China is in quarantine. As you know
the coronvirus shut down much of the travel for Lunar New Year that
millions of Chinese take part in every year. This mass migration of
people wasn't something I had really heard much about. Nor did I
ever really understand the ramifications of millions of people
migrating into the cities to work.
But in my YouTube wandering I came
across a story that brings home how this current viral outbreak may
be impacting millions of people. It is the sad story of the millions
of children left behind when their parents seek work in far away cities. These videos are a few years old now, but I suspect this situation has not eased.
Children are left in some cases to fend
for themselves. Or, perhaps just as bad, in the care of relatives
who don't really care. Although there are caring people who are attempting to help, the system isn't always supportive.
And another family's story.
I am not sure how I will feel wearing
something with the made in China label in the future.
56 comments:
"…this current viral outbreak may be impacting millions of people."
The impact may broaden. The Dow-Jones was down over 1000 points today and that's on top of a steady, but smaller, drop every day last week.
(I think it was every day; if they had an up day I missed it.)
I saw that. Everybody is starting to worry about the supply chain interruptions. This might bring home to people how dependent we have become on one country. Maybe diversification would be a wise move.
It also appears that this virus has legs. Both South Korea and Italy are struggling with their own outbreaks.
So what are the odds that Sanders has legs too? Do you think he can go all the way?
"This might bring home to people how dependent we have
become on one country."
The assumed dependency might be over-estimated, more a matter of perception than reality. Of course, the .1% are dependent on that perception to make their bets pay off, but the stock market has been divorced from the underlying American economy for years now; it's more of a betting parlor these days than anything else.
The American economy might get along just fine without the latest iPhone hitting the Apple stores on schedule. There'll be a market panic, of course, but once that's over we may discover that the economy doesn't really give a shit that the .1% got their paper fortunes burned away.
Meantime, the Trump administration has been keeping the stock market jacked up with a combination of massive deficit spending and very low interest rates. So, they've got no weapons in reserve to deploy should the .1% get panicky and bail on the stock market, having used up all their governmental options to keep the market artificially pumped for the last couple of years.
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"Do you think [Bernie Sanders] can go all the way?"
538 blog gives him a 45% chance of making it to the convention with a majority of the 1st round--enough delegates already locked up. (41% chance that nobody has a win on the first ballot.).
I'll go along with that. (May be a little high, but probably not much; not enough to quibble about.)
So then the question comes down to whether or not the "establishment" Democrats (an imaginary category that), who have the ‛superdelegate’ votes to cast come the second round, will combine to pick somebody else. I don't know how to rank the odds there. Too much depends on how Sanders acts between now and July, but I'd reckon agin it as of today.
I'd have to rate it as better than even, as of today, that Sanders comes out of the convention with the nomination. I'm hoping not, but, if it comes to that I'll have to hope Sanders wins the general election.
(I won't have to vote for Sanders though. I can write somebody in and it won't matter. My state is dedicated Trump country; dedicated Trumpkins all over the damn place. So, no matter who I vote for, Trump will carry my electoral college representation; won't even be close; so I can vote write-in without effecting the outcome. Although, if it comes to that, I might vote for Sanders just to piss off the local Trumpkins. Probably not, but the dedicated Trumpkins been havin' too much fun pissing everybody else off these last three years.)
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Tonight's debate has taken on additional importance. Does Bloomberg still make for a stationary target? Does Sanders get targeted this time? If so, does Sanders stand up well under the heightened scrutiny?
New York Times: The C.D.C. has just issued a public warning that the coronavirus is coming to America, and it's probably gonna get "bad". Get ready for "bad" they're telling us.
Trump had just issued a proclamation to the effect that coronavirus was going to "go away" and then the C.D.C. jumped out there and said otherwise.
Trump and his dedicated Trumpkins will not be pleased.
There'll be a market panic, of course, but once that's over we may discover that the economy doesn't really give a shit that the .1% got their paper fortunes burned away.
Maybe not, but the lower income people who are hooked on cheap Chinese goods at Walmart might feel the bite as supplies dry up.
The market took another nose dive today as panic starts to set in.
I won't have to vote for Sanders though.
I won't be voting for him in the primary. But I will have to hold my nose and vote for him in the general election if he gets that far. Although, like you, my immediate area is more Trump country, my state over all has a chance of coming out against Trump. I will do my little bit to encourage that.
At the moment the dear leader is trying to undermine the more liberal Justices on the Supreme Court.
Does Bloomberg still make for a stationary target? Does Sanders get targeted this time? If so, does Sanders stand up well under the heightened scrutiny?
I don't know about the debate, but the attack ads have come out in force. I suspect that Bernie's seeming admiration for Fidel Castro will draw a rather broad target on his back in the debates, though.
The C.D.C. has just issued a public warning that the coronavirus is coming to America, and it's probably gonna get "bad". Get ready for "bad" they're telling us.
I saw that. I was reading up on the symptoms and the mild form of it sounds a lot like the crud I had a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it's been around in a milder form and we just didn't know it. I'm not going to worry too much about it. At least not yet. There are too many other things to worry about.
"Maybe it's been around in a milder form and we just didn't
know it."
I believe it's related to that family of rhinovirus that're collectively known as ‛the common cold’.
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Tonight's debate resembled one of those escapades generally called a "cage match" that some of the dedicated Trumpkins watch on TV, late at night on the weekends. It was a free-for-all.
I suspect the candidates (‛contestants’ as Bloomberg named them) were agitated about the upcoming "Super Tuesday" primaries. Everybody was trying to grab and hold the mic.
Bloomberg managed to not be a stationary target this time. He at least danced around a little (and tried to grab the mic at times).
Other than that I don't know that anybody made any really significant changes in the direction of their campaigns. (Although Tom Steyer had a better night on-stage than is usual for him, and since he's already polling comparatively better in South Carolina than is his usual standing, that might produce headlines for him after the South Carolina vote is had.)
NationalInterest: Ships at sea, bearing medical supplies from China (surgical masks, surgical gloves, etc.) for delivery under contract to American hospitals and American medical suppliers were turned around on orders from Beijing and took the stuff back to China.
I believe it's related to that family of rhinovirus that're collectively known as ‛the common cold’.
It felt more like the flu, with body aches and fever.
Tonight's debate...
I watched a little bit of it. I do believe that those who say Bloomberg isn't a good debater are right. He seemed rather off when he spoke. Amy Klobuchar actually was noticed by the late night talk show circuit with her comment about not being boring. That provided some comedic fodder. Huh! Maybe she's made it.
Ships at sea, bearing medical supplies from China (surgical masks, surgical gloves, etc.) for delivery under contract to American hospitals and American medical suppliers were turned around on orders from Beijing and took the stuff back to China.
It's all men (and countries) for themselves. It should be remembered though for future supply needs. That diversification thing I mentioned earlier.
"U.S. officials say thousands of Russian-linked accounts on
social media have been posting “almost near identical”
messages about the coronavirus in English, Spanish, Italian,
German and French — all echoing narratives on state-run
media [Russian state]. These stories mostly target the West,
alleging, for example, that the virus was forged in a U.S. lab to
be unleashed on the Chinese people. Bill Gates and George
Soros, in some tellings, were in on the plot."
WashingtonPost
Politico: Contributor, professor of political science and consitutional law at Brown University, makes the case that Trump cannot pardon Roger Stone.
(His analysis seems to me to be a little thin and doesn't take account of the fact that we have five members of the Federalist Society now sitting on the Supreme Trumpkins, but here it is anyway.)
When I tried to picture something that could help lose Trump the election I certainly never thought it would be something we couldn't see. But the coronavirus could very well fill the bill. We all knew that Trump and his loyal acolytes would not be able to handle a true crisis. I don't have much faith that they will be able to handle this one. I suspect that Wall Street feels the same way.
"I certainly never thought it would be something we couldn't
see."
The Trump administration has a very credible argument for the proposition that even IF they'd been competent, the COVID-19 virus would have gone pandemic anyway. (Due to Chinese mishandling of the outbreak in the beginning, too much effort trying to contain information on the outbreak and not enough effort containing the actual virus.)
I don't know that the argument will do them any good though, given that they are so obviously and so thoroughly incompetent.
The dedicated Trumpkins have embraced a multitude of sins with Trump. They'll likely forgive his incompetence here as well. But, he may not get the same slack from the few remaining swing voters. Possible this could be the margin that brings him down in November (or, maybe not).
Asian and European stock markets got hit hard overnight. This hints at the American stock market having another fairly bad day today to close out another bad week.
Yes, everyone seems to be panicking.
They put out guidelines of what people should do to prevent the spread of this virus, but how many people can really not touch their faces? My nose itches, I rub it, or my eyes water and I wipe the moisture away. They talk about quarantining people in their homes and waiting it out like China did. How many people will we get to do that if they are not actually sick? And they are losing sight of the fact that the majority, something like 82%, do not become seriously ill. Those who are highest at risk for developing a more serious reaction are usually the elderly or those with compromises immune systems.
We are seeing what they label "community spread" in California and I think Oregon. Those are cases where they can't determine the cause of those people getting sick. They haven't been to China or Asia and they haven't been in contact, as far as they can tell, with anyone who has been exposed. I don't know if they have really determined how this was started in China. Someone told me he had heard it was from eating bats. I don't know the veracity of that. What if is is merely the newest strain of virus for this year and it is occurring naturally everywhere? That would mean that we may have had it here already. Seriously, the crud I had earlier was not like a run of the mill cold. I put it down to the flu, and maybe it was, but then again, maybe it wasn't.
I will stock up on soups and toilet paper etc. But I don't think I am going to panic yet. And the stock market correction was going to happen one way or the other.
Huh! Someone on CNN was just saying the same thing about the virus having been here for a while without our realizing it.
Yup, typos up there but I've got to run. I have errands to squeeze in before I go in to work. We've been swamped this season. *sigh*
"What if is is merely the newest strain of virus for this year and it
is occurring naturally everywhere?"
I'm not sure of your definition for "occurring naturally" so I'll not speculate on whether that's correct or not, or on the odds either way.
Wiki say I was correct about this new strain being related to "the common cold", also related to the SARS virus and the MERS virus, both of which first crossed over to humans in China.
The researchers are still trying to pin down the evolutionary path of this mutation of the virus, but I'm pretty sure that the eating of bats isn't high on their list of possible links in the chain (as opposed to bats serving as a transitional host species--which I think is being seriously considered)
While we're on the subject of the COVID-19 coronavirus, I might mention that Trump announced to his faithful Trumpkins last night that the virus outbreak is a hoax being perpetrated by the Evil Liberals and Very Bad People Democrats. Politico. It now goes on his list along with global warming; Russia, Russia, Russia; and "the impeachment hoax" as nothing more than another effort by the Evil and Very Bad Democrats to steal his natural rights away from him. Or something like that….
Trump's due to appear before the CPAC gathering today, and I expect he'll expand on this some more.
It occurred to me later that Trump's risking clustered outbreaks of the COVID-19 among the dedicated Trumpkins. Those stadium rallies of his could easily become epicenters of disease transmission. And yes he's telling his people not to worry about it. (He'll have to change that to somehow blame the existence of the virus itself on the Evil Liberals and Very Bad Democrats. I'm not sure how he can pull that one off, 'cept, of course, that the dedicated Trumpkins are eager to be lied to. George Soros is maybe gonna get named on this one--he's been an all-purpose Evil Liberal for years now.)
"And yet…" Not, "And yes…"
(That one irritated me.)
With just over 50% of the vote tallied in South Carolina, Biden's beating Sanders as badly as Sanders beat Biden in Nevada (N.B. South Carolina has far more delegates, and is a primary rather than a caucus). Looks like the two of them are going to be the only ones who get above the 15% threshold to gather delegates from South Carolina (Steyer might break the 15% barrier as the votes continue to come in, but it's unlikely; he might consider dropping out now).
By the way, Trump dialed back on his "coronavirus is a hoax" theme when he appeared at the CPAC meeting. Seems that one wasn't playing out well even among the dedicated Trumpkins. He's gonna need to tweak his faerie tale before he rolls that one out again.
... but I'm pretty sure that the eating of bats isn't high on their list of possible links in the chain (as opposed to bats serving as a transitional host species--which I think is being seriously considered)
That didn't sound quite right to me when he said it. My guess is he got a garbled version of what they were looking at.
Biden has won South Carolina and Steyer has dropped out.
I think Amy is staying in at least until Super Tuesday.
"My guess is he got a garbled version…"
It's easy enough to garble a version. For instance, MERS didn't break out in China. I remembered later that it came out of the Middle East, which is what the first two letters signify.
"Middle East Respiratory Syndrome"
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Buttigieg looks to be staying for Super Tuesday as well. They're both hoping for an honorable showing to make it easier to run again next time (or get the Veep nomination this time).
It does look like it's going to come down to Sanders or Biden. I was hoping for a different outcome, but those two have the best name recognition and when you have a lot of people who aren't looking too closely at others those will be the results.
"It does look like it's going to come down to Sanders or Biden."
It may look different after Tuesday.
I'm just hoping they pick somebody who'll beat Trump. I'd even vote for Sanders if it would do any good. (It won't, so I don't have to hold my nose on that one, but… I would if it came to that.)
"Buttigieg looks to be staying for Super Tuesday as well."
Lee C. @ Sun Mar 01, 07:47:00 am ↑↑
Or, maybe not.
TheAtlantic; headline: "How to Destroy a Government"
Anecdotes from Trump's (so far fairly successful) work to subvert the American government and establish a Trump dictatorship. Fairly long but worth the read.
I'll have to save the article for later.
It looks like both Pete and Amy are history. I'm really disappointed that I won't get a chance to cast a vote for a candidate that I actually like rather than someone who is the lesser of two evils. I thought Amy would stick it out at least through Super Tuesday. Now it looks like my choices are down the Biden or Bloomberg.
...down the Biden or Bloomberg.
..down to to...
The Dow-Jones had it's best single day in history yesterday after the Fed promised to take "appropriate" steps to shore up the market in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.
We're still not sure exactly what that means, and the news overnight about the virus outbreak was fairly grim (especially the news off of the west coast). So, who knows if the upward trajectory will stick?
But, it was a good Monday. I'm surprised that Trump's not banging the twitter drum already this morning.
"It was a good Monday."
And the Fed just instituted an "emergency" interest rate cut of a full ½ percent.
Oughta be a good Tuesday in the stock market to go along with the good Monday it just had.
Nope, so far it's off 700 points.
I voted. I helped circle the wagon around Joe Biden.
Have you considered voting in the primary (Republican) and writing in a different candidate from Trump? I know he/she won't win, but it would be rather amusing if Trump actually got some push back in a red state.
"Nope, so far it's off 700 points."
Dropped almost another hundred. That says something grim about the gamblers' level of confidence. It bounced up 300+ points just after the announcement, then started dropping again. Good thing for Trump he didn't jump out there and claim the credit for that initial 300+ surge.
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"Have you considered voting in the primary (Republican)…"
I usually vote in the Republican primary. If ya wanna have any say about who wins local office (sheriff, prosecutor, county commissioners, etc.), the Republican primary is where all that's decided; that's where the action is. The general election is held just as a ritual confirmation that this was Republican country (now Trumpkin territory). Last time 'round I voted for Ted Cruz in the primary 'cause he was the only one still standing who had any chance to derail Trump's nomination (didn't work, obviously).
In the current case I deem it more important to vote against Sanders when that vote might mean something. Don't know if it will or won't, but it might. (Nobody bothers polling around here--Trump's gonna win it in the general election; polls are superflous).
Bloomberg's having a really bad night.
Sanders ain't doin' too well either.
And now the Republican "investigations" into Hunter Biden and Burisma come roaring back to life, after they'd all but petered out when it looked to Trump like he was going to face a challenge by Mike Bloomberg instead of Joe Biden. Politico
Not gonna make Trump happy:
Headline: "Dow Soars on Joe Biden's Super Tuesday Victory"
Subtitle: "Joe Biden's win over Bernie Sanders in Super Tuesday primary voting appears to be a catalyst for stocks Wednesday."
Delegates
Biden - 509
Sanders - 449
Warren - 37
I can see where the stock market would prefer Biden over Sanders. I also think that there is still a strong moderate center in the US that is looking for a moderate candidate. Which is why Pete and Amy dropping out earlier helped to boost Biden.
Maybe the revolution that we will see will be a revolution by the moderates and not one by the progressives.
It seems that coronavirus fears have sent hand sanitizer, toilet paper, bottled water and other commodities flying off the shelves here, even though we have yet to have a confirmed case.
"I can see where the stock market would prefer Biden over
Sanders."
Or Warren; she spooked them as much, if not more than, Sanders. They were worried that she'd actually get shit done; Sanders…not so much.
What I thought remarkable though, is that the normally conservative-leaning web-site (TheStreet), was attributing the stock surge to Biden's win on Tuesday.
"Maybe the revolution that we will see will be a revolution
by the moderates and not one by the progressives."
I said earlier that I expected the collapse of the Republican Party to be followed by a schism in the Democratic Party. (We've already witnessed the collapse of the Republican Party--it fell to a hostile takeover from the fascists they'd courted under the misbegotten notion that they could simultaneously unleash and control the right-wing crazies.)
Now comes the Democratic realignment. Their left-wing will become frustrated by their inability to duplicate the fascist takeover of the Republican Party, and they'll split off after Sanders loses a second time, and try to form a true Socialist Party.
I wouldn't be surprised to see at least three political parties at least regionally viable (viable on Facebook/Twitter anyway) for a decade or more following the schism among the Democrats. Our "first past the post" system disfavors multiple political parties, but it may well take a decade or more to sort out the realignment, post-Trump.
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"It seems that coronavirus fears have sent…commodities
flying off the shelves…"
I've gotta hit the store in a day or so; I'll have to remember to look in on the aisles in the commodities section, see if that's happening here as well.
Elizabeth Warren has dropped out. She has yet to endorse anyone. It will be interesting to see if Sanders gets her support after that little dust up they had after the one debate.
"It will be interesting to see if Sanders gets her support…."
I thought it was "interesting" that she's not already decided whom to support. I find that curious to say the least (or, if she has decided, she's dangling it behind the scenes for some concessions of some sort). She pulled back after South Carolina; went totally dark after Super Tuesday. (Although her campaign was still airing TV ads in next Tuesday's primary states as of yesterday morning, just in case.)
She's taken her own sweet time thinkin' this one through, but she's not ready to endorse or even to decline to endorse?
Somethin' goin' on there.
I'd guess she's negotiating the price of her endorsement. May be negotiating with both remaining candidates (leaving Tulsey Gabbard out of the mix as having nothing to offer her).
(leaving Tulsey Gabbard out of the mix as having nothing to offer her).
That would be a wise move for everyone.
Well it looks like we have the first confirmed case of Covid-19 here in Minnesota. Someone who came back from a cruise. She is in self imposed exile in her home, I believe.
I still think it's been here for a while and we just weren't aware of it. They are talking about coming up with a test to see if we can tell if people have been infected with it in the past. It would be interesting.
Hmmm...Elizabeth Warren is talking about sexism being involved in the race for President. She will have more to say about this in the future. Stay tuned.
I will say one thing, though, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016. That does say something about whether or not a woman can win based purely on votes cast. Elizabeth should look at her policy stances as well when looking at why she performed poorly.
Ok, and maybe her voice.
"Elizabeth Warren is talking about sexism being involved in
the race for President."
I have no doubt but that her sex was a factor with some Democrats. No doubt it weighed against her with some. Equally clear that she got a boost from being female with other Democrats.
Whether there was more of the one than the other I cannot say. (Don't think she can either.)
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