Using common sense about the coronavirus

Donald Trump has suspended travel from the European Union starting Friday and lasting for 30 days. Meanwhile the NBA has suspended its season after one Utah Jazz player tested positive. And in other news, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive while filming in Australia.

As is often the case when some kind of epidemic appears on the horizon, especially if it originates in a foreign country, a lot of people flip out with a “Oh my god, we’re all going to die!” response and start stocking up on supplies for a long confinement, somewhat like preppers do. But there is no need to panic if you cannot find hand sanitizers and face masks. If you are worried, there are some very simple things you can do.
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Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison

The sentence was handed down after he was convicted on counts of a first-degree criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on an assistant and third-degree rape of another woman .The judge rejected a plea by the 67-year old former media mogul’s attorney for a minimum sentence of five years based on his supposedly poor health (he came to court in a wheelchair).

Lawyers for Weinstein pleaded with the judge for the minimum sentence of five years in prison. Donna Rotunno, his chief defense attorney, cited his work in the film industry as well as his failing health as mitigating factors.

The sex offender also addressed the court personally in a rambling address in which he expressed remorse as well as implying he had been “confused” in his dealings with the women. “I’m totally confused, men are confused about all of this issue.”

Weinstein went on to say: “I really feel remorse for this situation, I feel it deeply in my heart,” adding: “We may have different truths.”

At the end of the proceedings, Weinstein was cuffed to his wheelchair and led away. Several of the accusers who had testified could be seen at that moment sobbing.

Within a few hours of the stunning sentence being delivered, Weinstein was hit with a further withering blow. The district attorney in Los Angeles announced that it has begun extradition proceedings to bring him to face two charges relating to two additional west coast accusers.

It may be true that some men are ‘confused’ by some aspects of their relationships with women, but the things that Weinstein was accused of doing were so egregious and took place on so many occasions with so many different victims that the idea that he was confused as to whether his conduct fell within accepted norms of behavior is hard to accept.

The once and future Taliban

The longest war in US history is in the process of finally winding down, at least as far as the US is concerned. The US has begun the first stage of the process of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600, one of the elements of the peace deal signed by the US with the Taliban. Another element is that the Taliban begin negotiations with the US-backed Afghan government to begin today in Oslo and that the government release 5,000 Taliban prisoners it is holding. The Afghan president signed a decree yesterday authrorizing the release of just 1,500 prisoners. It is not clear if this will satisfy the Taliban enough to start the talks.
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This is not the leadership that the times call for

Seth Meyers says that we are in trouble because at a time of concern over a pandemic when we need sober leadership, we have a president who thinks that he can lie the problem away and we have people around him who are enabling his delusions.

While driving yesterday, I turned on the radio listened on the radio and found it was broadcasting a live press conference in which vice president Mike Pence was giving an update on the coronavirus. In between providing bits of information, he gushed over the leadership of Donald Trump in dealing with the coronavirus. I was not at all surprised to find that Trump had been there the whole time because Pence then handed it over to Trump who then boasted about how well he is dealing with the situation. It was sickening.
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Another case of projection by the US

One thing that you can be reasonably sure of is that when the US government and the media focus relentlessly on the actions of an adversarial foreign government, it is often to distract from the fact that the US does exactly the same things, sometimes on a much larger scale. A case in point is all the righteous indignation over Russian meddling in US elections while left unsaid is that the US, usually through the CIA, has a terrible history of doing much worse to countries all around the world over a long time and still continues to do so today.
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Palace intrigues in Saudi Arabia

Lost in the news about the coronavirus is a big story emerging from Saudi Arabia about the arrest of several members of the family of the 84-year old ruler King Salman, along with other leading figures.

Among those held in the sweeping crackdown are two of the most prominent royal family members: Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, a younger brother of Saudi King Salman, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the king’s nephew and former crown prince.
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The sweep broadened on Saturday, the Journal later reported, to include dozens of interior ministry officials, senior army officers and others suspected of supporting a coup attempt. Prince Nayef bin Ahmed, a former army head of intelligence, was also among the detainees.

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