cleetussnow

On January 14th, The Who said there was no human to human transmission, which was the PRCs official stance. There was no basis for this. WHO took China’s word, for one of 2 reasons, incompetence or corruption. China knew the virus was h2h transmittable in November and possibly last summer. Only when the virus showed up outside China did WHO and China change their official position, in lockstep. Coincidence? I left China on the 22nd. The coast was clear officially but something was very wrong, masks were on everyone everywhere. They knew what was up. So, during the peak of Chinese New Year, Chinese people were flying all over the world with the disease, as well as non Chinese going into and out of China, and Chinese moving around China. Italy got hit because of the large Chinese expat population living there. My view is that China coerced the WHO into keeping quiet on h2h until the Chinese New Year was over, and that was a global disaster. And if the WHO were incompetent, same difference. JI is a bad man, but not incompetent.

Well, I say the European collective is a close third, but China and the US are tightly connected. Now back to the regularly scheduled covid virus programming, the US and China are not getting along, and the virus is going to alter the economic dynamics going forward. Something will change and it might be painful for awhile!

Plus 1. Politics has been this ‘base’ before, but like in the 1800s. There were new parties formed all the time.

Agree. And PS we aren’t the only developed economy doing this, which kind of makes the relative value of major currencies stable, so we aren’t getting ‘devalued’ if that makes sense. We stay on top, even if the bar is moving lower for everyone. We kind of have loaded dice too which helps.

Actually, trump has placed more sanctions on Russia than any president since Gorbechev was their dictator. It’s amazing no one knows this. The days of Yore... in the 90s Clinton actually gave Yeltsin money to pay the collapsed Russian pension system...we were their best hope as a partner for a bright future, you remember glasnost and all. Relations between Russia and the US...seemed like world peace was at hand! Gorby, the beloved Nobel peace prize winner (who prosecuted the Soviet war in Afghanistan with bloodlust - he even threatened to nuke Pakistan if they didn’t close the Khyber pass to arms smuggling), was made into a international hero. What a turnabout! It really seemed like flowers and sunshine everywhere. Now that’s all ****ed up. It’s known as the new Cold War, and it’s totally contrived, and we started it up again like an old habit. Russiagate just gave it more nourishment. We should be friends with Russia , and we will be soon enough. We have a common foe, and you know, the enemy of my enemy...is my friend. The global power struggle will align Russia and the US, damn the politics of it. But it won’t be trump. There is a much much bigger picture here than some fleeting contrived conspiracy. You don’t have to like Putin, but For my money I’d rather work with him than some of the other options out there (namely Ji). Putin is the most impressive (I mean successfull) statesmen of this century.

What he said.

They are selling treasuries. The government will have to pay it back. Interest rates are very low, so it’s actually it’s a good time to borrow, but it’s a lot money. This is how the government ads cash to the money supply. Printing money and paying itself with it is a no go. It will kill the currency and we will be crushed with inflation. That’s when you need a wheel barrow of 100 dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread. Venezuela printed money to pay debt and starved its people to death as a side effect.

Russia gate needs a dirt nap. It’s over. Did the Russian f@#$ with our heads? Why yes they did. They have been doing that since Stalin. Notably financing the anti war movement in the 60s and the global anti nuclear weapons movement in the 70s and 80s. Even green peace got their money. Old fashioned f$ckery. When the kremlin archives were opened in the 90s all this stuff was exposed. Joe McCarthy was an ass but he turned out to be right. More recently, in 2016 they financed pro trump AND pro Clinton rallies on the same day in NYC to stir things up. Their strategy is fomenting civil war in this country, and the plan has met with success at every turn. Sun Tsu would be proud. However, NONE of their other efforts to date has been as successful as Russiagate, which ironically they had nothing to do with. They want us to beat ourselves to death and we are doing it. We are bickering on a weather board about it, in a thread about a virus. Amazing success for them, and we didn’t even need Russia’s help! Now, did Russian pay Trump? No. Did they pay other politicians? YES. The one who trump ran against, and beat. When Clinton approved the sale of nuclear fuel to Russia as Secretary of State, the Clinton foundation got a fat check. 25 million I think? Also, billy (the husband) got $500,000 for a speech in Russia. Yes it all happened. It could be, and appears to me, that Russia has got the entire situation firmly in hand and we do not. I do not wonder why Putin is so popular.

What they want is transparency in government, which they know to be antithetical for communist government. Communism can’t exist without controlling information. China has been self governing for 6000 years and they never once sniffed it. I don’t think China ‘grew’ it in a lab, but they might have been irresponsible at the lab, and then lied about it. The first lie was they said it wasn’t transmittable human to human. The WHO went along with that for some reason, and that’s why they will be broke.

In the world of what-ifs...a NA pattern set up like it is, combined with a warm gulf, if it happened in met winter would set the stage for a bomb somewhere in the MA, probably south of us tho with an NAO as many SDs as strong.

Not even close to accurate my friend.

Crews out around here to work on the downed lines, but Con Ed says this wont be fixed until sometime overnight. Hooked up the generator to keep the fridge and freezer cold. That thing is stocked for the next 3 weeks to stay isolated so the food can’t go bad! winds ripping still.

No power in my area in mid Westchester. Could be localized...didn’t check Con Ed yet. huge tree down on the next block is the likely culprit. definitely warning criteria so whoever said advisory was a dope. If this happened in 2 weeks time it would have worse. Leaves out not out yet.

Ok I give this winter. Solid D+. We had 1 month of snow in the north country at my camp, which wasn’t all that special. At my house in the lower Hudson valley, I don’t think we had 10 inches. Which is 1/4 normal. Was not a total fail, and we have seen worse, but this was a clunker I don’t want to repeat anytime soon. Hopefully we can break out next year. A B winter will feel like an A winter next year. Ps the GFS gets a Z-. Useless. Unplug it.

If this were a fascist nation, we would not be having this particular discussion. Lol. Fascist. Silly. I don’t know from what school one would get a piece paper from that would lead you to believe america was fascist but it should shut down for malpractice. If I had that piece of paper I’d tear it up and get a refund.

Pretty brutal. It’s pork, but we won’t get bills passed without pork, no matter what the national emergency is. I’m from a small town but 200 million is a lot of money. Seems like a bailout to me, so I won’t judge. If corporations don’t get a backstop there won’t be any jobs for people to return to. My wife is a teacher and her pension will go bust. Yes public employees own massive massive pieces of those corporations and without them...they aren’t any public pension systems period. My wife is a huge stakeholder in American corporations.. and she works for the government! If you don’t like corporations it’s easy to resolve....all you have to do is stop buying Nike, iPhones, Fords, band aids, soap, tape, carpet, gas, food, etc. no big deal. Then you are good. You make the necessities yourself like soap, and grow food. An alternative is to get in on it! Go buy a share of Apple for example. Let’s say you like iPhones but the company is too greedy. Well, you get an envelope in the mail each year and you get to vote on who’s on the board! You can decide if they are too greedy. It’s YOUR money. If you don’t like how it goes, sell it and get a Samsung. It’s pretty democratic actually, and amazing you have that right as a shareholder.

North of HPN here...had a coating this morning and mood flakes. Then misty rain mid morning wiped out the coating, but the recent burst and hour ago had parachute flakes and a new coating which is hanging on in some spots. Edit drizzle right now...

Maybe a coating is in the cards up here in Westchester. It’s somewhat amusing.

I’m talking about a shortage of money, not food. Money is going to dry up quick for a lot of people. We aren’t even out of the first inning and people are out of work. Edit it I see You thought I meant that gas shortages relate to what’s happening. No. I meant that as an example how quickly people lose patience in a crisis, and that one was an inconvenience.

Me neighbor works at Westchester medical center which is huge. They think the virus blew through the hospital staff 2 months ago, but they had no tests.

Well, the economy can’t shut down. People will be broke soon, and they will have to eat, and they will need to get money. During sandy, we had gas shortages in my area, and just within a few days, people were getting aggressive in gas lines. Less than a week. People can turn on each other faster than you think. People will do what they think they have to do, right or wrong. They will do it because the consequences to them are hunger and poverty. To me this is is going to be a game of chicken. People need to eat vs. the virus. Who breaks first? I hope the virus, but if it doesn’t the pain will be unimaginable. And I also think there could be a point where the government can’t keep a lid on people moving and the people demanding a return to normal. Patience will eventually run out on this, also sooner than you think. Weeks not months.

We got a shot up here mid Westchester. Not expecting much but any snow would be at least interesting.

Good plan. You will hate chicken once this clears...

Germans pay for it, just the bill comes in a different envelope. Nothing is free, and Germany has problems I am glad we don’t have.

Welcome to mankind. It’s never been anything but a struggle. Hobbs talked about it.