. Growing debt becomes an issue, as do both wage and wealth disparity.
Eventually, a crisis period is reached. The problems of the stagflation period become worse (wage and wealth disparity; need for debt by those with inadequate income) during the crisis period. Changes tend to take place during the crisis period that lead to substantial drops in GDP and population. For example, we read about some economies entering into wars during the crisis period in the attempt to gain more land and other resources. We also read about economies being attacked from outside in their weakened state.
Also, during the crisis period, with the high level of wage and wealth disparity, it becomes increasingly difficult for governments to collect enough taxes. This problem can lead to governments being overthrown because of unhappiness with high taxes and wage disparity. In some cases, as in the 1991 collapse of the central government of the Soviet Union, the top level government simply collapses, leaving the next lower level of government.
Strangely enough, epidemics also seem to occur within collapse periods. The rising population leads to people living closer to each other, increasing the risk of transmission. People with low wages often find it increasingly difficult to eat an adequate diet. As a result, their immune systems easily succumb to new communicable diseases. Part of the collapse process is often the loss of a significant share of the population to a communicable disease.
Looking back at Figure 2, I believe that the current economic cycle started with the use of fossil fuels back in the 1800s. The world economy hit the stagflation period in the 1970s, when oil supply first became constrained. The Great Recession of 2008-2009 seems to be a marker for the beginning of the crisis period in the current cycle. If I am right in this assessment, the world economy is in the period in which we should expect crises, such as pandemics or wars, to occur.
The world was already pushing up against resource limits before all of the shutdowns took place. The shutdowns can be expected to push the world economy toward a more rapid decline in output per capita. They also appear to increase the likelihood that citizens will try to overthrow their governments, once the quarantine restrictions are removed.
[3] The carrying capacity of the world today is augmented by the world’s energy supply. A major issue since 2014 is that oil prices have been too low for oil producers. The coronavirus problem is pushing oil prices even lower yet.
Strangely enough, the world economy is facing a resource shortage problem, but it manifests itself as low commodity prices and excessive wage and wealth disparity.
Most economists have not figured out that economies are, in physics terms, dissipative structures. These are self-organizing systems that grow, at least for a time. Hurricanes (powered by energy from warm water) and ecosystems (powered by sunlight) are other examples of dissipative structures. Humans are dissipative structures, as well; we are powered by the energy content of foods. Economies require energy for all of the processes that we associate with generating GDP, such as refining metals and transporting goods. Electricity is a form of energy.
Energy can be used to work around shortages of almost any kind of resource. For example, if fresh water is a problem, energy products can be used to build desalination plants. If lack of phosphate rocks is an issue for adequate fertilization, energy products can be used to extract these rocks from less accessible locations. If pollution is a problem, fossil fuels can be used to build so-called renewable energy devices such as wind turbines and solar panels, to try to reduce future CO2 pollution.
The growth in energy consumption correlates quite well with the growth of the world economy. In fact, increases in energy consumption seem to precede growth in GDP, suggesting that it is energy consumption growth that allows the growth of GDP.
Figure 3. World GDP Growth versus Energy Consumption Growth, based on data of 2018 BP Statistical Review of World Energy and GDP data in 2010$ amounts, from the World Bank.
The thing that economists tend to miss is the fact that extracting enough fossil fuels (or commodities of any type) is a two-sided price problem. Prices must be both:
- High enough for companies extracting the resources to make an after tax profit.
- Low enough for consumers to afford finished goods made with these resources.
Most economists believe that an inadequate supply of energy products will be marked by high prices. In fact, the situation seems to be almost “upside down” in a networked economy. Inadequate energy supplies seem to be marked by excessive wage and wealth disparity. This wage and wealth disparity leads to commodity prices that are too low for producers. Current WTI oil prices are about $20 per barrel, for example (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Daily spot price of West Texas Intermediate oil, based on EIA data.
The low-price commodity price issue is really an affordability problem. The many people with low wages cannot afford goods such as cars, homes with heating and air conditioning, and vacation travel. In fact, they may even have difficulty affording food. Spending by rich people does not make up for the shortfall in spending by the poor because the rich tend to spend their wealth differently. They tend to buy services such as tax planning and expensive private college educations for their children. These services require proportionately less commodity use than goods purchased by the poor.
The problem of low commodity prices becomes especially acute in countries that produce commodities for export. Producers find it difficult to pay workers adequate wages to live on. Also, governments are not able to collect enough taxes for the services workers expect, such as public transit. The combination is likely to lead to protests by citizens whenever the opportunity arises. Once shutdowns end, these countries are especially in danger of having their governments overthrown.
[4] There are limits to what governments and central banks can fix.
Governments can give citizens checks so that they have enough funds to buy groceries. This may, indeed, keep the price of food products high enough for food producers. There may still be problems with broken supply lines, so there may still be shortages of some products. For example, if there are eggs but no egg cartons, there may be no eggs for sale in grocery stores.
Central banks can act as buyers for many kinds of assets such as bonds and even shares of stock. In this way, they can perhaps keep stock market prices reasonably high. If enough gimmicks are used, perhaps they can even keep the prices of homes and farms reasonably high.
Central banks can also keep interest rates paid by governments low. In fact, interest rates can even be negative, especially for the short term. Businesses whose profitability has been reduced and workers who have been laid off are likely to discover that their credit ratings have been downgraded. This is likely to lead to higher interest costs for these borrowers, even if interest rates for the most creditworthy are kept low.
One area where governments and central banks seem to be fairly helpless is with respect to low prices for commodities used by industry, such as oil, natural gas, coal, copper and lithium. These commodities are traded internationally, so it is not just their own producers that need to be propped up; the market intervention needs to affect the entire world market.
One approach to raising world commodity prices would be to buy up large quantities of the commodities and store them somewhere. This is impractical, because no one has adequate storage for the huge quantities involved.
Another approach for raising world commodity prices would be to try to raise worldwide demand for finished goods and services. (Making more finished goods and services will use more commodities, and thus will tend to raise commodity prices.) To do this, checks would somehow need to go to the many poor people in the world, including those in India, Bangladesh and Nigeria, allowing these people to buy cars, homes, and other finished goods. Sending out checks only to people in one’s own economy would not be sufficient. It is unlikely that the US or the European Union would undertake a task such as this.
A major problem after many people have been out of work for a quite a while is the fact that many of these people will be behind on their regular payments, such as rent and car payments. They will be in no mood to buy a new vehicle or a new cell phone, simply because they have been offered a check that covers groceries and not much more. They will remain in a mode of cutting back on purchases, not adding more. Demand for most kinds of goods will remain low.
This lack of demand will make it difficult for business to have enough sales to make it profitable to reopen at the level of output that they had previously. Thus, employment and sales are likely to remain depressed even after the economy seems to be reopening. China seems to be having this problem. The Wall Street Journal reports China Is Open for Business, but the Postcoronavirus Reboot Looks Slow and Rocky. It also reports, Another Shortage in China’s Virus-Hit Economy: Jobs for College Grads.
[5] There is a significant likelihood that the COVID-19 problem is not going away, even if economies can “bend the trend line” with respect to new cases.
Bending the trend line has to do with trying to keep hospitals and medical providers from being overwhelmed. It is likely to mean that herd immunity is built up slowly, making repeat outbreaks more likely. Thus, if social isolation is stopped, COVID-19 illnesses can be expected to revisit prior locations. We know that this has been an issue in the past. The Spanish Flu epidemic came in three waves, over the years 1918-1919. The second wave was the most deadly.
A recent study by members of the Harvard School of Public Health says that the COVID-19 epidemic may appear in waves until into 2022. In fact, it could be back on a seasonal basis thereafter. It also indicates that more than one period of social distancing is likely to be required:
“A single period of social distancing will not be sufficient to prevent critical care capacities from being overwhelmed by the COVID-19 epidemic, because under any scenario considered it leaves enough of the population susceptible that a rebound in transmission after the end of the period will lead to an epidemic that exceeds this capacity.”
Thus, even if the COVID-19 problem seems to be fixed in a few weeks, it likely will be back again within a few months. With this level of uncertainty, businesses will not be willing to set up new operations. They will not hire many additional employees. The retired population will not run out and buy more tickets on cruise ships for next year. In fact, citizens are likely to continue to be worried about airplane flights being a place for transmitting illnesses, making the longer term prospects for the airline industry less optimistic.
Conclusion
The economy was already near the edge before COVID-19 hit. Wage and wealth disparity were big problems. Local populations of many areas objected to immigrants, fearing that the added population would reduce job opportunities for people who already lived there, among other things. As a result, many areas were experiencing protests because of unhappiness with the current economic situation.
The shutdowns temporarily cut back the protests, but they certainly do not fix the underlying situations. Instead, the shutdowns add to the number of people with very low wages or no income at all. The shutdowns also reduce the total quantity of goods and services available to purchase, regardless of how much money is added to the system. Many people will end up poorer, in some real sense.
As soon as the shutdowns end, it will be obvious that the world economy is in worse condition than it was before the shutdown. The longer the shutdowns last, the worse shape the world economy will be in. Thus, when businesses are restarted, we can expect even more protests and more divisive politics. Some governments may be overthrown, or they may collapse without being pushed. I fear that the world economy will be further down the road toward overall collapse.
and some comedy for tonight:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/12/opec-and-allies-finalize-record-oil-production-cut-after-days-of-discussion.html
“OPEC and its oil producing allies on Sunday finalized a historic agreement to cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day, which is the single largest output cut in history.”
BUT! the cuts will quickly taper down because, you know, things will get better soon!
“The 9.7 million barrels per day cut will begin on May 1, and will extend through the end of June. The cuts will then taper to 7.7 million barrels per day from July through the end of 2020, and 5.8 million barrels per day from Jan. 2021 through April 2022. The 23-nation group will meet again on June 10 to determine if further action is needed.”
yes! meet again June 10th… further action WILL be needed… by then, all storage should be full or almost full…
on June 10th it will be about being forced to cut double or triple that 9.7 mbpd…
“Goldman Sachs Group Inc. called the cuts “too little and too late,” saying they’d only lead to an actual reduction of about 4.3 million barrels a day from first quarter levels.
“”Ultimately, this simply reflects that no voluntary cuts could be large enough to offset the 19 million barrels a day average April-May demand loss due to the coronavirus,” the bank’s analysts wrote in a report.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-04-12/oil-price-war-ends-with-historic-opec-deal-to-cut-production
Crazy to think, and indeed easy to forget amidst all the corona-drama, that OPEC was already struggling to make sufficient cuts to match stagnating demand. From Dec 2019:
“Along with rampant shale supply, faltering demand due to a global economic slowdown, exacerbated by the Sino-U.S. trade war, has once again threatened to unbalance oil supply and demand dynamics.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/12/05/opec-december-meeting-opec-production-cuts-in-question.html
The only solution would seem to be to get economies ramped back up again, pretty quickly.
I’m not usually the tin foil hat type but…….if one knew that the terminal decline of global oil output was imminent, wouldn’t the pandemic conveniently provide a way to both thin the herd and give an excuse for a “voluntary” cut of 10 million barrels of oil? All without alarming the inmates? I know they say you can’t keep a conspiracy secret if more than 5 people know about it, but it IS awfully fortuitous to have the pandemic right at the top of the global peak. #controlleddemolition?
We are dealing with self-organizing systems. All people tend to think alike. There doesn’t need to be a conspiracy.
like all those lemmings who conspire to jump over cliffs
they don’t
it is we who have self-conspired to collectively believe that they do—so the myth has entered our language and propagates itself. It has become the measure of unthinking herd-behaviour.
and now, at least among the unthinkers. lemmings do jump off cliffs—everybody ‘knows’ they do
Wow!
http://shanghaiist.com/2020/04/13/even-mcdonalds-is-now-turning-away-black-customers-in-guangzhou/?fbclid=IwAR0PhXj17m18f9v5UAXTkIJOBgAb2nX7nrPrHPb0ehDzCaS7AqF5FsygfIA#.XpPc3cKQUlc.whatsapp
China is not a JUDEO-Christian melting pot, and is not obligated socially or legally to accept foreigners.
There is no concept of guilt in China so it is very hard to instill the kind of policies that would lead to the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. and Europe. There is nothing aboth China’s behavior in the past towards non-Chines that they are ashamed of and desperately want to atone for.
I noticed when I was teaching a short course in China that there was an expectation that students would try to cheat on tests unless there was active intervention to stop them.
When I was visiting China in 2011, I was told (by tour guides who lived in China) that bribery was necessary to get anything accomplished. “Don’t worry about your luggage being overweight when we go on regional airlines. I have cousins everywhere.”) This was simply part of the way things operated. I know that there has been an effort to reduce this in recent years.
I didn’t see this article about McDonald’s turning away black customers earlier. Perhaps we assume too much about how other countries behave.
in honor of the biggest Black Swan in the history of IC…
The Swan, composed by Saint-Saens, played by Yo-Yo Ma:
the concert halls are closed…
if BAU was Beauty As Usual, then it would be this:
well, my one month of UBI has arrived…
the $1,200 is pending in my account and dated April 15th… which is Tax Day in the USA, but I suppose that’s just a coincidence…
I feel like gambling it away, but that would take years for a small time gambler like me…
maybe I’ll buy more TP…
Congratulations! I hope you enjoy spending it.
https://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-and-i-encourage-you-all-to-go-shopping-more-george-w-bush-103-57-83.jpg
Loved it when Dick Cheney said if Bush wasn’t re-elected, the U.S. would get another terrorist attack. Fear is the best tool to use to get elected.
Today it would be, “vote for that Klansman Trump and he’ll let grandma and colored people die from COVID-19.” Compelling.
We are going back to the Belle Epoque, when 3% of the world pop owned everything and the rest living in tenements or worse.
Belle Epoque saw the biggest advancement of civilization, and after the covid, all the bullshit jobs will disappear and the front runners will simply behind the rest behind.
Belle Epoche = 1871 to 1914.
This was a period when energy consumption was growing. It led up to a period of street cars and electricity for many uses. Coal use was becoming more abundant, and this allowed the use of hydroelectric as well. I don’t think we will have this again.
https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/4-energy-consumption-growth-surprisingly-important.png
Fast Eddy emerges from the Gimp Box… snarling with rage!!!!
If you are a lip reader you will note that he is actually screaming ‘Where’s Bob? Bring me Bob!’
Gimp like Bob 🙂
https://muscleroast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/tumblr_n83e5dzXKW1sttvu5o1_500.gif
The President of Ecuador has himself said that CV-19 has killed so many people, many more than officially reported, that everything has collapsed.
https://youtu.be/4Ca7A0wF2uQ
Soaring numbers of CV-19 deaths in Ecuador’s port city of Guayaquil have led to a shortage of coffins, forcing locals to resort to using cardboard boxes.
Ya and there is a Full to Capacity Tent Hospital in the heart of NYC that is Empty.
Someone sent me this telling me that NYC is chucking bodies in mass graves
Somehow … I doubt that is true…. it’s not exactly Kampoofkkkingchea under Piss-pot now is it?
https://kuulpeeps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/New-york-Mass-Burial-Site.jpg
Again I reference CDT… how do you get The President of Ecuador (himself!) to play along…
A)
or
B)
B. Everyone chooses B
Sorry there is no C, D or E (all of the above)
Only A or B.
A quick thought just ran through my mind (and out my mouth)…. I was looking for a pair of needle nose pliers… and thinking damn I must have left them at the cottage which is an 8 hour drive from here
I’ll just have to pick up another pair in Mitre 10 — oh — but it’s lockdown – Mitre 10 is closed…
And then I thought hmmmm… my mate was telling me 10 days ago or so that factory orders are still at a crawl pace out of China… I am thinking ya I guess the key stuff would be air freighted out… but the stuff… like pliers — and dustpans and stuff like that — are still not getting manufactured at previous volumes…
And I am thinking … the warehouses would have probably began to start running out of stuff — if the buying volumes were at pre virus levels… but because of the crisis — nobody is buying much of anything right now…. which might buy the factories some time to get ramped back up…
Cuz if people were to see Walmart shelves bare —- that would start a massive stampede (not sure where they’d stampede to though — maybe across a river filled with crocs?)….. it would sure create panic.
So how about this flu here in Wuhan… a flu is a flu unless the MSM turns into the Frankenstein Flu (come now – we’ve seen the empty Tents… this is all a Big Fat Lie)…… we shut down the world for a bit … then when the container ships pull into port filled with ‘stuff’ ….
The MSM starts to feed stories about how the Wuhan is abating (flu infections and deaths abate because the numbers were fa ke all along)…. people return to Walmart..
I go to Mitre 10 to get my pliers… we all talk about how that was a nice relaxing month off … the Millennials have a whopper of a story to tell their future grand kids (actually they won’t have grand kids because of the oil thing but let’s pretend huh)…..
And everyone lived happily ever after.
Anything to add Larry? Don? Nope — nice work Fast. Couldn’t do it without your input fellas.
What’s that Leon….. what the fkkk is wrong with you guys…. them muthafkkking factories closed because of the Wuhan… so your muthafkkkkin story don’t make no sense….
Don – I recommend that you give Leon a raise.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3X-l5r_o9PQ/maxresdefault.jpg
“… the Millennials have a whopper of a story to tell their future grand kids (actually they won’t have grand kids because of the oil thing but let’s pretend huh)…..”
at the university we plan for new hires to lead research in the coming decades. the dean and VP for research promote buying new research ships for future “blue water” oceanography in the decades ahead.
i humbly ask what kind of fuel will the new ships use? it is unlikely that civilians will be allowed to use nuclear powered ships, so what new fuel will power these ships?
but you see, the university is about the future, it’s about new young faculty, and teaching and mentoring the next generation of leaders. so they will be trained with these methods and instilled with the present paradigm’s values. we (that is, some of us) know they will run into a brick wall or off an energy cliff some decades or more likely, just years ahead, just like those proverbial Lemmings, but with even less knowledge about what they are doing.
thanks…
here’s a thought or two:
with unemployment surging to 30 or 40 or 50 % this Summer, that will mean that the same % of college students will now have an unemployed parent or two…
so there will be millions of college students finding that parental help will not be forthcoming for the Fall 2020 semester… there could be a million or two who will be told by their parents to take a semester or year off (better in 2021? who knows)…
surely middle class families will have to do this… upper income families might only downsize the cost for their student and make them go to a state school rather than a private college…
there will be plenty of openings at state U’s and colleges for this…
many/most private colleges in the USA will go bankrupt in the next year or two…
state schools will be the last to close, and hopefully will stay open…
bottom line: I hope you are at a HI state school…
i am, but here is chain of events: crisis (e.g., 9-11, Covid-19) => loss of tourism to state; income to state affected (loss of tax revenue, increased unemployment benefits, welfare costs; => state budget crisis; => budget cuts, retrenchment of university (fancy word for layoffs of faculty and staff, hiring freeze).
okay…
that state tax revenue problem will be getting bigger month after month…
national gov (money printing) could help the states…
higher ed will be downsizing for sure…
most private colleges will be toast, and state schools could be hurting too…
Universities in the UK already want a bail-out due to the absence of the lucrative foreign students -esp Chinese – who get screwed royally on fees.
‘I had a dreadful business model: give me money!’ sums it up.
That would be political suicide since colleges serve the same role as churches once did. The colleges will be bailed out since they are ran by upper income people.
For female college grads, there is the option to work as a Sugar Baby (that’s a nice way of saying hooo ker) … https://sugarbabies.co/
For the male grads… um… Fentanyl?
i humbly ask what kind of fuel will the new ships use? it is unlikely that civilians will be allowed to use nuclear powered ships, so what new fuel will power these ships?
Future cruise ship passengers are not going to like this. Apart for those in Elite Class, it will be a bit like going to the gym then and not being allowed to get off the exercise machines.
https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/0211/17/raquel-welch-ringo-starr-magic_1_8d9e9e8d2de8170fc350c6112fcfc073.jpg
LOL!
I’ve asked a couple of people in the NYC area if they wouldn’t mind driving by the Full but Empty Tent Hospital https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/central-park-coronavirus-field-hospital-near-capacity/ to snap a few photos
Both of them are ‘not going anywhere near the city – there are massive people dying and infected’…
Hmmm… it’s kind of a pretty big story (as in bigger than WMD big) — so you would think that maybe someone might want to jump in the car and just take a spin past??? Not as if there would be any traffic snarls…
Thinking of WMD — this would be like people believing there was no WMD but then I discovered Saddam had a nuclear missile silo poking out of the back yard of his palace — someone took photos of it — you lived next door to Saddam … and I said hey bud can you pretend you are a painting the fence and take a look over the top — and you said no… don’t care… and I said why not…. you said ‘because’….
What did Jack say about the truth?
https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/6/31/2128873128-102-a-Few-Good-Men-quotes.gif
Is anyone near NYC? Do you mind to take a short drive?
I won’t pay you to do it but if you can get some shots of a busy Tent Hospital you get to see Fast Eddy admit he was wrong…..
You also get to peak behind the curtain a little…
If Godzilla really existed, this would be the government’s cover story.
https://www.rt.com/uk/485621-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-treatment-nhs/
Go England!
Pretty good artcle for someone who has been 1000% wrong about peak oil.
A couple of factual corrections to your take.
Governments enact laws, partly to STEAL from their slaves, and partly to ensure unfair treatmen (fantastic treatmentfor the elite and completely unfair for the slaves)
We have more oil than ever before (far from a shortage)
Central banks are private cartels who rule us. The centrally plan, own everything including politicians, media, etc. They have implemented a combination of communism and fascism. They control all the capital. They get the socialism benefits of bailing themselves out and creating infinite loans for themselves, while evading all laws, while the surfs must be harshly punished for even minor crimes.
The central bank are literally the definition of USURY on steroids.
FYI – COVID-19 is a bigger hoax than 911. What a perfect excuse to do all sorts of things to us.
Forced vaccinations.
Theft from everyone.
Censorship to another level.
Restricted movements.
Possible microchipping.
Potential war.
Anyone who believes or knows that 911 was done by the elite should realize they will tell lies about anything, including a virus. They always tell outrageous lies and spare no expense doing it. People still think we went to the moon.
What I have been writing is that we have plenty of oil, if the price could be raised a lot higher. It cannot, because too many people cannot afford to buy finished goods and services, such as homes, cars, and vacation travel. This represents a wage disparity problem.
At current oil prices (and in fact, even before prices dropped to their current low level), oil companies would go broke and governments of oil exporting countries could not collect enough taxes to fund their programs.
I suspect you have not been reading my articles. I write about a more complex problem than “peak oil.”
>>We have more oil than ever before
Seems like you are saying oil is being formed naturally at a rate faster than we use it? Yes, there are people who say they believe that, but I have always assumed they were joking, for this is akin to saying the Earth is flat.
OR
we have more oil than before in storage, because demand has fallen, which is a statement of the bleeding obvious.
Explain yourself.
This situation around coronavirus is a great simulation of what is ahead of us with the ageing populations: the declining demand for energy and commodities, less travelling, more time and human resources required for the (health)care.
We should remember this lesson very well, as there is really no full recovery of the economy ahead of us.
Good points! Except that healthcare is really going away as well. Patients are afraid of catching COVID-19, so they don’t make appointments. Most appointments that are in place are converted to phone appointments. No one schedules non-emergency surgery, for fear the patients will catch COVID-19 while in the hospital.
Also, COVID-19 will reduce life expectancies. People in poor health will die off more quickly, partly because they dare not go to the doctor/hospital for fear of catching COVID-19. With people being, on average, in better health, less healthcare will be needed.
Gail, I agree and smile a bit as your actuary pov shows “With people being, on average in better health less heathcare will be needed.” 😉
Don’t go there. She’s married.
The doctor will now not see you.
“. People in poor health will die off more quickly, partly because they dare not go to the doctor/hospital for fear of catching COVID-19”
Sure, some people are discouraged from going to hospitals but hospitals are also turning non-Covid-19 patients away. Healthcare is being rationed because we don’t have enough of it. The widespread lockdowns should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone thinking of trying to expand healthcare services. Healthcare does not respond to demand. If demand for services hospitals provide go down, they close. If demand for the services hospitals provide goes up, they don’t do anything. If there are more patients, that just means there will be more people waiting longer for an appointment
OR more people being turned away by hospitals, indirectly, by the doctor mysteriously canceling appointments.
https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/how_the_pandemic_extinguished_global_oil_demand-10-apr-2020-161725-article/?utm_source=GLOBAL_ENG&utm_medium=SM_FB&utm_campaign=FANS
Wow! India’s oil demand may fall by 70%!
If I am any indication – and I am still (so far…) getting paid… so I can buy petrol … but my petrol consumption has dropped by more than 90%. Probably over 95% actually.
Lots of people in India have no income…. so they hunker down in their hovels — eating maybe one meal of rice with grass mixed in…. using 0 petrol.
http://blog.autointhebox.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Car-fuel-gauges.jpeg
Petrol was 83c a litre where I live this morning. The lowest I’ve seen in over 20 years.
https://www.vox.com/covid-19-coronavirus-treatment-prevention-cure-vaccines/2020/4/11/21217693/coronavirus-treatments-hydroxychloroquine-remdesivir-side-effects-covid-19-studies
“Hydroxychloroquine: France’s drug-safety agency has released data indicating that hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug appears to have serious side effects on the heart when used for Covid-19 patients, and should be used under medical supervision. The report details 43 cases of “heart incidents” tied to hydroxychloroquine.”
You dont challenge the NSA FBI or AMA without pushback.
I’m not surprised. People who take this stuff for malaria often experience a broad range of side-effects.
FE what does CDT stand for?
Controlled Demolition Theory (TM)
If this notion were remotely true, why would they be blowing even more debt into the system to try and save it, rather than deflate it? The whole idea behind a CDT, one would think, is to lighten, not increase, the size of the balance sheet.
Because doing nothing could make “them” look really bad in the picture, and because it’s not easy to deal with a furious and rebellious mob of 7,7 billion starving people? Because “they” think it is better to try a managed collapse (with the full police state implementation that we are witnessing at least since 2001) than a chaotic one? Or because “they” believe they can survive the demographic collapse in their deluxe bunkers for years and then inherit a planet relieved of 80% of its population to play kings and barons like in middle age? What can we know?
If this is an attempt of managed collapse, I think the managers are delusional, because in a situation of collapse of industrial civilization, there will be no way to manage the problem of nuclear power plants, and ther lives post.bunker would bem short and painful
The only thing we can be sure is that the elite know, at least since Meadows, that collapse is inevitable in a scenario of finite resources and a growing population, and that therefore the american dream for 7.8 B is physically impossible. And If you were worth 10 billion and you knew that the narrative of capitalistic growth forever is about to crack ,and that a natural “correction” is therefore unavoidable, wouldn’t you try to “secure” a future for your kind? I would!
Balance sheet doesn’t seem to matter anymore. What’s a balance sheet in a ponzy scheme? What’s an accountant book in a bussiness run by mafia? And since the plebs don´t know sh1t about balance sheets or ponzi schemes, a pandemic fear is ideal.to deflect their attention.They will never know what hit them. A virus is the perfect scapegoat. There’s no culprits! The fault is with “mother nature”.
What is certain is that the globalwormers’ project was to lower CO2 emissions and voila, suddenly what seemed politically impossible materialized because of the virus! And suddenly the plebs are willing to be locked and surveilled for “their safety”, and plagued by the fear of their political allies (i.e, their neighbors and community). What could be more convenient than that for the PTB?
But of course we can never rule out the possibility that this CDT is a mere imagination of minds too suspicious, and that this pandemic is a natural phenomenon. Anyway, we are screw’d, that’s for sure.
One might suggest that the Edlers have built some sort of massive underground city stuffed with enough food and drink to last 100 years….
The problem that arises is how do you keep the people who built it from going there as the end approaches – you need security….
But how do you prevent the security people from bringing their families there at the last minute and locking you out?
How about this:
10 years ago you hire your security team. You explain to them the Real Deal.
You offer to pay them a million dollars a year until DoomsDay hits ….
BUT they need to agree to have a small bomb implanted inside their heads.
Also they – and their immediate family members – get spots in The City.
Come end of days they guard the entrance…. then slam the doors shut.
And everyone lives Happily Every After.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jS2EYHkP7Rg/VYkAywsRJFI/AAAAAAAANDg/3zWM48sJbWQ/w1200-h630-p-k-nu/underground_city_by_elementj21-d4dp2vs.jpg
It would be a wonderful plan, if there were food that could be stored for a hundred years. But there is not. And then there is the problem, which you have often pointed out, of the spent fuel ponds, which would have to be managed in some way. And I don’t see what that solution could be. Throw all that nuclear debris into the Mariana trench? Is this even feasable?
If this is an attempted controlled demolition, the aim of the PTBs can only be to pauperize and gradually reduce the world population, while trying to maintain some sort of order on the streets using the police state and the free distribution of food by the population. But I don’t see how that could work for more than a few months.
And that is my main objection to the controlled demolition hypothesis. TPTB cannot be so stupid as to think that a managed collapse is possible. Or are they?
Sure they know that intimidation only works as long as people hope the situation turns better someday and feel they have something to lose. When unemployment generates hunger, riots are inevitable, with or without police state. Especially because one of the favorite sports of young apes is to confront the olders and the authority. They will not go gentle into that good night of starvation.
I have a hard time believing that anyone planned this. Instead, I think that an accident happened and allowed a virus to get out of a lab in Wuhan. The reaction in Wuhan was one of guilt. They told a story that seemed to indicate that the virus could really be contained, when it really could not be. Others followed the lead. There was a nice side-benefit of the closures in that they shut off the many protests around the world. They also reduced crime rates. And a respected group, epidemiologists, recommended them.
Always good to make a list of positives vs negatives when deciding on something:
Positives
– riots stopped
– crime rates reduced
– humans about to go extinct!!!
Negatives
– crimes rates off the charts in some place (I am told Bali is out of control – my mate has hired a security guard…) I suspect in poor countries where people are facing starvation crime is rampant
– airline losing hundreds of billions
– hotels losing hundreds of billions
– billions of job losses
– hunger
– auto sales imploding
– millions of restaurants closing
– trillions in debt being piled up to prevent the world from collapsing
– I am unable to buy pliers
– bad hair cuts
– people laying around eating junk food getting fat
– etc
If you want to convince people to Cower…. you have to be seen to be trying your best to stop the collapse from happening…. otherwise you spook the sheeple and they riot…
The key word is ‘Controlled’ — you control it…. and you slowly bring the building down nice and evenly (just like they did with the Twin Towers…)…
You (the CBs) squirt a bit of water on the inferno to control the burn …. meanwhile …. you pound FEAR up everyone’s arse…. ratcheting it up … week after week…. you drive them into a frenzied state… that can’t be rushed….
You get them so fearful that they won’t even dare drive into NYC to see if a tent hospital is empty and the MSM is lying…
The second waves will really ratchet things up — they will crush all hope…. on top of FEAR you will get resignation … the fight will go out of people…. their spirit will be broken….
Try 3 weeks locked in a Goat Ranch…. doing Les Mills classes and knife fighting day after day… it gets boring real fast…. I am sure it will get to the point of ‘oh you want to drop an atomic bomb on the Goat Ranch… ah … ok… we could use a little excitement down here’
RE: Control
I don’t think that this lot could control a sh*t fight in a dunny.
Controlled Demolition Theory
Second Wave
The locust swarm in the Horn of Africa is now 20 times larger!
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18373198.second-larger-wave-locusts-attack-east-african-countries/?ref=twtrec
If countries cannot afford pesticides, they have a different type of catastrophe on their hands.
Anyone know who this is?
https://mythology.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Pazuzu.jpg
No
Adam Schiff?
Pazuzu….
It’s good ole Pazuzu:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazuzu_(The_Exorcist)
He can be seen here performing some impossible acrobatics with his human host:
https://youtu.be/vg6pWv1B9L4
I believe Pazuzu also was responsible for the locust hordes in E1.
Apparently the NYT is about to run a new FEAR story stating that Pazuzu aka The Devil … is back… he’s launches locusts + the Pazuzu Flu ….
The CCP I am told is pleased with this because they are tired of the racist connotations of calling it the Wuhan Flu.
I am partial to calling it The CCP Disease. Or just CCPD
Hello Gail,
I could find no other way to reach you (couldn’t find your emails), so I will have to share this information with you here, in hopes that you are able to find it.
I will cut to the chase and say that it appears that the CDC is falsifying it’s data on the Covid-19 cases. I know, a bold claim. But since you’re a math wiz, please consider this short video going over the statistics. A friend did a brief piece on it. He is an engineer by profession who works higher up in the corporate ladder and is mathematically equipped to go over this data. The short video is found here, on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/LIkz4Kcb6Cs
Best regards,
Stephen
The graph is for day-to-day increase in %, this number will naturally vary less (and decrease) as the total increases. The numerator is new cases each day while the denominator is total cases.
I agree with you. There is less variability as the denominator increases.
The author remarks about a couple of different things:
(1) The lesser variability in US new COVID cases after March 22.
(2) New York State data in particular.
I think what the author is seeing reflects a couple of different effects:
(1) The smoothing effect of the use of a semi-log display grid.
(2) The impact of social distancing, which began March 17 in New York State and on varying dates in other areas of the US. Social distancing has the effect of bending the trend lines starting about 5 days after the social distancing is put into effect, or about March 22, which is when the author notices a change in pattern.
If we look at new cases reported in the US for the US as a whole, using “regular” (linear or non-semilog scale) this is the pattern we see. Day 12 corresponds to March 22, which is when we would expect the trend line to start bending over, and in fact it does.
https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/united-states-new-covid-cases-by-day-linear-april-12-2020.png
If we look at New York State’s new reported COVID cases, we find a similar pattern. For New York State, Day 15 (rather than Day 12) corresponds to March 22, which is when we would expect to see a slowing of new cases, because of the imposition of social distancing.
https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/new-york-new-covid-cases-by-day-april-12-2020-linear.png
There is an even bigger impact of the March 17 date in New York State than the US as a whole, because New York State specifically started social distancing on March 17. Several other states started social distancing on March 17, with most of the others later. Without social distancing, cases would have continued to rise very quickly, leading (perhaps) to the catastrophe that a lot of modelers were forecasting.
There is a second inflection point of interest as well, and that comes 14 days after the imposition of social distancing (or 9 days after social distancing could be expected to have an impact in bending the trend line.) This is the point after which we would expect to see only new cases that came into effect after social distancing went in to effect. People would like to think this would drop new cases to zero, but it clearly does not.
Thus for New York, starting about Day (15 + 9) = 24, we would expect to see only new cases that arose after social distancing began. Cases are definitely flattening, but they are definitely not headed to zero quickly, in the New York chart.
There is not a exactly a corresponding United States point when only cases that would exist would be those after social distancing became effecive. A person can see a similar US flattening effect of new cases after April 4, which corresponds to Day 25 on this chart.
In both New York and the United States as a whole, new cases reported are fairly level now.
Washington State instituted social distancing for part of the state about March 10, and it seems to be seeing fewer new cases now, but nowhere near zero. March 10 corresponds to Day 7 on this chart.
https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/washington-states-new-covid-cases-by-day-april-12-2020.png
Not so bold if you consider that the MSM is telling us there are tent hospitals full of Covid patients in Central Park — but the articles have photos that depict empty tents.
Just think about that — an article raging about nearly full tent hospitals and empty tents in the photos.
How truly STUUUUUPIDDDD must they thing humans are?
That was actually a rhetorical question… in case anyone was wondering.
https://static.simpsonswiki.com/images/thumb/d/df/Apocalypse_Not.png/250px-Apocalypse_Not.png
Among major countries, Germany seems to be doing better right now: looser lockdown, less deaths, lots of hospitals and even receives foreign patients, designs and builds thousands of ventilators for the Brits…
According to Chris Martenson, (I have heard but I don’t have the reference), Germany doesn’t record cases the same way other do. I presume they code cases to the “real” cause of death, instead of assuming COVID is the cause, whenever it occurs. This fixes the problem of high COVID deaths.
It’s only in Hamburg that they started to obduct the bodies and try to look if the pedestrian which carried the corona-virus and was run over by a car – did die by the virus or following the consequeces of being run over by a car.
My god all articolis of Harry very warrysome
Yes, agreed Marco, Harry keeps me up at night and glad of it. Hope he continues to do so.
When this implodes, I’ll already be awake, while most others will be shook and shocked.
Another big THANK YOU to Harry McGibbs😘👍
You are both very welcome!
Trank you, Harry!
Saludos
“A global deal to cut oil supply and stem a historic price rout hung in the balance on Sunday as negotiators raced to find an agreement with just hours to go until the market opens.
“Diplomatic wrangling between Mexico and Saudi Arabia entered a fourth day as neither side was willing to concede, even after President Donald Trump intervened with a compromise and U.S. senators applied pressure to longtime ally Saudi Arabia.”
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-negotiators-race-against-clock-085047887.html
“As Mexico and Saudi Arabia fight over a deal to bring the oil-price war to an end, Mexico has a powerful defense: a massive Wall Street hedge shielding it from low prices.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-11/the-secret-weapon-that-gives-mexico-power-in-the-oil-price-war
The protection for Mexico is only temporary. They already import oil. Their major oil field is in terminal decline. Mexico is into full collapse mode.
In the tech world … where I dabble a little…. there’s something know as fkkked.com… it’s where one rockets soar into the sky (but not out of lower orbit of course… because that’s impossible)….. fueled by VC millions (or even billions)….. never make a single dime of profit… run out of fuel … and come crashing to the ground exploding into a billion trillion pieces… Pets.com is the posterchild but hold tight and there will be lots of more contemporary names to follow Uber… Wework… Limescooters etc…..
Mexico is similar .. fkkkkedcountries.com …. like Yemen – Iraq… Venezuela… etc….
I wonder who is on the other side of this hedge.
The usual suspects.
“The Fed already has taken unprecedented steps out on the risk curve by agreeing to buy “fallen angel” corporate debt at a time when S&P estimates that $650 billion worth is in the at-risk category. Any further tumult could see a demand for the Fed to start buying equity ETFs, in the mode of what the Bank of Japan has been doing.
“Still more damage might show that loans aren’t enough, particularly for smaller companies…
““Free money is what the economy needs now, not a helping-hand loan that needs to be paid back,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank. “Fed officials need to be careful otherwise they may be loading up too much debt on us to weather the economic storm that the country will never be able to pay off and will drag down economic growth for years to come.””
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/11/coronavirus-update-the-fed-is-on-wartime-footing-and-still-may-be-asked-to-do-more.html
“Today, as US state governors continue to provide leadership on the coronavirus crisis they are about to confront a second crisis, as their state’s fiscal positions will rapidly deteriorate. In my view, it will be as bad as the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009 and its aftermath.”
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/264648330/financial-crisis-looming-for-us-state-governors
My understanding is that these corporations, including the big banks, have loaded up on debt, i.e., bonds and that in bankruptcy, it is the derivative and bond holders who are first in line for whatever money is left over, and the stockholders get screwed. Looking at the amount of bond indebtedness out there and with the FED and other central banks owning all the bonds on their balance sheets, letting these companies go bankrupt essentially means shareholders get wiped out and the FED will own by default the viable part of every corporation out there, including those that formally owned agency debt like Fannie and Freddie, and REITs. Will the FED even have to resort to openly buying equities to effectively own the corporations? I understand that Trump and the FED want to keep the stock market elevated for appearances and for the badly needed capital gains taxes, but it seems by buying all the debt the FED will already own everything right under the stockholders’ noses!
Assets of all kinds will really be worth basically nothing, because we cannot keep the system operating.
Farmland might be worth something, but it will be its value for subsistence agriculture.
Right! No one can really pay this debt back.
They don’t ever have to repay the spending. “Thin air” is not a bank account
The whole system can implode instead. Is this a better result?
“Global investment banks risk seeing their annual earnings wiped out by the coronavirus crisis, with European banks more vulnerable than their more profitable US counterparts. Even the most optimistic “rapid rebound” scenario, where relative normality is restored in six months or less, could lead to a 100 per cent decline in profits this year, according to a new report co-authored by Oliver Wyman and Morgan Stanley.
“In a more pessimistic model — dubbed “deep global recession” and lasting a year or more — some weaker banks would slump to big losses. In this scenario, credit losses could surge to between $200bn to $300bn, compared with $30bn to $50bn if a rapid rebound unfolds.
“While the banking industry has built up robust capital and liquidity buffers since the financial crisis, “returns have never been lower entering a major stress event and banks’ first line of defence is pre-provision profitability,” said Morgan Stanley’s Magdalena Stoklosa, who led the report alongside Oliver Wyman’s James Davis.
“The eurozone banking system entered this crisis in a particularly weak state. A European Central Bank study last week showing average returns had fallen to 5.2 per cent in 2019, less than half that of their US peers.The performance will “intensify calls for significant strategic change, potentially also acting as a catalyst for consolidation among European and tier-2 players,” the report said.
“Unlike in the 2008 financial crisis, banks can no longer compensate for plunging profits by slashing billions in costs because fixed regulatory, compliance and IT costs have built up.”
https://www.ft.com/content/43dcabdd-68af-4d9c-83a4-46a74265d4a1
Basel III rules have tended to hurt banks by reducing profits and adding to costs.
“An “unexploded bomb” of debt is being destabilised by the coronavirus shock, the global banking body has warned, as it predicted an “unprecedented surge” in borrowing ahead.
“More than $20 trillion (£16 trillion) of global bonds and loans due before the end of the year pose a “refinancing risk” with vulnerable emerging markets heavily exposed to the latest crunch, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
““In the past we’ve warned that a global shock could destabilise the mountain of debt that’s been created in the last decade, creating an avalanche of defaults” warned Emre Tiftik, an IIF director. “We’re in the midst of the destabilising shock we were worried about. A sharp, upward trajectory in debt levels looks all but certain.””
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/04/11/lockdown-shock-could-trigger-unexploded-debt-bomb/
“…unlike during the 2008 global financial crisis, every emerging and developing economy now needs to borrow at exactly the same time. So, even if Mexico were able to issue bonds, it would be competing with many other countries in the same situation.
“It is an unfortunate fact, but countries have no one else to borrow from but other countries.”
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/covid19-sovereign-default-time-bomb-by-pierre-olivier-gourinchas-and-chang-tai-hsieh-2020-04
“Latin American nations are in a worse shape to face this current downturn than they were during the so-called Global Financial Crisis. Fiscal deficits have deteriorated more than seven-fold since 2008…”
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/opinion-and-analysis/we-dont-have-what-it-takes-to-face-this-economic-crisis.phtml
“In a sign of just how severely Nigeria’s economy has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the oil price crash, Africa’s biggest crude producer this week warned of an imminent recession, requested $7bn in emergency funding and ditched a costly oil subsidy scheme.”
https://www.ft.com/content/334cfaf6-e876-45b3-9a54-8f0c4cc5c0c4
“India and other South Asian countries are likely to record their worst growth performance in four decades this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the World Bank said on Sunday.”
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2020/04/12/world-bank-forecasts-worst-south-asian-economic-slump-in-40-years/
The problem is everywhere.
Just pretend that tomorrow will be a time of growth, and more debt will look like a good idea.
“When asked when whether we’re headed towards a global depression, Ray Dalio paused for a couple of seconds before hesitantly answering ‘Yes’, fully aware of the implications of his words.”
““From 1929 to 1932 there was a fall in the economy, double-digit unemployment rates, and magnitude of fall in the economy of about 10%. Do I think we’re in that? Yes.””
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/ray-dalio-coronavirus-economic-crisis-052523/
“Lord Haughey said: “During the last financial crisis, Scottish output dropped by about four per cent but it’s projected that coronavirus and the lockdown could lead to a 25 per cent drop.
““Does anyone have any idea what that looks like in human terms? That is Armageddon.”
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scottish-tycoon-says-verge-economic-21852901
Restructuring now seems to be sort of expected, given the distortions that have crept in.
Hey Bob – I’m just monitoring an outbound flight New Orleans to Madrid PLM305 WAMOS AIR….
Looks like people from Spain can still fly into the US — hey isn’t New Orleans a hot spot?
But Don is competent so he knows there are no Wuhan cases in Spain…. so no need to stop those flights eh??? China is the concern.
https://www.flightradar24.com/PLM305/2459a46a
Jesse … re that comment about the leak published by the NYT —- they know you cannot lift without reinfection but they will — and the virus will of course come back — and that will ratchet up the fear factor… and people will return to their homes and cram the entire family underneath the bed….
Level 2… CDT….
HEY… in Odyssey … the astr onaut’s name is Dave .. hint hint…. can it be a coincidence?
And while the censors evaluate that last piece of genius re Ardern… let’s continue with more on our
The Easter Bunny is officially an essential worker during the coronavirus lockdown.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement on Monday afternoon at her daily press conference.
She said the Easter Bunny and one of his counterparts, the Tooth Fairy, have been given the all clear from the government to keep working during level four lockdown.
“You’ll be pleased to know that we do consider both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/parenting/little-kids/120854327/easter-bunny-is-an-essential-worker-but-he-might-not-get-everywhere-this-year-pm-says
Not laughing at my Grade 3 reference now … ARE WE…..
In other news Donald Trump announced that p o–r n will be declared an essential industry……
Oops… looks like there was a bit of lost bit of download on that transcript from the team… (Fast Eddy is NOT some AI contraption .. FE is REAL .. ignore the glitch)
And while the censors evaluate that last piece of genius re Ardern… let’s continue with more on our Grade 3 Teacher/PM
“The fuse was lit a long time before this virus curse occured! CBs’ frantic race to 0!
More than $20 trillion of global bonds and loans are due before the end of the year…
When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you, said Nietzsche.”
Harris Samara’s – Investment banker
Just issue some more, to pay off the old ones, with a later expiration date. No one will notice.
I have learned something new today…. DelusiSTANIS suffer from delusions … but they also have another disorder… it’s calle Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and it is REAL:
Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), also known as Todd’s syndrome or dysmetropsia, is a neuropsychological condition that causes a distortion of perception.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_syndrome
I will definitely bring this up at the next dinnah pahtee that I attend… what a great topic!
I notice in looking at your Wikipedia link, “It can also be the initial symptom of the Epstein–Barr virus.”
Perhaps there is a connection here.
And here we have a great example of how you can ignore reality but not the consequences:
“All of the flights have been cancelled as well, so we’ve tried numerous attempts to get out. Every single time we book it, it cancels,” Rowbotham said.
One option was securing a seat on an Australian mercy flight, if it was not filled by Australians. The embassy had advised them a seat would cost $5000.
Rowbotham works in a rehab facility in Christchurch, while Lopez is a nurse.
AND THE FE D.CUNCE OF THE WEEK AWARD GOES TO:
“I just think that we deserve some support as well. It’s not our fault our holiday turned into this,” Rowbotham said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/120971685/coronavirus-holidaymakers-stuck-in-the-philippines-feel-desperate-and-unsupported
Who goes on a holiday in March knowing what is brewing globally? And why are these people asking to be bailed out.
Sorry bud — I prefer not to have my tax payments used to subsidize st up idi ty.
Stupid Karen.
Bottom line – and anyone who doesn’t agree….. then visit Fast Eddy’s website to purchase some IQ….
If Wuhan was the Apocalypse Virus — then The WHO, the CDC and every government across the world would surely have passed urgent laws 2 months ago requiring every single person who steps out the door of their home to be wearing some sort of mask/face covering.
No mask = immediate $200 fine. Second offence = a month in prison.
Not only did they not pass such laws 2 months ago they STILL are not passing laws or telling people a face cover is very important.
Now if it is the Apocalypse (it certainly is an economic Apocalypse) – and they continue to not pass laws to mandate masks — someone clearly wants this virus to spread. – someone wants an economic Apocalypse.
Why they would want that I am not sure but that for me is the logical (and only) conclusion.
I do to accept stupidity, ignorance, confusion, lack of supply, politics, cost or any other excuse.
Masks will 100% reduce infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
A 7 year old could work out that masks are extremely helpful. If you can’t stick your fingers in your mouth – it is very unlikely that you will get sick.
HK : 11 infections yesterday. They have no laws on this but I am told almost everyone wears a mask in public.
This is not foookkKING rocket science. It’s the ‘end of the world’ yet nope — ‘we’re really not so sure about this whole mask thing’
That’s kinda like telling bath house boys ‘hey fellas we are not sure if these condom things are much use in stopping HIV’
Once I get a bit hard drink into me …. I might just call that NY hospital hotline again and rip that bi tch a second ar-se hol–e … I’ll be sure to ask her if they are also not recommending condoms… but that would of course fly a country mile above her head.
I don’t think a month in prison is a reasonable option because the jails are over-run with COVID-19. These people are broke to begin with, so a $200 fine doesn’t really work either.
You need a system of handing out good masks, nearly free. Ideally, they should be disposable masks, with people getting enough for all of their needs. Otherwise, people need to be receiving washable masks, assuming that the people have access to hot water and soap for washing them. They may also need filters to insert inside of the washable masks.
I disagree completely, Gail. The purpose of masks is to stop spreading it. My wife has been making washable masks for weeks now and I have people using masks at work even while my employer is not recommending them. No infections yet.
Fast is right, the cheapest and easiest control to implement is wearing masks/face covering in public. It is criminal that this is not being promoted. The Czech Republic did it and the political leaders there encouraged and instructed citizens to make their own.
Funny how this is so obvious … yet the CDC with their 233 guide to pandemic preparation … is unable to figure it out…
I am having a hard time believing that…. I suspect they are involved in CON… spiring…. to __________
$10,000,000,000 to the person who guesses right.
Good point.
Second offence – $500 fine
Third Offence – put them against a wall and shoot them dead.
After all… it’s ‘a war’ right? And these people must be considered traitors.
Hey Fast … yes Don….. that’s some seriously good work you’ve just posted…. we were working on the script for a TVC that we are using to go to the next Level of Fear and Panic…. this is far superior to any of the copy the team has come up with :
‘After all… it’s ‘a war’ right? And these people must be considered traitors.’
We’ll spin that as we are doing these recalcitrants a favour by letting the traitors off without a bullet the first two times. The entire country — even the do-gooder types — will be on board with this new policy.
One other thought Don — we’ve already got that ‘Three Strikes’ rule for repeat offenders… so that’s something the cattle are comfortable with…. everyone knows what happens in baseball if you get 3 strikes…. you are outta here….. so maybe we get one of the baseball sluggers to appear at the end of the commercial to reinforce the message…
Let’s get Maguire back on the juice and sign him up….
https://barbequethministry.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/mark-mcgwire-hitting-coach-thumb-300×300-127721.jpg
“Third Offence – put them against a wall and shoot them dead.”
that’s what they did 100 years ago in San Francisco during the Spanish Flu pandemic, except for the “dead” part:
On October 27, 1918, a special officer for the board of health named Henry D. Miller shot and severely wounded James Wisser in front of a downtown drug store at Powell and Market street, following Wisser’s refusal to don an influenza mask. According to the police, Miller shot in the air when Wisser first refused his request. Wisser closed in on him and in the succeeding affray, Miller shot him in the leg and right hand. Wisser was taken to the central emergency hospital, where he was placed under arrest for failure to comply with Miller’s order.
from: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/how-fragmented-country-fights-pandemic/608284/
Excellent!
Don – we can use this — how about we get the team planting stories that the Spanish Flu ended when countries said Enough is Enough and started to shoot people dead who broke quarantine.
Don (staggeringly drunk today after 12 three finger tumblers of whisky…) slurs ‘yeth Fath… thath a goo idya’
Best line of the week:
Asked about Anthony Fauci, the White House medical expert who for weeks has been predicting significant numbers of COVID-19 deaths in America as well as major ongoing disruptions to daily life possibly for years, Wittkowski replied:
“Well, I’m not paid by the government, so I’m entitled to actually do science.”
https://www.thecollegefix.com/epidemiologist-coronavirus-could-be-exterminated-if-lockdowns-were-lifted/
The health/sickness care industry building the biggest market in the world by actively creating sickness and then selling the victims its big-phama solutions. This market they are building, this demand they are creating, is sick people. Fauci is working closely with Bill Gates, who appears to be the biggest spider at the center of this particular web.
Interestingly, Gates is on record as advising or possibly ordering President Trump not to establish a commission to examine the ill-effects of vaccines. From which we can reasonably conclude that there are some ill-effects that Bill doesn’t want the public to become aware of.
Gates: “In both of those two meetings he (Trump) asked me if vaccines weren’t a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines. And somebody, Robert Kennedy Jr., was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things and I said, ‘No, that is a dead end, that would be a bad thing, do not do that.’”
https://youtu.be/dY7byG1YGwg
Yes, the parents of children/adults with autism were ones who thought that the medical industry was going out of its way not to notice anything wrong with their vaccines. I think the particular issues the autism group was concerned with are long gone. But it is definitely an area no one is interested in looking into.
There seems to be a vaccine for every affliction except s t u pi idty….
Why bother with the Wuhan…. if Roche wanted to make some real money … they’d be able to sell nearly 8B doses…. with well in excess of 100M a year (and growing exponentially according to Al Bartlett).
Hey Al — have I got that right? Yes Fast that’s correct (Al’s in the middle of a lap dance so he’s a bit distracted…)
BTW – did I mention that we are able resurrect dead people? Ya we just launched that feature yesterday so now we have Eddie Bernays in here behind the curtain as well. That really ads to the capabilities of the Dream Team — it’s kinda like an intellectual heaven back here.
Eddie’s really fascinated by our mobile phones… he was mentioned how awesome a tool they could be to control people if you added the wifi capability…..
He was a bit disappointed to hear that he was a bit behind the curve on that one….
https://dlmichaels.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/lmgpr-ed-bernays.jpg
I can see Don and Edward ending up in a battle royale back here at some point … they have already butted heads on a few issues….
Eddie looks old and feeble… but he’s feisty as hell… so don’t count him out:
https://youtu.be/Fgbxn_Pbxj8
I struggle with any suggestion that Big Pharma is behind this.
Big airlines … Big hotels… Big autos… Big oil…. and Big everything else is collapsing … we are likely past the point of no return because this will not turn on a dime even if a vaccine were to magically appear….
Then of course since the el d ers actually control the world — if they were to see Roche announce a vaccine — when they know that would only be possible if they had been working on the vaccine for years prior to this virus appearing ….
I am thinking the El d ers might not be very pleased with Roche having nearly torn down their empire…. I am thinking the Eders might find every single person who made a dime off of this … and put them inside boxes and let ants eat them alive….
And then 20 cruise missiles might accidently strike the Roche HQ….. (kinda like putting a dead enemy leader’s head on a stake — only much better)
https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1633364/usaf-nuclear-cruise-missile.jpg
Well, I think we have to assume the El d ers own or control Roche as well and that Bill Gates is as much an errand boy as Musk, Bezos, Soros, Kissinger and Zuckerberg appear to be. OK, not Kissinger; he’s more of a butler to the El d ers. Personally, I don’t buy this “rogue entrepreneur makes a hundred billion dollars and then tries to save the world through philanthropy” legend.
But if a rogue billionaire or a rogue multinational corporation were to get out of line, no doubt the El d ers would throw them a birthday party with a big cake.
https://youtu.be/iy0zNDfVZOQ
Right but that would assume the Fed (like God)…. needs to think up scams to make money….
Maybe God should take this away from the Edlers….
http://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/federal-reserve-printing-press.jpg
Then he could stop this unsightly begging…. surely this is below a God …
Does Fast ask for money??????
http://www.swordofthespirit.net/bulwark/church-collection-tithe02sm.jpg
Right but that would assume the Fed (like God)…. needs to think up scams to make money….
This is true. Perhaps we need to let go of the notion that the architects of the Covid scam (meaning the scam surrounding Covid) are doing it for direct financial gain and embrace the alternative that, just like any good shepherd, they are doing it in order to consolidate their power over the herd.
moonscammers last month
covid scammers this month
i wonder what scam may will bring
the moonscam needed the involvement of about 10 k people and world governments to be in on it
the covid scam needs millions of med staff, ancilliary workers, as well as governments to keep the ‘secret’ from the rest of us.
but at least it makes entertaining reading,
it’s all related to the end of cheap oil this month… and last month… and last year… and the year before…
Guess what — there are a LOT of people call what you post on OFW year after year after year… a …. sit down Norm…
They would call it (ya’ll know what’s coming dontcha)…
A CO N S P IR ACY The oreeee!!!
So maybe there is a glimmer of hope for you after all….
If we continue in the direction we are headed… there won’t be any herd to control….
Tim, you come up with the most insightful things!
Norman does not believe thousands of people can be in on a deception. Thousands of people are involved in the lie that the Syrian government gassed its people in Douma in 2018. It is a lie and anyone who has tried to bring the lie forward has been labeled a conspiracy theorist.
Norman:
https://abagond.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/broken_record-wide.jpg
Norman, seriously, are arguments from incredulity all you’ve got?
Why don’t you address the evidence that has been presented? Why do you dismiss them out of hand without examining them?
Is it because you have a rigid attachment to a worldview that would crumble if you accepted certain facts might be valid and you are afraid to give up this attachment?
Or do you have some other explanation?
The fact that you personally find the idea that a large number of people would have to keep a secret incredulous is not evidence that massive scams or deceptions can’t take place.
I hope we can all agree that people lie or keep secrets all the time, organizations lie or keep secrets all the time, and their members knowingly or unknowingly support those lies and keep quiet about these secrets all the time.
An often quoted example of thousands of people keeping a group secret is the Manhattan Project. But perhaps a better one is the tobacco industry’s denial that its products caused cancer despite evidence that the tobacco industry itself had established. How many thousands of people kept quiet about that for how many decades?
How many thousands of people at Monsanto today are keeping quiet about what they know about Roundup?
How many thousands of people in the car industry kept quiet while several major automakers were tweaking their diesel automobiles to sneak past emission tests?
How many people in the know kept quiet while health authorities the world over were telling people that butter and eggs were bad for you and that margarine was good?
Similarly, how many thousands kept quiet while those same health authorities were telling people to avoid exposing their skin to sun because of the risk of cancer, thereby greatly contributing to ill health by depriving people of the tremendous benefits of sunshine and leaving them severely deficient in vitamin D?
How many thousands of people in the financial industry have to keep very quiet about shenanigans played with life insurance and pension fund investments or risk being found hanging from bridge girders?
Members who don’t support the lies told by groups occasionally disclose them to the authorities or to the public via the media. Such people are called whistleblowers by the media and dirty rats by the mafia. The treatment often meted out to such people serves as a strong incentive for others to keep quiet. Nobody wants to end up like Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning, let alone like Seth Rich.
Also, if insiders reveal lies but these revelations are not reported by the mass media and are ignored by the authorities, the general public doesn’t get to hear about them.
And lastly, the masses are conditioned to hear, see and speak no evil and to reject revelations by whistleblowers and investigators alike. Much of the general public trained to parrot the words “con-spira-cy theory” in a Pavlovian response to any attempt to question any aspect of any official narrative.
I’m surprised at you, Norman Logical fallacies, at your age!
https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/3e7199130b4d1075_4-7142/home-design.jpg
dissecting a couple of ‘secrets’ in a logical manner, as opposed to a somewhat hysterical fashion
1–the ‘manhattan project’—are you seriously suggesting that ‘thousands’ at los alamos knew what the ultimate aim of the project was? The Project employed 120000 people in a pyramid. Only the very top echelon would have known exactly what it was about, guessing a hundred or two at most
They were kept in fairly strict isolation by all accounts. their jobs depended on total secrecy
2 As to tobacco, the thousands involved in making tobacco products were more interested in wages than secrets. Ask the tobacco farmers. They were no more involved than were the routine engineers at los Alamos.
A few dozen scientists, a hundred maybe, involved in the relevant research at the top in the relevant laboratories would have known.
Sucking smoke into your lungs is such a daft idea that I could never understand why any research was needed. A row of top execs from tobacco companies standing up and repeating the same nonsense would have been sufficient confirmation that cigarettes were death on a stick. They certainly knew.
3 diesel engines—diesel engines get put into cars by 000s of assembly workers. Certainly some top engineers would know the figures were being tweaked—but thousands? Why and how would thousands know? Are you seriously suggesting that the thousands involved in actual physical engine building would be aware that what they were doing was somehow ‘illegal’ in terms of pollution etc? I would guess maybe 50—100 at most.
Same applies at Monsanto. Top execs and a few closed in scientists, almost certainly under tight legal restraints there. Just like Los Alamos in effect.
Sunshine is obvious common sense. Sunburn has to be bad for your health. Anybody stupid enough to ignore that doesn’t deserve much sympathy. One doesn’t do it. Similarly avoiding exposure to ordinary daylight on some crackpot ‘opinion’ is childish nonsense
As with cigarettes, one has to think for oneself, ignoring ‘doctors’ who promote certain brands of cigarettes
Finance is at another level. The ‘secrets’ are all there if one cares to research their ‘doings’ in finance. Most of us don’t have a clue. Me included.
Fast forward to now, and we are seeing (fake?’) coffins going into mass graves?
We have a world wide crisis which seems to be killing people, but this is a conspiracy of secrets, fake news, held together by the combined efforts of the global medical fraternity/secret society?
Whether we should release covid 19 into the ‘herd’ is another matter entirely. Time will tell on that one
in 1918 thats what happened and 3% of us died—maybe that was the right thing to do,
we didn’t have a choice then anyway
As Norman continues his slide into oblivion and irrelevance…
i do not pretend to have been elsewhere—which in itself might be said to be unusual. Unlike those who promote superior knowledge of every subject imaginable.
My words must atand alone.
If my words can’t speak for me, then they are not worthy of attention.
however
with the four given ‘secret ventures’–manhattan–diesel—tobacco etc etc, each had, for good or ill, a defined reason for being so. Each had an established secret that had to be ‘protected’ from common knowledge.
Now, call me whatever you choose, but so far there is no ‘defined reason’ for the ‘conspiracy’ under debate. Only that there is one, which must be accepted. Much like the faith of a street corner preacher. He rants because you do not accept his ‘truth’
But the conspiracy itself exists. Which, like the moonscams, is formulated from endless other conspracies that fly around the internet. It can form which ever version of the printed word one chooses to believe.
A kind of conspiracy pick n mix if you like.
The secrecy of Manhattan was to prevent established information leaking to enemies who would use it for their own ends. Tobacco was a secret whose exposure would result in financial loss and criminal procedures. Same with Diesel—and so on.
The above are established, and beyond dispute. Such ‘secrets’ had a purpose. None would have been kept by more than a few hundred people at most
None by ‘thousands’
That is basic common sense.
With the Covid nonsense, several reasons have been put forward for ‘conspiracy’, but none can be defined by those who say it exists or why.. Airy opinions–yes. Definition, no.
Why should this be?
Without an ‘end reason’ there can be no conspiracy. So the conspiracy silliness must keep blowing its own smoke, to hide from the mirrors that would not reflect a reason.
If a virus escaped from a Wuhan lab, that is not a conspiracy, it is a panicking cover up, with no predetermined intent. Just stupidity.
Like a detective novel having no plot. It leaves the reader wondering what the novel was all about. What its purpose was?
A plotless detective story is simply discarded as the vanity project of an inept ‘wannabe’ writer.–In this case writers seeking to stir up the muddy waters of their own agendas , seeking to find an anchor to attach their particular boat to.
I think who we are seeing is likely a panicking coverup. Also, the way a self-organizing system behaves when (1) they see the supposed example of China (2) local citizens are upset, and (3) epidemiologists keep saying, “use lots of social distancing.” Also, citizens expect that medical technology will have a solution for every problem. In this case, it is looking less and less like medicine will have a vaccine that truly works. At best, there may be a number of different partial mitigations.
https://cdn.quotesgram.com/img/34/21/182830262-455aa050dff12cd819d279e32eac3225.jpg
My comment is on hold — so I will just provide this sneak preview:
http://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/federal-reserve-printing-press.jpg
I will try again as it could be the image title causing the problem
https://yardsaleofthemind.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/money-printing.jpg
Thanks to the god of censors for releasing the comments — please refer to the first one.
I just got off the phone with another hospital hotline – their rather long COVID info message says nothing about wearing masks (wash hands – social distance etc).
I spoke to one of the operators and asked why they are not recommending masks on the message — ‘oh I guess we need to update that because masks are now recommended to protect other people from you if you are sick’ (amazing how the CDC etc just figured that out…)
I said what about wearing a mask so you don’t touch your mouth cuz the CDC website says the main way you get viruses is by touching something then putting your fingers in your mouth.
She says “well obviously you should never put your fingers in your mouth (a touch of sarcasm in her voice…)
The masks are to protect other people from you. That is why we are now recommending masks.”
I’d give her the lead in Idiocracy 2.0 but she did say that she does not make the policy she only passes on what she is told.
I guess the CDC and all the medical professionals are not aware that we touch our faces hundreds of times per day because it’s ‘hardwired into our DNA’ It is VERY difficult to stop doing it.
See https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-51879695/coronavirus-why-we-touch-our-faces-and-how-to-stop-i
I had a mask on to go to the grocery store with M Fast the other day – and she reminded me maybe 3x to stop touching my face — even though I had the mask covering I was still absentmindedly trying to do it (but the mask stopped me).
We have a very obvious, cheap and effective way to ensure we don’t pick up the Wuhan.
Yet still – the hospitals and CDC are still only half way on board?
I dunno but I’m thinking — this is ‘the Apocalypse’ … the CDC knows masks do protect you (it’s kinda rather obvious) — yet they are still not telling people that you can actually greatly reduce the chances of getting the virus by wearing one — there is something is wrong with this picture. (maybe Adam Sandler runs the CDC and the hospitals?)
HK has 8M people crammed into a small space without a lockdown – 11 infections yesterday – everyone wears masks. Duh…… or maybe it’s so low because they eat Dim Sum?
The hotline lady also said we have lots of sick people and people are dying but there are no body bags lying around or any of that.
A friend works in one of the biggest hospitals in Manila and they have lots of people in one ward – but it’s not ‘an apocalypse’….
Rrom a mate in California – BTW, my wife just spoke with one of her local LA friends, whose husband is an ER doctor at a local hospital in LA County. His hospital has been “very slow and quiet”. Those were the exact words.
I am reminded of the run up to the Iraq war – every MSM outlet pounding the WMD drum every day — all the air time dedicated to ‘experts’ telling us the ‘terrorists’ were going to destroy us… inciting fear and panic. Yep there were and are terrorists…. As there is a virus….
But I am thinking — it feels like someone wants to use this to shut down the world.
Now why would they want to do that???
Such scenario has been discussed already, it’s about phasing in leg-step down of IC, people being massaged for accustoming to less throughput of the system, simply to expect less from, now on, for ever..
Stravinsky wrote his groundbreaking ballet music The Firebird in 1910, and in 1913 produced the riotous The Rite Of Spring…
between those two famous works, in 1911 he wrote the now lesser know but amazing Petrushka:
eargasm starting at 21:00…
21:00 to the end…
the fantabulous extraordinamazing blazinglorious Stravinsky…
It’s not that I don’t like Stravinsky, but given all the madness by which our world is overwhelmed, I frankly prefer something… calmer…
Such as this…
how about this? the calmest piece ever written:
John Cage. I figured as much.
He’s only adding to the madness of the modern world, if I’m allowed to say it.
1912-1992…
safely dead… still haunting us:
I think Bach, Beethoven and Mozart would all give this guy the boot.
Back to Shostakovich’s Romance for me.
I meant to post this:
I meant to post First Construction In Metal, but alas…
beautiful Shostakovich… thanks…
As I see it, the US has been victimizing and antagonizing the rest of the world so much and for so long that one can hardly blame China for seeing Uncle Sam as a threat and desperately seeking means of upping the odds against him in any confrontation. The video stated as much starting at 39:49. I’m not saying the CCP are good guys, by the way.
(My post just above is meant as a reply to Gail’s post showing the video, also just above.)
“As I see it, the US has been victimizing and antagonizing the rest of the world so much and for so long that one can hardly blame China…”
yes…
though the Chinese economy has been devastated by the damage done to global trade…
if they did this intentionally, then China is hoist with its own petard…
The risk that the USA and by default the world encounters now is directly attributable to debt spending and leaving the gold standard. Gold is just a stupid metal but it was finite and in that it was a appropriate model for the world. After WWII USA was sitting pretty and got used to calling shots. Power only works with great humbleness. When you wield power if you are not humble you become not worthy. When the USA hit limits instead of realizing that this was the great test to retain their power they made the mistake that many have made before. The government dipped into the funny money fiat. Like a college student snorting a bit of heroin the outcome while not inevitable was certainly probable and now it reaches its forgone conclusion unable to admit the truth of limits even as we fall into the precipice. Even now we could salvage if we were to admit the truth of limits but are unable or unwilling so the truth is the hard rock floor at the bottom of the precipice.
The authors of the Iraq war belonged to a think tank called Project for a New American Century. In it they laid out plans for “full spectrum dominance” of world affairs. Yes, there is good reason to fear the American government.
Everyone wants to dominate the world. In that absence of dominating the world, they want to decide precisely what each of their citizens will do.
Gail, I agree completely.
There is an article on Zerohedge called, “This Should Trouble US Deeply” – Chilling Documentary Maps Out Likely Origin of COVID-19
This is a direct link to the video:
https://youtu.be/Gdd7dtDaYmM
I haven’t gotten to the end of the documentary yet, but it is talking about the virus causing COVID-19 being a military bioweapon. How could a weaker nation fight a stronger nation. One of the things that they perhaps wanted to do was profit from the sale of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19. Is it possible that China has the patent on this drug? I thought I heard the video say that.
It’s possible that there are multiple parties that can gain something from a pandemic.
Just as widespread drug use and drug violence was good for the U.S police and intelligence. Not to mention all those companies and individuals who got money for trying to convince the public not to do crack. Addressing social problems can provide a lot of jobs for people who would otherwise be unemployed.
This virus kills, especially poor countries. Where there is a health system, there is no where there is no Intensive care. In my opinion, only Israel, which is a small population, is an excellent health system, it was Mossad and Israel. They never recognized Jesus who are the most.
So we are told — I have contacts in Indonesia and the Philippines — I thought both would be nightmare stories…
So far nope. Well not Wuhan nightmare. But there is a hunger nightmare brewing … and I know that in Bali there is a pandemic — of robberies. It is becoming a dangerous place….
And it is going to get worse.
When I was in Haiti post quake you did NOT go out at night. The gangs became active after dark. I suspect that is what will happen in Bali and a thousand other places very soon.
This will be the case in the U.S. if activists get their way and 1000s of hardened prisoners are released into the public with no effort to reintegrate them into society because close social contact is required for reintegration and close social contact is banned.
“Will police take the risk of being infected with COVID-19 in order to put away criminals who refuse to #staythefhome? …Find out on the next episode of Law and Order : Stay Home”
I would never say never, but I don’t think a military bioweapon has been released in this case.
Firstly, the effects of COVID-19 are far to mild for it to be considered a viable weapon. A virus that mainly attacks those already immune compromised, ill or dying while sparing the healthy is a co-factor at best. Secondly, it is far too non-specific, running around the whole world and infecting allies and enemies alike.
There are so many stories running around that it gets hard to keep track of them. What happened to the idea that this virus mainly attacks East Asians and leaves Caucasians alone? That one seems to have died a death.
Now, the statistics show that in the US it is infecting and killing Blacks and Hispanics at much higher rates than Whites, which to some minds proves its a rac-ist virus.
My own pet theory is that this disease is a consequence of underlying ill-health compounded by decades of poor diet and exercise choices, toxic medications, recreational drugs, air pollution, Roundup, EMF radiation, vaccines, and chronically insufficient levels of vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc and other nutrients in the body. The virus blows through our communities like a strong wind that knocks down or uproots already weakened and diseased trees and get s the full blame for the damage because we were not paying attention to the poor state of those trees.
Read The Guardian and you will see that it is in fact a Patriarchal and Racist virus.
I suppose we could call it Ageist as well…….
Here’s another effect of pandemics: they show up metal incapacity. 🙂
If they still had Comment is Free, I would write and tell the Guardian that the virus is misandristic just like their editorial staff. It seems to strike down a lot more men than women. 🙂
We just need to find an ‘anti-Trans’ angle to damn the virus completely, without any possible appeal.
I mostly read Guardian articles to shake my head over them; but always get the banner begging for money ‘as you’ve read 30 this month’. Hilarious.
Someone sent that to me yesterday — it’s 30 minutes of my life I can’t get back 🙁
So it’s a bio war … the problem is if you bio nuke your enemy — who do you sell your ‘stuff’ to?
Makes 0 sense.
Another video I was told was awesome said the son Jiang Zemin owns rights to a drug that can treat Wuhan. So they released this flu so he could make money.
Yep lets sink the global economy so one guy’s company can make money — that he won’t be able to spend.
Duh
If there is an agenda here (and there is) there will be NO leaks. There will be no Snowdens.
This will be locked up tighter than a nun’s….
If anyone dared to leak a CDT type plan —- they’d be mocked and ridiculed and sent to the crazy house — as if our governments are planning to starve us to death!!!
All these theories are white noise…
Bill Gates and Mates held a simulation for a global coronavirus pandemic last October.
Bill is by some accounts the second largest funder of the WHO. (Uncle Sam is the largest.)
Bill has announced he will simultaneously fund the development of seven different coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines!!
Bill is on record saying we won’t be able lift the curfew until there’s a vaccine for this illness that can be given to everyone in the world.
That’s 7.8 billion doses at, say, $30 a shot, not including boosters. We are talking hundreds of billions for the first shot alone.
Bill is a man on a mission to save humanity. He’s not called a philanthropist for nothing.
In my considerable experience, there’s only one thing more dangerous than a philanthropist on a mission. And that’s a philanthropist on a mission armed with a hypodermic needle.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EUu2OF7WoAQtsnw.jpg
I was wondering why Bill’s opinions were being given so much weight by the media since he has no medical experience. He barely has work experience on working on computers.
I’ve seen clips of the simulation but it still doesn’t make sense. Bill is not the mastermind behind this if he has something to do with the lockdowns. The leaders of the medical community are probably the ones advising the lockdowns and they’re completely voluntary. Some countries have not gone under lockdown and there has been no retaliation against them.
Mr. Gates has a big task.
He has been chosen to save the Earth.
Gaia gave Bill a $hundred billion and put the load on his shoulders.
He has to correct the resources per capita disparity.
Evidently, we can’t do much about the resources side of the equation so he has to focus on the capita value. The tools for resolution of conflicts over resources has progressed from wood and stone to fire and steel and now toxic molecules and toxic radio frequencies.
The reduction of the planetary cancer of industrial humanity is a big job , but somebody has got to do it.
Leon is asking what happens if you take the global population down from 8B to say 500M…..
That’s something for Korowicz…. but the problem there is that David is a bit of a loose canon….
He seldom comes to the office preferring to spend his time (usually with Leon) at the disco house…dropping pills and hooking up … he usually doesn’t wake up till around 9pm… smokes a bit of meth and does a few lines ‘to wake himself up’ —- and we are usually gone by then…
If he wasn’t such a clever bugger Don would have fired him long ago…. but every so often he drops a piece of genius on the table and it’s like WOW…. this guy can do whatever he WANTS.
It’s kinda like if you score 80 goals in a hockey season and you don’t get along with the coach… if the coach tries to fire you — it’s the coach who ends up leaving the building…
Anyway — if anyone else wants to have run at Leon’s question — Gail? …. feel free.
FE doesn’t want to hog all the limelight…. and he’s testing the sights on his 7mm rifle by trying to shoot the Easter Bunny … so he’s bizzzeee…
I went back and listened to the rest of the video.
It is basically arguing that the virus was intentionally created as a bioweapon at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This is part of a broader “unrestricted warfare” effort that a weaker nation can use to fight against a stronger nation. The system of controls was lax at the P-4 lab was lax, so there would seem to be a likelihood that it could have escaped from there. After it escaped, the China Communist Party (CCP) has systematically covered up what really happened, destroyed as much evidence as possible, and put out false stories.
Regarding remdesivir, it says at 33.13, “On January 13, a new drug Remdesivir, provided for free by the United States to China, was preemptively patented by Wuhan Institute of Virology.” This is a small part of the video, but it shows CCP’s level of ethics.
It makes the argument that WHO is controlled by China. This is part of its control plan for the rest of the world. It would seem to me that the combination of (a) China’s shutdown (b) the false data put out by China, and (c) the recommendations by WHO are what led to a worldwide shutdown, even though it doesn’t really work. It may be part of China’s plan for world dominance.
The argument the video makes is that other countries should be suing CCP for the damage it has done by the virus and the coverup regarding its release. I doubt this would be useful, however.
It was all a bit far-fetched…. it was sent to me by a mate so I watched it right through as a courtesy (he might have quizzed me after…)
I suggested to him that I don’t think there will be any obvious solutions, tips or leaks …. we need to look behind the distractions and white noise…. and even then the best we can do is guess.
The world is effectively being put onto life support – or even destroyed. I do not think we can look to re-hashed movie plots for the answer.
This is big. It’s more than big – it is the biggest event in history. Nothing comes close.
So we need to go big in terms of guessing.
Think BIG people – how do you get every single leader on the planet (tip of the hat to Bolsonaro as the one abstention vote…) …. to buy into a plan to take down the world?
Ending civilization is to most people a bad thing (misanthropists like myself excepted)….. so how do you convince goodies like Jacinda and Justin — to go along with such a plan?
Surely the alternative must be extremely horrific – and certain….. what might the alternative be????
Put your thinking leaves on.
Don says 10 billion dollars to the person who figures it out.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yafLm-ByQWo/maxresdefault.jpg
The Epoch Times produces plenty of war propaganda and narrative promotion. The U.S. government sees its Falun Gong adherents as an asset to put pressure on China. Just like they use the MEK to put pressure on Iran.
I expect a war with China is in the cards as the war narratives and anti-Chinese propaganda is coming out hard and fast.
I’m not defending the government of China but going to war with the country is not going to end well.
You may be correct.
https://www.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au/Assets/Images/2019_Storytime_webbanner.jpg
The Epoch Times is everywhere — where does all the money come from?
I had a chat with one of their reporters during the HK protests…. it was just after the Pro BJ Party lost all their council seats — I am still wondering – who would vote against the Pro BJ Party??? (credit Larry David copywrite Larry David Enterprises)…
Anyway so I am Out and About expecting a massive raging blowup because the Black Shirts will have some wind in the sails from that result.
And sure enough just up from the hotel it’s kicking off. And they CCP goons are grabbing anyone they can get their hands on even though there is not yet any violence – and smashing them.
So I approach random riot cops and ask this question: ‘You have seen the vote — the protesters won — why are you arresting them and beating them — why are you even here?’ I tick my camera in their faces and ask them to comment. They refuse to comment. So I press them harder ‘So you have nothing to say – what you gonna do hit me with your stick? Pepper spray me? Come on fellas – what’s going on here – you lost – time to stand down and stop beating the shit of these people’
Eventually I walk away and this chick from Epoch Times says dude — you are lucky they don’t pepper spray your face or smack you … you can’t provoke them…. to which I responded… ya but I am Fast Eddy…. they know that — I know that — Carrie Lam knows that —- the CCP knows that — and they have all been shown my photo and they know not to Fkkk with the Jesus… then I says — see this — it looks like a normal press pass… but it’s actually a Diplomatic Immunity Pass — it gives me Untouchable Status…
Oh I see… as she slowly backs away….
Anyway I returned to Taunting the Gestapo and a wee little women says ‘they don’t understand you’
Oh I say – so that’s why they aren’t clubbing me to death and drowning me in pepper spray — it’s not the Immunity Pass…. hmmmm…..
Even though she’s only tops 5ft 2 (even in those big face smasher boots) she has an air of authority and she is willing to speak to me (I interpret that as she wants me…) … I get into the election thing and the mandate implied by losing all but one position blah blah — she turns about to be a total fkkking delusiSTANI — even though she’s pretty cute and clearly on for it (do you need my name — if you have any more questions I’ll be off shift in an hour call me on this number) I decide I’ll pass on fulfilling her celebrity fantasy because having to listen to her do anything but moan would put me over the edge….
Would FE be upset if at some point the Black Shirts cornered her and tried this? Ummmm… not really ….
https://youtu.be/VNGJK1k2MbY
What does the above have in common with the loooner landings?
They had ‘magic suits’ that protect them from radiation, bits of rock hitting them at 50,000mph…. -400F > + 300F temperatures….
And my ‘magic press pass’ protects me from clubs, tear gas, bullets and pepper spray…
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/T8oNPbQ1gBk/maxresdefault.jpg
Wow, Wow, Wow!
Could it be it wasn’t G5 causing the pandemic after all? But our old friend Roundup?
Connecting the Dots: Glyphosate and COVID-19 (Excerpts)
Are glyphosate and COVID-19 connected? Glyphosate, one of the most toxic chemicals in the world, may be the key to why some people get severely ill from COVID-19. An MIT senior research scientist reports:
By Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D.
The pandemic that we have long been told is coming any day now has unfortunately arrived. A new strain of coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2, causing the new disease called COVID-19, has taken the world by storm, practically shutting down the global economy and overwhelming hospital systems.
A Link to waterways, highways, and airports
Seattle is a coastal city, situated between Lake Washington and Elliot Bay, with Lake Union to the north. Water comprises 41% of the area of Seattle. Wuhan, China, is the city where the COVID-19 outbreak first started. The Yangtze River slices through Wuhan. The Yangtze River is highly polluted with industrial wastewater discharge, as well as with runoff of fertilizer and pesticides from adjacent agricultural lands.
The two biggest hot spots in the United States of coronavirus are New York City and New Orleans. New York City is at the mouth of the Hudson River, and New Orleans is at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi. The connection between glyphosate and COVID-19 could be seen in locations where dangerous runoff is more prevalent.
Queens, New York is perhaps the most affected area in all of the United States. A case can certainly be made for New York being vulnerable due to the large number of international visitors as well as excess crowding in a metropolitan area. However, as the map below shows, Queens is also nearly surrounded by water, and it has La Guardia International Airport just to the north and JFK to the south. It is cut through by three major interstate highways, I-278, I-495, and I-678.
The airline industry has been exploring the use of aviation biofuels since at least 2009. United Airlines was the first airline to introduce aviation biofuel in its airplanes, and the first city in the world to offer aviation biofuel was Los Angeles, California.
Within California, Los Angeles is a COVID-19 hot spot. United offers many flights to the United hub just to the south of New York City, Newark Liberty International.
United Airlines, American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Air France, now all power airplanes with a blend of conventional fuel and aviation biofuel.
Glyphosate and COVID-19: contaminated biofuels
Carbon emissions have become a focal issue in the fight to reverse climate change. One promising approach has been to convert waste biomass into oil-based fuels to augment diesel fuel [4].
Europe has been a leader in deploying biodiesel fuel derived from food waste vegetable oils, such as olive oil [5].
The United States has seen some successful enterprises launch, based on converting “woody biomass” (waste from the forest industry) and the stalks of corn and wheat post-harvest into biodiesel fuel. All of these sources can be expected to be contaminated with glyphosate.
E-cigarettes and vaporized glyphosate
This newly emergent disease has been given the name, E-cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI).
A 2020 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine describes the typical symptoms of this new disease:
The most well-known symptoms of COVID-19 infection are dry cough, fever, and shortness of breath, but there can also be digestive issues such as diarrhea and vomiting [19]. Distinct from a normal cold, rhinorrhea (runny nose) is usually absent. The symptoms of COVID-19 are remarkably similar to the symptoms of EVALI.
Since vaping involves heat, vapors are released that likely contain vaporized glyphosate, which is then breathed into the lungs and directly impacts the lung tissues.
The science behind e-cigarette lung damage
An elegant study investigating the effects of e-cigarette vapors on the lungs of mice reveals exactly how the lungs are impacted by the exposure [22]. A group of mice received Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) vapor for 4 months, and were subsequently exposed to flu virus. Their reaction was compared with that of control mice that had not been exposed to ENDS. The story is complex, but I will show here through logical deduction how the defects observed in the lungs of these mice can be explained by exposure to glyphosate.
The authors of the e-cigarette study summarized their findings as follows: “Together, our data demonstrate that exposure to ENDS vapor reduces innate immune responsiveness, and long-term exposure impairs the ability of mice to control pulmonary infection with influenza.”
In other words, ENDS vapor impairs the innate immune system, causing an overreaction of the adaptive immune system to an infection.
What am I pointing out? That a growing body of scientific literature, including various studies on both people and mice, can be taken as a whole to suggest that glyphosate may be damaging the lungs in such a way so as to induce an acute response to a new cold virus, leading to extensive damage to the lungs, difficulty breathing, and an inability to efficiently clear the virus from the body in some people. Furthermore, glyphosate can be expected to be found in biodiesel fuel and in e-cigarettes, and exposure to such sources may be what primes some people to become severely ill or even die from COVID-19.
Fatty liver disease
Liver disease is one of the preconditions associated with increased risk to acute response to COVID-19 infection.
Fatty liver disease is one of the many chronic diseases whose prevalence has been rising alarmingly in the population, in step with the rapid rise in the use of glyphosate on core crops over the past two decades.
A recent study showed that people with fatty liver disease had statistically significantly increased levels of glyphosate in their urine, and those with advanced liver fibrosis had elevated levels compared to those with less advanced disease.
A broader perspective on glyphosate and COVID-19
Glyphosate is ubiquitous: it’s not only a major contaminant in food, but it’s also been found in soil, rivers, lakes, streams, and groundwater, and in blood, urine, and breast milk. It’s in rain and in the air and in lung tissue.
The ubiquitous presence of glyphosate is a major threat to human health.
Swanson et al. published a paper in 2014 that showed plots of several chronic diseases alarmingly on the rise, with the use of glyphosate on core crops superimposed on the plots. The correlations were stunning, consistently with p-values less than 0.00001 for the likelihood that the match could have occurred by chance.
Is this all just coincidence? I don’t think so. Instead, I strongly suspect that the degree to which a person is susceptible to COVID-19 is proportional to the degree to which they have been exposed to glyphosate. Eating a certified organic diet and staying away from major highways may be among the best tools for protection from an acute reaction to COVID-19.
A study on air and rain samples taken from Mississippi, Iowa, and Indiana found widespread glyphosate contamination, showing that it is accumulating in the atmosphere [36].
Since our country has been in lockdown, the number of vehicles on the roads has plummeted. This reduces exposure to glyphosate. With fewer cars on the road, you breathe much less vehicle exhaust fumes, reducing the likelihood of an acute reaction to COVID-19 leading to a need for the ICU.
Perhaps it’s not the social distancing, but the reduction of exposure to aerosolized glyphosate, that’s reducing the spread of infection? [37].
Why no COVID-19 in Bhutan?
Bhutan has embraced the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s first 100% organic nation [38]. Is it possible that there is so little COVID-19 because Bhutan’s people aren’t being over-exposed to glyphosate?
Glyphosate and COVID-19: putting it all together
The United States has stood out as the country hit the hardest by COVID-19. We also consume more glyphosate per capita than any other country in the world. It will be a tragic irony if it turns out that our attempts to reduce carbon emissions through the use of extracts from glyphosate-exposed food crops and trees as a source of fuel in cars, trucks, buses, ships, airplanes—and as heating oil for buildings—turn out to be one of the primary causes of the COVID-19 epidemic.
I cannot claim to have proven that glyphosate is causing the weakened immune system and lung damage that sets up a susceptibility to an acute response to COVID-19. Science is a process of inquiry and we must keep inquiring. However, the circumstantial evidence is compelling and more research is needed. I hope I will inspire scientific researchers who have the necessary skills to further explore this hypothesis.
https://jennifermargulis.net/glyphosate-and-covid-19-connection/
Nice paper, how did you find it?
It is consistent across a number of areas, we try too hard to reason things, looking at collections of data seems to be more effective. Ironic, this goes back to man’s older generalizations.
My farm uses glycophosphates, I have never liked it, hard to make money without them, I do not live on it much, live in a city mostly. My wife at the time was a heavy user of Roundup, once drove down the drive in a Bush Hog spraying weeds with a hand sprayer, thought she was nuts, weeds didn’t bother me, did her. She got cancer, weeds have replaced many of my hedges around my house, very natural.
We are past carrying capacity, odd ball stuff is starting, it is what collapse looks like, not deterministic.
Again, thanks for the reference, I found the paper and read it.
Dennis L.
Cheers, Dennis. I was just ferreting around and I saw someone post a link to this on Jon Rappoport’s blog.
Where I live we have six families who own bits of farmland land and are responsible for keeping the grass verges short in summer. Until fifty years ago, everyone would use a scythe and collect the weeds for cow fodder. Valuable stuff! For the past forty years, families have replaced cows with machines and they adopted the gasoline-powered weed whacker almost exclusively.
However, as the men get old and lose their strength, they like to look for ways to cut corners and do things with less effort, and over the past few years four of my neighbors have been sapplying Roundup with a spray tank on their back and pumping out the spray by hand as they walk around the verges.
Also, being macho, they don’t wear goggles or masks as they do this. They are totally unaware of the potential for ill-health effects from exposure to glycophosphates. The thought simply doesn’t cross their minds.
Quick comment re glyphosate. Glyphosate (aka Roundup) is not particularly toxic, and nor are the compounds used as adjuvants. However, the amounts used in commercial agriculture are staggering – really staggering. Monsanto has been pushing it for years – both through advertising and legal threats. Think GM soy, corn, (“Roundup-ready”) etc.. Why do you think GM (genetically modified) plants attract so much opprobrium? Glyphosate, used appropriately, is a wonderful tool – especially for controlling grasses. We live in a 8 Ha block of regenerated rainforest – when we came here it was largely a cleared block covered with guinea grass. Without glyphosate, we could never have reclaimed the land – which has become a forested Nature Refuge. As with all these materials – you can use them like a surgeons scalpel, or like a firehose. It’s a scalpel I’d hate to lose. Tomorrow we start on another block – and the first tool will be glyphosate.
Absolutely agree.
Glyphosate (Roundup) is a marvelous tool and it isn’t particularly toxic, as you say. It’s a lot less nasty than the earlier generation of herbicides it replaced, which were often used by farmers to commit suicide. A story I heard is that half a century ago my neighbor across the road’s grandfather ran through the village shouting “Shinde yaru! Shinde yaru!” (I’m going to kill myself!) before gulping down a paraquat cocktail. It’s a terrible way to go
By contrast, unless you happen to be a plant, Roundup will probably not do you much harm if you drink it. And it is very useful for industrial agriculture as now practiced around the world.
What happens when people inhale it regularly and ingest it regularly with their food is unclear. That’s an issue for the chemists, the epidemiologists, the judges and the lawyers to haggle over. We live in a world of multiple pathogens and multiple diseases caused by combinations of multiple factors, so working out and establishing that substance A caused condition B in patient X can be a difficult task.
A couple of years ago it became widely know that Roundup was being widely used pre-harvest on cereal costs to allow the plants to wither and dry before the combine harvester moved in, thus saving farmers a lot of effort in drying the crops, but resulting in a residue of Roundup in the grain. Since reading about that, I confess that I have found it hard to look a bowl of Quaker Oats in the face, but i manage to ignore the Roundup that must be present in the flour that goes into the bread I eat.
But it is only through reading this latest study by Dr. Stephanie Seneff that I’ve been alerted to the possibility that Roundup might be present in “bio” gasoline, diesel and jet fuel and that it could come through the combustion process and get into the air that way. I would be surprised if this was the case as it seems to break down fairly quickly in the soil.
The EPA doesn’t seem very worried about glyphosate.
https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-417300_1-Sep-93.pdf
Restraurants and schools still open in Sweden
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Sweden 10,000+ cases and 887 deaths…
then 800 or so Grandma’s and Grandpa’s deaths came a little sooner…
too bad the rest of the world didn’t have such courage…
Random testing came up with 2.5% infected a few weeks ago.
So 250 000 infected (more now?), 1 000 dead. 0.4% death rate.
so about ten times the (estimated) seasonal flu rate of 0.05%…
that’s low enough to keep going with BAU…
or at least quasi bAU with voluntary social distancing and masks…
why not?
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/11/swedish-document-elderly-coronavirus-patients-not-prioritised-intensive-care/
“A document from the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm has revealed that Wuhan coronavirus patients over 80 and those over 60 with multiple organ failure will not be given priority for intensive care.”
common sense…
Wear masks. Problem solved.
I just found this… I have no idea who the author is but it says it all….
———————————————————-
From a grocery store manager during COVID-19:
I manage a grocery store.
Here’s some things everyone should know
1. I don’t have toilet paper
2. I don’t have sanitizer
3. I run out of milk, eggs and meat daily
4. I promise if it’s out on the shelf … it’s not in a hidden corner of our back room
Those are the predictable ones, now for the real stuff
5. I have been doing this for 25 years I did not forget how to order product
6. I did not cause the warehouse to be out of product
7. I schedule as much help as I have, including many TMs working TONS of overtime to help YOU
8. I am sorry there are lines at the check out lanes
Now for the really important stuff
9. My team puts themselves in harm’s way everyday so you can buy groceries
10. My team works tirelessly to get product on the floor for you to buy
11. My team is exhausted
12. My team is scared of getting sick
13. My team is human and do not possess an antivirus… they are in just as much danger as you are. (Arguably more) But they show up to work everyday just so you can buy groceries
14. My team is tired
15. My team is very under appreciated
16. My team is exposed to more people who are potentially infected in one hour than most of you will in a week (medical community excluded, thank you for all that you do!)
17. My team is abused all day by customers who have no idea how ignorant they are
18. My team disinfects every surface possible, everyday, just so you can come in grab a wipe from the dispenser, wipe the handle and throw the used wipe in the cart or on the ground and leave it there… so my team can throw it in the trash for you later
19. My team wonders if you wash your re-usable bags, that you force us to touch, that are clearly dirty and have more germs on them than our shopping carts do
20. My team more than earns their breaks, lunches and days off. And if that means you wait longer I am sorry.
The last thing I will say is this
The next time you are in a grocery store, please pause and think about what you are saying and how you are treating the people you encounter. They are the reason you are able to buy toilet paper, sanitizer, milk, eggs and meat.
If the store you go to is out of an item.. maybe find the neighbor or friend that bought enough for a year … there are hundreds of them… and ask them to spare 1 or 2. They caused the problem to begin with…
And lastly, please THANK the people who helped you. They don’t have to come to work!
“. They don’t have to come to work!”
I didn’t know work was optional. I thought it was something humans do to acquire products and services. If there’s an alternative somewhere I’m sure millions of unemployed people would like to know about it.
I get the strange feeling that the author is not someone who has to work for a living;
Work will be optional when UBI is implemented.
I see $1,200 of UBI in the USA coming this month…
is that all they got?
Unfortunately, it’s not distributed monthly.
most people like to work… There wont be much of it… So u pay to work
It’s okay to come in late, though. That’s why they call it “late” capitalism!
Yep, thanks.
in think these bull s hit letters are all written by the same person.
Pingback: Economies won’t be able to recover after shutdowns – Olduvai.ca
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/singapore-oil-trading-giant-verge-collapse-after-banks-freeze-credit-lines. Maybe Just was posted
forget conspiracies for a couple of hours
cosi fan tutte is being broadcast from the royal opera house, for free
I would rather neck myself.
“forget con spir acies for a couple of hours”
better yet, take them all to here:
http://www.OurFiniteWorldTradeCenter.com
I’ll get on it once I finish my knife fighting practice… 10,000 hours and I’ll be an expert (so says Gladwell)
Also worth a listen:
great stuff…
nowadays, macabre is quite appropriate…
I suspect that statement meant – that they didn’t have to break ‘isolation’ – Jasus! – and you wonder why we can’t all get along!
Yuk. Lousy set designs and lousy modern costumes. I’ll keep my copy from Glyndebourne.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/10/trump-says-us-will-have-substantially-under-100000-deaths-from-coronavirus-lower-than-initial-estimates.html
“Trump says US will have ‘substantially under’ 100,000 deaths from coronavirus, lower than initial estimates”
That’s a bold statement and I’ll tell you why, but let me preface that this is not an anti-trump post, it’s just that the stats so far suggest a much higher death toll in the US than 100K.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Based on official stats, the US currently has 475,264 active cases. For active cases to have an outcome, closed case, they must either be a stat indicating dead or recovered.
The mortality rate for the US so far for closed cases is a whopping 41.3% and multiplying that by just the active cases so far of 475,264 = 196,284 deaths, or almost twice as much as 100K and added each day is approx. 30,000 more cases so that 196K will be even higher.
So I’m perplexed as to how they either did the math to provide Trump with that marker of 100K or how they figure that death number will held much lower – maybe they think hydroxocholorquine can make the difference? Just not sure at this point.
Trump is paid to say inaccurate things (conspiracy theory) so people can complain about Trump instead of looking in depth at the issues.
Meanwhile…experts and current data show that we are looking at 100s of millions of deaths. Social distancing and lockdowns are done so those deaths are spread out over months, maybe even years so the hospitals don’t get overwhelmed.. The medical industry is not really built to handle epidemics.
I meant 100s of millions worldwide, millions in the U.S.A.
“Trump says US will have ‘substantially under’ 100,000 deaths from coronavirus, lower than initial estimates”
only because of the reediculous insayne crayzee lockdown…
and only temporarily… that number assumes no second wave third wave etc…
once the lockdowns start lifting, the numbers will rise again…
though also I am not too sure… but looks that way as of now…
Suppose at the end of 2019 the global economy was slipping into recession. The Powers That Be had no way prevent a decline of World GDP in 2020. Maybe 2020 was going to be the first year of the long awaited terminal decline.
The desperate measure around the COVID19-epidemic provide TPTB with a great excuse why World GDP declined in 2020 and probably in 2021.
For the next few years we can all pretend this is just a temporary setback: NOT the Limits To Growth we all dread
The COVID19 epidemic not only coïncides with world peakoil, but it is the great spectacle that distracts the crowds from the real turningpoint in human evolution.
it’s all downhill from here
COVID-19 allows energy demand to go into free fall, encouraging energy prices to fall. Because of the lower energy prices of all kinds, oil, natural gas, and coal production all fall. Governments find themselves very short of tax revenue. Wind and solar have a hard time doing well also. New installations fall; local populations find the supply even more out of sync with their real electricity needs than before. There get to be fights among countries about exported unneeded electricity from renewables.
Wonder how many lives will be lost, ruined and destroyed by the steps to protect the public from this super flu!? Is that put even in the equation? Suicides, broken homes and bankruptcies, ECT.
Of was there a cost/benefit ?
Thanks jp Morgan for the obvious
Investors should prepare for a coronavirus-induced ‘vicious spiral’ more than twice as bad as the financial crisis, says J.P. Morgan
Chris Matthews
MarketWatchApril 11, 2020, 9:54 AM EDT
There is a significant chance the global economy experiences “a vicious spiral, which is typical of recessions, between weak final demand, weaker labor markets, falling profits, weak credits markets and low oil prices
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/785c68de-8c29-3443-8832-644de02f3a58/investors-should-prepare-for.html
Oh, we are so concerned…..
There was no analysis, just how can we use this to sell the new programs various special interests want to role out. From e-money, implanted rfid, new mandatory vaccines, roll over the global market, to snagging the presidency out from under Biden, all different groups some may have overlaps.
The special interests do not put the general well being of Joe and Jane citizen into their calculations.
The various factions of the ruling class are trying to figure out how to increase their power and status from this event.
Conspiracy theory: All the public service announcements about how we’re all in this together is $%^$%^$%^&$%^. Everyone is looking out for their group.
One of the most important groups are medical professionals. I think it’s the medical industry that is ordering the lockdown so it doesn’t become apparent that they are unable, even in socialist countries, to deal with a pandemic,
It’s the GOVERNMENT’S fault hospitals can’t deal with pandemics. Not the JIT-healthcare industry’s fault they can’t deal with a huge spike demand.
I just saw a guy driving with a mask and gloves on. Since he was alone in the vehicle, I suspect he was affraid his car got covid-19. And why not? Mind that the car was a Fiat, an Italian mark, and we all know how the situation is in Italy…
You can never be too prudent. Be afraid, very afraid!
A lot of people do not seem to understand what the function of the mask is.
It may also be easier to remember to put the mask on before leaving the house and then to leave it on.
At the Home Depot parking lot yesterday I watched a couple drive in. Husband already masked, wife no mask as she was smoking. When she finished she threw the butt on the parking lot, then masked up.
Ed–
This is ‘Merica.
And these people are in the top 50%.
It was a rental.
That said … someone might have been in the car and sneezed or coughed — the driver gets in without mask – touches the wheel — puts finger in mouth — and next thing you know he’s on a ventilator
I can’t remember if I posted this before (the hard drink does that to you)… but anyway .. it’s so amusing we MUST watch it again
https://twitter.com/i/status/1248302087265550339
BOOM
https://twitter.com/i/status/1246523324206911489
Hahahaha ….
https://twitter.com/tbaruchi1/status/1248374543598546946
https://twitter.com/EmilyRobia/status/1248714997942956032
Ratcheting it up baby!
YOU WILL COMPLY. YOU WILL REMAIN IN YOUR HOME. YOU WILL WEAR A MASK.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1248749924319145985
CDT – imminent
https://twitter.com/i/status/1246618968590344194
https://twitter.com/i/status/1248278376697040896
https://twitter.com/i/status/1249138998884421632
What would you expect to see by driving past outside a hospital?
Let’s have a look inside the hospital – inside the Covid Unit specifically….
https://twitter.com/i/status/1246557898857222145
See my Meathead Game — try playing…..
“inside”?
“No long lines” … why should there be long lines?
About 1 in 100 000 dies of corona each day. Not that many in IC either. This is not something you can see by looking at a random building.
I guess I expected chaotic scenes because:
Shocking footage reveals chaos inside New York hospital
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8174689/Shocking-footage-reveals-chaos-inside-New-York-hospital-doctors-beg-ventilators.html
‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an NYC Hospital
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-hospitals.html
The Growing Chaos Inside New York’s Hospitals
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/shits-really-going-to-hit-the-fan-inside-new-yorks-overburdened-hospitals
NYC hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ by coronavirus patients
https://www.foxnews.com/health/nyc-hospitals-overwhelmed-by-coronavirus-patients-resident-warns
‘AN INSANE SITUATION’: INSIDE THE CHAOS AT BELLEVUE HOSPITAL
https://thecity.nyc/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-spurs-chaos-in-nycs-bellevue-hospital.html
If you would like me to continue to post more you will need to feed me a treat.
Spooky. I already knew that covid-19 can infect people, tigers, cats, dogs and, apparently Fiat cars, but dummies too ?! We are so focked!
In the face of such shootings, how can we avoid thinking about konspiracy theories? It’s not easy, but I’ll keep trying harder. I’m going to bang my head on a concrete wall to try to clarify my ideas and dispel my suspicions. I’ll be back in a minute.
Ouch! #$%&!/%&!!
Didn’t work. I’m still as stupid and suspicious as before. Damn!
This MD, Dr. Annie Bukacek is a longtime Montana physician with over 30 years’ experience practicing medicine. Signing death certificates is a routine part of her job. In this video, Dr. Bukacek blows the whistle on the way the CDC is instructing physicians to exaggerate COVID-19 deaths on death certificates.
https://youtu.be/_5wn1qs_bBk
Hang on… Dr. Bukacek is a Christian, is pro-life, and is on the board of directors of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, and she the mother of five children and the grandmother of 12 grandchildren, which makes her a Deplorable at the very least.
More importantly, if you watch this video, you’ll discover she’s a real doctor with a fine mind, a lot of courage, and a conscience that doesn’t allow her to spin or eviscerate the truth.
When I come across people like her, it restores my faith in the inherent good sense and moral scruple of the American people and makes me feel there is hope for the Land of the Free yet.
I thought you were calling her deplorable because she had 5 kids in a world that is running out of resources! Seems greedy to have so many kids! But the medical system in the u.s has been very parasitic on the average tax payer. Maybe that’s what you meant.
Agreed – 5 kids is deplorable, selfish and greedy.
Its a fact that corona viruses are and have been present in humans for a long long time. I question whether the current testing or future testing discerns the difference between them and the “novel” virus. It seems we cant even define what the “novel” virus is with mutations. In liu of these things its pretty much impossible to determine whether any death is a covid 19 death or every death is. We know that lots of people die from respiratory problems. Every single one of those will be considered a covid 19 death in this environment. They may even test positive for covid-19. The question is would they have tested positive 5 years ago. How about the huge rash of mysterious respiratory deaths in Italy one year ago? Well those couldnt be Cv 19 because cv19 just was released/occured. uh huh. Those deaths would certainly be considered cv19 deaths if they occured now.
On the other hand we have doctors reporting people choking on pink frothy fluid. It seems something real is certainly happening. There is a real threat. The extent of that threat is unknown. Basically we have to go off “be scared be very scared”. Those of us that have noted certain, uh , inconsistencies in official narratives in recent history are not real confident in that.
In the meantime we have a real killer, a crystal clear threat to the economy , financial system, and our civil liberties. Why isnt that being discussed? Is the first amendment one of the casualties of the virus?
Thank you prisoner 09876. You are the first to care about the first amendment in many hundreds of comments and articles I have read. As to why no discussion I to wonder.
Surprise, surprise….sarcasm
The mortgage industry is facing a crisis because of the coronavirus — and borrowers could fall through the cracks
Published: April 11, 2020 at 8:52 a.m. ET
By Jacob Passy
‘There’s just no way anybody could have enough capital set aside to handle the kind of payments that servicers could have to make
But as thousands of homeowners nationwide forgo mortgage payments for as long as a year, servicers are still on the hook to their investors. “What most consumers don’t understand is even when they stop making their mortgage payments, servicers are required by contract to continue to make those payments on their behalf to whoever owns the mortgage note,” said Rick Sharga, a mortgage industry veteran and founder of CJ Patrick Company, a real-estate consulting firm.
“The government has basically put in place a program that allows borrowers not to pay but it’s done nothing to backstop the servicers who are going to need that cash to make the payments themselves,” Sharga said.
Non-banks play a bigger role in the mortgage industry today
The forbearance situation is even more concerning for nonbank mortgage firms. In the wake of the Great Recession, non-bank mortgage lenders such as Quicken Loans, Freedom Mortgage and Mr. Cooper COOP, +16.48% have grown significantly.
Non-bank lenders accounted for nearly two-thirds of all new mortgages as of May 2019, according to data from the Urban Institute, a left-of-center policy research group. Back in 2013, comparatively, they made fewer than 40% of all loans.
……Lawmakers have supported this position. A bipartisan group of senators authored a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying that “urgent action is required to avoid a critical strain on liquidity for certain home mortgage servicers.” The senators called on the Financial Stability Oversight Committee to create the facility for servicers.
And Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed was “watching carefully” the situation with mortgage servicers following a speech at the Brookings Institution
Correction…the Fed has its hand in every aspect of the economy and it’s Management or lack of it.
Whatever it Takes…God help us all, sorry except the very very Rich!
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-mortgage-industry-is-facing-a-crisis-because-of-the-coronavirus-and-borrowers-could-fall-through-the-cracks-2020-04-11?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo