Hi there, !
Today Fri 04/24/2020 Thu 04/23/2020 Wed 04/22/2020 Tue 04/21/2020 Mon 04/20/2020 Sun 04/19/2020 Sat 04/18/2020 Archives
Rantburg
533552 articles and 1861510 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 70 articles and 387 comments as of 21:52.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
North Korea's Kim Jong Un in grave danger
after surgery, or so they ay
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 19:05 Raj [4] 
1 23:29 trailing wife [9] 
5 15:23 Clem [4] 
3 19:01 SteveS [8] 
5 21:38 Angotle Hupoluque3465 [3] 
14 21:42 Clem [5] 
7 17:13 Bobby [3] 
3 08:55 John Frum [4] 
16 16:46 Clem [4] 
7 19:00 ruprecht [8] 
7 16:37 Bobby [4] 
5 15:21 Bobby [8] 
6 21:03 Clem [6] 
9 16:43 Lex [6] 
6 20:25 trailing wife [5] 
10 22:43 Chris [8] 
19 12:10 Abu Uluque [11] 
5 19:08 magpie [9] 
2 07:56 lord garth [5] 
7 10:10 g(r)omgoru [6] 
6 09:03 Raj [3] 
0 [4] 
4 07:04 DooDahMan [5] 
8 16:57 JohnQC [3] 
1 05:41 Clem [4] 
3 04:32 BrerRabbit [2] 
5 17:45 JohnQC [3] 
23 20:17 swksvolFF [9] 
3 09:14 lord garth [4] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
4 19:53 jpal [8]
0 [15]
0 []
0 [5]
2 22:38 Chris [5]
0 [7]
0 [7]
1 09:13 Frank G [11]
0 [3]
0 [9]
0 [13]
0 [7]
1 08:19 Mullah Richard [15]
0 [15]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [7]
0 [1]
1 13:09 magpie [15]
Page 4: Opinion
16 22:35 Lex [4]
11 18:25 Mullah Richard [2]
7 17:21 JohnQC [9]
7 20:13 trailing wife [9]
1 06:25 g(r)omgoru [2]
9 21:51 Thorong Grundy1520 [6]
2 10:14 g(r)omgoru [6]
3 14:57 gorb [9]
2 09:41 Matt [7]
6 15:24 Clem [5]
2 14:42 49 Pan [6]
11 23:16 Clem [6]
9 14:16 M. Murcek [2]
18 14:31 charger [9]
10 17:10 JohnQC [7]
1 13:52 rjschwarz [9]
Page 6: Politix
2 18:31 Lex []
5 22:50 SteveS [2]
4 17:07 JohnQC [3]
8 18:17 AlmostAnonymous5839 [10]
5 15:03 Skidmark [1]
16 17:07 Lex [8]
14 20:00 Regular joe [8]
5 22:29 Lex [5]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Iraqi woman, 20, is pictured writhing in pain on her hospital bed 'after being set alight by her abusive husband' before dying of her injuries
[Daily Mail]
  • Malak Haider al-Zubaidi, 20, died in Iraqi hospital on Saturday from severe burns

  • She was allegedly beaten and set alight by her husband, an Iraqi policeman

  • Her family say she was banned from seeing them for eight months before attack

  • Husband denied the attack, saying Malak was mentally ill and set herself alight
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Minnesota man, 27, 'killed 19-year-old girl, dismembered her body in his garage and disposed of the remains in garbage dumpsters'
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  wo additional witnesses who were interviewed both told officers that Broad had admitted he was responsible for killing and dismembering Avery, KVLY reports.

Speachless.
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  A pinhead. Not a lot going on up there.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 1:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Flatlands farming region. Would be interested in hearing the backstory. The idea that he would talk to his friends or neighbors about the murder makes me wonder. Pure evil or guilt.

From his mugshot I'm guessing the former.
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 6:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Looks like that dude from Law & Order.
Posted by: DooDahMan || 04/21/2020 7:04 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Ohio man, 60, who blasted COVID-19 lockdown as 'political ploy' and said stay-at-home orders were 'b*****t' dies after contracting coronavirus
John W. McDaniel, 60, died on Wednesday at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio
On Facebook, McDaniel called the virus a 'political ploy' and told followers: 'Prove me wrong'
He tested positive for the virus weeks later and died on April 15
McDaniel worked for 38 years for his family's industrial manufacturing company
His obituary says he battled cancer in the 1980s before he married his wife
It is unclear if he had underlying health conditions which might have led to his death
Thousands protested in Ohio on Monday against the state's ongoing lockdown
Ohio has recorded 12,516 cases and has 491 deaths since the pandemic began
The state has a population of 11,689,100 and many feel the order is unnecessary
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 10:12 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We can't think of it as "evolution in action", because he wasn't going to reproduce anymore.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 10:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I can happen to anyone.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 10:53 Comments || Top||

#3  /\ *It can....
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  The Fickle Finger of Fate strikes again.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/21/2020 10:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Gotta love an old "Laugh-In" line!
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 11:00 Comments || Top||

#6  On the other hand are we going to see those who want a shutdown for flu and die getting similar media attention this winter.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/21/2020 11:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Arkencide, to make the Election Stealer look worse.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 17:13 Comments || Top||


Former Playboy Playmate Ashley Mattingly dead at 33
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Suici- COVID-caused, no doubt
Posted by: Lex || 04/21/2020 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  'Green Acres' star Tom Lester dead at 81

RIP. a good man.

Thomas William Lester, an American actor and evangelist best known as Eb Dawson on the television series "Green Acres," has died. He was 81. Lester died of complications from Parkinson's Disease on April 20, 2020 in the Nashville, Tennessee home of his fiancée and long-term caregiver Jackie Peters.
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 0:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Perhaps one suicide/OD with many more to follow.

RIP, Tom Lester.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 0:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Although no official cause of death has been determined, Billy and Christy, however, reportedly told the outlet that Mattingly "took her own life" on Wednesday

So, yes: Covid
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 9:18 Comments || Top||

#5  The family claims that the state's shelter-in-place order amid the coronavirus pandemic did not help Mattingly, who recently adopted a 9-month-old puppy "to help with her loneliness."

Eh, she had already chosen to live in Austin, so:

One flu over the cuckoo's nest.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/21/2020 15:12 Comments || Top||

#6  On Monday, a spokesperson for the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office said that any toxicology or autopsy into Mattingly's official cause of death could take anywhere from 30 to 90 days.

I'm already caring too much, but, be that as it may. But you mean to tell me that it takes 30-90 days to determine the "official cause of death"? Or, is that how long it takes for everybody to get their story straight?
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 15:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Well she was getting on in years.
Posted by: Joe Biden || 04/21/2020 15:18 Comments || Top||

#8  One flu over the cuckoo's nest.

swksvolFF is a strong contender for S.O.D.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/21/2020 16:57 Comments || Top||


Holocaust survivor who escaped Nazi concentration camp 'death march' dies of coronavirus aged 96 in Israel
[Daily Mail]
  • Eliezer Grynfeld died in Israel last week, the country's remembrance centre said

  • As a teenager he was taken to the Nazis' Sachsenhausen concentration camp

  • He escaped captivity during a 'death march' and later emigrated to Israel
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sad, like all the deaths from this virus. But, another elderly person dying from a flu/virus...not a surprise.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 5:41 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Can the coronavirus be spread through flatulence?
[NYP] The smell may be hell but the mist could leave you pissed.

Two Australian doctors are weighing in about the spread of the coronavirus "down under" — whether it can be spread through farts, that is.

During Friday’s episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s "Coronacast," podcast, producer and host Dr. Norman Swan made a cautionary suggestion when it comes to particles of feces set adrift within a fart and the spread of COVID-19.

"No bare-bottom farting," Swan advised about posterior pandemic panic, in a measured, mildly amused tone.

"Luckily, we wear a mask, which covers our farts all the time," Swan said, referring to the protective aspects of pants, shorts, dresses, underwear and other garments. "I think that what we should do in terms of social distancing and being safe is that ... you don’t fart close to other people, and that you don’t fart with your bottom bare."

Meanwhile, Australian emergency physician Dr. Andy Tagg also floated the question via Twitter, asking, "So, can the bottom-based emissions of someone with coronavirus be silent and deadly?"
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 06:34 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Saw an article y'day that said air spread was via droplets, not aerosol. So assuming the farter is wearing pants and the fartee doesn't have his/her nose near the farters butt, it should be safe.

BTW__ continuing y'days thread... stories like this are why I still hit Drudge once a day.... no other reason
Posted by: Mercutio || 04/21/2020 8:34 Comments || Top||

#2  What if I light my farts? Flame's gonna kill it, right?
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  unfair dinkum, mate
Posted by: Lex || 04/21/2020 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  farts = origination of social distancing...
Posted by: Tennessee || 04/21/2020 11:17 Comments || Top||

#5  At Oak Ridge we were required to call them Human Bioefluent Emissions
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/21/2020 14:30 Comments || Top||

#6  BTW__ continuing y'days thread... stories like this are why I still hit Drudge once a day.... no other reason

Probably the only reason anyone clicks on them anymore.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 14:49 Comments || Top||

#7  I bet this clown saw the study about the virus in the sewerage in Boston, and applied his magical, mystical thought powers to determine it could be transmitted through aerosolized ... fecal matter.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 16:37 Comments || Top||


Tom Hanks' wife Rita Wilson reveals ‘extreme' side effects of chloroquine as she describes couple's coronavirus recovery
[Independent] Rita Wilson, the actress married to Tom Hanks who was diagnosed with Covid-19 along with her husband in March, has described "extreme" side effects she suffered due to a controversial drug in a new interview.
Oh no, Rita! We feel terrible for you! How bad was it? Was the cure worse than the disease?
The drug, touted by some — including Donald Trump in multiple White House press briefings — as a potential coronavirus treatment, is called hydrochloroquine, and is typically used in malaria cases. It has not yet been proven to treat Covid-19, though several anecdotal reports claim patients have recovered from the novel virus after using the antimalarial treatment.
Surely, Rita, given your extreme experience, and the fact that others might have extreme side effects maybe 10% of the time they are put on this regimen for a few days, we should probably have waited until all the lengthy studies of these safe drugs have been completed and Rumplestiltskin the FDA has approved these things after they have fully awakened from one of their hibernations.
The actress said she could not be sure whether the drug helped her or not — though it caused "extreme side effects" that continued even as her body temperature was declining.
And if you had it all to do over again, I'm sure you would never take that evil drug ever again!
"I know people have been talking about this drug ... but I can only tell you that I don’t know if the drug worked or if it was just time for the fever to break", Ms Wilson told CBS’ Gayle King in an interview that aired on Tuesday morning.
You mean the fever that can lead to death? That fever?
"My fever did break, but the chloroquine had such extreme side effects," She said. "I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak."
Err, you mean how I usually feel before I have to get up and go to work? That kind of extreme? Poor baby.
"I think people have to be very considerate about that drug," she added. "We don’t really know if it’s helpful in this case."
You mean the case where you didn't know if you were going to die or not? Well, next time why don't you wait until you know the answer, then take it if you need to.
Mr Hanks did not experience as severe of symptoms, according to Ms Wilson. He was the guest of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and filmed the show’s opening monologue from the couple’s home in California. They returned to Los Angeles after recovering from the coronavirus at a hospital in Australia, where they were visiting for work.
Did Mr. Hanks symptoms involve a lot of eye-rolling every time he heard his wife talk?
Ms Wilson told CBS she felt "very tired, extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched" after contracting the disease in March.
Surely the drug's fault, therefore Trump's. And diligently respun and reported by some reporter with TDS.
Now that the couple has recovered from the virus, they have remained in self-isolation and donated their blood for an antibodies study as health officials race to develop a vaccine.
A real cure! A cure that will take lots of time and cost billions upon billions of dollars! A cure that people will have to come back for every year after the vaccine wears off! (That cure?)
Ms Wilson added that she and Mr Hanks feel "completely normal" and no longer have any remaining symptoms, according to Ms King.
Apparently HCQ cures TDS in some, but not in others. If only some scientists could figure out what the correlations are.
There are nearly 550,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US, and at least 21,662 people have died nationwide due to the novel virus. Health officials have warned those figures are likely higher due to significant issues the country faced in distributing testing kits.
And nothing to do with the fact that we had to develop accurate tests and mass produce them while fighting a bunch of liberals who were doing their best to trash talk potential treatments and leverage events into pushing the US towards their version of Utopia.
Ms Wilson and Mr Hanks were believed to have contracted the virus in the US or while travelling to Australia and not somewhere where they weren't, where they were quarantined for two weeks at the hospital
where 10% of the cases are terminal
before recovering and returning home.
And fortunately for Rita, Darwin doesn't seem to care if you are grateful or not.
Posted by: Whirt Angeamp1291 || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bitching about having her life saved because,,, Trump.
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  "I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak."

Sorta like flu symptoms, right? Putz.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 0:27 Comments || Top||

#3  These people have to be the biggest g.d. morons on the planet. Amazing.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 0:30 Comments || Top||

#4  #3 These people have to be the biggest g.d. morons on the planet.

That would be the people who admire them and follow their lead.
Posted by: charger || 04/21/2020 0:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Like the same people who vote a certain way each & every time.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 0:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Full disclosure: I posted this article from a new browser and forgot to update the nym.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 1:58 Comments || Top||

#7  "I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak."

Yet soldiers had to fight across the Pacific like this and with Malaria, not in some 5 star hospital.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 1:59 Comments || Top||

#8  ^very impressive knowledge. My father had malaria while in the South Pacific. His teeth were also ground down half way to the gums as a result of experiencing 3 and 1/2 years of battle field stress in the South Pacific. .
Posted by: Varmint Splat1454 || 04/21/2020 2:52 Comments || Top||

#9  tl;dr: She didn't die. The drug *might* have worked. OrangeManBad.
(although they wouldn't give it to her in the first place unless she was pretty sick)
Posted by: SteveS || 04/21/2020 3:05 Comments || Top||

#10  Often given in tandem with a antibiotic, ariz-something-something that does have pretty bad side effects, like heart damage. Some are recommending using doxy-something-something instead.
Posted by: Mercutio || 04/21/2020 8:39 Comments || Top||

#11  Hundreds of thousands of Americans that go through chemotherapy are unlikely to be impressed, celeb. Suck it up sunshine.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/21/2020 8:56 Comments || Top||

#12  ...several anecdotal reports

...which the rest of us call 'data'.
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 9:06 Comments || Top||

#13  But did you die?

Then shut the fuck up.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/21/2020 9:17 Comments || Top||

#14  "I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak."...she felt "very tired, extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched"

Sounds like a routine hangover.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 9:40 Comments || Top||

#15  I was completely nauseous, and I had vertigo. I could not walk, and my muscles felt very weak."...she felt "very tired, extremely achy, uncomfortable, didn’t want to be touched

That's how I feel when I've a bad flu.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 10:11 Comments || Top||

#16  And now the 2 are the darlings of the vote by mail movement - funny that
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 04/21/2020 11:37 Comments || Top||

#17  Were the side effects caused by COVID-19 or the drug? Many people have taken this drug for other diseases for many years with therapeutic effect. Ingrate wants a do-over?.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/21/2020 11:49 Comments || Top||

#18  Side effects are WHY HYDROchloroquine is prescribed. By the way, did they have the Hydro- version available and gave the one with more sideeffects because they both are pains in the a$$?
Posted by: Ptah || 04/21/2020 12:09 Comments || Top||

#19  ...Sounds like the influenza I had a freshman in college a long time ago that knocked me flat for a week.
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 12:28 Comments || Top||

#20  here at one of the "ground Zeros" of the chinese bat flu, SV,ID: Rita has a reputation as an unhinged freak, just sayin'
Posted by: 746 || 04/21/2020 12:49 Comments || Top||

#21  The bats are part of the CCP?
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 14:20 Comments || Top||

#22  Used to have to take chloroquine and dapsone (memory check sp). Chloro was witnessed, officers had to log it per trooper. Side effects from chloro were obvious for the next day or two. Dapsone seemed okay. BUT, no malaria! UNTIL I was sent to Japan (surgery) and they didn’t have those meds. Then I got first falciparum in the hospital, then vivax. Fun times.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/21/2020 17:44 Comments || Top||

#23  So Hanks married a volleyball.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/21/2020 20:17 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
MIT Professor: Subways Seeded the Massive Coronavirus Epidemic in NYC
[Breitbart] A National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper by MIT Professor Jeffrey E. Harris concludes that the New York City subway system "seeded the massive coronavirus epidemic" in the city.

Even more significantly, the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s (MTA) decision to reduce subway service exacerbated the problem because the more crowded subway cars "most likely accelerated the spread of coronavirus."

Metropolitan New York City remains the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. More than half of the more than 40,000 coronvirus deaths in the United States as of April 19 have taken place in two states: New York and New Jersey. The bulk of the deaths in those states have been in the Metropolitan New York City area, which is not only the most densely populated region of the country, it also has by far the heaviest daily usage of mass transit, particularly subways.

"New York City’s multitentacled subway system was a major disseminator — if not the principal transmission vehicle — of coronavirus infection during the initial takeoff of the massive epidemic that became evident throughout the city during March 2020," Harris, who has a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.D. and is both a practicing physician and a professor of economics at MIT, wrote in the abstract of the NBER working paper published on April 13:

The near shutoff of subway ridership in Manhattan — down by over 90 percent at the end of March; correlates strongly with the substantial increase in the doubling time of new cases in this borough
We should have touched on this early on, heavy air vortices on the subway platforms.
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 06:47 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Posted over at Insty -



New York City is sick, and journalists, pundits, and politicians have made a diagnosis: The city’s exceptional density is the problem. That is certainly the self-serving conclusion of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. It’s a convenient bit of fatalism for a man presiding over a catastrophe. . . .

Like any misdiagnosis, this one will make it harder to find the cure.

A cursory look at a map shows that New York City’s coronavirus cases aren’t correlated with neighborhood density at all. Staten Island, the city’s least crowded borough, has the highest positive test rate of the five boroughs. Manhattan, the city’s densest borough, has its lowest.

Nor are deaths correlated with public transit use. The epidemic began in the city’s northern suburbs. The city’s per capita fatalities are identical to those in neighboring Nassau County, home of Levittown, a typical suburban county with a household income twice that of New York City.

True, New York City apartments are crowded. The share of housing units with more than one occupant per room is almost 10 percent. But that number is 13 percent in the city of Los Angeles. As a metro area, New York isn’t even in the top 15 U.S. cities for overcrowding. It’s not even the American city with the most apartments per capita (Miami) or immigrants (also Miami), to take two other characteristics that critics say might be associated with coronavirus infections.

New York City has a lot of restaurants per capita, places where people gather with strangers every night. But not as many as San Francisco, which, though it ranks second in the U.S. for both residential density and transit use, had just 20 COVID-19 deaths as of Friday.

If you expand your comparison internationally, New York City looks less exceptional still. It is not as dense or transit-dependent as, say, Paris (which has less than half of New York’s fatality rate) or Seoul, South Korea, where the pandemic has been all but controlled.

So what is it about New York City that made it a hot spot? Right now, it looks like the most exceptional thing about New York is its leaders’ belief that the city is unique. This presumption served first as a reassurance that New York would not follow Lombardy’s example, and later as the reason why it had. . . . Tragically, what seems to have put New York on such a different trajectory from San Francisco was that its leaders were so late to shut down public life.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/21/2020 9:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks for finding this P2K.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/21/2020 10:33 Comments || Top||

#3  P2k, what you have posted may be true but please don't tell Newsom. He wants all of California to look like NYC. Gotta have affordable house for all those illegal immigrants and the way to do it is to turn this whole state into one vast slum.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/21/2020 12:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Great quote P!
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 15:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Anything to do with foreign travelers coming to the U.S. through NYC? NYC, because of the U.N., has many foreign travelers coming to NYC as a destination. One would think, by this reasoning, that D.C. would also be a hotspot.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/21/2020 17:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Pretty sure that's where I got it.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/21/2020 18:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Seems ike Coronavirus hates every liberal pet project.
Posted by: ruprecht || 04/21/2020 19:00 Comments || Top||


Kentucky sees highest spike in coronavirus cases after lockdown protests
[NYP] Kentucky experienced its highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases after protests broke out in the state to lift lockdowns, according to reports.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced there were 273 new cases Sunday, bringing the total to 2,960, news station WCPO reported.

"We are still in the midst of this fight against a deadly and highly contagious virus," Beshear said. "Let’s make sure, as much as we’re looking at those benchmarks and we’re looking at the future, that we are acting in the present and we are doing the things that it takes to protect one another."

The Bluegrass State is among the regions that have seen demonstrators take to the streets last week to call for the end of lockdown restrictions.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 06:30 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bit too soon to be anything but coincidence.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/21/2020 9:15 Comments || Top||

#2  ^This is no coincidence - Gaia punishes the unbelievers!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Propaganda silliness. SO the day after a protest everyone was sick? 273? So what! We have a treatment for it, give it to them and send them home.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 04/21/2020 14:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Bit too soon to be anything but coincidence.

Not if you have ulterior motives and your audience has dementia.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 14:51 Comments || Top||

#5  The IHME model shows the peak in hospital resources is today, 04/21, and about halfway through the death count. A little perspective.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 15:21 Comments || Top||


Israeli Professor Shows Virus Follows Fixed Pattern
Snip. Duplicate.

— trailing wife for the moderators at 8:10 p.m. EDT
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 05:21 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  who relied on a British model predicting 2.2 million deaths

Our MN Governor appear to have used it too. Waltzy boy refuses to release data he used to justify our shutdown. In fact he goes angry full prissy mode when pressed to do so. Putz.
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 7:04 Comments || Top||

#2  The actions of these slimy "above my pay grade" governor's will, in my opinion, help accelerate the demise of these so-called United States.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 7:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Not this shit again! I dealt with it here a few days ago. In a nutshell: lockdown prevents medical systems being overwhelmed (megadeath) - it doesn't lower total infection numbers and nobody claimed it does.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 8:02 Comments || Top||

#4  /\ We will all get sick ...eventually... we just don't want it to happen suddenly. Now as to "predictions" and "models" that are correct until they fail spectacularly -- that is a different issue.
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 19:12 Comments || Top||

#5  I dealt with it here a few days ago

Yes, you did, g(r)omgoru. This is the same link as I posted on the 17th — it should have been tagged as a duplicate when Clem submitted it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2020 20:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Sorry for people here that have to deal with "this shit again". Sorry for also not having a photographic memory of all posts/articles here.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 21:03 Comments || Top||


Here Are Six States Ending Shelter-In-Place Orders On, Or Before, April 30
[Federalist] Six states announced an official end date to the stay-at-home orders implemented by their respective governors. Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas announced they will be reopening their local businesses in the coming weeks.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 02:56 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cultural marker or coincidence ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 3:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Expecting an escalation in the body counts race between Houston and Dallas metros.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 9:29 Comments || Top||


#4  #3 We're always short of examples of group selection.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 10:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Other states are just killing their economies.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/21/2020 11:32 Comments || Top||

#6  The local (Charlotte, NC) news media went frantic over this last night. They ranted and raved about fatalities and # of cases climbing (well, # of cases can never go down, now, can they?) and produced some poor woman who was terrified that it was too early, citing almost verbatim the rants the anchors had just finished with.

Tonight I expect the lead story to be that someone here in SC has died and it is all the governor's fault because he reopened too early.

Of course, the lead story two nights ago was a woman who died...who was 98...who was in a nursing home...who was on hospice care. But she died!!!!!

I am getting a bit tired of all the panic and hysteria mongering.
Posted by: Tom || 04/21/2020 11:33 Comments || Top||

#7  chicken llittle only got so much traction till it wore out
Posted by: 746 || 04/21/2020 12:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Competitive pressures will force the blue states to follow, even though by all appearances they seem perfectly content to remain closed indefinitely.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/21/2020 13:26 Comments || Top||

#9  ^ dominoes. Slowly at first, then all of a sudden.
Posted by: Lex || 04/21/2020 16:43 Comments || Top||


Iowa Sends National Guard Troops to Defend Meat Plants From Virus
[Bloomberg] Hundreds of National Guard personnel are being activated in Iowa as coronavirus sweeps through meat-processing plants in a state that accounts for about a third of U.S. pork supply.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said 250 National Guard members have been moved to full-time federal duty status and could help with testing and contact tracing for workers at plants operated by Tyson Foods Inc. and National Beef Packing Co.

Related: Detroit News - States work to keep meat plants open despite virus outbreaks
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 02:25 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Smithfield effect.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Check citizenship status too? Heaven forbid!
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 8:34 Comments || Top||


#4  Quarrelling, Troublesome lot those downstairs Irish, but the do work cheaply.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  ...Not Bee ?!? Dang, I have been had by reality.
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 12:29 Comments || Top||

#6  ...immigrant workers and certain cultures, but perhaps also the Chinese owner who provides only sanitation theater (although Amazon is also guilty of the same behaviour, so it is not necessarily a cultural trait). Hot Air links to a BBC article that provides some useful information between paragraphs weeping over the poor workers who dare not register for government aid left they lose all possibility of getting a visa.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2020 20:25 Comments || Top||


Georgia will reopen gyms, beauty salons and barber shops THIS FRIDAY
[MAIL] Georgia Governor Brian Kemp unveiled plans Monday to allow some businesses shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic to reopen their doors by the end of the week, as the state sets its sights on easing lockdown restrictions and re-opening the local economy.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced on Monday that businesses across the majority of the state will begin reopening as early as next week.

And South Carolina’s governor is rolling out details of a program that his office says will allow the state’s economy to 'recover more quickly than any other state’s in the country' from the new coronavirus outbreak.

Related: Washington Examiner - 'Dangerously incompetent': Stacey 'Boxcar' Abrams condemns Georgia governor for starting to reopen economy
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 01:55 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Should have kept the beauty parlors closed and therefore reveal Boxcar's natural state.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  There are doors Man was not meant to open.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/21/2020 3:11 Comments || Top||

#3  For the first time in weeks, my wife has a happy face; her hair stylist is open!
Posted by: Gomez Hapsburg1959 || 04/21/2020 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm getting to the point where the little bit of hair I have left needs cutting.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/21/2020 12:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Some of us go just to get our heads shined, eh B.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 14:49 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm letting it go another week or two. This may be a trick.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 14:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Mine does too Abu, but I still have enough to look shaggy. Don't know if I want to spend 15 hours driving to Georgia for a high & tight, though.

Although there's awfully good eating there and back...oh wait.

Never mind.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/21/2020 14:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Mr. Wife did what he could for mine — it is now an inch shorter in all directions, Thank goodness I live in Ohio, which should open shortly — I anticipate my hairdresser earning a double tip this time.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2020 20:28 Comments || Top||

#9  TW, which part of Ohio, if I may ask?
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 20:55 Comments || Top||

#10  must be nice to have hair
Posted by: Chris || 04/21/2020 22:43 Comments || Top||


Facebook takes down anti-quarantine protest posts
[Reuters] Facebook Inc said on Monday that it has removed events in Nebraska, New Jersey and California promoting protests against stay-at-home measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus.

But the social media company, which has been under pressure to police harmful content and misinformation related to the pandemic, said it would only take down anti-quarantine protest events if they defied government guidelines.

Stay-at-home orders, which experts say are essential to slow the spread of the virus but which have battered the U.S. economy, have been enacted at the state level.

Facebook said it would align with those directives, and also remove events that defy social distancing guidelines. Facebook is seeking guidance to clarify the scope of state orders in New York, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

"Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook," said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone. "For this same reason, events that defy government's guidance on social distancing aren't allowed on Facebook."

Facebook did not identify the events removed....
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess this now makes Facebook a media company and responsible for all content.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 2:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Data mining censoring manipulating arrogant b^^^^^d.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/21/2020 11:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Definitely in the Top Ten of Pieces of Egesta.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Then one day you'll click to FB and get a 404 message. They'll scream censorship. I'll call it karma.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/21/2020 14:12 Comments || Top||

#5  /\ One day we will remember the days before "Net Neutrality" and "International Internet 'Governance' " when the Internet was ... free of petty little dictators.
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 19:08 Comments || Top||


Coronaplague roundup



Los Angeles County has 200,000+ with Wu antibodies
LOS ANGELES ‐ Hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles County residents may have been infected with the coronavirus by early April, far outpacing the number of officially confirmed cases, according to a report released Monday.

The initial results from the first large-scale study tracking the spread of the coronavirus in the county found that 2.8% to 5.6% of adults have antibodies to the virus in their blood, an indication of past exposure.

That translates to roughly 221,000 to 442,000 adults who have recovered from an infection, according to the researchers conducting the study, even though the county had reported fewer than 8,000 cases at that time.
This is at least the 4th USA study to produce the same 'many, many people had it' result which would show that the Wu is far more communicable but far less lethal than estimated previously.

NBER research study conclusion: "The Subways Seeded NYC's Massive COVID Epidemic"
...as leading expert argues Britain's crisis peaked BEFORE lockdown

Kentucky sees highest spike in coronavirus cases after lockdown protests

Massachusetts seen as a new coronavirus hot spot as cases surge




Courtesy of Clem:
Fauci: No Recovery Possible If Virus Isn't "Under Control"
[So, wait a minute. I thought Fauci said he wasn't an economist and it was his role only to provide medical advice. Geeeeesh.]
[ZeroHedge] President Trump's top doctor on the White House coronavirus task force has pushed back against protesters demonstrating against stay-at-home orders, warning that the US economy won't recover until COVID-19 is "under control."

"This is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics," Fauci acknowledged during an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America," in comments which sharply contrast with those by President Trump, who has encouraged the protests, Bloomberg reports.

"Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen," Fauci added. "So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re going to set yourself back."

Anti-lockdown riots break out in Paris amid anger at police 'heavy-handed' treatment of minorities after Macron extends social distancing to fight COVID-19 until May 11
Posted by: Fred || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Faster, please. Much faster.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Fauci is right to an extent because without the Wu being perceived as controlled a lot of people will simply opt out of the economy : they won't travel, they won't go to restaurants, they won't shop

Posted by: lord garth || 04/21/2020 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Individual results may vary, but you should be alright from this distance if you are wearing your gov't issued protective goggles.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 7:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Fauci speaking about the economy? I wonder what his NFL Draft picks are? Same importance. STFU, half-pint
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 8:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Unless we get our clueless medical 'experts' under control, we will lose our democracy.

Clue for you, Little Big Man: the only way a functioning democracy survives 32% unemployment and mass impoverishment is by going to war. It's either civil war, or a war like the one that brought this nation out of the Great Depression.

There is no glide path that sees us recovering peacefully from the complete collapse of the economy. If the economy collapses, the political system collapses -- and it won't be peaceful. Got that?
Posted by: Lex || 04/21/2020 9:08 Comments || Top||

#6  a lot of people will simply opt out of the economy : they won't travel, they won't go to restaurants, they won't shop

Down here we call those, survivors.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 9:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Old Economy is dead. Long live the new Economy!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 10:10 Comments || Top||


At Last – Gates' Objective is Revealed – Destroy Economy Relaunch without CO2
[ArmstrongEconomics] SKY News Australia has reported the smoking gun.
The UN-funded financial arm of the Paris Agreement has labeled the coronavirus an "opportunity" to raise funds for climate change action and "relaunch economies on low-emission, climate-resilient trajectories".
The extraordinary statements have been published in a document by the Green Climate Fund — an international organization with a US$10.3 billion budget. Bill Gates has been a major driver behind the Climate Change contingency.

The Green Climate Fund of the United Nations has written:

While COVID-19 is causing untold suffering, the international response to this unprecedented health crisis in modern times offers an opportunity to direct finances towards bolstering climate action. GCF will continue to make critical investments in climate-resilient water resource management, health care facilities, agriculture and livelihoods – all of which are essential to subduing and overcoming the pandemic. Similarly, we will step up our efforts to catalyse green investment to relaunch economies on low-emission, climate-resilient trajectories.

I have warned that this entire destruction of the economy made no sense. Nobody in their right mind would do such a thing – except the Climate Change people who have been obsessed with CO2. We now know Bill Gates' true objective – Climate Change to crush the economy and relaunch without CO2.

Oil prices have collapsed as the lockdown continues and they have sought to wipe out the auto industry. They have even shut down CO2 production needed for beer and soda. There will be shortages of those products now. What will the lower classes whose favorite drink is beer do when they realize that CO2 is needed for that production?
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  CO2 scareing is all about collecting subsidies.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/21/2020 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Bill Gates, like China, is an A Hoe.
Posted by: Alistaire Tingle9882 || 04/21/2020 7:51 Comments || Top||

#3  They have even shut down CO2 production needed for beer and soda.

But CO2 is not actually produced by commercial CO2 producers - they just collect it from other sources.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  I love my beer and bubbly water, but that's the least of my worries. I worry more about the state flying drones, elected officials telling people to snitch, and seeing dads cuffed in front of his little girl.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Gates, another lefty moron? Trees thrive on CO2.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/21/2020 17:45 Comments || Top||


Africa North
SU-25 attack plane accidentally shoots rocket towards French aircraft, killing four at airbase in Chad
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/21/2020 11:22 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Air operations R hard.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/21/2020 11:23 Comments || Top||

#2  The Johnny McSchsssssstain attack sssssssschimulator...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/21/2020 11:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Known for its ease of use and rugged construction, the Su-25 will likely outlive its western counterpart in terms of service life, but likely only due to necessity.

The Air Force brass is the main predator to the A-10.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/21/2020 14:09 Comments || Top||

#4  You locked and tagged the arming circuit, right?
Sure, boss!
(incredulous WTF? look)
Oh, you mean *that* arming circuit...
Posted by: SteveS || 04/21/2020 15:09 Comments || Top||

#5  ...and France surrendered....
Posted by: Angotle Hupoluque3465 || 04/21/2020 21:38 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian Urals crude oil down to negative -$2 per barrel
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Posted by: Fred || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks as though they are trying to win the Oil War the same way they always win...enormous casualties! Russian casualties of course, but enormous nonetheless.
Posted by: Cesare || 04/21/2020 7:48 Comments || Top||

#2  same appr graph for may delivery West texas intermediate

Brent Crude holding at about $20
Posted by: lord garth || 04/21/2020 7:56 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Hong Kong crisis escalates as China moves to hasten demise of city's autonomy
More CCP tyranny.
With Hong Kong's streets in recent months cleared of mass protests due to the coronavirus, legislators and activists in the city's pro-democracy camp say the Communist Party and the Hong Kong authorities have used the opportunity to cripple their movement through a multipronged approach while world attention has been diverted elsewhere by the pandemic.
Aside from the mass arrests and increasingly pointed declarations about China's "supervisory" role over the city, Chinese officials in Hong Kong, including the newly installed director of the central government's liaison office, Luo Huining, have called for improved "national security education" in Hong Kong and the passage of a national security law that would toughen up law enforcement and prosecutorial powers to help prevent protests.
Posted by: Matt || 04/21/2020 11:58 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  The Chicoms probably see the post Wuhan virus backlash as inevitable. No more need to appease the world by tolerating a 2nd system in the Middle Kingdom.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 04/21/2020 16:12 Comments || Top||

#2  killing the Goose with the Golden Eggs
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 17:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Gosh, I'm starting to think that "One-country, two-systems" thing was just a long con.

Apparently, it is time to kill the goose with the golden eggs to scare the monkeys or however that saying goes.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/21/2020 19:01 Comments || Top||


North Korea's Kim Jong Un in grave danger after surgery, or so they say
Rumors abound. Even Katy "Whut?" Tur at MSNBC is on it
Gastric bypass?
[NY Post] Earlier Monday, a South Korean media report said that the 36-year-old despot was being treated following a cardiovascular procedure earlier this month.

The reclusive leader missed the celebration of his grandfather’s birthday, the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, sparking speculations about his health.

Kim underwent the surgery April 12 at a hospital in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan and was recovering at a villa there, reported Daily NK, a website run mostly by North Korean defectors, citing unidentified sources inside the hermit kingdom.

The diminutive dictator’s health has deteriorated in recent months due to heavy smoking, obesity and overwork, the report said.



From Zero Hedge, courtesy of Clem:
Update (2252ET): Futures rebounded sharply after South Korea's Yonhap refuted reports that Kim Jong Un is seriously ill.

Update (2240ET): Bloomberg is now reporting that Kim is in a 'critical state,' according to a US official speaking on condition of anonymity.

US officials are now studying the North Korean line of succession.

Trump administration officials are looking into who would be in the line of succession if Kim Jong Un dies or is already dead, I'm told.
‐ Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 21, 2020
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1 
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 0:04 Comments || Top||

#2  So who takes the reins if KJU snuffs it?
Posted by: classer || 04/21/2020 0:10 Comments || Top||

#3  South Korea denies. 24 hour (days?) rule.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 0:16 Comments || Top||

#4  There have been some indicators that his sister may be next should he buy the farm.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 0:23 Comments || Top||

#5  SEOUL (Rooters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not seriously ill, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said citing a government official on Tuesday, contradicting a CNN report he was in “grave danger” after a surgery.
Posted by: Dr. Wheat Faartz007 || 04/21/2020 0:34 Comments || Top||

#6  How is Dennis Rodman handling this?
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 1:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Gromolet Craiting5425 - removed
Posted by: 3dc || 04/21/2020 1:12 Comments || Top||

#8  Not too shabby for having performed the surgery on himself while holding.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 4:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Kim Jong Ill?
Posted by: European Conservative || 04/21/2020 4:32 Comments || Top||

#10  #9 holding > golfing
Darned autocorrect!
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 4:49 Comments || Top||

#11  @10 - Good one!
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 5:00 Comments || Top||

#12  Setting up the NK news for Super Turd's "miraculous" recovery?
Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 6:55 Comments || Top||

#13  is he in danger

yes

grave danger

is there another kind
Posted by: lord garth || 04/21/2020 7:26 Comments || Top||

#14  A little bat soup he should try, I hear it has amazing restorative powers.
Posted by: Cesare || 04/21/2020 7:46 Comments || Top||

#15  Paul Roderick Gregory, Hoover Inst. "We have the experience of some thirty regime changes in the aftermath of the fall of communism and the collapse of Yugoslavia. Few have occurred without the direct or tacit support of the ruling elite.
... The Hermit Kingdom’s elite likely thinks in a similar way. A capitalist North Korea would be materially more rewarding than their measly handouts from Macao banks and their rickety ZiL limos. The inner circle might be willing nascent liberals and capitalists, but they are held back by the Great Leader’s penchant to kill off members of his inner circle on the slightest suspicion of disloyalty. If they were somehow relieved of this fear, I am confident in which way they will turn."
Posted by: b || 04/21/2020 8:43 Comments || Top||

#16  #14 - there's nothing like a little Col. Nathan Jessup in the morning!
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 8:57 Comments || Top||

#17  "Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!"
Posted by: Warthog || 04/21/2020 9:25 Comments || Top||

#18  Y'know, it doesn't make the international news when the mayor of Harbin has a heart attack. Why should it if it's the mayor of Pyongyang?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/21/2020 11:31 Comments || Top||

#19  Pyongyang has nukes.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/21/2020 12:10 Comments || Top||


Economy
Trump to Announce Big Deregulation Moves to Speed Economic Recovery
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 15:32 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's just got a whole quiver full of arrows, doesn't he?
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  It's amazing how much of our response to the virus and our effort to get the economy going again comes down to just getting government out of the way.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/21/2020 17:01 Comments || Top||

#3  Iblis, notice how easy it is?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 04/21/2020 18:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Twenty years ago I had a former software boss tell me this - 'In some situations, a lot of people see big problems; others see opportunity'. 1) I wish I had taken this to heart like 40 years ago, and 2) it's clear Trump is doing exactly that.
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 19:05 Comments || Top||


Traders flee U.S. oil as contract price plunges to negative $40 a barrel
4/20/2020
NY Mercantile - Crude Oil May 20 Delivery: -23.14 USD at close.
A drop of -41.41 from yesterday
Low for the day was -40.32 USD per barrel.

Sure would be great if someone (or entity) had a billion barrels of salt dome oil storage in Texas and Louisiana. They could make a killing and get free oil to boot.

[AutoBlog] Buyers aren't willing to take delivery of oil; there is no place to put it

Traders fled from the expiring May U.S. oil futures contract in a frenzy on Monday, sending the contract into negative territory for the first time in history, as barely any buyers are willing to take delivery of oil barrels because there is no place to put the crude.

May U.S. crude futures plunged to a depth never before seen, settling on the day at minus $37.63 a barrel, a decline of some 305%, or $55.90 a barrel. Prices set a low of negative $40.32.

With demand down 30% worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the main U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, expected to fill up in a matter of weeks, very few want to be stuck with oil barrels that they have to take delivery on at some point during May.

"The people who are long are desperate to get out," said Phil Verleger, a veteran oil economist and independent consultant. "If you don’t have storage, you have to get out."

Major oil-producing nations have agreed to cut output, and global oil companies are trimming production, but those cuts will not come quickly enough to avoid a massive clog.

The difference between the expiring May U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude contract and the coming June contract widened to a record at more than $60 a barrel and settled at $51.90. That yawning gap emerged because owning the May contract when it expires on Tuesday means that buyer is obligated to take those barrels, which few want to do.

"For many investors or people using these contracts for hedging this is really a big pain," said Edward Moya, market analyst at OANDA in New York. "There's no place to put it — we're running out of space to store oil."

The June contract ended down 16% to $20.43 a barrel.

When a futures contract expires, traders must decide whether to take delivery or roll their positions into an upcoming contract. Usually this process is relatively uncomplicated, but the May contract's decline reflects worries that too much supply could hit the markets, with shipments out of OPEC nations like Saudi Arabia booked in March set to cause a glut.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  -23.14 USD at close

That was at 4:20PM. Closed at (minus) -$37.63 per barrel.

Futures positive at $1.4100 (+$39.0400) per barrel at this time.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Boomerang. Reflexivity.
BUY
Posted by: Lex || 04/21/2020 0:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Peak oil is not today.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 04/21/2020 4:32 Comments || Top||


Car crashes in California drop 50% after shelter in place order - saving taxpayers $40m a day
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Will insurance rates drop? Doubtful.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Yep rates falling in California and insurance companies preparing rebates right now...
Posted by: crazyhorse || 04/21/2020 2:26 Comments || Top||

#3  offset by loss of gas tax funds and even more a loss of retail sales taxes
Posted by: lord garth || 04/21/2020 9:14 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
PM Modi's Approval Rating Soars to 68%, Higher Than Any Other World Leader
[OpIndia] Amidst the world battling the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, pollster Morning Consult released approval ratings for every leader from most major democracies. In those approval ratings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has bagged the highest approval ratings, ahead of any other world leader.
Intelligent and responsible approach to the pandemic, allowing of a flow of chems to other Democracies, the administration of the lockdown itself are some reasons others may be appreciating this government. Domestically, the PM has cult status now. For example, no private employer/company is allowed in India to cut the salaries of their workers during the lockdown. Everyone is on paid leave. No one has to pay monthly installments, deposit revenues or pending insurance premiums during the lockdown and the banks can't cut services. The police will buy the poor their grocery and deliver it themselves. A lot of small adjustments by citizens themselves have added to the efforts of the government. But the firm hand that made it possible was Modi's. Meanwhile, Goa, the no.1 tourist destination became the first totally COVID19 free state, with all patients fully recovered.


India has managed to relatively control the Coronavirus pandemic effectively. For its mammoth size and extremely dense population of 1.3 billion people, India has managed to arrest the spread to a large extent, better than many developed countries, due to early imposition of strict lockdown and containment measures. Even after the soar in cases due to the Tablighi Jamaat cases, the lockdown coupled with aggressively finding absconding Tablighi Jamaat members, the country managed to save itself from utter chaos and disaster, had the virus spread to a population this dense. Amidst the world battling the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, pollster Morning Consult released approval ratings for every leader from most major democracies. In those approval ratings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has bagged the highest approval rating, ahead of any other world leader.

India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, has the highest popularity among them: As of April 14, his net approval rating is 68, up from 62 at the beginning of the year. Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has the second-highest net approval over that period (36), though it fell slightly from 39 in January. During that same stretch of time, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has seen the largest surge in domestic popularity, with his net approval now up to 26 (from negative 26 on January 1). Morning Consult's data shows that among all ten countries surveyed, Japan's Abe has the lowest rating (at negative 33) and the worst decline in net approval, having fallen from negative 18 at the start of 2020.
Posted by: Dron66046 || 04/21/2020 15:13 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Prime Minister Modi is to be congratulated, along with the Indians themselves. This is an impressive achievement.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/21/2020 23:29 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Westchester residents sue WHO for alleged coronavirus cover-up
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 08:22 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


#2  The WHO is an agency of the UN. It is immune from lawsuits under international treaty (the convention on privileges and immunities of the UN). The US senate has ratified this treaty.
Posted by: John Frum || 04/21/2020 8:49 Comments || Top||

#3  The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations to be Self-Executing and upheld the Immunity of United Nations and of Former UN Officials in March 2010.
Posted by: John Frum || 04/21/2020 8:55 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Iranian ‘Prophetic Medicine' Leader: Camel Urine Cures Coronavirus
[Breitbart] An Iranian man who describes himself as an Islamic prophetic medicine healer has prescribed drinking camel urine as a treatment for the Chinese coronavirus, Radio Farda reported Monday.

In a video that has reportedly gone viral across social media, the Chairman of the Prophetic Medicine Society Medhi Sabili urged people to consume the urine when it is both "fresh and warm." It was quickly ridiculed by Iranians, many of whom warned about the dangers of such treatment.

The consumption of camel urine, as well as camel meat and camel meat, is not uncommon across the Middle East. In some countries, including Saudi Arabia, many believe that it can cure a range of ailments.
Works best if you use urine from the pretty ones.
Posted by: Iblis || 04/21/2020 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Hadith (narration) by the Prophet:

First let us look at the Sayings (Hadiths) of our beloved Prophet that dealt with camel urine:

Narrated Abu Qilaba: "Anas said, "Some people of 'Ukl or 'Uraina tribe came to Medina and its climate did not suit them. So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of (Milch) camels and to drink their milk and urine (as a medicine). So they went as directed and after they became healthy, they killed the shepherd of the Prophet and drove away all the camels. The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron, They were put in 'Al-Harra' and when they asked for water, no water was given to them." Abu Qilaba said, "Those people committed theft and murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Apostle . (Sahih Bukhari, Ablutions (Wudu'), Volume 1, Book 4, Number 234)"

pIslam

Fun Islamic Facts 4: Drinking Camel Urine
Muhammad's advice for stomach pain: "Drink camel urine."

Posted by: Woodrow || 04/21/2020 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  And MERS came from camels.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 1:13 Comments || Top||

#3  urged people to consume the urine when it is both "fresh and warm."

I agree. Flat camel urine tastes like piss.
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 2:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Someone tell Schiff it will help him impeach Trump.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 4:09 Comments || Top||

#5  You first, Mikey.
Posted by: Ebbuck Crairt4213 || 04/21/2020 8:42 Comments || Top||

#6  That's wicked pissah, dude...
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 9:03 Comments || Top||


Government
CDC's failed coronavirus tests were tainted with coronavirus, feds confirm
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 12:34 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tip of the spear....
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 14:01 Comments || Top||

#2  "But hey! Look at these cool brochures on Gun Control and Obesity"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 14:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Now, according to investigation results reported by The New York Times, federal officials confirm that sloppy laboratory practices at two of three CDC labs involved in the tests’ creation led to contamination of the tests and their uninterpretable results.

Fire the fuc&ers involved and see if the get a cushy job working for the DNC.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 14:43 Comments || Top||

#4  The Army used to have a sort of preventative program for this sort of thing. Parachute riggers would jump using the same parachutes their packing facility had packed. Sort of keeps everyone on their toes.

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 15:17 Comments || Top||

#5  And people are b!tching and moaning about lax security/safety procedures in Wuhan? Give me a freakin' break.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 15:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
US newspapers face 'extinction-level' crisis as Covid-19 hits hard
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/21/2020 10:40 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Could we start with the Grauniad first? Plese?
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 12:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Craigslist alone killed the Classifieds
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 12:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Ironic, isn't it. Through their fear-mongering and TDS lust, they may have managed to deal themselves a mortal blow.

My heart pumps peanut butter.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/21/2020 12:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Who needs them in the internet age when they are just regurgitating the raw AP/UPI feed with cosmetic alterations? They don't have competent people, it seems, covering local news and their are apps on the common smartphones handling business. Just die, already...
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 13:05 Comments || Top||

#5  It's a feature, not a virus bug.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/21/2020 14:10 Comments || Top||

#6  What the Hell is wrong with these science deniers?Don't they believe in Evolution?
Posted by: Cesare || 04/21/2020 14:27 Comments || Top||

#7  My heart pumps peanut butter.

As long as it's purple.
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 14:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Save the Trees!
Posted by: Gromolet Craiting5425 || 04/21/2020 17:07 Comments || Top||

#9  "If he dies, he dies."
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 17:24 Comments || Top||

#10  every time I see the news of this useless industry's impending death, I quickly remember the taxpayer bailouts of airlines, car manufacturers, et. al.

Now that the precedent is set, no industry will ever die a natural (and in this case, a just-deserved) death. They will shortly be demanding their bailout and the taxpayer will once again take it in the shorts.

It will be even more insulting knowing that we have to pay the people that hate us.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 04/21/2020 20:45 Comments || Top||

#11  I would think such a bailout would run afoul of Constitutional issues - specifically the 1st Amendment.

No, not that part. The part that says
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion since the Press is one of the leading parts of the Religion called Progressivism.
Posted by: Marilyn Tojo7566 || 04/21/2020 20:58 Comments || Top||

#12  With all of the bail-outs, there is pretty much no incentive for a company to be fiscally responsible and worry about the bottom line. Individuals with max'ed-out credit cards are not much better, the only difference is they don't have a "rep" on K Street.

Free-market capitalism? Give me a freakin' break.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 21:00 Comments || Top||

#13  Capitalist discipline for thee
Socialist sugar for me
Posted by: Lex || 04/21/2020 21:26 Comments || Top||

#14  Is "rent seeking" the same as asking for a cup of sugar? (lol)
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 21:42 Comments || Top||


Government
EPA Looks At Suspending Ethanol Blending Requirement
[Hot Air] I’m not sure how much this will matter now that we’re basically out of places to store all of the oil that we’re pumping, but it’s still worth looking this proposal over.

Last week we discussed the possible opportunity available to us if the EPA would agree to at least suspend the mandates of the Renewable Fuel Standard until the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Getting rid of it entirely would be preferable, but that would require congressional action that the Democrats would never agree to and it’s unclear if the President could be convinced to support the idea even if they did.

The good news (possibly) is that I wasn’t the only person suggesting the idea and the EPA seems to at least be willing to consider it. This could go a long way toward saving a lot of oil and gas industry jobs that are otherwise threatened if the refineries start shutting down to avoid bankruptcy. (The Hill)
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 07:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remind me again, what was the original purpose of the ethanol additive, and how many years have we now led the world in oil production ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/21/2020 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  the real purposes of the ethanol requirement included virtue signaling but to the ag community this was always just a back door subsidy to corn producers
Posted by: lord garth || 04/21/2020 7:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Huge for the farmers around here. Maybe they'd go back to sweetcorn or field (feed) corn.

The latter would lower meat prices a bit.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 04/21/2020 8:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Please. Ruins engines and there is no need for this shit.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/21/2020 9:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Call me when they actually do it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/21/2020 9:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Glad I have a Diesel.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/21/2020 11:12 Comments || Top||

#7  That will help tortilla prices south of the border.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 11:16 Comments || Top||

#8  I think the original purpose of the ethanol mandate was to get votes in Iowa.

However, we have just finished the Iowa caucuses and won't have them again for four years...so now is the time.
Posted by: Tom || 04/21/2020 11:37 Comments || Top||

#9  The original purpose was part of the Energy Independence Programs of the 1970s as a result of the Oil Embargo and the fact that we were still heavily engaged in the Cold War. They were also looking into programs like converting goal...

Why we kept it? Corruption...
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 12:35 Comments || Top||

#10  /\ "...like converting coal."
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 12:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Repurpose as hand cleaner.
Posted by: KBK || 04/21/2020 12:59 Comments || Top||

#12  "Who needs oil? I ride the bus!"

(too obscure?)
Posted by: Raj || 04/21/2020 13:51 Comments || Top||

#13  Nope
Posted by: Frank G || 04/21/2020 14:24 Comments || Top||

#14  EPA Looks At Suspending Ethanol Blending Requirement

It may will cost a bit more, but we have to do it.
Unleaded Snark O'The Day
Posted by: gorb || 04/21/2020 14:48 Comments || Top||

#15  Converting foodstuff to ethanol needs a better justification than buying votes in the Corn Belt.
Posted by: magpie || 04/21/2020 16:19 Comments || Top||

#16  Another argument, IIRC, was the amount of energy req'd to make ethanol...more than the ethanol itself would produce.

Yeah, that was simply to buy off the farm belt gang...probably Mansanto, too.
Posted by: Clem || 04/21/2020 16:46 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
54[untagged]
4Sublime Porte
2Govt of Syria
2Commies
2Govt of Iran Proxies
2Arab Spring
2al-Qaeda
1Moslem Colonists
1Hezbollah

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2020-04-21
  North Korea's Kim Jong Un in grave danger
after surgery, or so they ay
Mon 2020-04-20
  U.S. crude falls below $15 a barrel, down more than 20%
Sun 2020-04-19
  44 suspected Boko Haram jihadis found dead in Chad prison
Sat 2020-04-18
  Almost $5 billion of Iran government money for imports is missing
Fri 2020-04-17
  CCP reports coup attempt in China!
Thu 2020-04-16
  Iranian Attack Boats Harass U.S. Navy, Coast Guard Vessels in Persian Gulf
Wed 2020-04-15
  China-Flagged Tanker Attacked In Gulf Of Oman By Iranian Navy
Tue 2020-04-14
  GNA carry out mass executions in the cities of Sabratah and Sorman
Mon 2020-04-13
  Libyan National Army captures Abu Grein
Sun 2020-04-12
  Houthi militia has sentenced four journalists to death in Yemen for ‘treason and espionage,’
Sat 2020-04-11
  Krakatoa volcano blows up
Fri 2020-04-10
  Iraq names its third prime minister in 10 weeks
Thu 2020-04-09
  Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Adnan Al-Zurfi withdraws his candidacy
Wed 2020-04-08
  Pakistan Scrambles to Quarantine 100,000 Who Attended Tablighi Jamaat Event
Tue 2020-04-07
  Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun calls on international donors to provide financial assistance to the crisis-hit country


Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
18.117.72.224
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (14)    WoT Background (3)    Opinion (16)    (0)    Politix (8)