As an old school survivalist, I have been warning about the sort of social chaos we see now emerging from the coronavirus pandemic for a long time. I by no means see the virus as a “zombie apocalypse” just yet, but it is nothing to sneeze at, a joke I have been waiting to use. You see, if sensible measures are taken, even older, frailer people need not panic or be in fear. In general, while the mainstream media have on the one hand fuelled panic through sensationalising the great toilet paper shortage, and actually sub-consciously creating more fear, generally government responses across the world have been good, and sensible. Most governments, even Sweden recommend having a food and water stockpile to last a few weeks. This will take the pressure of emergency services if a major social breakdown occurs. People can easily do this without panic buying, by just getting a few extra items each shop, so there will be plenty for everybody. This should have been done years ago, but, there is no time like the present. Also, Brian Simpson is in the city working away on this issue, getting a corral of items for readers, including survivalist material, as my internet out here in the bush is, well, non-existent. Bugs will not find me out here, being literary and literally now bugged out in a quick made underground bio-shelter.

     Good luck to everybody. Just beware that if the SHTF does occur, there is likely to be government tyranny, plus roaming gangs of desperate people frantically searching for rolls of toilet paper. Me, I do it the Asian way. One has to be careful though about not getting bushes with too many thorns in them! If I was an internet guru like my bro Mike Adams, I would be chuckling too, because he certainly told us so:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-14-coronavirus-people-panicking-toilet-paper-food-runs-out.html
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-14-mainstream-media-mocks-preppers-ignores-supply-chain-collapse.html
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-03-14-dave-hodges-interviews-mike-adams-coronavirus-pandemic.html

     Here is something interesting about the minds of Silicon Valley workers, those who are part of holding the system together, with the high-tech fix. They have a few fixes of their own to hold themselves together:
  https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/dopamine-fasts-silicon-valley-sex-food-happy-a9194141.html

“A new craze is gaining traction among tech workers, and it entails doing absolutely nothing. As humans become increasingly subjected to endless choices, whether they be for food, romantic partners, or content, some people believe we run the risk of becoming overstimulated - which, in turn, could make it difficult to regulate emotions. According to Dr Cameron Sepah, a psychologist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who published an article on the topic on LinkedIn, this overstimulation eventually makes us less sensitive to dopamine - a neurotransmitter in our brains that plays a role in how we feel pleasure and motivation. “We may be getting too much of a good thing,” he explained. To counteract this state of being, Dr Sepah suggests dopamine fasting 2.0 - a concept that sees people limit behaviours that “trigger strong amounts of dopamine release” to allow “our brain to recover and restore itself”. Acknowledging that the initial idea of dopamine fasting can be traced back to both silent Vipassana meditation retreats, and a more-recent version of the same tactic popularised in 2016, Dr Sepah says the new-and-improved version of the technique, which focuses on abstaining from just one particular behaviour, whether it’s a bad habit or addictive, can be useful in resetting the brain. “To decide what to fast from, simply regard whether it’s highly pleasurable or problematic for you, and thus you may need a break from,” he wrote. However, because excess is a theme in today’s world, people have begun implementing dopamine fasts to the extreme - by temporarily cutting themselves off from anything that may produce the chemical for up to 24 hours at a time. For three millennial founders of a sleep analysis start-up called SleepWell, who are based in Silicon Valley, California, a dopamine fast means a fast of “everything” because they believe they’ve become “addicted” to the chemical.”

     Take a well-earnt break from being terrified of diseases and look up to the starry skies above, one of the two great mysteries of the universe that the philosopher Kant (1724-1804) identified. The other one is the moral depths within. Whatever was he thinking, or drinking?
  https://www.ibtimes.com/nasa-warns-4-kilometer-planet-killer-asteroid-currently-headed-earth-2936111
  https://www.ibtimes.com/scientists-identify-atlantic-ocean-dangerous-asteroids-point-impact-warns-about-2939301?utm_source=amerika.org

“NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) is currently tracking a massive asteroid that’s expected to approach the planet next month. According to the data collected by the agency, the approaching asteroid is big enough to destroy the planet during an impact event. CNOES identified the incoming asteroid as 52768 (1998 OR2). As noted by the agency, this asteroid is currently moving at a speed of almost 20,000 miles per hour. It has an estimated diameter of 4.1 kilometers, which is equivalent to 13,451 feet. This makes the asteroid longer than the Hollywood Walk of Fame. According to NASA, 52768 (1998 OR2) is an Amor asteroid. Although Amors are not Earth-crossing asteroids such as Apollos, they can still approach Earth from dangerous distances. Due to its natural orbit and massive size, 52768 (1998 OR2) has been classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid. “Potentially hazardous asteroids are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth,” NASA stated. “Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance of 0.05 [astronomical units] or less and an absolute magnitude of 22.0 or less are considered [potentially hazardous asteroids],” the agency added. Given the asteroid’s massive size, 52768 (1998 OR2) is one of the biggest and possibly most dangerous space rocks listed on CNEOS’ database. Spanning several kilometers wide, this asteroid could cause a major impact event on Earth if it hits the planet.”

     Here is the latest in the gender agenda, which some are now describing as “trans cultural wars,” with protests against a feminist professor who only a few years ago would have been seen as totally politically correct, but now those like her are regarded by some powerful vocal groups as transphobic for defending biologically based sex distinctions. Here is feminist Suzanne Moore summarising the problem, and what a problem it is for feminism and Leftism in general:
  https://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2020/mar/02/women-must-have-the-right-to-organise-we-will-not-be-silenced

“The radical insight of feminism is that gender is a social construct – that girls and women are not fated to be feminine, that boys and men don’t have to be masculine. But we have gone through the looking-glass and are being told that sex is a construct. It is said that sex is merely assigned at birth, rather than being a material fact – actually, though, sex is recognisable in the womb (which is what enables foetal sex selection). Sex is not a feeling. Female is a biological classification that applies to all living species. If you produce large immobile gametes, you are female. Even if you are a frog. This is not complicated, nor is there a spectrum, although there are small numbers of intersex people who should absolutely be supported. Female oppression is innately connected to our ability to reproduce. Women have made progress by talking about biology, menstruation, childbirth and menopause. We won’t now have our bodies or voices written out of the script. The materiality of having a female body may mean rape or it may mean childbirth – but we still seek liberation from gender. In some transgender ideology, we are told the opposite: gender is material and therefore can be possessed by whoever claims it, and it is sex as a category that is a social construction. Thus, sex-based rights, protected in law, can be done away with.”

     Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden has forgotten what year it is, and his team cannot get together an on-line broadcast. This makes him the number one New World Order candidate, because, those running him will simply be able to do wherever they want, number one thing being war with Russia, because, as I have said numerous times, the Western Dark Lords are total nihilists with a death wish:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/14/nolte-joe-biden-forgets-year-meanders-off-frame-in-disastrous-livestream/
  https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/03/13/amateur-hour-joe-biden-virtual-town-hall-marred-by-tech-issues-dick-durbins-wailing-baby/

“Grandpa Joe Biden wants to run the country and save us from coronavirus when he can’t even run a livestream and has no idea what year it is. On Friday, Grandpa Joe held what his campaign billed as a “virtual town hall” in Illinois. In my colleague Kyle Olson’s must-read reporting on the event, you will discover the whole thing was a fiasco, like something out of a sitcom. Guests appeared and then disappeared. The sound was garbled. People were introduced, followed by an awkward pause when they didn’t appear. Babies cried… “Biden seemed to be reading from a teleprompter, but the broadcast suffered from severe tech issues, as Biden’s words were caught in a feedback loop, muddying the whole presentation and making the candidate nearly indecipherable,” Olson reported. After starting two hours late, the fiasco lasted about 45 minutes. … Technical difficulties, however, are technical difficulties. That doesn’t mean those technical difficulties are not newsworthy. After all, we are talking about a major presidential campaign, about the competency, or lack thereof, of the people hand-picked by Biden to run his campaign. So, it is a bit disconcerting that Joe and his staffers were unable to put on the equivalent of a video podcast, something millions of everyday Americans are able to do every day in their basements without a hitch. But what about Joe’s performance? How did the 985-yead-old Democrat frontrunner do? The media tell us that any criticism of Grandpa Joe’s mental acuity is a hoax, is fake news, is a desperate and desperately unfair personal attack… And then this happens: In a bizarre, meandering livestream put on by Joe Biden's campaign today, he forgets what year it is and when, if he doesn't lose, he would be in office. At another point, he seemingly forgets he's on a live stream and walks out of frame. The feed cuts away to a logo instead. “Even I can’t do that for another two years — another year, between now and November … … … or actually, January … …. …. …. …. ….  But to be covered.” For the Biden-challenged, allow me to lay this out as simply as possible. The date of the livestream was March 13, 2020. The presidential election will take place in November of  2020. The next president will be sworn in in January of 2021…”

Published: March 14, 2020; upd. March 19, 2020; Languages: EN, DE
  https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/

     A Swiss medical doctor provided the following information on the current situation in order to enable our readers to make a realistic risk assessment. According to the latest data of the Italian National Health Institute ISS, the average age of the positively-tested deceased in Italy is currently about 81 years. 10% of the deceased are over 90 years old. 90% of the deceased are over 70 years old. 80% of the deceased had suffered from two or more chronic diseases. 50% of the deceased had suffered from three or more chronic diseases. The chronic diseases include in particular cardiovascular problems, diabetes, respiratory problems and cancer. Less than 1% of the deceased were healthy persons, i.e. persons without pre-existing chronic diseases. Only about 30% of the deceased are women. The Italian Institute of Health moreover distinguishes between those who died from the coronavirus and those who died with the coronavirus. In many cases it is not yet clear whether the persons died from the virus or from their pre-existing chronic diseases or from a combination of both.

     Retired actress, Silvana Heißenberg has sent a letter to Merkel, which is, well, strongly put.
  https://russia-insider.com/en/funny-german-actress-absolutely-destroys-traitoress-merkel-open-letter-you-belong-prison/ri27718
  https://conservativepapers.com/news/2019/11/07/german-actress-absolutely-destroys-traitoress-merkel-in-open-letter-you-belong-in-prison/?

“Dear Frau Merkel,
You are the most despicable and criminal Chancellor the German people have ever had to endure. You brought the German people terror, war, poverty and death by deliberately and illegally importing illegal migrants into the country, hundreds of thousands of mercenaries, terrorists and other die-hard criminals. According to article 16 of the constitution, not one of those who arrive through safe countries has the right of asylum in Germany. That is why all your guests are illegal criminals in Germany. The Schengen and Dublin agreements were also deliberately illegal. In the vow you have sworn, among other things, to keep harmful things away from the German people, but you do, every day, exactly the opposite. You have no mandate to deal with the needs of all citizens, but only for the good of the German people, this alone was your mandate. You are nothing but an employee of the German people, for the power belongs to the people, and not you. You consciously incited the entire nation against each other, split it and destroyed entire families. And you cap it all by insolently repeating the lie that we Germans are doing better than ever? Due to your illegal guests, all public events must now be massively secured, surrounded by fences and guards armed with automatic weapons. There are now protection areas for women who seek protection so that they will hopefully not fall victim to sexual abuse committed by your guests. Every day your guests commit crimes of shocking violence. Poverty among our elders and children is higher than ever.

March 17, 2020
   https://youtu.be/WYH0LskZWVg

     FORMER CONGRESSMAN Ron Paul is not just a politician. He’s a medical doctor, a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine, who was in practice for decades. So he does have some expert knowledge on disease. He seems to be the only public figure making these important points about the promotion of the coronavirus. Bravo! As he says, the Orwellian Security State has taken a major leap forward. This virus is making America more and more like Wuhan every day. But then do Americans deserve their famous civil liberties anymore? Don’t you have to have some capacity for independent judgement, some tiny shred of skepticism toward things the government and media tell you, in order to deserve reasonable liberty of action and thought?

     Here is yet another threat to freedom and liberty; the mining of DNA:
  https://www.technocracy.news/judge-dna-data-can-be-mined-by-police-government/

“For police officers around the country, the genetic profiles that 20 million people have uploaded to consumer DNA sites represent a tantalizing resource that could be used to solve cases both new and cold. But for years, the vast majority of the data have been off limits to investigators. The two largest sites, Ancestry.com and 23andMe, have long pledged to keep their users’ genetic information private, and a smaller one, GEDmatch, severely restricted  police access to its records this year. Last week, however, a Florida detective announced at a police convention that he had obtained a warrant to penetrate GEDmatch and search its full database of nearly one million users. Legal experts said that this appeared to be the first time a judge had approved such a warrant, and that the development could have profound implications for genetic privacy. “That’s a huge game-changer,” said Erin Murphy, a law professor at New York University. “The company made a decision to keep law enforcement out, and that’s been overridden by a court. It’s a signal that no genetic information can be safe.” DNA policy experts said the development was likely to encourage other agencies to request similar search warrants from 23andMe, which has 10 million users, and Ancestry.com, which has 15 million. If that comes to pass, the Florida judge’s decision will affect not only the users of these sites but huge swaths of the population, including those who have never taken a DNA test. That’s because this emerging forensic technique makes it possible to identify a DNA profile even through distant family relationships. Using public genealogy sites to crack cold cases had its breakthrough moment in April 2018 when the California police used GEDmatch to identify a man they believe is the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo.

     The pure scientific truth of most things, from climate change, to all of modern medicine, does not matter much in the public policy debates, because whatever way the truth goes, the capitalist super class will manipulate things to stay on top. The same applies to the coronavirus pandemic, so called.
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/15/nolte-ex-obama-official-reports-too-late-stop-1-million-u-s-coronavirus-deaths/
  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aoc-rips-coronavirus-relief-bill-completely-insufficient-calls-for-cash-infusions-reimbursing-students
  https://news.yahoo.com/marty-makary-on-coronavirus-in-the-us-183558545.html

“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., blasted the coronavirus response during her first virtual town hall Saturday, and ticked off a list of new priorities including universal basic income, student reimbursements and expanded health care. The Bronx progressive voted early Saturday morning for the new bipartisan House legislation to offer paid sick days, expanded food assistance, emergency paid family leave and free coronavirus tests because it signified progress. "It is a step forward, but it is completely insufficient," Ocasio-Cortez said Saturday during a video conference with her constituents on the pandemic response and the 2020 Census. Ocasio-Cortez called for working families to get cash infusions, like the universal basic income idea of Andrew Yang, the former White House hopeful. Since many low-income workers will be forced out of jobs because of the nationwide shutdown of the commercial sector, Ocasio-Cortez said the moment calls for bold action for an economic safety net. "We really need to make sure that we are advocating and pushing for immediate cash infusions," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We are asking for a complete halt to student loan payments, a halt on evictions nationwide. And we are also calling for mortgage relief." Now's the time for universal health care too, she said, calling "to open and extend Medicare and Medicaid to every single person in the country that needs it." Ocasio-Cortez said she sent a myriad of letters to Trump Administration officials to take immediate short-term action, such as extending the census count by three months,  ordering health insurance plans to reopen their enrollment period and reimbursing low-income college students for the costs to pack up and leave shuttered campuses.”

     These are exciting times for post-apocalyptic crazy survivalist, gun fanatics like me. I have not seen anything about gun sales in Australia, but in the US, oh boy, happy times indeed, as more guns are going out the door than toilet paper. That will ensure that America can enjoy its freedoms, liberty and individualism, even in the post-apocalyptic Covid 19 wastelands, if that is how it goes. I am personally not bothered any way, living in the apocalypse now myself.
  https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/more-americans-are-discovering-whats-really-required-to-buy-a-gun/

“We’ve been in contact with a number of retailers around the country today and over the weekend and they report that the Great Coronavirus Gun Run is anything but fake news. Nine millimeter and .22 LR ammunition is evaporating at a rapid pace. A large Washington state retailer sold $120,000 of ammo in the first three hours they were open on Saturday. A northern Illinois retailer that’s been in business since the mid 1950’s said they did twice the amount of business they’d ever done before in a single day, even during the post-Sandy Hook buying binge. They’re completely sold out of personal defense ammunition and range loads are getting awfully scarce. They’re all out of AR pattern rifles and the remaining handgun inventory is going fast. According a central Florida retailer we talked to, gun buyers were waiting as long as four hours for an all clear on their NICS background checks Saturday. They’re seeing about 50% of their Gun Run sales volume going to new buyers with most of the rest being bought by CCW holders who are able to bypass the state’s 3-day waiting period (5 days in many of south Florida’s blue-er counties).”

     The raping of Britain is a sign of socio-cultural collapse, although for the Left it does not exist because there is an ethno-racial element. It is a phenomenon producing bizarre ironies, such as a police officer being part of the grooming gang, where normally the police just ignore the raping and sex slavery because it would be racist to do otherwise in woke culture. This is a new development in decay in the UK:
  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/halifax-grooming-gang-sexual-abuse-amjad-ditta-police-charge-a9251751.html

“A police officer is among 16 men accused of being part of an alleged grooming gang in Halifax. Amjad Ditta, a West Yorkshire Police officer, is among those prosecuted over sexual abuse between 2006 and 2009.an
The 35-year-old, also known as Amjad Hussain, has been charged with sexual touching. He has been suspended from duty as a constable in the force’s Protective Services Operations department. West Yorkshire Police confirmed that he was a serving police officer at the time of an alleged offence in 2009.”

     This has not yet happened in Australia, but we need to keep our eyes open. In the US the pandemic has led to some US jurisdictions just releasing jailed suspects and inmates:
  https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/city-may-free-jailed-suspects-over-coronavirus/?

“The city is considering freeing jailed suspects over the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday — a move backed by the city Board of Correction and Manhattan and Brooklyn DAs. City officials are “evaluating right now people who might be particularly high-risk in terms of vulnerability to the virus,” de Blasio said at an afternoon press conference. The inmate group would presumably include the elderly and those suffering from diabetes, asthma, heart disease, lung disease and compromised immune systems — all identified as leaving people vulnerable to the virus. Suspects deemed at low risk of committing new alleged criminal offenses also could be released, the mayor said. Authorities would “evaluate those numbers, the details, and determine if, case by case, any of those individuals should be taken out of our jail system,” he said. The city Board of Correction, which oversees the jails, said in a statement Tuesday that the Big Apple needs to follow the lead of Los Angeles and Ohio authorities who have already started to release inmates to try to prevent the spread of the deadly contagion. “The City must begin this process now,” the BOC said. “The City’s jails have particular challenges to preventing disease transmissions on a normal day and even more so during a public health crisis.”

     Old time League people will be saying ‘I told you so at this one,” and Eric Butler, in Heaven now, will be nodding:
  https://www.yahoo.com/news/zimbabwe-gives-land-back-white-150503602.html

“Two decades after President Robert Mugabe wrecked Zimbabwe’s economy by urging black subsistence farmers to violently force white commercial farmers and their workers off their land, his successor has thrown in the towel. Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has proposed settling all outstanding claims against it by farmers by offering them land. “The object of the regulations is to provide for the disposal of land to persons entitled to compensation,” Land Minister Perence Shiri said in regulations published in the Government Gazette Friday. The seizures that began in 2000 were ratified by the government, which said they were needed to redress colonial imbalances. A vibrant agricultural industry that exported tobacco and roses and grew most of the food the nation needed collapsed. Periodic food shortages ensued, inflation became the world’s highest and the manufacturing industry was decimated. What was one of Africa’s richest countries became one of its poorest. Almost 4,500 white-owned properties and others protected under government-to-government agreements were affected by the program. The southern African nation this year budgeted about Z$380 million ($21 million) for compensation. Several farms that were protected under so-called Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements belonged to nations including the U.K., South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands and Denmark.”

     Clearly, regardless of the biological reality, the Covid 19 pandemic has even more alarming social consequences, being an example of “sheer fear” and a of how easily people can be stampeded.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8123665/Coronavirus-Prime-Minister-Scott-Morrison-addresses-nation.html?ito=push-notification&ci=10675&si=1326534

    One view has it that the shutting down of entire nations in the West is a form of national suicide that will allow China to rise to world control sooner rather than later. This view gains some further plausibility if the Chinese bioweapon idea is correct:
  https://www.technocracy.news/technocrats-use-coronavirus-to-drive-u-s-to-national-suicide/

     Does one really need to read articles, in these financially scared and scarce times, when the URLs are so informative? The Pope, a communist, is going slow on the beatification of an anti-communist, because it might offend China. Well, that is morality and courage, and leftism, for you!
  https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2020/03/17/report-vatican-stalls-beatification-of-anti-communist-for-fear-of-offending-china/

“Rome — The Vatican is dragging its feet in the beatification of Chinese Catholic hero Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-mei due to “diplomatic sensitivity,” according to a report from UCANews. Cardinal Kung was the Catholic Bishop of Shanghai who was arrested by the communist regime in 1955 and thrown into jail for 30 years for refusing to renounce his loyalty to Rome. Revered as a hero of the Christian resistance by Chinese Catholics, Kung has served as an inspiration to all those who suffer persecution for their faith under Chinese communist rule. March 12, 2020 marked the 20th anniversary of Kung’s death, who was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1979, while Kung was still serving a life sentence in prison. “I felt that the whole Church could not but honor a man who has given witness by word and deed, through long suffering and trials, to what constitutes the essence of life in the Church: participation in the divine life through the apostolic faith and evangelical love,” John Paul said in 1991, while praising Kung for his steadfast communion with “the Church of Rome and the successor of Peter.” According to UCANews, some church leaders think the Vatican now values its current agreement with China on the appointment of bishops more than the beatification of Cardinal Kung, and therefore the Church will avoid doing anything that could upset the Chinese government. “Pushing for Cardinal Kung’s beatification is a waste of time, and the Vatican would not accept it,” said Cardinal Joseph Zen, the former bishop of Hong Kong. Cardinal Zen told UCA News that the Vatican is delaying the beatification process because it does not want to offend China, “Cardinal Kung is a faithful representative of the Catholic Church. How can the Vatican ignore his cause of beatification following Chinese authorities?” Cardinal Zen asked. Others agree with Cardinal Zen, including Father Zhu Lide, who was also imprisoned by the Chinese communists for 27 years and now lives in Taiwan. “The Chinese government does not like Cardinal Kung, and therefore there is no public Mass for him,” Father Zhu said. “Cardinal Kung is loved by the entire Church. At his time, there was only one Church, no underground or open church,” Zhu said. “All Catholics in China love him. His is a revered name for all Catholics but a prohibited one now in China.”

     If Australians want a symbol of how bad the West could get, before the inevitable collapse, Baltimore, murder city, is a … well …not “good’ but an example. There, gangs freely slaughter each other, and recently the black mayor has asked the gangs politely to stop killing, or rather injuring each other, so the sick from the coronavirus can get medical attention. I suppose he could have equally asked them to improve their aim:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/18/baltimore-mayor-residents-quit-shooting-each-other-we-need-hospital-beds-virus-victims/

“Baltimore Mayor Jack Young (D) is begging city residents to quit shooting each other so more hospital beds can be used for coronavirus patients. WJZ reports that Young’s request comes after seven people were shot on Tuesday alone in the city’s Madison Park neighborhood. Young said, “For those of you who want to continue to shoot and kill people of this city, we’re not going to tolerate it. We’re going to come after you and we’re going to get you.” He added, “I want to reiterate how completely unacceptable the level of violence is that we have seen recently. We will not stand for mass shootings and an increase in crime.” Young said, “We cannot clog up our hospitals and their beds with people that are being shot senselessly because we’re going to need those beds for people infected with the coronavirus. And it could be your mother, your grandmother or one of your relatives. So take that into consideration.” On December 29, 2019, Breitbart News reported that gun control failed to end the shooting epidemic gripping Baltimore. Despite an “assault weapons” ban, a ban on “high capacity” magazines, and registration requirements for new handguns, Baltimore’s homicide rate broke a record in 2019.”

     If this article below is to believed, it is possible that the global capitalist superclass may be toying with the idea of moving to the Chinese model of everything, and abandoning neo-liberalism:
  https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-03-17/coronavirus-is-making-china-s-model-look-better-and-better

“If we now look back on 2008 as the end of America’s unchallenged post-Cold War primacy, we might one day look back on 2020 as the moment when Washington’s global authority truly began to buckle. The coronavirus saga is also certain to set off another round of debate on the merits of democracy and authoritarianism. The irony is abundant. It was actually the authoritarian characteristics of the Chinese system that initially allowed the virus to spread, and some democracies — notably South Korea and Taiwan — have done remarkably well in responding to the outbreak. Yet the fact that China subsequently claimed to have gotten a handle on the epidemic by energetically enforcing a draconian lockdown of the affected population, while the world’s leading democracy dithered in its own response, will be used by proponents of authoritarianism to argue that their system is best equipped for crisis. More recent events are further advancing the narrative. As America struggles to test its citizens and build adequate stockpiles of basic health-care supplies, such as masks, the Chinese government (and prominent Chinese firms) are providing supplies to countries such as Italy and even the U.S. itself. Beijing has promised additional funds to aid World Health Organization programs in poor countries, and the Communist Party propaganda arm has touted these contributions for all they are worth, while also alleging that the virus somehow originated in the U.S. Only a few weeks ago, when the impact of the coronavirus was still heavily concentrated in China, the dominant narrative was that Beijing was once again the new “sick man of Asia.” Now, the theme seems to be that the coronavirus shows just how badly America’s relative power and prestige have fallen. After 2008, this perception led to a surge in China’s willingness to defy the U.S. and its friends and allies in the South China Sea, in international institutions, and in negotiations on global responses to climate change. No doubt the coronavirus will stimulate new Chinese efforts to displace and discredit American leadership in global affairs.”

     Here is one which is self-explanatory:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51935991?utm_source=amerika.org

“A court in New Zealand has found a Samoan-born chief guilty of more than 20 charges of dealing in slaves and human trafficking. Joseph Auga Matamata, 65, was convicted of offences over a 25-year period. His victims, who were all Samoan, were too scared to alert the authorities because of his status as a matai or chief, the court heard. Each of the 13 slavery charges on which he was convicted carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. Matamata faces up to 20 years in jail or a fine of nearly US$300,000 for the human-trafficking convictions. Sentencing will take place on 6 May. Matamata, a horticultural contractor, was convicted of 10 counts of trafficking and 13 counts of slavery which took place between 1994 and 2019. He had promised his 13 Samoan victims, the youngest of whom was 12, a better life, the prosecution told the High Court in Napier, where the five-week trial was held. Most came on three-month holiday visas and some ended up staying for years. They worked long hours for no pay and were often beaten. He promised them "big money" by Samoan standards but ended up taking the cash they earned at orchards and other work sites, prosecutors said. It is the first time someone has been charged with both slavery and human trafficking in New Zealand.”

The Fate of Empires 24

     Knowledge and our experience (perhaps our basic human intellects) are inadequate to pronounce whether or not the rise and fall of great nations is the best system for the best of all possible worlds. These doubts, however, need not prevent us from attempting to acquire more knowledge on the rise and fall of great powers, or from endeavouring, in the light of such knowledge, to improve the moral quality of human life.