https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/revolution-only-getting-started/609463/?fbclid=IwAR32f–d777VxAReNBuTYHsrSfEUFripvl0brT6rLROOGpfYw074ZHCbFiA
Analogies between the first months of the French Revolution and our current moment are easy to draw. Anthony Fauci, the infectious-diseases expert whom President Donald Trump often sidelines or ignores, is Jacques Necker, the popular finance minister to Louis XVI. Necker’s firing in early July 1789 was viewed widely as a calamity: “It was like losing your father,” the mathematician and astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly wrote in his memoirs. The recent spike in American gun and ammunition sales recalls the Parisians who stormed the Bastille Fortress in the hope of finding weapons and gunpowder. (They incidentally released a handful of individuals imprisoned there, but that was not the crowd’s original intent.) The conflict among city, state, and federal officials over coronavirus-related closures directly parallels 1789’s municipal revolutions, in which some cities had leaders who quickly proclaimed devotion to the new National Assembly, while the leaders of other cities remained loyal to the old structures of absolutist royal power and the mayors and aldermen of yet others were violently deposed.
A Venezuelan navy coastal patrol boat sank in the Caribbean
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52151951
A Venezuelan navy coastal patrol boat sank in the Caribbean after allegedly ramming a cruise ship that it had ordered to change direction.
The owners of the Portuguese-flagged RCGS Resolute said the naval vessel Naiguata also fired shots in an “act of aggression in international waters”.
The collision left the cruise ship, which has a reinforced hull for sailing in icy waters, with only minor damage.
Venezuela accused the Resolute of an act of “aggression and piracy”.
It also said it “did not rule out” that the cruise ship “was transporting mercenaries to attack military bases in Venezuela”.
President Nicolás Maduro has previously accused the United States and other countries of plotting to overthrow him.
Four more years
U.S. health officials say Americans shouldn’t wear face masks to prevent coronavirus — here are 3 other reasons not to wear them
Though health officials have warned Americans to prepare for the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., people shouldn’t wear face masks to prevent the spread of the infectious illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. surgeon general.
But that’s not the only reason Americans may want to think twice about using masks, one expert told MarketWatch.
Most people don’t know how to use face masks correctly, and a rush to buy masks could prevent the people who need them most — health care providers — from getting them, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a scholar at the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In fact the U.S. surgeon general recently urged the public to “STOP BUYING MASKS!” “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!,” wrote Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Twitter
Trump sends Pompeo to sign US-Taliban peace deal in Qatar
President Trump on Friday said he was sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Qatar Saturday to sign a US-Taliban peace deal that he predicted could mean the end of the 19-year-old war and that American troops could come home.
“At my direction, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of the Taliban, while Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan,”
President Xi Jinping Had a Phone Call with US President Donald Trump
President Xi Jinping spoke with US President Donald Trump on the phone on the morning of 7 February.
President Xi highlighted the all-out efforts made by the Chinese government and people to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak. Featuring nationwide mobilization, across-the-board arrangements and rapid response, it is a people’s war against the epidemic with the most comprehensive and rigorous measures. Such efforts are producing results. China has full confidence and capability to prevail over the epidemic. The long-term upward trajectory of the Chinese economy remains unchanged.
Xi affirmed China’s commitment to protecting the lives and health of not only its own people but also other people around the world. With openness, transparency and a sense of responsibility, China has kept WHO, the United States and other countries and regions updated, and has invited WHO and other experts to conduct field visits in Wuhan. As the first line of defence against the epidemic, China has taken timely, decisive and forceful measures, which have been fully recognized and highly appreciated by WHO and many countries.
Xi noted the continuing communication over the epidemic between China and the US. He expressed appreciation for President Trump’s positive comments on China’s efforts on different occasions, and thanked the various communities in the US for their donations. It takes joint efforts from all countries to contain epidemics. The fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak has come to a crucial stage. WHO has repeatedly given its professional advice and called on all countries to avoid overreaction. China hopes that the US will evaluate the situation calmly and develop and adjust its response in line with the actual situation. China and the US should maintain communication and strengthen coordination to jointly control the epidemic.
President Trump expressed full support for China’s efforts to control the epidemic and readiness to send experts to China and provide other forms of assistance. The fact that China has finished building special hospitals for the patients in a matter of days is impressive. It fully demonstrates China’s exceptional ability of organization and response.
Trump expressed confidence that the Chinese people, under the leadership of President Xi, will win the battle against the outbreak. He said that the US has confidence in China’s economic growth. The US will be very calm in its response to the epidemic and continue communication and cooperation with China through bilateral and WHO channels.
Wall Street Journal bullshit: China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia
Wilbur Ross says coronavirus could bring jobs back to the US from China
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak in China will help “accelerate the return of jobs to North America”.
“Well, first of all, every American’s heart has to go out to the victims of the coronavirus. So, I don’t want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease. But the fact is, it does give businesses yet another thing to consider when they go through their review of their supply chain,” Ross said during an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
“On top of all the other things, because you had Sars, you had the African swine virus there, now you have this,” Ross continued. “It’s another risk factor that people need to take into account. So, I think it will help accelerate the return of jobs to North America, some to the US, probably some to Mexico as well.”
The most famous quote from this idiot, he will regret it for the rest of his life.
How the U.S. Regime and Its Allies Enforce Their Smears and Their Other Lies
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/01/27/how-us-regime-and-its-allies-enforce-their-smears-and-their-other-lies/?fbclid=IwAR1fXEtLiPQbbfZEOJI6EtOGsAHceddgEBC_6DceTxsM_B_3IaLJ49xLhlE Without enforced suppression of truth, there would be no way that the U.S. and its allied regimes could continue hiding the lies that were behind their invasions of Iraq in 2003, and of Syria since 2012, and their coup against Ukraine in 2014, and also of their takeovers and attempted takeovers of other countries that had refused to be bullied by the U.S. regime into complying with its obsessive anti-Russian demands — America’s subterranean continuation of the Cold War, even after Russia had quit the Cold War in 1991.
All of the lies are still being propounded by the U.S. regime and remain fully enforced by suppression of the truth about these matters. That’s being done in all news-media except a few of the non-mainstream ones.
A terrifying new animation shows how 1 ‘tactical’ nuclear weapon could trigger a US-Russia war that kills 34 million people in 5 hours
- A new simulation called “Plan A,” by researchers at Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, shows how the use of one so-called tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon could lead to a terrifying worldwide conflict.
- In the roughly four-minute video, a Russian “nuclear warning shot” at a US-NATO coalition leads to a global nuclear war that leads to 91.5 million deaths and injuries.
- Under President Trump, the US is ramping up production of tactical nuclear weapons, ostensibly to target troops and munitions supplies. While advocates say these weapons would keep wars from escalating, the simulation finds the opposite outcome.
- The dissolution of the INF treaty in August raised the stakes for nuclear war, as both the US and Russia were free to develop weapons previously banned under the treaty.
- On Jan. 23, 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday clock to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been, in a dire warning about the rising dangers of a nuclear catastrophe as Cold War-era treaties end.