90 Miles From Tyranny

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

How The Coronavirus Could Destabilize The Chinese Government And World

We can only hope this coronavirus crisis shall pass. But if it does not, the consequences for both China and the rest of the world could be momentous.

The first case of coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was reported Dec. 8. Since then, many have begun to wonder, “Is this the Big One?” Obviously, it is too soon to say. But if the virus continues to spread rapidly, the implications for international security and for the global economy could be staggering, ad not only in terms of global public health.

The virus is spreading easily between humans and currently has a basic reproduction number of about 3.5 to 5.5, meaning each infected person is spreading the virus to at least three other people. The World Health Organization, however, currently thinks the reproduction number is between 1.4. to 2.5, or each infected person is spreading the virus to two other people. That’s because the virus can lie dormant for days and may be mutating to spread more easily. In truth, nobody knows right now exactly how damaging the virus will be.

As we write, there have been almost 100 deaths and well more than 2,000 infections. The cases are concentrated on mainland China, but the virus may take hold outside China — already, there are five confirmed cases in the United States and several more in France, Japan, Australia, and southeast Asia.

We Still Have Much to Learn About the Coronavirus

The death toll will likely lag the number who have the virus, and a full picture of the virus’s lethality is not yet known. Yet a death rate of even 5 percent would be staggering, if the virus spreads easily enough. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1919 infected about 500 million people and ended up killing 50 to 100 million, up to 5 percent of the Earth’s population at the time. It wasn’t the extremely young and old who were hardest hit, either. For some reason, young adults were incredibly susceptible to the Spanish flu.

Of course, much remains unknown about the coronavirus. Accordingly, we can’t be certain about its political and economic effects. Nonetheless, it is not too early to begin considering what those effects might be. But the coronavirus plague might not turn out to be a passing phenomenon like the avian flu, which left little mark on world affairs. Even China’s President Xi Jinping has admitted China is facing a “grave situation,” and officials in China are saying the virus will spread further before it...

Destroy The Deep State.

Dershowitz: Trump Impeachment Invalid; Requires ‘Criminal-like Conduct’

Constitutional scholar and criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz rose to the defense of President Donald Trump at his Senate impeachment trial on Monday evening, arguing that the conduct with which Trump had been charged was outside what the Framers of the Constitution had considered to be impeachable offenses.

Dershowitz drew upon the successful 1868 arguments by former Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis, who had dissented from the infamous Dred Scott decision and resigned from the Court in protest, and who later defended President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial, the first ever of any U.S. president.

Impeachment, Dershowitz argued, required “criminal-like conduct akin to treason and bribery.” He stressed: “This is the key point in this impeachment case … purely non-criminal conduct including ‘abuse of power’ and ‘obstruction of Congress’ [the charges against Trump] are outside the range of impeachable offenses.”

He said claims by Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who said the House could do what it wanted, were wrong: “It would place Congress above the law. It would place Congress above the Constitution. … would be for Congress to do what it is accusing the...

FLASHBACK: Chinese Researcher Removed from Infectious Disease Lab for Alleged “Administrative Matters”

According to a story published on CBC news on July 14, 2019, a researcher connected to China was escorted out of the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg during an RCMP investigation into what was described as a possible “policy breach.”

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband Keding Cheng, and an undisclosed number of her students from China were removed from Canada’s only level-4 lab on July 5, according to a CBC News report.

A Level 4 virology facility is a lab with the equipment to work with the most threatening human and animal diseases. This made the Arlington Street lab one of the very few labs in North America that is able to handle pathogens demanding the highest level of containment, such as Ebola.

According to sources who worked at the lab and did not want to be identified, the couple and the Chinese students had their security access revoked.

Sources claim that this came several months after NML IT specialists entered Qiu’s office after-hours and replaced her computer. Qiu’s frequent trips to China were also being denied.

During meetings on July 8, NML staff were informed that the researchers were on leave for an indefinite period of time. They were instructed not to communicate with...

Woman allegedly wrote social media posts “about how shitty white men are”.

Police in Finland are investigating the murder of a woman killed by her migrant ex-boyfriend after making pro-mass migration posts on social media.

Sanni Ovaska was reportedly killed last week by Hasan Alqina, who then committed suicide. Alqina was in the country as a Palestinian asylum seeker and had earlier been denied a residency permit.

Authorities were alerted after a neighbor saw evidence of a crime at the apartment in Hämeenlinna. A photo was later posted to Twitter showing blood seeping under the door of the apartment.

“Ovaska had reportedly made anti-white posts on her social media accounts as well as championing a variety of progressive causes,” reports National File.

The source for this claim was Finnish commentator Tiina Wiik, who tweeted, “Young woman has an arab asylum seeker boyfriend and writes social media posts about how shitty white men are. Any guesses on how this turned out?”

Wiik claims that the woman was murdered because she was trying to leave her boyfriend.

“Not the first such case in Finland,” remarked Wiik. “One Afghan raped and burned his girlfriend, one Iraqi decapitated a middle-age woman who was trying to...