Stinks: Slow WHO let CoronaVirus run. But Ethiopian WHO chief was part of China’s debt trap diplomacy

The WHO could have declared a state of emergency earlier. Instead it delayed the announcement, praised China’s transparency, and recommended countries allow planes potentially carrying a deadly virus continue to fly freely. The WHO waited until the 2019-nCoV virus had spread to 18 nations before declaring an emergency. Wasn’t it an emergency with the first foreign case or the first case of symptomless transmission?

Follow the chain, or rather the Belt and Road

The WHO Director General is Tedros Adhanom of Ethiopia. From 2012 – 2016 he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the one party government that rules Ethiopia. This is the same party that borrowed billions from China to build a railway line, then struggles to pay it back.  In Africa, Ethiopia is the second largest debtor nation to China — owing $13 billion.  As Foreign Minister Adhanom praised China for African loans, looks like he was the man to line them up. We also note that the one-party ruling party of Ethiopia is called the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front which was once a Marxist Lenninist far left group — labels it dropped after the Soviet Union collapsed. (Thanks Maurice for these tips).

Suddenly there might be a reason why Tedros went out of his way to praise President Xi of China, even though medical experts were already warning that there were thousands more victims, that China was hiding the severity, and punishing its doctors for trying to warn people.

Last Thursday ABC News Australia was broadcasting some of the rapturous praise below. I didn’t hear one word about the Ethiopians debts or any potential conflict of interest. How was the ABC serving Australians by uncritically parroting the lines of the Ethiopian apologist for China without doing the basic research themselves? There were no hard questions from the BBC either which refers to the WHO as the “global health officials”.

Tedros Adhanom

Tedros Adhanom

 Does the WHO Director General serve the world or China?

It’s rare in politics to hear such an abject extended grovelling rave:

Xi Jinping meets with visiting World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

2020/01/29

…Tedros said it is admirable that the Chinese government has shown its solid political resolve and taken timely and effective measures in dealing with the epidemic.

President Xi’s personal guidance and deployment show his great leadership capability, Tedros said.

He said that China has released information in an open and transparent manner, identified the pathogen in a record-short time and shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus in a timely manner with the WHO and other countries.

China’s measures are not only protecting its people, but also protecting the people in the whole world, he said.

Hailing the high speed and massive scale of China’s moves are rarely seen in the world, Tedros said it showed China’s efficiency and the advantages of China’s system. The experience of China is worth learning for other countries, he said, adding that he believes the measures China has taken will effectively control and finally prevail over the epidemic.

The WHO firmly supports China’s measures against the epidemic and stands ready to enhance cooperation with China and provide all necessary assistance, Tedros said. He said the WHO will make assessment based on science and facts, and opposes overreaction and groundless accusations.

The WHO speaks highly of China’s major role in and great contribution to the cause of global public health, and is ready to further conduct strategic cooperation with China, said Tedros.

Now ponder that Australia’s Chief Medical Officer — Prof Brendan Murphy — told us we should keep our borders open last week because the WHO advised it was better. The ABC didn’t ask him any hard questions on that either. Should we be getting advice from the former Ethiopian Foreign Minister of a government that borrowed billions from China?

Last Thursday Prof Murphy was explaining how there was no evidence of transmission from human to human “in this country” as if the virus touring downunder might not do the exact same kind of transmission as the Chinese one.

Protecting Australia amounted to teams jumping on planes with thermometers and brochures and hoping anyone who was infected, but didn’t know it, would be nice enough not to share their germs. It’s pathetic:

…every flight from China now is being met by border security officers who are going on the plane and distributing information to every passenger trying to identify any unwell passengers. The airlines are also required to identify any unwell passengers and if they are unwell, there’s a process of screening them. Every passenger on those flights from China is given an information sheet in Chinese and Mandarin, sorry, Mandarin and English and told to undertake, to watch themselves, and to contact their doctor or their emergency department should they develop symptoms over the following 14 days. In addition, because there are some people who could come from China via other countries, and other ports within 14 days, we are now making announcements in the arrivals halls of airports, again in English and Mandarin, pointing out that anyone who may have come from China from whatever flight or whatever port they’re on, pointing out the risks and identifying that there is printed material available for them to collect at the airport if they have come from China so that all of the people who may have come from China can get that information. Again, we have no evidence there’s a risk to the Australian public. There’s no human to human transmission that’s been identified in this country.

 —Chief Medical Officers Update, Jan 27th, 2020

Australians are the masters of quarantine — we stop visitors with wooden sticks, but not novel diseases. Last week it was harder to bring in cut-flowers to Australia than to import a deadly new human virus with no known cure.

Sack Tedros Adhanom

There’s a petition to sack Tedros Adhanom which started last week and already has 135,000 signatures. Among his other achievements, by the way, he’s the man who appointed Robert Mugabe as the Goodwill Ambassador for the WHO.

Call for the resignation of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General

Not only do we not need Tedros Adhanom, we don’t need the WHO, The UN, or The ABC and BBC either. None of them were serving Australians, Brits, or Americans, or even Ethiopians. How many will now succumb to Coronavirus that might have been saved?

Killed by Big Government.

9.4 out of 10 based on 135 ratings

157 comments to Stinks: Slow WHO let CoronaVirus run. But Ethiopian WHO chief was part of China’s debt trap diplomacy

  • #
    William Capron

    Bravely said! Well said! Australia First! and maybe they could get their priorities straight. And, from the states, Joanne, we love you.

    381

    • #
      hatband

      Now ponder that Australia’s Chief Medical Officer — Prof Brendan Murphy — told us we should keep our borders open last week because the WHO advised it was better.

      It was once the Unwritten Rule in Australia that Leprechauns can’t be allowed to hold such

      Sinecures in a Christian Country.

      Long forgotten, so we learn it again the hard way.

      610

      • #
        Lionell Griffith

        It is nothing but a continuation of the global plan to destroy everything worth keeping. WHO is saying that you have no right to defend yourself against lethal force. Which is exactly what spreading a lethal infection actually means.

        No matter how “unintended” the spreading is, you have the right to stop its spread by whatever means necessary. However, WHO says that you must submit, totally and without reservation, to anyone who wants to transport a lethal weapon into your lands and foster its uncontrolled spread. Thereby to infect your entire population and to decimate your entire economy. WHO is NOT a health organization when it facilitates death. In fact, it serves your death on an engraved platter at your expense.

        I object and I am not even an Australasian.

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    • #
      peter

      Bravely said indeed! Some people would say Joanne was racist for being so open and honest about this issue. ABC TV this morning covered the flight to Christmas Island stuff but nothing else. No questions on the WHO mishandling of the issue nor China’s mismanagement of the whole affair. Why not?

      Thanks to Joanne for that video at the weekend – a real eye-opener. I saw (experienced) for myself those “wet markets” 20 years ago. In the middle of Beijing. I thought “how lovely, an open air pet-shop in the middle of Beijing. No, wait that’s not a pet market, it’s a food market”. Cats, dogs, birds, reptiles and animals I couldn’t identify, in small cages stacked on top of each other. Next to raw-meat in open trays, un-refrigerated, that customers were free to handle. Raw food next to stressed animals urinating and defecating. Little or no clean-up except into an open drain. No sanitisation, no hygiene. Is it any wonder that viral epidemics come out of China?

      Though I would question the claim of “the first case of symptomless transmission”. One incident only and as others have said there is no obvious mechanism for that. Theoretically possible but without the thousands of aerosol viral particles in saliva and nasal drip that you get from symptomatic people coughing, sneezing and spitting, the infection risk would be a hundred times lower. Though if you wet-kiss or have sex with an asymptomatic person – all bets are off.

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Jo, There is an international Wuhan based dedicated Corona virus Facebook page.
      It has some very interesting posts.
      This virus is causing chaos for a lot of people from many different nationalities.
      People interested need to join to access the posts.
      https://www.facebook.com/groups/180664089959147/?multi_permalinks=185635589461997%2C185503546141868%2C185243659501190%2C185028529522703%2C185004559525100&notif_id=1580340175753086&notif_t=group_activity

      00

  • #
    Steve Richards

    Some headlines refer to WMO, I am sure it should be WHO!!

    [Fixed. Late night typing on autopilot. I have typed WMO too many times. Thanks. Apologies. – Jo]

    130

  • #
    Jonesy

    Thanks for all this vital information, Jo. This and yesterdays insight shows the WHO is not even a gun for hire but a poor quality paid mouthpiece. “Praising the Chinese system…” Really?
    Three months and our health organisation starts acting if the outbreak escaped yesterday. We are now at the mercy of fate alone. Gawd knows how many direct flights a week for maybe the previous ten weeks multiplied by at least 200 per flight. The horse has well and truelly bolted….Having said that, where is the evidence that this virus is as dangerous as feared. If the vector has been spraying around the world like a water cannon we should have already been overwhelmed.

    120

    • #
      Mike Jonas

      First reported case was 9 Jan. Symptoms take 2 weeks to appear. So there have only been 3 incubation periods in total (that includes 2 weeks to 9 Jan). Spread is exponential for a period whose strength and length depends on as yet unknown factors, as explained by Jo. At n^3 = thousands, to my mind n is a bit large for comfort.

      I’m very comfortable with Australia closing its borders to non-Australians travelling from China, and using the probably pretty good facilities on Christmas Island. Not so comfortable with Australians being let in and asked to be careful, because I imagine that the virus can’t read passports. I’m prepared to give the government the benefit of the doubt for now, as they do seem to be on the front foot. I accept that this may turn out not to be very smart on my part(!). Time will tell.

      Thanks, Jo, for your good work on this: balanced and informative articles way before the ABC said anything useful. I hope you will keep a very close expert eye on the way the virus does or doesn’t spread, so that you don’t allow any rhetoric to get out of sync with reality. By that I mean keeping the message on government action at the right level – enough concern, not too much panic. Easier said than done, of course.

      140

      • #
        Dennis

        Refugee activists have always downplayed the facilities provided in Australian Detention Centres, illegal immigrant asylum seekers are not prisoners and are free to request deportation at any time, but they are very good as detention centre officers have confirmed many times. They also explain how too many of the detainees are troublemakers.

        From recent television images the Christmas Island facility is at least as good as a public hospital or retirement village.

        110

        • #
          hatband

          The failed Applicants will take a few generations to adapt to

          the higher Vitamin D levels fueling Testosterone Production due to

          Christmas Islands location, but that’s okay.

          From the point of view of Voluntary Deportation though,

          Heard Island woulda been a better choice.

          02

          • #
            sophocles

            Have you got testosterone production problems? You seem to have it on your mind, rather obsessively. If you do have troubles with your testosterone production, you should look at your Vitamin A consumption — the lack of it. Then you will be able to maximise it all without needing any Christmas Island reinforcement… 😀

            01

            • #
              hatband

              Here’s a few tips kiwi:

              1. In Australia, people using emoticons are considered,er, fey, and

              2. In Australia, don’t go hawking gratuitous medical advice.

              01

  • #
    Deplorable Lord Kek

    I didn’t hear one word about the Ethiopians debts or any potential conflict of interest. How was the ABC serving Australians by uncritically parroting the lines of the Ethiopian apologist for China without doing the basic research themselves?

    because anyone who criticizes an expert is a ‘denier’.

    the ABC has a severe case of veneration of authority (hence the fallacy argumentum ad verecundiam) that puts the opinions of their preferred experts beyond question.

    oh, plus the fact that this gentleman is from Ethiopia means that any criticism of him could be construed as ‘racism’, so it was a double bind for them.

    360

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      The ABC’s behaviour has more to do with its green left socialist sycophancy, than with veneration of authority. It only venerates those on the left. It’s a component part of the socialists and Communists’ network of useful idiots.

      It’s essentially a Fabian socialist organisation that is funded by the taxpayers of Australia. No conservative government has the gumption to deal with its persistent failure to abide by its Charter.

      331

      • #
        PeterS

        Therein is the irony. We have a supposedly conservative/centre-right party supporting their prime enemy a socialist propaganda machine using our tax dollars. If this were a war situation against a socialist dictatorship the ABC would have to be shut down if common sense were to prevail.

        120

        • #
          hatband

          Liberalism is of the Left, always has been and always will be.

          It all dates back to the Labor Split of 1031.

          Lyons and the other Rats made Legislating the ABC into being a precondition for their joining

          the UAP.

          The Nationalists agreed to the deal for the sake of Power, and here we are 88 years later

          with cancer coming out of the wireless and the TV.

          54

          • #
            el gordo

            Traditionally the ABC was full of North Shore types who were not left leaning, but something happened along the way.

            When did the culture change and why?

            31

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Not Fabian !
        The Fabian’s group has long died.
        The current mob of left extremists were never Fabians either !

        30

        • #
          Sceptical Sam

          Perhaps not “card-carrying” Fabians Bill, but disciples of the Fabian play book along with other Marxist strategies.

          Fabians live. Branches in every state of Australia plus the ACT.

          https://www.fabians.org.au/

          And, a strong representative in left wing politics (past and present):

          Prime Ministers
          Julia Gillard (2010—2013)
          Bob Hawke (1983—1991)
          Paul Keating (1991—1996)
          Gough Whitlam (1972—75)

          Premiers
          John Cain (Victoria 1982—1990)
          Don Dunstan (South Australia 1970—1979)
          Geoff Gallop (Western Australia 2001—2006)
          Neville Wran (New South Wales 1976—1986)

          Politicians
          Chris Bowen (Shadow Treasurer 2013—2019)
          Jim Cairns (Deputy Prime Minister 1974—1975)
          Arthur Calwell (Opposition Leader 1960—1967)
          Julie Collins (MP 2011—2013)
          Frank Crean (Deputy Prime Minister 1975, Treasurer 1972—1974)
          John Faulkner (Senator 1989—2015, ALP National President 2006—2008)
          Luke Foley (Leader of the Opposition, New South Wales 2015—2018)
          Bill Hayden (Opposition Leader 1977—1983)
          Stephen Jones (MP 2010—)
          Andrew Leigh (MP 2010—)
          John Lenders (Treasurer, Victoria 2007—2010)
          Clarrie Martin (Attorney General, New South Wales 1941—1953)
          Race Mathews (MP 1972—1975, MP, Victoria 1979—1992)
          Jenny McAllister (Senator 2015—, ALP National President 2011—2015)
          Claire Moore (Senator 2002—) Queensland Patron
          Tanya Plibersek (ALP Deputy Leader 2013—2019)
          Bill Shorten (Opposition Leader 2013—2019)
          Wayne Swan (Deputy Prime Minister 2010—2013)
          Susan Templeman (MP 2016—)
          Tim Watts (MP 2013—)

          Other members
          Phillip Adams (broadcaster)
          Van Badham (writer and columnist)
          David Charleston (trade unionist)
          Eva Cox (writer and academic) National Patron
          Henry Hyde Champion (journalist)
          Charles Marson (clergy)
          Bernard O’Dowd (writer)
          Nettie Palmer (writer)
          Charles Strong (clergy)

          181

          • #
            Betty Luks

            It is not so long ago that Bob Hawke passed away. He was portrayed by so many prominent people and the media as a ‘great’ Australian – and yet his speech to the Fabian Society in 1984 reveals a far different character.

            Important to understand the tactics used by such people as the fabians. It is the ‘permeation’ of such ideas.

            Ever thought to follow the trail of the pedigree of ideas we are being fed? As an example, anyone would think ‘socialism/communism’ was a modern idea, something new. It is an idea as old as Man!

            We are fed the concept of a left/right conflict but the reality is both ‘sides’ are pushing us further and further along the path to centralised control. Older Australians can testify to a freer nation fifty years ago.

            Read how the Fabians and their ilk let their ideas/policies/philosophy ‘permeate’ into our minds and the minds of the young through their education system.

            SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
            HON. R. (Bob) J. HAWKE
            TO THE FABIAN SOCIETY CENTENARY DINNER
            MELBOURNE, 18TH MAY 1984

            https://alor.org/Storage/Library/Hawke%20RJ%20-%20Address%20to%20the%20Fabian%20Society%20.html

            101

            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              Permeation.

              “Sydney tried to explain the Fabian policy of permeation, with the result that the chairman, in his concluding remarks, recommended the meeting to adopt Mr Webb’s suggestion of taking the capitalist down a back street and then knocking him on the head.”

              20

              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Permeation

                In physics and engineering, permeation is the penetration of a permeate through a solid.

                00

              • #
                hatband

                …to adopt Mr Webb’s suggestion of taking the capitalist down a back street and then knocking him on the head.”

                Ha ha.

                Sidney Webb was a Neurasthenic and probable Left Footer who

                couldnae knock a boiled egg on the head.

                11

            • #
              AP

              I met Bob Hawke once when I worked in finance. He was (to put it simply) an arsehole.

              40

          • #
            hatband

            Impressive list of Fabians there, Skeptical, but you missed all the ones in the Liberal Party.

            Looks like the Fabians took over the ALP a long while ago with Calwell, Whitlam,

            Hayden, Hawke, and Keating.

            Murdoch favorite Rudd’s not on the list, Shorten and Gillard are, and it’s fair

            to assume Crean, Latham, and Beazley are also Fabians.

            11

          • #
            AP

            The Fabians had a stained glass window made. It is displayed in the London School of Economics which was founded to promote Fabian ideas. Shows the founders reshaping the world to their new world order.

            The book 1984 also was named after the centenary of the founding of the Fabian Society. Orwell’s wife wrote a poem about the Fabians called something like 1984.

            10

        • #
          hatband

          Fabians are still going strong, I would be surprised i there weren’t a fair few commenting on

          this site, cunningly disguised as, er, RightWingers from, ah, Newcastle.

          012

          • #
            Dennis

            Mischief or ignorance?

            The socialist Fabian Society was formed in England in the late 1800s and remains in leftist political business today, the Australian Fabian Society is a subsidiary.

            60

        • #
          Dennis

          Bill, Australian Fabian Society, many Labor people belong and now former PM Gillard merged her Socialist Forum with the Fabians just before she was appointed Deputy Leader to Opposition Leader Rudd in 2006.

          60

      • #
        Deplorable Lord Kek

        The ABC’s behaviour has more to do with its green left socialist sycophancy, than with veneration of authority

        yes, but that is really what i said: veneration of their “preferred experts” who, will obviously tend to conform to their specific ideological bent (hence why they are preferred).

        80

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Hmmm…WHO seems to like to spread disease…maybe is a new form of contagious PC?

    Defund the UN now!

    150

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    As New Coronavirus Spread, China’s Old Habits Delayed Fight –

    “A reconstruction of the crucial seven weeks between the appearance of the first symptoms in early December and the government’s decision to lock down the city, based on two dozen interviews with Wuhan residents, doctors and officials, on government statements and on Chinese media reports, points to decisions that delayed a concerted public health offensive.

    In those weeks, the authorities silenced doctors and others for raising red flags.
    They played down the dangers to the public, leaving the city’s 11 million residents unaware they should protect themselves.
    They closed a food market where the virus was believed to have started, but didn’t broadly curb the wildlife trade.

    Their reluctance to go public, in part, played to political motivations as local officials prepared for their annual congresses in January.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/as-new-coronavirus-spread-chinas-old-habits-delayed-fight/ar-BBZyiSz

    100

    • #
      nb

      ‘In those weeks, the authorities silenced doctors and others for raising red flags.’
      Well, the wrong red flag, anyhow.

      60

  • #
    pattoh

    Perhaps when Africa is ravaged they will honour him appropriately.

    OBOR spruikers should temper their enthusiasm by reading some of John Perkin’s stuff & get a thorough understanding of “Debt Trapping”.

    Pakistan appears to be counting the cost:-
    https://www.scmp.com/print/week-asia/economics/article/3048459/chinas-belt-and-road-after-gold-rush-pakistan-sees-downside

    A “cunning plan” indeed.
    https://blackadderquotes.com/i-have-a-cunning-plan

    40

  • #
    • #
      OriginalSteve

      “she is willing to “bet my life that [the outbreak] has nothing to do with the lab.”

      But no actual *medical* confirmation……not that I suspect we will ever get it, of course.

      Now add the reality the WHO was happy to let people travel and as a result spread the thing widely than is sensible, and any reasonable prerson would have to start asking hard questions.

      Move along…nothing to see here…..

      110

      • #
        el gordo

        They are unlikely to say a young disgruntled employee of the Institute purposely took the virus to the market and released it.

        20

        • #
          hatband

          Here’s a turn up!

          Only the other day you were busily downplaying the proven role of Arsonists in the

          Bushfires, now you’re suggesting, without the slightest proof, that the

          CoronaVirus Outbreak may be caused by a disgruntled employee.

          03

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      This is interesting “the virus was the result of “nature punishing the uncivilized habits and customs of humans”, !!!

      So she at least does recognise that eating fruit bats is bizarre and dangerous ! They carry a of hoard of powerful viruses which bats are immune to but impact humans severely..

      As this Coronavirus demonstrates !

      30

      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Also wildlife animal protection groups here in Oz have long known that fruit bats harbour deadly viruses and that they can be transmitted to humans on occasion. (Eg Lyssa virus and Hendra virus here in Oz.) Individuals working in such groups are required to get vaccinated against these viruses.

        Here in South Australia, where fruit bats are not native wildlife but recent unauthorised refuge fly ins from Qld & NSW, there seems to be a good case for eliminating them completely. That would also reduce the huge burden that is imposed on orchardists by these fruit bats in SA.

        60

  • #
    Penguinite

    I bet Tedros Adhanom is not queuing-up to fly to China! Won’t risk his own life but like all politicians and bureaucrats is happy to send other people into the front line!

    80

  • #
    Dave

    My grandmother who was in her 90s died in a hospital here in Wellington late last year from a pneumonia outbreak in the hospital.
    No mention of it in the foyer, but on the ward we were told about it and we should have masks on. Too late by then.
    She drowned in her own blood in less than a day.
    As did others I presume.
    A few months later a relative who had also visited my grandmother (in their late 40s)developed pneumonia and was hospitalized for two weeks, and had surgery to remove pink gunk (as they called it), and a large quantity of blood.
    I never heard what caused it. And from what I know, they were not informed.

    150

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Dave, sorry to hear about your grandmother.

      The blood bit is a concern, sounds haemorrhagic, which is a concern….

      I have heard from nurses ( but not 100% confimed ) of flu vaccines and Warfarin being contraindicated due to the possibility of the combination of the two potentially causing internal bleeding.

      80

      • #
        Dave

        Yes. She was on an entire popper board of pills.
        Cant say what my other relative was on, or had had in the past.

        70

      • #

        Warfain is vile stuff. Take enough and you are a hemophiliac. Be very careful if they put you or a relative on it.

        The doctors might want a dose that larger than is good for you. Experiment. Doctors don’t know everything. Especially when it comes to individual reactions.

        100

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Cinamon has become . a popular spice nowadays.
          Hownever most of it is made from Cassia Cinammon tree bark.
          And this cinnamon has a natural blood thinner in it – Coumarin with a chemical structure to warfarin.
          Wikipedia says this about it :”Due to a blood-thinning component called coumarin that could damage the liver if consumed in larger amounts[6], European health agencies have warned against consuming high amounts of cassia.”

          No more cinnamon in my coffee or hot chocs nowadays ! I used to have it in my coffee and developed bleeding.A week after I stopped, the bleeding stopped. Anecdotal ? Yes ! But also significant.

          100

          • #
            Chris

            Bill, There is cinnamon and there is cinnamon taken from several species of the same genus. If it says Cassia then don’t touch it. True cinnamon is Cinnamon Zeyianicum and expensive. Cinnamon Zeyianicum does not have the same properties or side effects as the Cassias.

            10

            • #
              Bill In Oz

              For a year or so I bought only cinnamon labelled
              Organic Sri Lankan Cinnamon..
              And thought I was safe.
              But the bulk & health food store or the wholesaler
              Was doing a switch.
              And so I was still getting a coumarin blood thinner dose
              With every coffee I drank.
              I mentioned it to an employee – a herbalist !
              And got poo poohed.
              An ignoramus !
              Now i rarely go there.
              So take care Chris !

              10

    • #
      hatband

      Influenza is only slightly less dangerous than Pneumonia, yet it can still

      kill a healthy young person.

      Pneumonia is the next stage, and it probably will kill you.

      Is the Flu Vaccine any good?

      Don’t know, but since Influenza isn’t caused by anything outside the person’s own body,

      I can’t see how it could be.

      05

    • #
      Dennis

      There is now a pneumonia injection, it was recommended to me last year when I had one for influenza, I was caring for cancer patient.

      20

  • #
    pat

    plenty of Lomborg’s CAGW solutions; nonetheless,
    open access:

    1 Feb: Australian: We don’t have money to burn on green mania
    BJORN LOMBORG
    Australia is the world’s most fire-prone continent. In 1900, 11 per cent of its surface burned annually. These days, 5 per cent of the country burns every year. By the end of the century, if we do not stop climate change, higher temperatures and an increase in aridity will likely mean a 0.7 percentage point increase in burnt area, an increase from 5.3 per cent of Australia to 6 per cent…
    …for decades to come, solar and wind energy will be neither cheap enough nor effective enough to replace fossil fuels. Today, they make up only 1.1 per cent of global energy use and the International Energy Agency estimates that even after we spend $US3 trillion ($4.47 trillion) more on subsidies, they will not even reach 5 per cent by 2040…

    Globally, bushfires burn less land than it used to. Since 1900, global burnt area has reduced by more than one-third because of agriculture, fire suppression and forest management. In the satellite era, NASA and other groups document significant decreases.
    Surprisingly, this decrease is even true for Australia. Satellites show that from 1997 to 2018 the burnt area declined by one-third. Australia’s current fire season has seen less area burned than in previous years. Up to January 26, bushfires burned 19.4 million hectares in Australia — about half the average burn over the similar timeframe of 37 million hectares in the satellite record. (Actually the satellites show 46 million hectares burnt, but 9 million hectares are likely from prescribed burns.)…

    When the media suggests Australia’s fires are “unprecedented in scale”, it is wrong. Australia’s burnt area declined by more than a third from 1900 to 2000, and has declined across the satellite period. This fire season, at the time of writing, 2.5 per cent of Australia’s area has burned compared with the past 10 years’ 4.8 per cent average by this point…

    What is different this year is that fires have been mostly in NSW and Victoria. These are important states with a little more than half the country’s population — and many of its media outlets.
    But suggesting fires are caused by global warming rests on cherrypicking these two regions with more fire and ignoring the remaining 87 per cent of Australia’s landmass, where burned area has declined…

    A new review of available data suggests it’s not actually possible to detect a link between global warming and fire for Australia today…
    If Australia had completely ended its fossil fuel use way back in 2012, the UN standard climate model shows the impact on fires this year would be literally immeasurable.
    Even if Australia could somehow be entirely fossil fuel-free for the entire century, burnt area in 2100 would be 5.997 per cent instead of 6 per cent…

    Bushfire scientists have consistently told us forest fuel levels keep increasing, making extreme bushfires much more likely. Controlled burns cheaply and effectively reduce high-intensity wildfires. Other sensible policies include better building codes, mechanical thinning, safer powerlines, reducing the potential for spread of lightning-caused bushfires, campaigns to reduce deliberate ignitions, and fuel reduction around the perimeter of human settlements…
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/we-dont-have-money-to-burn-on-green-mania/news-story/44a9ad8065392ff2908667d0518ef93f

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    • #
      hatband

      Thanks Pat.

      This Lomborg rooster appears fully onboard the Climate ChooChoo, sounds like another Technocrat

      going on his proposed Bushfire solutions.

      013

      • #
        Dennis

        Suck ignorance, you must be a coastal city person who has little contact with our forests and general bushland.

        And live in an air conditioned climate zone.

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  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Shows a couple of intersting videos that presumably shows the interior.
    Interesting use of double door airlocks to pass medications through.
    Reminds me of a “Torchwood” episode.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/shocking-footage-inside-chinas-newly-constructed-hospitals-jail-cells-where-you-go-die

    “China has gone from constructing ghost cities to now erecting hospitals to treat coronavirus patients. As we’ve reported, China could be hiding the true number of confirmed cases and deaths, and in some cases, not reporting the deaths at all, and “immediately” hauling the bodies down the street to a local crematorium, effectively burning the evidence.

    “The government’s official death toll on Saturday night topped 300, with more than 14,550 cases reported globally.

    “China is attempting to show the world, it has been proactive and responsible during the outbreak, and in one way that it can optically please everyone that it has everything under control, is to build a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of where the deadly virus supposedly began.

    “UK researchers have warned upwards of 75,000 could be infected in Wuhan, as more than 137,600 have been placed under observation across China.

    “While China and the World Health Organization (WHO) attempt to calm fears of a deadly virus outbreak, the actions by Beijing in locking down dozens of cities and quarantining 50 million people or more, suggest the situation remains severe.

    “RT News reports that Wuhan’s new 25,000-square-meter hospital, one of two new facilities commissioned in response to the coronavirus outbreak, has been completed.

    40

  • #

    The WHO like most of the spin-offs from the UN is totally corrupt and self-serving in the pecuniary interests of its directors. It is similar to the UN having Saudi Arabia on its Human Rights Committee. The next desirable goal is a UNexit for all free countries.

    160

  • #

    The reported death rate is not calculated correctly.

    Death rates
    http://classicalvalues.com/2020/01/death-rates/

    51

    • #
      Bulldust

      I doubt we’ll get a reasonable handle on any of the disease stats for some time yet. It’s a moving feast at he moment, and we know how reliable statistics are from a certain part of the world.

      50

  • #
    pat

    from Tedros’s Wikipedia page posted by Jo:

    As Minister of Health, Tedros was able to form a close relationship with most global health key players including former American president Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
    This ground for the Clinton-Ministry of Health Partnership was built on engagement of equal partners…
    President Clinton and the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) brought to the partnership a commitment to assist Tedros’ priorities and their network, which provided sources money, expertise, and credibility…

    7 Jun 2017: CouncilOnForeignRelations (CFR): Tedros, Taiwan, and Trump: What They Tell Us About China’s Growing Clout in Global Health
    Blog Post by Yanzhong Huang
    What about the United States, the largest funder of the WHO?…As my colleague Laurie Garrett observed, Tedros was the favorite candidate of the Obama administration, but was not the Trump administration’s first choice…
    While the WHA (World Health Assembly, the WHO’s executive body) was in session, the Trump administration unveiled its proposed budget, which would cut the annual global health budget by about 26 percent…

    By contrast, China’s top health official bragged that 2017 would bring a “bumper crop” for its global health engagement: in January, it signed a MOU with the WHO for cooperation on the One Belt, One Road initiative; in March, it opened the Global Health Drug Discovery Institute, a partnership with the Gates Foundation that focuses on early drug discovery to fight HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria; in April, it co-chaired the China-Africa Health Ministers Conference, committing itself to “multilateralism and a rules-based global health governance mechanism”; in May, President Xi Jinping hosted the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, during which he pledged 60 billion RMB ($8.8 billion) to developing countries and international organizations participating in the initiative to launch more projects to improve people’s well-being worldwide; in July, China will host the BRICS Health Ministers Conference; and in August, a high-level forum will be held in Beijing to discuss global health cooperation. With China’s rapid advancement in global health and U.S. retreat from this area, we will see a WHO increasingly looking toward China for leadership…READ ALL
    https://www.cfr.org/blog/tedros-taiwan-and-trump-what-they-tell-us-about-chinas-growing-clout-global-health

    30

  • #
    pat

    2 Feb: Bloomberg: Thailand Sees Good Result from Using Drug Mixture on Coronavirus
    By Suttinee Yuvejwattana
    The patient’s condition significantly improved within 48 hours after the medical team decided to use antiviral drugs originally used for HIV and influenza in his treatment, Kriangsak Attipornwanich, a doctor at the state-owned Rajavithi Hospital who is treating the patient, told reporters at the Public Health Ministry briefing Sunday. The patient’s test result also turned negative, the doctor said…READ ON
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-02/thailand-sees-good-result-from-using-drug-mixture-on-coronavirus

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  • #
    nb

    ‘How was the ABC serving Australians by uncritically parroting the lines of the Ethiopian apologist for China…. How many will now succumb to Coronavirus that might have been saved?’
    The ABC of omelet making.

    90

    • #
      nb

      Whoops, I should have included:
      ‘the one-party ruling party of Ethiopia is called the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front which was once a Marxist Lenninist far left group’

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  • #
    GlenM

    I recall an old BBC series called “The Survivors” which was about a disease carried through airports which all but annihilated the world population. Common theme I guess. But for the Malthusians who are getting impatient with climate-change outcomes may see this as a way of putting a large dent in 7 billion! Not saying anything about conspiracies though!

    10

  • #

    […] A bug in the Belt and Road initiative?  Jo Nova has a look at the geopolitical implications of the diplomatic game that China is playing with people who get involved. Check out Sri Lanka and the People’s […]

    10

  • #
    toorightmate

    A few years ago, when the Ebola virus came from West Africa, we were shown what an inept bunch of unqualified and corrupt people made up the WHO.
    NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

    100

  • #
    Greebo

    Does the WMO Director General serve the world or China?

    Is there a difference? Hard to be sure these days.

    40

  • #
    frederik wisse

    Corruption is endemic in africa . Had there been no corruption on large scale in africa , in general the heads of state and their minions have enriched themselves in fabulous ways , africa would already been prosperous and the richest continent on earth .When you borrow 13 billion from China , then you are capable of independent judgment ?
    Do not kid yourself , as Always it is : Whose bread one eats , whose word one speaks . Asfar as corruption is concerned , the Obama regime must have learned something from their african brothers and corruption may be a worse disease than any virus .

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  • #
    Deplorable Lord Kek

    Notice how the ‘precautionary principle’ is required for ‘climate change’, the evidence for which is dubious (hence the flotilla of ever changing ‘projections’/’predictions’); but with a real actual proven danger like 2019-nCoV there is no need for the ‘precautionary principle’ to apply.

    110

    • #
      PeterS

      If anyone of any political persuasion wanted to adopt the precautionary principle the solution is clear as a bell; go nuclear.

      70

      • #
        Dennis

        Ins’t it interesting that after nuclear was recommended to the Howard Coalition Government a majority on both sides of Parliament voted against nuclear energy for Australia.

        One exemption, the Lucas Heights Sydney nuclear medicine and commercial radio isotope facility operated since the 1950s safely.

        40

      • #
        el gordo

        Nuclear is an expensive outlier.

        Kek is right, the precautionary principle allowed bureaucrats and politicians to misbehave, knowing they couldn’t be held personally responsible.

        Even with massive model failure the IPCC structure remains in place and seems stronger than ever, because of the precautionary principle.

        41

        • #
          PeterS

          Nuclear is far less expensive than renewables and nuclear delivers a far better solution to our energy needs for the future than renewables. Granted coal is better over all but the debate is now over and the move is to more renenwables at considerable cost by both major parties. What we need is a circuit breaker and nuclear is perfect for that. Anyone against nuclear is by default in favour of renewables regardless of whether they mean it or not. That’s how the cookie crumbles.

          20

          • #
            Serp

            Your writing “but the debate is now over” in no way constitutes an argument against using coal; and when the coal runs out we can think about using something else.

            20

            • #
              PeterS

              Morrison thinks otherwise else he would be promoting coal and/or nuclear like there is no tomorrow. However, to be fair to him he is under pressure from some from within his own party to do more to reduce our emissions due to their constituents and their chances of keeping their seats, in particular in and near the major cities. There is a compromise though; we could use more gas to produce power but that requires the states to loosen their stranglehold on gas exploration and drilling. Perhaps Morrison should think about taking over that component in the nation’s interest.

              20

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    MSM is hyping up the pressure to stop people looking at the core problem :

    Lack of hazard reduction burning!

    270…well it beats “55/57 = 97% of all sceintists” nonsense I guess…but not by much….

    Uh oh…. dispairing sceintists…..

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-03/scientists-sign-letter-demanding-climate-action-in-australia/11922808

    “More than 270 scientists have signed an open letter to Australia’s leaders calling on them to abandon partisan politics and take action on climate change.

    “The letter comes as Parliament sits for the first time this year and amid Australia’s ongoing bushfire crisis.

    “The scientists, who have expertise in climate, fire and meteorology, are calling for urgent action to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and for Canberra to engage constructively in international agreements.

    “”The thick, choking smoke haze of this summer is nothing compared to the policy smokescreen that continues in Australia,” University of NSW climate scientist Katrin Meissner said in a statement on Monday.

    “The scientists warned an increase in bushfires was just one part of a deadly equation that suggested the impacts of climate change were coming faster, stronger and more regularly.

    “Heatwaves on land and in the oceans were longer, hotter and more frequent, they said.

    “Australian National University climate scientist Nerilie Abram said the letter was the product of scientists’ despair as they witnessed the deadly fire season unfold.

    60

    • #
      Deplorable Lord Kek

      “Scientists have been warning policymakers for decades that climate change would worsen Australia’s fire risk and yet these warnings have been ignored,” Professor Abram said.”

      if only the ABC could ask a pertinent question as to whether these warnings (‘predictions’) are falsifiable [they’re not].

      40

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    What’s the likelihood of WuFlu becoming a big problem in Australia’s flu season?

    50

  • #
    pat

    3 Feb: ABC: Richard Di Natale resigns as Greens leader and plans to quit federal politics
    By political correspondent Brett Worthington
    Updated 7 minutes ago
    The Victorian senator will also quit federal politics once his state branch has chosen a replacement for his Upper House seat.
    Senator Di Natale cited family reasons for the sudden end to his leadership…READ ON
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-03/greens-leader-richard-di-natale-to-quit-politics/11759490

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      and comments in The Australian are less than gracious.

      40

    • #
      PeterS

      That’s a shame. He was our best chance to destroy the Greens Party. The more he spoke the more it exposed how bad they are.

      90

      • #
        Dennis

        Maybe the reactions of Australians to the fire storms and lack of land management that along with the drought were the primary cause made him aware that the Greens future is limited.

        60

        • #
          hatband

          No, he is a Dud, so he got a tap on the shoulder.

          Larissa from Canada is more photogenic, will help Labor with

          preference flows from the Greens.

          12

    • #
      george1st:)

      Could be he has reached his 10 year superannuation level and can now retire with payments while Doctoring something else .

      40

  • #
    pat

    1 Feb: ABC: Coronavirus has sparked racist attacks on Asians in Australia — including me
    By Iris Zhao; Additional reporting by Matthew Bamford and Erin Handley
    I was standing in a supermarket aisle and moving my shopping trolley to make room for a middle-aged woman to pass when I overheard it: “Asians … stay home …stop spreading the virus.”…
    But I am not alone
    Gold Coast surgeon Rhea Liang tweeted on Thursday that one of her patients joked about not shaking her hand because of coronavirus.
    Dr Liang didn’t find it funny at all. Instead she felt offended by racism…
    Several Chinese-Australian friends shared their own experiences when I brought up my supermarket encounter.
    One recounted how a waiter had dumped change at his table before turning and quickly walking away, after my friend paid cash for a meal at a Melbourne restaurant…

    On January 29, some in the Chinese community in Australia began an online campaign to protest what they see as “inappropriate” labelling of the coronavirus as a “Chinese” disease by two newspapers, The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph…
    Campaigners fear headlines like these will make Chinese-Australians a target for discrimination.
    And more than 50,000 people agree with them, with the change.org petition receiving huge interest and calls for an apology…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-01/coronavirus-has-sparked-racist-attacks-on-asian-australians/11918962

    50

  • #
    pat

    the holidays are over. first programs tonite for Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A:

    29 Jan: ABC: AboutTheABC: On Monday night on ABC TV, Four Corners and Q+A return with a special bushfire edition presented by Hamish Macdonald
    9:35pm Q+A: Live from ***Bega Showground
    Q+A returns with new host Hamish Macdonald for a Bushfires Special live from Bega, on the south coast of NSW. Fire-affected communities will have the chance to put their questions to those in power, looking at the emergency response, climate change, hazard reduction and the recovery effort…

    ***Also returning to Mondays, Media Watch at 9:20pm looks at the powerful commentators who deny climate change is a factor in the bushfire crisis.
    https://about.abc.net.au/media-room/on-monday-night-on-abc-tv-four-corners-and-qa-return-with-a-special-bushfire-edition-presented-by-hamish-macdonald/

    ***MediaWatch website doesn’t mention anything about “climate deniers”:

    30 Jan: ABC TV Media Watch: Going Viral (to be aired 3 Feb)
    Pandemic Panic! Hysteria infects the media as fake news spreads about the coronavirus ETC (no mention of “climate denial”)
    https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/mediabites/mediabites_2019_ep01/11915634

    31 Jan: TVBlackBox: Q&A forced to relocate due to bushfires
    by Robert McKnight
    New host Hamish MacDonald was planning to broadcast live from the Bega Showgrounds on the south coast of NSW on Monday night as part of a special episode examining the bushfires. Those plans have been thrown into chaos with news the location is now being used once again as an evacuation centre.
    In an e-mail sent out to those who had planned to be in the audience on Monday, MacDonald explained how they could still take part…
    “We are relocating the show to the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre”…
    Viewers from the area have been invited to share their questions via Skype…

    It’s a blow to new executive producer Erin Vincent and MacDonald who had been planning to make their mark with the premiere episode of the refreshed ABC classic but such is the nature of television…

    MacDonald will essentially be the face of ABC TV on Monday night as he also presents a special episode of 4 Corners titled ‘Black Summer’, which will also focus on the bushfires…
    https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2020/1/31/qampa-forced-to-relocate-due-to-bushfires

    3 Feb: ABC Q&A: Coming Up: Q+A Bushfires Special | Live from Queanbeyan
    On the panel (includes)
    Michael Mann, Renowned US climate scientist
    Michael Mann is the Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University and Director of the Penn State Earth Systems Science Centre…
    https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/2020-03-02/11906192

    more to come.

    40

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      pat:

      Thank you but I won’t be watching – like a majority of Australians.

      One query; Michael Mann is described as the Distinguished Professor, distinguished for what?

      100

  • #
    pat

    also on Q&A:

    TWEET: ABC Q&A
    Tonight, watch the #QandA Bushfires Special with ***@KristyMcBain, @AndrewConstance, ***@V_Steffensen, Cheryl McCarthy, @MichaelEMann and @JimMolan
    3 Feb 2020
    FROM REPLIES:
    PtrckG: Can’t wait to see those climate change sceptics get shut down by the climate scientist!
    Trisha: Bloody hell. Jim Molan? It was looking so promising ETC
    https://twitter.com/QandA/status/1224090113489211392

    ***Kristy McBain, Mayor of Bega Valley Shire:

    28 Aug 2019: Beagle Weekly: Two Sth East mayors poles apart: Bega votes to recognise Climate Emergency
    In her closing remarks before taking a vote for Bega Council to recognise Climate Emergency Bega Valley Council’s ***Kristy McBain said “Climate change goes beyond partisan politics, or state and federal responses. It is critical to mobilise all levels of government in order to inspire change and coordinated policies.”…
    Today the Bega Mayor, Kristy McBain, reminded Councillors of their duty to represent the community and that “the Local Government Act requires you to consider the long term and cumulative effects of your decisions on future generations”…

    ***Victor Steffensen, Indigenous fire practitioner
    Victor Steffensen in an Indigenous fire practitioner of the Tagalaka people of North Queensland.

    18 Jan: ABC: Indigenous fire knowledge the latest Australian export in an emerging global wildfire crisis
    ABC South East NSW By Vanessa Milton
    Australian Indigenous fire practitioner ***Victor Steffensen is in Tsilhqot’in territory on the invitation of the Yunesit’in and Xeni Gwet’in communities, part of the Tsilhqot’in Nation.
    “Indigenous burning is activating the landscape to bring it back to life,” Mr Steffensen said as he watched the match burn, “to look after biodiversity and stop the country burning to nothing”…
    Facing a global climate crisis
    Mr Steffensen is due to return to Canada with the support of the Gathering Voices Society in April to continue his work with Tsilhqot’in communities to rebuild the practice of fire keeping.
    Gathering Voices Society staff are working with experts to develop a recognised carbon methodology to measure carbon emissions and generate carbon credits available for sale under the Verified Carbon Standard.
    “The fact that we can demonstrate bridging knowledge from one place to another demonstrates how we can use Indigenous knowledge,” Mr Steffensen said…

    REMINDER: THE TWITTERATI WERE OUTRAGED NON-LOCAL MOLAN WOULD BE ON THE SHOW. NOW THAT IT’S BEING RECORDED IN QUEANBEYAN, GUESS YOU COULD ARGUE HE’S THE ONLY LOCAL!

    TWEET: glen
    My question … Why is Jim Molan on @QandA instead of the LOCAL LABOR MEMBER?This is an affront to all residents & absolute, obvious bias against Mike Kelly. I was looking forward to a new year with @hamishNews but I’ll give it a miss from now on.
    #AbcMediaOfTheLnp #pathetic
    29 Jan 2020
    https://twitter.com/glenpen60/status/1222703747438039040

    20

  • #
    pat

    too funny for words:

    3 Feb: Guardian: Unforgettable TV: Q&A: I created Q&A because I wanted to give Australians a way of holding politicians to account
    by Peter McEvoy
    (Peter McEvoy is the creator and founding executive producer of Q&A)
    The strength and passion of the show’s audience exposes the best and worst of people in power. Consider, for example, Tony Abbott
    I came up with the idea for Q&A by not watching TV…
    The Q&A audience aren’t warm props for the cutaway shots – they’re active participants…

    Later, when Abbott was PM, Zaky Mallah asked a question on Q&A. Abbott and his office (with a baying Murdoch press) went berserk, banning government MPs from appearing on Q&A and labelling the Q&A audience a “lefty lynch mob”.
    Scott Morrison has followed his lead. In the friendly interviews he prefers with shock jocks, he’s made his disdain for Q&A clear, and consistently refused to appear since taking over as prime minister. Why answer questions from an unfriendly crowd?

    The answer should be obvious: it’s a democracy, mate. You’re supposed to govern for everyone and that means answering their questions – even the difficult ones…
    Q&A succeeded because it created an opportunity that hadn’t existed for ordinary Australians to challenge our politicians directly and measure their responses.
    We brought together Australian citizens from diverse political and cultural backgrounds to discuss the direction of the nation…

    But television – mass broadcast media – still delivers something that social media can’t. A common experience that everyone can share, rather than an echo chamber reinforcement of our own narrow views…
    Perhaps after the hiding he’s received since he returned from Hawaii, Morrison will finally see the point in going on Q&A again…
    Perhaps eventually the PM will realise that you don’t build a nation with photo ops and involuntary handshakes.
    Australia has some questions for you, Scott. Don’t turn your back.
    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/feb/03/i-created-qa-because-i-wanted-to-give-australians-a-way-of-holding-politicians-to-account

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    • #
      PeterS

      The ways to expose the lies and exaggerations of the left are so easy and simple it’s not funny. There’s certainly plenty of evidence. All one has to do is spend a little while doing the research, collating the evidence and announcing the results to the public. It’s clear Morrison has no will to expose the lies with the facts for whatever reason. A true leader would go out of their way to expose the lies. I wonder sometimes if Morrison is a mole of the left, much like Turnbull was. Probably not but it then becomes hard to make sense of it all. Perhaps he’s just a coward. Either way it doesn’t bode well for his and the party’s future.

      21

      • #
        el gordo

        ‘It’s clear Morrison has no will to expose the lies with the facts for whatever reason.’

        The PM cannot say much in a political correct world, unless he has the facts. What if he went on Q&A and they asked him a question on climate change, do you think he should say carbon dioxide doesn’t cause global warming?

        Morrison is a quiet achiever, not a coward.

        11

        • #
          PeterS

          Anyone who knows the facts and doesn’t response to the question of whether man-made CO2 causes catastrophic global warming with an emphatic no is a coward, pure and simple.

          50

          • #
            el gordo

            Correct, so its better that none of the Ministry goes on Q&A.

            Craig Kelly, a lowly backbencher, is the only one game to speak.

            61

            • #
              hatband

              He shouldn’t be allowed to speak.

              The bloke is a total Post Turtle.

              011

            • #
              PeterS

              Then you agree that Morrison is a coward for not calling out the fact that man-made CO2 is not causing catastrophic global warming. You also have to agree he is a hypocrite for repeatedly beating his chest about meeting and beating the Paris target. Instead of appeasing all of us and treating us sceptics like fools he should be calling out the truth and stop aiding and abetting the slow destruction of our economy by placing so much focus on reducing our emissions without the only real means to do so efficiently, cost effectively and quickly by going nuclear. However, I would also be happy if he became an honest advocate of fossil fuels and stopped focusing on emission reductions.

              20

    • #
      truth

      No doubt McEvoy’s a Fabian …in MO if not officially.

      Here and all over the world in high places…in democracies and ‘Democratic Socialist states….Fabians are herding people.

      The whole CAGW hoax is based on Fabian principles…to boil the frog slowly…the wolves don the sheep’s clothing [as depicted in their Fabian Society shield]…but at the right moment…they ‘strike and strike hard’…’to mould the world’…the globe shown …in the Fabian Society’s stained glass window…being moulded by hammer and anvil after being heated in the furnace.

      What’s happening now is a Fabian dream come true. The Fabian founders…Beatrice and Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw were elitists beyond belief…and the CAGW hoax fits their prescription for global government like a glove.

      For the Webbs and George Bernard Shaw …[who dreamed out loud of culling what Hillary called ‘deplorables’… who didn’t shape up]…the aspirations and freedom of the ordinary individual …that are the hallmark of Western democracies today ….would be their worst nightmare.

      Using Fabian principles …Communists seek respectability and cover for their evil intent in these times ….by announcing that there’s no longer a right or a left… we’re all in the centre…except that they call Tony Abbott and conservatives far right extremists and ‘deplorables’…amongst other things.

      From Whitlam through Hawke and Keating and the present lot…most of Labor are and were Fabians and their policies are Fabian…as in their crony Capitalism…a useful Fabian tool for Labor…making selected big biz feel they’re part of government..for sweetheart deals that only enriched the employers and the union coffers and union bosses themselves [eg Shorten’s election funding gift].

      Another tool was making union bosses partners with them in government to ensure control over all workers’ rights…strikes… wages etc…forcing employers to contribute to employees’ super as a sop to employees… part of whose wages were to be locked up…for some never to be available to them ever…only to their beneficiaries if lucky …but a massive wealth builder for union bosses and retired Lab politicians harvesting a fortune in fees etc paid out of the pockets of the poor and middle income earners.

      All of Labor’s policies are Fabian…the PC madness…safe schools.…multiculturalism and other indoctrination in schools instead of education…whatever it takes to capture and ultimately enslave the next generation…make them into Marxist socialist activists with policies that the hostage kids…. who are in total ignorance of the horrors of Socialism when unleashed….think are unassailably caring and compassionate.

      The Labor Fabian policies are designed to make kids think they [and their LW teachers of course] are superior to their parents…to drive a wedge…it’s always about them getting control of your children.

      Especially in these times..Socialists are always …always….coming for your children

      Now the Fabians….the Gnomes of Europe and their comrades in every country …think they have the world heated in the CAGW furnace [as per their Fabian Society window] and almost ‘moulded’ ‘nearer to the heart’s desire’….and this Spring’s mass hysteria that IMO incited the Summer’s ‘activism’ and fires…shows just what a useful means an indoctrinated mob is for doing the dirty work to achieve the Socialists’ malevolent ends.

      11

  • #
    george1st:)

    I have never seen or heard such grovelling from a world leading organisation as much as this one .
    China can do no wrong , they are doing everything more than any other nation would be able to .
    If it gets out of control , it is because other nations are incapable .
    Crikey , Joe Blow can work out who wrote that script .
    .

    30

  • #
    dinn, rob

    As of Monday morning, at least 24 provinces, municipalities and other regions have told businesses not to resume work before Feb. 10 at the earliest. That’s according to publicly available statements from the governments.
    Last year those parts of China accounted for more than 80% of national GDP, and 90% of exports, according to CNBC calculations of data accessed through Wind Information.
    Anhui, Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanghai, Shanxi, Suzhou, Xi’an, Yunnan, Zhejiang: work is to resume no earlier than midnight on Feb. 9.
    7:50 a.m. (Beijing), 2-3-20: China has 17,205 confirmed cases, 2,829 new confirmed cases.
    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/03/coronavirus-latest-updates-china-hubei-wuhan-cases.html
    ………………………………….
    17,205-2829=14376. Increase of 1 day: 2829/14376= 0.197, or 19.7%. Hence infective doubling by 5 days.

    30

    • #
      RickWill

      Hence infective doubling by 5 days.

      The Lancet article I linked to in the Weekend thread determine doubling rate at 6.4days:

      In our baseline scenario, we estimated that the basic reproductive number for 2019-nCoV was 2·68 (95% CrI 2·47–2·86) and that 75 815 individuals (95% CrI 37 304–130 330) have been infected in Wuhan as of Jan 25, 2020. The epidemic doubling time was 6·4 days (95% CrI 5·8–7·1).

      https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30260-9/fulltext

      There were 75,815 estimated infections in Wuhan on January 25th. Today, 3rd Feb, the number infected in Wuhan would be around 200k if the 6.4 days per double is maintained. Although expect the rate of infection will reduce as precautions are taken.

      It would not surprise me if airports around the world are much less crowded places in the coming days. During the SARS outbreak I was the lone passenger in the international transfer area at Changi airport one early morning – hard to believe when you see it under normal circumstances any time of day.
      https://fortune.com/2020/01/30/qantas-ceo-coronavirus-asia-airlines-suspended-flights/

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    Zane

    Xi Jinpingitis has infected Africa :).

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    Rupert Ashford

    WMO is like all other “global” organizations, with the rot starting from the UN and spreading through everything that is controlled by so-called “global consensus” or “global democracy” – the moment you have a majority of “developing” countries that per implication can be bribed or at least be coerced, that organization is doomed.

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  • #
    Dennis

    The United Nations for Australia is the European Union on steroids.

    AUSexit now, or at least join President Trump and tell those unelected officials to get back to the original Charter and stop interfering in the affairs of member nations.

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  • #
    Roger Knights

    I read a comment elsewhere that said that the corona virus spreads best in a cold environment. If so, the impact on Australia, where it’s summer, should be less than in China.

    WaPo 2/1 on corona virus: Chinese officialdom at fault.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/?utm_campaign=wp_first_reads&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

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  • #
    Dennis

    Not the long drought, not the excessive fuel on the ground and undergrowth tangles, nothing to do with bushfire season in Australia, hundreds of scientists have signed a letter. it’s a climate emergency ….

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-03/scientists-sign-letter-demanding-climate-action-in-australia/11922808

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      G’day Dennis,
      Did you find the actual “open letter”. I’ve not. Am surprised the ABC didn’t at least provide a link, unless they recognise it’s just full of unsubstantiated garbage??
      Cheers
      Dave B

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    • #
      hatband

      It’s an Arson Emergency plus a Stupidity Emergency.

      Why is there so much Eucalypt Bushland in the Capital Cities, ringing the outskirts

      and planted along both sides and down the middle of the Freeways and major roads?

      It’s as if Australia was taken over by a Hostile Elite 50 years ago, but

      the peasantry wasn’t informed.

      56

      • #
        Dennis

        When the UN was established Australian Labor (Communist and Fabian) Attorney General Evatt recommended the treaty system, UN Treaties with member nations covering as many situations as possible to provide compliant politicians in governments to get around constitutional laws.

        Prime Minister Howard was once asked by a journalist if “international laws” could be imposed in Australia and he replied only if the government of the day permits it.

        I still cannot understand how wide sweeping changes to our nation such as UN Agenda 30 -Sustainability was and continues to be implemented with no reference to voters, no referendum. It amounts to economic vandalism, loss of industries and jobs and adversely impacting on national prosperity in many different ways.

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Who gives a rat’s fart
      What hundreds of scientists think ?
      They are part of the problem !
      These bloody dopey city based dumbnuts
      Who have no idea how the bush works or lives
      Again I say, let bush people look after the bush
      Send the bloody academic experts to Siberia
      For a cold latee!

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  • #
    DonS

    Hi Jo

    Is it true that people who have died from new corona virus are returning to life and seeking human victims? Sorry but I couldn’t resist. I just can not get overly excited about this story.

    We just had 3500 deaths from flu in Australia last year but I don’t remember the government evacuating people to Christmas Island, handing out masks from some stash of medical supplies or international travel being stopped.

    And I am somewhat confused by your stance on the WHO Jo. You seem on one hand to want it to charge into an independent nation and take over but on the other you want the whole organisation scraped. Shutdown international travel, international trade and commerce and put in place a totalitarian regime to tell people what to do? oooo sounds like exactly what the greens have been wanting for 30 years!

    Actually I can understand why people are worried when we rely on a corrupt Chinese communist government to provide accurate data on a public health issue to a corrupt UN body that then needs to make some decision on how to act. The blind leading the blind? But what to do? We need some international organisation to address in a scientific way these issues but outside the UN what alternative do we have?

    Maybe we should close the boarders for ever, no one in, no one out, pull the blanket over our heads and whish it all away. For about 8000 years since we discovered agriculture and came to live together in large numbers people have had to deal with the occasional plague, flu, typhoid etc. etc. outbreak. Some unfortunately die but most survive so the question is how much of your freedom are willing to give up to the totalitarians who promise they can keep you safe? Hmmm.

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    • #
      Richard

      This new virus, on current statistics, has a 20% higher fatality rate than the common flu, so times your three thousand whatever figure by 20. Also, this new virus has a very high infection rate.

      01

      • #
        Richard

        I posted that too quickly. The common flu has .1 % fatality rate. This one is currently coming in at around a 2% fatality rate on the given figures, and there is reason to believe that the Chinese communists are actually downplaying the figures.

        20

    • #

      DonS, what’s to confuse? I think the UN and WHO is a waste of money that should be shut down. The point of the post is to show how dangerous the WHO advice is and how useless (worse than useless) our national government propaganda agency is. Culpable.

      As for controlling viruses, when there is no treatment and we don’t know how deadly it is, quarantine is the only option that works.

      Perhaps this will be “like the flu” or perhaps it will kill 10% of the population. Should we try 2 – 3 weeks of quarantine and wait and find out some actual statistics or just let it rip? Quarantine is expensive and draconian, but on the other end of the scales here is the deaths of loved ones. Am I happy to give up the freedom to fly to China in return for stopping my parents going through this (if I can). Who needs to ask?

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    Phillip Bratby

    Who appointed Tedros Adhanom as The WHO Director General? No doubt some other corrupt bureaucrat from the corrupt UN? In fact who appoints all of these corrupt bureaucrats in the corrupt UN?

    40

  • #
    Treeman

    Jo, I gotta say this post misses the the point and many who have commented are ill informed on many levels.

    For starters any discussion must hinge on The Lancet data sharing and the early conclusion by Dr Daniel Lucey that the Wuhan Coronavirus has been kicking around in Hubei since October. The identification of the Wuhan Coronavirus did not happen until early January. The reason is that the new virus was hidden amongst the general flu complications and nobody realised it. I suspect the truth is that the Wuhan virus was brought to the Wuhan market rather than has been widely reported that it originated in Wuhan wet market.

    Although these reports confirm person-to-person transmission, the means of transmission and the transmissibility cannot be hypothesised from the information published.

    It’s very clear that this a rapidly evolving situation and misinformation and fake news rules!

    What is truly amazing is that a new Hospital has been constructed in eight days.

    02

    • #
      WXcycles

      What is truly amazing is that a new Hospital has been constructed in eight days.

      Be skeptical. Would you want to be treated in that ‘hospital’? Complex systems take time to commission and become operational.

      Would you want to live in a ‘ghost city’ where the buildings literally fall apart within 3 years, or less. Whole buildings fall down or fall over, and you can’t live in them, they should all be demo-ed, but instead they try to sell them to investors. Most Chinese construction is no more robust that a sturdy mud hut. As for electrical, plumbing and fittings, forget it, it’s all dangerous to life and limb. Building standards, codes and inspections are practically non-existent in such constructions, and they’re everywhere.

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    • #
      toorightmate

      Treeman,
      Where would the world be without you?

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  • #
    pat

    Chris Kenny on Media/Sky is having a good program tonite – mostly about attacks on Murdoch media by Aljaz, BBC, ABC, Guardian, etc – for occasionally giving some sceptics a voice.
    one piece he brought up:

    6 Sept 2019: GWPF: WMO Secretary-General Rejects Climate ‘Doomsters and Extremists’
    by Andrew Montford and Mikko Paunio
    The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says that the alarmist narrative on climate change has gone off the rails and criticised the news media for provoking unjustified anxiety.
    Speaking to Finland’s financial newspaper Talouselämä (“The Journal”) on 6 September 2019, Petteri Taalas called for cooler heads to prevail, saying that he does not accept arguments that the end of the world is at hand…

    He also says that the Finnish discourse on climate change has become overly doom-laden:
    “The atmosphere created by media has been provoking anxiety. The latest idea is that children are a negative thing. I am worried for young mothers, who are already under much pressure. This will only add to their burden.”…

    And he suggests that radical environmentalists are now a major problem:
    “While climate sceptisism has become less of an issue, now we are being challenged from the other side. Climate experts have been attacked by these people and they claim that we should be much more radical. They are doomsters and extremists; they make threats. Much more radical action is demanded by Extinction Rebellion movement. They demand zero emissions by 2025 and “honest” climate information from governments.”…

    To Taalas, the deep greens have been abusing the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, cherrypicking parts that they think will support radical action.
    “The IPCC reports have been read in a similar way to the Bible: you try to find certain pieces or sections from which you try to justify your extreme views. This resembles religious extremism.”…

    Although he is critical of right wing populists who do not accept any climate action, he warns of what might happen if fuel taxes are raised too far, noting the protests of the French gilets jaunes.
    Taalas hopes that mainstream media will become more critical and hopes more for a more diverse presentation of views and argues that all sides should be interviewed.
    “We should consider critically, and with reservations, the thoughts of experts…”
    https://www.thegwpf.com/wmo-boss-says-climate-discussion-has-gone-off-the-rails/

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    • #
      Another Ian

      Pat

      I hope the ABC isn’t watching

      “Incredible Plunging BBC CNN NYT”

      https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/02/03/incredible-plunging-bbc-cnn-nyt/

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      • #
        pat

        thanks for the link. it’s all good, as they say.

        2 Feb: Epoch Times: New Soros-Funded University to Combat Climate Change, Nationalism
        By Matthew Vadum
        Billionaire currency speculator George Soros says he plans to spend $1 billion to found a global university to combat climate change and burgeoning nationalism in the world, two things he claims in a recent speech (LINK) are “threatening the survival of our civilization.”…
        (Soros) announced his ambitious new plan Jan. 23 at the annual globalist gathering of elite business leaders known as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland…

        According to Soros’s philanthropic organization, Open Society Foundations (OSF), the project, called the Open Society University Network (OSUN), will “integrate teaching and research across higher education institutions worldwide,”…
        OSF’s president is Patrick Gaspard, who was then-President Barack Obama’s White House political director. Before that, he was executive vice president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199 in New York…
        https://www.theepochtimes.com/new-soros-funded-university-to-combat-climate-change-and-nationalism_3224703.html

        23 Jan: GeorgeSoros.com: Remarks delivered at the World Economic Forum
        Davos, Switzerland, January 23, 2020
        We live at a transformational moment in history. The survival of open societies is endangered and we face an even greater crisis: climate change. It is threatening the survival of our civilization. These twin challenges have inspired me to announce the most important project of my life here tonight…

        I see another constructive force emerging worldwide: the mayors of major cities are organizing around important issues. In Europe, climate change and internal migration are high on their agenda. This coincides with the main concerns of today’s youth…
        https://www.georgesoros.com/2020/01/23/remarks-delivered-at-the-world-economic-forum-3/

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      • #
        pat

        Another Ian –

        30 Jan: Washington Times: GOP lawmaker offers bills to formally recognize CNN, Washington Post as ‘fake news’
        by Andrew Blake
        Tennessee would officially consider both CNN and The Washington Post to be “fake news” outlets under a resolution proposed by a Republican state lawmaker.
        Introduced Wednesday by Tennessee state Rep. Micah Van Huss, the bill would “recognize CNN and The Washington Post as fake news and condemn them for denigrating our citizens,” according to its language.
        “I’ve filed HJR 779 on behalf of a constituency that’s tired of fake news and Republicans who don’t fight,” Mr. Van Huss said on social media.
        “Over 60% of Tennessee voters voted for President Trump, and CNN and The Washington Post denigrated them for doing that,” he told WJHL-TV, the station reported.

        A copy of the resolution posted on the Tennessee General Assembly website takes aim at each of the outlets over their respective coverage of Mr. Trump and makes specific references to reporting that Mr. Van Huss characterized as comparing the president’s supporters to cult members.
        Referring to both media outlets, Mr. Van Huss wrote in his bill that “they are the true masters of deploying mobs to demand total conformity and compliance with their agenda.”…
        https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jan/30/republican-offers-bills-to-formally-recognize-cnn-/

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    Ronald Bruce

    The WHO the UN and all it’s components are as corrupt as the chinese government who own the UN. We must leave the UN and overturn all UN resolutions that we have endorsed.

    20

  • #
    pat

    2 Feb: WSJ editorial: A Heated Oxford Education. Protesting students get a personal lesson about fossil fuels
    When most people think of Oxford, what comes to mind are images of bright minds debating quantum physics or the existence of God. But even the brainiest sometimes need a lesson in common sense.

    That’s exactly what the bursar at St. John’s College—the most richly endowed college at Oxford—delivered when he responded to students occupying his 15th-century quadrangle and refusing to leave until the college divested its oil-company shares. The students want the college to sell the more than $10 million of its endowment now invested in Shell and BP, and they want it now.

    The Times of London reports that bursar Andrew Parker made them a counteroffer. “I am not able to arrange any divestment at short notice,” he wrote. “But I can arrange for the gas central heating in college to be switched off with immediate effect. Please let me know if you support this proposal.”

    The idea that the students themselves make a fossil-fuel sacrifice did not go over well. One protest organizer complained that Mr. Parker was being flippant, noting that “it’s January and it would be borderline dangerous to shut off the central heating.” Another suggested Mr. Parker was being provocative.

    Again the bursar responded with wisdom: “You are right that I am being provocative but I am provoking some clear thinking, I hope. It is all too easy to request others to do things that carry no personal cost to yourself. The question is whether you and others are prepared to make personal sacrifices to achieve the goals of environmental improvement (which I support as a goal).”

    Surely a worthy lesson applicable far beyond the colleges of Oxford.
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-heated-oxford-education-11580680180

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  • #
    pat

    2 Feb: Reason.com: Michael Bloomberg’s Claim About ‘Children’ Killed by ‘Gun Violence’ Is Off by 73%.
    Such inflammatory exaggeration seems designed to avoid a substantive discussion of the presidential candidate’s gun control proposals.
    by Jacob Sullum
    Michael Bloomberg’s Super Bowl ad, which presents the Democratic presidential contender as a brave advocate of public safety who is not afraid to take on “the gun lobby,” claims “2,900 children die from gun violence every year” in the United States, which is not true. That number includes young adults as well as minors, and it includes suicides as well as homicides.

    Bloomberg’s campaign cited Everytown for Gun Safety, a Bloomberg-backed group, as the source of the number used in the ad…
    According to to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FactCheck.org notes, the average number of firearm-related deaths involving Americans 17 or younger from 2013 through 2017 (the period used by Everytown for Gun Safety) was about 1,500, roughly half the number cited by Bloomberg. Furthermore, nearly two-fifths of those deaths were suicides, meaning the number of minors killed each year by “gun violence,” as that term is usually understood, is about 73 percent smaller than the figure cited in Bloomberg’s ad…READ ON
    https://reason.com/2020/02/02/michael-bloombergs-claim-about-children-killed-by-gun-violence-is-off-by-73/

    20

    • #
      hatband

      And if you strip out the numbers of children killed by illegal Handguns,

      this Poisonous Dwarf’s argument falls flat on it’s face.

      02

  • #
    pat

    just another example of how FakeNewsMSM reports Trump and his potential opponents:

    2 Feb: NBC: With live music and booze, Sanders draws massive crowd to party-like Iowa campaign rally
    3,000 people turned out for his rally in Cedar Rapids on Saturday night, dwarfing attendance figures for events held by rival campaigns.
    By Adam Edelman
    CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Fans danced gleefully to music while guzzling beer. Smiles abounded and deafening cheers arose without warning. And, in the restroom, someone was smoking what smelled like marijuana.
    Yes, it was a concert. Yes, it was a party.
    But it was also a rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the critical early voting state of Iowa, where Democrats will hold their first-in-the-nation caucuses in less than 48 hours.

    The massive rally — the Sanders campaign said 3,000 people were in attendance — underscores the groundswell of support, especially from young voters, that Sanders has received during his 2020 presidential run and suggests he’s in prime position for a strong finish in Monday night’s caucuses…

    By comparison, the attendance numbers sent by the campaigns for former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for events on Saturday ranged from 158 to more than 700…

    “He’s for the people. He cares about the young and the old. He’s a champion for change,” said Evelyn Smith, 60, from Maquoketa, about 50 miles east of Cedar Rapids.
    As for the loud music, the booze and the festive atmosphere, Smith said she didn’t mind at all.
    “It’s awesome,” she said. “Totally awesome.”
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/live-music-booze-sanders-draws-massive-crowd-party-iowa-campaign-n1128376

    ImpeachmentImpeachmentImpeachment:

    29 Jan: NBC Philadelphia: Trump Slams Democrats, Shores Up Support for Van Drew During Wildwood Rally
    President Donald Trump slammed Democrats and their role in the ongoing impeachment trial while speaking to a crowd of thousands during his Keep America Great rally in Wildwood, New Jersey.
    By NBC10 Staff and Jonathan Lemire
    VIDEO: 3m40s – ends with nearly 40s on tiny group of protesters

    President Donald Trump slammed Democrats and their role in the ongoing impeachment trial while speaking to a crowd of thousands during his Keep America Great rally in Wildwood, New Jersey.
    Trump took the stage at the Wildwoods Convention Center around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and spoke for about an hour to a raucous crowd of over 7,000 people.
    The crowd repeatedly chanted “USA” and “Thank you Trump” as the president addressed several topics, including the economy, jobs and trade.
    On the same day his legal team wrapped up its opening arguments in the impeachment trial on the Senate floor, Trump criticized Democrats he claimed were engaged in “demented hoaxes.”
    https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/doors-open-as-12500-line-up-outside-for-trumps-wildwoods-rally/2281332/

    10

    • #
      truth

      Demagogues pay court to teenagers…and the older the old codgers get …the greater their need to be king of the kids.

      As always…from the Kinderladen movement of the German Left to the Halls of Academe….the Socialists are always coming for your children.

      10

  • #
    Chris Thompson

    The Fabians are another of those organisations enabling leftist “intellectuals” to pose and preen. However, this Mr Toad-like self-admiration had its sinister side. In an article for the Spectator, David Sewell reminded us that, “For the Fabians, eugenics was not merely some eccentric hobby or sideline, but central to their social thinking. Beatrice Webb regarded eugenics as ‘the most important question’ of all, while her husband revealed the statist and dirigiste character of the movement with his declaration that ‘no eugenicist can be a laissez faire individualist… he must interfere, interfere, interfere!’”

    The extent of the Fabians’ comic yet impregnable self-regard (which was the reason behind their blundering inability to understand the real world, a failure that has had a long series of damaging effects on British, and, it seems, Australian society) is made clear by this quote from Beatric Webb. “If I ever felt inclined to be timid as I was going into a room full of people, I would say to myself, ‘You’re the cleverest member of one of the cleverest families in the cleverest class of the cleverest nation in the world, why should you be frightened?’

    20

    • #
      Roger Knights

      “The Fabians are another of those organisations enabling leftist “intellectuals” to pose and preen.”

      Here’s a variation that just occurred to me: “… preen and green.”

      00

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    pat

    spot on analysis:

    2 Feb: ConservativeTreehouse: Report: John Kerry Concerned As Joe Biden Plummets – Both Had Sons Cash-in on China/Ukraine…
    by sundance
    Stuff happening fast now… This is all a response to surging Bernie and a failed coup.
    Chris Heinz and Hunter Biden were friends in business together (LINK), each cashing-in on the influence held by their fathers’ John Kerry and Joe Biden. Considering the likelihood Joe Biden was only running for President in order to: (1) shield himself from scrutiny, and (2) establish the cornerstone of the impeachment effort; it makes complete sense for John Kerry to be the participating campaign handler.

    With Biden’s impeachment usefulness now exhausted by DC engineers, there’s no reason to prop-up his candidacy…
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/02/report-john-kerry-concerned-as-joe-biden-plummets-both-had-sons-cash-in-on-china-ukraine/#more-182525

    there’s been much fun over the initial video, with Biden telling one of the few at his rally to vote for someone else:

    3 Feb: Hannity: BIDEN GETS PHYSICAL: Joe Pokes ANOTHER Iowa Democrat When Asked About Climate Change
    Former Vice President Joe Biden reportedly poked another Iowa Democrat over the weekend after he was asked to comment on the “Extinction Crisis” brought about by global warming.
    “Go back to 1986. I’m the first one ever to put forward a climate change bill,” said Biden. (pat – BIDEN ADDS: AND POLITIFACT SAID IT WAS A GAME CHANGER) “I’ve been working my whole life.” …

    easier to get above video to work here. replies are funny – especially as they are mostly from Dems, it seems:

    TWEET: Mobilize for the Wild
    We’re on the ground in Iowa asking all the candidates if they’ll address the #ExtinctionCrisis by committing to a phase out of all U.S. fossil fuel production. Here’s @JoeBiden’s response:
    VIDEO 11s
    30 Jan 2020
    https://twitter.com/Mobilize4Wild/status/1223002516691931136

    someone commented elsewhere today that Biden is a Pokémon.

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    • #
      hatband

      Joe Biden’s candidacy appears ridiculous without considering that

      the voters he appeals to are the ones who got Trump over the line in Wisconsin, Michigan,

      and Pennsylvania.

      Those voters feel betrayed by Trump’s failures on The Wall, and

      Ending The Stupid Middle East Wars, so they’re unlikely to turn out for

      Orange Clown in November.

      Added to that, he has no defence against the Impeachment Charges, so unless he can find

      34 Senators who don’t think the Charges are worthy of Impeachment [i.e.; Treason or High

      Crimes and Misdemeanors], he’ll be gone by the weekend.

      02

  • #
    William Astley

    It looks like your hunch that the WHO and many African countries is/are controlled by China, through the use of economic sticks/carrots is correct.

    This a Nigerian ‘advisory’ about a novel coronavirus, which could have been, and likely was, written by the Chinese communist propaganda department.

    The Chinese are building a $12 billion dollar coast railway in Nigeria which is the most corrupt country in the world, using Chinese labor, equipment, and materials. The Chinese workers are housed in high wall camps, to avoid upsetting local people.

    https://ncdc.gov.ng/news/213/public-health-advisory-to-nigerians-on-novel-coronavirus

    Nigerians are advised to remain calm. Travelers from Nigeria to Wuhan, China, are advised to avoid contact with sick people, animals (alive or dead), and animal markets. Travelers from Wuhan to Nigeria, may be asked questions upon arrival by the Port Health Services unit at points of entry about symptoms of illness and travel history, and are advised to report immediately to NCDC if they feel ill after a trip to Wuhan.

    All African airlines have cancelled their scheduled fights to China, except for Ethiopian Airlines.

    Ethiopian Airlines is the largest airline in Africa and has six flights a day, from four different Chinese destinations.

    I see the WHO state Jan. 31, 2019 that the would a few days send Wuhan Virus testing kits to African countries.

    https://www.africanews.com/2020/02/02/ivory-coast-tests-suspected-coronavirus-case/

    African airlines have cancelled scheduled flights to China except for Ethiopian Airlines.

    The NYT times is quoting a former US director of their centers for Disease control that is unlikely this virus can be contained.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/02/health/coronavirus-pandemic-china.html

    Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic …

    3 hours ago – It is “increasingly unlikely that the virus can be contained,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and

    00

  • #
    Steve Borodin

    Power without accountability breeds corruption: WHO, IPCC, EU, WWF, Greenpeace and probably UN. And plenty others.

    00