Alan Dershowitz quits Donald Trump’s impeachment trial
After making a idiot of himself by saying the president CANNOT be removed for a quid pro quo to aid his re-election then claims the defense ‘begged him to stay’
- Most famous member of Trump’s defense team was absent from the Senate floor Thursday – then turned up on TV from Miami
- Dershowitz, who also defended Jeffrey Epstein, said he had a family commitment which he could not change and team had begged him to stay
- He is at war with critics after telling the impeachment trial that a president could not be impeached for a quid pro quo to aid his re-election
- Harvard professor said that because the president believes his re-election is in the public interest, he cannot be impeached
- Other academics and lawyers criticized the theory saying it gave presidents’ extraordinary powers – and would have cleared Richard Nixon
Donald Trump’s most famous and flamboyant lawyer vanished from his trial Thursday – turning up in Miami to fight back against a tidal wave of criticism for his extraordinary defense that anything a president does to get re-elected is unimpeachable. The Harvard professor surfaced in Florida as other academics and attorneys reacted with astonishment to his position, which he then said he had never actually said. On CNN he told Wolf Blitzer that he had a commitment in the state Thursday and it was difficult to change his flight because the Super Bowl is on this weekend in Miami. He also complained about how CNN had reported what he said, prompting Blitzer to say: ‘We were playing what you said.’ But his main thrust was a rearguard action against a legal theory which Trump’s own defense spent time walking away from Thursday.
Dershowitz delivered a stunning defense of President Donald Trump in the Senate that would essentially make it impossible to impeach a president for anything he might do to boost his reelection prospects. It was a contention quickly and forcefully denounced by a range of legal scholars and historians who said there were clear limits on presidential authority. Dershowitz said on Thursday that his remarks have been misinterpreted, but Democrats seized on them as they pressed their case for Trump’s removal from office for tying the release of military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of his political rivals. His starting point was the benign assertion that every politician believes his election is in the public interest, but he pivoted abruptly to Ukraine, and began to frame an argument that would rewrite most conventional understanding of the scope of presidential power. As novel as it was, his premise in many ways tracked the views of Trump who has said he was not bound by some constitutional constraints that other presidents have readily accepted. And several Republican senators seemed to find merit in what Dershowitz said. The person in the chamber who in other settings might have a lot to say about the matter, Chief Justice John Roberts, was instead rendered essentially a spectator as he watched the arguments play out.
‘If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,’ Dershowitz said Wednesday as senators put questions to Democratic House lawmakers who are prosecuting the case against Trump in the Senate and to Trump’s defense team.
Alan Dershowitz was in full flight Wednesday, using his time on the Senate floor to outline a sweeping view of presidential power Robert Dallek, a presidential historian who has written books about five presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, called Dershowitz’s argument unique. ‘Frankly I’ve never seen that before, that a president´s power extends to wherever his politics are,’ Dallek said. ‘There is a pretty well defined idea of what a president can do and can´t do and when he seems to overstep his bounds, he runs into great difficulty with the Congress or the judiciary.’
Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said Dershowitz had it backwards in suggesting that the public interest is whatever serves the president’s reelection campaign. ‘What we hope is that they at least think in terms of the nation’s interests and then align their personal interest with the public interest, the country´s interest,’ Perry said. What’s more, she said, Dershowitz’s formulation could serve as a dangerous precedent for future presidents who might think they can do anything they want in the political arena, except for violation of a criminal statute. ‘Then there´s nothing to be done about a president who can make the case that I did it in my self-interest,’ she said. She reached back to Richard Nixon’s presidency and the ‘dirty tricks’ carried out to undermine the campaigns of Democratic rivals in 1972. ‘Nixon was trying to get reelected. Every single thing that happened in Watergate, all of those things would not be impeachable?’ Perry said. Both Perry and Dallek said the closest similar invocation of presidential power was Nixon’s statement, made after he resigned the presidency: ‘Well, when the president does it … that means that it is not illegal,’ Nixon told interviewer David Frost in 1977. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., alluded to Nixon in Thursday’s Senate session. ‘We are right back to where we were a half century ago, and I would argue that we may be in a worse place, because this time, this time, that argument may succeed,’ Schiff said. Nick Note: It is amazing and sad to see how Trump has the ability to corrupt people and destroy their lives and reputations making assholes our of themselves for the president… How sad!
The Verdict Is In: Farm Bankruptcies Up in 2019
Holy Shit i hope john deer did not finance all those tractors Trump told the farmers to buy. And as far as buying more farm land it does not look like their will anyone who can afford to farm it
Chapter 12 family farm bankruptcies in 2019 increased by nearly 20% from the previous year, according to recently released data from the U.S. Courts. Compared with figures from over the last decade, the 20% increase trails only 2010, the year following the Great Recession, when Chapter 12 bankruptcies rose 33%. During the 2019 calendar year there were 595 Chapter 12 family farm bankruptcies, up nearly 100 filings from 2018 and the highest level since 2011’s 637 Chapter 12 filings. Given that there are slightly more than 2 million farms in the U.S., the 2019 bankruptcy data reveals a bankruptcy rate of approximately 2.95 bankruptcies per 10,000 farms, slightly below the rate of 2.99 filings per 10,000 farms in 2011. During the fourth quarter of 2019, there were 147 Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings, which was up 14% from the prior year but down 8% from the third quarter of 2019. On a year-over-year basis, Chapter 12 filings have increased for five consecutive quarters. The continued increase in Chapter 12 filings was not unanticipated given the multi-year downturn in the farm economy, record farm debt, headwinds on the trade front and recent changes to the bankruptcy rules in 2019’s Family Farmer Relief Act, which raised the debt ceiling to $10 million
During the 2019 calendar year, Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies were the highest in Wisconsin at 57 filings. Wisconsin farm bankruptcies were up 8 filings from the prior year and were also at the highest level in a decade. Following Wisconsin, Georgia had 41 Chapter 12 filings in 2019, which was up 15 filings from 2018. Chapter 12 filings were at, tied with or above decade-high levels in 10 states: Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wisconsin, Figure 2.
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose in many states across the Midwest, West and Southeast. Georgia had the largest increase — 14 more filings than the prior year. Following Georgia were Iowa and Florida with 14 additional Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings and Nebraska with 11 additional filings, Figure 3.
All but three regions of the U.S. experienced higher bankruptcy rates in 2019 compared to 2018. Nearly 46% of the Chapter 12 filings were in the 13-state Midwest region, followed by 22% in the Southeast. The Midwest had 273 Chapter 12 filings, up from 234 filings in 2018, while the Southeast had 132 filings, up from 89 filings the previous year. Figure 4 highlights Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings by region and the year-over-year change.
Over the last decade, there have been more than 5,000 Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies across the U.S., representing approximately a quarter of 1% of all farm operations during this time period. At 388 filings, Chapter 12 filings over the last decade were the highest in California, followed by Wisconsin at 375 filings and Georgia at 351 filings. Figure 5 highlights Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies over the last decade.
Summary
Depending on perspective, net farm income in 2019 inflation-adjusted dollars is either down 33% from a record high or up nearly 40% from the decade low set in 2016. Regardless of perspective, net farm income in 2019 is slightly above the 20-year average but was supported in large part by the Trump administration’s efforts to financially shield farmers from unfair retaliatory tariffs. Without this support, farm-related income from crop and livestock sales in 2019 inflation-adjusted dollars would have been at the second-lowest level in the last decade at $63.6 billion. The corollary to this is that farm bankruptcies could have been worse considering the record-high farm debt of $415 billion (in nominal terms) and the likely difficulties servicing this debt without the revenue from the Market Facilitation Program. The Trump administration is not expected to announce a third round of trade assistance given the welcome trade news with respect to Japan, USMCA and a China Phase 1 deal. As a result, farm financial conditions in 2020 will come down to – notwithstanding any other black swans — a race between the additional grain and oilseed supplies likely to come online following a record prevented planting year and any demand boosts for U.S. agriculture that results from these new and enhanced trading opportunities. Nick Note: I see Trump has made the GREAT American farmer great again just like he did for the coal miners and the steal mills. God Bless Donald trump
Taliban say mystery crash in Afghanistan was US aircraft
KABUL, Afghanistan – A U.S. military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, a Taliban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group said. Tariq Ghazniwal, a journalist in the area, said that he saw the burning aircraft. In an exchange on Twitter, he told The Associated Press that he saw two bodies and the front of the aircraft was badly burned. He added that the aircraft’s body and tail were hardly damaged. His information could not be independently verified. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a U.S. airforce plane crashed in the Ghazni province. He claimed the crash killed “lots” of U.S. service members. The militant group often exaggerates casualty figures. Ghazniwal said the crash site was about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from a U.S. military base. Local Taliban have deployed to protect the crash site, he said, and several other militants were combing the nearby village for two people they say survived the crash. The Taliban control much of the Ghazni province and have total control over the local area of the crash. Ghazniwal said the site was near a village called Sado Khelo, in the Deh Yak district. He also said the crash occurred soon after 1 p.m. local time, but residents in the area did not report a loud crashing noise. He couldn’t say whether the aircraft had been shot down but “the crash was not loud.” U.S. Army Maj. Beth Riordan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, declined to comment when told about the Taliban claim. She earlier acknowledged American military officials were investigating reports of a crash in Afghanistan. She said that it remained unclear whose aircraft was involved in the crash. Riordan declined to immediately comment further. However, pictures on social media purportedly from the crash site showed what could be the remains of a Bombardier E-11A aircraft, which the U.S. military uses for electronic surveillance over Afghanistan. Images on social media purportedly of the crashed plane showed an aircraft bearing U.S. Air Force markings similar to other E-11A surveillance aircraft photographed by aviation enthusiasts. Visible registration numbers on the plane also appeared to match those aircraft. The so-called Battlefield Airborne Communications Node can be carried on unmanned or crewed aircraft like the E-11A. It is used by the military to extend the range of radio signals and can be used to convert the output of one device to another, such as connecting a radio to a telephone. Colloquially referred to by the U.S. military as “Wi-Fi in the sky,” the BACN system is used in areas where communications are otherwise difficult, elevating signals above obstacles like mountains. The system is in regular use in Afghanistan. Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the plane went down around 1:10 p.m. local time (8:40 a.m. GMT) in Deh Yak district, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of the capital Kabul. He said the crash site is in territory controlled by the Taliban. Two provincial council members also confirmed the crash. The mountainous Ghazni province sits in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains and is bitterly cold in winter. The Taliban currently control or hold sway over around half the country. Nick Note: I say the US is having a bad hair day. When you turn tail and run people ain’t afraid of you any more and they get embolden. Notice how the Russian embassy is fine… They would not dare Fuck with the Russians… they know how to be the worlds policeman!e Russian.
Dow Futures Crash as Coronavirus Spreads and Rocket Hits U.S. Embassy
The Dow Jones faces a disastrous open as the coronavirus spreads across America and the U.S. embassy in Iraq is hit with a rocket strike.
- Dow futures plunged in early trade as geopolitical threats mount for the U.S. economy.
- Alongside a fifth confirmed case of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States there was also an attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq on Sunday.
- Bulls are now nervously awaiting what could be sizable dip in the Dow Jones when it opens on Monday morning in New York.
The Dow looks set for an extremely rough start to the week as a multitude of geopolitical risks converge on a shaky stock-market. After a weak close on Friday, investors in the Dow Jones are now faced with missile strikes against the U.S. embassy in Iraq, as well as a rapidly escalating coronavirus epidemic in China, with multiple new cases reported in the United States as well. With many economists predicting that the U.S. economy’s historic run would only be halted by an “external shock,” almost on cue, we have not one but two highly significant threats to the Dow Jones’ quest for 30,000. Most recently, health officials confirmed the fifth case of Wuhan coronavirus in the domestic United States, this time in Arizona. Over the weekend, medics also acknowledged two cases in California, one in Orange County and the other in Los Angeles County. That’s a highly unwanted occurrence for an area already in mourning over the loss of its most beloved athlete, NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash. For investors paying close attention to the spread, California is of particular significance for three reasons. Firstly, California is the most populous U.S. state, with Southern California (mostly L.A. and Orange County) the most densely populated region. Secondly, California is comfortably the largest state economy in the United States, a little under double second place Texas. Finally, it has the largest Chinese-American community (estimated at more than 1.2 million), some of whom visit their country of origin for the Lunar new-year (January 25), making the threat of contamination more probable moving forward. Given the previous impact that virus epidemics have had on the stock market, major global indexes like the Dow Jones cannot ignore the spread of coronavirus within China.Fears are escalating that Beijing has been massively downplaying the rate of infections, and the crisis has hit during the most significant economic event of the year.
A huge hit to Chinese productivity is expected, with knock-on effects in the global economy inevitable. In Hong Kong, protests remain fierce, this time against state administered quarantine, as protesters set fire to the buildings designated for infected parties. Nick Note: The stock market balloon has found it pin.
Three rockets hit US embassy in protest-hit Iraqi capital
Iraqis have been protesting since early October against a government deemed corrupt and incompetant
Baghdad (AFP) – Three rockets slammed into the US embassy in Iraq’s capital on Sunday in the first direct hit reported after months of close calls, as thousands of protesters kept up anti-government sit-ins across the country. The attack marked a dangerous escalation in the spree of rocket attacks in recent months that have targeted the embassy or Iraqi military bases where American troops are deployed. None of the attacks has been claimed but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq. On Sunday, one rocket hit an embassy cafeteria at dinner time while two others landed nearby, a security source told AFP. A senior Iraqi official told AFP at least one person was wounded, but it was not immediately clear how serious the injuries were and whether the person was an American national or an Iraqi staff member working at the mission. The US embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The US State Department called on Iraq late Sunday to “fulfil its obligations to protect our diplomatic facilities”. The attack took place earlier in the day than usual, with AFP reporters hearing the booms on the western bank of the river Tigris at precisely 7:30 pm (1630 GMT). Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammed Halbusi both condemned the incident, saying it risked dragging their homeland into war.
Iraq has already been dragged into a worrying tit-for-tat between the United States and Iran over the last month.
A similar attack on a northern Iraqi base killed an American contractor, and the US retaliated with a strike on an Iran-backed faction known as Kataeb Hezbollah. Less than a week later, a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani outside the Baghdad airport — prompting Iran to fire ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base where US troops are stationed. Some 5,200 Americans are stationed in Iraq to lead the global coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group, but the US strike on Baghdad has rallied top Iraqi figures around a joint call to order them out. Vehemently anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr organised a mass rally in Baghdad on Friday, where thousands of his supporters called for American troops to leave. Sadr had previously backed separate anti-regime protests sweeping Iraq’s capital and south, even though he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts. Bolstered by his own protest on Friday, Sadr announced he was dropping support for the youth-dominated reform campaign rocking the country since October. His followers, widely regarded as the best-organised and well-stocked of the anti-government demonstrators, immediately began dismantling their tents and heading home. Activists feared that without his political cover, authorities would move to crush their movement — and indeed, within hours, riot police tried to storm protest camps. Those efforts continued into Sunday, with security forces using live rounds and tear gas to try to flush protesters out of squares and streets they had occupied for months. One protester was shot dead in Baghdad and another in the flashpoint southern city of Nasiriyah, medical sources said, and dozens more were wounded across the country. In the capital, riot police have tried to clear streets around the main protest camp of Tahrir Square but have yet to enter the symbolic area, where many protesters stood their ground even after tents there were dismantled. Despite the renewed violence, thousands of students flooded the streets in the capital and across the south in a bid to keep national attention focused on their demand. “Only for you, Iraq!” read a sign held by a young protester in the shrine city of Karbala, hinting at the movement’s insistence on not being affiliated with any political party or outside backer. In Basra, hundreds of students gathered to condemn the riot police’s dismantling of their main protest camp the previous day, according to an AFP correspondent. The youth-led protests erupted on October 1 in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and rampant corruption before spiralling into calls for a government overhaul after they were met with violence. More than 470 people have died, a vast majority of them demonstrators, since the rallies began. Protesters are now demanding snap elections, the appointment of an independent premier and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed. Nick Note: The US broke it and refuses to fix it. Like a kid who knows how to break things they have not learned how to fix them. If you let Iran put Iraq back together again it will look like Frankenstein. You do not know how a revolution will turn out till you get through the counter revolution…… This is a oil story. Iraq has produced a miracle in oil production. Which is over 5 MBPD. within 5 years it cold be 10 MBPD rivaling the US, Russia and Saudi oil production. Before we get their the odds are very good that the counter revolution will serious affect Iraqi oil output.
Libya oil production falls by 75% amid blockade
The Libyan National Army’s (LNA) decision to halt exports from a number of ports brings more pressure to bear on the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) but does little to upset the international oil market. This is to the benefit of the LNA. If it had caused prices to increase, it would have triggered more of a response from the US. A lack of drive to intervene from the international community provides some leeway for the head of the LNA, General Khalifa Haftar, to press ahead with his plans. He has shown little patience for a political solution, preferring to rely instead on force. This has been seen mostly clearly in his assault on Tripoli, which began in April 2019 and has made slow progress, ignoring potential alternatives. “The blockade sets the stage for a new offensive, with major quantities of weapons being provided to east Libya, in response to the Turkish intervention in west Libya,” the Clingendael Institute’s Jalel Harchaoui said to Energy Voice. “Once LNA forces renew their offensive into Tripoli, perhaps managing to enter downtown this time around, then the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) will come back into play. The aim of Haftar and his foreign backers is to precipitate a change in the leadership of the CBL in Tripoli.” Verisk Maplecroft’s MENA analyst Hamish Kinnear said that the base case would be for the blockade to be lifted by the end of next week, “with the possibility that it could drag on for one to two months”. Kinnear also highlighted the importance of the CBL, and the National Oil Corp. (NOC), noting that stopping the flow of revenues would have an impact on both sides. The CBL is believed to be paying salaries to some fighters from the GNA and the LNA. This oil blockade followed the January 13 meeting in Moscow, backed by Russia and Turkey. The LNA has received some support from Russia, while the GNA signed a deal with Turkey in November 2019. The blockade was launched on January 18, the day before international talks were held in Berlin. “The Russian-Turkish peace talks were mishandled,” said Kinnear. “Russia excluded the Emiratis and the Egyptians, both backers of Haftar, while it also agreed to recognise Turkey’s maritime claims.” The GNA and Turkish deal of late last year secured military support for the Tripoli government, in addition to establishing a new maritime border. The latter point proved to alienate the excluded eastern Mediterranean states. Harchaoui also noted the discontent for the United Arab Emirates as a result of being excluded from the Moscow meeting. Following this snub, he said, plans began for the oil blockade. Triggering this stoppage just before the Berlin conference “was not coincidental. Obeying a logic of blackmail, it served to set the atmosphere before talks began.”
The Zawiya, Zueitina, Hariga, Brega, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports are under force majeure. Once storage at these facilities has filled, the National Oil Corp. (NOC) will have to halt production from fields.
The six ports shuttered as a result of the LNA action has taken around 900,000 bpd of exports offline, Vortexa said.
Haftar and the LNA’s decision to impose the blockade now is much better timed than the mid-2018 shuttering of exports. Globally, the oil balance was tighter in 2018, with demand higher in the summer. This time around, amid a backdrop of gloomy Chinese demand and US production, price has been much less reactive. The response from major powers, most notably the US, has been muted. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in comments following the Berlin conference expressed the “hope that [the blockade] will be opened up as a result of this conversation”, going on to call for a “political solution”. Given the difference of opinions from those who are involved, there is unlikely to be an international consensus, which puts the ball in the court of those who favour “the logic of appeasement”, said Harchaoui. “The factions backing Haftar do not care about the consequences on the oil market or the price, they have a single minded focus on one main battle, which is for control over the CBL.” Nick Note: I find it very interesting that a cut of 1 million BPD in oil supplied to the market is a nothing event. The market is so focused on the China pandemic that it is ignoring all else. I think we could have fun with this.
Virus death toll in China rises as US prepares evacuation
BEIJING (AP) — A new viral illness being watched with a wary eye around the globe accelerated its spread in China on Sunday with 56 deaths so far, while the U.S. Consulate in the city at the epicenter announced it will evacuate its personnel and some private citizens aboard a charter flight. China’s health minister said the country was entering a “crucial stage” as “it seems like the ability of the virus to spread is getting stronger.” Ma Xiaowei declined to estimate how long it would take to bring the situation under control, but said travel restrictions and other strict measures should bring results “at the lowest cost and fastest speed.” President Xi Jinping on Saturday called the outbreak a grave situation and said the government was stepping up efforts to restrict travel and public gatherings while rushing medical staff and supplies to the city at the center of the crisis, Wuhan, which remains on lockdown with no flights, trains or buses in or out. The epidemic has revived memories of the SARS outbreak that originated in China and killed nearly 800 as it spread around the world in 2002 and 2003. Its spread has come amid China’s busiest travel period of the year, when millions crisscross the country or head abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday. The latest figures reported Sunday morning cover the previous 24 hours and mark an increase of 15 deaths and 688 cases for a total of 1,975 infections. The government also reported five cases in Hong Kong, two in Macao and three in Taiwan. Small numbers of cases have been found in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France and Australia. The U.S. has confirmed cases in Washington state, Chicago, and most recently Southern California. The latest patient announced Saturday night traveled from Wuhan and is in isolation at a hospital and in good condition. Canada said it discovered its first case, a man in his 50s who was in Wuhan before flying to Toronto. Singapore and South Korea each reported one new case Sunday, while Thailand reported three new cases. A notice from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said there would be limited capacity to transport U.S. citizens on a Tuesday flight from Wuhan that will proceed directly to San Francisco. It said that in the event there are not enough seats, priority will be given to to individuals “at greater risk from coronavirus.” The French Consulate also was considering an evacuation of its nationals from the city. It said it’s working on arranging a bus service to help French citizens leave Wuhan. French automaker PSA Group said it will evacuate its employees from Wuhan, quarantine them and then bring them to France. Japan was also making preparations to fly its nationals out of Wuhan. Chinese travel agencies have been told to halt all group tours, and concern is growing over the potential impact of millions of people traveling back to the cities after the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Thursday. China’s National Health Commission said anyone traveling from Wuhan is now required to register with community health stations and quarantine themselves at home for 14 days — the virus’ maximum incubation period. Beijing has decided to delay the start of classes after the Lunar New Year holiday ends, the official Beijing Daily reported on its website. That will extend to all schools in the capital from kindergartens to universities. Hong Kong announced similar measures on Saturday and on Sunday two of that territory’s biggest attractions, Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park, announced they were closing for the time being. In the heart of the outbreak where 11 million residents are already on lockdown, Wuhan banned most vehicle use, including private cars, in downtown areas starting Sunday. The city will assign 6,000 taxis to neighborhoods to help people get around if they need to. China cut off trains, planes and other links to the city Jan’ 22, and has steadily expanded the lockdown to 16 surrounding cities with a combined population of more than 50 million — greater than that of New York, London, Paris and Moscow combined. Wuhan is building two makeshift hospitals with about 1,000 beds each to handle the growing number of patients. The city has said the first is expected to be completed Feb. 3. Medical workers in Wuhan have been among those infected and local media reported a doctor died on Saturday morning. The 62-year-old physician was hospitalized on Jan. 18 and died a week later. Xinhua also said medical supplies are being rushed to the city, including 14,000 protective suits, 110,000 pairs of gloves and masks and goggles. Videos have circulated online showing throngs of frantic people in masks lined up for examinations and there have been complaints that family members had been turned away at hospitals that were at capacity. The National Health Commission said it is bringing in medical teams to help handle the outbreak and the Chinese military dispatched 450 medical staff, some with experience in past outbreaks, including SARS and Ebola, Xinhua reported. The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some causing nothing worse than a cold. It causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and fever, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath. It can worsen to pneumonia, which can be fatal. First detected last month, the virus is believed to have originated in a type of wild animal sold at a Wuhan market to be consumed as food. Chinese authorities announced a temporary ban on the trade of wild animals Sunday, saying they will “severely investigate and punish” violators. They also called on the public to refrain from eating wild animal meat. Investigators are closely observing whether the virus was mutating, but thus far found “no obvious signs,” that it is doing so, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, Gao Fu, told reporters. That could make it easier to develop vaccines against the virus, something the center is already working on. Xinhua quoted center official Xu Wenbo as saying the they had isolated the virus and were identifying seed strain. The rapid increase in reported deaths and illnesses does not necessarily mean the crisis is getting worse but could reflect better monitoring and reporting of the virus. Those killed by the virus have mostly been middle-aged or elderly people, sometimes suffering from other conditions that weaken their ability to fight back. It is not clear how lethal the new coronavirus is or even whether it is as dangerous as the ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone. Nick Note: I think we are getting ready to have some fun. A plague is a terrible thing to waste. Besides to be a good Samaritan you got to have money to pay the hotel bill. In essence you got to spend your treasures on earth to build them up in heaven…. And if you got no treasures on earth your screwed. Having a meaningful life is NOT living in a tent and not painting yourself green and pretending to me the statue of liberty. In the cities around here the beggars can take your credit card….. If your into that sort of thing!
China coronavirus spread is accelerating, Xi Jinping warns
The country is facing a “grave situation” Mr Xi told senior officials
The spread of a deadly new virus is accelerating, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned, after holding a special government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday. The coronavirus has killed at least 42 people and infected some 1,400 since its discovery in the city of Wuhan. Meanwhile, UK-based researchers have warned of a real possibility that China will not be able to contain the virus. Travel restrictions have come in place in several affected cities. From Sunday, private vehicles will be banned from central districts of Wuhan, the source of the outbreak. A second emergency hospital is to be built there within weeks to handle 1,300 new patients, and will be finished in half a month, state newspaper the People’s Daily said. It is the second such rapid construction project: work on another 1,000-bed hospital has already begun. Specialist military medical teams have also been flown into Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. The urgency reflects concern both within China and elsewhere about the virus which first appeared in December. Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the rat, which began on Saturday, have been cancelled in many Chinese cities. Across mainland China, travellers are having their temperatures checked for signs of fever, and train stations have been shut in several cities. In Hong Kong, the highest level of emergency has been declared and school holidays extended. Several other nations are each dealing with a handful of cases, with patients being treated in isolation. A coronavirus is a family of viruses which include the common cold. But this virus has never been seen before, so it’s been called 2019-nCov, for “novel coronavirus”. New viruses can become common in humans after jumping across the species barrier from animals. The Sars [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] outbreak of 2003 started in bats and transferred to the civet cat which passed it on to humans. This new virus also causes severe acute respiratory infection. Symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough and then, after a week, lead to shortness of breath and some patients needing hospital treatment. Based on early information, it is believed that only a quarter of infected cases are “severe”, and the dead are mostly – though not exclusively – older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions. The Chinese authorities suspect a seafood market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals” was the source of the outbreak. Scientists at the respected MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis in the UK have warned that it may not be possible to contain the virus to China. They say self-sustaining human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus is the “only plausible explanation” for the scale of the epidemic. Their calculations estimate each infected person is passing it onto, on average, 2.5 other people. The centre praised the efforts of the Chinese authorities, but said transmission of the virus needed to be cut by 60% in order to get on top of the outbreak. This is a massive challenge, the scientists suggest, which will require finding and isolating even patients with only mild symptoms that could easily be confused with other diseases. Elsewhere, a team at Lancaster University have published their estimates of the number of cases suggesting 11,000 have been infected this year. If true, that would be more than Sars. There are now 1,372 confirmed cases across China, though most are concentrated in those provinces closest to Hubei. But it has also spread abroad – in isolated cases affecting small numbers of patients. On Saturday, Australia confirmed its first four cases – first in Melbourne, and then three more in Sydney. It has also spread to Europe, with three cases confirmed in France. Tests in the UK on 31 people have come back negative, the government has said. Officials are trying to trace around 2,000 people who have recently flown to the UK from Hubei province. The cases largely involve people who had recently travelled from the affected region in China. China’s neighbours in the Asia region are on high alert, however, with cases reported in Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea and Nepal. There are also cases in the United States. The city of Wuhan is effectively on lockdown, with heavy restrictions on travel in and out, and public transport options from buses to planes cancelled. It is a major population centre with up to 11 million inhabitants – comparable in size to London. Pharmacies in the city have begun to run out of supplies and hospitals have been filled with nervous members of the public. Officials have urged people to avoid crowds and gatherings. “The whole transport system has been shut down,” Kathleen Bell, who is is originally from the UK and works in Wuhan, told the BBC. “From midnight tonight private cars are not allowed on the road. And taxis aren’t running.” Major Western brands such as McDonald’s and Starbucks have closed in the city and in others nearby. The US, France and Russia are among several countries trying to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, reports say.
China is also suspending from Monday all foreign trips by Chinese holiday tour groups, state media reported.
The outbreak has severely restricted Lunar New Year celebrations in China, when millions of people normally travel home. Major public events have been cancelled and tourist sites shut. Nick Note: This is a enormous profit opportunity either way it goes. Bottom line is i expect the news to get far far wore. Reality is in a early assessment this is a epidemic NOT a pandemic. And that means their is gold in those coughs! Let me show how they jerk you off. In the US alone we saw 45,000,000 people come down with the flue and 68,000 confirmed deaths in 2017 – 2018. For the 2018-2019 flue season the figures are not all in yet… but the estimates are they will equal previous years. So excuse me if i am not running around like a chicken with its head cut off over under 1,000 dead at most in this latest outbreak……. The sky is falling!!! Wolf wolf wolf!
Wall Street set for weekly loss on gathering virus fears
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street lost ground on Friday as mounting worries over the scope of the coronavirus outbreak overshadowed positive corporate earnings. All three major U.S. stock averages extended their losses after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the second case of the virus on U.S. soil, this time in Chicago. For the holiday-shortened week, all three indexes are on course to post a decline with the Nasdaq set to snap a six-week winning streak. Market participants kept a wary eye on developments surrounding the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed “an emergency in China,” having now killed 26 people and infected more than 800 on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday.
“There’s not much confidence in actual fundamentals, and a scare like the virus can be enough to force investors to rethink if markets have run too far too fast for too long,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. “There’s lots of uncertainty in the markets and the virus scare has only added to that.” Analysts now expect earnings to have contracted by 0.5%, on aggregate, in the October to December quarter.