Well yeah the couple formerly known as royal must pay for their own security if they live here. Have they even heard of that little dust up in 1776? Does every refugee think America owes them support?
Actually, this is one reason that I cherish the game Monopoly. It gives me a pleasure that only the co-opting of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." as a patriotic anthem can match.
Bureaucracy hampers responses in crises and endangers lives. Our bureaucracy hoarded the most precious commodity of all in an emergency--time. And I'm pretty sure it--at least in the bloated form it is in now--doesn't save lives in ordinary times, quite honestly.
Is this anecdotal or are liberals suddenly seeing the value of personal firearms ownership? Tip to Instapundit.
The Trump Hysteria Condition is strong in this one.
I periodically note that judging the Wuhan Flu seriousness and our response is outside of my lane. Apparently the experts have little more certainty. Which is fine. I don't pretend to be able to predict what is going to happen overseas even if I am very familiar with the situation. Knowing what you don't know is better than not knowing what you don't know. But you still don't know.
France First! How nuanced.
The empire strike out: Italians are not pleased by how the European Union responded to Italy's requests for help during the Wuhan Flu crisis. My advice is to get out now while the EU is still a proto-empire. If the Italians don't like how the proto-empire failed to help them, they'll like it even less when the empire refuses to let Italy seek help from outside the empire lest it make Brussels look bad. We and the British should be encouraging this discontent. Neither America nor Britain has an interest in allowing a hostile power to gain control of Europe's economic, military, and scientific potential. Tip to Instapundit.
Zumwalt will join the fleet. We'll see if it is a stealthy ship killer. It certainly looks awesome.
Is Yemen the first Wuhan Flu ceasefire? Remember, a ceasefire locks in the pro-Iran Houthi position for a while. Please don't mistake this pause for peace.
Fake news.
I'd say this is contrary to the spirit of the massive epidemic response spending act, but who am I kidding? For many the act was just an excuse to reward friends.
I am not breaking this possibility to my son.
I remember our governor from when I worked for the state legislature. My memory is that she was liberal but I had no bad impression of her. Now I have a bad impression of her. Oh, she said never mind.
I'm no expert, but I think his opinion might signal a long bull stock market run. I'm not sure what area of narrow expertise he won accolades for, but this isn't it.
So the stories on the Whitmer-Trump feud were basically BS? Even if President Trump didn't want to talk to Governor Whitmer because Trump thought Whitmer was being political, the vast federal bureaucracy was still talking to the state people on the crisis. Very few things need to be done at the president-to-governor level. The whole kerfuffle smacked of politics to me.
Thank God Nancy Pelosi took the Wuhan Flu seriously early on--unlike that anti-science dolt Trump who restricted travel to China early on because he's racist! Good point: "[Trump decided to limit travel between America and China] at a time the CDC was assuring us the risk to America was low, the WHO was covering for China, Democrats were trying to impeach the president, and Biden was attacking the decision as xenophobic."
A reminder that sophisticated and nuanced Europe focused on luxury BS issues while the Wuhan Flu burrowed into Europe: "In the midst of this festival of frivolity, harsh reality landed in Europe. In just ten days, we discovered that neither the tampon issue, nor the participation of transsexuals in the Olympic Games, nor the climate emergency were real problems, nor emergencies, nor anything of the sort. They were just fictitious problems, the pastimes of a generation that hadn’t known tragedy." How long after this is over will the Europeans debate which gender each victim of the Wuhan Flu should be counted as? Not very long at all, I'm afraid.
Remember the woman who got a lot of media attention because of the false claim her husband died because he took a drug touted by Trump to cure the Wuhan Flu? Recall that he did not take that medicine but instead took a fish tank cleaning chemical. That didn't stop the stories. Yeah, that woman has donated a lot of money to Democrats. Perhaps she didn't want to waste her husband's death if it could help the cause. Actually, it is hard to blame a woman in her grief lashing out at someone else for blame no matter how wrong. The real blame is for the media that couldn't bother itself to check the details before running with the story. Remember, if isn't Fake News if you you believe it is true (tip to Instapundit).
Adding the Wuhan Flu to the already raging Trump Hysteria Condition is truly a horrible mix.
"This is the World Health Organization! We can't have healthy policy practitioners here!"
Is the Wuhan Flu giving organized crime in southern Italy the chance to gain strength in the absence of state help? The EU that has refused to help makes the mafia look good by comparison, I suppose.
Could world efforts to stop the Wuhan Flu have saved a lot of people from a lot of regular flu deaths? Face it, this will be a tough one to debate. Lock down saves lives for the Wuhan Flu, regular flu, traffic deaths, rock climbing deaths, etc. Suicides will almost surely be up from loss of jobs and businesses and general stress, plus loss of health care treatment from the Wuhan Flu monopolizing health worker responses is bound to cause problems. And perhaps our current crisis will lead to better habits that pay off in future regular flu seasons.
When you know without a doubt that Orange Man Bad, it is easy to believe we've always been at war with
France will rapidly produce more face masks and respirators to combat the Wuhan Flu. Wait. What? Just now France is going to do that? I thought those sophisticated science-based Europeans with national health care systems were way ahead of backward Americans.
Once again, let me remind the hopeful idiots: Capitalism doesn't cause greed. People cause greed. What free market capitalism does is create a lot more stuff to be greedy about. Tip to Instapundit.
I see we have new nominees for the Darwin Awards. Really, I see no way that could turn out badly, eh?
Erdogan has resisted locking down his country to fight the Wuhan Flu. While he is right that the economy is also important, I've figured that trying to keep the economy running before halting the coronavirus will just lead to a lot of deaths and a wrecked economy. And with more dead people, it will be much harder to restart the economy.
If America's media survives intact from the Wuhan Flu given their horrible performance in covering it--with a pillow, until it stops moving, as Iowahawk quipped--I'll be very disappointed in the American people.
The Michigan National Guard will be used to help staff food banks in Ann Arbor, Comstock Park, Flint, and Pontiac.
Strategypage looks at China and its neighborhood in relation to the Wuhan Flu. It is interesting that one Chinese province used police to forcefully block a reopened provincial border as decreed by Peking.
Russia has a new mobile S-350 SAM system based on the S-400. I wonder if they can afford to buy many?
It may seem odd that I simply don't go into stores these days. I think March 22nd was the last day I did that. Although I did go get a pizza at the start of the business day on March 29th. Nor have I seen anybody since March 21st but my kids or my mom briefly to deliver groceries. And I honestly worry about my kids since they are with their mom who isn't nearly as careful about social distancing as I'd like. Although she is a longtime germ enemy. But I don't know if that is enough when a single stray hole is all you need to wreck the virus blockade. Perhaps I was foolish to get a pizza. Remember, it is dangerous to have the attitude that you might as well get the virus now and get it over with. Getting it later means the virus may mutate to a less lethal variety--as they usually do; that our health facilities will get past the initial surge and be better prepared to treat you; and that the treatments they have are better and more available. Heck, some lucky percentage will avoid it altogether until a vaccine is available. Buy yourself time. That's a valuable thing.
The entire premise of this article is wrong: "China’s growing self-confidence should worry America. The country just celebrated another day without community spread of the Wuhan flu." I don't think that China has contained the Wuhan Flu. But it is certainly possible that the CCP leadership believes they did. But that can't last if China does not have the coronavirus under control. Still, a longstanding worry of mine is that China's leaders will act on the mistaken belief that they are stronger than they really are. So even if the premise of that article is wrong, my worry is stoked by the author.
Wow! Somebody called for Gloria Dunn again last week! It's either a scammer or the world's worst debt collector because she's been dead for some time now. You may recall that I've had many, many years of debt collectors calling and writing me about her, hoping I could tell them where she is on the assumption that I was her son. The state of Michigan even called looking to get back money that they said I received for her post-death. That was the first time I worried I might have a real world problem with her. I was able to clear that up pretty quickly actually, and the state confirmed her status as an Ex-problem--with no affiliation with me!--pining for the fjords. God help me but given that I thought she'd outlive me I did not mourn that woman's passing because of all the annoyance she gave me over the years. Unless she faked it and is on a beach somewhere sipping Mojitos. But at least she probably has a new name and is bugging someone else as she racks up more debt.
Heck, I'm an enthusiastic Trump voter for 2020 and I'm basically anti-anti-Trump. I'm in that awkward spot of growing up working class and living college educated. I no longer fit in the former world and I cannot fully accept the latter world as it is now configured. I will not ever forgive the Democratic Party and their media phalanx allies for demonizing Trump voters relentlessly for nearly four years now. Broken glass or Wuhan Flu will be no obstacle.
Journalists think they are the real victims of the Wuhan Flu? Please. Twitter already largely erased the need to actually talk to sources or even leave the office to generate stories (if not "news"). And now the Wuhan Flu has erased the need to even dress and go to the office. This is freaking Nirvana for those ill-educated dim bulbs.
Have we gone overboard in responding to the Wuhan Flu. I don't know. It's possible. But I doubt it. It is also possible that our reaction has had enough good results to allow people to ask if we overreacted.
Boeing makes it really hard to be enthusiastic about saving them.
When someone the media doesn't like expresses faith in God, the media mocks them. You'll notice that when Speaker Pelosi spoke of her faith, the media shut the Hell up. Perhaps they don't believe Pelosi was sincere.
China's spacecraft can dock with the International Space Station, leading Instapundit to joke about space marines. I hope we aren't joking about space marines. And yeah, I hope we call the units SMOD.
McConnell could be right, I suppose. But I think it is far more likely that the impeachment trial was too early in the Wuhan Flu issue to have mattered to a government response. Now, what I think would have hurt our response a lot would have been an impeachment trial conviction that potentially threw our federal government into transition chaos during a critical time. And I have no doubt at all that the media was too distracted by the impeachment trial to cover the budding pandemic.
Officials in California early on spoke of a Wuhan Flu disaster looming over the state. It seems they may have dodged a bullet. Washington state, too, it seems. Kudos to them if this holds. But it seems odd. And it seems especially odd that the vast homeless population in California didn't have a wildfire of the virus sweep through them. But if this holds, it's a good odd. Fingers crossed for both of them.
We gave the federal government great powers with the FISA surveillance process in order to protect us from foreign terrorist threats. And the federal government abused that trust to target domestic foes. And the conclusion in the New York Times is that this disproves accusations that the FBI targeted Trump because the FBI targeted everyone? Seriously? Democracy dies in partisanship.
Good Lord. Are the numbers of Wuhan Flu dead in Europe going to climb from previously uncounted dead? Tip to Instapundit.
We're still working on Venezuela's Maduro, and have asked the legitimate president Guaido to suspend his claim to the office for now to see if we can ease Maduro out.
Even during the Wuhan Flu pandemic crisis, people are still pushing Peak Stupid higher.
Europe finds that a lot of the pandemic equipment it got from China were defective and of more use to China's propaganda offensive than for fighting the Wuhan Flu.
Over 30,000 have died in Europe from the Wuhan Flu. Given the pretense of the EU to being the imperial government, isn't it appropriate to compare America to Europe as a whole? Or should we just break out our states to compare them to countries in Europe? And with this death toll in Europe, are we really going with the story that China's toll is about 10% of that despite being the first country with it and given that it spread in CCP-imposed secrecy with little knowledge about how to combat the virus?
Sweden is apparently taking a Wuhan Flu response strategy more like Brazil's. That "do what you want" approach will be a fascinating point of comparison when this is over. But I heard subsequently that they changed their mind.
Former president Obama offered his opinion on Trump's environmental policies during the Wuhan Flu. There is only one response:
But at least Mayor De Blasio can get the Obama stamp of approval. Tip to Instapundit.
The Wuhan Flu has appeared in Congo (formerly Zaire) even as Ebola remains a latent threat. And don't expect fighting to die down to fight the viruses.
I'm pretty sure Bernie's "path" to the Democratic presidential nomination is Biden catching the Wuhan Flu and Sanders avoiding it. Although to be fair, the Wuhan Flu might kill Biden's chances even if Biden never has a single sniffle.
I value Egypt as an ally even as I avert my eyes from their government. But some things have to be punished, and the death of an American citizen in their custody is one of those things. Egypt has some explaining to do. Quickly.
Sh*t just got real for the Left. Honestly, what is she thinking? Tip to Instapundit.
Do you wonder why I'm so firmly anti-anti-Trump? Tip to Instapundit.
A reminder of the Barbary War and the religious hatred of America (and Europe) long before Bush 43 was elected. I actually wrote an article about the war more than two decades ago that I recently discovered is recently online. Nobody talks about Islam's long history of taking Christian slaves as an "original sin" that will forever taint the religion. Why do they (the jihadis) hate us, indeed. Why do they hate. Full stop, is the better question. Maybe we need a 1530 Project.
I have such a big heart that I think it would be a crime to pull her out of a worker's paradise with free health care for all. Enjoy you life choices, ma'am. Tip to Instapundit.
Keep an eye on Hungary. It is a potential chink in NATO's armor vulnerable to Putin's meddling, I think. Although as I've noted a number of times, the center-left media generally calls any party to the right of center-right latent fascists. So I don't assume that reports on Hungary are more than mildly worrisome depending on how it goes forward.
It seemed unlikely to me that China's Wuhan Flu death toll is so low given they were the first to be hit, they delayed responding to keep it quiet, and measures to treat the coronavirus were even more in their infancy. It seems that the evidence that China is still lying about the virus with their death toll numbers is correct. More here. China deserves little praise in this issue.
There is a political divide on the Wuhan Flu. Personally, I'm worried the Wuhan Flu could be very bad if we don't respond effectively; but I do worry that the damage from the response could be greater than we hope or need to endure. I just don't know.
By all means, I think jihadis should exploit the Wuhan Flu and gather together to plot against the Infidels. And demonstrate their superior faith by licking mosque doors. Our WebOps guys can get online to encourage stuff like that, right? I mean, I prefer LeadOps, but in this case we might get more "good" jihadis for the buck.
For the record I don't think Trump's early response in retrospect was that good--other than the travel ban for China. He has gotten better. And when you look at how the other countries in the world have responded poorly, grading on a curve makes him look better. And when you consider whether Democrats and the media would have jumped on him for reacting seriously early by accusing him of finally proving he is a dictator at heart, that factors in on the judgment.
The Wuhan Flu is hacking at the existing fissures between "north" and "south" as Italy and Spain reel under the impact of trying to contain the epidemic. The EU doesn't seem terribly interested in helping. I have to wonder if the EU will be better in negotiating the finalized terms of Brexit with bigger problems than punishing Britain at hand.
Let's hope we don't have more of this kind of crazy, okay?
Our special forces are evolving in organization and missions.
SOUTHCOM has been ordered to double down on interdicting drugs to pressure the drug cartels and Maduro's illegal government, where this is much overlap.
Don't forget that Taiwan is a good and responsible member of the international community that the sainted formal international community does not recognize. China's rulers would snuff out that lamp of freedom if they think they have a chance.
And the Chinese propaganda>useful American idiots>Chinese propaganda circle is complete.
To combat the Wuhan Flu, Russia ordered most employees to stay home for the rest of the month. Putin really wants to resolve that oil war with Saudi Arabia to afford that.
People who used to use toilet paper at work, or otherwise away from home, are now only using it at home: "In short, the toilet paper industry is split into two, largely separate markets: commercial and consumer. The pandemic has shifted the lion’s share of demand to the latter. People actually do need to buy significantly more toilet paper during the pandemic — not because they’re making more trips to the bathroom, but because they’re making more of them at home. With some 75% of the U.S. population under stay-at-home orders, Americans are no longer using the restrooms at their workplace, in schools, at restaurants, at hotels, or in airports." Institutional toilet paper is very different from home toilet paper. This makes me feel much better about people in general. And it is something that didn't occur to me. But I didn't really appreciate that there are two supply chains for two kinds of products for two markets. And I'm kicking myself for not making that observation. Tip to Instapundit.
The North Koreans have a problem of figuring out who is loyal.
Pelosi has set up a committee to provide oversight on the $2 trillion Wuhan Flu coping package. Which is her right and duty. Although historically oversight is not a duty that Congress likes to carry out (it's boring and there is little credit compared to working on new spending). And Pelosi created it. Which makes me suspicious that it is just a stealth impeachment--or campaign contribution to the Democratic presidential nominee. We'll see, I suppose. Keep in mind that the 2009 stimulus package was no such thing. It was a left-wing spending wish list packaged up as an economy rescue package. Obama got away with that with a flippant comment years later about how there actually weren't the shovel-ready projects as he originally claimed the stimulus would fund. That admission just got some chuckles:
But not investigations or damning media obsession. So you just know the Democrats are just one step away from accusing Trump of colluding with the Wuhan Flu.
The Marines think that things with armor are less survivable than lighter stuff? I don't think the Marines could be more wrong about the value of armor.
You know, one unique strength that Trump brings to the Wuhan Flu response is his basic goal of helping blue collar workers as Democrats went upscale in their concerns and abandoned that traditional party concern. In an age when we need health care workers (and not just the doctors who already had social status in the coastal-established social order) and blue care workers to survive this crisis, having those people feel the president has their back has got to be a good morale boost that will sustain the logistics backbone of basic survival until we get through this.
The first Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) will be based in Japan.
The economist who thinks the Wuhan Flu is a chance for China's communist rulers to build trust must have just come back from a 3-month cleanse in the desert away from the Internet. China cannot be trusted for anything, and the only people who continue to trust China despite their record are fan boys and girls who cannot be alienated by anything China does.
I would like Trump to end his public sparring with Michigan's Governor Whitmer. But I'd also like Whitmer to stop auditioning for Biden's VP slot by attacking Trump.
The United States paid for the Russian propaganda flight of Wuhan Flu supplies to America.
The Afghanistan government and the Taliban are discussing details of a prisoner sway that is part of the so-called peace deal.
Last week I mentioned the embarrassing troop losses that Nigeria and Chad endured at the hands of jihadis. Nigeria announced a "massive" offensive against the jihadis along with Chad and Niger. What the offensive needs to be is persistent if it isn't just a massive public relations ploy to counter the image of jihadis slaughtering troops.
Russia could have chosen to be helpful to Italy during their Wuhan Flu crisis and get some good media coverage. Or Russia could take advantage of the crisis to do a little mischief. You'll never guess what Putin chose.
I've mentioned that undo faith in God in the face of the Wuhan Flu is rather stupid. This applies to any religious faith, of course.
Perhaps people will stop claiming America would have avoided Wuhan Flu problems if we had universal or nationalized health care like sophisticated Europeans. Actually, I'm pretty sure that fans here of that approach will simply say that any European country failing in this epidemic didn't have "true" nationalized universal health care.
You know that this is reflects morale in the Biden campaign, right?
In the cyber-world of botnets.
Canada has deployed its volunteer Rangers to its far north for Wuhan Flu response; and anticipates deploying other troops in their south. Many troops are under preventive quarantine in anticipation of firefighting and coronavirus duty. The use of volunteers highlights the almost non-existent capabilities of Canada's military to operate in their own north.
The League of Revolutionaries, a group that is likely a front for Iranian-controlled militias in Iraq, issued an elaborate threat to the American embassy in Iraq.
The United States military is directing engineer and medical units to build and staff temporary hospitals to deal with the Wuhan Flu in the civilian world.
Tom Friedman still covers for China. You may recall he loves their "reasonably enlightened" one-man rule. I stopped linking to Friedman when he thought Russia's invasion of Crimea was a wonderful opportunity to push forward Green objectives. I've long thought little of the man's analysis--you can easily generate it 90% of it (sadly the linked site is now dead). I'd often say that I'm not saying you can't drown in a pool of his wisdom. but you would have to be drunk and face down to do so. After he threw Ukraine under the bus I just thought of him as a monster.
There is a private group trying to collapse the North Korean regime. They are playing with people who will kill to win. It's behind a pay wall. I wonder how totally private it is?
You may recall this guy.
We mocked him too soon with all the recent official talk of putting any cloth barrier over your mouth and nose to guard against the Wuhan Flu. Prescient, he was.
How many employers or graduate schools will put much value in a student's "Wuhan 'A'"? Tip to Instapundit.
An idea so crazy it just might work! Tip to Instapundit. Honestly, I miss Headline News before it went away from its rolling news format. A lot. I didn't know it still existed in its unrecognizable evolved format.
Yeah, don't wear a red shirt during this epidemic.
And another one that struck me as funny:
As a number of high profile Democrats bizarrely mock Trump for America's Wuhan Flu death toll compared to China's, what exactly is China's death toll, anyway? We still don't know the body count of the 1989 Tienanmen Square massacre. We may need the death of the Chinese Communist Party before we know either number for sure.
How do you social distance on a New York City subway? You can't. And that's a problem.
Apparently, a French jihadi is a little jealous of the Wuhan Flu's body count and all the attention the virus is getting. I'm sure he figured social distancing was an Islamophobic measure to keep him from stabbing people, and he was having none of that.
Ecuador is being hit with a surge of Wuhan Flu deaths.
South Korea is trying to get back to normal but there is an increase in Wuhan Flu cases now. Which is to be expected, I assume, once people are out again. The key--again I assume--is to identify where the cases are and try to contain the outbreaks locally and so allow life (and the economy) to go on. Fingers crossed.
So Detroit will probably peak in deaths in a week, per the model being used. Fingers crossed.
Honestly, I'm not terribly stressed out at all during the Wuhan Flu lockdown. Mind you, I take this very seriously even as I wonder if we might have overreacted. I don't think we have. But I'm no expert. And I fully realize that if our reaction is why the worst case didn't happen that many will use the lack of a worst case to "prove" we overreacted. They'll be wrong with that logic but the argument will be made. I do have the advantage of not worrying in the short run about money. That's a major thing. And I can social distance for the most part. But if you've read this blog you also know I've long been a "work the problem" kind of man. I'm working the problem. And maybe my Cold War era Army chemical warfare training with all its anal retentive procedures and scary videos on how one dies from nerve gas has made me think this is a comparative walk in the park. Anyway, stay safe out there.
Based on further reading I am leaving coats and N95 masks in paper bags for 3+ days rather than using plastic bags. I had initially seen masks being put in plastic ziplock bags after use for re-use. But now I'm reading that paper bags would be better for letting the Wuhan Flu virus die over time. Oh well. You go with the information you have at the time and not future better information.
An Australian gives an extensive "ef you commie wankers" to the Chinese Communist Party for their complaints about the Daily Telegraph's coverage of the Wuhan Flu, which originated in China and which spread widely in part to Chinese Communist Party lies. Tip to Instapundit.
