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Pitcher

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Everything posted by Pitcher

  1. The Iraq Government should have been formed and a RV’ed by now but the Iraqi’s have been busy trying to learn the art of Chinese Magic. It looks so easy but it’s not. It appears many of Iraq’s leaders have been spending time in the hospital for second degree burns.
  2. I just read the China oil deal after posting the same story. Sorry about that. IT’s a big story and is a slap in the USA face after all we have done to liberate this pos country.
  3. https://www.shafaaq.com/en/economy/iraq-expects-a-significant-reduction-in-opec-oil-production/ Iraq expects a "significant" reduction in "OPEC" oil production 2020/04/05 02:57:40 Shafaq News / The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Oil, Thamer Al-Ghadban attributed on Sunday the postponement of the conference of oil producing and exporting countries, until next Thursday due to "technical reasons". Al-Ghadban said, in a statement to the official newspaper, "Al-Sabah", that "the conference that was scheduled to take place on Monday was postponed until next Thursday," noting that the conference "will be run through a television circle, and this matter requires good preparation", pointing at the same time , that "some countries decided to study the issue of reducing production, which is expected to be significant." Al-Ghadban added, "The meeting, which will be held, will include OPEC countries and allied countries, and producing and exporting countries from outside them. Therefore, production cuts require an in-depth study to ensure market stability and the advancement of the global economy." It is noteworthy that the invitation to the meeting included most of the oil-producing and exporting countries, such as the OPEC countries and the countries previously aligned with them, headed by Russia, which is known as "OPEC Plus" and countries outside them, which are expected to include America, Brazil, Norway, Canada, the North Sea, and others, to work to stabilize the oil market in this critical situation. } جميع الحقوق محفوظة © copyright 2019 - مؤسسة شفق للثقافة والاعلام
  4. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/China-Prepares-To-Close-Oil-Deal-Of-A-Lifetime-In-Iraq.html China Prepares To Close ‘Oil Deal Of A Lifetime’ In Iraq By Simon Watkins - Apr 04, 2020, 4:00 PM CDT Over the past week or so, China has eased quarantine measures in Wuhan – the city in which the global coronavirus pandemic began – with the entire lockdown scheduled to end on 8 April. With China’s President Xi Jinpiang having visited the city just a few days ago, the industrial economy across China as a whole is back working and operating at levels even above the pre-coronavirus rates, although the service sector remains more cautious. For the oil industry, this means that China is back and busy taking up where it left off in terms of exploring and developing new field opportunities. This is at a time when the U.S. is just beginning to see the full onset of coronavirus mayhem. There has been no clearer sign of this move by China than last week’s awarding of a US$203.5 million engineering contract for Iraq’s supergiant oil field, Majnoon, to the little known China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp (CPECC). With the U.S.’ focus increasingly on fire-fighting the coronavirus outbreak at home, Beijing has good reason to believe that it has largely a clear run at target country Iraq, provided that it does not stick it too much in the U.S.’ craw. This specifically means continuing to develop oil and gas field opportunities in geopolitically ultra-sensitive areas, such as Iraq, on the basis of rolling contracts for specific work undertaken by companies that are not top of the U.S.’ radar, like CPECC. This method is also being used by Russia, and the focus of it right now is Iraq and Iran, two countries that are right in the centre of the Middle East and vital to both China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ multi-generational dominance strategy and to Russia’s ongoing attempt to sequestrate the entire Middle East. Majnoon is a key focus in Iraq because it has so much oil that its very name in Arabic means ‘insane’, to signify the insane amount of oil that has always been present there. Before the U.S. noticed that China was stealthily acting hand in glove with Russia to provide the money where the muscle had been put in place, the ever-fractious senior Iraqi politicians had offered China a stunningly lucrative deal for the development of the Majnoon field. Specifically, the terms of the deal were that China would obtain a 25-year contract but one that would officially start two years after the signing date. This would allow China to recoup more profits on average per year and less upfront investment. Related: What Really Caused Oil To Rally By 25%? Also enormously beneficial for Beijing was that the methodology for working out per barrel payments to it would be the higher – the Chinese would choose - of either the mean average of the 18 month spot price for crude oil produced, or the past six months. Additionally, China would receive a discount of at least 10 per cent for at least five years on the value of the oil it recovered. And oil there is aplenty. Located around 60 kilometres to the north east of the main southern export terminal of Basra, the Majnoon supergiant oil field is one of the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 38 billion barrels of oil in place. Due to the legacy of both the Iran-Iraq War and the U.S. incursions, from when the licence on the field was awarded on 11 December 2009 by the Iraq government to Shell Iraq Petroleum Development (SIPD) – in conjunction with its Malaysian partner, Petronas, and Iraq’s Missan Oil Company – it took nearly 18 months simply to clear 28 square kilometres of land of explosives, prior to constructing and opening the first well. Production was then formally restarted on 20 September 2013 and, within a very short timeframe, the consortium had already managed to boost output to the 175,000 barrels per day (bpd) first commercial production target (also the threshold for cost-recovery payments for Shell). By the end of the first quarter of 2014, the field was churning out an average of 210,000 bpd, according to figures from Shell and Baghdad. Indeed, the first shipment of crude oil to Shell Trading occurred on 8 April that year and, despite the floods that hit the fields in early 2019, the longer-term original production target figures designed for the Shell-led consortium still stand: the first production target of 175,000 bpd (already reached and surpassed), and the plateau production for the site of 1.8 mbpd. The International Energy Agency projected output of 550,000-950,000 bpd production by 2020, and 700,000-1 million bpd at some point in the 2030s, although due to the flooding and recent political upheavals – plus the effects of the coronavirus – the timing has slipped. Even with these caveats, though, China’s part of the deal – which also remains in place – is to shore up the site from future potential flooding and to increase output to at least 500,000 bpd by the end of May 2021. The details of the early 2019 flooding damage might make worrying reading for some developers. The rain that caused the initial flooding had only fallen on both sides of the Iraq/Iran border for just 35 minutes in total, which then caused the Hiwiza marshes to overflow into farmland in the nearby Al-Qurna district, cutting through the safety berms and the rising level of water caused the Jahaf dam to collapse. By 15 March, the water level rose sufficiently to force itself through a second safety berm to the edges of the Majnoon oil field. The details do not worry the Chinese, though, for two key reasons. One is that China has extensive knowledge of dealing with floods across its own country, both natural and man-created (via the damming that has occurred for decades), so it has the expertise and engineering capabilities to effectively deal with such eventualities. The other is that, in line with its aforementioned encroachment into Iran, China can work on both sides of the border, as the Majnoon reservoir in the Iraqi side extends across the Iran border into the massive field known as Azadegan. This, in turn, is split into the North Azadegan and South Azadegan oil field developments. Related: The Largest Oil Market Intervention In History? For years, structural damage has been done to the area by the erosion of subsoil across over one million hectares of forest and brush land by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a result of building programmes. This has been worsened by the redirection of many of the natural water flows through the building of dams and again by Iran’s irrigation systems that have been sending clean and waste water into Iraq for decades. A 2011 study by the University of Basra warned that the infrastructure was not able to handle Iranian inflows, with the danger zone concentrated in an area where the Majnoon oil pipelines feed the gas-oil separation station. However, as a senior source who works closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry told OilPrice.com last week: “The IRGC invited China into Iran and Iraq and the IRGC is entirely at China’s service.” This strategy of gradual encroachment is a Chinese classic, of course, currently being employed very notably where possible across the Asia-Pacific region as well as the Middle East. The modus operandi is: offer lots of money to cash-strapped countries (which most emerging economies are) that are tied in to future project developments, then leverage this into the building out of on-the-ground infrastructural projects (that have employment and revenue benefits for the host countries as well), and then turn the screw by inveigling the host countries to give China extremely preferential terms on something it wants (in the Middle East it is oil and gas and land transit routes, and in Asia Pacific it is other natural resources and international port usage). Although in the Middle East, China is still partly trying to cover its intentions by using non-headline companies on ‘contractor-only’ specific work projects – just like CPECC – it does not take much digging to find the real interest. Not only is CPECC a subsidiary of Chinese oil behemoth, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), but also it was the very same company that was recently awarded exactly the same type of contract (US$121 million for ‘engineering work’ that time) for Iraq’s supergiant West Qurna-1 oilfield, also located very close to Iraq’s principal oil hub of Basra. “At some point the U.S. is going to wake up and find out that it has lost the entire Middle East, including Iraq and Saudi,” concluded the Iran source.
  5. My wife was a Registered Nurse for 44 years. She worked every part of a local hospital including Administration. Her last two years she was told if she didn’t have a flu shot she would be terminated immediately. That’s what will happen LGD. If you are on any Government payroll, SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Retired Vet, etc, etc you will get vaccinated or lose your benefits. Any State, City, County Government that takes money from the Federal Government will basically be told to vaccinate your people or lose your Fed monies. Those that choose to forgo the vaccination will be labeled criminals imo. Most people will be so scared of dying from this CV they will take the vaccination just like my parents had me vaccinated for polio in the late 50’s. In those days you got your children vaccinated or your children weren’t allowed to attend public schools. I’m not saying this is right, it’s just my opinion.
  6. Thanks for this post Bigwave. It’s a good reminder to reverse that list ASAP!!
  7. https://www.shafaaq.com/en/iraq-news/sadr-alliance-sends-a-message-to-al-zorfi-and-waves-of-refusing-him/ Sadr Alliance sends a message to Al-Zorfi and waves of refusing him Iraq News Sadr Alliance Adnan Al-Zorfi Raad Al-Maksousi Iraqi Prime Minister 2020/04/04 05:30:17 Shafaq News / Alliance Towards Reforms close to the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr waved not to give confidence to Prime Minister-designate Adnan al-Zorfi if he surrenders to parties’ interests. "Many parties and political blocs are searching for their interests, achieving their personal goals, and obtaining political gains in the next government," Raad Al-Maksousi, a member of the Alliance told Shafaq News. He added that "Others will refuse to give confidence to the Prime Minister-designate Adnan Al-Zorfi in the parliament if he surrenders to the demands and interests of political parties." Al-Maksousi called on the Prime Minister-designate to "not to surrender to the demands of political parties and blocs and to form his government from independent and competent personalities that he finds appropriate in the cabinet." Earlier today, the Prime Minister-designate, Adnan Al-Zorfi has sent the ministerial curriculum to the Iraqi parliamentarian to vote on his government. Al-Zorfi said on Friday that he will submit his government program to parliament on Saturday, with a request to set the date for the session to grant confidence to his government. } جميع الحقوق محفوظة © copyright 2019 - مؤسسة شفق للثقافة والاعلام
  8. Does Iran control four Arab capitals? An Iranian cleric once uttered in a reckless statement that Iran controls four Arab capitals, namely: Beirut, Damascus, Sanaa and Baghdad. Many anti-Iran parties held debates on this statement, considering it a reality, and began to warn the world about Iran’s emerging power and future hegemony over the Arab region. I even heard one famous Islamic writer extending an entire political and doctrinal approach on the cleric’s statement. I wondered about the kind of information on which this mullah based his statement, indicating his political ignorance. I started further examining the political condition of each of the four capitals, seeking to find a suitable ground for the statement of the mullah. I have been aware for decades that the Arab countries are infiltrated by the US, the British, and the Zionists, as no one has ever tried to loosen these powers’ grip on the region. The collapsed Soviet Union tried to infiltrate the Arab world and compete with the US. However, these attempts were unsuccessful even in countries that adopted the socialist approach, such as Egypt, Algeria and Syria. Thus, the US managed to maintain its dominance over the Arabs, and continued to expand its influence until the present day. Perhaps, it was not possible to debunk the mullah’s statements at the time, because Iran’s Arab enemies had already controlled the Arab public opinion and strongly adhered to the statement of the delusional sheikh. Thus, refuting the mullah’s statements during that period, was deemed to be considered an act of blasphemy. However, the present stage can pave the way for proceeding with a different dialectic. In Lebanon, for instance, it is easy for anyone who is willing to delve further into the matter, to see that Beirut is still dominated by the US. It is true that the pro-Iranian Hezbollah have a strong presence in Lebanon, however, the movement does not control Beirut and has no influence on the Lebanese government’s will. In other words, Hezbollah cannot dictate the government’s actions in accordance with its preferences or the Iranian agenda, and the proof is that the US prevented Lebanon from accepting Iran’s offer to arm the Lebanese military forces. The most prominent evidence of the US’ hegemony over Lebanon is the case of Amer Al-Fakhoury, who was released from a Lebanese prison due to pressures exerted by the US on the Lebanese political decision makers and judiciary. The US did not hesitate to send a helicopter to Awkar, Beirut (the location of the US embassy’s headquarters) to transport Al-Fakhoury to the US. As such, Trump thanked Lebanon for cooperating to release the most prominent Lebanese spy of the Zionist entity, who brutally tortured Lebanese detainees in Khiam Detention Centre, and killed some of them under torture. This is not to mention the US’ interference in Lebanese economic affairs. Opinion: Israel needs the Arab world to be ruled by dictators If Hezbollah has a role in running Lebanese politics, its influence is primarily limited to preventing Lebanon from sliding toward the Zionist entity, as some fallen Arab regimes have done, as well as defending Lebanon in the face of Zionist aspirations. Hezbollah would also remain as a guard to Lebanon against the attacks of others, yet we do not expect it to achieve beyond its capabilities. As for Iraq, the issue is no longer a secret, after the reported US military and intelligence activities in the media. The Iraqi land is like a stage for the US, as they establish military bases, deploy their soldiers and reposition their military forces. In addition, the US president often visited his country’s forces in Iraq without informing the Iraqi president, and the US warplanes and helicopters flew over the Iraqi Republican Palace and assassinated Iraqis and non-Iraqis on Iraqi land, while the Iraqi officials remained polite and did not protest. It was only during this period that the media started talking about US air traffic over Baghdad and the entire Iraqi airspace. The US is occupying Iraq and dominating Iraqi land. There are organisations in Iraq that are allied with Iran and are receiving military support from it, but they do not run and direct the country. These organisations are now trying to attack the US, especially with missile power. In contrast, the Iraqi government is not committed to the same intentions, meaning that Iran does not control Baghdad, but rather the US. For many people, it is permissible for the US, yet not for other countries, especially that the US component has become part of their psychological structure, and they have become impatient about its absence. As for Syria, the US remains there, controlling the Syrian oil wells and roaming the eastern region, with their aircraft flying in Syrian airspace with comfort and reassurance. The presence of some Iranian and Russian forces in Syria has not yet affected the US’ insistence on remaining in Syria, while Sanaa is busy defending its purebred Arabian horses. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200404-does-iran-control-four-arab-capitals/
  9. CAIRO - Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Adnan Zurfi presented his agenda Saturday to Parliament as government security forces clashed with protesters defying a government-imposed curfew. More than a dozen Iraqi police reportedly were wounded when protesters in Nasiriya threw gasoline bombs at police, who were firing tear gas at them. A long cortege of vehicles Saturday drove through the streets of the southern city, honking car horns to defy the curfew. Iraqi state TV had earlier showed security forces stopping vehicles and taking the temperatures of drivers to detect coronavirus cases. Amateur video showed Iraqi security forces shooting at dozens of protesters, who appeared to play cat-and-mouse with them late Friday in the streets of Nasiriya. Protesters appeared to light fires and throw gasoline bombs in response to government fire and volleys of tear gas. Several dozen police and protesters reportedly were injured. A young protester complained in an amateur video posted on social media that he had to wear a face mask to stop choking from the heavy rounds of tear gas being fired by security forces. FILE - An anti-government protester walks by a defaced picture of Prime Minister-designate Adnan Al-Zurfi in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Iraq, March 19, 2020. Meanwhile, Prime Minister-designate Adnan Zurfi presented his government's expected agenda Saturday to Parliament. It is not clear when Parliament will schedule a debate to approve the new government amid the chaos from the coronavirus crisis. Zurfi has until April 16 to form a new government and present it to parliament for approval. Eight pro-Iranian Shi'ite political parties issued a statement Saturday in opposition to Zurfi, claiming he was the "candidate of the CIA." The same eight parties also threatened to attack U.S. forces in Iraq. U.S. coalition forces have handed over a number of bases to the Iraqi military in recent days. Analysts on Arab media pointed out that Zurfi needed 156 votes in Parliament to win approval for his government. Despite opposition from large Shi'ite blocs, including the Fateh Alliance of Hadi al-Ameri and Dowlat al-Qanoun of former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Zurfi appears to have scattered support from some Shi'ite members of parliament, and overwhelming support from Sunni and Kurdish parties. Analyst Iyad al-Anbar told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV that "the Shi'ite camp appears to be divided over Zurfi's nomination, despite the negative noises that they are making about him." He says Zurfi's nomination "may scrape through parliament if just 100 Shi'ite lawmakers support him, given the strong support for him by Sunni and Kurdish MPs." Zurfi told Sky News Arabia that "Iraq is facing a catastrophe" due to falling global oil prices, "and that it may not be able to pay all government salaries due to the shortfall." The government is also facing a major financial drain from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Most of the Iraqi budget comes from oil exports, and oil prices have been at historical lows. https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/iraq-protesters-confront-security-forces-pm-designate-presents-agenda-parliament
  10. There is no doubt in my mind that the media is using the CV disease to spread fear, panic, and political agendas. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/we-could-be-vastly-overestimating-the-death-rate-for-covid-19-heres-why/ We could be vastly overestimating the death rate for COVID-19. Here's why Workers prepare part of a delivery of 64 hospital beds to The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York Image: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly A lack of adequate testing means many of those who have been infected with the coronavirus will not appear in official statistics. This suggests that many estimates for its mortality rate are much too high. We need to build better systems for sharing and reporting data. Public health epidemiology is the science of counting to prevent disease and promote health. We count the number of new cases of a particular disease; this is the incidence. Then we count how much a disease has spread in a population; this is the prevalence. When it comes to COVID-19, counting is a challenge. Despite all the news articles and reports, we know very little about the incidence or prevalence of this new disease. And as is always the case: ignorance breeds fear. In my hometown of New York City and elsewhere one fear is on just about everyone’s mind: death rates here appear to be considerably higher than rates reported elsewhere. Or are they? Using patient data from China, public health officials initially estimated that 80% of COVID-19 cases are either asymptomatic or have mild disease. Given that hospital beds, health workers, and test kits are in short supply, only highly symptomatic people are advised to go to the hospital. Because of lack of adequate testing, including in the United States, in many places only hospital patients are now counted as cases. The people who do not feel seriously ill stay home, recover quietly, and are never counted. This matters because they do not appear in any of the official statistics. Take for example an elderly New Yorker who is mildly sick. She calls her family doctor who makes a clinical diagnosis of suspected COVID-19 based on her symptoms, not a test. Because she is not very sick, she is advised to stay home. There is no mechanism for her doctor to report her diagnosis to the health authorities, so if she gets better, she is never counted. Only if she becomes ill enough to be admitted to the hospital, is she counted as a COVID-19 case. If she dies she will be counted as a COVID-19 death. Since many of us are experiencing homeschooling these days, it seems a good time for a math refresher. Once the number of infections is determined, this becomes the denominator in our public health calculation. The number of deaths is our numerator. Numerator (number of deaths)/denominator (number of people infected) x 100 = infection fatality rate We know the virus spreads very fast once it is introduced to a population. That means many of us in the general population are or were already infected with the virus- whether or not we have symptoms. Testing rates - and counting methods - vary widely from country to country Image: Our World in Data However, instead of counting us all in the denominator, in many countries including the US, only people sick enough to go to the hospital are counted. People sick enough to go to the hospital are more likely to need critical care, and patients in critical condition are more likely to die than patients with mild symptoms. This means the fatality rate looks higher than it really is. Further, even when we are testing, depending on the type of test used, we may only be counting people who are actively infected, not those who had it and are thus currently immune. This again will lead to an underestimate of the denominator. What does it mean? It means that the denominator (number of infections) is smaller than it should be, so the numerator (number of deaths) has a lot of power. In this case, the result is that the death rate (numerator divided by denominator) reported is higher than it should be. In other words, by not counting the people who don’t need hospital care, we are massively over projecting the percent of infected people who die of COVID-19. It’s a dangerous message that is causing fear all driven by a false denominator. In the coming days, the death rate is going to look worse, especially as hospitals get more and more crowded and we ration care. It will seem as if a higher percentage of COVID-infected people are dying than is actually the case. Unlike other diseases, there is neither enough nor appropriate testing, making it impossible to assess how many of us were already infected and thus are no longer at risk of infection. The vast majority of us will be infected, survive, and remain unware if we carried the virus or were contagious, so we will unwittingly infect our friends and family members. Data from across the US and from other countries about deaths by age, underlying medical conditions, medications being taken at time of death, and other factors could eventually help us understand how COVID-19 behaves at both a population and individual level. In the meantime, we need to adjust official population-level estimate of case numbers, or at the very least, build better systems for sharing data and reporting. And at some point, we will return to and rebuild our daily routines, with the new addition of attending to the mental health crisis caused by weeks of fear, isolation and anxiety. Much of which could have been avoided by an accurate and clear definition of the denominator. Anna Matterson, Susanna Lehtimaki and Katie Holland also contributed to this piece.
  11. This is an article from Jan 31 2020 from the LA Times. Only 2 months ago. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-31/flu-coronavirus For Americans, flu remains a bigger threat than coronavirus While a new virus that originated in China has prompted Americans to wear masks on the subway and cancel international trips for fear of falling ill, a much deadlier killer already stalking the United States has been largely overshadowed: the flu. Like the new coronavirus, influenza can spread from person to person through the air and cause a fever and cough. But unlike the coronavirus, which so far hasn’t led to any deaths in the U.S., influenza has killed approximately 10,000 Americans since October, according to federal data released Friday. “Here in the U.S., this is what is killing us,” said UC Riverside epidemiologist Brandon Brown. “Why should we be afraid of something that has not killed people here in this country?” To be sure, the coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, has alarmed public health officials as they try to avert a worldwide health crisis. China has quarantined more than 50 million people to contain the outbreak. This week, the World Health Organization deemed the coronavirus a “global health emergency,” and U.S. officials advised Americans not to travel to China, prompting airlines to cancel flights. And on Friday, health officials ordered a two-week quarantine for 195 Americans who were flown from Wuhan, China, to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside. But so far, just six people in the United States have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, all cases that were associated with travel to China. By contrast, in California alone, 211 people have died of influenza, including seven children, since the season began in October, according to state data released Friday. That figure, gathered from death certificates, is widely considered to underestimate since the flu can prompt fatal conditions like heart failure or pneumonia, which are then instead listed as the final cause of death. But the flu doesn’t captivate the public’s attention in the way a new, emerging virus does. Unknowns generate news, anxiety and sometimes panic. Waiting in a downtown Los Angeles subway station Thursday, Josh Aguilera wore a white mask strapped over his nose and mouth. He had begun using the mask a few days earlier during his subway journeys between work and home to protect himself from the coronavirus, he said. “I ride the subway every day so I feel like I’m at risk,” said Aguilera, 31. But a bigger worry for people taking public transportation or in other crowded spaces is the flu, experts say. Nationwide, 19 million people in the United States have had the flu this season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is something I guess we’re used to so we don’t really pay attention to it much,” Brown said. “I think we need to shift our attention back to the flu.” The CDC is not recommending that people wear face masks to protect against the coronavirus, or any other respiratory illness. Federal officials continue to recommend, however, that people get immunized against the flu. The flu shot can make people half as likely to get sick as someone who didn’t get the vaccine and the flu season runs through May, according to the CDC. “Get your flu shot — take measures to prevent getting sick with the many things in this country we have to get sick from,” said Tufts Medical Center infectious disease specialist Dr. Shira Doron. “The likelihood of an American being killed by the flu compared to being killed by the coronavirus is probably approaching infinity.” So far, 213 people have died worldwide from the coronavirus. Public health officials are still learning who is most likely to die from the coronavirus. Experts know that the flu tends to be most dangerous for the elderly. However, the strains of flu circulating this year have been hitting young people especially hard. In California, 37 people under the age of 50 have died from influenza this season, according to state data. “We have to get people vaccinated,” said New York University bioethicist Arthur Caplan. One upside of the anxiety over coronavirus, experts say, is that it may inadvertently prevent flu cases, since the diseases are transmitted in similar ways. To protect against the flu — or coronavirus, if that’s your concern — people should wash their hands frequently, sneeze or cough into the crook of their elbow and avoid contact with ill people, said Dartmouth College professor Dr. Elizabeth Talbot. “There are a lot of things we can do in a very routine way to stay healthier,” Talbot said.
  12. I can wait for the $33 rate, thanks for the heads up 8th ID. I found a picture of Luigi on the Internet. He’s a big star
  13. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1652226/business-economy Tumbling oil prices leave Iraq facing a perfect storm April 03, 2020 06:14 BAGHDAD: As crude prices plunge, Iraq’s oil sector is facing a triple threat that has slashed revenues, risks denting production and may spell trouble for future exports. So what are the challenges facing the only significant industry in Iraq, as global oil prices fall to around $25 a barrel? The price crash means Iraq’s monthly crude revenues were slashed by nearly half from February to just $2.99 billion in March. The second-biggest crude producer in the OPEC oil cartel, Iraq pays international oil companies (IOCs) about $3 billion quarterly to extract its crude. With oil so cheap, the government is desperately looking to cut costs and delay payments. Last week, the Basra Oil Company — the state-owned firm coordinating production in the oil-rich southern province — asked IOCs to accept a delay in six months’ worth of payments and cut work budgets by 30 percent, according to letters seen by AFP. “A delay in first quarter payments is necessary, and we asked for the second quarter just in case,” said Khaled Hamza Abbas, BOC’s assistant director and a signatory to the letter, saying that oil companies had yet to respond. But IOCs are already taking independent action, according to internal letters seen by AFP. FASTFACT 90% Iraq relies on oil revenues for more than 90 percent of state expenses. Oil superpower ExxonMobil immediately asked subcontractors to “reduce overall cost” with other firms asking suppliers for discounts. “IOCs are cash-strapped,” a source at the main operator in the south said. However, the trouble does not stop there. IOCs expense Iraq at the end of each quarter for what it cost to extract crude, and the Iraqi government pays them in oil. “With the lower prices, the government would have to use virtually all its crude to pay oil companies and would have barely enough to sell,” a leading Iraqi official said. Iraq relies on oil revenues for more than 90 percent of state expenses. Its 2020 budget was based on an estimated barrel price of $56, more than twice the current rate. The spread of the novel coronavirus has severely disrupted rotations of key foreign nationals working at Iraq’s oil fields, risking a drop in the usual 4.5 million barrel per day (bpd) production. To stem the spread of the respiratory illness, Iraq has shut its airports and imposed a countrywide lockdown until at least April 19, although many expect an extension. The Gharraf field in Dhi Qar province, which has produced up to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), is offline after last month’s evacuation of dozens of Malaysian workers by operator Petronas over coronavirus fears, according to a source at the province’s state-owned oil company. Most foreign oil workers live on the fields in Basra, and are currently stuck there beyond their normal six- to eight-week rotations due to travel bans. “We’re seeking approvals for an exemption for foreign staff so that we can secure the rotating teams. These companies have internal rules and you can’t keep the teams here for more than two months,” said BOC’s assistant director, Abbas. A source from a major European oil firm operating in Basra said that a halt to foreign staff rotations would be a bigger threat to production than payment delays. Britain’s BP, too, would have to trim production if 4,000 British nationals working in the south could no longer travel. “There are no two ways about it,” a source with knowledge of BP’s operations said. The third threat is a global drop in oil demand for the first time in a decade, with the International Energy Agency expecting 2020 demand to decrease by 90,000 bpd, a sharp downgrade from forecasts it would grow by more than 800,000 bpd. “It has no equal in the history that we see such a strong decline in demand and a huge massive overhang of supply at the same time,” IEA director-general Fatih Birol said. Two countries facing shrinking demands are India and China, where Iraq sells “the lion’s share” of its crude, according to geopolitical analyst Noam Raydan. China, where the virus first emerged, is struggling through a huge economic slump and India has entered a three-week lockdown.
  14. Big E, now you got my attention. Thanks, I will start looking for it.
  15. It has started alright, but can he make it stop.
  16. Yes, incredible people. Yes sir hopefully we all stay well and are healthy.
  17. My parents were the most disciplined people I know. 6 oz. Why bother. I made sure I drank so much more than them. I can lol about it now but wow did I have a bad drinking problem years ago.
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