Today’s News 21st March 2020

• From Quarantine To Tyranny To Rebellion: Where Is The Line In The Sand?
  From Quarantine To Tyranny To Rebellion: Where Is The Line In The Sand?

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

  America is in a haze right now. It seems like half the country is in denial of the danger while the other half is awaking from apathy and frantically trying to prepare. This is creating a fog of confusion as one side screams “it’s nothing but the flu, stop buying up the grocery store…!”, and the other side just keeps stocking goods, though in an inexperienced way that prioritizes comfort over practicality.

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  The other day I went by the grocery store to grab a few peripheral items while they still exist on sale, and this was the first time since the Covid-19 situation began that people in my area actually seemed…different.   The usual carefree obliviousness was gone from their faces and they all had a deer-in-the-headlights look, their eyes wide as saucers as they nervously scrambled around the store.  None of them were absorbed into their cell phones.  All of them were alert as many people huddled over their cart, quickly snatching items from the shelves as if protecting themselves from potential thieves.  It seems that reality is finally hitting the masses square in the face like a sucker punch.

  Suddenly, the prepper movement doesn’t look so “crazy” after all, and average people are now turning to prepper forums and websites to ask us for information on how to plan more effectively. Instead of stacking piles of toilet paper for psychological comfort, they are now buying food supplies.  The people who used to accuse us of being “chicken littles” and “doom mongers” are eerily silent. I almost miss them. At the very least, everyone is now concerned about the situation, if not for different reasons.

  This is a far cry from the past two months, when governments around the world as well as the UN’s WHO continually downplayed the pandemic threat and offered the public nothing in terms of usable advice. The establishment consistently kept the public in the dark, not just on the virus and its capabilities but also on the vast weaknesses in the global economy. Abruptly in the past week they suggest that a threat is ahead and now millions of people are scrambling to prepare however they can.

  As I have noted in previous articles, there is a reason why the establishment refused to inform the citizenry of the instabilities inherent in the pandemic scenario; the more unknowns there are for the public the more panic will set it, chaos ensues, and it is chaos that can be exploited to push forward numerous agendas. These agendas include global centralization as well as the erasure of constitutional liberties.

  Now that a national collapse event is slowly being accepted by many as a legitimate possibility, there is a debate rising as to what measures the government should take, or should be allowed to take. Those of us in the prepper and liberty movements always knew this day was coming; a day when the public would start considering trading away an array of freedoms in exchange for promises of security.

  Even now, government officials are still trying to tell people that this event will be “short lived”.

  “Don’t worry”, they say, “It will only last a couple of weeks.” Oh, and “Don’t concern yourselves with food shortages, that’s not going to happen…” You can look at these lies in two different ways:

  1) The government is trying to stave off a “panic” by slowly easing people into the reality that the system is breaking.

  2) The government is trying to keep people passive to the danger so that when the system breaks completely they will be unprepared, desperate and easier to manipulate.

  I believe the second option is the most likely given the evidence at hand, but in either case the government is crippling the public response time to the disaster. They did this for months and they are still trying to do it now.

  So, my argument is, why should we suddenly take their advice or take orders from them when the manure hits the fan? They have FAILED in their responsibilities to inform and protect the citizenry, and they are about to violate their prime mandate, which is to protect the personal liberties that make our society worth living in. Without these freedoms, there is no point to keeping our system intact anyway.

  The establishment and its defenders will claim that we all “have to make sacrifices” today in order to have freedoms tomorrow, but that’s not how the constitution was designed to work. Our rights are MORE important during times of distress and crisis, for it is in these times that we need to know what we are fighting for, and what we are struggling for. Survival is meaningless if we have to accept tyranny to achieve it.

  Once governments see a chance to usurp freedoms from the people, they DO NOT tend to give those freedoms back later unless the people become a viable opponent that could bring the establishment down.

  There are some who will say that a forced quarantine is necessary to protect the “greater good” of the greater number. It is true that the Covid-19 virus is a danger, and I think the people who claim it’s “no worse than the flu” are fighting a losing battle as the death rate is clearly much higher than the average flu virus. They will look extremely foolish a few months from now as the virus continues to cycle through the population and the dead continue to increase. That said, I think I understand why they cling to this crumbling argument.

  They think that by arguing that the pandemic is “all hype” they can morally justify resistance to the inevitable totalitarian response from governments. They think it has to be one or the other:  Either the virus is hyped and resistance is acceptable, or the virus is real and resistance is unacceptable. I ask – Why can’t it be both? The virus is dangerous to many, but a totalitarian response is still unacceptable.

  The virus is in fact more destructive than any flu in recent memory – It’s not a plague on the level of the Black Death, but if it continues to kill at a rate of 3% to 5% as it has been then this puts a large number of human beings at risk. It is not something to be taken lightly, and those people that are actively trying to discourage others from preparing for it are truly narcissistic in their ideology. If you don’t think it’s a threat, then don’t prepare, but don’t scream at others for taking precautions just because you desperately want to be right, and don’t come around demanding food and supplies from those same people when the ceiling comes crashing down on your head.

  Also, understand that Covid-19 is only part of the problem. The bigger crisis is in the economy itself; a collapse has been baked into this cake for years now, and the virus has little to do with it.  Leftist kids are going around calling this pandemic the “boomer remover”, almost cheering the assumption that mostly older and conservative Americans will die from this.  I have to break it to them that during the economic collapse that is inevitably coming they will have to wipe the snot from their noses and put on their big-boy diapers otherwise they aren’t going to survive either; most of them have no discernible skills and no preparations to speak of.  They are essentially useless.

  If Covid-19 is a “boomer remover”, then the economic crisis is a “snowflake bake”, and they are about to get roasted.

  As I have noted time and time again over the past few years, the Everything Bubble only needed one major trigger event to fully implode, but the international banks and central banks created that precarious bubble in the first place, and they set up all the conditions which made it so dangerous. The virus is not the cause of the crash, it is just very good cover for the banks who are the real perpetrators.

  Ignore the virus if you want, but the economic collapse is undeniable. Accept that the national and global emergency is real (even if it has been financially engineered), and let’s move on to a more meaningful debate: Should governments be allowed to implement martial law measures in response?

  In my view there is no excuse for tyranny, even during a pandemic event. The majority of the public is more than capable of voluntary quarantine without government enforcement. Add government intervention into the mix and it will only make people want to do the opposite.  And beyond that, Covid-19 has such a long incubation period that ultimately most people will probably contract it anyway. Total containment is not achievable (as we have just seen in South Korea). Quarantines might slow the spread, which is good, but do not expect to avoid this virus indefinitely. Why sacrifice your freedoms for safety that is an illusion?

  Then there is the argument of “herd immunity”, which is utter nonsense and always has been. Either a person or group is immune, or they are not, and people who are not immune do not put immune people at risk. Period. The claim that the virus might “mutate” within non-vaccinated or non-immune people and put vaccinated people at risk is a propaganda argument that ignores science. Generally, when a virus does mutate, it mutates into a less deadly or infectious strain, not a more deadly strain. Viruses are programmed to survive, too. If they evolved to kill ALL potential hosts then that would be counter to their survival imperative, which is why they usually evolve in the other direction.

  In terms of Covid-19, there is no “herd immunity” by the establishment definition anyway, because it is a brand new virus. There is no vaccine and the vast majority of people have no antibodies. No one can make the argument that people need to be forcefully locked down in order to maintain a herd immunity that doesn’t exist.

  Finally, there is a question of agenda and motive behind the rising call for martial law-like measures over the pandemic. For example, Champaign, Illinois mayor Deborah Frank Feinen has given herself executive powers in response to the coronavirus infection that are outright dictatorial and Soviet in their violations. Among other things, she demands the power to enforce curfews, ban public gatherings, ban alcohol, ban or confiscate firearms, as well as confiscate supplies from any citizen if those supplies are “needed for emergency response”.

  Is this really about protecting the public? How does it protect the public to confiscate their only means of defense, or confiscate their food and supplies? This type of thing is usually done in communist countries, and it is done to protect government power, not protect the people.

  Understand also that the Champaign mayor is not the only official calling for these types of actions. From New York to LA and beyond, those of us who are paying attention have noticed a swift and quiet implementation of orders that are whittling down American freedoms. Do not expect Donald Trump to operate differently, either. Expect him to initiate martial law measures (though he may not call in “martial law”) in the next few months. Expect him to activate Executive Order 13603, which was created by Barack Obama in 2012 and allows the federal government to appropriate everything from land to food to firearms in the event of a national emergency. This is going to happen. Count on it.

  The pandemic is not an excuse for tyranny, and I for one will not comply. I and many I know will self quarantine for a time with the expectation that we will eventually contract the virus, and hopefully our immune systems are strong enough to fight it. In the meantime, I will not be allowing any government officials to confiscate my supplies or my firearms “for my own safety” or “for the greater good”.

  I will not be cooperating with census takers asking questions about how much supplies I have stocked and whether or not I am ill.  I will not sit idle while checkpoints are set up in my county to enforce travel restrictions or demand people test for symptoms. I will not be signing up for government rations in exchange for my biometric data. I will not be visiting the local FEMA center for government aid. And, I will fight anyone that tries to assert martial law tactics in my area.

  A message to the government: I know you won’t, but I suggest you leave people alone and let them self isolate in peace. Your brand of “help” is not the kind of help we need. You and the financial elites that reside over you created this mess, and we do not trust you to clean it up. At bottom, this disaster should result in your removal from power. You should be held accountable and replaced.

  The system itself needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and principles of liberty need to return to the forefront of our society. Centralization and globalization have caused untold grief and terror to humanity; this collapse only reinforces the argument that we need to try something different. They will say that the world was “not centralized enough” and that a more global (totalitarian) framework is the solution. But, of course, who really benefits from that in the end? The common man, or the elites?

  They can offer any rationalization they want in the name of public safety, but we know what the real play is here. If the line is crossed into martial law, I plan to fight. Not just for me, but for the next generation. Because if I do not, those children may grow up in the world never knowing what freedom truly is. There are fates worse than death, and a life of tyranny and slavery is one of them.

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  Tyler Durden
  
  Sat, 03/21/2020 – 00:05

• China Auto Sales Continue Collapse, Plunging 50% And 44% In First And Second Week Of March, Respectively
  China Auto Sales Continue Collapse, Plunging 50% And 44% In First And Second Week Of March, Respectively

  The coronavirus has certainly wreaked havoc on an already dilapidated global auto industry – and it’s no more evident than in China, where the virus originated and home to the largest auto market in the world.

  Continuing February’s trends, auto sales in March have continued to collapse: lower by 50% during the first week of March and down 44% the second week of March. 

  And that’s if you want to believe the numbers that are coming out of China, where the optics of a recovery may mean more to the government than an actual recovery.

   

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  Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association told Bloomberg that the “market is recovering” but that it is doing so at a “slower than expected pace”. He also called for the country to increase car purchase quota, lower purchasing taxes and continue to give subsidies to EV purchases, in an effort to create a tailwind for buyers.

  The country is also reportedly considering the idea of relaxing emission curbs to help struggling automakers.

  Recall, sales fell 79% in February, marking the biggest ever monthly plunge on record. We reported less than a week ago that automakers were asking the government for relief after the industry’s collapse, which occurred in the midst of an already-in-progress global recession for automakers. Specifically, they were asking at the time for cuts on the purchase tax for smaller vehicles and support for sales in rural markets, in addition to the easing of emission requirements. 

  It looks as though they may have gotten their wish. 

   

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  Sales for February fell to just 310,000 vehicles from a year earlier, marking the 20th straight month of declines. 

  A twin shock has plagued the automobile industry in China, one where a supply shock has hit manufacturers, who can’t produce automobiles at full capacity because of labor shortages and lockdowns, along with a demand shock that has kept people away from dealerships. While supply woes could be resolved with near term factory restarts, demand woes are expected to linger through the first half of the year.

  To illustrate the plunge in business activity, Caixin China Composite Output Index plunged to 27.5 in February from 51.9 in the previous month, one of the quickest drops on record. The virus outbreak has led to company closures and travel restrictions that have ground China’s economy to a halt. 

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  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 23:45

• Debunking Nature Magazine's "COVID-19 Definitely Didn't Come From A Lab" China Propaganda
  Debunking Nature Magazine’s “COVID-19 Definitely Didn’t Come From A Lab” China Propaganda

  Via HarvardToTheBigHouse.com,

  Maybe you shouldn’t blindly believe everything you read? Even if the source has a pretty solid reputation?

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  Nature magazine has censored over 1,000 articles at the request of the Chinese government over the past several years. And it seems pretty clear that their recent article, “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” is just one more example of their influence.

  China bought off the head of Harvard’s chemistry department, you don’t think they could buy off run-of-the-mill research scientists scrambling for tenure and funding and publication? It’s absolutely horrific that so many scientists and researchers are taking part in what’s really clearly a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party, and willfully spreading a smokescreen about something that’s already killed thousands and is projected to kill millions more across the planet.

  And while the mainstream corporate media mindlessly regurgitates claims from the Chinese government that are falsifiable with the simplest of google searches, allowing the public to be lulled into a false sense of security and complacency, and Reddit rapidly censors and moderates anything that might indicate that this virus leaked from a Chinese lab and so the Chinese government is to blame for this pandemic  – sites like ZeroHedge, that have been at the forefront of keeping the lines of investigation open, have been banished from Twitter and marginalized.

  Below is a takedown of that article, and the good news is a much more nuanced and honest look at the origins of COVID-19, the Wuhan Strain of coronavirus is just a click away.

  Thus, the high-affinity binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to human ACE2 is most likely the result of natural selection on a human or human-like ACE2 that permits another optimal binding solution to arise. This is strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is not the product of purposeful manipulation.

  • As our report mentions right at the start, scientists passed the H5N1 Bird Flu through a series of ferret hosts until it gained ACE2 affinity and then became incredibly virulent, which is what’s seen with COVID-19 since its affinity to ACE2 is orders of magnitude higher than SARS. That process would leave a genome that appears “natural” and not purposeful as well since it wouldn’t leave a genomic smoking gun and would simply appear to be the result of “natural” selection. However the addition of artificial generations produced by this process of passing through ferrets in the lab would create a lot of genetic distance from any possible relatives – precisely what is seen in COVID-19: it forms its own clade and appears very distant from all other bat coronaviruses. So this is lazy research, they’re either unaware of the Bird Flu study or are willfully ignoring it.

  Given the level of genetic variation in the spike, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2-like viruses with partial or full polybasic cleavage sites will be discovered in other species.

  • This seems like pretty intentional dissimulation. It’s “likely” that other viruses with this cleavage site will be found? What? How likely? 1 in 10? 1 in 10 million? Is it likely that if my aunt grew balls she’d become my uncle? Is it “likely” that a natural intermediate animal vector will be found? Well… likely or not, until it happens it seems incredibly disingenuous to state that “likely” means a damn thing here.

  The functional consequence of the polybasic cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 is unknown, and it will be important to determine its impact on transmissibility and pathogenesis in animal models. Experiments with SARS-CoV have shown that insertion of a furin cleavage site at the S1–S2 junction enhances cell–cell fusion without affecting viral entry14.

  • This doesn’t seem to address the virus’s provenance at all, but just as an aside it seems like a lot of the viruses with furin cleavage sites engage in ADE, which COVID-19 appears to be doing from a clinical perspective: neurological damage, the second infection is worse, and areas like Wuhan with extended infections have much higher CFRs as infections overlap.

  The acquisition of polybasic cleavage sites by HA has also been observed after repeated passage in cell culture or through animals17.

  • Exactly. Passage through a series of ferret hosts in a lab would have given COVID-19 this distinct cleavage site.

  It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus. As noted above, the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 is optimized for binding to human ACE2 with an efficient solution different from those previously predicted7,11.

  • Yes, again we aren’t arguing that this thing was built nucleotide-by-nucleotide as the perfect bespoke bio-weapon. This efficient solution is exactly the kind of thing that would be selected for after passage through ferrets in lab, which was already done to the Bird Flu that created a horrifically virulent strain. Isn’t it funny that no one’s mentioning that experiment? Or Baric’s work at UNC? How come every single public-facing virologist seems to be leaving these studies out? Are they really unaware of them? That seems exceedingly hard to believe when I was able to find them on the front page of a single google search. Seems a lot more likely everyone’s just covering each other’s asses since they realize the magnitude of what’s happening and how deep into the cover-up they already are.

  Furthermore, if genetic manipulation had been performed, one of the several reverse-genetic systems available for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used19

  • This is an utterly vacuous statement. Probably doesn’t mean a damn thing in science. “Okay folks, we probably won’t get an earthquake anytime soon, so no reason to prepare for one or try and detect one coming!” Seriously?

  Instead, we propose two scenarios that can plausibly explain the origin of SARS-CoV-2: (i) natural selection in an animal host before zoonotic transfer; and (ii) natural selection in humans following zoonotic transfer.

  • As we’ve explained before, there was no trace of this virus before November 2019, and full zoonotic jumps don’t just magically happen, especially not of a virus that’s so incredibly adapted to humans and able to infect us undetected and spread undetected, and then kill us after more than enough time has passed to find multiple new hosts. It’s funny so many virologists are throwing out the book of how zoonotic jumps happen… all that money in gain-of-function research must be quite blinding. Kind of amazing they don’t matter how many thousands of people are dying. As far as the intermediate animal host goes: It might as well be a unicorn at this point. Until someone finds it, it’s just conjecture.

  Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) illegally imported into Guangdong province contain coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-221. Although the RaTG13 bat virus remains the closest to SARS-CoV-2 across the genome1, some pangolin coronaviruses exhibit strong similarity to SARS-CoV-2 in the RBD, including all six key RBD residues21 (Fig. 1). This clearly shows that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein optimized for binding to human-like ACE2 is the result of natural selection.

  • The most recent study, covered in our article, that examines the neutral sites that are assumed to best show heritage found that pangolins are “very unlikely” to have served as a host at all. Their assertion that natural natural selection is clearly shown is raw steamy bullshit. Serial passage through ferrets fits the overall big picture far better than this pangolin crap.

  For a precursor virus to acquire both the polybasic cleavage site and mutations in the spike protein suitable for binding to human ACE2, an animal host would probably have to have a high population density (to allow natural selection to proceed efficiently) and an ACE2-encoding gene that is similar to the human ortholog.

  • WAIT WAIT WAIT!! You mean exactly like a bunch of ferrets, which have the same ACE2 receptor as humans, all jammed into a bunch of cages together and then infected over and over again in a lab?! That’s crazy talk!! Other than the fact it was exactly the process used to make the Bird Flu into something that “could make the 1918 pandemic look like a pesky cold.”

  It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring the genomic features described above through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission. Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases to trigger the surveillance system that detected it.

  Hence, this scenario presumes a period of unrecognized transmission in humans between the initial zoonotic event and the acquisition of the polybasic cleavage site. Sufficient opportunity could have arisen if there had been many prior zoonotic events that produced short chains of human-to-human transmission over an extended period.

  • Sure this would be plausible… other than the fact that, as we cover in our report, that statistical analysis shows that this thing didn’t hit humans until November of 2019, which this article agrees with. But zoonotic jumps only occur after a genomic trial-and-error process where the virus jumps to one host, spreads to a few new hosts, and then fizzles out. There is absolutely no evidence anywhere of this occurring. Every single data points to this thing hitting humans in November and being immediately adapted and dangerous. There is no trace whatsoever of it creating small clusters of infections and dying out – stating there could have been doesn’t mean it’s been seen. It hasn’t. And as our report covers, this would require sustained interaction with the intermediate host – how does that happen in the middle of a massive modern urban metropolis the size of NYC? And where is this intermediate host anyways? If an intermediate host isn’t needed, is it some magical sleep-flying bat that decided not to hibernate and fight crime in Wuhan when it’s buddies were all hibernating, creating the sustained interactions with humans as it fought for Justice? Because that’s about as plausible as what’s being proposed here.

  The presence in pangolins of an RBD very similar to that of SARS-CoV-2 means that we can infer this was also probably in the virus that jumped to humans.

  • Again, analysis of the neutral sites shows that pangolins were almost certainly not in play.

  Furthermore, a hypothetical generation of SARS-CoV-2 by cell culture or animal passage would have required prior isolation of a progenitor virus with very high genetic similarity, which has not been described

  • This means nothing. There is no open-source shared database of viruses. No one has any idea what viruses are in China’s BSL-4 lab, where they’ve been collecting these viruses for years. As mentioned, one of our persons-of-interest was the very first person to isolate a coronavirus from a bat that uses the ACE2 receptor. He also worked at UNC in Baric’s lab making the hyper-virulent bat coronavirus in 2015.

  Subsequent generation of a polybasic cleavage site would have then required repeated passage in cell culture or animals with ACE2 receptors similar to those of humans, but such work has also not previously been described.

  • The fuck it hasn’t.

  Retrospective serological studies could also be informative, and a few such studies have been conducted showing low-level exposures to SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses in certain areas of China26. Further serological studies should be conducted to determine the extent of prior human exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

  • Beyond the statistical analysis that indicates it only hit humans in November in 2019, is the fact that the version of COVID-19 found in the first few dozen hosts was exactly the same – there aren’t any variants whatsoever, just one version. This is not what would be found with the genomic trial-and-error of a full zoonotic jump, which requires sustained human-to-human transmission as different variants of the virus try and fail to adapt to human biology. Here, only one variant was found in all the initial infected humans, instead of the multiple variants that would be expected. But does fit what would happen if a virus that already had high affinity to the ACE2 receptor, which is the same in human and ferrets, leaked out of a lab. But addressing this point in particular, oh weird, the study they cite from March of 2018 was done mostly on people who live in villages barely a kilometer away from bat caves. A far cry from a massive urban city bout the size of NYC. Oh, and how many of these villagers, who live about a kilometer or less from bat caves, had antibodies indicating exposure to bat coronaviruses? Two-point-seven percent. (There is hand-waving about how long antibodies persist in humans, but I’m pretty sure it’s more than long enough.) That study actually sampled people living in Wuhan too and found… no evidence whatsoever of exposure to “SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses.”  So are these peer-reviewers just straight chugging lead paint, or are they on the take too?

  The finding of SARS-CoV-like coronaviruses from pangolins with nearly identical RBDs, however, provides a much stronger and more parsimonious explanation of how SARS-CoV-2 acquired these via recombination or mutation1

  • Again, just demonstrably false.

  Get the real story here.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 23:25

• Italian Doctor Implores Rest Of World: "Lock Your Nations Down Now… Or Face This!"
  Italian Doctor Implores Rest Of World: “Lock Your Nations Down Now… Or Face This!”

  Judging by the following extremely disturbing news story from Sky News, hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman was on to something when he warned President Trump that “hell is coming.“

  “America will end as we know it,” warned the infamous hedge fund manager, unless President Trump shuts down the country for 30 days to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus, calling it the only option to rescue the economy.

  The crisis gripping the town at the centre of the global COVID-19 crisis in Italy has been witnessed by Sky News’ Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay., who exclaims: “they’re fighting a war here… and they’re losing.”

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  Italy has hit a grim milestone in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic… with deaths now soaring above China’s:

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  …and authorities there want to send a warning to the rest of the world:

  “lock your nations down now… or face this!”

   

   

   

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 23:05

• From The Woke Elite To Walmart: The Surge Of 'Preferred Pronouns'
  From The Woke Elite To Walmart: The Surge Of ‘Preferred Pronouns’

  Authored by Richard Bernstein via RealClearInvestigations

  The gender identity movement has spread from elite bastions of higher learning such as Harvard and Wesleyan to the Walmart nearest you. The giant retailer announced this month that it will allow employees to wear buttons that declare their preferred pronouns.  The choices are He/Him/His, She/Her/Hers, and They/Them/Their. Those who prefer Ze/Zir, Mx, or some other variant can wear the “Ask me my pronoun” button, presumably aimed at customers who feel the need to know their salesperson’s or cashier’s gender identity. 

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  Walmart’s move is the latest sign of how “preferred pronouns” have taken root the United States, Canada, Britain, and some non-English-speaking countries. In France, for example, some people are proposing using “iel” or “ille” ‒ a combination of the masculine “il” and the feminine “elle,” to refer to non-binary people. In the United States, it’s becoming normal practice for schools and colleges, hospitals, media, and government and corporate offices to use the singular “they” or other recently coined pronouns.

  IBM is among the companies that allow employees to specify their preferred pronoun in their human resource files. Forbes magazine reports on a move to encourage everybody to use them in email signatures ‒ a good thing, as one advocate of the practice said, because “it normalizes discussions about gender.”

  Establishment institutions, from the Associated Press and The New York Times to the American Psychological Association and the New York City Commission on Human Rights, are endorsing the use of “they” in the singular to refer to individuals who may be transgender or just do not identify as either male or female. The Merriam-Webster dictionary named “they” the Word of the Year for 2019, meaning that it was the most looked-up word on the organization’s website (“quid pro quo” and “impeach” were in second and third places).

  “The singular they and its many supporters have won, and it’s here to stay,” Jen Manion, an associate professor of history at Amherst College, wrote approvingly in a recent op-ed in The Los Angeles Times.  

  In other words, yet another practice that existed for years mainly on the social and intellectual margins ‒ in places like college diversity and equity offices, avant-garde theater collectives and LGBTQ circles ‒ has very rapidly gone mainstream. And this has happened much faster than other ideas that have moved from the “woke” periphery to the center of the national consciousness, such as gay marriage, or the dismantling of Confederate monuments, or removing the names of historical figures who owned slaves from university plaques.

  Preferred pronouns have become virtually de rigueur with such remarkable velocity that much of the rest of the society hardly even noticed, much less had an opportunity to debate the trend and weigh its merits. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that 40% of adults agree that there should be more gender options besides just male and female.

  As the British essayist Douglas Murray points out in his book, “The Madness of Crowds,” it took decades to go from “acceptance that homosexuality existed … to the position where gay marriage was legalized.” But “trans has become something close to a dogma in record time.”

  How did this happen so fast? No doubt, one reason for the acceptance of preferred pronouns is that they are presented as a matter of common courtesy. People should be called what they wish to be called, goes the common-sense judgment, and to refuse to do so seems gratuitously rude. Store managers at Walmart or human resource personnel at IBM are probably not avatars of “wokefulness.” Their companies are simply responding to a demand, couched in the language of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance, that is difficult to resist.

  And yet the rapid acceptance of preferred pronouns tends to blur important issues, ranging from the syntactical integrity of the English sentence to freedom of expression to biological reality.

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  “As a private matter, when it’s just me and another person, of course I’m going to use the pronoun they ask me to use, but I have a problem when it becomes a matter of public enforcement, which is a distinction that a lot of trans advocates miss,” said Libby Emmons, a writer and member of a radical feminist group, the Women’s Liberation Front, which has been the target of considerable fury from the censorious left. “This should be a matter of personal choice. I shouldn’t be forced to say or not say anything at all.”

  Emmons and others are raising essentially two questions about preferred pronouns. One is that the often intense social, and sometimes legal, pressure to use them is a coercive impingement on free speech. The second is that preferred pronouns are an ideological wedge, a seemingly innocuous way of opening the door to a set of leftist identity-politics ideas that are highly debatable.

  Although gender-neutral pronouns have flourished only recently, they have a longer history. Transgender people have been advocating alternative pronouns at least since 1996, when the writer Leslie Feinberg, in the book “Transgender Warriors,” used s/he or hir to replace the standard he or she. 

  The movement percolated through the years first inside the LGBTQ subculture, then among sexuality and gender studies departments at colleges and universities. Next, it was picked up by the equity and diversity offices that have proliferated at practically every institution, and now more widely by human rights commissions, media organizations, religious institutions, Walmart, IBM, Amazon, and many others.

  And so, for example, after a three-year discussion of the issue, the University of Minnesota Senate, not generally a bastion of leftwing radicalism, voted last fall to allow all members of the university to specify pronouns of their choice, and to have access to “university facilities that match their gender identities,” meaning bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams, among others. The senate, which consists of faculty, staff, and student representatives, acted on a proposal made by the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, along with the Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life. 

  The debate included objections to suppressing free speech, said Joseph A. Konstan, a professor of computer science and engineering and past chairman of the executive committee of the university senate. But, he told me in a phone interview, “we also heard from students who feel that First Amendment protections are an excuse to hold people down.”

  In the end, the proposal passed when all mention of punishment, such as treating “misgendering” as a form of harassment or discrimination, was taken out of the text. “We wanted to focus on treating people with respect, addressing them the way they want to be addressed,” Konstan said.

  Or as one student put it to the Minnesota Daily newspaper, “It’s just very invalidating when you tell somebody what you want to be referred to as, and they completely ignore that. That’s obviously not a safe environment.”

  To what extent schools are obligated to make people feel “validated” and “safe,” rather than to be open to ideas that challenge assumptions, is, of course, hotly debated. That’s one reason the quick acceptance of preferred pronouns has provoked some familiar accusations ‒ that the unelected commissars of diversity, acting on behalf of an extremely small minority, have managed, again, to impose a set of restrictions and obligations on the rest of us. Surveys suggest that about 0.6% of Americans identify as transgender, but almost 2% of high school students do. It is not clear whether this disparity reflects the freedom of trans youngsters to proclaim their identity or if many are embracing it as they navigate the sexual confusion of puberty.  

  Perhaps the leading international dissenter on the issue  is Jordan B. Peterson, a clinical psychologist, best-selling author, and YouTube activist at the University of Toronto. His opposition to preferred pronouns was initially prompted about three years ago by a proposed addition to Canada’s human rights law banning discrimination based on “gender identity.” Peterson argued that the provision would require what he calls “compelled speech,” forcing people to use certain words rather than others.

  Several Canadian legal scholars said the law did not make “misgendering,” as the refusal to use preferred pronouns is sometimes called, an actual criminal offense. Still, even Peterson’s critics acknowledge that the letter sent to him by his university, warning that “misgendering” could be considered a form of discrimination under Ontario’s provincial human rights code, could reasonably be deemed intimidating.

  Peterson’s visibility on YouTube, especially, has given him veritable international celebrity status – some hail him as a global anti-political correctness warrior, while others vociferously protest his appearances, vilifying him as “transphobic” and even neo-Nazi.

  During one televised discussion on Ontario television, a fellow panelist and University of Toronto faculty member said Peterson’s refusal to use transgender pronouns was “tantamount to abusing students and violence.” Others invited on the program refused to participate, saying that would give legitimacy to Peterson’s retrograde views — in other words, that even to raise questions about the topic is morally illegitimate. In reporting this story, I spoke to one American transgender activist, who has a position in the LGBTQ equity office at a major university, who said that while nobody should be forced to say anything, the arguments against preferred pronouns are based on “hate and ignorance.”

  “They deserve to be in public as much as the KKK or neo-Nazis do,” said this person, who declined to speak for attribution. 

  Those who question the preferred pronoun movement say such harsh rhetoric seeks to silence debate about the line between feelings and science.

  “The very act of stating your preferred pronoun is a capitulation to an ideology,” Emmons said. “It is that a person can claim a biological identity based on emotion, that a person’s emotional feeling supersedes a person’s biology.” Implicitly at least, the demand for preferred pronouns, Emmons and others argue, is also a demand to recognize that a person with a penis and a beard can claim to be “non-binary” or a woman, even as some legislation is protecting that claim as a human right.

  “This is a top-down ideological enforcement situation,” Emmons continued, “and I don’t want to be forced to say that a man is a woman.”   

  This is not a mere theoretical concern. The legal guidance on gender discrimination from the New York City Commission on Human Rights, for example, “requires employees and covered entities to use the name, pronouns, and titles (e.g. Ms./Mrs./Mx.) with which a person self-identifies,” or be subject to fines that can go as high as $250,000.

  In 2018, the human rights commission brought charges against Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital for indirectly asking a person claiming to be a transgender woman whether he (or should that be she or maybe they?) had a penis, and, apparently suspecting that he did, insisting that he stay in a private room rather than be housed with a female patient. The hospital was fined $25,000 in “compensatory damages” paid to the transgender woman and was required to “update its system to make patients’ preferred names and pronouns visible to frontline staff.”

  There are other examples indicating that preferred pronouns are no longer an optional, personal choice. At Shawnee State University in Ohio, a 62-year-old philosophy professor, Nicholas K. Meriwether, was warned by the school administration that his refusal to use transgender pronouns was a violation of the university’s non-discrimination policies.

  At Duke University Hospital in Raleigh, N.C., emergency room physician Kendall Conger received a letter from the hospital’s committee for inclusion and diversity accusing him of creating a “negative environment” after he told a student that wearing a pronoun-identifying badge on her lapel might make some religious patients uncomfortable.

  In England a couple of years ago, a high school math teacher in Oxfordshire was suspended after he refused to refer to a transgender girl as a female on religious grounds.  

  There do not appear to be broad studies indicating whether such anecdotes are part of a larger pattern of penalties for the refusal to use the preferred pronouns. But the fact that they are imposed on a practice that only a tiny cultural subgroup had even heard of just a few years ago is a measure of the extraordinary velocity with which it has become a moral norm. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center late in 2018 found that one in five American adults knows somebody who goes by a gender-neutral pronoun, which, given how new the trend is, seems like a rather large number.

  Pew also found that among people 18 to 30, three-quarters have heard about people wishing to be referred to by “non-binary pronouns.” And slightly more than half of Americans say they are “comfortable” with that.

  All of this is so new that some questions seem not to be getting much attention, among them, whether the ever more intense effort at a gender-diverse language is an affront both to grammar and precision. Take the sentence, “Mary had no food in the house so they got take-out for their children.” The possessive “their” to refer to one person certainly seems a bit jarring, at least to people not used to it.  It’s also ambiguous, unclear as to whether Mary got take-out by herself or was accompanied by somebody else, perhaps the children.  Using “her” might be decried by trans advocates as insulting and discriminatory to Mary, but at least it would present no such problems.

  Beyond that, how does one even know that Mary’s preferred pronoun is they/them/their? Will everybody have to keep records in their smartphone directories of each contact’s preferred pronoun?  Will people really refer to Mary as “they” when talking in Mary’s absence, as in “Mary told me they’re reading a new book and they love it”?  Will the turn to preferred pronouns require changes in legal documents? 

  None of this seems to have been thought through very carefully, even as preferred pronouns are becoming fashionable, a chic new thing, one that, from all appearances, is here to stay.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 22:45

• Confirmed: Fed Bailed Out Hedge Funds Facing Basis Trade Disaster
  Confirmed: Fed Bailed Out Hedge Funds Facing Basis Trade Disaster

  Back in December, when the world was still confused about what exactly happened before (and after) the September repocalypse – which has since exploded thousand-fold resulting in the Fed now doing daily $1 Trillion repo operations – we said that in addition to the implicit bailout of JPM (which we described here first, and subsequently others), by restarting its repo operations the Fed was also bailing out dozens of hedge funds engaging in highly levered trades involving a relative value compression trade in the Treasury cash/swap basis… almost identical to what LTCM was doing ahead of its 1998 bailout, which is also why we titled the article “The Fed Was Suddenly Facing Multiple LTCMs.”

  In a nutshell, the article explained why and how the return of the Fed’s repo ops was nothing more than the Fed preemptively bailing out all those hedge funds that would have imploded had basis trades gone haywire. Below is a key excerpt from that post:

  One increasingly popular hedge fund strategy involves buying US Treasuries while selling equivalent derivatives contracts, such as interest rate futures, and pocketing the arb, or difference in price between the two. While on its own this trade is not very profitable, given the close relationship in price between the two sides of the trade. But as LTCM knows too well, that’s what leverage is for. Lots and lots and lots of leverage.

  We also said that “hedge funds such as Millennium, Citadel and Point 72 are not only active in the repo market, they are also the most heavily leveraged multi-strat funds in the world, taking something like $20-$30 billion in net AUM and levering it up to $200 billion. They achieve said leverage using repo.”

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  Needless to say, as always when this website presents something the mainstream press hasn’t even considered, our explanation of what really happen ahead and during the September repocalypse was met with the traditional mockery and derision by the financial “intelligentsia.”

  Until today, three months later, when Bloomberg finally confirmed everything we said.

  In an article discussing how and why the Fed unleashed its March 12 repo bazooka, Bloomberg writes that “when coronavirus panic kicked off unprecedented turmoil in Treasuries last week, hedge fund leverage was lurking” and goes on to “explain” something we said back in December:

  The [hedge funds] use borrowed money from the repurchase market for the popular basis trade, which exploits price differences between cash Treasuries and futures. Though individual firms’ borrowing is a closely guarded metric, people familiar with the transactions said some of them levered up as much as 50 times their own wagers. Leveraged funds’ exposure to the basis strategy could be as much as $650 billion, JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists said.

  Does that sound like “the Fed suddenly facing multiple LTCMs”? Because to us it sure does. And more importantly, what happened in the days ahead of last week’s credit market debacle is precisely what happened ahead of the September repo snafu, only with exponentially more destructive power.

  The catalyst for last week’s re-repocalypse was the historic surge in Treasurys that saw the 10Y drop as low as 0.31%, and the 30Y drop below 1%. As investors scrambled into Treasurys, “hedge funds got hammered” again, and the result was “a difficulty in completing trades” which as Bloomberg correctly writes “was a contributing factor to the Federal Reserve’s decision to pledge $5 trillion to keep markets running smoothly.”

  High leverage amplifies profits and losses and can be responsible for forced liquidations — and market fluctuations. This week, a sell-off in Treasury futures tied to margin calls pushed outstanding contracts to their lowest level since 2018. Many firms also get funding from money markets, whose problems have prompted the Fed to provide emergency funding

  And there it is – just as we said, the Fed’s first priority in the bailout waterfall, long before consumers and businesses were even considered, was the sanctity and stability of those multibillion hedge funds that suddenly faced a spectacular implosion… just like in the case of the original LTCM. Only it’s even more poetic, because whereas with LTCM – which blew up when an economic black swan (the Russian default and the Asian crisis of 1997) blew out the LTCM basis trades, forcing the first Fed bailout in the modern era, what happened last week may have been the very last bailout cascade in Fed history, only this time it will involve everything, not just one solitary hedge fund run by idiot Nobel-prize winners.

  “Too big to fail is back, and this time it’s not the banks, it’s levered financial institutions,” said Mark Yusko, the chief executive officer of Morgan Creek Capital. Yusko – who apparently forget to the original Fed bailout was not of a bank but of a levered financial institution (LTCM) said he supported the Fed’s stepping in, but added that hedge fund firms have gotten too big by borrowing too much. “It’s a bailout,” Yusko said, repeating what we said in December.

  And whereas Bloomberg failed to connect the dots last year, this time around it actually did some original reporting and found some of the smaller funds that would have been devastated had the Fed not stepped in with its trillion-dollar a day repos:

  • ExodusPoint Capital Management lost 4% this month through March 13, on pace for its worst month ever, according to people familiar with the situation. It was unclear how much the basis trade contributed to the loss.
  • An LMR Partners’ fund fell 12.5% in the first two weeks of this month and spurred the firm to raise new capital.
  • Capula Investment Management’s Global Relative Value Fund dropped 5.2%, people said, and Field Street Capital Management’s fixed-income relative-value flagship fund, in which the basis trade is substantial, sank 14.5% and had to reduce the size of its positions.

  That said, that’s just three macro hedge funds out of a universe of hundreds, and what is important, is that the trade was so ubiquitous (thanks to those hedge fund idea dinners) that everyone was doing it.

  “We’ve had 10 years of a perfect paradise and so people have been picking up pennies thinking there’s no risk in holding strategies like the basis trade,” said Kathryn Kaminski, chief research strategist and portfolio manager at AlphaSimplex Group. “A lot of the strategies, like the basis, that hedge funds tend to use don’t work when markets aren’t stable. You’ll see more of these types of blowouts.”

  Curiously, and contrary to totally unfounded recent rumors, some of the far bigger firms fared better: as Bloomberg notes, the market unwind had a relatively small impact on multi-strategy funds Citadel and Millennium Management, although as we reported yesterday Millennium is closing several “trading pods” after weathering a modest 2.7% drop this month through March 12, and was down 1.9% for the year. In light of the S&P’s 30% drop, that may seem like a stunning performance, but somehow Izzy Englander always manages to pull out a rabit out of hat (someone may want to check into what the HFT guys on the 6th floor of 666 Fifth are doing for the answer to that).

  But whereas the mega-levered Millennium and Citadel, whose in house risk-management lackeys are truly draconian in their position limits, managed to avert a debacle by unwinding the positions quickly after sustaining small losses – courtesy of the Fed’s massively expanded $500BN repos – others were not so lucky, and many other firms focuses on the basis trade suffered far steeper losses.

  One among them was BlueCrest Capital Management, whose trader Raymond Wang was fired on March 9, the day after that historic Sunday night when the 30Y traded bidless for hours as the S&P crashed limit down, because he couldn’t find a buyer for the investment firm’s losing positions in the basis trade. Other firms, who had less leverage on, survived until that Thursday when the Fed launched the repo bazooka, allowing all those who had the basis trade on to quietly exit stage left, bailed out by a deceiving Fed that told the world its mission was to rescue main street when in reality it was just making sure the billionaires had someone to dump their money-losing positions to.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 22:24

• National Guard Deploys In Baltimore As City Enforces Restrictive Curfew: Live Updates
  National Guard Deploys In Baltimore As City Enforces Restrictive Curfew: Live Updates

  Summary:

  • NYC Mayor de Blasio says “we are now the epicenter of the crisis.”
  • Staffer for VP Pence test positive; White House says “no close contact”
  • China reports no local infections for 2nd day in a row
  • Global case total passes 250k
  • Hong Kong reports largest daily jump in cases on record as travelers revive outbreak
  • NY rolls out restrictive new measures
  • NY case total tops 7k
  • Italy says Army will help enforce lockdown, effectively declaring martial law; might extend lockdown through early May
  • Spain death toll cracks 1,000
  • Italy reports another 627 deaths
  • National Guard spotted in Baltimore as 2nd death recorded in Baltimore County
  • Confirmed cases in US pass 14k
  • Drive thru testing site in NJ’s Bergen County has a line that’s over 1,000+ cars long
  • Switzerland bars all gatherings of more than 5 people
  • Greenwich cases spike as Darien shutters COVID-19 testing clinic
  • Trump says no plans for national lockdown
  • Germany to pass ‘shadow’ budget on Monday
  • EU suspends budget rules
  • Bavaria becomes first German state to impose ‘lockdown’
  • Johnson says UK can defeat virus in 12 weeks if ‘we work together’
  • Treasury now moving back both filing & payment deadlines for 2019
  • Novartis will donate up to 130 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to support global response
  • NBC News employee succumbs to virus
  • Dr. Fauci says social distancing should continue for several weeks
  • MTA confirms it has 23 sick workers
  • US, Mexico agree to shut southern border
  • China makes first purchase under ‘Phase 1’ trade deal
  • Altria chairman & CEO tests positive
  • Military confirms 35 American troops infected in Europe

  *  *  *

  Update (2145ET): Earlier this week, the Military Times confirmed that some 2,000 national guard soldiers had been called up across 23 states, with more on the way.

  In Baltimore, military vehicles were spotted on the street.

  Baltimore pic.twitter.com/Am0hEO6ZxB

  — Peter R. Quinones (@PeterRQuinones) March 20, 2020

  Military vehicles spotted in downtown Baltimore, near the stadiums… pic.twitter.com/YDwCUKJ51p

  — FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) March 20, 2020

  After thousands of Baltimorians violated a curfew imposed by Gov. Hogan as states around the country crack down on the outbreak.

  Meanwhile, the second coronavirus death in Baltimore County (part of the suburbs north, east and west of the city) was confirmed about an hour ago, according to local media reports.

  A second Marylander has lost his life as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. On behalf of our entire state, we send our heartfelt condolences to his family and to all those who loved him: pic.twitter.com/iq8nIqZBak

  — Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) March 20, 2020

  As states crack down around the country, with increasing legal penalties for people who put the public welfare at risk by venturing outdoors for no reason, or not taking the proper precautions, Baltimore appears to be readying for a crackdown as some residents steadfastly refuse to follow curfews.

  “As the number of positive cases in Maryland continues to dramatically rise, we need everyone to take this seriously. This is a public health crisis like nothing we have ever faced before – we are all in this together, and we will get through this together,” Hogan said in a statement.

  Rumors reported on social media and elsewhere have hinted at the possibility of more restrictive measures, and, in some cases, something closely approximating martial law, with the national guard deployed in the streets. Though, to be fair, that’s already the reality in New York, Maryland and nearly two dozen other states.

  *  *  *

  Update (1940ET): CTGN reports that China reported 41 new coronavirus cases on Friday, but for the second consecutive day, all of the cases were foreigners who allegedly contracted the virus abroad and carried it to China.

  And for the third day in a row, no new cases were confirmed in Hubei Province.

  Just in case you were curious how they did it…

  On Friday, 41 new #COVID19 cases were reported on the Chinese mainland, all imported from abroad. With seven more deaths, the total number of deaths now stands at 3,255.

  No new cases have been confirmed in #Hubei Province for three consecutive days. pic.twitter.com/R1keNLxLZo

  — CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) March 20, 2020

  …basically, President Xi harnessed the power of patriotic socialism, and led the valiant Chinese people to victory against the unseen, yet all-consuming foe. Around the world, more than 250k cases have been confirmed, and the WHO pointed out that it took more than three months to reach 100,000 cases worldwide, but only 12 days to log the next 100,000.

  As millions of Americans panic about the possibility that their governor could hand down a ‘shelter in place’ order at any moment, across the country, panic buying continued on Friday. In Connecticut, where the outbreak in Westchester County has already started to bleed across the border into wealthy suburban Fairfield County, a haven for the Wall Street elite. A local news website reports that 53 cases have been confirmed in the town of Greenwich, one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, and an area that’s virtually synonymous with wealth and privilege.

  Too bad their neighbors closed that testing clinic.

  *  *  *

  Update (1850 ET): An official working for Vice President Pence has tested positive for the coronavirus, his office announced Friday, becoming the first known positive test to date for a White House staffer, although the admin is quick to downplay the risk to the executive branch:

  “This evening we were notified that a member of the Office of the Vice President tested positive for the Coronavirus.”

  “Neither Pres. Trump nor VP Pence had close contact with the individual. Further contact tracing is being conducted in accordance with CDC guidelines”, a spokeswoman says.

  According to @VPPressSec:
  “This evening we were notified that a member of the Office of the Vice President tested positive for the Coronavirus. Neither President Trump nor Vice President Pence had close contact with the individual”

  — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 20, 2020

  Separately, following the tragic death of an NBC employee, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace informed staffers that a Fox Business employee in New York has also tested positive for coronavirus. Here’s the note that just went out.

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  * * 

  Update (1750ET): NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that the city now has 5,151 confirmed cases of COVID-19 – which accounts for a third of the US cases and half of NY State’s cases (17,041 nationwide and 7,102 in New York state).

  New York City “is now the epicenter of this crisis,” exclaimed de Blasio.

  *  *  *

  Update (1320ET): As Italy’s worst outbreak spirals further and further out of control, Italy is reporting 5,986 new cases of coronavirus and 627 new deaths on Friday, raising the countrywide total to 47,021 cases and 4,032 dead, as the total number of cases in Europe surpasses the total ‘officially’ confirmed in China.

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  If you’re curious about how things are looking on the ground in Italy, this Channel 4 report is chilling.

   

  *  *  *

  Update (1240ET): In an alarming video that shows just how huge demand is for COVID-19 tests, a drive-thru testing site in Bergen County has a line that’s “several thousand cars long”.

  Here’s a closer look at the drive-through testing site in Bergen County New Jersey. National Guard and medical professionals in full gowns and masks. Line for testing is several thousand cars long. @CBSNewYork #covid19 pic.twitter.com/6F7es4Eq2S

  — Jessica Layton (@JLaytonTV) March 20, 2020

  *  *  *

  Update (1220ET): As President Trump and the White House task force (with Dr. Fauci making an appearance today) update the country on the federal government’s efforts, Sec. of State Pompeo said that the US and Mexico had agreed to shut the southern border with Mexico..

  In other news, drug company Novartis will donate up to 130 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to support the global virus response, according to a statement.

  Trump also said that he probably won’t ever institute a national lockdown, feeling that decisions like that are better left up to the states. Across the Atlantic, the EU on Friday confirmed that it would expand its budget rules to open the floodgates to fiscal stimulus, as expected.

  *  *  *

  Update (1120ET): The morning after California laid out the most restrictive measures to combat the virus in the US, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday laid out new measures for New York State to combat the coronavirus outbreak, imposing new restrictions like ordering “100% of the workforce” to stay home.

  During this time, Cuomo is order all businesses in the state that aren’t deemed “essential” to close, and added that though public transit will remain open for people who need it to travel to their ‘essential’ jobs, and to get to places like hospitals and doctors offices and grocery stores and pharmacies, he urged New Yorkers to only take the trains if absolutely necessary. Cuomo also clarified that bank ATMs are an ‘essential’ service.

  All non-essential businesses must close, Cuomo and NYC Mayor de Blasio have said that the state will find better ways to accommodate essential employees who need childcare or other things. But Cuomo threatened to fine businesses and individuals caught breaking the rules.

  “These are not helpful hints…they will be enforced. There will be a civil fine and mandatory closure for any business that is not in compliance. Again, your actions can affect my health, that’s where we are. There is a social compact that we have…we must make society safe for everyone,” Cuomo said about the executive action that he’s preparing to sign.

  New York reported 2,950 new cases on Friday, bringing the state-wide total to 7,102 cases, with 4,408 cases in NYC.

  As he chided the public for not taking the outbreak seriously enough, Cuomo declared that young people saying they can’t get the virus is “simply wrong,” claiming that 25% of cases are people ages 20-44.

  When it comes to exercise, though gyms will be closed, Cuomo said New Yorkers can engage in ‘solitary’ activities like jogging, but said games of pickup basketball and team sports like that won’t be permitted.

  During the press conference, Cuomo confirmed that the state had reached the capacity to test 10,000 New Yorkers a day, becoming perhaps the only state in the country to overshoot on its daily testing target of 6k tests. Along with these new ‘dramatic actions’, Cuomo announced more confirmed cases and deaths.

  Cuomo told a story about how the city governments of St. Louis and Philadelphia during the Spanish Flu epidemic dramatically impacted the outcomes for their local populations, and that Cuomo was trying to follow the better example, before bringing up the issue of mental health and the fact that his daughter was forced to isolate for 2 weeks.

  At any rate, looking at the case curve, the number of cases expected could triple the state’s capacity of beds and ventilators needed to save the lives of the sickest of patients.

  The governor, who urged New Yorkers to “blame me” if things go badly with these measures, claiming that this decision was his after careful consideration and consultation with experts. “I did everything we could do…this is about saving lives…if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy,” Cuomo said.

  Moving on, Cuomo declared that he was banning evictions during the crisis, building on measures prohibiting banks from engaging in foreclosure, another unprecedented step.

  In keeping with Cuomo’s coordination with the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut, Cuomo said he would be speaking with Phil Murphy and Ned Lamont, the governors of NJ & CT, later in the day to discuss his measures and whatever can be done to continue coordinating their states’ responses. Rumors have circulated in recent days that a similar lockdown might be declared in CT.

  Asked by reporters how long to expect these circumstances to remain in place, Cuomo declared that “this could go on for months”, one day after saying researchers projected that the outbreak would peak in 45 days.

  Watch the rest of the press conference here:

  Making an announcement on the State’s response to the #Coronavirus pandemic. WATCH: https://t.co/m4OJce0oBA

  — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 20, 2020

  From the sound of it, Cuomo’s actions are still being well-received by New Yorkers and the country.

  gov cuomo has big fed up stepfather “and you’re gonna call me daddy not andrew damn it” energy right now

  — Desus Nice (@desusnice) March 20, 2020

  Elsewhere, in Switzerland, public health officials barred all gatherings of more than 5, possibly the most strict gathering ban instituted anywhere around the world.

  *  *  *

  Update (1055ET): Meanwhile, in London…

  This was my commute to work in London this morning @BorisJohnson. This is what you get on London underground when you reduce the service but people still have to go to work. There was a lot of coughing too.

  How do we stay safe in this environment?#CoronaVirusUpdate pic.twitter.com/wT345MEjND

  — David Riley (@DRileyamusing) March 20, 2020

  Boris Johnson’s government has continued to deny reports about an impending ‘lockdown’ of London. But with 10k troops on standby, we suspect that Italy might soon have some company in the ‘martial law’ department.

  *  *  *

  Update (1015ET): The Treasury has officially moved back ‘Tax Day’, by postponing both the payment deadline (which it announced earlier) and the filing deadline (which it just announced Friday morning).

  In other news, an NBC News employee has died from COVID-19.

  As an update: Confirmed cases in the US passed 14,000 Friday morning, while the number of confirmed deaths hit 160.

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  Source: WaPo

  *  *  *

  Update (0950ET): The market didn’t seem to care all that much, but Handelsblatt reported Friday that the German government is planning to pass a planned €200 billion budget to combat the crisis, as Berlin continues to facilitate mass testing and triaging that has kept its mortality rate among the lowest in Europe.

  This comes after Germany car companies said they would close more factories.

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  Barely a day has gone by over the past two new weeks that there hasn’t been some report about Germany suspending its ‘debt brake’ due to the crisis and boost fiscal spending, as Christine Lagarde and the ECB have called on them to do. Even before the outbreak, reports about Germany passing a ‘shadow budget’ to boost tepid economic growth date back to at least the fall.

  Germany’s outbreak began in the state of Bavaria, still its worst-hit region. And as governments around the world tighten restrictions on movement, Bavaria on Friday imposed new “fundamental restrictions” on public life to aid the fight against COVID-19, DW reports. The move, of course, comes less than 12 hours after the governor of California imposed similar measures. 

  “We’re shutting down public life almost completely,” Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder said.

  People will only be allowed to leave their homes for necessary purposes, such as going to work or the doctor and buying groceries or medicine.

  “It’s not easy to take these decisions,” Söder said. “We take these decisions according to the best of our knowledge and conscience. There will be a Bavaria after corona, but it will be a stronger one if we don’t look away.”

  The measures will go into effect for two weeks starting Friday evening.

  In other news, the German state of Saarland wants to shut down restaurants and restrict people from going out in public, moves that are similar, though somewhat less restrictive, than Bavaria. Saarland State Premier Tobias Hans will recommend the move to his cabinet this afternoon, the state chancellery confirmed.

  *  *  *

  Update (0945ET): Six weeks ago, many branded us ‘alarmists’ for publishing warnings by credible epidemiologists and virologists about the infectious potential of the novel coronavirus.

  Coronavirus pandemic:

  From 0 to 125,000 cases: 14 weeks

  From 125,000 to 250,000 cases: 9 days

  — Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) March 20, 2020

  If you still believe those warnings were ‘alarmist’, we wish you the best of luck during the coming weeks. You’re going to need it.

  *  *  *

  Update (0928ET): The US military just confirmed that 35 American troops in Europe have tested positive.

  Meanwhile, the FCA in the UK warned banks to ease up on repossessions and the like, issuing a statement claiming that “no responsible lender should be considering repossession as an ‘appropriate measure’ at this time. This comes after BoE Governor Bailey warned that banks should suspend foreclosures and repossessions.

  Though it’s faded into the background, tensions over whether China would be able to keep up with its ‘Phase 1’ trade deal commitments have slackened somewhat now that Beijing has made its first expected purchase of US agricultural goods.

  • CHINA BUYS 756,000 METRIC TONS OF U.S. CORN, FIRST MAJOR PURCHASE UNDER PHASE ONE TRADE DEAL

  *  *  *

  Update (0850ET): Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte blamed the Italian people earlier this week when he said he would extend Italy’s nationwide lockdown until April 3, claiming that too many were still violating the lockdown despite stiff penalties.

  As the country’s death toll passes the death toll from mainland China (or the ‘official’ death toll at least), whispers about even restrictive measures appear to have just been validated: Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Friday effectively declared martial law Friday morning in Italy’s worst-hit region of Lombardy, claiming that he will now be bringing in the Army to enforce the lockdown, something that the region’s governor swiftly confirmed.

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  As many members of the Italian public continue to act with no respect for protecting the public health and the massive effort underway to contain the outbreak, for the first time, many are about to learn the meaning of discipline.

  According to media reports, Conte is considering extending the lockdown until at least early May.

  • ITALY’S LOMBARDY REGIONAL HEAD SAYS GOVERNMENT HAS AGREED TO USE ARMY TO IMPOSE LOCKDOWN IN HIS REGION

  Ultimately, whether the government decides to extend the lockdown will depend on factors like the continuing spread of the virus, as well as the public’s response, and whether Italians finally start taking this seriously.

  At this point, many expect that schools will not reopen before the summer break, the that the further tightening may not only include a ban on outdoor, but might also prohibit Italians from the cherished “passeggiate,” leisurely strolls around town that allow one time to think and digest.

  While the Italian outbreak still has no end in sight, over in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday morning that social distancing in the US should continue for ‘several’ more weeks, as officials scramble to try and discern exactly how far the virus has penetrated, as hundreds of thousands of tests arrive at labs. Last night, during an appearance on Facebook live, Dr. Fauci confirmed that more tests are being shipped as private partnerships with firms like Thermo Fisher.

  Reports claimed Friday that the Italian Treasury now expects the country’s economy to contract by 3% this year, largely because of the lockdown.

  Soldiers have already been deployed in some places to help enforce the lockdown and help with the crisis response.

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  New York’s MTA on Thursday announced that 23 workers have tested positive for the virus, this is up from just 1 worker as of early Thursday. The workers didn’t display symptoms at work and were described as being of low risk to riders.

  In other central bank news, the SNB has announced more measures, while Sweden has expanded a loan guarantee program.

  Meanwhile, as Boris Johnson’s government facilitates a policy u-turn to fight the virus, his former Chancellor is chiding the public on twitter.

  Stop panic buying.

  I know many of you are tense and nervous.

  But it has real consequences for vulnerable people.

  Just think. And stop it.

  — Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) March 20, 2020

  At this point, it’s almost like the more you yell at them to stop, the more panicked they become.

  *  *  *

  When historians look back at this time, we suspect that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s landmark decision to order more than 40 million Californians to remain at home on Thursday night will be remembered as an important demarcation point – the beginning of a more heavy handed response as it becomes increasingly clear that too many Americans are simply ignoring the government.

  So far, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Trump have insisted that they have no plans to issue lockdown orders. But with the number of confirmed cases expected to soar in the coming days and over the weekend, the situation is certainly evolving rapidly, and rumors about other states considering preemptive lockdowns (remember, the whole point is to stay “ahead of the curve”) continue to circulate.

  Over the past week, central bankers around the world have slashed rates, stepped up bond buying programs, promised to expand their back-stopping of credit markets and – most importantly – urged the politicians in charge to do their part and pass massive fiscal stimulus. Late last night, the Senate unveiled a $1 trillion package that will feature direct transfers to many Americans.

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  In the US, futures are pointing higher amid mounting hopes for a second straight close in the green. The improved sentiment is ostensibly due to the latest wave of central bank interventions. But that didn’t stop a team of economists at Bank of America from releasing a new note calling for a global recession, with GDP growth dropping to 0% for the year in 2020. Explaining the shift in their thinking, the team wrote: “Our first piece on the virus shock was titled ‘Bad or worse’; now we amend that to ‘Really bad or much worse.'”

  The World breathed a sigh of relief Thursday night when China reported no new domestically-transmitted cases of the coronavirus for a second straight day. Meanwhile, Reuters just reported that the foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan have held a video conference on Friday to discuss cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic as concerns grow about the number of infected people arriving in their countries from overseas, threatening to set off a second wave of infection. The State Department is doing its part: It issued a ‘Level 4’ travel warning last night advising Americans not to travel abroad, and for any Americans still outside of the country to either come home, or ‘shelter in place’.

  In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last night that the UK could quash the virus in 12 weeks if Britons simply cooperate with the government’s new efforts.

  Unfortunately, it appears the dreaded ‘second wave’ of infections is already looming over Hong Kong.

  After reporting 14 new cases in a single day earlier this week, a surprisingly large jump for a city that was widely praised for its swift and heavy handed response to the outbreak (proving that the city had retained the hard-learned lessons of SARS), Hong Kong on Friday reported a record jump in new cases as the city-state braces for a wave of new illnesses, many involving travelers from abroad and the HK residents they’ve infected.

  Friday’s surge of 48 cases is the largest daily jump since the outbreak began; it’s equivalent to roughly a quarter of all cases confirmed in the city previously, according to the SCMP.

  Even as the virus swept through parts of China and elsewhere in the region, Hong Kong managed to largely control its outbreak. Now, as life in the financial center had begun to return somewhat to normal, the wave of new cases is worrying experts who say it could lead to widespread community transmission. The city now has more than 250 confirmed infections.

  The new confirmed cases take the city’s total number to 256, and a top microbiologist said Hong Kong might be on the edge of an all-out “war” against an explosion in infections.

  The Centre for Health Protection said 36 of the latest round of infected people, aged between four and 69, had a travel history. One of the local cases is a taxi driver who had picked up passengers from the airport.

  When asked whether the government should ban non-locals from entering the city, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the centre’s communicable disease branch, said all the fresh infections were residents, except one – an Australian who had been to the United States and Portugal. He was transiting at the airport and sent to hospital after feeling unwell.

  As SCMP explained, 1,000s of people returned to the city this week, with new asymptomatic spreaders evading checks and spreading the virus inside the city. The spike in new cases prompted the city’s government to announce new quarantine measures requiring anyone arriving from abroad to self-isolate for 14 days, measures that have also been implemented by China. Also in China, the People’s Daily reports that catering halls and shopping malls are reopening in Beijing.

  Whether you trust the Chinese numbers or not, there’s no question that the CCP leadership has reason to be cautious, now that it appears President Xi has evaded a historic embarrassment. According to Johns Hopkins, the number of confirmed cases ROW is now 2x the number from mainland China. Mandatory quarantines and outright bans for foreigners probably aren’t bad ideas.

  Meanwhile, Spanish authorities announced Friday morning that the death toll in the country has broken above 1,000 as citizens near the end of their first full week under an enforced lockdown.

  The country reported 1,903 new cases, and 169 new deaths, raising its total to 19,980 cases and 1,002 dead.

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  Meanwhile, on social media, snippets of video have circulated offering glimpses into the life on lockdown in Madrid and elsewhere around Spain.

  Spain pic.twitter.com/Ks9UsDuk59

  — RΛMIN NΛSIBOV (@RaminNasibov) March 20, 2020

  Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the US, there has been no shortage of bitterly ironic headlines during this outbreak (remember when Rudy Gobert licked all those microphones?). But overnight, Altria Group – one of the largest tobacco companies in the world (it was better known as Phillip Morris before it rebranded a few years back) – said Howard A. Willard III, its Chairman and CEO, has tested positive for COVID-19.

  Let’s hope he’s not a smoker.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 22:08

• How Propaganda Gets Transmitted From China To Leftist Influencers
  How Propaganda Gets Transmitted From China To Leftist Influencers

  Authored by Ian Miles Cheong via HumanEvents.com,

  COVID-19 is not the only thing that comes from China – social justice talking points do too…

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  “Donald Trump is racist.” This charge from the left is neither new or interesting anymore; it’s followed the President around since his escalator ride in 2015. So when the mass-and-social media left rallied around this marquee to challenge the Administration’s insistence that COVID-10, which originated in Wuhan, China, was Chinese, most on the right just rolled their eyes.

  I mean—what else is new? To the left, we’re all racist.

  At Wednesday’s White House press conference, reporters demanded he defend the phrase “Chinese virus.” He provided an unambiguous answer: “It’s not racist. It comes from China,” said the President. “I have great love for all of the people in our country, but China tried to say at one point that it came from American soldiers. That can’t happen. That won’t happen. Not as long as I’m president. It comes from China.”

  Spanish Flu. West Nile Virus. Zika. Ebola. All named for places.

  Before the media’s fake outrage, even CNN called it “Chinese Coronavirus.”

  Those trying to divide us must stop rooting for America to fail and give Americans real info they need to get through the crisis.

  — The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Nevertheless, American media elites seem deeply agitated by the phrase “Chinese virus.” “Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus?” ABC News’ White House reporter Cecilia Vega asked President Trump. “There are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country. Your own aide, Secretary [Alex] Azar, says he does not use this term. He says ethnicity does not cause the virus. Why do you keep using this?”

  “Because it comes from China,” the President replied. “I want to be accurate.”

  To the Administration, the issue is clear: China must be held into account for the pandemic that’s currently destabilizing the global markets and causing innumerable people to die needless deaths, had they only been transparent about the outbreak and contained it.

  But to the blue checkmark baizuo, this reality falls on deaf ears. With an intensity that extends beyond Trump Derangement Syndrome, social justice thought leaders continue to defend a line that exposes an unbroken and downright dangerous line of transmission from the Chinese Communist Party to Western media, both mass and social.

  Coronavirus is not the only thing that comes from China—social justice talking points do too.

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  SINO … WESTERN PROPAGANDA?

  Chinese state media and media officials have waged a deliberate and malicious campaign to deflect blame for the pandemic, going as far as to spread lies about its origins. Even CNN couldn’t help but notice: “Parts of Chinese social media, and even the country’s government, appear to have launched a concerted campaign to question the origin of the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 125,000 people globally.”

  Last Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted out to his more than 300,000 followers that it was the United States military that possibly brought the disease to China.

  2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3

  — Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 12, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Zhao republished the March 11th congressional hearing of Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, who said some influenza deaths in the U.S. were later identified as cases of COVID-19. In the clip, Redfield doesn’t mention when those people died or over what time period, but Zhao used his remarks to claim that the coronavirus did not originate in Wuhan.

  He, of course, offered no evidence to substantiate the claim. “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” he wrote. “Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!” Zhao followed his post with another, this time linking to an article that established, he alleges, “Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US.” “Please read and retweet it,” he urged.

  At his urging, the conspiracy theory was republished by Chinese state media, including in the nationally broadcasted CCTV and in the Global Times. On Tuesday, China Xinhua News published a PSA titled “Racism is not the right tool to cover your own incompetence.”

  Racism is not the right tool to cover your own incompetence pic.twitter.com/LmGDyPsULt

  — China Xinhua News (@XHNews) March 17, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Of course, brazen lies and misinformation from CCP officials are hardly surprising – Human Events published reporting as early as January that deception was going to be China’s state policy during the pandemic.

  What was surprising, however, was how readily Western news outlets took the bait. Blatantly uncritical of China’s attempts to dodge responsibility, American news media repeated China’s claim and presented it as evidence of a growing divide within the scientific community on the coronavirus’ origins. Reuters published the propaganda almost word for word:

  “[T]he U.S. military might have brought the coronavirus to the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has been hardest hit by the outbreak, doubling down on a war of words with Washington.”

  The whataboutism in this kind of coverage was galling. In effect, the American press published CCP propaganda.

  Other news outlets celebrated China’s efforts—before the final casualties had even been tallied. NBC News published a piece entitled “Coronavirus in China kept me under quarantine. I felt safer there than back in the U.S.” Portraying China as martyrs to the coronavirus, the New York Times published an op-ed called “China Bought the West Time. The West Squandered it.” Celebrating the CCP’s swift action, Johnson writes, “China had to contend with a nasty, sudden surprise, governments in the West have been on notice for weeks … China’s leaders did fumble at the very start, yet in short order they acted far more decisively than many democratically elected leaders have to date … There’s nothing authoritarian about checking temperatures at airports, enforcing social distancing or offering free medical care to anyone with Covid-19.”

  The final wave of media coverage ran interference for the CCP, arguing that the Trump Administration’s efforts to counter CCP propaganda was, of course, racist. “Republicans are using racism against China to try to distract from Trump’s disastrous coronavirus response,” wrote one publication. According to the New York Times, “Trump Defends Using ‘Chinese Virus’ Label, Ignoring Growing Criticism …. ‘It’s not racist at all,’ the President said. But experts warned that the term could result in xenophobia.” CNN published a piece called, “Trump’s malicious use of ‘Chinese virus’.” (It’s worth noting that both of these outlets, before enlisting in the outrage campaign, referred to the virus as the “Wuhan virus”).

  This coverage, which oscillated between both-side-ism about the facts of COVID-19’s origins to inflaming public sentiment against the President for taking steps to ensure history does not remember this pandemic as the American flu, reveals deeply troubling synchronicity between the CCP and the American press.

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  FIRST COMES THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, THEN COMES SJW TWITTER

  The campaign against the “Chinese virus” has shaped up to be one against the President and his efforts to combat Chinese propaganda. At the press briefing, journalists eager to flex their activist muscles by taking President Trump to task for calling the coronavirus by its place of origin. PBS and NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor claimed, unsourced, that “someone in the White House” was referring to the Chinese virus as the “Kung Flu.”

  This talking point continued to get circulation despite being completely unfounded.

  Yes, “Kung Flu” and “Chinese Virus” are racist, and Trump needs to be called out.

  But let’s not forget: he’d rather have us focus on this issue instead of how he downplayed #COVID19 for months and is now mismanaging the govt response.

  From #DeadlineWH with @jheil pic.twitter.com/70FyLKTkoP

  — Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) March 19, 2020

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  This morning a White House official referred to #Coronavirus as the “Kung-Flu” to my face. Makes me wonder what they’re calling it behind my back.

  — Weijia Jiang (@weijia) March 17, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  And as the mainstream American media continued to flame the divisive racial politics for the past 48 hours, the social justice Twitterati fell in line.

  Yesterday, Yashar Ali tweeted that:

  “Anyone who is insisting on calling Covid-19 [sic] the ‘Chinese Virus’ will absolutely not have the courage to refer to it that way when they or their loved ones are being treated/saved by Asian doctors and nurses across the country.”

  Some even tried to get “#TrumpVirus” to take:

  Until the President starts acting competently, and stops with the distractions and bullshit, this is the name I will use #TrumpVirus pic.twitter.com/1IQQ2ZUBcA

  — Chuck Cook (@LaborChuck) March 19, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  President Trump said he is considering “repercussions” for the Chinese government’s handling of coronavirus, after days of placing the blame for the virus on the country. https://t.co/sSaUNyxa9v

  — CNN (@CNN) March 19, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Social justice Twitter is working hard to blame Trump for the coronavirus. Instead of pulling together to ease the panic, urge social distancing and other efforts to combat the virus, and hold China accountable for putting it out in the first place—virtue signalers are unable to put politics aside for even the briefest of moments.

  The clear transmission of misinformation from the mouths of Chinese state officials to the thumbs of tweeting SJWs paints a clear, alarming picture of how placidly the left is willing to absorb and proliferate CCP propaganda.

  Of course, since 2016, the American left has been obsessed with the question of misinformation. Convinced that the election of Donald Trump can only be attributed to Ukrainian click farms, a tremendous amount of focus and money has been invested in exposing how Russia is to blame for the popularity of conservative ideas—populism be damned.

  A prophet for our times pic.twitter.com/p3L2sbptw8

  — Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) March 12, 2020

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  The irony of what we are seeing online today is not lost on us.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 22:05

• Tucker Targets Lindsey Graham – Who Wants Trump To Boost Visas To Rich Chinese Amid Corona Crisis
  Tucker Targets Lindsey Graham – Who Wants Trump To Boost Visas To Rich Chinese Amid Corona Crisis

  Tucker Carlson has a new target; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who the Fox News host suggested was being paid by lobbyists to push for an expansion of the EB-5 visa program that lets rich Chinese people buy their way into America.

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  “At this very moment, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is pushing the White House to respond to this epidemic by passing out residency documents to rich Chinese, who by definition have ties to our enemies in the Chinese government,” Carlson said.

  “According to congressional investigators, fraud and criminal activity are rampant in the program – often it’s no more than a money laundering scheme; a few people get rich by selling a path to citizenship for Chinese nationals and their children,” he added.

  (Recall Trump son in law Jared Kushner’s family business came under fire in 2018 for pushing this exact same program.)

  Carlson – who drove three hours from his vacation home in Boca Grande, FL to Mar-a-Lago on March 7 to warn President Trump about the seriousness of coronavirus – added that Graham wants to increase the number of visas to 75,000 per year, a 7x increase, while cutting the cost of entry in half to $450,000.

  Tucker suggests “presumably he’s getting paid by donors to do it.”

  Tucker Carlson truly is the gem of the nation. @LindseyGrahamSC should be investigated. I have never trusted this man. @realDonaldTrump please never listen to him again. #TraitorToAmericapic.twitter.com/bPCREdKXpX

  — Kash Jackson (@KashJackson2018) March 20, 2020

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  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 21:45

• On FDR's Tyrannical Gold Confiscation
  On FDR’s Tyrannical Gold Confiscation

  Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

  Sometimes people say, “I guess we’ll just have to have a major economic or monetary crisis to wake people up and cause them to want a sound monetary system.”

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  There is one big problem with that refrain, however: A crisis or emergency oftentimes induces people to move in the opposite direction —in the direction of tyranny and oppression.

  That’s because in a major crisis or emergency, people get afraid, so afraid that they are willing to sacrifice their liberty for the pretense of “safety” or “security” that government officials are offering them.

  Of course, the trade is always sold as being “temporary.” As soon as the crisis or emergency is over, government officials say, they promise to restore the rights and liberties of the people.

  A good example of this phenomenon took place in 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order commanding every American to deliver his gold coins to the federal government. It would be difficult to find a better example of dictatorship and tyranny than that.

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  After all, gold coins and silver coins had been the official money of the American people for more than 125 years. That was the official money established by the Constitution, which gave the federal government the power to “coin” money, not “print” money. The Constitution had also expressly prohibited the states from making anything but gold tender and silver coins legal tender.

  America’s gold-coin, silver-coin standard

  After the Constitution called the federal government into existence, gold coins and silver coins were issued by the U.S. government. It was the soundest monetary system in history. By forsaking paper money and issuing sound, credible gold coins and silver coins, the U.S. government was precluded from plundering and looting people through inflation and monetary debasement for more than a century. America’s gold-coin, silver-coin standard was a major contributing factor of the tremendous increase in economic prosperity and people’s standard of living, especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

  Some college professors today teach their students that the “gold standard” was a monetary system in which paper money was backed by gold. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was no paper money. The official money of the American people, as established by their Constitution, consisted of coinage — e.g., gold coins and silver coins.

  The Constitution permitted the federal government to borrow money. Such loans came in the form of federal bills, notes, and bonds. Sometimes people used these debt instruments to transact business. But everyone knew that they were all promises to pay money — i.e., promises to pay gold and silver — not money themselves.

  The Fed and the Great Depression

  In 1929, after a decade of extreme monetary manipulation by the Federal Reserve, which had been called into existence in 1913, the stock market suffered an enormous collapse, an event that led to the crisis and emergency known as the Great Depression.

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  It was that major crisis and economic emergency that Roosevelt seized upon to confiscate the gold-coin holdings of the American people. For some reason, he chose not to also confiscate their silver coins.

  Notice something important about FDR’s action: The Constitution, which provided for a gold-coin, silver-coin monetary system, can only be amended through the process outlined in the Constitution. Roosevelt did not go through that process. Instead, he simply used the emergency to justify his nullification of the Constitution by executive decree. His action is a perfect example of how crises and emergencies can result in tyranny and oppression.

  If an American failed to comply with Roosevelt’s order, he was subject to being targeted by federal officials with arrest, prosecution, a felony conviction, and fine and imprisonment. While there were no doubt some Americans who refused to comply and kept their gold hidden, most Americans dutifully complied with FDR’s command.

  In return, they received Federal Reserve debt instruments. The problem, of course, was that while those debt instruments had previously promised to pay money (i.e., gold or silver), now they were irredeemable. That is, they now effectively promised to pay nothing.

  Moreover, shortly after people turned in their gold, Roosevelt intentionally devalued the debt instruments that people were now holding in relationship to gold. In one fell swoop, he had imposed enormous financial losses for the American people.

  Why did Americans go along with this revolutionary and illegal transformation of their monetary system and this tyrannical and communist-like nationalization of their gold holdings?

  One simple reason: The crisis had made them deathly afraid.

  And when people are overly afraid, they are willing, even eager, to trade away their liberty for the “safety” and “security” that public officials are offering them.

  The welfare-warfare state

  No doubt many Americans convinced themselves that once the crisis or emergency was over, federal officials would restore their gold-coin, silver-coin standard. It never happened. Federal officials were able to use their new paper money standard to finance the ever-burgeoning expenses of the welfare-warfare state way of life that FDR was introducing to America.

  Gradually, as a result of the debasement of paper money from ever-increasing inflation of the money supply, silver coins were driven out of circulation. Today, while Americans are once again permitted to own gold (at least for now), the official money of the American people remains paper money, notwithstanding the express terms of the Constitution.

  With his gold-confiscation scheme, FDR taught Americans a valuable lesson: Emergencies and crises are the time-honored way that people are induced to sacrifice their rights and liberties at the hands of their own government.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 21:25

• Forty Year 'Curse' Strikes Tokyo Olympics
  Forty Year ‘Curse’ Strikes Tokyo Olympics

  Update (1400ET): USA Swimming’s CEO is urging the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to push for the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics until next year.

  Tim Hinchey wrote to USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland on Friday to advocate on behalf of his governing body’s 400,000 members.

  Hinchey said athletes’ worlds have been turned “upside down” as they struggle to find ways to continue preparing and training for the games. He wrote that “pressing forward amidst the global health crisis this summer is not the answer.”

  Because of the disruptions in training, Hinchey said going ahead with the Olympics this year “calls into question the authenticity of a level playing field for all.”

  *  *  *

  First, the cancellation in 1940 because of WWII. Then, the boycott in Moscow in 1980. Now a virus crisis in 2020... confirming the forty-year cycle that disrupts the Olympics. 

  Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso told the parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is “cursed,” reported Reuters.

  Aso said an ominous forty-year cycle disrupts the world’s major sporting events. It started back in 1940 when Japan was preparing to host the summer and winter Olympics, but then the onset of WWII led to the cancellation. 

  Forty years later, in 1980, many countries boycotted the Olympics in Moscow as a protest against the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan.

  “It’s a problem that’s happened every 40 years – it’s the cursed Olympics – and that’s a fact,” Aso said.

  Now the outbreak of COVID-19 could postpone the 2020 Olympics. 

  Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga stressed on Wednesday that Tokyo still intends to host the Summer Games despite the fast-spreading virus terrorizing the world.  

  Suga is working closely with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to make sure the Games will go ahead as scheduled, starting on July 24 and continuing through August 9.

  “We’re not making any adjustments to postpone the Games,” Suga told parliament.

  His comments come after deputy head of Japan’s Olympics Committee Kozo Tashima, who is also the president of Japan’s Football Association, tested positive for the virus.

  Dozens of Olympic qualifier matches were suspended this week as top officials say the show must go on. 

  We noted earlier this week that the Spanish Olympic Committee is recommending that the games be delayed.

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  As of Thursday afternoon, Japan has 924 COVID-19 confirmed cases, with 29 deaths, and 150 people have recovered. Even if the pandemic curve is to flatten in the country by summer, the risk is other countries sending athletes from areas where the outbreak is still hard-hitting, could create another health crisis.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 21:05

• US Threatens Families Of Int'l Criminal Court Staff If They Try Americans For War Crimes
  US Threatens Families Of Int’l Criminal Court Staff If They Try Americans For War Crimes

  Authored by Ben Norton via TheGrayZone.com,

  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened the family members of International Criminal Court staff, vowing that Washington will take punitive action against them if the court tries American soldiers for war crimes.

  Pompeo also announced an intensification of unilateral US sanctions on Iran and Syria, which are illegal under international law, and which are undermining the countries’ attempts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

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  In March 2019, the Pompeo State Department threatened to revoke or deny visas to any International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel investigating crimes committed by American forces.

  A year later, on March 5, 2020, the ICC took a defiant step forward, officially approving an investigation into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the US military and CIA in Afghanistan.

  Pompeo responded by angrily condemning the court and its proceedings. His broadside was an apparent attempt at discrediting the institution, which the US government is not a party to.

  In a subsequent State Department press briefing on March 17, Pompeo launched another tirade against the ICC, belittling it as a “so-called court,” a “nakedly political body,” and an “embarrassment.” Pompeo, who previously served as director of the CIA, took the denunciations a step further, threatening the family members of ICC staff.

  BREAKING: In shocking attack on #ICC @secpompeo threatens collective punishment against named staff of the court and their FAMILIES for court’s ongoing investigation into #Afghanistan crimes that implicate US https://t.co/OsCTrC5YJs

  — Sarah Leah Whitson (@sarahleah1) March 17, 2020

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  “We want to identify those responsible for this partisan investigation and their family members who may want to travel to the United States or engage in activity that’s inconsistent with making sure we protect Americans,” Pompeo said, according to the US State Department’s official transcript.

  Sarah Leah Whitson, the managing director for research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, drew attention to the “shocking attack” on Twitter. “This isn’t just unlawful collective punishment against family members; it’s not just a disturbing attack on staff of a judiciary — where the US has voted to refer other nations for prosecution; it’s abuse of federal authority to use sanctions against actual wrongdoers,” said Whitson, who previously directed the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch.

  Whitson called on Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to “condemn this US State Department assault on the staff and FAMILIES of ICC – abuse of sanctions authority in flagrant attack on judicial independence, unlawful collective punishment.”

  This blatant US threat against the family members of International Criminal Court prosecutors is part of a longer historical pattern of Washington attacking multilateral institutions.

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  At the beginning of the George W. Bush administration’s so-called war on terror, in 2002, the US Congress passed a bill called the American Service-Members’ Protection Act — more commonly known as the “Hague Invasion Act.”

  This unprecedented piece of legislation, which has no precedent anywhere else in the world, declares that the US government unilaterally grants itself the right to militarily invade the Hague if a citizen of the United States or any allied country is tried at the court. Nor are Secretary of State Pompeo’s threats the first time US government officials have targeted the family members of international organizations.

  José Bustani, the former director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said hardline neoconservative John Bolton, a former under secretary of state for George W. Bush and national security adviser for Donald Trump, threatened him and his family when Bustani negotiated with the Iraqi government to allow in OPCW weapons inspectors.

  “You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don’t comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you,” Bolton reportedly told Bustani, according to his recollection. “We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York.”

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  Denigrating the Iranian government as “terrorists” in his State Department press briefing, Mike Pompeo declared new sanctions on the social security investment company of Iran’s military, along with five Iranian nuclear scientists.

  Moreover, Pompeo announced State Department sanctions on nine more entities, in South Africa, Hong Kong, and China, for doing business with Iran.

  He also unveiled new sanctions on Syria’s minister of defense, citing the Syrian army’s battle to retake Idlib, the last remaining insurgent-held territory in the country, which is occupied by a rebranded al-Qaeda affiliate and other extremist Salafi-jihadists, backed by NATO member Turkey.

  US sanctions on Iran have devastated the country’s health infrastructure, greatly exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic. A new study by researchers at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran warned that millions of people could die due to Covid-19 — which Pompeo repeatedly referred to as the “Wuhan virus” in his press briefing.

  An article by German state broadcaster DW concisely explained how US sanctions have set the stage for mass death in Iran: “Iran’s government applied for a $5 billion (€4.6 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fight the epidemic — the first time it has asked the IMF for assistance in over 50 years. Yet, even if it gets the loan, the administration won’t be able to shop for much-needed medical supplies: US sanctions make the banking transactions required to secure even medical supplies and humanitarian goods virtually impossible.”

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 20:45

• "I Lost 100%" Of My Business – Seattle Transforms Into 'Ghost Town' Amid Covid-19 Crisis
  “I Lost 100%” Of My Business – Seattle Transforms Into ‘Ghost Town’ Amid Covid-19 Crisis

  An epic collapse of the gig and service economy is underway, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned if a trillion-dollar-plus bailout for Americans isn’t seen, tens of millions of Americans could lose their jobs. This collapse is most visible in Downtown Seattle, which has transformed into a ghost town amid strict social distancing measures enforced by the government to flatten the curve to slow down the spread of the virus.

  The Seattle area has become ground zero for Covid-19. Washington state has recorded upwards of 1,000 confirmed cases with 55 deaths. As a result of the outbreak, all bars, entertainment, and recreational facilities have been closed. Restaurants have been shuttered except for take-out food.

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  Governor Jay Inslee has banned gatherings of 250 or more in three counties, including Seattle’s King County, which means all large events and sports seasons have been canceled or postponed; education systems, libraries, and zoos have been closed as well. 

  Most Washingtonians are helping slow COVID-19’s spread by practicing strong social distancing.

  To those of you that can be but are choosing not to: Your actions could kill someone.

  Stop it.

  — Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) March 15, 2020

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  Retail outlets, including gas stations, banks, hardware, stores, and shopping centers, will operate with a reduced workforce and shorter hours.

  What this all means is that Seattle’s economy has come to a standstill. A usually vibrant city is nothing more than a ghost town.

  “It’s a ghost town,” Melissa Paulen, 37, a gynecologist at the University of Washington Medical Center, told The Wall Street Journal. “It feels kind of eerie.”

  Using OpenTable restaurant data, customers started avoiding restaurants in early March as virus cases and deaths started to surge.

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  Downtown Seattle is home to more than 300,000 jobs, a 50% increase over the last decade. Many of these jobs are in the service and gig economy.

  One of the most famous areas of all of downtown is Pike Place Market, a farmers’ market and tourist attraction with dozens of shops, had a member of the marketplace test positive for the virus earlier this week. Foot traffic in the marketplace has collapsed in the last several weeks as many avoided the densely trafficked area.

  Traci Calderon, the owner of Atrium Kitchen in the marketplace, said all of her bookings are canceled through July.

  “Some people were talking about losing 70% of their business,” Calderon said, tearing up. “I lost 100%.”

  Near the University of Washington, public parks were full of people to start the week. Social distancing has allowed many people to work at home and take breaks outside.

  Julie Ramone and Nick Vukmer said their neighborhood is vibrant, with millennials forced to work from home.

  “Last week we went to a coffee shop, and it was packed,” Ramone, 30, said.

  Katie Enarson and her husband have spent several weeks at home with their two kids. Enarson said she’s avoiding social gatherings and has been ordering food online.

  Here are some pictures of Downtown Seattle (courtesy Politico):

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  Twitter describes Seattle as a “coronapocolypse:” 

  Pike Place Market Monday at Noon#ghostTown #pikePlace #seattle #coronavirus #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/VCrBj2uxzu

  — me_sanchez (@me_sanchez) March 16, 2020

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  Just running along a normally busy road during rush hour 😳 #Seattle #ghosttown #coronapocolypse #COVIDー19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/uREsMGMvww

  — Tracy (@Tracy312) March 16, 2020

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  8 days ago #seattle was alive and vibrant, children were in schools, roads were packed, and residents and tourists were abound. Now it is a ghost town, empty of people and cars. Residents are hunkered down, worried and waiting. Remember, we are 10 days ahead of where NYC will be. pic.twitter.com/lUy0mwPzvL

  — Naveed Jamali (@NaveedAJamali) March 12, 2020

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  5:15 pm, downtown Seattle, ghost town. pic.twitter.com/YxSzOph8yY

  — jrandles (@jrandles) March 18, 2020

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  What’s happening in Seattle is coming to a major metro area near you…

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 20:25

• The Inevitable Outcome Of The Oil Price War
  The Inevitable Outcome Of The Oil Price War

  Authored by Simon Watkins via OilPrice.com,

  One might reasonably posit that when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) signalled that Saudi Arabia was once again going to produce oil to the maximum to crash oil prices in a full-scale oil price war, Russian President Vladimir Putin probably fell off the horse he was riding bare-chested somewhere in Siberia because he was laughing so much. There is a phrase in Russian intelligence circles for clueless people that are ruthlessly used without their knowledge in covert operations, which is ‘a useful idiot’, and it is hard to think of anyone more ‘useful’ in this context to the Russians than whoever came up with Saudi’s latest ‘plan’. Whichever way the oil price war pans out, Russia wins.

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  In purely basic oil economics terms, Russia has a budget breakeven price of US$40 per barrel of Brent this year: Saudi’s is US$84. Russia can produce over 11 million barrels per day (mbpd) of oil without figuratively breaking sweat; Saudi’s average from 1973 to right now is just over 8 mbpd. Russia’s major oil producer, Rosneft, has been begging President Putin to allow it to produce and sell more oil since the OPEC+ arrangement was first agreed in December 2016; Saudi’s major oil producer, Aramco, only suffers value-destruction in such a scenario. This includes for those people who were sufficiently trusting of MbS to buy shares in Aramco’s recent IPO. Russia can cope with oil prices as low as US$25 per barrel from a budget and foreign asset reserves perspective for up to 10 years; Saudi can manage 2 years at most.

  A key reason why Russia can survive for so much longer than Saudis is actually thanks to MbS himself. Underlining this – and the fact that the Russians do have a very impish sense of humour, as they do – was that Russia’s Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, last week praised the co-operation of the OPEC+ grouping over the past three years, which, he added “had earned Russia 10 trillion rubles [US$140 billion].” Presumably just to highlight the irony of this further, Russia’s Finance Ministry then helpfully chipped in that the accumulated funds from the previous OPEC+ agreements will help Russia to support the ruble and will also help Russia to cope with oil prices as low as US$25 per barrel for up to 10 years. The metaphorical icing on the cake, though, was Novak adding that “we may reach new agreements [with OPEC] if needed”. In practical terms this means that if, in fact, it takes longer than originally thought by Russia for Saudi to go bankrupt and it starts to have any negative impact on Russia, then Moscow will just click its fingers together and Riyadh will come running to sign a new OPEC+ output cap deal.

  But surely, some may say, Saudi stands no chance of going bankrupt? In fact, as highlighted above, Saudi will absolutely go bankrupt if it continues this oil price war. As Saudi Arabia’s own deputy economic minister, Mohamed Al Tuwaijri, stated unequivocally in October 2016 last time that the Saudis tried this exact same ‘strategy’ from 2014 to 2016:

  “If we [Saudi Arabia] don’t take any reform measures, and if the global economy stays the same, then we’re doomed to bankruptcy in three to four years.”

  That is to say, that if Saudi kept overproducing to push oil prices down – just as it is doing right now, yet again – then it would be bankrupt within three to four years. The timeframe has halved for a variety of reasons outlined in my recent piece on this very subject here.

  But what has Russia to gain from Saudi going bankrupt? Economically, it means that Saudi will default on sovereign and corporate debt, will not be able to service its key industries, and will be unable to meet the requirements for its major oil and gas contracts. Simply having less Saudi oil and gas competing in the same space as Russia and its allies – notably Iran and Iraq – would be benefit enough for Russia but there are even bigger added benefits too. One of these is the destruction of the already strained relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that has endured since 1945. At that time, as analysed in depth in my new book on the global oil markets, the deal that was struck between the then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Saudi King at the time, Abdulaziz, onboard the U.S. Navy cruiser Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake segment of the Suez Canal was that the U.S. would receive all of the oil supplies it needed for as long as Saudi had oil in place, in return for which the U.S. would guarantee the security both of the country and of the ruling House of Saud.

  Support in the U.S. for the continuation of this relationship has already diminished markedly in the past few years. This change in attitude began in earnest when it came to the U.S. public’s attention that 15 of the 19 hijackers who flew the aeroplanes involved in the ‘9/11’ terrorist atrocity on the U.S. were Saudi nationals. The extent of the Saudi government’s involvement in funding such terrorism appeared front and centre following the overriding on 28 September 2017 by the U.S Congress of former President Barack Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. That made it possible for families of the victims of the ‘9/11’ terrorist attack to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for damages. Within a short space of time after this reversal, there were seven major lawsuits in federal courts alleging Saudi government support and funding for the ‘9/11’ attack, and more lawsuits are expected.

  Subsequent events have not softened this negative view, with ongoing pressure from the U.S. Congress over the Saudi-led war in Yemen, the cosying up of Saudi to Russia in the OPEC+ grouping, and Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s allegation in 2017 that then-Prime Minister Saad al Hariri had been kidnapped by the Saudis and forced to resign. Matters grew worse with the murder of dissident Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, on 2 October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, which even the CIA concluded was personally ordered by MbS. Such was the shift in sentiment away from Saudi over these years that the U.S. Presidential Administration has come under growing pressure to finally implement the  ‘No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act’ (NOPEC). This bill – which can still be implemented, incidentally (apparently something else that MbS has not taken into consideration) – would make it illegal to artificially cap oil (and gas) production or to set prices, as OPEC and Saudi Arabia do.

  The bill would also immediately remove the sovereign immunity that presently exists in U.S. courts for OPEC as a group and for its individual member states. This would leave Saudi Arabia open to be sued under existing U.S. anti-trust legislation with its total liability being its estimated US$1 trillion of investments in the U.S. This, and all of the other aforementioned events, resulted in MbS being completely unable to find any international listing destination for the Aramco IPO. As highlighted ahead of the IPO in previous articles published in OilPrice.com, Aramco shares are now haemorrhaging value for precisely the key reason cited: that the company would be used as an instrument of government policy – however ill-considered – regardless of the considerations of shareholders.

  Moreover, at the weekend, Aramco posted figures showing a 21 per cent fall in 2019 ‘due to a drop in oil prices’ – and this is before the new price-crashing strategy was put in place by MbS! After the ‘strategy’ announcement, the shares were trading at 15 per cent less than the offer price. In addition, again making a lie of its previous statements, it emerged at the end of last week that, despite its proven ridiculous claims by the Kingdom to boost supplies to levels never before even vaguely attained. Aramco rejected at least three Asian refiners’ (one Korean, one Taiwanese, and one Chinese) requests for additional crude for April, on top of their long-term supply deal.

  So Russia, with Saudi Arabia either in the oil price war or better still bankrupt, benefits either way. The long-term goal of Russia is to control directly or indirectly all of the key players in the Shia crescent of power in the Middle East, including most immediately Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen (via Iran). All of these countries have vast oil and gas reserves and/or useful coastlines for Russian military and commercial needs (Mediterranean access or access to the Arabian Sea). To do this, Russia’s core foreign policy strategy is to create chaos and then project Russian solutions and therefore power into that chaos. In this respect, again, MbS is being very ‘useful’ to the Russians.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 20:05

• Stocks Suffer Worst Week Since Lehman Despite Biggest Fed Bailout Ever
  Stocks Suffer Worst Week Since Lehman Despite Biggest Fed Bailout Ever

  This has been the sharpest market selloff in history…

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  This was the worst week since Lehman (and worst 4 weeks since Nov 1929) for The Dow Jones Industrial Average…(Dow was down 18% during the Lehman week and 17.35% this week)

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Despite The Fed gushing a stunning $307 billion into the markets – almost double its previous biggest liquidity injection (in March 2009)…

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  Maybe it was the ‘stock’ and not the ‘flow’ after all…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Stocks still have a long way to go to erase all the delusion (compared to actual profits)…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And if you think stocks already fell too much, think again… Total market cap to GDP is just now retesting the peak of the housing bubble levels!

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  Source: Bloomberg

  As @TaviCosta notes, “This puts into perspective… We truly were at absurd valuations.”

  Never Forget!!

  Chinese markets are mixed since the Wuhan flu began with tech-heavy super-leveraged ChiNext still green as the the megacaps get pummeled…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  In Europe, “Whatever it takes” wasn’t enough…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Nasdaq remains notably higher since President Trump’s inauguration, S&P is barely higher but The Dow, Transports, and Small Caps are all underwater now (the latter two crushed)…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And US stocks are testing a serious trendline…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  S&P 500 broke the post-crisis uptrend dramatically…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  With the Median US Stock down over 50% from its highs…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  The US Stock markets have lost almost $30 trillion in the last few weeks…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And US stock market volatility has not been this extreme since Black Monday in 1987 and Black Monday in 1929…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Credit markets are utterly collapsing with nothing The fed did this week helping… HY is the worst since the financial crisis, topping 1000bps for the first time since May 2009…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And HY has a long way to go if it catches up with fundamentals…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And investment grade credit is getting crushed at a record rate…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Treasury bond vol has exploded – at its sharpest rate ever…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Bonds and stocks have completely decoupled, trading down together and breaking the ‘normal’ correlation regime…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Very volatile week in bond-land but thanks to today’s buying pressure, most of the curve ended lower in yield (dominate dby the short-end) as stocks collapsed…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  On the day, bond yields cratered – 30Y fell a stunning 37bps, the most since 2008; and 10Y fell 30bps, the most since 2009…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  10Y yields were marginally lower on the week (amid a massive 65bps intra-week range) and back below 1.00%…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Muni yields ended up 60bps today – refusing to improve despite The Fed’s new facility…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Amid all this carnage, negative-yielding-debt worldwide has evaporates rapidly as bonds have been dumped everywhere (sending yields higher)…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar is up a stunning 9 days in a row…as the global dollar shortage creates an unstoppable bid every day after Europe opens…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  This is the biggest 9-day surge in the dollar (a shocking 8%-plus) ever – more than when Soros broke the Bank of England…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Cryptos had a big week, extending gains from last week…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  With Bitcoin up 85% from last week’s lows…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Absolute carnage in commodities this week as a strong dollar and ugly fundamentals slammed copper and crude…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  Precious Metals were pummeled this week as the dollar soared with Platunum worst and gold best…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  But oil was the real headline on the week – utterly devastated and Putin’s comments today spoiled the party from yesterday’s best day ever… This was WTI’s worst week since 1991…

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  Finally, as a reminder, Santiago Capital explains why The Fed Swap Lines aren’t working… (and in fact are making things worse)…

  Just a quick note to remind everyone that dollars flowing via swap lines are not a gift.
  They are loans.
  Loans are future demand for dollars.
  Demand.
  Demand for dollars is off the charts.
  So while swap lines provide ST liquidity, they increase overall demand.
  THEY INCREASE DEMAND pic.twitter.com/NTzJOTNbvu

  — Santiago Capital (@SantiagoAuFund) March 19, 2020

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  For a month, global stock markets refused to take any notice of the virus that was taking hold in China… not our problem… we’ll be fine… Fed will rescue us… v-shaped recovery… and then…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And the prediction market says that the Wuhan flu has done what Schiff and the Democrats couldn’t with three years of bullshit narratives…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And what happens next?

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  Source: Bloomberg

  And this is not very reassuring – as all the chatter of helicopter money has sent USA sovereign credit risk notably higher…

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  Source: Bloomberg

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 20:00

• As Iran Hits 20,000 Cases, US Says 'Coronavirus Won't Save You From Sanctions'
  As Iran Hits 20,000 Cases, US Says ‘Coronavirus Won’t Save You From Sanctions’

  Even amid a global pandemic that’s altering daily life as everyone knows it, and with borders shut, markets collapsing, and talk of mobilizing the military domestically, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is keeping up the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran. 

  “The United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: the spread of the coronavirus will not save it from U.S. sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and isolating its economy,” Reuters reports. 

  Consider too the blunt headline to the report — U.S. to Iran: Coronavirus won’t save you from sanctions. This as a top Iranian health expert warned his fellow citizens to brace for “millions” possibly killed as a result of the deadly pandemic. “Our policy of maximum pressure on the regime continues,” Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iranian Affairs, told reporters this week.

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  But as Spencer Ackerman reports, this policy will actually make the Covid-19 spread more dangerous for us all:

  “We are not safe in any place until everyone all over the world is safe,” Paul Anatharajah Tambyah, the president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, told the Wall Street Journal about a new wave of COVID-19 cases in east Asia.

  “You have to facilitate these medical goods. Anyone who argues otherwise, or does otherwise, is a sociopath or a moron,” [bold mine-DL] said Jarrett Blanc, a former State Department official who monitored Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal that the Trump administration abandoned. “The U.S. should be busting its ass to make sure permissible medical exports are available to Iran. It’s in our self-interest.”

  The administration gleefully (and fanatically some would say) rolled out with new sanctions this week targeting over a dozen Iran-linked entities and individuals. 

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  There is the ‘option’ of merely temporarily suspending the sanctions, aimed to broad humanitarian aid from the outside, especially concerning badly needed medicines and equipment necessary in fighting Covid-19, which on Friday approached 20,000 confirmed cases (19,644 as of Friday).

  The American Conservative’s Daniel Larison writes:

  The “maximum pressure” campaign is unjust, but to continue it in the midst of a public health disaster is truly sick and twisted. The administration’s refusal to offer sanctions relief at a time like this shows how irrational and malevolent this policy is, and it should make us all realize how senseless and destructive the economic war has been from the start.

  It’s further worth noting that assuming the best case scenario of a quick containment of the pandemic in the rest of the world over the coming weeks or months…

  It remains that if a large country of over 80 million people can’t be allowed to get it under control (with failed efforts exacerbated by Washington imposed economic isolation and the devastating sanctions regimen), this will only continue to put the rest of the globe in danger. 

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 19:45

• Boeing Suspends Buybacks And Dividends; CEO Will Work For Free Until End Of The Year
  Boeing Suspends Buybacks And Dividends; CEO Will Work For Free Until End Of The Year

  Boeing thought it could be tricky – again – and after it repurchased tens of billions in stock in the past 7 years…

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  … by issuing record corporate debt …

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  … and making its shareholders extremely rich by sending its price to all time highs, at least until the recent collapse, the company came begging, demanding a $60 billion taxpayer bailout largely to offset the consequences of the above massive debt load, with a warning that if no bailout materialized, the company may, oops, just have to fire thousands of people. And politicians wouldn’t want that, so best give Boeing the money.

  Meanwhile, we learned that even as it was making such bailout demands and implicit threats – which prompted Nikki Haley to resign in disgust at the company’s pathetic panhandling – Boeing had not yet even decided to suspend a dividend to its shareholders, nor halt the buybacks that brought it to this catastrophic place.

  Then, on Thursday, the plan appeared to derail when we learned that lawmakers were pushing back against a Boeing bailout – comparing it to AIG, which also required a rescue to save the company from the consequences of its own greedy, idiotic decisions.

  So, in a desperate attempt to mollify legislators and to avoid further antagonizing the American population which has every right to ask why Boeing should be bailed out instead of forced to raise cash by selling its stock – you know, buybacks in reverse – the company issued a press release in which it “announced several decisions to support the company as it navigates through the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring the company is positioned for the industry’s recovery.” These include:

  • CEO Dave Calhoun and Board Chairman Larry Kellner will forgo all pay until the end of the year.

  So the company plans on filing for bankruptcy at the end of the year? Got it. Anyway, moving on:

  • The company will suspend its dividend until further notice.
  • Boeing will extend its pause of any share repurchasing until further notice.  The company previously suspended its stock buyback program in April of 2019.

  Well, yeah, of course Boeing – which just drew down on its $13BN revolver – will suspend buybacks and dividends. If it still pursued them in its current state, the whole company would literally be burned down just days before it filed for Chapter 11.

  As for the CEO and Chairman forgoing all pay, how about clawing back billions in bonuses from Boeing C-Suite, starting with Dennis Muilenburg, who not only left the company picking up the pieces on the 737 MAX debacle, a plane which nobody will ever fly so it may as well just scrap it, but whose billions in buybacks assured that he would enjoy massive bonuses year after year, and quietly exit stage left – with all his vested stock no less – just before the shit hit the fan.

  Our take: unless Muilenberg, and his closest execs, are clawed back for all the equity-linked bonuses they made since Boeing started repurchasing its stock in earnest in 2013, there should be no discussion of any bailout, period.

  And just in case legislators do that, the press release also contained the following gentle nudge that “Boeing is drawing on all of its resources to sustain operations, support its workforce and customers, and maintain supply chain continuity through the COVID-19 crisis and for the long term.”

  In other words, unless you bail us out, the “workforce” gets it. The same workforce that the company cared so much about, it decided to bury it until $25 billion in debt.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 19:30

• The Economics Of Cruise Ships (& Why They Don't Deserve A Bailout)
  The Economics Of Cruise Ships (& Why They Don’t Deserve A Bailout)

  Authored by Zachary Crockett via TheHustle.co,

  In the wake of coronavirus and tanking stocks, cruise companies have sought assistance from the US government. But for decades, the industry has done everything in its power to avoid paying into the system.

  

  Cruise ships are often called “monsters” of the sea.

  If you’ve ever seen one in action, you’ll understand why: A vessel like Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas is longer than 12 blue whales. At 228k gross tons, it is 5x the size of the once-formidable Titanic. It can hold 6,680 passengers and 2,200 crewmembers, the population of a small American town.

  In 2018, 28.5m passengers — the bulk of them from America — spent more than $46B on cruises globally. The biggest players see annual profits in the billions.

  But cruise companies have done more to earn the “monster” moniker than churning out huge ships and market gains.

  For decades, these companies have utilized century-old loopholes to avoid paying corporate taxes. They’ve gone to great lengths to bypass US employment laws, hiring foreign workers for less than $2/hour. They’ve sheltered themselves as foreign entities while simultaneously benefitting from US taxpayer-funded agencies and resources.

  Now, in the wake of a coronavirus crisis that has sunk cruise stocks by double digits, these companies are lobbying for federal assistance.

  To better understand the dynamics of this wild industry, we spoke with maritime lawyers, legislators, and cruise experts in 3 countries.

  The cruise industry at large

  Before we get into how cruise companies circumvent US taxes and regulations, let’s take a quick look at the major players, the money they make, and how they make it.

  The global market comprises dozens of cruise lines and more than 250 ships. But 3 players — Carnival Corporation & PLC, Royal Caribbean Cruises LTD, and Norweigan Cruise Line HLD — control roughly 75% of the market.

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  Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

  These companies, which preside over an empire of subsidiary cruise lines, collectively raked in $34.2B in revenue in 2018.

  Cruise ships make this money through two channels: Ticket sales and onboard purchases (e.g., alcoholic drinks, casino gambling, spa treatments, art auctions, and shore excursions), which passengers pay for with pre-loaded cruise cards and chip-equipped wristbands.

  On average, tickets account for 62% of total revenue and onboard purchases make up the remaining 38%.

  Though tickets represent a majority of revenue, onboard purchases account for the lion’s share of the profit, according to several experts.

  As a high fixed-cost business, a cruise ship relies on getting as many passengers as possible on the ship — even at fire-sale rates. The major cruise lines will often fill each ship to 105%-110% capacity, then upsell its captive consumers on additional services.

  “They have mastered the ability to get their hands into people’s pockets and to take out every last dollar,” says Ross A. Klein, a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, who has closely studied the cruise ship industry.

  “They can almost give a cabin away for free and still make a profit.”

  Despite sizeable overhead costs — which include travel agent commissions, fuel, marketing, and payroll — these large crowds yield handsome profits. Industry-wide, cruise lines enjoy net margins of 17%, nearly double the average of some comparably large hotel chains:

  • Carnival: $3.2B net profit (17% margin)

  • Royal Caribbean: $1.8B net profit (19% margin)

  • Norwegian: $955m net profit (16% margin)

  To make these figures a bit more relatable, here’s what this works out to on a per-passenger level for a 7-day cruise:

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  Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

  On average, a passenger will spend $1,060 ($151/day) on a ticket and $650 ($92/day) on onboard purchases. After subtracting overhead costs, a ship will make out with roughly $291 in net profit per passenger, per cruise.

  That means that at full capacity, a single ship like Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas might make $9.8m in revenue ($1.7m of which is profit) during one 7-day excursion. That’s $239k in profit per day at sea.

  As 50% of this money comes from American travelers, one might expect the cruise industry to be a substantial contributor to the US tax system.

  But there’s a catch: These companies aren’t technically American. And they harbor what one legal expert calls a “dirty little secret.”

  How cruise companies avoid paying US taxes

  Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian all have headquarters in Miami, Florida, a city that brands itself as the “Cruise Capital of the World.”

  With this homeland base, a large foundation of US customers, and red, white and blue logos, these cruise lines have manufactured an identity as authentically American corporations. President Trump has even called them a “great US business.”

  Legal paperwork tells a different story.

  International law requires every ship to register with a country and fly its insignia in open waters. A ship is only subject to the laws of the country it is registered in.

  Under an obscure, 99-year-old section of the US tax code, cruise companies are able to register their ships with countries that have more lenient laws than the US — an act called flying a “flag of convenience” — and avoid paying into the US tax system.

  It’s a tax loophole big enough to drive a cruise ship through.

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  Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

  The cruise industry isn’t alone in avoiding Uncle Sam: US companies use offshore accounts to avoid paying an estimated $90B-per-year in taxes.

  But it is especially adept at the practice: Carnival is incorporated in Panama and flies the flags of Panama and the Bahamas; Norwegian is incorporated in, and flies the flag of, the Bahamas; Royal Caribbean has been incorporated in Liberia since 1985, and flies the flags of the Bahamas and Malta.

  These impoverished countries often compete with each other to offer cruise lines the cheapest services, much like many US cities groveled for Amazon’s HQ2 by offering large tax cuts.

  “Cruise lines want to register somewhere where they pay no taxes, are exempt from labor and wage statues, and don’t have to follow health and safety codes,” says Jim Walker, a Miami-based maritime lawyer.

  “They’re looking for a place that will leave them alone, not oversee their operations.”

  For the most part, that’s what cruise companies have gotten: According to annual report filings, the major cruise lines pay an average tax rate of 0.8% — for below the 21% US corporate tax rate.

  The benefits of such arrangements are nominal for the countries that register the ships.

  Cruise lines will generally pay a small head tax ($4-$15 per passenger) to call on a port. According to Klein, these countries often spend more on maintaining facilities for cruise ships than they make through the fees.

  They might also promise a boost to the economies they frequent. But Klein says they work out deals with local vendors where they take up to 70% of the onshore revenue — and studies have shown that local populations in foreign ports don’t get much out of such partnerships.

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  A cruise ship employee cleans a slot machine onboard MSC cruises’ Magnifica in Saint-Nazaire (FRANCK PERRY/AFP via Getty Images)

  Registering ships abroad also shelters cruise companies from US employment and safety laws.

  Cruise ships hire crew members from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and  “anywhere else you can find people willing to work for nothing,” and demand grueling workloads in exchange for comparatively paltry wages.

  The standard contract for a crew member like a cleaner or dishwasher requires a mandatory 308 hours per month — 11 hours a day, 7 days a week, for as long as 8-10 months, with no days off — for the equivalent of $400-700 per month, or $1.62 to $2.27 per hour.

  Unprotected by labor laws and regulations, crew members who get injured on the job are swiftly replaced, like “fungible goods.”

  In its latest report, the Cruise Lines International Association, an influential trade group, argues that the cruise industry has a $52.7B “total economic impact” on the US economy and “supports” 421k American jobs. But Klein says it’s unclear what goes into calculating these figures.

  The Hustle asked several major cruise lines to comment on the concerns raised in this article. None of the companies responded.

  There is one thing the cruise industry has been expeditious about doing on US soil: Lobbying to keep its exemptions in place.

  According to the nonprofit Open Secrets, the cruise industry spent $66.2m in lobbying fees between 1998 and 2019. It also made contributions of at least $1.1m to candidates in cruise ship states, including $29.5k to a US representative from Florida who chairs the Panama Caucus, and $23.5k to a senator who fought to blockade a cruise tax.

  $813,807 for a single taxpayer-funded rescue effort

  While cruise ships avoid paying US taxes, they simultaneously benefit from the services of taxpayer-funded federal agencies.

  Professor Klein, who has testified before Congress on matters of cruise ship safety, says that in the past 25 years:

  • 361 passengers have fallen overboard on cruise ships (14 per year)

  • 353 gastrointestinal/norovirus outbreaks have broken out on cruise ships

  • 500+ environmental violations have been charged to cruise ships

  In many of these cases, US agencies have to intervene — and taxpayers, not cruise companies, usually eat the cost.

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  Rescue teams search for survivors on the Costa Concordia, which struck a rock off the Italian coast in 2012 (Target Presse Agentur Gmbh/Getty Images)

  Klein has filed open-records requests and obtained documents on the companies, which he shared with The Hustle. They show that a single cruise ship passenger rescue effort can cost the US Coast Guard and the US Navy from $500k to $1m+. One 2009 search for a woman who fell overboard off the coast of Florida set the Coast Guard back $813,807.

  When ships go dead in the water — as was the case with Carnival’s Splendor fire in 2010 and its Triumph disaster in 2013 — these costs can balloon to $5m+.

  Walker, the maritime lawyer, adds that, in certain cases, cruise ships also require the resources of taxpayer-funded agencies like the US Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and US Customs and Border Protection.

  What does this all mean in the context of coronavirus?

  In the wake of a COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than 157k and killed at least 5.8k people worldwide (as of March 14), the hospitality industry is reeling.

  Cruise ships — often called “floating petri dishes,” for their adeptness at spreading illnesses — have been hit especially hard. After at least 21 passengers tested positive for COVID-19 aboard Carnival’s Grand Princess, the State Department urged the public to “not travel by cruise ship.”

  Customers clamored to cancel trips and cruise stocks fell by 60% — the worst stock performance on record for the industry. 

  Initially, some cruise lines attempted to weather the storm by selling tickets at all costs. According to emails obtained by the Miami New Times, salespeople at Norwegian were instructed to respond to coronavirus-inquiring customers with scripted one-liners, like “The only thing you need to worry about for your cruise is do you have enough sunscreen?”

  When we called the company’s booking hotline last week, a salesperson told us that coronavirus doesn’t exist in tropical climates.

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  Zachary Crockett / The Hustle

  Some major lines have since self-imposed suspensions on cruise trips to and from US ports for up to 60 days — a move that further imperils their revenue.

  The Trump administration has hinted at a potential bailout, and the Cruise Lines International Association is urging its 43k travel agent partners to call the White House to express their support for the industry.

  Critics like Klein aren’t having it.

  “They pay no taxes and now they want taxpayer support?” he says.

  “What happened to laissez-faire capitalism?”

  But as federal aid begins to look unlikely, some cruise operators have shifted their pleas to a different set of ears.

  In a video posted to Twitter, Jan Swartz, the President of Carnival’s Princess cruise line, called on the American public to help guide the company through dark waters.

  “We ask you to book a future Princess cruise to your dream destination as a sign of encouragement for our team,” she wrote. “With your support we will emerge from this time of trial even stronger.”

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 19:25

• "Unparalleled Challenge" – Inside America's First Locked-Down Major City, "Everything's Out Of Our Control"
  “Unparalleled Challenge” – Inside America’s First Locked-Down Major City, “Everything’s Out Of Our Control”

  The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the US has more than doubled in the last several days. California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a state-wide “stay at home” order amid the virus outbreak – the strongest and most restrictive measure passed by a governor yet.

  On Tuesday, there were about 5,700 confirmed cases in the US. But by Thursday the number exploded to 11,500. Now, on Friday morning, confirmed cases stand at 14,000.

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  The announcement comes after San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area issued ‘shelter in place’ orders after a surge of deaths and confirmations in the state. As of Friday morning, there are 18 virus-related deaths.

  Several days into one of the most extreme lockdowns, Bay Area residents have been forced to stay at home, only allowed to leave for essential travel, such as shopping for groceries, medications, fuel, caring for others, and exercise. 

  NBC News spoke with one resident, Trish Tracey, who had to shutter her restaurant on Tuesday in the Mission district. She laid off her entire kitchen staff of 17 employees and has tried to renegotiate her lease. 

  “Everything is out of our control,” Tracey said.

  The uncertainty of where the city is in the pandemic curve has left everyone confused. Strict social distancing rules have been enforced to slowdown infections to prevent local hospitals from becoming overburden with virus patients.

  “The goal is to get up and running again and put all my employees back to work,” Tracey said. “I wish I could say with certainty that would happen, and I’m very determined, and I lasted five years because of that, but everything is on pretty shaky ground right now.”

  The mass lockdown in San Francisco is serving as the blueprint of how other local governments in the state might have to resort to Martial law-style lockdowns. Other states, such as New York and Maryland, could be days or weeks away from a major lockdown to flatten the curve.

  Bay Area hospitals have started seeing an influx of COVID-19 patients in recent weeks:

  “This is a challenge unparalleled to any challenge I have faced in the last 28 years of my career,” Dr. Baldev Singh, a pulmonary critical care physician in nearby San Jose.

  Singh warned that the local hospital system could experience a worker shortage.

  “Protecting your teammates is as important as ever, as the number of infected individuals needing support is anticipated to exceed the number of healthy providers able to serve those in need.”

  Another problem for local hospitals is an influx of virus patients could lead to a shortage of hospital beds and ICU-level treatment for the most vulnerable, and this is the point when mortality rates could surge.

  On Thursday, Newsom estimated 56% of the state’s population, about 25.5 million people, will become infected.

  Governor Gavin Newsom makes a major announcement on California’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. https://t.co/VlQM38OkYK

  — Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) March 20, 2020

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  As the local economy grinds to a halt, tens of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, grocery stores run out of food, millions forced to shelter in place and watch Netflix, and the hospital system at risk of being overrun with patients, here are some views inside America’s first locked-down city:

  Downtown San Francisco Financial District rn. It’s a ghost town 😟 pic.twitter.com/fB28WXaFvL

  — SF TESLA CLUB (@sfteslaclub) March 19, 2020

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  San Francisco airport. Ghost town. Most shops and services closed. We also did not get screened or asked a question about our health or where we came from. pic.twitter.com/Mo0DKtfdR7

  — Mike Snodgrass (@water_boy01235) March 19, 2020

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  San Francisco a ghost town. #California #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/HAeSW8ZxIA

  — Apex (@Apex_WW) March 18, 2020

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  South Market is absolutely empty. San Francisco is definitely a ghost town. pic.twitter.com/QEYJaPLAB4

  — Jeanette (@JeanetteRoc) March 19, 2020

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  The @KTVU helicopter was over San Francisco around 2:30 this afternoon and it was a ghost town. All the busy spots were empty, and we couldn’t find any traffic in the city #coronavirus #bayarealockdown #SanFrancisco #TogetherApart pic.twitter.com/Hn8XNg5drD

  — Amber Eikel (@AmberEikelKTVU) March 18, 2020

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  What does a “typical” day in the Bay Area look like right now? From a ghost town in Jack London Square to an empty movie theatre in San Francisco, here’s what we found in different cities. How are you passing the time? https://t.co/QeJBsMOpa4 pic.twitter.com/3tkRZ5xwNX

  — ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) March 15, 2020

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  Currently the empty streets of downtown San Francisco!we are a ghost town! Not my photos shared by a group member of our San Francisco natives group on fb. pic.twitter.com/bHVWerWVvf

  — Michelle Tuegel (@michelle_tuegel) March 20, 2020

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  #californiacoronavirus. Crazy empty San Francisco – ghost town. No one flying . Not like Chicago pic.twitter.com/qsrGvWbpCN

  — Jason Greene (@jason_c_greene) March 16, 2020

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  Outside the apartment- 5pm Rush hour Bay Street – normally packed w cars – commuters— like a ghost town #sf #SanFrancisco #sanfranciscoLockdown pic.twitter.com/PSmUNoFzGm

  — Jack Hutton (@jackhutton) March 18, 2020

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  Iconic San Francisco landmark Ghirardelli Square. Normally swamped by tourist & SF residents alike. Today, a ghost town in broad daylight as we shelter in place. pic.twitter.com/MRfUN6RSxX

  — Chuck Austin (@Giant_Chuck) March 19, 2020

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  The coronavirus has actually made San Francisco a damn near ghost town. You can finally find parking. But on a serious note, seeing so many empty streets and buildings is so weird. pic.twitter.com/BpsSlyjESN

  — Reggie, DoT (@Thot_Cop_69) March 17, 2020

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  And as we’ve noted before, when a city or region misses the containment window by implementing social distancing measures too late, cases and deaths tend to surge, residents become anxious, and what happens next just like what’s about to occur in the UK, is that the Bay Area could soon see troop deployment on streets to maintain order.

  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 03/20/2020 – 19:05

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