Tuesday, June 30, 2020

A Tale of Global Disaster

"This means we have already tested all the people that need to be tested. We are also rolling out large scale screening to key regions and key populations [of the city] and improving our capability of testing."
Zhang Qiang, Beijing municipal committee official

"[The virus continues to have the] upper hand ]even while Americans were tired of restrictions imposed to contain its spread]."
"We are moving too fast."
"It's like leaning into a left hook. You are going to get hit hard. And that's what is happening."
Tom Frieden, director, U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009-2017)

A man rides a bicycle as people walk on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, Florida on June 26, 2020. (Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images/CNN)

On Sunday the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,504,175 novel coronavirus cases representing an increase of 44,703 cases from the previous count. The number of deaths in the United States had risen to 125,484, with an additional 508 that day. A staggering number, given that the worldwide case totals now sit at ten million, with deaths creeping up to the half-million mark. The U.S. figures indicate that it alone is responsible for a huge number of cases out of the worldwide total. Some 'left hook' that has turned out to be.

In both its case total and COVID-linked fatalities the United States has attained the world's highest numbers. The most technologically advanced nation on Earth, the wealthiest of advanced economies has demonstrated an inability to control the virus spread. And that situation will ensure that other countries, emerging from their own dread exposure to the vicissitudes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus preying on the human respiratory system, will take steps to ban American citizens from entry to their borders.

Canada, sitting north of its neighbour on the North American continent as of late Sunday had 103,250 confirmed cases, with 8,522 deaths, an increase from 102,959 and 8,516 deaths of the day before, with a population about one-tenth that of the United States.

Beijing had collected 8.29 million patient samples for testing, completing 7.69 million tests. Its first case from the outbreak representing a second wave was reported on June 11 where 311 people have tested positive for the virus since then, in the city of over 20 million people. China, where the original outbreak first emerged, has successfully controlled its outbreaks using all the means available to a dictatorship.

The intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients at the Gilberto Novaes Hospital in the Manaus, in Brazil's Amazon region, has been operating close to capacity.

If the Chinese population feels put-upon and strained over severe lock-down procedures, it is not too likely there will be mass protests erupting over forced self-isolation in a population long accustomed to following orders, and avoiding government punishment. In the final analysis the entire population stands to benefit from strict isolation resulting in infection control. In stark contrast, Americans have protested, loudly and vociferously.

And they have taken to disowning the need to self-isolate, sick of lockdown, assembling in numbers to protest, with young Americans descending on beaches on hot sunny summer days, recapturing what has been lost to the necessity to avoid infection. And so, infections have risen substantially because the young feel invulnerable, and they know that their youth will protect them from severe health repercussions, and the entire population is once again plunged into viral infection territory.

The seven months it has taken for a half-million people globally to die of this mysterious new zoonotic has marked a grim milestone in global pandemics. One long anticipated by health experts, but ignored by governments. The repercussions to ordinary life that has been occasioned by the presence of this virus will likely never be fully reversed. The uncertainty surrounding the ability of the virus to change its characteristics, to resurge and rampage anew will ensure that a measure of social distancing will reflect a new normal.

A woman stands behind a fence as she waits for the delivery of goods she ordered online in a residential area under lockdown near the closed Xinfadi market in Beijing.

Working, schooling, shopping, eating out, holidaying, travelling, all human activities integral to normal life and needs will be irretrievably altered for the foreseeable future, successful vaccine or not since, as most virologists now claim, there will be many more such zoonotics to emerge over time, and preparedness must, as a result, also become a new way of survival.

India and Brazil are now hard put in their efforts to control their own outbreaks, registering over 10,000 cases daily and accounting for over a third of all new cases in the past week. Out of Brazil a record 54,700 new cases were reported on June 19. The death toll in Latin America, according to some researchers could rise to over 350,000 by October, from its current total of 100,000.

China, New Zealand and Australia, all believing they had successfully 'flattened the curve' and were emerging out from under their epidemics, have seen resurgences as new outbreaks have destroyed the elation of a few weeks earlier when authorities in all those countries were jubilant over having fended off the virus. It is not yet ready to exit the scene, and it is not known when it will be, with or without a vaccine emerging within the next year, year-and-a-half.

A fresh cluster of novel coronavirus cases have emerged from a wholesale food market in Beijing, after the city reported no new local infections for nearly two months.

Labels: Beijing, Brazil, COVID-19, Deaths, United States, World Case Figures

Monday, June 29, 2020

China's Universal Game of Territorial Gain

"There's no trust right now."
"Nobody is going to buy this idea anymore that greater economic engagement is going to alleviate political strains [between India and China]."
Tanvi Madan, director, India Project, Brookings Institution, Washington

"If you consider the division of labour, then China is certainly on the winning side [of the two countries' trade imbalance]."
"[Particularly in two key areas -- telecoms and pharmaceuticals -- the government] must put in place a medium-term strategy to get out of this kind of dependence [on China. It is] absolutely imperative."
Biswajit Dhar, former Indian trade negotiator

"[China is] trying to change the status quo unilaterally in the Est China Sea, the South China Sea, at the Indian border and in Hong Kong."
"Our fighter jets scramble against Chinese airplanes almost every day. ...Their armed ships are trying to violate our territorial waters."
Taro Kono, Japanese Minister of Defence

A Japanese military plane flies over the Senakuku/Diaoyu islands

China has named 50 underwater geographic features located in close proximity to islands whose sovereignty has long been disputed between Japan and China in the East China Sea. China obviously is in the mood to prove the old adage that 'possession is nine-tenths of the law'. Tokyo has interpreted Beijing's move as an "alarming" leap in advancing Chinese territorial claims; recognized as but one of a number of provocative events in flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific region based on fears of military escalation.

Events between China and India have become even more obviously fraught where disputed territory between the two giant nuclear nations in the Himalaya has seen Beijing's departure from the cold diplomacy its neighbours rely upon to blatant military violence in claiming geographical points within India's boundaries. In a May 15 physical altercation between unarmed Indian and Chinese troops, over 20 Indian soldiers were beaten to death in a violent melee. China has not divulged the numbers of its own losses.

Beijing has given orders for its military to move forward beyond China's territorial borders and into India's. It has surreptitiously erected army posts where no Chinese should venture, within the borders of India's sovereign territory high in the Himalaya. There has been a troop buildup on both sides; China belligerently prepared to advance its interests, and India just as prepared to protect its own from a predatory neighbour. And though both sides had long ago agreed that their military would not carry arms to prevent bloodshed in case of a skirmish, both resorted to improvised weaponry.

https://s2.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20200623&t=2&i=1523169294&r=LYNXMPEG5M0LI&w=1600

An Indian Army convoy moves along a highway leading to Ladakh, at Gagangeer in Kashmir's Ganderbal district June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

China's latest move is to send martial art trainers to their outposts on the Tibetan Plateau -- itself representing a geographical territory torn from Tibetan sovereignty over Chinese claims that Tibet is part of China which it appropriated a century ago, formally annexing it in 1951 with the claim that Tibet formed part of China 800 years ago. Chinese soldiers stationed in their mountain redoubts will now become proficient in the martial arts, though even without them they had hurled an Indian commander to his death off the side of the mountain.

Analysts of satellite imagery confirmed that despite its diplomatic "mutual consensus to disengage" with India over the disputed territory, it had taken no action to remove the posts it had constructed inside Indian territory, nor had it withdrawn its troops stationed there in the Galwan valley. Indeed it has fortified the area in dispute. "India will reduce its dependence on imports", stated Prime Minister Modi. "We [will] become [the] biggest exporters of the commodities that we now import", he declared.

The treacherous terrain of the Ladakh region.Credit:AP

Unfortunately, just like all other nations within the international community, India too has over the years become a nation dependent on Chinese trade, intertwined with its own, a huge trade imbalance in China's favour the result of acquiring cheaper goods, ranging from household items to high-tech communications and personal protection equipment during a time of global economic breakdown caused by a ferociously infectious virus out of China.

Most nations including those whose natural resources China is steadily depleting, and who will never be able to repay the immense infrastructure loans made by Beijing to emerging economies, to bring them into China's "one road, one belt" orbit to capture an even greater share of the world market already mortgaged to China, seek to ingratiate themselves with the power that is behind Beijing, fearful of enduring its wrath should they be seen to defy Chinese directives.

The irony is that the country that gifted the global community with an economy-wrecking, social disaster-wreacking, death-delivering zoonotic, is the very same country that produces a huge proportion of the world's disinfectant chemicals, respirators, medical masks and gowns, ensuring that the stricken world remains dependent on China and in the process, semi-vassals of Beijing. India, with its uneasy political and trade relations with China, finds itself in a bind.

India exports raw materials and imports intermediate and final products of higher economic value; the traditional short-end-of-the-stick in trade. It accesses raw material that China produces; high performance polyethylene, to produce its bulletproof vests for Indian paramilitary and police forces. Bulletproof jackets for the Indian army relies on materials imported from China. India will henceforth make a strenuous effort to wean itself away from Chinese products.

As a worldwide pharmaceutical producer in the global generic drug industry, India is deeply dependent on China, since around 70 percent of the active ingredients required by drugmakers emanate from china, according to Ashok Kumar Madan, executive director of the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association. Decreasing that reliance on China is a goal that India has long eyed and found frustratingly difficult to attain.

Taking a leaf, as it were, over China's preferred method of punishing nations that dare to defy the advances of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing India will nonetheless begin the process of withdrawal. Where China bullies other nations when they run afoul of Beijing's wishes, by punishing them through imposing high tariffs on their products or finding reason to discontinue accessing their products for Chinese consumption, as it has done with Canada and Australia. A trade war is less destructive than a military war.

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/.e/interactive/html5-video-media/2020/06/16/Kashmir_Map_WIDE_June15_Galwan_Valley_Ladakh_mediumx2.png

Labels: Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Predatory, Territory, Tibet, Trade

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Coronavirus? Having a Blast!

"We've seen large numbers of people completely flouting the health regulations, seeming not to care at all about their own or their families' health, wanting to have large parties."
"It's hot, some people have drunk far too much, some people are just angry and aggressive and some are just plain violent."
London Police Chief Cressida Dick

Parisians dance in the street at Fête de la Musique, 21 June. Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

All across Europe, from London to Portugal, tens of thousands of young people are no longer hunkered down in fear of contracting the novel coronavirus, much less listening to the advice of medical professionals and government cautions. It's party time for the young -- lonely and bursting with energy, wanting to party in an atmosphere of stillness and mood-stifling apprehension over a more open attitude inviting a second wave of infections and accompanying deaths from COVID-19.

The massive global lockdown is being relaxed,and with it goes the tension and fear, and a willingness to gamble on the alternatives that threaten the old and the infirm, not the young and hale bursting with excitement and yearning to return to pre-COVID days of blase contemporary spontaneity. Mass gatherings have suddenly erupted, with and without face masks, with and without distancing.

Music, dance, and plenty of company with all the carefree opportunities that accompany a relaxed attitude, leaving concerns to the minds of the vulnerable aged and the health and government authorities. Their frantic celebrations of life and luxuriant youth displaying itself in the full regalia of confidence in their indestructibility bring shudders to the health community in their nightmares of a second wave of infections and a follow-up lockdown.

Police have been summoned to do their duty, reason with the youth, and failing that use whatever influence they may have to persuade them to separate and disperse. The response has been not quite predictable, leading to clashes in London where crowds attacked police with bottles, setting themselves against patrol cars. Twenty-two police officers required medical attention.

Several parties taking place in London were dispersed overnight by police. Incidents of rape, of drug offences, and of stabbings at raves in several cities are being investigated.

It's summer, after all, and nothing can dampen the spirits of the young wanting to be out and about with their peers, released from the grim reality of isolating from the prospects of infection. A virus that threatens not the young but the health-and-immune-impaired, the elderly -- and what concern is that of theirs?

Germany and France are seeing their young exuberantly enjoying street parties, oblivious to the toll their nations have been suffering, because after all, it's summer and the days and nights call out for action-oriented fun in crowds of young, lithe and beautiful people, anxious to re-establish contact with one another, sick to death of grim foreboding, sentiments not their own by natural law.

Portugal's Atlantic beaches are crowded with sun-worshippers.Thousands sought out Portugal's cities of Porto and Braga on the weekend to party in the heat. "Join us on this magical journey in the forest" crooned a message on social media for a gathering on a hidden beach west of Lisbon. "Let's get together and share some loving, vibes and music", came the irresistible call to action.

At Hasenheide Park in Berlin hundreds gathered to dance into the night in recent weeks. "I think people are just longing to socially connect", commented D.J.Elias Dore in Berlin, of the thousands of young people who would under normal circumstances be dancing under the open skies at European summer festivals.

Spanish policemen ask people that were sunbathing to leave the Barceloneta beach in Barcelona on May 20, 2020 during the hours allowed by the government to exercise.

Spanish policemen ask people sunbathing to leave the Barceloneta beach

Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images

"Even if they don't usually get as ill, young people still transmit the virus", stated Dr.Celso Cunha, a virologist at the University of Lisbon, bemoaning that proper testing and tracing to prove whether contagion is happening will not be possible, given the thousands of anonymous attendees popping casually in and out of events.

Warnings over social distancing didn't keep sun seekers away from this Netherlands beach on Thursday.

Warnings over social distancing didn't keep sun seekers away from this Netherlands beach on Thursday.

Labels: Beaches, Europe, Lockdown, Novel Coronavirus, Parties, Raves, Youth

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Canada's 'Ndrangheta

"The COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for co-operation in tackling this threat a greater priority, with the 'Ndrangheta modus operandi designed to thrive in today's financial landscape of recession, liquidity crunch and mobilization of public funds."
"The amount of cash capital available to the 'Ndrangheta means they are well placed to offer assistance to large, medium and small companies which may be struggling with payments."
"They can guarantee a payment or offer loans as part of their efforts to infiltrate the legitimate economy."
"Families under financial distress, seasonal or undeclared workers are also prime targets for loan sharking by mafia-type organizations."
Interpol International Criminal Police Organization

"COVID-19, which for the whole world represents the most tragic and sudden pandemic of the modern era, could become an extraordinary opportunity for 'Ndrangheta, and for organized crime in general, to conquer new markets and launder money."
"We need to act immediately to anticipate the threat and counter the Mafia's flexibility to rapidly adapt to changes and exploit new socio-economic frameworks."
Franco Gabrielli, chief, Polizia di Stato, Italy

"The RCMP is committed to working with its foreign partners in the I-CAN initiative to combat the global threat posed by the 'Ndrangheta criminal organization."
"Combating organized crime and transl=national organized crime is an existing priority for the Federal Policing program within the RCMP, and the 'Ndrangheta is a component of this. We will continue to focus on working with our partners to impact the threat these transnational networks pose."
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme

The 11 pilot countries in the I-CAN project funded by the Italian Department of Public Security, are: Australia (Australian Federal Police), Argentina (Argentinian Federal Police), Brazil (Brazilian Federal Police), Canada (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), Colombia (Colombian National Police), France (National Police and Gendarmerie), Germany (German Federal Criminal Police - BKA), Italy (Italian State Police, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza), Switzerland (Fedpol), United States (Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation) and Uruguay (Uruguayan National Police).

Italy's Department of Public Security funds the I-CAN (INTERPOL Cooperation Against ‘Ndrangheta) project where a virtual teleconference brought together at a distance officials from those countries that have been most affected by the presence of the 'Ndrangheta: Italy, Canada, Australia, Germany, the United States, Colombia, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Argentina and Uruguay.

The concern of police forces around the world is to cooperate in building a "global early warning system" in prevention of the Calabrian Mafia from exploiting the COVID-19 economic collapse, in plans to infiltrate national economic infrastructure. According to Interpol, the 'Ndrangheta represents "the most extensive and powerful criminal organization in the world".'

Italy's southern region of Calabria gave birth to the 'Ndrangheta, which then spread to over 30 countries, including Canada, where it has a long established and strong presence. Police officials from eleven countries most affected by the presence of the 'Ndrangheta, met for the first time as a group with a common purpose this week, but did so through a virtual teleconference.

Like any branch company, the foundational features of the 'Ndrangheta networks anywhere in the world feature similar setups and all value close ties wit their home towns in Calabria. The group's long-established presence in Canada is one of powerful influence despite its geographic distance from the origins of the criminal group. Its mobsters immigrated to Canada in the 1950s and have seldom looked back.

Their power and influence is the same whether they wield it from Italy or from Canada. The 'Ndrangheta clans living in Canada are unique in the underworld of Italian mafia outreach. In the Toronto area, the 'Ndrangheta board of control enjoys a recognized authority respected internationally; decisions made in Toronto for the global 'Ndrangheta display its strength and its recognized place in the panoply of 'Ndangheta authority.

The intention of Interpol's I-CAN project as an anti-'Ndrangheta project is to map the flow of mob fugitives cross country. And Canada has more than its share of the 'Ndrangheta mob. A group that is slated to be studied under the fine magnification of the national police force with a view to identifying, arresting and prosecuting people wanted for Mafia activism.

"It has repeatedly proven its skill in infiltrating political and economic environments, and a remarkable capacity for corruption."
"The 'Ndrangheta is an invisible threat and a dangerous criminal business partner. This is how their cycle feeds itself across more than 30 countries A cycle we must act to stop, now."
Jurgen Stock, secretary general, Interpol

York Regional Police and Canadian government officials at a news conference in July 2019 to talk about recent arrests of members of the ’Ndrangheta crime family which saw high end cars, homes, money, watches among other items seized. Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Labels: Canada, Interpol, Italian Mafia

Friday, June 26, 2020

Milking the Racial Cow

Bubba Wallace responds after FBI hate crime investigation

'Whether tied in 2019, or whatever, it was a noose'

"[This was a] despicable act of racism and hatred [that] leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society."

"[The act shows] how persistent we must be in the fight against racism. Over the last several weeks, I have been overwhelmed by the support from people across the NASCAR industry including other drivers and team members in the garage."

"Together, our sport has made a commitment to driving real change and championing a community that is accepting and welcoming of everyone."

"Nothing is more important and we will not be deterred by the reprehensible actions of those who seek to spread hate. As my mother told me today, 'They are just trying to scare you'."

"This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to stand proudly for what I believe in."

"There should be no individual that is uncomfortable showing up to our events to have a good time with their family that feels some type of way about something they have seen, an object they have seen flying [Confederate flag]. No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race."

"So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them."

Bubba Wallace, NASCAR driver

"We are angry and outraged and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act."

"We have launched an immediate investigation and will do everything we can to identify the person[s] responsible and eliminate them from the sport."

"As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place for racism in NASCAR and this act only strengthens our resolve to make the sport open and welcoming to all."

NASCAR Statement

The FBI said it "learned that garage number 4, where the noose was found, was assigned to Bubba Wallace last week."
"The investigation also revealed evidence, including authentic video confirmed by NASCAR, that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019. Although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week."
Federal Bureau of Investigation Report

An image taken from a 2019 YouTube video shows a garage door rope fashioned into a noose in the stall used by Bubba Wallace's race team earlier this week at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.

Before the start of the GEICO 500 at Talladega superspeedway in Alabama drivers approached BubbaWallace to express their undying support for him at this difficult time in his life, devastated that some dastardly racist had somehow managed to penetrate the armour of protection that NASCAR erects around its vehicles, its drivers, its garages, denying entry to any but those entitled to enter the premises. That being so, a shudder of horror must have gone through the minds of all concerned, that somehow someone trusted with access to the area, had installed a noose to deliver a hateful racist message to the only Black driver in the NASCAR stable.

Not to worry, everyone, from the executives of the enterprise, to the lowliest of the workers, and certainly all the drivers, and be assured those from other groups as well, were solidly in support of Bubba at this, his time of discomfiting personal threat. Selfies, yes, plenty taken, proof-positive that there was no end of empathy and love to go around any number of times without end. Loyalty and brotherhood in the profession and beyond, bro....

Late Sunday afternoon all displays of the Confederate flag were removed from view. Bubba Wallace declared them for what they were; a symbol of Black slavery and contempt and hatred for African-Americans, an insult to America just as they were an assault on Black America. The U.S. attorney for the northern District of Alabama had assured all concerned that his office, the FBI and the Department of Justice Civil Rights division "are reviewing the situation surrounding the noose that was found in Bubba Wallace's garage to determine whether there are violations of federal law."

"Regardless of whether federal charges can be brought, this type of action has no place in our society." And so there, all aboard. It's just as well, that Bubba Wallace did not himself see the noose, a heart-stopping experience, he was at least spared that. When noticed by a worker it was immediately reported to officials of NASCAR, who can credit a member of Bubba's team for discovering the offensive, threatening symbol of anti-Black hatred. Think, for example of what a Swastika signifies to a Jew.

One wonders, as an aside, has anyone ever asked Bubba Wallace why he would appropriate for himself a name that traditionally designated the presence of a 'good old boy' someone of limited intelligence, low education, a redneck, certain to be racially bigoted? That name is as much an offence to any self-respecting Black as the Confederate flag might be. So what is this, a kind of double standard, that some offensive symbols are game, others are not? And does that qualify as 'cultural appropriation'?

"They see me as somebody who's tearing down their heritage. But we're not trying to close the door on you, we're opening the door to many others that want to be a part of this sport", Bubba declared as he explained that the presence of the Confederate flag in an Alabama sport arena is prohibitively offensive and should never be on public display. Wallace is "my brother and always will be. Don't let the people who are lower than life to try to bring you down. They won't scare you because you're strong. I stand with you pal. Forever", tweeted driver Ryan Blaney, good soul that he obviously is.

FBI says Bubba Wallace not a target of a hate crime

"God created us equal. I will never understand how some people don't believe that. The stupid hatefulness that happened yesterday is disgusting. I know @NASCAR will oust this idiot. Go win today @BubbaWallace. I'll be cheering you on. #IStandWith Bubba", wrote former drive Michael Waltrip. Everyone, actually, tripping all over themselves to declare their undying devotion to the much-put-upon Bubba.

Labels: NASCAR, Noosing a Garage Pulley

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Indulging in Traitorous Escapades

"Melzer allegedly provided this potentially deadly information intending that it be conveyed to jihadi terrorists."
"[The planned attack was a] murderous ambush [designed by] the enemy motivated by racism and hatred as he attempted to carry out this ultimate act of betrayal."
Acting U.S.Attorney Audrey Strauss, Southern District of New York

"[09A] encourages acolytes to engage in forbidden and illegal acts, including extreme violence, sexual assault, assassinations and human sacrifice."
"[09A has more recently gained prominence online, allowing its propaganda to be easily accessed by] young radicals drawn to extreme fringe ideas."
Hope not Hate anti-hate advocacy organization, U.K.

Shutterstock/Bumble Dee

Ethan Melzer joined the US.army in 2018 and enthusiastically became involved with 09A when 2019 arrived. It is an organization promoting "violent, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Satanic beliefs", according to New York-based prosecutors. Its adherents express their admiration of Adolf Hitler and Islamic terrorists like Osama bin Lade, according to those same prosecutors, Britain faced pressure from activists to outlaw the UK-based 09A as a terrorist organization.

A truly 'exotic' group, it intertwines Satanism, paganism and Nazism in the creation of their own very special "bizarre pseudo-religious political cult", believed to have originated in the early1970s. 09A furthermore has gained online prominence enabling its propaganda to be readily accessed by "young radicals drawn to extreme fringe ideas". Private Melzer concocted a scheme which would have made his unit in the U.S. army vulnerable to a violent attack.

First he prepared for a deployment in April at which point 22-year-old Melzer from Louisville forwarded a series of electronic messages to share details relating to his unit's location, their movements and security. Those messages went out to members of the Order of Nine Angies (09A), organization through a series of electronic messages for the purpose of launching a "mass casualty" attack, causing the deaths of "as any of his fellow service members as possible", read an indictment presented in court on Monday.

That Melzer's own life was at risk in reflection of a murderous plot he hatched against his unit, seemed not to bother him the least bit. Accusations that he leaked sensitive information about his unit to a satanic neo-Nazi cult leading to a plot to launch an attack, he said: "I would've died successfully". The success seen not in the scope of plans for a mass attack with resulting mortalities, but in his imperturbable belief in himself and his dedication to death, hoping to be killed with his overseas unit.

Unfortunately for him the FBI and the army thwarted his carefully guarded plans, arresting him on June 10 and charging him with conspiring and attempting to murder U.S. nationals; conspiring and attempting to murder military service members; providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and finally, conspiring to murder and maim in a foreign country, according to the news
release.

The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate published a report citing research recognizing a 320 percent rise in terrorist attacks with links to movements and far-right ideologies over the last five years. A "growing and increasingly transnational threat posed by extreme right-wing terrorism" the report noted, mentioning attacks becoming more intensive both in frequency and lethality.

Members and associates of 09A are known to take part in acts of violence, including murder.
Notified of his unit's assignment, moving to a different foreign base, Melzer used an encrypted application to message members of 09A and the RapeWaffen Division, with messages containing conversations relating to his umit's upcoming deployment.

U.S. soldier plotted with a satanic neo-Nazi cult to stage ‘murderous ambush’ on his own unit, feds say

John Bazemore / AP

As Ethan Melzer's U.S. Army unit prepared for a deployment in April, the young private recognized that he could be killed while overseas and expressed an apparent willingness to die.

Labels: Attacks, Islamists, Military, Treason, United States

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Record Worldwide Daily COVID Increase

"Certainly the numbers are increasing because the epidemic is developing in a number of populous countries at the same time and across the whole world."
"Some of that increase may be attributed to increased testing ... and certainly countries like India are testing more. But we do not believe that this is a testing phenomenon."
"There still are relatively low tests per population, and the positivity rates for testing are still quite high overall. From that perspective, we would say that this trend is not reflective of exhaustive testing, but probably underestimating the actual number of cases."
"I'm not 100 percent sure about the age profile, but I've seen the reports that some of this is among younger people. That may reflect the fact that younger people are more mobile and they are getting out and taking advantage of the reductions in restrictions of movement .... "
"What is clear is that the increase is not entirely explained through just increased testing."
Mike Ryan, emergencies expert, World Health Organization

There are "worrying increases" of novel coronavirus cases in Latin America. Brazil in particular is seen by the World Health Organization as a country whose control of the outbreak is particularly questionable even as the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections have been soaring in a number of major countries simultaneously. Over 183,000 new cases of the new coronavirus were recorded on Sunday, the most in a single day since the December date of the outbreak, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The nine million mark of global cases of COVID-19 was passed on Monday, identifying the United States and China reporting a new wave of outbreaks. They're not the only countries alarmed at the resurging epidemic hurling itself into their plans to reopen their shattered economies, leaving the future of international trade and individual nations' capacity to withstand much more damage, in question.

A leap in coronavirus cases in Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Bolivia and Guatemala, along with Brazil, which has itself passed the one million mark of infections among its population, is concerning for the WHO.

Specimens tested for COVID-19, LifeLabs The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

Brazil's outbreak is now counted second to that of the United States, where Brazil reported a record 54,000 cases in the most recent 24-hour period. As Latin America's largest, most populous country, Brazil has often recorded over 1,000 deaths in the space of a day in the last month.

President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of his nation's crisis has gained him wide criticism in the face of the crisis.

"Great upticks" in cases in a number of American states particularly concerns Mr. Ryan, who attributes the increase to a young generation of Americans feeling themselves impervious to harm.

And in Germany, where the reproduction rate of the virus has suddenly risen to 2.88 on Sunday, considerably higher than the target maximum level of one transmission per person required to contain the disease, the latest statistics stand out as particularly worrisome.

Labels: Global Pandemic, Surging Case Numbers, World Health Organization

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Rallying Re-Election Support in Oklahoma

U.S. President Donald Trump lashes out at what he calls the 'left-wing mob' during a rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday

"I stand before you today to declare that the silent majority is stronger than ever before. We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, and we are the party of law and order."
"Does anybody honestly think he [presidential contender Joe Biden] controls these radical maniacs [of the Democratic Party's leftmost flank]?"
"Do you know what he [Biden] says to his wife when he's not confusing her with his sister?"
U.S.President Donald Trump on the campaign trail, Tulsa, Oklahoma

"We've tested over 25 million Americans. We've tested more than any other country in this world."
"Instead, the press and others, all they want to focus on is an increasing case count. And we know that that's going to occur when you test individuals more and more and more."
Chad Wolf, acting Homeland Security Secretary

Jennifer Helterbrand says she was sick with COVID for 16 days but is not going to 'live in fear'

A million people had requested tickets online to attend the Tulsa rally for the re-election presidential campaign where President Trump was intent on repeating his previous successful campaign's reliance on building the momentum of his support for a second term in office through the excitement and expectation built by his mega rallies where Republican supporters of the Trump style of governance raucously claimed their support for their champion of the forgotten and the overlooked and the scorned.

Both Mr. Trump and Brad Parscale, his campaign manager, confidently boasted there would be no empty seats at his rally, and crowds of his supporters would be thrilled to be part of history, hearing Donald Trump once again promise to represent their interests, to make America great again, to clean out the 'swamp' of of Washington entitlement and corruption, to bring back jobs to the United States, to haul the American military from its long-term displacement roles overseas, to renegotiate great trade deals with trade partners who have traditionally gained at America's expense....

As it happened, the Saturday night crowd of support totalled a grand 6,200 out of the promised million that would attend, representing a third of the capacity of the stadium. "12,000 people made it past protesters", clarified Tim Murtaugh, director of communications for the Trump re-election campaign. A turnout that gave rise to speculation that Mr. Trump's campaign may have begun to wobble on its rails with months left to go.

Former Vice-President Joe Biden has leaped ahead for the Democratic vote in national polls and key battleground state surveys. Last month the campaign for Biden raised more funding for the campaign than the Trump campaign managed to, even as the Trump campaign outspent the Biden campaign twice over. In spite of recent polls, however, Trump assured his enthusiastic crowd that he was poised to win, leaving the 'befuddled puppet' behind in the dust of the campaign.

The death-by-arrest last month of the now-internationally-famous-and-mourned George Floyd in Minneapolis, along with the devastation wrought on the American economy and the disappearance of U.S. jobs, has been designed by a Trump-negative superpower to sink his re-election campaign. Flying high in public opinion up to several months ago, based on the economy and the high employment rate and return of jobs, all that collapsed like a giant soap bubble stung by a bee.

The Oklahoma rally was meant to be a forum where victory would be declared over the disastrous SARS-CoV-2 virus with Oklahoma front and centre as a reopening victory. Until some quirk of fate intervened to create an impressive spike of new cases taunting the plans made by mice and men just before the rally deflating celebratory brags. In the face of campaign advance staff in Oklahoma testing positive for the virus what more could go wrong?

At the arena, masks were distributed to all entrants. To be brought back home as pristine souvenirs perhaps, since few in attendance bothered wearing them. The potential in that simple act of reducing their numbers rather symbolic. "Testing is a double-edged sword. When you do testing to that extent you're going to find more people. So I said to my people, slow the testing down", boasted the Man Who Knows Everything, prepared to sacrifice time and energy, brilliant statesmanship and bargaining expertise for the good of the union in another four dedicated years as CEO of USA.

So, low turnout in Oklahoma, presages what? Oh, never mind, it's all a matter of perspective and interpretation. Post-rally it was ascertained that over four million people had watched the event online cheering wildly. "These numbers represent unmatched enthusiasm behind the president's re-election and a massive audience that Joe Biden can only dream of", happily advised campaign communications director Tim Murtah.

"THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!", tweeted the man who would be re-elected as Emperor of Tweets.

A Trump supporter sits in the upper seats of the BOK Center. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Labels: President Donald Trump, Re-Election, United States

Monday, June 22, 2020

Canada Has Fumbled and Fallen

"We need to take stock of why we didn't get it. It is embarrassing because it really is a bit of a wake-up call for many of us Canadians who kind of thought, 'Well, why wouldn't they want us?' We're really internationalized. We have this wonderful commitment to multilateralism, we feel like we embody the United Nations' spirit of diversity and inclusion in this country."

"I think there's merit in being there. We can absolutely talk about the question of whether or not we had the chops to be at the table, or whether or not we had the investment in organization and all the other things to go into consideration of our bids, such as our official development assistance, peacekeeping and all the rest."
"But the merit of being at the table to me is still very much there. And organizations are only as good as the people who get engaged in them."
"We have wonderful rhetoric, wonderful ideas … and at the end of the day we really hope that others just, you know, bask in the glory of our wonderful ideas with very little money. And that's not how the international system works."
University of Waterloo professor Bessma Momani, senior fellow, Centre for International Governance and Innovation

"It would force us, over and over, to take defined positions when the strategy often for Canada is to choose the areas where we want to weigh in. We have made significant contributions to multilateral institutions in focused ways."

"I really think we're making a big mistake here if we treat this as any kind of referendum on how Canada is viewed in the world. I don't think it tells us anything about the way we're regarded in the world."

"So really, the argument I'm making is we were focused on the wrong institution and the wrong part of the UN system."

Janice Stein, professor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto

The Security Council meets on Oct. 24, 2019, at United Nations headquarters. Canada was beat out by Norway and Ireland this week in its bid for a temporary seat on the Security Council. Mary Altaffer/AP/The Canadian Press

"Canada lost for many reasons. One of them was because of our government’s timidity. It chose to say as little as possible on many of the most emotive issues of the day, lest it offend a country and lose its vote."
"Until a few weeks ago, it was taboo for ministers to even utter the word “Taiwan.” On importing 5G technologies from China, we have seemed paralyzed long after our security agencies and most of our allies have declared they want nothing to do with it."
"Such a craven approach was a hopeless strategy to justify why Canada should have a place in the Security Council chamber."
"The reality laid bare by this stark rebuke is that Canada is hamstrung by a preachy foreign policy that has latterly become heavily based on imposing our domestic cultural orthodoxies on others. This has made us a preening nag, a bore and — as the vote by the 190-odd countries that make up the United Nations General Assembly demonstrates — largely irrelevant, except to ourselves."
"The government’s pious sanctimony has become almost cult-like since Trudeau foolishly declared that 'Canada is back', without providing a road map to explain where we had been or where we’re going."
Matthew Fisher, Columnist, Global News

"To this country's friends all around the world, many of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world."
"Well, I have a simple message for you. On behalf of 35-million Canadians: we're back."
Justin Trudeau, November 2015

Most Canadians had no idea that Canada had ever gone away; they were under the impression that their Canada was hale and whole. But the Liberal Party of Canada under its leader Justin Trudeau insisted that Canada, governed by the Conservative Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Steven Harper had lost its way. Mind, Mr. Harper was not averse to informing Russia's Vladimir Putin at a then-G8 meeting that he needed to 'get out' of Ukraine's Crimea after Moscow under his direction had annexed it.

Senegal's President Macky Sall, left, walks alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during an official visit in Dakar, Senegal, Feb. 12, 2020. The visit was part of the Trudeau's government's charm campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council. (Cheikh A.T/The Associated Press)

Whereas, in his zeal to gain votes for Canada's bid under the Liberal government to succeed in Justin Trudeau's vanity project to gain a temporary seat in the revolving UN Security Council, Mr. Trudeau managed to mislay his progressive stance on human rights as he stood smiling chummily beside Senegal's president as he spoke of his country's maximum penalty laws against its LGBTQ community. Not a word of objection passed the discreet lips of Canada's human rights champion on that occasion.

Canada's formal relationship with three of the most powerful members of the permanent Security Council nations is fraught with tension. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland is persona-non-grata in Russia; so much for strained relations, while President Trump is somewhat disgruntled with Justin Trudeau's showmanship of disdain for the American president in a rather egregious dishevelment of nation-to-nation diplomacy, and caught in the net of a trade war between the U.S. and China; that nation of abusive human rights wouldn't help Canada to a lift on a rescue mission.

Canada has not stood very tall for human rights, justice and the rule of law in its relationship with Beijing, preferring to pursue genteel diplomacy and not rock the boat too strenuously, despite the effective state kidnapping of two Canadian citizens on trumped-up claims of national security in charging the two with espionage and clamping them in prison, denying them access to lawyers, keeping them incommunicado, subjecting them to unsubtle psychological torture techniques.

Spending millions on bribing other UN member-countries to pledge a vote for Canada against the two other competitors for the two open seats, Norway and Ireland ... pledging millions in foreign aid, making common cause with dictators while throwing the human rights interests of collegial countries to the winds of chance, Canada did not do itself proud in abasing itself in unctuous servility to those nations whose record of abuses and anti-democratic values drew no credit on Canada.

A security barrier that Israel erected to reduce the level of violence it had experienced for years became an unwieldy tool of recrimination on the part of Canada joining the usual anti-Israel crew in the United Nations to denounce a fellow democracy, along with the traditional Arab League and aligned critics to curry favour with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation nations in yet another condemnation of the Jewish state.

Trudeau and the Liberal government were happy to sell Canada's moral values out for a mess of pottage that they proffered in a grand sacrifice to be recognized by petty dictators and human rights abusers as being entitled to that elusive, vanity-project seat to satisfy glad-handing, back-slapping Justin Trudeau, happily smirking that 'Canada is back'. Only it failed to succeed. And Trudeau, flipping aside any embarrassment for Canada he has once again engendered on the world stage, carries on, business as usual.

The business at the present time being the continued erosion of parliamentary democracy in Canada under the guise of necessity because of the general threat of infection during the emergency response to SARS-CoV-2, making it unsafe for Parliament to assemble physically in the House of Commons' temporary quarters, recalling Members of Parliament back to Ottawa, in preference to holding Internet interfaces to conduct the nation's business and avoid inconvenient questions from the official opposition.

This, while Canada begins to open up, and children will be returning to the classroom, businesses will be re-opening, public arenas where people will gather will resume to a degree returning the country's public and private life to a version of normalcy, while it remains 'unsafe' for the governing Liberal Party to entertain thoughts of resuming Parliament as it is meant to be. And where Justin Trudeau saw fit to expose himself to potential infection, attending a crowded Black Lives Matter protest in his usual virtue-signalling style.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during the first hybrid parliament committee in the House of Commons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Electronic voting has been touted as a way resume normal operations in the Commons without all 338 MPs needing to travel to Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Labels: Canada, Cynicism, Justin Trudeau, Parliamentary Democracy, Political Correctness, UN Security Council

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Beijing, Eternally Busy Causing Strife

"Looking at it in Planet Labs [Earth imaging satellite pictures], it looks like China is constructing roads in the valley and possibly damming the river."
"There are a ton of vehicles on both sides [of the Line of Actual Control -- LAC] -- although there appear to be vastly more on the Chinese side."
"I count 30 to 40 Indian vehicles and well over 100 vehicles on the Chinese side."
Jeffrey Lewis, director, East Asia Nonproliferation Program, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, California

"There is the larger picture of the asymmetries of power."
"China’s GDP is $14tn, India’s is less than $3tn. China spends nearly $220bn on the military but India spends $52bn."
Srikanth Kondapalli, professor of Chinese studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

An Indian army convoy moves on the Srinagar- Ladakh highway at Gagangeer, north-east of Srinagar, India, Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

From the South China Sea, where Beijing confronts the interests of its neighbours in disputed territories to claim them as their own, to the magnificent and dangerous heights of the Himalaya, wherever the Chinese Communist Party perceives its interests in enlarging its geographic and political territories, it acts with no regard to the outcome. Two of the most populous nuclear countries in the world share a 4,056-kilometre border that runs past glaciers, deserts of snow and freezing rivers where both countries claim sovereignty beyond the border.

Initial, brief skirmishes where both China and India post army stations at 4,300 metres in the western Himalaya have recently taken place by unarmed soldiers on each side. Unarmed, due to a mutual agreement by both sides to keep the prospect of deadly violence to a minimum. Instead, the military personnel on both sides used clubs and improvised weapons and their fists. And given that they're poised on the side of steep mountains, in some instances brute force to send an adversary to his death below.

India has declared the loss of 20 of its soldiers, while China has chosen not to release any information about its losses. "They [the Indian side] deliberately launched a provocative assault, leading to an intense physical clash that caused death and injury", charged Chinese military spokesman Zhang Shuili, insisting that the Indian military was responsible for the hand-to-hand combat, where reputedly clubs covered in nails or barbed wire were used by the Chinese. Which sounds a lot like premeditation.

An Indian military officer on patrol in Ladakh, India, in August. — **Credit...Paula Bronstein/Getty Images**

According to military officials from India, hundreds of soldiers came to fierce clashes with fists, stones and wooden clubs at the tense frontier where the border crosses the cold high-altitude mountain ranges within which are territorial disputes. An agreement dating from1993 between the two sides was meant to constrain either side from the use of deadly weapons, leaving soldiers patrolling the area unarmed. According to the Indian side, their soldiers had encountered a Chinese patrol on the border.

On the other hand, satellite images now make it clear that in days leading up to the border clash China had brought in heavy pieces of machinery, had cut a trail into a mountainside and according to satellite imagery, may have dammed a river. Both countries rely on seasonal glacier melt and rivers for irrigation and potable water as it makes its way down the mountainsides to the valleys below. Any such alterations are certain to have an effect on both sides; one positively, the other negatively.

The Galwan Valley, where the altercation took place, is an arid, inhospitable landscape, with soldiers deployed on steep ridges, but vital since it leads to the Aksal Chin, a plateau claimed by India, and controlled by China. Signs of the landscape being altered, with the valley showing tracks being widened, earth being moved and river crossings are evidence of Chinese actions not shared with their Indian counterparts. Yet a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman claims to be unaware of anything specific occurring.

Zhao Lijian, speaking for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, reiterated that Chinese territory had been penetrated by the Indian Army in several places, demanding their withdrawal. Two Chinese tents and observation towers had been discovered by an Indian patrol, built on its side of the LAC, according to government sources in New Delhi. Although military officials of both sides had reached an agreement to deescalate on June 6, China had proceeded to erect a 'structure' on India's side of the LAC.

The patrol had arrived at a ridge in verification that the Chinese had moved their troops back from the LAC as claimed. In moving back Chinese troops left behind the two tents and observation posts so the Indian party demolished the towers and burned the tests. According to the satellite images no such structures had been seen the week before, on the ridge. The arrival of a large group of Chinese soldiers confronting the Indian troops led to the deadly melee.

An Indian army convoy moves on the Srinagar- Ladakh highway at Gagangeer, north-east of Srinagar, India, June 17, 2020.

Labels: Border, China, Confrontation, Himalaya, India, Strife

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