A million people in concentration camps, Tibet being looted for everything no nailed down (and some that is), for the life of me I cannot believe the US is not boycotting these Olympics. Shameful.
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
…Relative Humidity’s Role in the Transmission of COVID-19
Relative humidity can play a role in the transmission of COVID-19 in three primary ways:
Drying out respiratory airways: Low relative humidity has a drying effect on the cells and mucous linings of our airways. These cells act as a defense against viral particles and other invading foreign substances. Drying out airway linings impairs their ability to function properly. When moisture levels are insufficient, viral particles have a greater “docking” potential at airway receptor sites, which can lead to an increased risk of infection.
Viruses die off faster in higher relative humidity: Research indicates that virus particles suspended in the air die more rapidly when the relative humidity is higher. In environments where viral particles decay faster, less viral material remains suspended in the air, leading to reduced risk of infection.
Lower relative humidity aids airborne transmission of water droplets and aerosols: When we cough, sneeze, talk or sing, water droplets and smaller water particles (aerosols) containing living virus disperse into the air. Droplets and aerosols tend to stay afloat longer and travel farther in air with lower relative humidity. Virus-containing aerosols, in particular, can penetrate more deeply into the lungs to increase the possibility of transmission.
In addition, research shows coronavirus has the potential to live longer on surfaces in colder environments…
well, before that last sentence i was gonna say humidity in winter is low inside houses because they are (over) heated.
personally i think it has more to do with people spending more time inside in winter with other people, and the schools being open. and of course once it gets started it tends to spread.
read an article long time ago by british scientists who found that health was related to inside temperature..warmer houses having healthier people. but then warmer houses are lived in by richer people.
Al Capp’s General Bullmoose slept in a freezer. i thought he was on to something.
or it may have something to do with what time of year the wild geese fly over chinese pigpens.
… “There is nothing we do as a democracy that is more important than guaranteeing that all American citizens have a right to vote and a right to have that vote counted,” Warren told Colbert, explaining that the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, waiting to be voted on in the Senate, will do just that. …
Warren said that states that have recently passed voting restrictive laws “are out there doing everything they can to keep people from voting, to keep those votes from being counted, and to gerrymander with such surgical precision that an ever shrinking minority of Republicans will actually control not only the state legislature, but also seats in Congress and ultimately distort the election for President of United States.” …
“Now we have not one single Republican, not one, who will vote to protect the vote in America,” Warren said. “One of the two major political parties in America has now said that it is their policy to win by keeping American citizens from voting. And fine. We ought to put them on record, make them vote on that, make a record of that, and hold them accountable in the next election.”
Warren went a step beyond this week’s voter rights bills to say that the legislative filibuster should be eliminated completely. …
“If you can’t get rid of the filibuster… what if we just get rid of the Senate?” Colbert asked Warren. “And I’m 100% serious here. It is the most anti-democratic institution next to the judiciary.”
“No one would drop a single tear,” he added. “You’ve already got tenure, you can go back to your real job, you’ll be fine.” …
I generally have the same fears about raw democracy that the Framers had. But I have to admit, the R’s are teaching me to think we need to limit the power of the Supreme Court, and the Senate now that money can vote.
The trouble is, almost anything we are likely to do (based on words heard on the blogosphere) will come back and bite us, if we can even do anything now that they own the high ground.
… The Senate on Tuesday will begin to debate legislation that combines two separate bills already passed by the House — the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — and folds them into an unrelated measure. The move would allow the Senate to bring the bill directly to the floor, avoiding an initial filibuster.
But that strategy would still allow Republicans to block it from coming to a final vote, and Democrats lack the unanimous support needed in their party to change Senate rules to muscle through the legislation themselves. Still, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said late last week that Democrats would forge ahead anyway, forcing Republicans to publicly declare their opposition to the bill.
“We all have to be recorded at this moment in time about where are we in protecting the right to vote,” Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Right now, it doesn’t look like it has the votes to pass, but we’re going to cancel our Martin Luther King Day recess and be there this week because we think it’s so important for the country.” …
It would be possible to change the filibuster rule so that 60-vote majorities are no longer required for matters pertaining to voting or voting-rights. This would be in keeping with how democracies should work. All it would take would be the two Dems who are opposed (Manchin & Sinema) and a tie-breaking vote from VP Harris, assuming a few principled GOP senators will not do what’s right.
Prominent Democrats are expressing rage at their party’s two filibuster holdouts, rather than at Republicans who are blocking their voting rights bill.
… The remarkable vitriol Democratic activists are training on two members of their own party has largely given Republicans a pass for blocking the bill and standing by new state laws devised to limit access to the ballot box and empower partisan actors to administer elections and count votes.
Republican senators such as Rob Portman of Ohio, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania and Roy Blunt of Missouri would face few repercussions for breaking with their party’s leaders and backing such legislation, since they will be retiring at the end of the year.
Yet they are standing against the Democratic bill, and have given little indication that they would be willing to negotiate a narrower ballot-access measure. Mr. Portman said on Tuesday that Democrats were using “overwrought, exaggerated and deeply divisive” accusations to push “an unprecedented federal takeover of our election system.”
Democratic leaders tried to keep the focus on Republicans. …
(If there are any actual ‘moderate’ GOP senators out there, they should be voting with the Dem majority on this.)
not sure there have been any honest Repiblicans in my lifetime. Sure they are not up for re-election, but they have always been up for keeping the people down.
to be honest, i think NO politicians are honest. glib lies are the tools of the trade. it is necessary to lie to the people, because the people do not know what is good for them…or much about reality at all.
but lying for a living makes it hard to think straight or hard.
and the R’s chose, or were chosen by, a politics of hate, hate, besides being evil in itself, makes it easy for all sorts of evil to infect your thinking.
the Dems lie too of course, but they lie about what they do, not about what we should do. and therin lies the difference. so far.
Presumably there would be costs to GOP senators who defy their leadership on this. So what? What would have John McCain have done? Would he have caved also? Why does Mitt Romney not think back to his years in Massachusetts and let that guide him forward.
China’s GDP grows 8.1% in 2021, fastest in 10 years, spurring confidence despite challenges ahead Stellar performance boost confidence, but challenges emerge By Chu Daye and Li Xuanmin
China on Monday posted an 8.1 percent GDP growth in 2021, defying market expectations and further cementing the world’s second-largest economy’s leading position in the global economy’s recovery from the still raging COVID-19 pandemic, as major growth drivers, particularly exports, saw remarkable improvements in the face of mounting global challenges.
However, a significantly slower GDP growth of 4 percent in the last quarter of 2021, the weakest since the second quarter of 2020, also offered sobering reminders of the growing downward pressure on the Chinese economy, including from shrinking demand, supply chain disruptions and weakening expectations, in addition to risks of the spread of the Omicron variant.
Chinese economists noted that China is still positioned to tackle those challenges, given the solid foundation of the Chinese economy and sufficient fiscal and monetary tools at the disposal of policymakers, who are already moving to boost consumption, liquidity and other issues. Despite risks, some economists are expecting 5.5 percent growth in 2022.
China’s GDP expanded 8.1 percent in 2021, growing the fastest in nearly a decade and landing well above the government’s annual target of achieving a growth rate above 6 percent.
The robust expansion, which beats market expectations and eclipses most of the other major economies in the past two years, spells out a steady economic recovery path – building upon the country’s zero-tolerance epidemic strategy that Beijing has been relying on despite criticism from the West and headwinds throughout the year, which ranged from sporadic coronavirus outbreaks, woes in the property sector, bulk commodity price hikes, to a power crunch.
The country’s total GDP in 2021 reached 114.37 trillion yuan ($18 trillion), according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday….
The Chinese mainland recorded 171 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, with 127 linked to local transmissions and 44 from overseas, data from the National Health Commission showed on Tuesday.
A total of 33 new asymptomatic cases were also recorded, and 760 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
Confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland now total 105,258, with the death toll remaining unchanged at 4,636 since January last year.
Chinese mainland administers over 2.94b vaccine doses
The Chinese mainland had administered more than 2.94 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses as of January 17, according to data released by the National Health Commission.
[ January 15, 2022
Over 1.22 billion fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on Chinese mainland. ]
[A couple of years ago I bought some terrific wind chimes, better than I could afford in my hippie days; and ironically engineered by and produced for Woodstock Chimes. Until buying a home in 2004 forced me to dry dock both my power boats in my back yard, then I had been aware of the wind as any Chesapeake Bay boatman would be. Those terrific wind chimes reacquainted me with the many moods of the spirited Mariah.]
Wind speeds are getting faster worldwide, and that’s good news for renewable energy production — at least for now.
A study published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that winds across much of North America, Europe and Asia have been growing faster since about 2010.
In less than a decade, the global average wind speed has increased from about 7 mph to about 7.4 mph. For the average wind turbine, that translates to a 17% increase in potential wind energy. That might explain about half the increase in U.S. wind power capacity since 2010, researchers say…
*
[My intimate relationship goes back much further than that. Most of my life has been more outdoors than indoors. But it is always nice to have scientifically accepted evidence of the patently obvious, since so many people are near-sighted these days.]
Comparing our weather to that of Tucson, AZ, where my best friend lives, then our wind speed is usually about twice theirs, in winter at least. I only recently began checking both each week as I have been considering giving him a pair of wind chimes for Xmas. If his wind does not pick up during the year though, I will not. My wife loves the serenade they give us here.
I remember back in the 70’s when I got my first watercraft, a 16-foot canoe, how calm the water frequently was. I have not seen that much though since late in the last century.
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
I guess I got my first watercraft, one paddle power, in about 1950. borrowed.
The lake is no longer there. Neither is the forest.
[I guess I got my last in about 1980, also borrowed (for working on the big bridge), only this one had a Ford V8 and would climb telephone poles as we found out when we let one of the girls drive it.]
[please note, i do not approve of boats with more than one paddle power (unless it has sails). but since there is nothing finer than messing about it boats, we have to take what we can get.]
China to provide another 1b COVID-19 vaccines to Africa: Xi Jinping
China will provide another one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to African countries, said Chinese President Xi Jinping during his speech at a virtual session of the 2022 World Economic Forum.
Xi said China will also donate 150 million doses to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
He reiterated that cooperation is “the only right way” to defeat the pandemic, while holding each other back or shifting blame “would only cause needless delay in response” and “distract us from the overall objective.”
Amid COVID-19 outbreaks in China, corporate fears of a worsening supply chain crisis – As the world’s largest manufacturer and the supplier of a vast array of goods, production and transport delays in China necessarily impact on economies internationally. China’s scientifically-based policy of eliminating the COVID-19 virus through mass testing and contact tracing, travel restrictions, quarantining and lockdowns, as well as mass vaccination, has been under sustained attack by the Western media. Misleading stories highlighting grossly inflated examples of bureaucratic excesses and opposition on social media cannot obscure the fact that, in contrast to the disasters created by governments elsewhere, the policy has been to date successful and has a high degree of public support. This politically foul campaign is part and parcel of the US-led demonisation of China as Washington steps up its aggressive and reckless confrontation with Beijing, which it regards as the chief threat to American global hegemony. The concerted push for the Chinese government to drop its COVID-zero policy now takes on another dimension as global corporations grapple with supply chain breakdowns. The Financial Times on Sunday declared: “China’s battle to contain the Omicron coronavirus variant risks choking already stretched global supply chains, manufacturing managers and analysts have warned, threatening production of goods ranging from smartphones to furniture.” After the lockdown of Xi’an, a city of 13 million, for three weeks to control an outbreak, the identification last week of cases of community transmission of the highly-contagious Omicron strain in the port city of Tianjin, close to Beijing, raised alarm bells. Beijing itself recorded a case of Omicron last weekend and COVID cases were discovered in other cities, including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Dalian—all major ports. In contrast to the “let it rip” policies elsewhere in the world that have led to millions of infections, hospitalisations and deaths, the restrictions implemented in China have contained the limited outbreaks. The daily cases numbers in China are miniscule by comparison. As of midnight on Saturday, there were 119 cases reported across China, of which 65 were locally transmitted according to the National Health Commission. Of those, 33 were in Tianjin, 29 in cities in Henan province and one in Xi’an. Beijing reported one case, its first of the Omicron variant.
The intersting thing is going to be how China maintains its economy.
I maintained at the start, we could have reasonable “lockdowns” and lose no more than 25% (probably no more than 10%) of our economy temporarily,
and share the pain with an equivalent “insuranee premium” (tax) on those still working, to provide for basic needs among those whose jobs could not be made safe (for the rest of us.)
Of course the first American answer to that was “do not shut down our sacred economy. only old (unproductive) people would die on the way to herd immunity, and they would be glad to make the sacrifice so their children could grow rich and prosper.”
i found this interesting because long time ago i read (USA Today) that for every person who retired, the economy lost 90,000 dollars per year. since back then most people didn’t make half that much, i figured the people losing most of that money would be “the rich” who make their money off “the poor.” told me a lot about why the rich hate Social Security. because, of course, the poor pay for their own Social Security, but they can’t be allowd to chose more time over more money. Because worker’s time is the boss’s money, you see.
the rich are not too smart. they could not understand that on the way to herd immunity a lot more people were going to get sick, a lot more, and the disease would spread exponentially until there was no way to control it except by death or Yukon King arriving in time with a sled full of serum…
and kill even the “productive” people…driving wages up (bargaining power) and productivity down, supply chain shortages, inflation…
and of course the only way to deal with that is to get rid of mandatory vaccination and post infection recovery time.
American politics gets pretty easy to understand once you understand it is all about quarterly profits for the donor class.
and lest a few of you think I am contradicting myself about “forcing” people to get vaccinated. not so. i am against “force” for political and moral reasons. but I never thought people should be forced to share air-space with unvaxxed or unmasked, or undistanced others.
complicated and hard to understand as that may be.
I think stocks and pillories would count as compulsion. And I seem to remember voices right here calling for compulsion.
I don’t think I understand your “strong stands” and “wedge issue.” They found they could craft a narrative that would resonate with the fears of half the people, If that’s creating a wedge issue, I suspect they would naturally take strong stands behind it. But what does that tell us?
Politics is politics. you can fool more than half of the people more than half of the time, and that’s more than enough. The difference this time is that they are in position to make themselves the permanent rulers of a country based on force and fear. Not what we had hoped for.
Translation: what’s the difference between covid is a hoax and smoking gun is a mushroom cloud, or for that matter attacked our ships in the Tonkin Gulf, Kuwaiti babies torn out of incubators and thrown on the floor? Shades if Belgian babies on bayonets…
Maybe the best we can hope for is that Dr Fauci is wrong and omicron is actually the last gasp of covid-19. Once it passes peak, we all will be on the mend, in the clear, good to go, or something like that. Or maybe just ready to rumble.
(There’s nothing mysterious about it. It’s all out there.)
Scores of high-ranking Republican officials in 7 states openly signed forged election documents in a criminal conspiracy designed to overthrow election results and retain Trump as President.
The evidence is clear. The Perps are identified & guilty by their own signatures. They have violated multiple state and federal criminal laws subject to many years in jail. Their names & pictures should be plastered on every digital screen & newspaper in the USA.
Michigan’s AG, Dana Nessel said, the 16 Republicans falsely claimed to be “duly elected and qualified electors” & “…they have committed, ostensibly, the most most significant case of election fraud ever in our state’s history.”
What is DOJ waiting for? Why haven’t they been arrested? Evidence also exists that indicates that Donald Trump, V.P. Pence and many others were aware and participated in and planned the conspiracy.
Here’s how it was all supposed to go down as reported & documented by Asha Rangappa, a Senior Lecturer at the Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School. She served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. https://t.co/MW5MXdJUSe
STEP 1: John Eastman concocts a “legal blueprint” whereby VP Pence elides the requirements of the Electoral Vote Act based on 7 states submitting dual slates of electors, allowing Pence to either count the alternate slate or not count those states at all https://t.co/dsMAnW93jw [the infamous Eastman 6 step plan. Jan. 6 Committee has subpoenaed]
STEP 2: GOP operatives/officials in those 7 states in fact create a false slate of electors and submit them as official, so they can be used in the scenario above https://t.co/I8mBuCzer2
STEP 3: DOJ, meanwhile, submits letters to each state, indicating (falsely) that they have reason to believe that there has been election fraud. This creates perception that results are actually in question, bolstering VP’s ability to discount their votes https://t.co/aU5bCG4w3T [Here’s the letter]
STEP 4: The Big Lie is repeated in rallies and social media, saturating information space to rile up base and give momentum to “Stop the Steal” movement https://t.co/GFQ9AgQZNF
STEP 5: Plan for all of these angry and agitated individuals to come to D.C. on January 6, the day that Eastman’s plan will be put into effect. The protesters are sent to march on the Capitol, to further put pressure on VP Pence and lawmakers, as stated in Oath Keeper indictment https://t.co/2ZDWqDLwZZ
STEP 6: Since mob attack is intended to keep up pressure on Pence/lawmakers, they must be able to remain in Capitol as long as possible. So: 6a) Purge top DOD and replace with loyalists; and 6b) delay LE/National Guard response as long as possible https://t.co/ofSvhTF7ap
STEP 7: ??? I’m not sure what was supposed to happen at this point. Presumably, Pence would somehow declare Trump the winner, or if not, the Capitol would remain occupied until they found a way to make him do it. Seems like they planned to continue the siege https://t.co/TY6dPHWGLD
The point is that there are a lot of moving parts and evidence surfacing in a lot of different areas but they are all connected to one overarching goal: Keep Trump in power by subverting the counting of the electoral votes and preventing the transfer of power to Biden /END
POST SCRIPT: Every step I have described above, with additional detail, is spelled out in the below article (written by Sidney Blumenthal). Stop and read it from the beginning to the end. https://t.co/fkZp4fWBXF
People as young as 18 will soon be allowed to drive commercial trucks carrying tons of cargo across state lines under a federal apprenticeship pilot program that is intended to train thousands of new drivers.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a branch of the Transportation Department, outlined details for the program last week, setting up training procedures and vehicle safety technology requirements.
During the pilot program, which can last up to three years, as many as 3,000 young truckers at a time will be required to complete 400 hours of cumulative probationary time with an experienced driver in the passenger seat. After that, until they turn 21, they will be able to drive solo but under continuous monitoring by trucking companies. …
… The program is part of a $1 trillion bill, signed into law by President Biden on Nov. 15, to modernize the nation’s aging infrastructure. Hundreds of millions were allocated for investments like expanding high-speed internet access, developing transportation programs, and improving roads and bridges.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration was assigned to start the pilot truck-driving program within 60 days after the infrastructure bill was signed into law, a deadline that has now passed. A start date for the pilot program has not been announced.
Trade groups, including the American Trucking Associations, said that the pilot program would provide a much-needed boost for the industry. A declining driver workforce, a perennial issue for the trucking industry, grew worse during the pandemic, said Nick Geale, a vice president at the American Trucking Associations, who also referred to continuing concerns over supply chain shortages. …
Spain has sent warships to join NATO naval forces in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as tension in the region rises over the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Thursday.
A mine-sweeper is already en route and a frigate will sail within three or four days, Robles told reporters. The Madrid government is also considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria, she said.
“Russia cannot tell any country what to do, so NATO will protect and defend the sovereignty of any country that can or wants to join NATO,” she said.
Spain’s preference was for an “exclusively diplomatic response” to resolving the conflict, she added. …
you can tell Russia wants war just by how close they put their country to NATO military bases…..as a peace-loving country, the US would never put its country that close to a Russian or Chinese military base…
A million people in concentration camps, Tibet being looted for everything no nailed down (and some that is), for the life of me I cannot believe the US is not boycotting these Olympics. Shameful.
[Amazing what one can find if they have the time to look for it AND Google.]
https://www.uhhospitals.org/Healthy-at-UH/articles/2020/12/the-role-of-dry-winter-air-in-spreading-covid-19
The Role of Dry Winter Air in Spreading COVID-19
December 20, 2020
…Relative Humidity’s Role in the Transmission of COVID-19
Relative humidity can play a role in the transmission of COVID-19 in three primary ways:
Drying out respiratory airways: Low relative humidity has a drying effect on the cells and mucous linings of our airways. These cells act as a defense against viral particles and other invading foreign substances. Drying out airway linings impairs their ability to function properly. When moisture levels are insufficient, viral particles have a greater “docking” potential at airway receptor sites, which can lead to an increased risk of infection.
Viruses die off faster in higher relative humidity: Research indicates that virus particles suspended in the air die more rapidly when the relative humidity is higher. In environments where viral particles decay faster, less viral material remains suspended in the air, leading to reduced risk of infection.
Lower relative humidity aids airborne transmission of water droplets and aerosols: When we cough, sneeze, talk or sing, water droplets and smaller water particles (aerosols) containing living virus disperse into the air. Droplets and aerosols tend to stay afloat longer and travel farther in air with lower relative humidity. Virus-containing aerosols, in particular, can penetrate more deeply into the lungs to increase the possibility of transmission.
In addition, research shows coronavirus has the potential to live longer on surfaces in colder environments…
well, before that last sentence i was gonna say humidity in winter is low inside houses because they are (over) heated.
personally i think it has more to do with people spending more time inside in winter with other people, and the schools being open. and of course once it gets started it tends to spread.
read an article long time ago by british scientists who found that health was related to inside temperature..warmer houses having healthier people. but then warmer houses are lived in by richer people.
Al Capp’s General Bullmoose slept in a freezer. i thought he was on to something.
or it may have something to do with what time of year the wild geese fly over chinese pigpens.
but what do I know?
Liz Warren, Stephen Colbert talk voting rights, the filibuster, and abolishing the Senate
Boston Globe – Jan 18
I generally have the same fears about raw democracy that the Framers had. But I have to admit, the R’s are teaching me to think we need to limit the power of the Supreme Court, and the Senate now that money can vote.
The trouble is, almost anything we are likely to do (based on words heard on the blogosphere) will come back and bite us, if we can even do anything now that they own the high ground.
Senate Democrats Press Ahead With Debate on Voting Rights Bill
NY Times – Jan 18
Just to review…
It would be possible to change the filibuster rule so that 60-vote majorities are no longer required for matters pertaining to voting or voting-rights. This would be in keeping with how democracies should work. All it would take would be the two Dems who are opposed (Manchin & Sinema) and a tie-breaking vote from VP Harris, assuming a few principled GOP senators will not do what’s right.
In Voting Rights Fight, Democrats Train Ire on Sinema and Manchin
NY Times – Jan 19
(If there are any actual ‘moderate’ GOP senators out there, they should be voting with the Dem majority on this.)
Dobbs
not sure there have been any honest Repiblicans in my lifetime. Sure they are not up for re-election, but they have always been up for keeping the people down.
to be honest, i think NO politicians are honest. glib lies are the tools of the trade. it is necessary to lie to the people, because the people do not know what is good for them…or much about reality at all.
but lying for a living makes it hard to think straight or hard.
and the R’s chose, or were chosen by, a politics of hate, hate, besides being evil in itself, makes it easy for all sorts of evil to infect your thinking.
the Dems lie too of course, but they lie about what they do, not about what we should do. and therin lies the difference. so far.
Presumably there would be costs to GOP senators who defy their leadership on this. So what? What would have John McCain have done? Would he have caved also? Why does Mitt Romney not think back to his years in Massachusetts and let that guide him forward.
Fred
I tried to suggest they are not worried about “costs,” they sold their souls a long tim ago. What is happening is what they worked and planned for.
That includes Mr Straight Talk, and voice of reason Romney. It’s called hedging your bets.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246123.shtml
January 17, 2022
China’s GDP grows 8.1% in 2021, fastest in 10 years, spurring confidence despite challenges ahead
Stellar performance boost confidence, but challenges emerge
By Chu Daye and Li Xuanmin
China on Monday posted an 8.1 percent GDP growth in 2021, defying market expectations and further cementing the world’s second-largest economy’s leading position in the global economy’s recovery from the still raging COVID-19 pandemic, as major growth drivers, particularly exports, saw remarkable improvements in the face of mounting global challenges.
However, a significantly slower GDP growth of 4 percent in the last quarter of 2021, the weakest since the second quarter of 2020, also offered sobering reminders of the growing downward pressure on the Chinese economy, including from shrinking demand, supply chain disruptions and weakening expectations, in addition to risks of the spread of the Omicron variant.
Chinese economists noted that China is still positioned to tackle those challenges, given the solid foundation of the Chinese economy and sufficient fiscal and monetary tools at the disposal of policymakers, who are already moving to boost consumption, liquidity and other issues. Despite risks, some economists are expecting 5.5 percent growth in 2022.
China’s GDP expanded 8.1 percent in 2021, growing the fastest in nearly a decade and landing well above the government’s annual target of achieving a growth rate above 6 percent.
The robust expansion, which beats market expectations and eclipses most of the other major economies in the past two years, spells out a steady economic recovery path – building upon the country’s zero-tolerance epidemic strategy that Beijing has been relying on despite criticism from the West and headwinds throughout the year, which ranged from sporadic coronavirus outbreaks, woes in the property sector, bulk commodity price hikes, to a power crunch.
The country’s total GDP in 2021 reached 114.37 trillion yuan ($18 trillion), according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday….
Murderers
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-18/Chinese-mainland-records-171-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-16UO2Q3gTXG/index.html
January 18, 2022
Chinese mainland reports 171 new COVID-19 cases
The Chinese mainland recorded 171 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, with 127 linked to local transmissions and 44 from overseas, data from the National Health Commission showed on Tuesday.
A total of 33 new asymptomatic cases were also recorded, and 760 asymptomatic patients remain under medical observation.
Confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland now total 105,258, with the death toll remaining unchanged at 4,636 since January last year.
Chinese mainland new locally transmitted cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-18/Chinese-mainland-records-171-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-16UO2Q3gTXG/img/ac09be7b518040b9a0484613a69dc81d/ac09be7b518040b9a0484613a69dc81d.jpeg
Chinese mainland new imported cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-18/Chinese-mainland-records-171-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-16UO2Q3gTXG/img/ecb60cf1cc534f1c95e5a8c2e47e8eb1/ecb60cf1cc534f1c95e5a8c2e47e8eb1.jpeg
Chinese mainland new asymptomatic cases
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-18/Chinese-mainland-records-171-confirmed-COVID-19-cases-16UO2Q3gTXG/img/63d23ddff5914e89bcee93e55da5ef72/63d23ddff5914e89bcee93e55da5ef72.jpeg
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-18/Chinese-mainland-administers-over-2-94b-vaccine-doses-16VBLVZgcGQ/index.html
January 18, 2022
Chinese mainland administers over 2.94b vaccine doses
The Chinese mainland had administered more than 2.94 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses as of January 17, according to data released by the National Health Commission.
[ January 15, 2022
Over 1.22 billion fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on Chinese mainland. ]
Rapists
January 17, 2022
Coronavirus
United States
Cases ( 67,631,191)
Deaths ( 874,321)
Deaths per million ( 2,618)
China
Cases ( 105,087)
Deaths ( 4,636)
Deaths per million ( 3)
Fascists
[A couple of years ago I bought some terrific wind chimes, better than I could afford in my hippie days; and ironically engineered by and produced for Woodstock Chimes. Until buying a home in 2004 forced me to dry dock both my power boats in my back yard, then I had been aware of the wind as any Chesapeake Bay boatman would be. Those terrific wind chimes reacquainted me with the many moods of the spirited Mariah.]
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-worlds-winds-are-speeding-up/
The World’s Winds Are Speeding Up
The trend contradicts concerns of a “global stilling,” with implications for wind energy
Wind speeds are getting faster worldwide, and that’s good news for renewable energy production — at least for now.
A study published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that winds across much of North America, Europe and Asia have been growing faster since about 2010.
In less than a decade, the global average wind speed has increased from about 7 mph to about 7.4 mph. For the average wind turbine, that translates to a 17% increase in potential wind energy. That might explain about half the increase in U.S. wind power capacity since 2010, researchers say…
*
[My intimate relationship goes back much further than that. Most of my life has been more outdoors than indoors. But it is always nice to have scientifically accepted evidence of the patently obvious, since so many people are near-sighted these days.]
Ron
the wind they call Mariah is way out west. different thing altogether.
Coberly,
Comparing our weather to that of Tucson, AZ, where my best friend lives, then our wind speed is usually about twice theirs, in winter at least. I only recently began checking both each week as I have been considering giving him a pair of wind chimes for Xmas. If his wind does not pick up during the year though, I will not. My wife loves the serenade they give us here.
I remember back in the 70’s when I got my first watercraft, a 16-foot canoe, how calm the water frequently was. I have not seen that much though since late in the last century.
Back then we only had a tornado every few years instead of a few tornadoes every year.
Ron
Mariah is not about wind speed. you have your tornadoes and hurry canes.
Mariah blows the stars away
and sets the clouds to flyin’
when Mariah blows the mountains
Sound like someone there is dyin’.
I guess I got my first watercraft, one paddle power, in about 1950. borrowed.
The lake is no longer there. Neither is the forest.
[I guess I got my last in about 1980, also borrowed (for working on the big bridge), only this one had a Ford V8 and would climb telephone poles as we found out when we let one of the girls drive it.]
[please note, i do not approve of boats with more than one paddle power (unless it has sails). but since there is nothing finer than messing about it boats, we have to take what we can get.]
Thing is, if you’ve never been out west, you’ve never been out doors.
Unfortunately out west isn’t there anymore either.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-17/China-to-provide-another-1b-COVID-19-vaccines-to-Africa-Xi-Jinping-16TLIoxCq0U/index.html
January 17, 2022
China to provide another 1b COVID-19 vaccines to Africa: Xi Jinping
China will provide another one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to African countries, said Chinese President Xi Jinping during his speech at a virtual session of the 2022 World Economic Forum.
Xi said China will also donate 150 million doses to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
He reiterated that cooperation is “the only right way” to defeat the pandemic, while holding each other back or shifting blame “would only cause needless delay in response” and “distract us from the overall objective.”
Colonialists.
Amid COVID-19 outbreaks in China, corporate fears of a worsening supply chain crisis – As the world’s largest manufacturer and the supplier of a vast array of goods, production and transport delays in China necessarily impact on economies internationally. China’s scientifically-based policy of eliminating the COVID-19 virus through mass testing and contact tracing, travel restrictions, quarantining and lockdowns, as well as mass vaccination, has been under sustained attack by the Western media. Misleading stories highlighting grossly inflated examples of bureaucratic excesses and opposition on social media cannot obscure the fact that, in contrast to the disasters created by governments elsewhere, the policy has been to date successful and has a high degree of public support. This politically foul campaign is part and parcel of the US-led demonisation of China as Washington steps up its aggressive and reckless confrontation with Beijing, which it regards as the chief threat to American global hegemony. The concerted push for the Chinese government to drop its COVID-zero policy now takes on another dimension as global corporations grapple with supply chain breakdowns. The Financial Times on Sunday declared: “China’s battle to contain the Omicron coronavirus variant risks choking already stretched global supply chains, manufacturing managers and analysts have warned, threatening production of goods ranging from smartphones to furniture.” After the lockdown of Xi’an, a city of 13 million, for three weeks to control an outbreak, the identification last week of cases of community transmission of the highly-contagious Omicron strain in the port city of Tianjin, close to Beijing, raised alarm bells. Beijing itself recorded a case of Omicron last weekend and COVID cases were discovered in other cities, including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Dalian—all major ports. In contrast to the “let it rip” policies elsewhere in the world that have led to millions of infections, hospitalisations and deaths, the restrictions implemented in China have contained the limited outbreaks. The daily cases numbers in China are miniscule by comparison. As of midnight on Saturday, there were 119 cases reported across China, of which 65 were locally transmitted according to the National Health Commission. Of those, 33 were in Tianjin, 29 in cities in Henan province and one in Xi’an. Beijing reported one case, its first of the Omicron variant.
The intersting thing is going to be how China maintains its economy.
I maintained at the start, we could have reasonable “lockdowns” and lose no more than 25% (probably no more than 10%) of our economy temporarily,
and share the pain with an equivalent “insuranee premium” (tax) on those still working, to provide for basic needs among those whose jobs could not be made safe (for the rest of us.)
Of course the first American answer to that was “do not shut down our sacred economy. only old (unproductive) people would die on the way to herd immunity, and they would be glad to make the sacrifice so their children could grow rich and prosper.”
i found this interesting because long time ago i read (USA Today) that for every person who retired, the economy lost 90,000 dollars per year. since back then most people didn’t make half that much, i figured the people losing most of that money would be “the rich” who make their money off “the poor.” told me a lot about why the rich hate Social Security. because, of course, the poor pay for their own Social Security, but they can’t be allowd to chose more time over more money. Because worker’s time is the boss’s money, you see.
the rich are not too smart. they could not understand that on the way to herd immunity a lot more people were going to get sick, a lot more, and the disease would spread exponentially until there was no way to control it except by death or Yukon King arriving in time with a sled full of serum…
and kill even the “productive” people…driving wages up (bargaining power) and productivity down, supply chain shortages, inflation…
and of course the only way to deal with that is to get rid of mandatory vaccination and post infection recovery time.
American politics gets pretty easy to understand once you understand it is all about quarterly profits for the donor class.
and lest a few of you think I am contradicting myself about “forcing” people to get vaccinated. not so. i am against “force” for political and moral reasons. but I never thought people should be forced to share air-space with unvaxxed or unmasked, or undistanced others.
complicated and hard to understand as that may be.
Because anti-vaxxers can’t actually be ‘compelled’ to get shots, what are the authorities to do. Bring back stocks & pillories maybe?
As it is, they are taking strong stands that their cohort will applaud.
That’s what it’s really all about. I.e., a wedge issue par excellance.
Dobbs
I think stocks and pillories would count as compulsion. And I seem to remember voices right here calling for compulsion.
I don’t think I understand your “strong stands” and “wedge issue.” They found they could craft a narrative that would resonate with the fears of half the people, If that’s creating a wedge issue, I suspect they would naturally take strong stands behind it. But what does that tell us?
Politics is politics. you can fool more than half of the people more than half of the time, and that’s more than enough. The difference this time is that they are in position to make themselves the permanent rulers of a country based on force and fear. Not what we had hoped for.
Translation: what’s the difference between covid is a hoax and smoking gun is a mushroom cloud, or for that matter attacked our ships in the Tonkin Gulf, Kuwaiti babies torn out of incubators and thrown on the floor? Shades if Belgian babies on bayonets…
Maybe the best we can hope for is that Dr Fauci is wrong and omicron is actually the last gasp of covid-19. Once it passes peak, we all will be on the mend, in the clear, good to go, or something like that. Or maybe just ready to rumble.
The anti-vaxxers will have their vindication.
Yeah, it could happen.
CONSPIRACY TO OVERTHROW THE ELECTION
(There’s nothing mysterious about it. It’s all out there.)
Scores of high-ranking Republican officials in 7 states openly signed forged election documents in a criminal conspiracy designed to overthrow election results and retain Trump as President.
https://t.co/w2WdHAXk0t
The evidence is clear. The Perps are identified & guilty by their own signatures. They have violated multiple state and federal criminal laws subject to many years in jail. Their names & pictures should be plastered on every digital screen & newspaper in the USA.
Michigan’s AG, Dana Nessel said, the 16 Republicans falsely claimed to be “duly elected and qualified electors” & “…they have committed, ostensibly, the most most significant case of election fraud ever in our state’s history.”
What is DOJ waiting for? Why haven’t they been arrested? Evidence also exists that indicates that Donald Trump, V.P. Pence and many others were aware and participated in and planned the conspiracy.
Here’s how it was all supposed to go down as reported & documented by Asha Rangappa, a Senior Lecturer at the Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School. She served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. https://t.co/MW5MXdJUSe
STEP 1: John Eastman concocts a “legal blueprint” whereby VP Pence elides the requirements of the Electoral Vote Act based on 7 states submitting dual slates of electors, allowing Pence to either count the alternate slate or not count those states at all https://t.co/dsMAnW93jw [the infamous Eastman 6 step plan. Jan. 6 Committee has subpoenaed]
STEP 2: GOP operatives/officials in those 7 states in fact create a false slate of electors and submit them as official, so they can be used in the scenario above https://t.co/I8mBuCzer2
STEP 3: DOJ, meanwhile, submits letters to each state, indicating (falsely) that they have reason to believe that there has been election fraud. This creates perception that results are actually in question, bolstering VP’s ability to discount their votes https://t.co/aU5bCG4w3T [Here’s the letter]
STEP 4: The Big Lie is repeated in rallies and social media, saturating information space to rile up base and give momentum to “Stop the Steal” movement https://t.co/GFQ9AgQZNF
STEP 5: Plan for all of these angry and agitated individuals to come to D.C. on January 6, the day that Eastman’s plan will be put into effect. The protesters are sent to march on the Capitol, to further put pressure on VP Pence and lawmakers, as stated in Oath Keeper indictment https://t.co/2ZDWqDLwZZ
STEP 6: Since mob attack is intended to keep up pressure on Pence/lawmakers, they must be able to remain in Capitol as long as possible. So: 6a) Purge top DOD and replace with loyalists; and 6b) delay LE/National Guard response as long as possible https://t.co/ofSvhTF7ap
STEP 7: ??? I’m not sure what was supposed to happen at this point. Presumably, Pence would somehow declare Trump the winner, or if not, the Capitol would remain occupied until they found a way to make him do it. Seems like they planned to continue the siege https://t.co/TY6dPHWGLD
The point is that there are a lot of moving parts and evidence surfacing in a lot of different areas but they are all connected to one overarching goal: Keep Trump in power by subverting the counting of the electoral votes and preventing the transfer of power to Biden /END
POST SCRIPT: Every step I have described above, with additional detail, is spelled out in the below article (written by Sidney Blumenthal). Stop and read it from the beginning to the end. https://t.co/fkZp4fWBXF
In other news…
Facing a shortage of truck drivers, pilot program turns to teenagers
NY Times via Boston Globe – Jan 19
(Ok, it is ON!)
Spain sends warships to Black Sea, considers sending warplanes
Reuters – Jan 20
you can tell Russia wants war just by how close they put their country to NATO military bases…..as a peace-loving country, the US would never put its country that close to a Russian or Chinese military base…