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I haven’t been this angry since the United States government allowed Jeffrey Epstein to die …
I’m a Superstitious Man
Whether Epstein killed himself or not is the least important part of the story. I’m blaming the people in the room. They’re ALL guilty of the SYSTEM of Jeffrey Epsteins. … Continue reading
I haven’t been this angry since the last time the United States government dealt with a global plague …
Calvin the Super Genius
Am I personally worried about an Ebola outbreak in the US? On balance … no, not at all. But don’t tell me that I’m an idiot if I have questions about the sufficiency of the social policies being implemented to prevent that outbreak. And make no mistake, that’s EXACTLY what I have been told by CDC Directors and Dr. Gupta and the White House and all the rest of the super genius, supercilious, remain-calm crew. … Continue reading
What made me so angry? This.
U.S. Sets Evacuation Plan From Coronavirus-Infected Wuhan [Wall Street Journal]
The U.S. State Department said Sunday that it is organizing a single flight out of the central Chinese city of Wuhan, confirming efforts to extricate diplomats and a limited number of private U.S. citizens from the virus-hit city.
Private citizens are expected to later repay the travel costs, the notice said.
U.S. authorities believe that roughly 1,000 American citizens live in and around Wuhan, a sprawl of 11 million people with a manufacturing-based economy that includes a number of major American companies.
The U.S. evacuation flight from Wuhan’s Tianhe International Airport was initially planned for Sunday, but issues related to chartering the plane from the U.S. caused a delay.
The jetliner is expected to be a Boeing 767 with about 230 seats.
The flight is expected to carry mostly Americans and possibly a small number of other foreign nationals but no Chinese citizens.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that Japan would evacuate from Wuhan any of its citizens who want to leave, using charter flights and other means to get them back to Japan as quickly as possible. Public broadcaster NHK said about 700 Japanese citizens were thought to be in Wuhan as of Friday.
According to an evacuee manifest and promissory note posted to its website, the State Department asks any participants in a government-arranged evacuation to provide basic identification information and to sign an agreement promising to repay the State Department for all expenses included in the evacuation within 30 days.
That includes the cost of an air ticket, whose price shouldn’t exceed the cost of a full-fare economy ticket.
Japan is getting ALL of its people out of Wuhan. Why aren’t we?
Why the hell are we evacuating “a small number of other foreign nationals” and leaving Americans behind?
Why does this article feel compelled to tell us TWICE about the payback terms on the price of evacuation?
We spend TRILLIONS of dollars fighting god-forsaken wars in god-forsaken countries, and we have “issues” chartering ONE Boeing plane?
JFC.
Rhode Island residents Patrick Randy Stockstill, his wife and two children had traveled to Yichang, a city of about four million near the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province and 200 miles west of Wuhan, to celebrate Lunar New Year with the extended family of Mr. Stockstill’s wife.
Mr. Stockstill, who had arrived in Yichang on Jan. 20 and was set to leave this coming Friday, said his family was very worried about his youngest son, who is 3 months old. Public transportation in Yichang has been shut down since Friday.
“We’re not looking for special treatment,” said the 38-year-old loan officer, who hasn’t stepped outside for four days for fear of getting infected by the virus. “We are just looking for a way to get my boy home.”
Forget about impeachment and its partisan Kabuki theater. It’s a joke.
If there’s some rich dude who bought his way onto that Wuhan evacuation flight, and you know there is … if there’s a pecking order that leaves people like the Stockstills behind, and you know there is … if this Administration is forsaking its ONE JOB to protect American citizens, and you know they are …
THAT’S what brings down this government.
Amen. Reminds me of not getting aid to Puerto Rico…you know, because it’s an island and there’s water (!). If something basic like finding a few planes can’t be done, then the whole system is broken. WTF
Stressed systems expose the rot. That Spanish Flu book that came out 15 years ago: “The Great Influenza” talked about how as the pandemic spread to cities and towns they shut down for 2 weeks - we’re seeing that now on much larger scale - if this truly becomes a pandemic (seems like that’s what’s going to happen…but I’m no expert!) people won’t care about their political loyalties (as much) if the response is inadequate. A nationwide “Katrina” will expose poor governance and people won’t tolerate their government not protecting their safety - especially if there are different responses for rich people and everyone else. Amen.
All I can say is: JFC indeed.
You wrote that “Japan is getting ALL of its people out” but that is not quite accurate. Japan said it would evacuate “any of its citizens who want to leave”.
There may well be some Japanese and US citizens who do not feel the need to leave Wuhan. It is still quite early and we learn more about this outbreak daily/hourly, but we know so far that most deaths have been from older individuals who may have had other health challenges. The mortality rate (reported so far) is about 5% (76 out of 1,423 confirmed infections in Hebei province). In the 2003 SARS outbreak, 773 people died, according to the CDC, or roughly a 10% mortality rate. 17 years have passed since then and now we have more advanced tools and medicines to help out, as well as greater awareness and faster spread of information.
Last winter, about 80,000 people in the US died from the flu (according to CDC). Just saying, let’s keep this unfortunate coronavirus outbreak in context.
We know from the CDC that the virus does not survive for more than a few hours on surfaces at room temperature so that it is unlikely to spread widely in that fashion.
It may well get much, much worse. But as of now that is mere speculation.
BTW, here is a neat map that the folks at Johns Hopkins have produced to track the epidemic:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
I’d like to be able to think that this is the case but in reality, and maybe I’m just a cynic, but as long as the food stamps…oh, excuse me, EBT cards, keep getting reloaded, the people of this country will keep on living fat and happy while laughing at the ones that die due to governmental malfeasance
I mean … I’m not saying we should kidnap Americans who want to ride out the storm. I’m saying that any Americans who are trapped in Wuhan (and make no mistake, they are trapped) and want to leave should be evacuated. I’m saying that we should charter as many Boeing 767s as are necessary to do that. I’m saying that this is what Japan is doing.
In a system with artificially inflated money (assuming we have true democracy,) power doesn’t go to those who best manage the balance between taxes and spending. Power goes to those who best manage the balance between money and debt creation and distributing the assets to your power base.
These are different balancing acts, and tend to attract different types of ‘leaders,’ but they’re both balancing acts.
What I mean is, each dollar that goes to doing something actually good is a dollar not going to strengthening one’s power base. Those two ends are not often the same in an inflated-money society, and those who can’t tell the difference tend not to be in power for long.
Yeah I hear you. Being a little provocative.
Putting my survival mode cap on, if I had the choice between being enclosed in a completely full airplane for 8+ hours with others who just might be infected, sharing bathrooms with all of them, and re-breathing the same airplane air that is only marginally filtered, or staying in Wuhan, I would stay in Wuhan.
I can agree to this only if the evacuees are quarantined (not at home, in a facility) for a minimum of 14 days. Otherwise they are endangering the rest of the country, and as sympathetic as I am to their plight, that’s not in the country’s best interests. All of the articles about the Boeing evacuation flight being routed to California via Ontario are curiously silent/vague as to the planned quarantine measures for the passengers (or lack thereof).
Something felt off about the constant mention of paying back uncle sam but I couldn’t quite place it. This rant is a solid explanation of why that felt off.