WHY IT DESERVES TO BE CALLED THE CHINA VIRUS
SILVER LININGS OF THE WUHAN VIRUS
dodge-the-ticket-virus-style
The world is changing at a pace not seen in years, and it is no time to become captives of fear despite the real and immediate dangers we face.
The Wuhan virus and the ensuing panic, at least for a few more weeks, have stagnated the economy and scared global financial markets, accompanied by both collateral, and independent and simultaneous, bad news.
Rumor- and panic-mongers predominate; the rational and reasonable are written-off as naïve and out of it. Hundreds may die in the US, but millions who will not are terrified into anxieties and sleeplessness that they will.
Such deaths are terrible, yes, but let us now focus on a number of silver linings emerging from this crisis.
BIDEN AND BERNIE: TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE
Tweedledum and Tweedledee Agreed to have a battle; For Tweedledum said Tweedledee Had spoiled his nice new rattle. Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel; Which frightened both the heroes so, They quite forgot their quarrel.
—Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
At Pajamas Media, Stephen Green rightly titled his live blog on Sunday night’s (3/15) debate, "Grumpy Old White Men: Drunkblogging the Democratic Diversity Debate.”But these two old codgers are beyond grumpy; they are both tethered to the already done or distant past.
Like Lewis Carroll's Tweedledum and Tweedledee, these two curmudgeons are barely distinguishable from one another but for their sheer idiocy. No American who watched their Sunday night debate will be inclined to vote for either of them.
WHO DO YOU TRUST?
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/13/20
We’ve known, or at least suspected, this for a long time. This is the week those suspicions were confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt.
On Wednesday evening (3/11), President Trump addressed the nation in calm and straightforward terms about the Wuhan Virus. At the close, he made a passionate heartfelt plea:
“We are all in this together. We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship, and unify together as one nation and one family.”
Who of right mind and moral decency could not agree? The leaders of the Democrat Party, that’s who.
Immediately the next day:
THE CHICOMS’ EPIDEMIC OF LIES TRYING TO BLAME AMERICA FOR ITS WUHAN VIRUS
If you listened to Chinese state-run media, you'd think President Trump went to Wuhan, China and released vials of COVID-19 on groups of unsuspecting men, women and children.
Beijing has been bending over backward in a massive global propaganda effort to convince the world that the United States is the real culprit behind the quickly spreading virus that's already claimed more than 4,946 lives (3,169 in China, 1,016 in Italy, 429 in Iran, and 332 in the rest of the world).
It's a high-stakes strategy for the Asian nation fighting to keep its superpower status amid a national lockdown and palpable anger that Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the Wuhan Virus, at first covered it up, triggering a worldwide health and economic crisis.
A PRESIDENT YOU CAN COUNT ON IN A CRISIS
With fear and panic spreading across the land and threatening to take down the economy, Trump is facing the greatest test of his presidency. Although battle-hardened by brutal fights with Democrats, the biased media and foreign adversaries, he is presented with problems of a different magnitude with the coronavirus.
It is a global menace that has declared war on America. Thankfully, the President left no doubt that he is all in on the battle against this deadly scourge. Now effectively a wartime president, Trump’s repeated assurances of victory were music to the ears of a rattled nation.
PUTIN AND THE PRINCE BOTH LOSE
Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Salman, Moscow, June 2018
Not for the first time, let’s wonder how much Vladimir Putin and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (widely known as MBS) really know what they’re doing.
Oil has crashed to $32 a barrel thanks to a sudden feud between Russia and Saudi Arabia, which comes amid the Covid-19 shock to the global economy. The upshot could bankrupt a lot of U.S. shale companies, if that’s either man’s thinking.
But the U.S. may be the world’s biggest producer but oil is a tiny share of its economy. What America loses in terms of oil-industry wages and profits it gains in lower gas prices for consumers and energy costs for downstream industries.
The strongmen’s desperation is understandable but nothing else about their feud is: Saudi Arabia and Russia have zilch to offer the world except oil and gas.
THE DEM ELITE JUMP FROM BERNIE’S FRYING PAN INTO BIDEN’S DYING FIRE
At a rally in Detroit on the eve of a Michigan primary that locked up for him the Democrat nomination for president, Slow Joe Biden attracted a “crowd” of a few hundred – many of whom were Bernie bros who came to razz him.
Dem honchos didn’t want the old Bolshevik to take over their party, were concerned about down ballot races if Bernie were the nominee.
But in their panicky reaction to Bernie’s big win in the Nevada caucuses, Dem bigwigs risk consequences far worse.
THE LAND OF NOMADS
A select group of TTPers will be joining Rebel and me this coming May for our third exploration of one of this world’s most spectacular and fascinating yet mysterious and unknown regions – all “Five Stans” of Western Turkestan.
Here we will find the ancient cities of the Silk Road still in all their splendor, and one of the glitziest cities you’ll ever see built yesterday in the middle of nowhere. Here we will find the Mountains of Heaven, the Door of Hell, and the Seven Pearls of Shing.
For seventy years, Moscow kept one of humanity’s most glamorous and historical regions hidden from the world, reducing it to a forgotten and impoverished backwater. With the thankful death of the USSR in 1991, all five stans were quick to declare their independence.
It has been a long and haltingly-trodden road ever since to their political, social, and economic recovery. Nonetheless… I was first able to travel through the region in 1963 – 57 years ago at age 19 – and the differences between then and today are staggeringly exciting.
To personally encounter that excitement is one of the most profound travel experiences our planet has to offer – for there really is no place like it, historically, naturally, culturally, on earth.
This is the first of a series of introductions for you to each of the Five Stans. We begin with Kazakhstan -- the Land of Nomads.