Puppet MastersS


Attention

Just like the Roman Empire, the West is committing suicide via irrational response to Covid-19

Colosseum/Arch
© Getty Images/Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori PortfolioColosseum and Arch of Constantine during Coronavirus pandemic - Rome, March 19, 2020
Many think Covid-19 is some kind of alien invasion that spells the end of the world. But the real threat to us is a much deadlier virus: a hatred of all the values that have underpinned our civilisation for centuries.

For years, I was puzzled as to why the Roman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by communities that were uncivilized by comparison. How and why could mankind's progress reverse in this way? Recent experience has eliminated the mystery. No special devastating event was needed; the cause of Rome's demise was simply the loss of its people's desire to support their 'empire' and its underlying values. And as it was 1,500 years or so ago, so I fear it is now.

The Covid-19 crisis - specifically, the reaction to it - demonstrates that people have grown bored, detached, and easily impressionable by things that have nothing to do with the roots of their society. We are all - or too many of us - fin de siècle Romans now.

Arrow Down

Nobel laureate predicts: Coronavirus turning point in US will be earlier than expected

Levitt
© Nobel Media AB 2013Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt
The US will see a turning point in the battle to contain coronavirus sooner than expected, according to the Nobel laureate who correctly predicted when China would get through the worst of its crisis.

Stanford University biology professor Michael Levitt, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry, said his models don't support predictions that the virus will wreak months or even years of social disruption or cause millions of deaths, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"What we need is to control the panic ... we're going to be fine," assured Levitt, who correctly predicted early on that China would get through the worst of the outbreak by mid-February.

His optimistic report on China said the country would peak with around 80,000 cases and 3,250 deaths. He was not far off: China has reported 81,588 cases with 3,281 deaths as of March 24. Now Levitt is looking at 78 countries that have reported more than 50 new infections each day.

He said he focuses on new cases — as opposed to overall totals — and sees "signs of recovery" in each of the places. "Numbers are still noisy, but there are clear signs of slowed growth," Levitt said, without offering a concrete date for when the US may see its turning point.

Stop

Saudi Arabia yields to UN call for coronavirus ceasefire in Yemen

Saudi armored personnel carriers
© Reuters/Faisal Al Nasser.Saudi armored personnel carriers at their base in Yemen's southern port city of Aden.
The Saudi-led coalition has reportedly agreed to a truce in Yemen - five years to the day of launching an intervention there - as part of a United Nations call for a global armistice among the Covid-19 pandemic.

Riyadh's decision to stand down follows the acceptance of the ceasefire by the pro-Saudi followers of ousted President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebels that have controlled the capital since January 2015.
The chair of the Houthi rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, welcomed Riyadh's support for the ceasefire, while expressing hopes in a tweet later on Wednesday that it would "translate [into] practice." It remains to be seen whether the ceasefire will hold, since numerous previous attempts by the UN to broker one have all faltered. In an earlier post, al-Houthi slammed the Saudi-led coalition, stating it had increased its strikes on Yemen since the UN's initial call for the truce, launching some 40 air raids.

Comment: Whistleblower claims Saudi military infected with coronavirus
Saudi whistle-blower Mujtahid, who is believed to be a member of or have a well-connected source in the royal family, revealed that several soldiers fighting under Riyadh's command against Yemen have been infected with the new deadly coronavirus.

"Coronavirus has reached Jizzan and Najran too and a large number of Yemeni military men who are fighting under the Saudi-led coalition's flag have been infected with coronavirus. There is no investigation and no data on the number of the Yemeni and coalition forces who have been in contact with these infected people."

Mujtahid had also last week disclosed that Riyadh was hiding the data related to the coronavirus cases in the country, saying that thousands were infected with the virus in Saudi Arabia.

"The Saudi officials conceal the real number of people infected with coronavirus and the number now stands at thousands and even tens of thousands," Mujtahid wrote on his twitter page on Sunday. He added that over 5,000 people in Qatif and over 900 others in Mecca had been infected with the COVID-19 virus, saying that the number was higher in Riyadh but the data were concealed.


Could be, but these numbers sound greatly inflated or made up, given statistics in other countries. Why would Saudi Arabia's be off the chart? FYI: Mujtahid has been leaking Saudi information since at least 2015.


Mujtahid said that al-Riyadh specialized hospital had been evacuated to run as a coronavirus patient center, but in essence, it has been equipped to receive the royal family and officials in case of infection to the lethal virus.

Saudi Arabia confirmed its first coronavirus-related death on Tuesday. It was confirmed that a 51-year-old Afghan-Saudi resident was the one who succumbed to the new deadly COVID-19 in Medina. The Persian Gulf country has so far reported over 800 cases of the coronavirus.

The Wahhabi kingdom had already imposed strict measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, including suspension of international flights, closing schools and universities and temporarily closing off the eastern province of Qatif, which has most of the country's COVID-19 cases.



Caesar

Putin's response to Covid-19, not the constitutional referendum, will decide his political future

putin portrait etching
© Getty Images / pi_vit
In his coronavirus address, Vladimir Putin promised to squeeze the rich and install safety nets for the vulnerable. With the Russian economy additionally hammered by the oil price drop, this begins the true test of his presidency.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first direct appeal to the nation since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. This was Putin's most somber address to the Russians in his two decades in power, with the Russian leader essentially admitting that the country faces a grave economic crisis due to the spreading coronavirus disease and an imminent global recession.

Comment: Russia is behaving like a proper global citizen, not slacking on other fronts, nor neglecting other countries in need:


Putin

Russia's stealth medical aid operation to Italy avoided not only Polish airspace, but US attempts to stop it

russia aid italy US block
© Nick
On Sunday, March 22, Russia's Defence Ministry sent more than fifteen Ilyushin heavy transport planes to Rome with medical aid to Italy, setting up a special medical headquarters at Bergamo, in the Lombady region of northern Italy. This is the largest Russian aid operation in Europe since World War II.

To avoid US intervention to stop it, the air convoy flew across Turkish and Greek airspace, avoiding Ukraine and Poland. As military secrets go, the operational plan devised by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Italian counterpart, Lorenzo Guerini, was a near-perfect success.

Recriminations followed the next day from the Financial Times which accused Moscow of trying to "exploit EU tensions over medical export bans and delays in financial support." The newspaper quoted the director of an Italian think-tank, Nathalie Tocci, as saying "Russia needs a quick win, so it wants to act fast...It does what Russia always does, which is seize low-hanging fruit." Tocci and her think-tank are employed by NATO, the European Commission, the European External Action Service, and the European Defence Agency.

Comment: Fort Russ reports:
Over the past 24 hours in a major move, Russia has sent an unprecedented military humanitarian mission to Italy, a NATO country, which in its official press reports tactfully called "an operational group of military doctors, specialists in the field of virology and epidemiology, with modern equipment for diagnosis and disinfection."

The wording, which does not mention that these units are belonging of the Russians to the Armed Forces, was chosen from diplomatic considerations so as not to stoke NATO reactions when the real aim is to support Italians in trouble.

It's no joke, a convoy of Russian troops in full view of Europe is moving through a country that is a member of NATO. Evil tongues will still find a reason to gossip, so why give them an extra reason.
"In fact, Italians were dumbfounded by the speed of our group, they simply were not ready to take our planes in such numbers," the Russian military told KP.ru.

"Their capabilities made it possible to land one plane every two hours."
After the fourth, they prayed: "Make haste, we do not have time."
We in Moscow stood busy and waited for their team. However, some units to the airfield made a 450-kilometer march.

And then from Rome there was still a column to go 600 kilometers to Bergamo. Why didn't they put you closer?

- Just for our big company they decided to allocate the largest airbase. They did not know our capabilities. After the first meeting, at which we informed them that we can - the equipment that arrived there is ready to process up to 20 thousand square meters or 360 cars per hour - they were impressed. And they determined the city of Bergamo for us, which must be completely disinfected. At the same time, they thanked us very much. They do not have such a technique as a class.

Moscow sent 20 such special vehicles to Italy, while in Russia there are over 2,000 of them. Among the equipment is a laboratory capable of doing up to 100 tests for coronavirus per hour. In the homeland - 14 more of the same. That is, no one exposed the rear.


On the way to Bergamo, the convoy stopped for refueling in Florence.

"It's unusual, of course, to go abroad," admitted one of the drivers, Senior Sergeant Alexander Matryukhin. "But we are ready to carry out any task."

- There were no breakdowns. The roads are empty, it's clear that it is quarantine, "said Colonel Igor Bogomolov, head of the Research Center. "But those rare cars that meet greet us and give signals." Nicely.

As it became known to "KP" from a military-diplomatic source, our units will be deployed in Bergamo and carry out tasks both in the city itself and in nearby settlements. Medical specialists are seconded to the central hospital of Bergamo and the officer hospital of the Alpine Corps deployed in the suburbs.
Specialists of radiochemical and biological protection have so far determined the task of disinfecting transport, special treatment of the internal and external walls of hospitals and hospitals, as well as vehicles that transport the dead.
In fact, the Russian military flew to help not a member of the NATO bloc, which is expanding to the East, and not a member of the EU, which amicably extends American sanctions against us.

They help ordinary people who are not guilty of anything. This is primarily a humanitarian, not a political action. At the same time, a dangerous business trip, no doubt, has purely practical benefits.
Russian experts had a unique opportunity to look at the enemy - the coronavirus - in the face, to study its habits, weaknesses.
Test your new technologies and medical developments on it. Prepare to repel the attack already on their land.



Question

Will this be America's last revolution — or its renaissance?

Trump press conference
Situation analysis:

The American situation is this. Social unrest and civil war in America are weeks away. Anyone who denies this is a coward, a fool, or a liar; and certainly not aware of American's sense of identity and destiny. Let us remember the California Rodney King riots which occurred in the 1990's when a group of police officers were videotaped beating-up a black man who refused to submit to orders. This very same scenario could easily unfold if the police forget this lesson and are recorded physically harassing or abusing or arresting citizens who refuse to "stay at home" or are caught sitting outside a coffee shop or are seen playing with their kids at a park. This would be a disaster for the police, spark an uprising, and quite possibly create a civil war unlike anything America has ever seen. In fact it could change America forever. Here's how.

The moment Americans begin to feel their personal suffering and loss is no longer tolerable, is the moment they will no longer tolerate any police officer, national guardsman, or government bureaucrat ordering them to stay home, stagnate, and die of hunger or boredom. It is the moment citizens begin to push back; and if the police rise-up or flex their muscle to intimidate, bully or crackdown on this impulse in citizens to liberate themselves, the citizens will enter a frame of mind not seen since 1776, and revolution and civil war will result. This means the deaths of hundreds of police, military personnel, and actors turned politicians trying to oppress them. Anyone who doesn't believe this, doesn't understand the true nature of the American mind and soul. Statecraft is not stagecraft. Governor Newsom would be well advised to silence himself about his new "nation-state" and temper his reliance on disordered advice from Mr. Perez and Ms. Pelosi.

Green Light

Senate passes "largest rescue package in American history"

Mitch McConnell
Sen. Mitch McConnell
The $2 trillion emergency aid bill unanimously passed by the Senate late on Wednesday night.

The unanimous vote, 96-0, is for an economic rescue package (the largest economic relief bill in US history) that would cushion businesses, workers, and health care systems from the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.


Comment: Now let's see what Crazy Nancy Pelosi does when the bill reaches the House tomorrow. See also:

Nancy Pelosi proposes 1,400-page Coronavirus bill stuffed with special interest goodies while many Americans are hanging by a thread


Jet4

Troubled F-35 becomes latest coronavirus casualty after Pentagon puts the brakes on further tests

Flight tests F-35
© US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Joshua R. M. Dewberry/Handout via REUTERS 27
Tests being carried out on the delayed and over-budget F-35 have been suspended as part of a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, the Pentagon has announced. The fighter plane has already suffered a string of pricey setbacks.

Activities necessary to complete the F-35's operational test phase have been halted at Edwards Air Force Base in California, which has shut its doors to all non-essential personnel.

Flight tests have been indefinitely paused, but "select lab and ground test activities are ongoing," said Brandi Schiff, a spokesperson for the F-35 joint program office.

The setback could also mark yet another delay for the fighter's Joint Simulation Environment (JSE), which will allow the Pentagon to run threat scenarios in which the F-35 is matched up against military hardware from countries such as Russia and China.

Sherlock

New evidence the US did bring COVID-19 to Wuhan during the military games

pandemic
China suffered through the H1N1 coronavirus epidemic in 2008 largely because the CDC took 6 months to identify it and, as a result, 300,000 died prematurely. SARS (774 deaths) was the clincher. They created a hair-trigger alarm system, mandated post-mortem pneumonia DNA testing nationwide, and promoted the CDC head, Dr. George F. Gao[1], to Demigod.

Their Covid-19 emergency has now passed and must give Dr. Gao a B+ because, though his system contained a potential epidemic it suffered from a weakness: local politicians could delay, (but not stop) the alarm sounding. Doubtless for sound bureaucratic reasons, Wuhan officials delayed notifying Beijing for a few weeks but, after Beijing pried the information from the Wuhan Director of Public Health[2], the system swung into action, everyone pitched in, and they literally killed it.

National cohesion and coordination were amazing, thanks to the Communist Party. They coordinated everything and filled all the gaps, no questions asked. Ninety percent of the frontline volunteer medical staff-of whom 18 died-were Party members sworn to 'bear the people's burden first and enjoy their pleasures last.' Zhang Wenhong, a prominent Party member and Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Shanghai's Huashan Hospital, became a local hero for his pep-talk to Party members:

Comment: See also:


Bizarro Earth

US halts all movement overseas for up to 60 days due to coronavirus fears, partial withdrawal from Afghanistan will continue

US military
© REUTERS/Mike SegarUS military personnel walk outside of coronavirus testing center in Staten Island borough of New York City
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper has put forth a stop movement order halting all travel overseas for officials, but he insists the Afghanistan withdrawal will continue as planned.

Esper has told Reuters the stop movement order is in place for US troops, civilian personnel and their families, but Afghanistan movements will be an exception. The order is meant to help stop the spread of the coronavirus within the military's ranks.

The US military had already restricted the movement of soldiers overseas in areas affected by the coronavirus like Europe and Asia, as well as canceled overseas military exercises as part of a larger effort to reevaluate where personnel and equipment needed to be focused in the outbreak.

As of Wednesday morning, 227 service members have been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Comment: Leaving 8,600 soldiers in a country is considered a withdrawal? Perhaps unsurprisingly Afghanistan has seen an uptick in violence recently which may just provide the justification some factions in the US would like so as to maintain their presence there: Gunmen kill 25 at Sikh temple in Kabul, IS claim responsibility

See also: