Puppet Masters
The surge in unemployment comes amid a global economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as businesses across the US are on lockdown in an effort to contain the outbreak.
The number of claims is much worse than expected as economists surveyed by Dow Jones projected 1.5 million new claims. Individual forecasts on Wall Street anticipated a much higher number.
One financial publication is using the phrase "the great CEO exodus" to describe the phenomenon that we have been witnessing. It all started last year when chief executives started resigning in numbers unlike anything that we have ever seen before. The following was published by NBC News last November...
Comment: See also:
- The Federal Reserve is contemptuous of non-elites and about to make the financial system much, much worse
- The Federal Reserve may just have given financial markets the biggest 'sell signal' in modern history
- Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve's great betrayal of America
- Will $2T fix it? Covid-19 exposes the state of America's economy and society
- The global economy was deathly sick long before now, but Covid-19 will conveniently take the blame if it crashes
- Oil majors preparing for $10 oil
- The Great Economic Depression of 2020 proves lessons not learned, central banks misfire
The State Department offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
Attorney General William Barr announced the charges against Maduro, who already faces U.S. sanctions and has been the target of a U.S. effort aimed at pushing him from power. Venezuela's information ministry did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
Barr accused Maduro and his associates of conspiring with a dissident faction of the leftist Colombian guerrilla group FARC "to flood the United States with cocaine."
Comment: In a time of crisis, the US seizes advantage and doubles down.
UPDATE: 26/3/2020 US State Dept. offers $10M for others
Tips leading to the narcotrafficking arrest or conviction of National Constituent Assembly President Diosdado Cabello Rondon, retired generals Hugo Carvajal Barrios and Clive Alcala Cordones, or Minister for Industry and National Production Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah can net as much as $10 million, the statement continued.See also:
The rewards were unveiled on the same day as the US Justice Department unsealed indictments against the Venezuelan leaders for the same drug trafficking crimes - suggesting that Washington's evidence isn't as solid as Attorney General William Barr has claimed.
If evidence against Maduro and his compatriots is at such a premium that the State Department will pay $15 million for it, the Venezuelans are unlikely to see the inside of a US court anytime soon.
- Maduro: Suspended rent payments, increased wage protections as coronavirus cases reach 77 in Venezuela
- Venezuela FM rebukes Washington for barring emergency repatriation flight for 800+ citizens 'stranded' in US amid Covid-19 crisis

Colosseum and Arch of Constantine during Coronavirus pandemic - Rome, March 19, 2020
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.
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.

Saudi armored personnel carriers at their base in Yemen's southern port city of Aden.
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.
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:
- Russia testing MULTIPLE prototype Covid-19 vaccines
- Russia sends humanitarian aid to Iran to help fight coronavirus
- EU left Italy 'alone' to fight coronavirus but China and Russia sent help - ex-FM Frattini
- Russia's stealth medical aid operation to Italy avoided not only Polish airspace, but US attempts to stop it
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.
"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.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.
"Their capabilities made it possible to land one plane every two hours."We in Moscow stood busy and waited for their team. However, some units to the airfield made a 450-kilometer march.After the fourth, they prayed: "Make haste, we do not have time."
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.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.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.
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.Test your new technologies and medical developments on it. Prepare to repel the attack already on their land.Russian experts had a unique opportunity to look at the enemy - the coronavirus - in the face, to study its habits, weaknesses.
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.
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













Comment: Unemployment in US could reach 4M Wall Street stocks jump despite jobless claims Negative US jobs impact global markets