Esper says new virus won’t prevent military operations
“The nation’s more than 2.1 million active duty, Guard and Reserve forces are spread all around the globe. And they are one of the nation’s last lines of defense against any outside threats or disasters during an outbreak, as well as a force that could be used as a last-resort to maintain order or enforce quarantines within the U.S. in the case of a pandemic.”
‘“Our national military command center has the capability to go for weeks at a time if they have to be locked down inside the building if we have some type of outbreak,” Esper told reporters during a Pentagon press conference. He said the Pentagon is finalizing plans to prevent the spread of the virus across the force and military installations and also mitigate it in the event of any outbreak."’
“The Pentagon has been unable, however, to provide a variety of details, including how many service members have been tested for the virus and how many test kits are available, amid lingering questions about whether military commands and bases currently have enough of those kits.”
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2020-03-05/esper-says-new-virus-wont-prevent-military-operations
I just popped myself open a bag of Werther’s Originals Cream and Caramel. GOOD GOD did i ever need that. I feel as if i’ve been under fire for a week and a half now, have had several anxiety attacks (not cause of the virus but because if i really go critical nobody will help until it’s too late), smoking weed felt like it did nothing. But Then i popped a few of these caramel babies and now i feel like i can take on the fucking WORLD.
Still getting better by the by. Had another attack today, but that’s the 1st in 2 days so per day it’s gone from 1-2-4-2-1-1/2 now. But the stabbing/burning sensation in my lungs got worse and i had a serious bout of fatigue today. Damn thing is a marathon that’s for sure.
I made a selfie today (something i otherwise NEVER do) simply because i looked in the mirror and my eyes looked like i’ve never seen them before. Battle weary. That’s the only way i can describe it. I’ll save that picture for posterity.
So just a reminder to everybody! If you’re still collecting supplies, there’s a good chance nobody’s touched the candy. Cause why would you, right, candy won’t fight off a virus. But trust me… i can honestly say today it stopped being theory for me. I really felt almost defeated till that little morale boost. I’m still sad cause yknow, road to recovery and all. But the creeping feeling that i won’t make it has been locked in it’s cage once again.
I live and work in Redmond, Washington. I am sure it will come as little surprise to visitors on this site that the news media is not accurately reporting the situation here. The news is filled with glowing reports of how schools and high tech industries are able to continue without interruption by switching their labor online. One local news report even had a “feel good” report about how the impact of the coronavirus is decreasing conjeation on the freeways!
The truth is that basic services in the area are.beginning to be affected by workers calling out ill and nothing is being done to test and adequately quarantine ill workers who may have coronavirus.
As an example, a friend who works for a large home improvement store nearby developed a fever and low, dry cough yesterday. He was encouraged to go home and seek testing to make sure he did not have covid19 before returning. Today he tried to get tested and contacted a local clinic. He was instructed to drive to the clinic and wait in his car so that he could be tested without entering the clinic. He was tested - but only for the flu and for strep throat. Both tests came baxk negative. They sent home home with a prescription for fever reducers and doctor’s note excusing him from work for two(2) days. They said he could only get a covid19 test if his condition warranted hospitalization.
So in three days he will be forced to go back to work. If he has covid19 he will pass it on to his coworkers and customers. But since he was not allowed to be tested, his case will not be counted.
This is an unmitigated failure of our health system. Today the governor announced that no one will have to pay for tests. What political grandstanding. No one has to pay for tests that aren’t even available.
The number of confirmed cases in the Seattle area might be accurate but that number is being kept deliberately low because of the restrictions on testing.
I disagree. History will give the virus its name. To quietly and obediently use the WHO’s designation is to show respect and even submission to their authority and status.
Example -
Congress gave the name of the tallest mountain in North America Mt. McKinley after some political yahoo. The Indigenous people have always called it Denali. And so most everyone in Alaska have referred to the mountain as Denali. Finely, after many years the official name was changed. See it didn’t matter what the “officials” called our mountain, it mattered what the people call it. Oh, and Denali means “The Great One!”. And its stunning!
IMHO
First post here, very very appreciative of everything on the site this year. I first came across “Crash Course” about a decade ago. “We are not smarter than yeast.”
My name for The Disease is carnivorous coronavirus, an anagram.
The virus is carnivorous - it likes to eat lungs.
And it is a direct consequence of eating wild animals, just like Ebola and HIV.
Look at the warnings about feeding antibiotics in factory farms, that has been a concern at least since the 1960s - and virtually nothing has been done.
It’s not the End of the World, but it might be the End of Complacency. Unfortunately, we will all see a big period of pain to get there, which was avoidable.
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep39956 I read this. Quick summary. Standard surgical mask material 0% effective at stopping H1N1 virus aerosols but after being treated with salt water became 100% effective.
Article suggests other RNA viruses will performs similarly.
So an infected person wearing a standard surgical mask coughing will still disperse a cloud of infectious aerosole paertcles. Mask will only stop larger droplets that would fall quickly anyway. ( unless treated of course )
Rang my local health center ( oxford ) and spoke with receptionist about this. She said she would talk with the doctor in charge of their covid response. Got a call back that he would like to hear from me. I will get an insight into their preparedness and let you know.
Regards hamish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu6Em4a4pG4
It’s a good video from the same guy who made the series about Deutsche bank being corrupt, this time in English! …well if you can stand accents 
It’s a bit technical but it explains fairly decently what the situation with the European banks really is at the moment. Must watch for every European!
I don’t get the Honey Badger or Ninja names either, sofitek. I think those are probably insider themes from behind the PP paywall that the rest of us never got tuned into. But they make no sense to me and I have never heard anyone else using that terminology.
You have a good point. It wasn’t the first thing I thought of back in Jan/Feb, when I started picking up extra supplies for myself and my daughter & son-in-law (I knew they’d take some arm-twisting about stocking up, so I just went ahead and picked up various things I thought they’d need before the shelves emptied).
But, on what I planned to be my last trip out to the store earlier this week, it was largely stuff like packages of cashews, a couple flavors of Oreos, ice cream and Edwards’ pies to throw in the freezer. I bought one of my daughter’s favorite Cookies & Creme pies to give her, too.
It occurred to me that if we end up in a long isolation, comfort food may be as crucial to survival as nutritious fare. We need to feed more than just the body.
Glad you enjoyed your caramels. 
If you do not want to wear a mask, don’t. If you cannot figure out the benefits of wearing a proper mask, and why people should wear them during a pandemic, it may be best if you just reap what the World is so ready to give you. People often have a hard time keeping things in context and applying Reason to ANYTHING.
Get a proper mask. Learn how to put it on. Learn how to take it off. Learn when you should put it on and take it off. Got it? There is NO DOUBT masks provide additional protection against viral pathogens. Do not believe ANY official information to the contrary…as they are deliberately lying to you…OR, they are IDIOTS.
Evolution In Action
Nairobi: I think it’s in reference to the honey badgers reputation for being such a determined animal and its ability to escape from almost any enclosure.
LOL, Tell the truth I have never even heard the term Honey Badger before. I don’t think we have them in Canada anyway although we do have badgers. So the connection is that they are very smart and also that Corona virus has outsmarted all the officials. Is that about right? And Ninja got named because it was about the Princess that was docked in Japan? Or because its fast and stealthy?
Because they are wicked smart, very determined, and are escape artists. This video is one of my all time favorites:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c36UNSoJenI[/embed]
Also, there’s a video of one fighting a deadly snake, getting bitten by it, seemingly dying but later recovering and shaking off a deadly amount of venom and then proceeding to calmly eat the snake it had killed hours earlier in the battle.
Then it moseyed off to continue with its day.
Hard to believe: https://patch.com/pennsylvania/westchester/coronavirus-town-hall-be-held-chester-county
We’re having another perfect sell signal. The same i called on monday and wednesday last week: gold/silver/VIX up, everything else down, so this is going to be another epic fail day in US markets. However; this time, something is different.
last week, it was gold/silver/VIX/USD that was up, both times. Now, it’s gold/silver/VIX/EUR that is up! In fact; here’s how that looks on the weekly charts:
I’m sure people will agree with me any vertical lines are pretty suspect at the moment. This is clearly another break from trend. But honestly, there’s no good explanation for this. If anything; the algos should be buying USD. Treasuries, while diving lower, are still higher then anything the EU offers (which are also still dropping) thus more yield. Even in a perfect sell signal you’d expect the USD to go up because of the traditional safe haven status of the dollar. Not to mention the spreading infection in the EU while the US doesn’t have that (officially) yet. And you’d expect the algos to look at the official numbers.
The only explanation i do have is: “Why buy bonds of a country dependant for 35% of it’s manufacturing on China which continues to be locked down”. Cause i sure as shit wouldn’t.
Because remember; foreign countries aren’t going to buy treasuries now, they’re going to sell to mitigate the impact of the virus in their own countries. Which leaves banks to pick up the slack, but they won’t, otherwise we wouldn’t have had the (JPmorgan caused) repo crisis in 2019.
Which leaves private investors such as pension funds but they’re insolvent (Illinois has like 35% funded at this point) and will buckle under the coming crisis. Which leaves the Fed but they’re already at $4,5 trillion on the balance sheet thanks to “temporary” repos. If the economy doesn’t reboot because of supply chain trouble, who in the world is going to fund the $1 trillion YEARLY deficit (in good times)?
True, the EU banking system can/will collapse, but not all EU banks are created equal. The Dutch banks have been sanitized after the financial crisis. The German banks have not been. Even if the Euro as a whole collapses that just means individual countries will unpeg their currency from the Euro and each native can convert funds back to the previously defunct currencies. If the dutch leave the EU right now the guilder (our old coin) would pop as high as the swiss franc overnight.
The US does not have that option. It’s dollar or bust, and it’s looking like Bust. Of course - anything can change overnight about this whole situation. But really, my attention goes towards only 1 thing:
The EUR is gaining vs the USD, while the EU collectively already has ~5k confirmed cases (including hotspot Italy) while the US is stuck at 233 due to limited testing. It stands to reason when the US cases goes up, the dollar sells. So why is it selling before the inevitable case explosion (which is going to take a while because the “million tests a week” seems to have been exaggerated by about a million).
Are the markets front running a downward event in USD? what would that be then? It’s a highly suspicious signal no matter how you look at it.
We’re in tropical country, where temperatures now are now in the 90s + & humidity’s averaging 60% during the day. Watching Chris’ videos and reading the posts here, I thought that we had our last case of corona in January (man coming in from China) because of the advantage of warmer weather in early February. Then suddenly, today, from out of the blue, it’s on the news; a 67-year old man with no known travel or contact history comes down with the virus and is said to being intubated (I guess that means it’s a critical case).
Here’s the link to the news:
https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/3/6/Philippines-coronavirus-local-case.html
I have a unicorn at home. This is obviously a lie.So, you can't have a stuffed unicorn at home? How would anyone know that... Just saying. ;)
…don’t give a shit! The honey badger reference stems from a fantastic meme/video, it’s one of the gifts the internet has given us. Watch this and you’ll understand why the ronus gets a honey badger nickname.
FYI: NSFW for adult language
https://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg
went to rite aide yesterday and asked about masks. they were out and they told me that they had gotten a company memo telling them to inform everyone that the masks are not needed for the corona virus!!