Obviously, that diversity thing is working out very well for the Danes. As it is for all the countries who are importing Third Worlders into their country, hoping (against all the evidence) that the Magic Dirt Theory will work this time. And when some of the locals in ScandiLand do wake up and smell the coffee, their governments’ response is all too predictable.
I read this news piece
Airlines Face Loss of Up to $30 Billion in Revenues in Wake of Coronavirus
….and I find myself torn between two emotions:
and
In the first place, I hate all airlines without regard to race, class, religion, nationality or gender. [25,000 reasons omitted for brevity]
Secondly (according to the article), most of the losses are supposed to befall the Chinese airlines, but considering that they’re owned engines, wings and tails by the loathsome Commie Chinese government, who cares?
Of course, people are going to think that this disruption will mean lower fares and/or less-crowded flights for the rest of us… [pause for scornful laughter] …but the airlines will simply cancel most of their flights, cram the remaining planes to the brim and then (you heard it here first) raise their fares to make up for lost revenue. You see, international travel may feel an impact, especially for those fools who inexplicably visit China all the time, but most U.S. airlines get the bulk of their revenue from domestic flights (i.e. corporate passengers who are largely immune to fare increases anyway). (And you can ignore bullshit articles like this one — I tested the claims, and couldn’t find ONE.)
I know that in a Black Swan scenario, the people most likely to be hurt are people like myself, but at the same time there’s something awfully appealing about watching corporations getting shafted by random events, kinda like what they do to us on a daily basis…
It is, as they say, to LOL at our cousins in Britishland as they begin to panic:
Panic-buying Brits strip supermarket shelves of pasta, couscous and water: Shops are left bare of larder essentials as well as toilet roll, Berocca and disinfectant as coronavirus ‘preppers’ brace for meltdown
Couscous? [exit, pissing myself laughing]
Sorry, had to clean up a little. I do like the addition of Berocca (supposed hangover remedy, similar to Alka Seltzer) to the list of “emergency” supplies.
Just go ahead and read the article for more merriment. Good grief, do these people keep anything in the house?
Followup: of course, let’s not forget our own doomsayers here in Murka:
Here’s yet another reason not to have anything to do with South Africa:
There has been at least one cash-in-transit (CIT) heist a day nationally since the beginning of the year.
The report is dated Feb 14, but there’s no reason to suppose that the trend hasn’t continued. And to show that the choirboys have moved with the times:
Anti-crime advocate Yusuf Abramjee said it was worrying that CIT robbers had become so brazen, and that they were using more explosives to blow up the vans.
There’s a guy with job security. It’s like being a condom salesman during Fleet Week, only the number of ships in port grows each day. (It’s also a bullshit job; other than the criminals, who isn’t an anti-crime advocate?)
And the final touch:
National police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo said that not all the CIT incidents were categorised as heists because an incident is only considered a heist if the suspects get away with money.
That’s like being held up at gunpoint, but not characterizing it as “violent” crime because the thief didn’t shoot you.
Can’t remember who sent me the article, but many thanks… I think.
A thoughtful post (as always) from Peter Grant, containing this insight:
[The company] sources a very large proportion of its products from that country, but its suppliers there — factories and exporters — are closed, and have been for weeks. No-one knows when they’ll be open again. The company is finding it very difficult to line up alternative suppliers fast enough to ensure that their products can get here in time to replace Chinese ones on their shelves as they run out. If they can’t . . . they’ll have to close their doors. It’s that simple.
Thousands of Chinese factories are closed because of the corona virus epidemic over there, and products of all kinds (not just the types referenced in the above excerpt) are not being shipped.
This, by the way, is why every country needs its own manufacturing base. I know: sometimes there are considerable cost savings to be realized by outsourcing production to cheaper (i.e. foreign) facilities — but those savings are only to be had if there is no disruption to the supply chain. Come disaster — and given that China is one of the most consistently pox-ridden nations on Earth, and the source of so many of the world’s diseases — it should be clear that all those trumpeted “savings” are going to evaporate faster than Jeffrey Epstein’s emails.
Of particular concern is the fact that most pharmaceutical products are now either made in China, or else manufactured using Chinese raw materials — not just prescription meds, but also OTC stuff like analgesics. Loyal Readers may recall that I myself had a scare in this regard a little while back, and learning my lesson from that, I set up a forward supply of my two most critical medications.
If you’re dependent on such meds, I hope you’ve done the same.
And just in passing, I should point out that all this has validated Trump’s initiatives in bringing manufacturing back home to the U.S. — although I doubt that Big Pharma ever responded, even though they should have — and if there is any criticism to be made here, it’s that Trump hasn’t pushed hard enough, through tariff protection of local manufacturing entities.
You see, it’s not just about protecting local workers, laudable though that may be; it’s about strategically protecting the country from situations such as these. And we need to do a lot more of that, if the current catastrophe teaches us anything at all.
Going back to my earlier observations about the fucking Marxists Social Democrats wanting to “unify the country”, we have this latest little contribution from one of the so-called “moderates” among the Democrat Clown Show:
Amy Klobuchar Says English Should Not Be Official Language of U.S.
Very few public statements by today’s politicians makes me want to pack a picnic lunch, grab my Mauser and head for a tall building in D.C., but this certainly ranks in the top five.
I remember once, in one of my more fevered rants passim, saying this about language in this country:
Nothing divides a populace quicker and more decisively than not being able to understand what the other guy is saying, especially if bi- or multilingualism is being mandated by law. It doesn’t work in Canada, it doesn’t work in Belgium, and it sure as hell never worked in South Africa. In fact, everywhere bilingualism is tried, it does nothing but cause friction, enmity and in some cases, violence.
As far as I’m concerned, when a politician running for public office makes such a suggestion, it should result in automatic disqualification by their parent party. And if that party refuses to do so, then it should face legal consequences.
I don’t care if Fernando Castro, Hua Li, Abu Hassam or any other escapees from the world’s shithole countries feel “left out” or “excluded” when they go to the DMV and can’t get anyone to talk to them, or who face incarceration because they couldn’t read the laws of this country. Learn the language — English — or GTFO.
