Category Archives: American Domestic Affairs

COVID-19: America! Back to Work!

18 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, COVID-19, United States of America

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IT was alien.

WE were unprepared!

WE panicked.

HE declared war and laid claim to emergency Presidential powers.

The Nation — and its governors — Blundered Big Time!

Event: business owners and workers protest today in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 18, 2020. Photo by Michelle Vezina Peterlin and edited by J. S. Oppenheim

Even the most dumb of politicians know that when a business or person has been shut down financially–and however that may have happened–the whole community suffers the loss of that entity’s earning, investing, spending, and tax contributing power.

A “tax base” is never a printing press.

America’s COVID-19 episode is worse than that, for the businesses and persons “stood-down” represent the base of the economy from which money trickles up!

Bars, restaurants, events?

That’s America’s soul: where we dine; where we meet; what we do and what we talk about afterward.

When COVID-19 “national uptake” began, we really didn’t know what we were facing.

We know today.

COVID-19 morbidity appears well associated with age — 55/65-85 — and persons, younger and older, with serious other health degrading issues, i.e., those more vulnerable and less able to weather the intruder. Whether created in a laboratory or evolved in nature and passed through to humans, COVID-19 has turned out a fascist’s wet dream, i.e., a deadly pathogen certain to cull a portion of the old and / or weak. Well, today we know that not everyone contracts C19 (but may) and most certainly, not everyone becomes seriously ill with it, and of those who do encounter continuous coughing (my case) or shortness of breath, not everyone dies of it.

COVID-19 has proven itself survivable — and perhaps by all still “well” enough (x age and ability at encounter) to fight back.

Why are Americans not working?

Our governments — Federal defense, emergency preparedness, and security elements — were supposed to have been prepared as were State Emergency Management Agencies and National Guard.

Where was that preparedness?

Where was that flexibility and capacity to procure or produce field hospitals, staff, and ventilators? To quell disinformation and public panic? To fight back while sustaining business and livelihoods despite the misery?

What a poor showing has been made of this encounter with a relatively mild even in the “CBRN Warfare” type category!

It should come as no surprise that Americans en masse have been angered by the loss of control over their own lives and fates. Powerful governments — but only so powerful as the cooperation of their military and police — have stepped in to “flatten the curve” (mission accomplished!) while coming up to speed in treatment and death-related services far at the expense of the nation’s complex and integrated business and social organization and financial prowess.

Now we’re going to borrow or print tons of money while perhaps (think ahead) having a fight with China over American debt held in bonds.

Before anything else, Let’s get America Back To Work!

COVID-19 Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/category/covid-19/

BackChannels is always looking for “Radical Moderates”, Democratic or Republican. It has long been devoted to finding the middle channel in our most raucous and vicious partisan extremism and ignorance.

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FTAC: COVID-19: The “Cure” Worse Than the Illness

13 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, COVID-19, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, United States of America

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Our nation really panicked and blundered on C19, a briefly alien presence for which neither our public nor private sectors were evidently ready with emergency treatment or burial facilities and services. We’re paying a high price for public (and partisan) responses to it. In defense language, “reflexive control” — I don’t want to ask whether the virus has been a blasting cap, the thing that sets off the greater explosion, but the results would seem to point that way.

Fast correspondence aids brevity.

C19 Lessons Learned Since January

  1. Be Prepared, Be Ready. C19 may bump America’s annual rate of morbidity from 2.813 million dead souls to 2.9 million. We were not prepared to respond with emergency facilities or, sadly, or basic carnage related to holding or burying the dead.
  2. Don’t Panic, Stay Calm. The Great “Killer Virus” has taken some older and health-imperiled lives or younger and not so well, but, by and large, it has been a bust for those yet healthy enough to fend it off.
  3. Think (and think again) about the consequences of hasty public policy, especially episode the shutting down of the base and much of the soul of our nation’s economy and related vitality.

Time to get back to work?

In 2020 hindsight, of course, the hours, days, weeks, and months should not have been lost in the first place but voluntarily as the degrees of risk became known.

We’re Americans.

Americans have been braving the Devil a long time.

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COVID-19, Biological Warfare, China Related with Short Reference List

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, COVID-19, Political Spychology, United States of America

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The report, written by the Chemical and Biological Intelligence Unit of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD), does not give the name of the Chinese scientist carrying the suspected SARS and MERS samples, or the intended recipient in the U.S. But the FBI concluded that the incident, and two other cases cited in the report, were part of an alarming pattern.

https://news.yahoo.com/suspected-sars-virus-and-flu-found-in-luggage-fbi-report-describes-chinas-biosecurity-risk-144526820.html

Whether in recent years or over many, there appears no end in relation to the breadth and depth of Chinese espionage in the United States. The cost to Americans: well into the billions of dollars.

Of immediate concern: could C19 (COVID-19) have escaped or even been ferried from the kind of lab that works with deadly pathogens?

According to a recent American Military News article (“Report: FBI warned of Chinese researchers transporting disease samples in US before coronavirus”, March 31, 2020 by Ryan Morgan), the FBI in 2018 had a least twice detained Chinese researchers transporting dangerous biological materials, and in 2019 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents had stopped a Chinese researcher ferrying E.coli out of Detroit.

As Dr. Antilla proceeded with his academic career, United States officials changed their view of China’s recruitment programs, which they say have been used to steal sensitive technology from American laboratories.

In 2019, the Department of Energy barred its personnel from participating in recruitment programs from a handful of countries, including China. A few months later, a Senate committee declared China’s recruitment programs a threat to American interests.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/chinas-lavish-funds-lured-us-scientists-what-did-it-get-in-return.html

Casually going somewhere with a load of infectious material or toxins in pockets? Well, it’s not the kind of thing staff would do, but spies?

BackChannels will not cover the waterfront on Chinese espionage in America. Walk in anywhere and the subject expands. From the recruitment of scholars through the Thousand Lights Program through serious computer hacking and human infiltration into every potentially strategic walk in America’s operations, civilian and defense, the threats posed by China’s theft of industrial, scientific, and state secrets looms large. Examples may be found in a few proper nouns easily searched up on the web —

Candace Marie Claiborne (CIA mole)
Charles M. Lieber (Alleged Concealment of Chinese Funding)
Honjin Tan (Energy Storage)
Jerry Chung Shing Lee (CIA mole)
Kevin Patrick Mallory (CIA mole)
Qingshan Li, Military Radio Equipment
Xudong Yao (Industrial Infrastructure)
Xueha Peng (State Secrets)
Xudong Yao (Industrial Infrastructure)
Yanqing Ye (Foreign Agent, Boston University, Physics, Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering)
Zaosong Zheng (Cancer Research)

Related Online

Much of the reference section has been lifted from a previous post — “Note: COVID-19, Biological Warfare, and the Odds and Ambiguities” (March 19, 2020), but a few cogent others have been added to this growing collection of tributes to the theft of industrial, scientific, and state secrets by the People’s Republic of China on the world’s Internet-connected international stage.

Of course, where would any state’s security — or international agenda — be without its spies?

The trade is a fact of life also worldwide.

Nonetheless, this from Reuters provides a glimpse at the lucrative and powerful payoffs so far enjoyed by China given perhaps allowances for its investments (and recruitment) through the Thousand Light programs as well as an apparent absence of sufficient resistance to being intellectually tapped for the nation’s most sensitive scientific secrets.

China’s efforts to steal unclassified American technology, ranging from military secrets to medical research, have long been thought to be extensive and aggressive, but U.S. officials only launched a broad effort to stop alleged Chinese espionage in the United States in 2018.

“The theft of American trade secrets by China costs our nation anywhere from $300 to $600 billion in a year,” Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said in advance of Thursday’s conference.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-china-espionage/top-u-s-officials-to-spotlight-chinese-spy-operations-pursuit-of-american-secrets-idUSL1N28S1B3

Ackerman, Todd. “MD Anderson ousts 3 scientists over concerns about Chinese conflict of interest.” Houston Chronicle, April 20, 2019.

AP. “Trump Disbanded NSC Pandemic Unit That Experts Had Praised.” The New York Times, March 14, 2020.

Arms Control Association. “Biological Weapons Convention Signatories and States-Parties.” September 2018.

Bhadrakumar, M. K. “Covid-19 Has a Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandpa. Where Are They?” Oriental Review, April 22, 2020.

Barry, Ellen and Gina Kolata. “China’s Lavish Funds Lured U.S. Scientists. What Did It Get in Return?” The New York Times, February 7, 2020.

Bender, Bryan and Megan Cassella. “Will Trump be able to get emergency medical supplies fast enough?” Politico, March 18, 2020.

BESA. “China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.” January 29, 2020.

Bocchi, Alessandra. “China’s Coronavirus Diplomacy: Rome praises Beijing’s ‘solidarity’ in sending ventilators, face masks, doctors and nurses.” WSJ Opinion, March 20, 2020.

Center for Security Policy. “Wuhan Virus: China’s propaganda pandemic in an expanding timeline.” April 7, 2020. Note: see timeline entry for December 27, 2019.

Geraghty, Jim. “The Comprehensive Timeline of China’s COVID-19 Lies.” National Review, March 23, 2020.

Hosenball, Mark. “Top U.S. officials to spotlight Chinese spy operations, pursuit of American secrets.” Reuters, February 6, 2020.

Jaschik, Scott. “Chinese Med Student Charged with Stealing Research.” Inside Higher Ed, January 2, 2020.

Kolata, Gina. “Vast Dragnet Targets Theft of Biomedical Secrets for China.” The New York Times, November 4, 2019.

Lanese, Nicoletta. “Only one lab in China can safely handle the new coronavirus.” Live Science, January 22, 2020.

Lee, Bruce Y. “No, COVID-19 Coronavirus Was Not Bioengineered. Here’s The Research That Debunks That Idea.” Forbes, March 17, 2020.

Lopez, Clare. “Made in China.” Citizens Commission on National Security (CCNS), April 20, 2020.

Morgan, Ryan. “Report: FBI warned of Chinese researchers transporting disease samples in US before coronavirus.” American Military News, March 31, 2020.

Mulraney, Frances and Glenn Owen. “Revealed: U.S. government gave $3.7 million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated.” Daily Mail, April 12, 2020.

Nedelman, Michael. “Scientists with ties to China ousted from US cancer center amid fears of foreign influence.” CNN, April 25, 2019.

Oppenheim, James S. “Note: COVID-19, Biological Warfare, and the Odds and Ambiguities.” BackChannels, March 19, 2020.

Pauls, Karen. “Canadian government scientist under investigation trained staff at Level 4 lab in China.” CBC, October 3, 2019.

Qiu, Jane. “How China’s “Bat Woman” Hunted Down Viruses from SARS to the New Coronavirus.” Scientific American, March 11, 2020.

Shoham, Dany (Lt. Col. res.). “China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.” The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, January 29, 2020.

The Conversation. “Why Singapore’s coronavirus response worked – and what we can all learn.” March 18, 2020.

Toosi, Nahal, Daniel Lippman, and Dan Diamond. “Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’.” Politico, March 16, 2020.

Tsan-Yuk Lam, Tommy and Marcus Ho-Hin Shum, Hua-Chen Zhu, et al. “Identification of 2019-nCoV related coronavirus in Malayan pangolins in southern China.” bioRxiv, February 13, 2020. This technical paper points to the Pangolin as a potential intermediate conveyor of COVID-19 between bats and humans.

Vorndick, Wilson. “Weaponizing Biotech: How China’s Military is Preparing for a ‘New Domain of Warfare’.” Defense One, August 14, 2019.

Weinberger, Sharon, Jana Winter and Martin De Bourmont. “Suspected SARS virus and flu samples found in luggage: FBI report describes China’s ‘biosecurity risk’.” Yahoo News, March 30, 2020.

War is Boring. “Chinese ‘student’ studying in US is indicted for actually being a Chinese Army officer.” January 29, 2020.

Wikipedia. “Biosafety Level”.

Wikipedia. “Pangolin“.

Wikipedia. “Thousand Talents Plan”.

Wikipedia. “Wuhan Institute of Virology”.

World Health Organization. “Fact Sheet: Biosafety and Biosecurity.” PDF. March 20, 2018.

Yu, Gao, Peng Yanfeng, Yang Rui, et al. “How early signs of the coronavirus were spotted, spread and throttled in China.” The Straits Times, February 28, 2020.

Zaveri, Mihir. “Wary of Chinese Espionage, Houston Cancer Center Chose to Fire 3 Scientists.” The New York Times, April 22, 2019.

Poster Source: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/yanqing-ye | PDF Readable Location: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/counterintelligence/yanqing-ye/@@download.pdf

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Perspective on COVID-19 in the United States of America

02 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, COVID-19, United States of America

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Copied from the previous post to help make the image of the state of affairs clear.

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged =85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged =19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Annual Rate of Death for the United States of America

Number of deaths: 2,813,503
Death rate: 863.8 deaths per 100,000 population
Life expectancy: 78.6 years
Infant Mortality rate: 5.79 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 647,457
Cancer: 599,108
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
Diabetes: 83,564
Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

BackChannels has more questions than answers in relation to the general stand-down of America’s basic restaurant, events, and services economy and related financial and labor impacts throughout the nation.

In the event of CBRN threats, emerging infectious diseases, or natural disasters, state, local, tribal, or territorial health departments may need medicines and medical supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile if local supplies are depleted. Through the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program, CDC collaborates with states and local jurisdictions to ensure they have plans and processes in place to receive and provide life-saving medicines and supplies.

https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/readiness/mcm.html

How much money have Federate and State governments poured into emergency preparedness in the region of Chemical Biological Radiation and Nuclear (CBRN) preparedness?

California had made itself ready for a C19 type event for years — and then it decided the price associated with foresight was too high.

Who else?

One more note–

The simplest way to judge whether we have an exceptionally lethal disease is to look at the death rates. Are more people dying than we would expect to die anyway in a given week or month? Statistically, we would expect about 51,000 to die in Britain this month. At the time of writing, 422 deaths are linked to Covid-19 — so 0.8 per cent of that expected total. On a global basis, we’d expect 14 million to die over the first three months of the year. The world’s 18,944 coronavirus deaths represent 0.14 per cent of that total. These figures might shoot up but they are, right now, lower than other infectious diseases that we live with (such as flu). Not figures that would, in and of themselves, cause drastic global reactions.

Lee, John. “How deadly is the coronavirus? It’s still far from clear.” The Spectator, March 28, 2020.

Related Online

Ebhardt, Tommaso, Chiara Remondini and Marco Bertacche. “99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says.” Bloomberg, March 18, 2020.

Renwick, Danielle. “Is coronavirus hitting young Americans harder than we thought?” The Guardian, April 1, 2020.

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And the Final Word on COVID-19 Goes to . . . . Liza

25 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, COVID-19, Political Psychology

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Related Online

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Severe Outcomes Among Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) — United States, February 12–March 16, 2020.” March 18, 2020.

Bendavid, Eran and Jay Bhattacharya. “Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?” WSJ Opinion, March 24, 2020.

Taghipour, Delaram J. “Immunity to COVID-19: Front line health workers consider deliberate infection.” ABC News, March 24, 2020.

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COVID-19: Pandemic Pandemonium

21 Saturday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, COVID-19, Epistemology

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The District Department of Health said the first known death in the city as a result of the virus is that of a 59-year-old man who was admitted to a hospital last week. The man had fever and a cough, as well as other underlying medical conditions, health officials said.

• A Baltimore County resident in his 60s who suffered from underlying medical conditions has become the second known person to die of coronavirus in Maryland.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/03/20/coronavirus-dc-maryland-virginia-updates/

The incident reports would seem as generally expected regarding COVID-19 and who dies from it.

Read and reflect a moment (boldface added) —

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged ≥85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged ≤19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Of course, the experience with older adults involves a virus target numbering in the millions, so the something-new-to-die-of has been making its mark, especially above age 65 with underlying conditions, highest estimates for death ranging from 3 to 11 percent as age increases.

Ageing is not for sissies?

Count the ways: cancers; heart disease; severe respiratory illness (!); other diseases associated with our kidneys and livers.

Most Wanted: a predictive feature for determining whose case may need mechanical or other treatment while others survive in the normal way and may move on with immunity provided by the antigens developed while ill.

Disclosure: the editor of this blog has cause to believe he experienced his worst of the latest between February 15 and February 25 with spiking into a full Bronchial Symphony of Wheezing (you have no idea how many the sounds!) and days and nights without sleep between the 21st and 24th (right on time). Impression: whatever it was dominated the immune system (the symptoms of other illnesses, including allergies – to dust – and cancer (lung) were poking about [but to clear up with the recovery of the immune system]. Three weeks out: all passageways (and voice) stunningly clear and normal! Thank God. Note: the patient was 64 years old with a present but slowly moving leukemia.

For the overwhelming majority of those who experience COVID-19, albeit with exceptions very small, the memory will be that of having had an awful, infamous, and interesting bout with the flu.

Related Online

Rettner, Rachael. “COVID-19 spread is fueled by ‘stealth transmission’.” Live Science, March 17, 2020.

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FTAC: A Note on COVID-19 and America’s Complex Basic Services Economy

18 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, COVID-19

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This period of catching up and becoming prepared (what emergencies have we been preparing for — and paying for — all along?) needs must be truncated at some near rather than far point.

Inspiration: Foer, Franklin. “The Coming Bailout Is a Moral Failure.” The Atlantic, March 17, 2020.

As fits BC’s normal operating routines, I posted Franklin Foer’s essay to the BackChannels page on Facebook but with this rant following the placement of the URL.

BackChannels believes America has only a short window — two to six weeks, best and worst case — to get back to business or watch (in horror) for lack of earning and spending in the complex ecology defining dining and event services in their totality. Eviction relief and a thousand-dollar payoff against normal business, family, and personal expenses: who’s kidding whom on that?

We generally understand basic checks against basic expenses, but we don’t always take in larger images where, when restaurants close, even the rats may starve — or start to hunt new food sources. I’ll post above this one an example of how complex our economy has become and dependent on the reliability of basic private business services. Suffice it to say that every small business we have — and some, as with the chains, quite large — serve a lot more “stakeholders” than their owners and customers. That little bit of financial productivity down on the corner pays for space and insurance, supports suppliers of every kind (even if just a little bit as they make their rounds) — and then all engaged, employed, and investing have their lives and spending _upward_ (money trickles up in healthy economies before it trickles back down in discretionary spending). This period of catching up and becoming prepared (what emergencies have we been preparing for — and paying for — all along?) needs must be truncated at some near rather than far point.

Posted on BC/FB above Foer’s piece: Paynter, Ben. “This App Delivers Leftover Food to The Hungry, Instead Of To The Trash.” Fast Company, May 3, 2018.

So far, the company claims to have diverted 900,000 pounds food—about 850,000 meals. In some cases, that’s pre-made sandwiches, but it’s also bulk ingredients, which community groups figure out how to use.

Imagine taking out that kind of carefully developed and efficient service for three months.

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FTAC: COVID-19: One Question, Please

17 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, COVID-19, Epistemology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation

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From CDC —

The complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known. Reported illnesses have ranged from very mild (including some with no reported symptoms) to severe, including illness resulting in death. While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases. Older people and people of all ages with severe chronic medical conditions — like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, for example — seem to be at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 illness.

Situation Summary, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March 15, 2020

So how much higher are COVID-19 rates of infection and morbidity compared to the full suite of respiratory illnesses involving the same set of variables, especially x patient / target’s age, preexisting conditions, and vulnerability (physical condition)?

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