In the news, Friday, March 20, 2020

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MAR 19      INDEX      MAR 21

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from DW News (Deutsche Welle)

Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Bonn, Germany

Coronavirus confusion about safety of ibuprofen
First it was called fake news, then the WHO issued a warning about ibuprofen, only to retract it two days later. What’s behind the confusion over ibuprofen and SARS-CoV-19?

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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)

RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization

Panic Has Led to Government “Cures” That Are Worse than the Disease, History Shows

Anyone who’s seen the movie Ferris Beuller’s Day Off probably remembers the scene where Ferris’s economics teacher (Ben Stein) explains the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to a roomful of bored, sleeping students. The scene is brilliant for many reasons, perhaps most so because it perfectly demonstrated how some of the most boring things in history are also the most important. Smoot-Hawley was, of course, one of the great blunders in history. Passed in 1930 over the objection of more than a thousand economists, the legislation increased tariffs (which were already high) on imports to protect US industries and farmers, sparking a trade war that deepened the Great Depression. It’s a perfect example of authorities taking decisive action to alleviate a crisis—and making things much worse. What many forget is that Smoot-Hawley didn’t cause the Depression. It was a response to the Depression. Indeed, it may never have passed at all without the catalyst—the Stock Market Crash of 1929—that sent the nation into a frenzy. Senate Republicans had defeated the GOP-controlled House bill the previous year, but trade restrictionists found a convenient crisis in Black Tuesday, which triggered widespread hysteria, allowing the law to squeak through. (President Hoover opposed the bill but signed it anyway because of political pressure, which included resignation threats from several Cabinet members.) Designed to protect Americans during the economic crisis, Smoot-Hawley proved disastrous. Imports fell from $1,334M in 1929 to just $390M in 1932. Global trade fell by roughly 66 percent, government data show. By 1933 unemployment was 25 percent, the highest in US history. To “correct” things, Americans elected Franklin D. Roosevelt, who launched a series of federal programs—which made the crisis even worse. The rest, as they say, is history.

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from First Things

QUESTIONING THE SHUTDOWN
R. R. Reno: The extraordinary shutdown, if continued, will have harmful consequences that go far beyond the economy. A short period of decisive action to buy time to prepare may be prudent. But ongoing measures of mass mobilization are likely to do severe damage to our society. ... As Warren Buffet says, when the tide goes out, you discover who has been swimming naked. He meant to capture an economic truth. When credit tightens in a down market, the indebted and improvident are exposed. But the quip holds true more broadly. The shutdown puts stress on our economic system, to be sure, but it can damage our political and social systems as well. In the end, the latter are more important.

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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS,  MIXED  American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Coronavirus Pandemic Highlights Importance of Economic Freedom
The mysterious coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has engulfed countries across the globe. The link between economic freedom and human wellbeing is undeniable. People in economically free societies live longer, have better health, and take better care of the environment. They also tend to have greater capacity to counter infectious diseases that know no borders, such as the current coronavirus pandemic. Now is the time to take decisive yet targeted prudent policy actions to minimize human cost and mitigate the economic effects associated with the coronavirus.

We Need to Be Vigilant to Beat Coronavirus
It is unlikely that we will realize the 2.2 million deaths that the study projects, but that doesn’t mean that we can rest easy. With mitigation efforts, policies designed to slow the spread of infection rather than fully prevent infection, the study projects half the number of deaths due to the infection. That would be tremendous progress, except that it means that 1.1 million Americans would die. Americans can defy the projections by taking responsible actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Legacy of Americans in a Time of Crisis
It is in a time of crisis that Americans are at their very best. Leadership matters. Community matters. Truth matters. We shall come through this crisis as we have other challenges in our 241-year history.

Saving the World’s International Organizations
Setting up international organizations to bring countries together for discussing and dealing with common concerns is an intuitively good idea. Unfortunately, like an unsupervised kindergarten class, the U.N. and many other international organizations have gotten off track. Undisciplined, unaccountable, and unconstrained international organizations threaten popular sovereignty. Fortunately, we now have an administration that’s willing to push back against this sort of nonsense.

The Senate’s Coronavirus Bill: Bailouts, Missed Opportunities, and Positive Reforms
Any action that Congress takes should be targeted, temporary, and linked directly to the coronavirus epidemic in order to address the source of the economic shock while limiting any political abuse that can develop in a moment of crisis. Unfortunately, the Senate’s coronavirus bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act misses this mark by including special benefits to specific industries that will exceed $200 billion. We have specified a number of proposals in other papers that would do more to help workers continue to receive paychecks while mitigating the economic effects associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Congress must resist the urge to provide special benefits to select industries and give the robust fiscal and monetary policy response that has already been enacted time to work.

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from London Evening Standard (UK)

Tower of London among six iconic sites being closed by Historic Royal Palaces in battle against coronavirus
The Tower of London, as of Friday evening, will be one of six historical sites run by Historic Royal Palaces that close in light of the coronavirus crisis. "In light of recent govt advice the Tower will close from Friday evening. This extraordinary building has withstood a great deal in its 1,000 year history, and we'll bounce back from this too. Stay tuned, and stay safe." The other sites closing are Hampton Court, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace, the Banqueting Hall, and Hillsborough Castle.

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from NBC News (& affiliates)

LEFT-CENTER BIAS

Country music legend Kenny Rogers dies at 81
Kenny Rogers, the country musician behind such hits as "The Gambler" and "Lady" over a six-decade career, has died at the age of 81, his family announced early Saturday. "Rogers passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family," according to a statement from his management firm, SKH Music.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

from Willamette Week

Anxious Oregonians Head for the Woods, Creating a Traffic Jam in the Columbia River Gorge

Looking for respite from a pandemic by escaping to the woods? You're not alone. Oregon transportation officials say car traffic in the Columbia River Gorge has jumped to midsummer levels as anxious, recently jobless Portlanders look for solitude at the region's most popular waterfalls. "The Historic Highway is seeing midsummer traffic volumes this week, with a number of people choosing to social distance in the great outdoors because of COVID-19," the Oregon Department of Transportation said March 20 in a press release. "Parking lots and roadside parking overflowed this week, with cars parking in ditches and blocking intersections."

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In the news, Thursday, March 19, 2020

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MAR 18      INDEX      MAR 20

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from China Global Television Network (CGTN)

LEFT, MIXED, Chinese Communist Government News and Propaganda

10 questions for the U.S.: Where did the novel coronavirus come from?
Given that some major U.S. media and politicians made groundless claims that the novel coronavirus originates in China, blamed and slandered China, even asked for an apology from China, then I have every reason to ask 10 questions for the United States about its origin too. Better still, unlike the U.S., I did a lot homework and will base my questions on international media coverage of COVID-19.

________

from CNN

Trump signs coronavirus relief legislation into law
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law a coronavirus relief package that includes provisions for free testing for Covid-19 and paid emergency leave. The Senate had earlier Wednesday approved the House-passed bill. The move allowed the upper chamber to devote its full attention to passing the next relief package in response to the coronavirus crisis. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans had been critical of the House-passed legislation, but emphasized that it is urgent to get relief to the American people amid the coronavirus crisis.

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from CommonDreams

LEFT BIAS, HIGH, U.S. based progressive news website

Here Are the 51 Republican Senators Who Just Voted Against Expanding Paid Sick Leave to All Workers
Republican senators on Wednesday teamed up to kill an amendment introduced by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray that would have expanded paid sick leave to millions of U.S. workers left out of a bipartisan coronavirus relief package. Every Republican present for the vote, 51 in total, voted against the amendment while every Senate Democrat voted in favor. Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) were the only senators who did not vote on the amendment, which would have guaranteed two weeks of paid sick leave as well as 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to all U.S. employees and independent contractors.

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from Conciliar Post

OF THE PLAGUE THAT STALKS IN THE DARKNESS: WHAT CORONAVIRUS TAUGHT ME ABOUT FAITH AND FEAR
Sickness and its disrupting effects reminds us that, even as modern people, the we are dependent on something outside of ourselves and  that we desperately need a Savior. But recognizing our inability to save ourselves never means that we should give into Evil. On the contrary: we have a Savior who gave His very life to free us from the Powers of Sin and Death, and we are called to resist them at every turn. The point is not to give up the fight, but to recognize that we cannot win it on our own, and to put all our trust in the One who can. To ask Him for the strength to fight another day. Once I realized this, my stance on the suspension of worship services changed. For Christians, Death is always the enemy. While we cannot control or stop this disease, we may be able to slow it enough to save lives. Everyone of us who does not get sick saves a hospital bed, ventilator, and medical staff for someone who will. I go to church so that I can love God and my neighbor more. During this season, I will stay home out of love of neighbors I have never met. Every life saved is a blow to the Adversary. To fight to save lives, even if it means temporarily closing the doors of the church, is not an act of cowardice, but of resistance.

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from DW News (Deutsche Welle)

Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Bonn, Germany

How the Amazon became popular in the Third Reich

In the 1930s, a zoologist used funds from the Nazi regime to travel through the Brazilian Amazon. The expedition inspired a movie, a book and left behind a massive cross with a swastika in the jungle.

Coronavirus drugs: Can antibodies from survivors help?
Aside from a Covid-19 vaccine, antibodies from recovered patients could provide a short-term "passive immunization" to the disease. A German immunologist saved thousands of lives with the method 100 years ago.

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from Financial Times

LEAST BIASED, HIGH, business and economic newspaper in London, UK

Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus
Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world.

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from Fox News (& affiliates)

Amid coronavirus toilet paper shortage, experts warn against using ‘flushable’ wipes
KDVR Denver: Amid the coronavirus toilet paper shortage, sewer experts say more folks are using flushable wipes. However, those wipes are wreaking havoc on some Colorado sewer systems.The packaging says “flushable,” but sewer inspectors say that is misleading because the wipes don’t break down. “I think people are trusting the packaging that it says flushable and what people need to understand is these things are physically flushable -- they’ll go down your toilet -- but then they will stop somewhere,” Lisa Wilson, communications content supervisor with the city of Thornton said.

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from Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (StanfordFSI)

Pandemics & Propaganda: How Chinese State Media Shapes Conversations on The Coronavirus
Vanessa Molter, Stanford Internet Observatory
Chinese state media is not unique in evolving its narratives, or in spreading misinformation or omitting facts to cast itself in the best light possible for a global audience. In the U.S. media environment, the Fox News network has also dramatically shifted their coverage of the coronavirus disease in response to political considerations, adjusting their coverage to make the U.S. executive branch leadership look like leaders. This tone change was so brazen that the Washington Post labeled it “a petri dish for misinformation.” While we did not include far left or far right U.S. media sources in our data set for the above analysis, other US news outlets also downplayed the threat. In the latest activity from the U.S. media, there is now a dichotomy in coverage: many conservative outlets are accusing the Chinese government of causing a global pandemic due to the significant missteps in their early response, and deflecting blame from the Trump Administration's own failures. The other side is reporting on the problematic response in the United States, while highlighting later successful Chinese containment efforts. The blame game will not be helpful. It is both true that the Chinese government made strikingly bad decisions in its early response to the virus - and also that the United States will suffer from its own lack of preparation. Meanwhile, amid the bungled U.S. COVID-19 response - including a lack of coordination even with close allies - the Chinese government is supporting hard-hit countries by sending supplies and medical experts, garnering praise from around the world. As Western democracies struggle to land on effective COVID-19 responses, experts expect a more aggressive narrative to come from Beijing.

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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS,  MIXED  American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

To Avoid Amnesty, Agricultural Immigration Reform Must Address This Issue
Agricultural immigration reform shouldn’t include amnesty. This should be a given. Unfortunately, some legislators seem to disagree, as evidenced by the agricultural immigration legislation the House passed last year and legislation recently introduced by Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla. It’s not always easy to define amnesty, but this much is clear: Allowing illegal agricultural workers to remain in the United States as they secure legal status is amnesty.  Illegal agricultural workers shouldn’t be treated more favorably than these other workers, but that’s exactly what would happen under these bills.

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from Hot Air  RIGHT BIAS, MOSTLY FACTUAL
Conservative American political blog founded by Michelle Malkin

Anti-Trump Republicans Run Ad Comparing Trump To Coronavirus
Last December a group of Never Trump Republicans announced the formation of the Lincoln Project. The group has a single goal – to work for the defeat of President Trump in November. The names of the people behind this effort will likely be familiar to you if you keep up with Republican politics or are active on Twitter. These are blue check Never Trumpers.

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from HumanProgress.org

Education Website

Heroes of Progress, Pt. 40: Jeremy Bentham

This week, our hero is Jeremy Bentham, an 18th century English philosopher, enlightenment thinker and social reformer. Bentham is regarded as the founder of utilitarianism – a philosophy that holds that the most ethical choice in any given situation is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Throughout his life, Bentham advocated for many things, including the separation of church and state, individual and economic freedoms, women’s suffrage, the right to divorce, decriminalization of homosexuality and freedom of expression. He is also widely regarded as one of the earliest proponents of animal rights.

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from Medium
LEFT-CENTER BIAS,  MIXED, online social journalism publishing platform

Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance
Strong coronavirus measures today should only last a few weeks, there shouldn’t be a big peak of infections afterwards, and it can all be done for a reasonable cost to society, saving millions of lives along the way. If we don’t take these measures, tens of millions will be infected, many will die, along with anybody else that requires intensive care, because the healthcare system will have collapsed.

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

The Global Economy Won't Bounce Back Soon
In February, the general consensus between large investment banks and supranational entities was that there would be a one-time hit to GDP in the first quarter due to the impact of the coronavirus, followed by a stronger, V-shaped recovery. The IMF expected a modest correction of global GDP of 0.1 percent, and the largest cut on estimates for 2020 growth was 0.4 percent. Those days are gone. The latest round of global growth revisions includes a slash of growth estimates for the first and second quarters and a very modest recovery in the third and fourth. Average GDP estimates are now down 0.7 percent, and JP Morgan expects the eurozone to enter a deep recession in the next two quarters (–1.8 percent and –3.3 percent in the first and second quarters), followed by a very poor recovery that would still leave the full-year 2020 estimate in contraction. The investment bank also assumes US slumps of 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, but a modest full-year growth. Capital Economics estimates a hit to the US economy for the full year that would cut 0.8 percent off previous estimates though still predicting growth, but a larger impact on the eurozone, with full-year 2020 growth at an avergae of –1.2 percent, led by a –2 percent prediction for Italy. This, unfortunately, looks like just the beginning of a downgrade cycle that adds to the issue of an economy that was already slowing in 2019. It is very likely that the shutdown of major developed economies will be followed by a shutdown of emerging markets, creating a supply shock as we have not seen in decades.

The Fed Is a One-Trick Pony
In slashing its key interest rate to zero in response to the economic calamities imposed by all levels of government ostensibly to fight the coronavirus, the Federal Reserve System is trying to regenerate the crashing stock market. At opening bell right afterward, however, the market continued to crash, and those results perhaps should be telling us that the Fed’s one-trick solution to economic crises is just that: a trick. Printing up paper money—which is the Fed's solution to nearly everything— will not bring about a miraculous replacement of the lost goods and services or repair broken supply chains.

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from ProPublica

LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, Non-profit newsroom in New York

Senator Dumped Up to $1.7 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness
Soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus, the powerful chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr, sold off a significant percentage of his stocks, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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In the news, Wednesday, March 18, 2020

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MAR 17      INDEX      MAR 19

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from The Daily Caller

RIGHT BIAS, MIXED, American news and opinion website based in Washington, D.C.

Tucker Carlson: Using Coronavirus As Excuse To Stop Arresting People ‘A Recipe For Chaos’
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Wednesday that the coronavirus is no reason to let criminals run wild in America’s cities. While criticizing members of the Democrat’s leftist squad who have already advocated for criminals to be released early from prison, Carlson said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that some cities are using the corona crisis to tell police to ignore criminal activity if it doesn’t qualify as “violent.”

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from Foreign Affairs
Council on Foreign Relations

The Coronavirus Could Reshape Global Order
With hundreds of millions of people now isolating themselves around the world, the novel coronavirus pandemic has become a truly global event. And while its geopolitical implications should be considered secondary to matters of health and safety, those implications may, in the long term, prove just as consequential—especially when it comes to the United States’ global position. Global orders have a tendency to change gradually at first and then all at once. In 1956, a botched intervention in the Suez laid bare the decay in British power and marked the end of the United Kingdom’s reign as a global power. Today, U.S. policymakers should recognize that if the United States does not rise to meet the moment, the coronavirus pandemic could mark another “Suez moment.”

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from The Guardian (UK)

LEFT-CENTER, HIGH, British daily newspaper published in London UK

Native American tribe takes trailblazing steps to fight Covid-19 outbreak
The Lummi nation, a sovereign Native American tribe in the Pacific north-west, will soon open a pioneering field hospital to treat coronavirus patients, as part of a wave of strong public health measures which have gone further than many governments. Tribal leaders have been preparing for Covid-19 since the virus first appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, with medical staff beefing up emergency plans, reorganizing services and gathering medical supplies, including test kits and personal protective equipment. The Lummi reservation is located in Whatcom county – 115 miles north of Seattle, Washington, where the first US Covid-19 case was confirmed in January, followed by the first death in February. So far, the tribe has reported three Covid-19 cases, but expect numbers to rise as the pandemic progresses.

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from The Hill

News & Media Website in Washington, D.C.

As Italy quarantines over coronavirus, misleading reports of swans and dolphins in Venice canals go viral
“Nature just hit the reset button” is how one person put it--but while the water in the Venetian canals is clearer, reports of wildlife returning are more fever dream than reality. Italy is under lockdown to fight the spread of COVID–19, which has killed more than 3,400 people in the country so far. With the canals in Venice empty of its usual boat traffic, photos on social media show clear waters and the return of wildlife. An Italian official says the water isn't necessarily less polluted, but the air has cleared up.

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from KOMO News (ABC Seattle)

Sick staff fueled outbreak in Seattle-area care centers, CDC says
Staff members who worked while sick at multiple long-term care facilities contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among vulnerable elderly in the Seattle area, federal health officials said Wednesday. At least 30 coronavirus deaths have been linked to Life Care Center in Kirkland. A report Wednesday from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided the most detailed account to date of what drove the outbreak.

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from The Living Church

Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)

Church of England, Vatican Suspend Public Worship
The Church of England has suspended all public worship services until further notice, with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York inviting the faithful, in a joint letter of March 17, to look for new ways to serve their communities. They said that the current coronavirus pandemic could be a defining moment for the church, a time to face the question, “Are we truly a church for all, or just the church for ourselves?” The letter was issued a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that all public gatherings should cease and that vulnerable populations should prepare to isolate themselves from outside contact for the next twelve weeks. Similar measures are being taken by other churches throughout Europe this week, with the Vatican also announcing that Holy Week services would be closed to the public.

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

Government Is No Match for the Coronavirus
The coronavirus is reminding everyone that you cannot rely on government and that ultimately it is the private sector that will provide the solutions. Many nonmedical government officials and members of the media are predicting massive cases of COVID-19 and death, when in fact no one can predict the outcome. What we do know is that government has created a full-blown national panic, when at this point the normal flu season is far more deadly. The coronavirus crisis must cause us to rethink the idea governments can manage these situations. It is absolutely true that most private industry can be trusted, because the alternative for poor or unscrupulous providers is failure.

Financialization: Why the Financial Sector Now Rules the Global Economy
To read or watch the news in today's world is to be confronted with a wide array of stories about financial organization and financial institutions. News about central banks, interest rates, and debt appear to be everywhere. But it was not always the case that the financial sector and financial institutions were considered so important. Public policy in general was not always designed with a focus toward propping up banks, keeping interest rates low, and ensuring an ever greater flow of cheap and easy loans. Reporting on the minutiae of central banks—with the assumption that these changes directly impact nearly every facet of our lives—wasn't always the norm. But that is where we are now. The change is real and it's a thing called "financialization." It has arisen from of an economy that is increasingly focused on the financial sector at the expense of other areas of the economy. And it's relatively new. Scholars have suggested many causes for financialization, but they often end up just blaming markets. In fact, the true cause is decades of government and central bank policy devoted to inflating asset prices in financial markets and bailing out the financial sector again and again. "Financialization" is the process by which a normal economy is transformed into a fragile economy centered around financial firms. Central banks and government bailouts are to blame.

Japanization: 30 Years of Failed Economic "Stimulus"
In Europe, the danger of “Japanization”—a long-lasting economic stagnation accompanied by expansionary monetary and fiscal policies (Schnabl 2015)—is now discussed more intensively, as the stagnation in southern Europe continues and the ultraloose monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) is widely expected to persist. Concerns about Japanization have been countered by the argument that after thirty years of stagnation the growth in Japan is high when calculated in the appropriate manner (Krugman 2015). This implies that Europe will have nothing to fear if the ECB continues its ultraloose monetary policy, something that is widely expected. Real wages in Japan have been declining thanks to decades of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies. Now "Japanization" increasingly looks like a fate that awaits Europe.

After Brexit, the Timing of the Coronavirus Couldn't Be Worse for Eurocrats
Brexit came as a shock to the political bureaucracy that comprises the European Union. They had and still have an ostrichlike stance, with their heads in the sand and their rear ends exposed to passing dangers. Their economic incompetence has been exposed for all to see, as well as their political ineptitude.

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from The North American Anglican

Media/News Company: "A journal of orthodox theology in the Anglican tradition"

UNIVERSALISM’S MANY HEADS
The Rev. Ben Jefferies: Most Anglicans I know have enough respect for the Scriptures and their traditional interpretation that when confronted with a bald Universalism — such as that presented last year by David Bentley Hart’s latest book — they have enough sense to reject it. But Universalism is a Hydra with many heads. To my great dismay, while most Anglicans will take the sword to the proudest head, they do not keep fighting the other eight, and, if we are not careful, Universalism may still strike its fatal blow to the Gospel in our branch of Christ’s Church. Universalism proper is the idea that all humans will be saved in the End, and that if there is a Hell it will be empty. In its fully teased-out instantiations, it includes the Devil and the demons among the ultimately-saved.

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from POLITICO

LEAST BIASED, HIGH, news and opinion website in Arlington, Virginia

First 2 members of Congress test positive for coronavirus
Coronavirus has finally reached Congress. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a ninth-term Florida Republican, and Rep. Ben McAdams, a freshman Democrat from Utah, revealed on Wednesday that they had tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the first U.S. lawmakers to contract the virus that‘s spreading across the country.

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from RealClearPolitics

 RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MOSTLY FACTUAL, Media/News Company

Beijing Fears COVID-19 Is Turning Point for China, Globalization
While the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, China is fighting a propaganda war. Beijing’s war aim is simple: shift away from China all blame for the outbreak, the botched initial response, and its early spread into the broader world. At stake is China’s global reputation, as well as the potential of a fundamental shift away from China for trade and manufacturing. Also at risk is the personal legacy of General Secretary Xi Jinping, who has staked his legitimacy on his technocratic competence. After dealing with the first great global crisis of the 21st century, the world must fundamentally rethink its dependence on China. 

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

________

from WWD (Women's Wear Daily)

LEFT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, fashion-industry trade journal

Playboy Magazine ceases print edition after 66 years

Playboy magazine is shuttering its print magazine. The men’s magazine, launched at the end of 1953 by famed founder Hugh Hefner, said Wednesday that the economic disruptions from COVID-19, or coronavirus, were too much for its already strained print operations to bear.

COVID-19 Response: Penney’s Becomes the Latest Big Retailer to Shut Stores

The list of retailers closing stores is growing rapidly. J.C. Penney Co. Inc. will temporarily close its stores and business office, starting today at 7 p.m. local time. The stores and business offices are scheduled to reopen April 2. “With the effects of the outbreak being felt more each day, our primary concern and area of focus is and has been on the health and safety of our associates, our customers and our communities,” said chief executive officer Jill Soltau. “We know this is a critical, unprecedented time and our thoughts are with those who have been impacted.”

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In the news, Tuesday, March 17, 2020

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MAR 16      INDEX      MAR 18

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________

from Aleteia English

Catholic Media/News Company

How the Black Plague changed the “Hail Mary” prayer
The “Hail Mary” prayer that Christians have been praying for centuries is composed of two main parts. The first part of the prayer is derived from the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel greeted Mary by saying, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28) The next part of the prayer is taken from the Visitation, when Elizabeth greeted Mary with the words, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42) At first the prayer was known as the “Salutation of the Blessed Virgin,” and only consisted of the two verses joined together. However, during the Black Plague (also known as the “Black Death”) the prayer was further developed and a second part was added to it. This second part (“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death”) is believed by many to have been added during the plague to ask for the Blessed Mother’s protection from the fatal disease.

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from CNN

Toilet paper makers: 'What we are dealing with here is uncharted'
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads, households across the country are hunkering down and emptying out store shelves. Toilet paper has a become the ultimate symbol of the panic buying; it's seemingly scooped up as soon as new rolls hit the shelves. Companies that help supply these everyday paper products are stunned and trying to adjust to this rapidly evolving new normal in consumer behavior.

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from First Things

KEEP THE CHURCHES OPEN!
R. R. Reno: Cancelling church services is the wrong response to the coronavirus pandemic. When we worship, we join the Christian rebellion against the false lordship of the principalities and powers that claim to rule our lives, including sickness and death. This does not mean carelessness about our health, nor does it mean indifference to the health of others. Instead, it means that as Christians we have higher priorities. Our end is in God. [C.S., along with many others, does not agree with the reasoning in this article]

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from Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)

Melbourne scientists make major coronavirus breakthrough
Melbourne scientists have discovered how the human body overcomes coronavirus in a global breakthrough hoped to fast-track treatments, vaccines and even identify those at risk of dying. The Doherty Institute researchers have also shown that healthy people can expect to fight off mild to moderate COVID-19 cases in three days.

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from The Heritage Foundation
RIGHT BIAS,  MIXED  American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

5 Pandemic Movies That You Might Not Want To Stream This Weekend
Every pandemic movie ever made has precisely zero educational value. When it comes to pandemics, Hollywood is here to sell tickets, not to give a health science class. If you want to really know what we should be doing in a public health emergency, read some responsible analysis or go to the real Center for Disease Control website.

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from HumanProgress.org  Education Website

Green Colonialism in Africa Led to the Locust Plague
A plague of locusts has hit Africa. Massive swarms are devouring crops and other vegetation in their path, imperiling millions and setting the stage for a humanitarian disaster. On his recent visit to three African countries, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo committed a welcome $8 million to aid in locust control. If the U.S. really wants to help, it would stand firm against the radical anti-insecticide agenda. The best way to stop the locusts is to spray insecticide from the air. Unfortunately, Kenya lacks adequate supplies of the best and most effective insecticide, fenitrothion, and is scrambling to get additional stocks. The radical environmental movement, which seeks to ban fenitrothion and other safe and effective chemicals, has made Kenyan authorities’ work more difficult. Since last September, European Union-funded nongovernmental organizations in Kenya have been petitioning the Kenyan Parliament to ban more than 250 registered agricultural insecticides. Foremost among these groups is the Route to Food Initiative, funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which in turn is affiliated with the German Green Party. The chemicals the Greens seek to ban are essential for controlling not only locusts but also common agricultural pests, weeds and fungi. Even as locusts devastate Kenyan crops, NGO lobbyists continue their anti-insecticide crusade.

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

The EU's Once-Open Internal Borders Are Closing Down
As the member states of the EU begin to shut their internal borders to their neighbors, we're reminded that state-to-state open borders in a place like the US do come with a downside.

IS THE CORONACRISIS GIVING THE FED COVER TO HOLD CORPORATE DEBT?
Since 2008, banks have largely abandoned the discount window, opting instead to sit on excess reserves, in part to avoid the appearance of being stressed. The Fed is now actively trying to reverse this trend. The cut brings the discount window rates down to the closest they’ve been to the federal funds rate since the 2008 crisis. In case that was too subtle, Chairman Powell also explicitly emphasized the opportunity banks have to utilize the discount window. This may end up being the most important piece of yesterday’s historic announcement, because it may serve not only as a lifeline to banks, but as a means to prop up a dangerous corporate debt bubble.

The Fed Has Sufficient Tools—to Wreck the Economy
These famed "tools" of the central bank are nothing but cunning and arcane techniques for conjuring additional trillions of dollars out of thin air and pumping them into the global economy.

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from The New England Journal of Medicine

world’s leading medical journal and website

Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1
A novel human coronavirus that is now named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (formerly called HCoV-19) emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and is now causing a pandemic. We analyzed the aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 and compared it with SARS-CoV-1, the most closely related human coronavirus.

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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from STAT
Media/News Company in Boston reporting from the frontiers of health and medicine

A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data
Yet if the health system does become overwhelmed, the majority of the extra deaths may not be due to coronavirus but to other common diseases and conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, trauma, bleeding, and the like that are not adequately treated. If the level of the epidemic does overwhelm the health system and extreme measures have only modest effectiveness, then flattening the curve may make things worse: Instead of being overwhelmed during a short, acute phase, the health system will remain overwhelmed for a more protracted period. That’s another reason we need data about the exact level of the epidemic activity. One of the bottom lines is that we don’t know how long social distancing measures and lockdowns can be maintained without major consequences to the economy, society, and mental health. Unpredictable evolutions may ensue, including financial crisis, unrest, civil strife, war, and a meltdown of the social fabric. At a minimum, we need unbiased prevalence and incidence data for the evolving infectious load to guide decision-making. In the most pessimistic scenario, which I do not espouse, if the new coronavirus infects 60% of the global population and 1% of the infected people die, that will translate into more than 40 million deaths globally, matching the 1918 influenza pandemic. The vast majority of this hecatomb would be people with limited life expectancies. That’s in contrast to 1918, when many young people died.”

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from The Washington Times

News & Media Website in Washington, D.C.

'Wake-up call': Chinese control of U.S. pharmaceutical supplies sparks growing concern
As the war of words between China and the U.S. over COVID-19 heats up, Chinese state media have raised the specter of using Beijing’s pharmaceutical leverage to block critical components and supplies for dependent U.S. drug companies and send America into “the hell of a novel coronavirus epidemic.” While India and several European nations play critical roles in the global medical supply chain, China is among the top providers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) — the basic components for antibiotics and other prescription drugs consumed by Americans. With the coronavirus crisis threatening to strain the U.S. government’s large stockpiles of such drugs, health experts warn that China’s own outbreak and related societal shutdown could mean major shortages ahead as Chinese factories struggle to keep up production of the APIs.

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In the news, Monday, March 16, 2020

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MAR 15      INDEX      MAR 17

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from Bipartisan Report
QUESTIONABLE SOURCE  EXTREME LEFT, MIXED, Propaganda
News & Media Website in Washington, D.C.

Trump Tweets Emergency COVID-19 Message To Americans
Donald Trump sure does have a way of making people panic, which is part of the reason that it was believed in the very beginning that someone should tell him he wasn’t allowed to tweet. Trump follows the fans, though, and he continued to tweet, leading to some pretty ridiculous moments that will be remembered with humor in history. Some of his tweets will also likely play part in some upcoming court battles staring the president, and he will probably have wished that he had stayed quiet.

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from First Things

THE TIME OF THE VIRUS
Ephraim Radner: In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should all follow the directives of public health officials and heed the advice of medical experts. Christians are no different from others in this respect. We share the health challenges and personal anxieties of all our neighbors, and we bear the same responsibilities during this crisis. All of a sudden, we see before us something we have perhaps talked about before, but never really faced: the way, as societies, we have allowed our personal lives to become enfolded in and seemingly dependent upon intricate and vast networks of collective construction that have diminished our humanity. Suddenly we must “go home,” stay with our families, turn to ourselves. And we are, surprisingly, afraid! Yet “going home” is, in fact, an enormous gift. For two weeks, a month, two months—we shall see—we have been granted a “fallow time,” in which we can return to our roots as human beings.

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from The Living Church
Magazine of The Living Church Foundation (Anglican)

ON EPIDEMICS AND THE CHURCH: A LETTER FROM EUROPE
The church is not without some experience of epidemics in Europe, of course. Richard Palmer, in his 1978 University of Kent doctoral dissertation, “The Control of Plague in Venice and Northern Italy, 1348–1600,” has shown that, while often contending for power, state and church had largely harmonious approaches to the onset of plague in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy—not least because the leaders of civil society still saw the welfare of the polis as dependent on God’s favor. But the church’s role in the midst of that public health crisis extended in two other directions. One was to explain God’s purposes in setting loose in the world the mysterious forces that caused the miseries of the illness, death, and precarity of the plague. ... The second direction was to extend compassionate care to those affected by the disease —whether the dying or the bereaved. Church and state together worked to establish and sustain institutions that served the most vulnerable.

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from Medium
LEFT-CENTER BIAS,  MIXED, online social journalism publishing platform

The Sober Math Everyone Must Understand about the Pandemic
This is a long post addressing two underlying issues with the current response to the pandemic that leave me concerned. It’s the longest post I’ve ever written. For those of you not taking action, or believing the pandemic to be “over hyped” I can tell you this is not hype. It’s math. And you need to understand it.

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from Mises Institute
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED

THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM IS NOW TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
Thanks to relentless intervention by governments and central banks, the financial system now looks to government policy as the solution to every problem.

Could the Coronavirus Be Fatal for the EU?
As the nation-states take the brunt of their economic collapses on the chin, they will begin to realise that the EU superstate is little more than an obstructive and costly irrelevance.

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from The New American Magazine

RIGHT BIAS: John Birch Society

Coronavirus Fading in China; all Apple Stores Now Open for Business
On February 12 there were, according to the Johns Hopkins website dashboard, 15,200 new cases of the virus reported. Less than a month later, March 6, there were 103 new cases reported. In a few months, the coronavirus will be a distant memory, says Gordon Wysong. Writing in the American Thinker, he said, “The coronavirus’s effects will become so small that they will be lost in the noise in the day.” But the implications and changes in the culture will far outlast the virus

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from The New Yorker

LEFT BIAS, HIGH, magazine in New York

Convincing Boomer Parents to Take the Coronavirus Seriously
The coronavirus poses a unique threat to an age group that, whether they admit it or not, includes them.

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from Psephizo  (blog)

Coronavirus and the fear of death
Jeremy Marshall writes: I know absolutely nothing about infectious diseases  or how to stop Coronavirus. I have no scientific or medical training. But I do know quite a bit about the fear of dying. Seven years ago I felt fear when I was told I had cancer. Four and a half years ago I felt intense, sickening, dizzying, overwhelming fear when I was told I had incurable cancer and probably had 18 months to live. I have lived with that awful fear of dying and death since. Yes friends, I am afraid of dying. Aren’t we all?

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from The Spokesman-Review

Newspaper in Spokane, Washington

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from UPI News Agency (United Press International)

Media/News Company

U.S. Space Force gets first offensive weapon, a satellite jammer
The U.S. Space Force announced its first offensive weapon, a ground-based communications jammer to block satellite transmissions. The Space Force announced Friday that Counter Communication System Block 10.2 achieved Initial Operating Capability earlier this month. It was transferred from the Los Angeles AFB to Peterson AFB, Colo., after being declared operational by the Air Force Space and Missile Center's special programs directorate.

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from The Washington Post

Newspaper in Washington, D.C.

Mapping the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. and worldwide
The number of reported cases of covid-19 continues to rise in the United States, where testing was slow to begin. The disease, caused by a new coronavirus, has been confirmed in nearly every state. The World Health Organization declared covid-19 a pandemic on March 11. Worldwide, well over 150,000 cases of the disease, which can cause pneumonia-like symptoms, have been recorded since the outbreak started in late 2019, and several thousand people have died. Coronaviruses range from the common cold virus to more serious diseases that can infect humans and animals, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

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