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Great Coronavirus Panic of 2020 -
Many of the various categories I’m following have now integrated effects from this pandemic, but I’m keeping them separate for clarity. Check numerous FR threads for more specific corona virus threads.

Most recent data dump from DoughtyOne 7/14/20

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3864709/posts

It looks from DoughtyOne that the long term trend of deaths is still trending down, in spite of the growth in infections over the past several weeks. If the proclaimed spike in infections is real, the death rate should start to rocket up but it isn’t showing signs. The 7 day and daily death charts do show some flattening in the trend, but still holding low in contrast to the reported infection increase.

“We’re moving back into a modification mode of our original ‘stay-at-home’ order,” California Governor Gavin Newsom. Small business owners are reporting that this second shut down will kill their businesses. There was no date given / forecast for lifting of restrictions.

NYT is attempting to lay the blame for the increase in infections on the churches. According to the NYT, 650 cases are linked to churches. I’m no epidemiologist, but I don’t need to be, because simple math shows that 650 out of 3,000,000 cases across our nation means 0.0216 percent of them trace back to churches. Less than one-tenth of 1 percent should not — and cannot — be called a major source of this infection.

Dr. Fauci has come under considerable criticism from the Trump administration who’ve released numerous instances where the outspoken doctor has been grossly wrong on the pandemic. Recently Fauci stated the increase in infections was because the country didn’t shut down enough. Openly, Fauci was repudiated for his comments in that he doesn’t have the whole national interest in mind.

CW2 -
Tactics used by the leftists continue to morph. Current rage is road paintings of BLM and counter protests defacing them.

Economy -
News reports springing up concerning a coin shortage. Kroger foods is the latest example to stop giving change. Any ‘change’ would be put onto a gift card of sorts. They based their decision on the Federal Reserve’s announcement that there is a coin shortage in the US due to the coronavirus pandemic. Even my local Carl Jr’s fast food has signs warning of no change. It is reported that contributing to the lack of coin circulation is the fact that the US Mint has had to significantly reduce its production of coins while putting coronavirus protection procedures into place for employees.

Researchers from the University of Sydney have estimated that the effort to ‘control’ the corona virus has cost the global economy $3.8 trillion. I think that number is way too low.

Evidence that the economic foundations of California are starting to split apart come from the failure of the state to issue unemployment checks to those without work. Newsom has ordered the state’s EDD to delay unemployment checks for as many months as it takes to preserve the state’s rapidly-dwindling funds. The Mercury News reports that nearly 2 million Californians have yet to receive unemployment checks covering the first three months of the coronavirus lockdowns, which began in mid-March. It has been stated by the governor that California’s budget faces a shortfall of $54.3 billion. In California budget terms, the short fall is probably substantially larger.

Strategic Deployments -
Continued presence of two US carrier strike groups in the South China Sea area. Britain announced today that one of its carriers will be operating in the same area.

China -
The US has officially reject all Chinese claims to the south china sea. China not pleased.
Flooding of epic proportions continues across the country with multiple millions displaced. Eyes continue to be on the Three Gorges Dam which is thought to be structurally compromised and could fail catastrophically.

China said on Tuesday it would place sanctions on Lockheed Martin for its involvement in arms sales to Taiwan. This is another step in the escalating economic battle front developing with China over its Hong Kong take over spin off now being directed towards Taiwan.

Iran -
More internal discontent as factions are calling for a re-institution of the lockdowns to stem corona virus infections. Many government officials feel another round of quarantine would lead to widespread protests because most Iranians are still trying to recover economically from the last round of quarantine related economic lockdowns.

Lebanon/Hezbollah -
At least 28 missile sites connected to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist organization have been located in civilian areas across Beirut, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday, citing a report from the Alma Research and Education Center. Placement of these rocket and munition sites in the middle of civilian areas are a well established practice of Hezbollah and Hamas. Global news and anti-Israeli governments make hay out of civilian deaths in the past when Israel has hit these targets. Detection of such facilities has improved as well as the precision munitions Israel now has to minimize collateral damage, making such launch and storage sites move even more closely to civilian targets.

Hong Kong -
China warns that due to recent ‘unauthorized’ elections in Hong Kong, 600,000 may have violated the new law and face arrest and deportation to the mainland.

China/India -
OSINT imagery of the LAC shows PLA units may have fallen back into support camps and that the main area of contention appears to have been cleared. Deescalation appears to be slowly working in that China may perceive India has more backbone than they first anticipated.

Syria -
Turkey appears to be attempting to take a new security zone from the areas of Tirba Spi to Tal Kochar in Rojava, essentially extending it east to the Iraqi border. This triangular piece of Syria is in the extreme northeastern corner of the country. Such an expansion would permit Turkey to access the Rabia border crossing in Iraq

National turmoil continues on multiple fronts. Some of my observations from today.

Most recent data dump from DoughtyOne 7/15/20

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3865032/posts

Time will tell if reported initial success of different vaccines will pan out or not. Moderna Inc’s experimental vaccine for the virus proved to be safe and to provoke immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing Phase 1 study.

A study released Saturday by King’s College London shows that people may lose their immunity to COVID-19 within months and could be susceptible to reinfection on a yearly basis. Scientists at King’s College London analyzed the amount of antibodies in 90 patients and healthcare workers at Guy and St. Thomas’ NHS trust, per the study. The analysis found that antibody production peaked three weeks after symptoms began and then declined rapidly. The study found that 60% of patients developed a “potent” response with antibodies at the peak of their infection with the virus, but only 17% retained the potency three months later. Antibody levels dropped so sharply in some patients that they became undetectable. This study doesn’t address the presence of T-cells, which are an entirely different matter and retain the memory of Coronavirus for seemingly long after anti-bodies are lost.

The numbers game. The numbers updated by NCHS on July 13 show the weekly COVID-involved death count, based on death certificates, has been steadily dropping since the mid-April peak, even as the number of cases is rising, especially in Sunbelt states of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. Preliminary data for the weeks ending July 4 (469 COVID deaths reported) and July 11 (137 COVID deaths reported) show the downward death count continues, even if those preliminary numbers will increase in the weeks ahead. CDC explains the lag time this way:
— Death certificates take time to be completed. Waiting for test results can create additional delays.
—States report at different rates. Currently, 63% of all U.S. deaths are reported within 10 days of the date of death, but there is significant variation between states.
—It takes extra time to code COVID-19 deaths. While 80% of deaths are electronically processed and coded by NCHS within minutes, most deaths from COVID-19 must be coded by a person, which takes an average of 7 days.

CW2 -
On July 4th, a group called Not F*****g Around Coalition (NFAC) marched on the Stone Mountain site. Now three activist groups, Protect the South, Heritage Not Hate and American Patriots USA are planning an event on August 15th. NFAC and antifa affiliated groups are calling for a counter march. Given that protesters on both sides are expected to be heavily armed there will be a heavy police presence to keep them apart.

Six weeks straight of riots have seized down town Portland OR, and local businesses have reported $23 million in losses due to looting and rioting that have gripped its downtown area since the end of May. Recent attacks have increasingly focused on federal property/facilities. As I noted before, the riots are being organized by an umbrella group called Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front. As with other areas where the cities have allowed rioting to continue unabated, Portland has witnessed a 380 percent increase in shootings over the past year.

Economy -
Economists note that 32 percent of American households missed rent or mortgage payments for July. That number is up slightly from June’s 30 percent and May’s 31 percent. With eviction protections made during the corona virus emergencies phasing out in most places by the end of July, there are as many as 28 million people that could be evicted.

The Federal Reserve is warning that the recession may end up being longer than currently projected. More talk of a “W” shaped recovery where gains are set back by more shutdown due to resurgence of the virus.

August 1 is becoming an important day because unemployment assistance boost of $600/mo will be ending. Any guess why corona virus shut downs have commenced in advance of this date?

China -
China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday again hinted at the possibility that Beijing could declare an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over South China Sea, one day after the U.S. government for the first time rejected the legality of most of China’s maritime claims in the strategic waterway. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Force warned last month that such a move would impinge on international airspace, impacting not just PACAF but other nations in the region too. Beijing claims virtually all of the 648,000 square miles of the waterway – everything within the vaguely-demarcated “nine-dash line” on official Chinese maps which tracks the coastline of Vietnam, skirts the coast of Malaysian Borneo and Brunei, then runs up along the western edges of the Philippines towards Taiwan.
Any declaration of an ADIZ is not in itself unprecedented, what is in this case the vast territory covered and the hoops commercial and private aircraft will have to jump through to get ‘permission’ to transit the zone.

Israel/West Bank -
Jordan warns, once again, that any unilateral action by Israel to incorporate portions of the West Bank would be met with substantial opposition by Jordan and other nations.

Lebanon/Hezebollah -
Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces say crime rates have shot up this year amid Lebanon’s worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The ISF recorded 863 thefts and robberies in the first half of this year, up from 650 for all of 2019, according to a document seen by AFP. The growing trend is the theft of food and infant supplies. Lebanon is now looking to make a deal with the devil (China) for aid.

Hong Kong -
The US has ended the special trade status of Hong Kong because China had taken away Hong Kong’s freedom after it imposed a new security law. China has vowed to retaliate. Scrapping Hong Kong’s special status will mean companies based there will now have to evaluate what this means for them. Hong Kong is a re-exporting hub, which means that goods that go through Hong Kong to the US but have come from somewhere else - like China for instance - have avoided the tariffs the US has slapped on China. Now that Hong Kong’s special status is gone - mainland Chinese companies may look for another place to send their goods

Miscallaneous -
Azerbaijan and Armenia are close to open war as both sides have deployed attack drones to target key locations and leaders. Forces have been shooting at each other for the past 3 - 4 days.

Ethiopia announced that it has begun to fill the reservoir behind the recently constructed Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Built with the assistance of China, it is planned to be the largest hydroelectric project in Africa. However, both Egypt and Sudan are not agreeable to the project as no guarantees of downstream flow have been given to sustain their agriculture and cities. Egypt has threatened war if flow is not guaranteed, especially during periods of drought.