(03-05-2020, 11:08 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: ...

****
**** Putin's objectives in Syria
****

Vladimir Putin is the most dishonest of the participants in that
everything he says is a lie.  So we can only infer his objectives:

• In exchange for supporting al-Assad, Russia now has two
  military bases in Syria, the Tartus naval base and the Hmeimim
  airbase.  When al-Assad begged Putin for military help in 2015, Putin
  agreed to help, and received control of the two military bases in
  return.
  
  
• Putin would like to split Turkey away from Nato.  This is the only
  reason that Putin is even talking to Erdogan.
  
  
• This is more speculative, but I believe that Putin would take
  great pleasure in seeing those four million civilians in Idlib cross
  over into Turkey, and then cross over into Europe.
  

(03-09-2020, 02:11 PM)JDG 66 Wrote:

(03-05-2020, 11:08 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: ...

****
**** Putin's objectives in Syria
****

Vladimir Putin is the most dishonest of the participants in that
everything he says is a lie.  So we can only infer his objectives:

• In exchange for supporting al-Assad, Russia now has two
  military bases in Syria, the Tartus naval base and the Hmeimim
  airbase.  When al-Assad begged Putin for military help in 2015, Putin
  agreed to help, and received control of the two military bases in
  return.
  
  
• Putin would like to split Turkey away from Nato.  This is the only
  reason that Putin is even talking to Erdogan.
  
  
• This is more speculative, but I believe that Putin would take
  great pleasure in seeing those four million civilians in Idlib cross
  over into Turkey, and then cross over into Europe.
  

-Putin also would have liked to occupy the Deir Al-ZoorAl oil wells so that Assad can pay him back.

Guest Wrote:> I’m certainly not an expert, but here’s the things I’ve noticed:

> 1. Our current flu shot’s efficiency is about 30 to 60%. These are
> the best vaccines they have; the same ones are given to movie
> stars, nobility, politicians and middle class alike. None of them
> are 100% efficient. This means that out of every 100 people who
> gets a flu shot, 40 to 70 of them will still get the flu. The most
> logical explanation as to why vaccines are so inefficient is virus
> mutation. By the time the vaccine is developed and tested and sent
> out to be manufactured, the virus has mutated. That does not mean
> the vaccine won’t protect you; it means the potency is less
> effective against a virus that is fighting back. The un-mutated
> virus is a heavy bag and the mutated virus is a boxing match.

> 2. There are usually 2 to 4 strains every year covered by the flu
> shot. Each strain in it may have more or less efficiency than
> another strain in it. Depending on the strain that’s going around,
> you may have strong efficiency protection or just a little. All in
> all, and simply put, they work together to help keep you from
> contracting one strain when you might have contracted another
> strain. And also simply put, if you are one of the 40 to 70 who
> contract a strain in the flu shot, the vaccine can help you fight
> off the strain you contracted, so the severity is not as bad as it
> could be. I’m a pro boxer and the virus is an amateur. You are not
> totally out of luck if you contract a strain not covered by your
> flu shot. There is evidence that your body develops defenses to
> help you fight against them too. However, there is no reporting
> that I’m aware of that this is the case or not the case with
> Covid-19. Since older and/or people with preexisting conditions
> are more likely to get flu shots, I suspect this is not the case
> for Covid-19. I’ve heard many health reporters saying wash your
> hands, stay 6 feet away from people, don’t touch your face,
> etc. I’ve not heard one of them say, oh and by the way, get a flu
> shot. I don’t know, maybe they did but I didn’t hear it. But who
> knows, the flu shot might be the reason Covid-19 is not killing
> 25% of us. This could be an even match.

> 3. So to put this in context, I had my flu shot this year. I have
> a 30 to 60% chance of catching that nasty flu that has been going
> around my city since November and still is.. So far, I’ve been
> lucky or protected or both to not get it. I attribute some of my
> luck to my vigilance. If I do catch one of those viruses, my body
> has defenses to help me from getting very ill from them and I have
> less than a 0.1% chance I will die. On the other hand, I have a
> 100% chance that I will get Covid-19 when I am exposed to it and
> vigilance may not be enough. If I get it, there is a 20% chance it
> will be severe and a 3 to 4% chance I will die. By the time there
> is a vaccine for it, it might mutate. I am fighting a boxer who is
> way better than me.

> 4. A mask won’t protect you but it will protect health care
> workers on the front line. You don’t need one because they don’t
> have enough. My boxing opponent cheats.

> 5. What happened to 24 days for exposure to symptoms? It got a lot
> of press for a while. Could it be because 24 days is VERY hard and
> costly to quarantine? My trainer just bet against me.

> 6. They are telling us that it is unlikely that a person without
> symptoms is contagious. Well, tell that to all those people on the
> cruise ships who were exposed before anyone had symptoms and then
> they died. How many people did we allow into this country because
> they didn’t have a fever? Shadow boxers, everywhere.

> 7. Excuse me, but my opponent just pulled my boxers down. Dirty
> fighter.

Quote:> "This virus is a highly infectious virus. There was a
> study released yesterday that showed people are highly infectious
> before they ever get sick, the virus level is over 1000 times
> higher in their throats than it is with SARS. And in a sense,
> this is just gonna keep spreading. We have to stop fooling people
> into thinking that this only by close contact or I have to be
> within two or three feet. We're gonna see much more transmission,
> and our job I think is to get the country through this -- is make
> sure that they understand is that there will be widespread
> transmission of this virus around the country and that what we
> have to do is keep people who are at high risk of having bad
> outcomes -- older, underlying health conditions -- from being
> exposed. ...

> We've really not set the agenda for the American public in a
> realistic way. Right now we're approaching this like it's a
> Washington DC blizzard -- for a couple of days we're shut down.
> This is actually a coronavirus winter, and we're in the first
> week. We're gonna see transmission for many, many more weeks to
> come. We have to prepare for that."

Quote:> "We do not know yet what the activity or the behaviour
> of this virus will be in different climatic conditions. We have to
> assume that the virus will continue to have the capacity to
> spread.

> It is a false hope to say yes it will just disappear in
> summertime, like influenza virus. ... There is no evidence right
> now to suggest that that will happen."

(03-10-2020, 09:33 AM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: P.S.: For those of you who enjoy thinking about apocalyptic scenarios
(and you know who you are), how about this one: Donald Trump and Joe
Biden are campaigning for president, and both of them die from Wuhan
Coronavirus this summer.

Guest Wrote:> A doctor speaking of the current novel virus mentioned that 20% of
> the adults under 50 in Kenya had AIDS. FFS. He mentioned that TB
> was out of conrol and largely incurable strains were circulating
> there and in other parts of black Africa (ahem, I mean
> 'sub-Saharan Africa) and that if the novel virus hot it it would
> be catastrophic. Ah, yeah. Well, at least their imperialist white
> masters won't be there to oppress them, but the whites will be the
> first ones they shout for when they are in trouble.

> In 2003 Zimbabwe was going through hyperinflation and mass
> starvation. With skyrocketing AIDS rates, TB, cholera, and
> everything else, life expectancy fell to 36. That's right,
> 36. Well, that is until the black government threw 'racist'
> international the agency in charge if determining life expectancy
> out of the country. Now the Zimbabwean government claims life
> expectancy is 72 or something like that.

• The number of US cases exceeds 1,000, eight times more than a
  week earlier, with 31 deaths.
  
  
• Seattle Washington is banning events with more than 250
  people.
  
  
• The number of cases in Massachusetts is 92, doubling in one
  day.
  
  
• Chancellor Angela Merkel said 60%-70% of Germans, 58 million
  people, will eventually become infected.
  
  
• More and more schools and businesses are closing, or asking people
  to work from home.
  
  
• The number of layoffs is growing.
  
  
• Iran is waking up to the disaster the country is facing.

(03-11-2020, 12:56 PM)Tim Randal Walker Wrote: > I was looking at an article about the Marburg virus. It has been
> discovered in bats in west Africa.

> How do you quarantine bats?

DaKardii Wrote:> John, in addition to China, there are two other regions that I
> think could explode this year because of coronavirus: The Balkans
> and the Middle East.

> In the Balkans, Greece and Turkey are moving dangerously close to
> war because of the migrant crisis at their border. Greece has
> deployed its military to all Turkish border outposts, and there
> have been reports of live ammunition being fired. Meanwhile, the
> Turkish military is assisting the migrants across the border and
> even arming them with tear gas canisters to use against Greek
> soldiers. It has also deployed drones to the border and is pushing
> back migrants trying to cross back into Turkey. Erdogan's
> government has been engaging in increasingly belligerent rhetoric
> towards not only Greece, but the entire continent of Europe, in
> response to this crisis. It could only be a matter of time before
> tensions escalate into a full-blown border conflict.

> Right now, there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in
> Turkey. But the border crisis has already escalated to this point
> without it. If/when the virus strikes Turkey, it likely
> will make the crisis much worse, as Turkey would then have a much
> greater incentive to remove the migrants from its
> territory.

Quote:> "There is no difference with what the Nazis did and
> the images from the border with Greece. To open fire, fire tear
> gas and use boiling water on innocent people whose only aim is to
> save their lives and build a better future for their children is
> barbaric in the true meaning of the word."

DaKardii Wrote:> As for the Middle East, the coronavirus played a central role in
> the breakdown in negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia over
> oil production. Saudi Arabia has responded by dramatically
> increasing its production, causing oil prices to plummet. This has
> created a lose-lose situation for Saudi Arabia. With the virus
> having crippled the global travel industry, global demand for oil
> will fall over the next few months. Saudi Arabia will then be
> stuck with an extremely large oil supply that's not being bought,
> which will drive prices down further. There is zero doubt that
> Saudi Arabia will suffer severe economic losses as a consequence
> of this decision. But that's not the end of it. Saudi Arabia's
> economy was already fragile to begin with, due to the previous oil
> price collapses of 2014-15, and massive debts incurred by its
> proxy wars against Iran. I've already mentioned on multiple
> occasions that the IMF has projected a Saudi bankruptcy by this
> year. And look where we are. The coronavirus may well be the event
> that sparks this bankruptcy.

> A Saudi bankruptcy would cause a severe disruption of the balance
> of power in the Middle East, likely severe enough to spark a major
> war.

FishbellykanakaDude Wrote:> Isn't the obvious thing for the US to do being to pay the shale
> oil companies a "stay alive" rate, while buying up a shitload of
> this "cheap overseas oil" and stashing it into the strategic
> reserve, until one (or both) of the "race to the bottom" oil
> producers can't sustain their production rates any longer?

> Why would we NOT save our production and reserve capability?

> Why would we buy expensive oil ("ours") when we could buy cheap
> oil ("theirs")?

> I'm sure I'm missing something, but it's probably just
> bureaucratic nonsense and BS.

> So, what am I missing?

• We have a free market economy. We sometimes bail out
  specific companies (like GM), but generally we don't bail out all
  companies in an entire industry.
  
  
• Many of the fracking companies are "malinvestments," and bailing
  them out would be throwing good money after bad. Remember
  Solyndra?
  
  
• In the US-China trade wars, one of the Chinese practices that
  we're saying must end is the government subsidizing entire industries,
  in order to undercut American manufacturers and producers. So we
  don't want to do what we're criticizing China for.

Quote:> “The ferocity of the sell-off reflects a massive swing
> in investor sentiment from complacency to panic,” said Paul
> O’Connor, head of multi-asset at Janus Henderson
> Investors. “Whereas just a few weeks ago, investors were
> anticipating a v-shaped recovery in global growth, they are now
> pricing in a high probability of a global recession.”

> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-11/asia-stocks-set-for-losses-dow-enters-bear-market-markets-wrap

Quote: "Early in 1959, and again in July 1959, officials in
Mao's government had begun to see that the program was failing.
Their objections were rewarded with punishment. Mao was
determined to follow his ideological course, no matter what else
happened. The result was disaster.

The individual peasants and managers were required to report the
size of the crop harvests up the line to the central government,
but there was no way to guarantee that the reports were accurate.

On the one hand, there was no economic incentive for the farmers
and managers to provide accurate reports, since everyone in a
socialist society is paid the same ("according to his need").

On the other hand, there was no independent check of the crop
harvest estimates. If the population had been much smaller, then
the central government might have been able to send out enough
bureaucrats to check the reports, or at least do spot checks. But
with a billion peasants, no such meaningful checks were possible.

For the farmers and managers themselves, there was plenty of
political incentive to overreport the crop harvest results.

As a result, even though actual crop yield in 1959 was a little
smaller than it had been in 1958, the crop reports added up to an
enormous increase in production, more than a doubling of output.

By the time that Chairman Mao was finally ready to accept the
situation, it was too late. There was too little food to feed
everyone, and tens of millions died of starvation."

Quote: "China Continues To Lie? China Says No New Coronavirus
Cases Nationwide Outside Of Hubei!

Source: Coronavirus News Mar 10, 2020 2 days ago

Coronavirus Updates: China government authorities today announced
that there was no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases
outside of Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, for the
third straight day, while major Chinese cities remained on alert
for imported infections.

Seriously? Out of a population of 1.4 billion Chinese, where in
the rural sites, people are filthy with no proper regards for
hygiene standards or social behavior.

Doctors in provinces like Helionjang, Xinjiang, Henan and Shanxi
are telling a different story. According to a stringer,there is an
ever increasing amount of patients coming in with respiratory
symptoms but doctors have been given guidelines as to what
medications to prescribe and to admit them if serious but not to
conduct any diagnostic tests directly involved with Covid-19! A
check with hospitals in 4 provinces also showed that Covid-19 test
kits are not available in any of these hospitals.

Health authorities and medical entities have been given strict
warnings not to talk to the media and foreign entities while local
media have been prohibited from reporting on any local health
issues except official releases sent out to them.

Acording to the stringer, the Chinese government in its cover ups
has also started a massive PR programme including paying an
American writer who has been residing in Shanghai for years with
his Chinese wife and adopted children to write a few fake
conspiracy theory articles claiming that the new coronavirus
originated from the US. The Chinese government is also spending a
lot in buying sponsored content and ads on various newspapers
worldwide including one despicable English media in Thailand to
promote China discreetly.

The Chinese authorities reported that there 19 new cases of
coronavirus infections on Monday (March 9), the National Health
Commission said on Tuesday, down from 40 cases a day earlier.

Of the new cases, 17 were in Wuhan, the provincial capital of
Hubei which is under lockdown, while one was in Beijing and one
other in Guangdong due to people arriving from abroad, according
to the health authority.

Besides that, there was no new cases nationwide besides Hubei for
the last 3 days and that all new cases were basically foreigners
bringing the virus into China!"

https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/china-continues-to-lie-china-says-no-new-coronavirus-cases-nationwide-outside-of-hubei-who-receives-us20-million-from-china-

(03-11-2020, 08:59 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: ** 11-Mar-2020 World View: NBA Season

The remainder of the NBA season has been suspended / canceled, because
one player tested positive for coronavirus.

Burner Prime Wrote:> Though initially, holding back, news orgs have opened up with both
> barrels, criticizing every move made by Trump and his
> administration in connection with the Cornonavirus, and how it
> could make or break his Presidency. At the same time, they give
> high praise to the senile pedophile Biden and his more
> "Presidential" response (Did he even write his statement?).

> The attitude of the press (or the puppet masters who give them
> their script) can signal one of two things: 1. They don't think
> Coronavirus is a serious threat and are now simply weaponizing it
> to gain political power 2. Coronavirus is serious and John is
> wrong about the behavior of modern populations in time of crisis

> I and others here have argued that if the US enters some
> existential crisis or WWIII begins, the US population will shred
> into pieces with left and right factions going into open conflict
> (as law enforcement is drained of resources or preoccupied), with
> Mexicans either A. Opting out of the fighting and heading south
> and/or B. Mexico annexes southern parts of the US as part of the
> Aztlan plan while the US is exhausted and otherwise unable to
> control the South. Any other smaller ethic immigrant populations
> will bail out or join one of the two major factions, or get mowed
> down.

> John has argued that in time of crisis, the US will all unite
> behind Trump (or whoever is President) regardless of race or creed
> or national origin as they have in the past.

> I don't think the past serves as any kind of predictor as to how
> the US population will behave because the demographics are nothing
> like they were in WWI or WWII. Foreign recent-immigrant
> populations have no stake in the outcome or existence of America,
> only in what they can extract from her. Few to none will fight and
> die to defend it, but many will gleefully pick over her corpse
> when the dust settles.

> So either Coronavirus is seen as no big deal by the puppet masters
> and it's back to normal, using every weapon at their disposal to
> discredit Trump and his team in order to take power, or the
> Coronavirus threat is real, the economic devastation is real - but
> none of that really matters, the value of life has approached
> zero, they scorch the Earth - and end up the party in
> power.