Geo-strategic issues

Here is an image from Portland, of the “wall of moms” human shield; one, that is NOT being prominently featured in the major media that are busily trying to paint Federal officers defending a court house after 50 days of rioting as Nazi-style storm troopers: U/D, Jul 24: It seems, I need to show typical logos of the Antifa, to make a point clear: Let me further add, from redspark dot nu, evidently a pro-Antifa site: Since its original emergence in the early 1920s, fascism as an ideology and a movement has been met with fierce opposition. From the very beginning, communists (along with other leftists) have taken up the cause to not simply resist, but to actively oppose and Read More ›

Longtime UD commenter Vividbleau: Eugene“Cancel culture (along with BLM, LGBTQ and other similar activism) is ultimately a creation of some think-tank, payrolled by Davos crowd. “ [Vivid:] Actually it’s Critical Theory and it’s sub theories ( Critical Race Theory, Critical Social Justice Theory, Critical Whiteness Theory, etc) that is responsible for “cancel culture” [–> we can add a long list from law to watermelon environmentalism, and more] My response: Vivid, include post modernist deconstruction, targetting our civilisation. Critical theories are culture form marxism, and so called community organisers of the Alinsky Chicago school are literally trained small-c communist agitators playing with the fire of low kinetic 4th generation insurgency war. Those who play with such hell-spawned fire are responsible for Read More ›

The American Revolution was a catalyst that showed that a sustainable modern, representational, Constitutional Republic of significant “we the People” democratic character was feasible. It served as a beacon of hope for the world, nowhere better captured than in key words from the American Declaration of Independence, 244 years ago today: When . . . it becomes necessary for one people . . . to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident [cf Rom 1:18 Read More ›

A video: Of course, in a day of revisionism and anti-Westernism, it is sometimes said that this was not a decisive event for the course of WW2. It is pointed out that after Stalingrad and Kursk, Germany was on the retreat, never mind the huge disparity in casualties. That’s true. Instead, it was a Geostrategically decisive event for the course of C20 history, for it meant that the Iron Curtain ran through Germany rather than the English Channel. And that’s a lot bigger than WW2. END

The kairos concept is, in a nutshell, that there are seasons in life and in community, so that there are times that are opportune or even simply pivotal and trend-making. At such times, we are forced to decide, for good or ill. And yes, carry on with business as usual . . . especially on a manifest march of folly . . . is a [collective, power-balance driven] decision; ill advised though it may be: More formally: With that in mind, I now draw attention to Chenyuan Snider’s expose of some of the more terrifying Red Guard-like group-guilt, stereotyping and scapegoating tactics of the totalitarian government she grew up under; here, targetting a particularly revered group in historic, Confucius- influenced Read More ›

Vid: Ponder the exacting systems engineering, reliability testing, required qualifications and multiple i/o instrumentation and control involved. Observe the precise, corrective jets to keep the process under control. This, is how a good future is going to be built: near earth colonisation and Lunar colonisation are the first stages to Solar system colonisation. (Note, they are expected to remain on the ISS for 30 – 119 days.) Blue Danube is extra, but it speaks to the cultural patterns that lie behind that precise docking exercise and all the rich promise it reflects. END

Let’s look at daily confirmed cases: and at a seven-day rolling average for deaths: South Korea seems to have beaten this wave. Several advanced countries show a stubborn plateau, which is reflected in the linear ongoing growth. It is not confined to the US, we need to learn from the Koreans; who BTW are HCQ users. The “mesa” for China underscores the observation that Chinese data has to be regarded with care. END

We can best see the peak in the death statistics, as global daily deaths begin to decline: However, we seem to have a prolonged inflexion, giving a linear growth since mid April, i.e. growth and saturation are in rough equipoise, though the very end is beginning to tip over: The pattern of doubling time has shifted, with major countries slowing significantly, e.g. here is the USA in immediate context: Daily fresh global cases shows the flattened peaking: National patterns show this too, with China showing secondary etc waves: It is noteworthy that the UK now views China’s data as questionable: The British government will no longer recognise the number of coronavirus deaths reported by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over Read More ›

There is a report that Azithromycin is far more than an antibiotic. Some may wish to watch an interview with Dr. Michael Lisanti on antibiotics for COVID-19 and cancer. But — without endorsing as “proved” fact — let’s cut to the chase scene: COVID-19 coronavirus is particularly dangerous for the elderly or those with aging-related senescent illnesses like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and lung disease. As Professor Lisanti said in a statement on his new paper in the journal Aging, “If you look at the host receptors of COVID-19, they are related to senescence. Two proteins have been proposed to be the cellular receptors of COVID-19: one is CD26 – a marker of senescence, and the other, ACE-2, is also Read More ›

Buzz: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is reportedly in “grave danger” following surgery, CNN reported on Monday evening, citing an anonymous U.S. official with direct knowledge of the situation. There have been rumors of the dictator’s declining health in recent days, after he reportedly missed the country’s most important political holiday last week — the birthday celebration of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and founder of the communist tyranny. NBC’s Kathy Tur sparked further speculation after deleting a tweet citing two U.S. officials who purportedly claimed that the authoritarian is “brain dead.” “North Korean leader Kim ing Un is brain dead, according to two US officials. He recently had cardiac surgery and slipped into a coma, according to one US Read More ›

Prof Raoult’s web site hosts an interesting map, under the title, “Pays où l’hydroxychloroquine est recommandée”: India, of course, has the further approval for prophylaxis. That’s significant, as talk on vaccines tends to point to 12 – 18 months and double-blind, placebo controlled tests in progress or about to start in the US look likely to take more than a year. Meanwhile, OWID tracks how time to double to current number of deaths — probably the best statistic — is continuing to stretch out: (Notice, the S-curves and driving impulses.) Likewise, we can see the daily cases clearly peaking (for THIS wave . . . notice, Wave 2 for China and even an uptick to a Wave 3): This is Read More ›

And, why is that (which was announced yesterday by Mr Trump) not top- of- fold headline news everywhere? Bayer, US, has announced, March 19: >>Bayer today announced it is joining the U.S. Government’s fight against COVID-19 with a donation of 3 million tablets of the drug Resochin (chloroquine phosphate). Resochin, a product discovered by Bayer in 1934 and indicated for prevention and treatment of malaria, also appears to have broad spectrum antiviral properties and effects on the body’s immune response. New data from initial preclinical and evolving clinical research conducted in China, while limited, shows potential for the use of Resochin in treating patients with COVID-19 infection. Bayer in recent days has been in talks with the White House, HHS, Read More ›

Here is a simple SIR model — Susceptible- Infected- Removed: Here, “removed” can be by recovery or death. Obviously parameters are not exact so the next level would explore randomised changes in possible values and time varying models; noting particular clusters that give dramatic outcomes. The S(t) line is an inverted cumulative case curve — if people don’t flee. So C(t) = 1 – S(t) is cumulative cases, a logistic curve. C(t) will at first look exponential until resistance and running out of susceptible population leads to saturation. A supplementary equation could partition recovery vs death, and we can work back from observed patterns with infection and deaths. Further analysis could stratify the population as susceptibility varies with factors such Read More ›

The C18 rediscovery/ re-invention of concrete . . . it had apparently been made by the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians [–> earlier, the Nabataeans] (and many natural, volcanic or sedimentary rocks are concrete-like) . . . opened up a world of new building possibilities; especially, when it is reinforced by steel. As, we can see all around us. But, concrete here uses a high energy process based on limestone, so how can we break through such barriers for the Moon or Mars? And, how could this be relevant to our home world, Earth? We could look at bones and teeth. For: >>The minerals found in human teeth and bones that give them their hardness and strength belong to a group Read More ›

Nikolai Kondratiev was a Russian economist in the 1930’s who was shot by Stalin on September 17, 1938, because he had the integrity and courage to say the economic crisis of that decade, on statistical evidence, was largely a generation(s) length cyclical oscillation; not the Crisis of Capitalism leading to global Socialist Revolution that Marxist theory as understood by Stalin demanded. (Echoes in current debates on trends vs oscillations in climate trends etc are not coincidental. [Note, climate, technically, is a 30+ year moving average of weather.]) Joseph Schumpeter picked up his thought, and there has been a (somewhat marginalised/ “misunderestimated”) school of thinking on long waves across time. One aspect of that, has been a focus on how key Read More ›