Notes From All Over, Part 3 -- February 27, 2020

Really? The presidential briefing on coronavirus included comment from several people in addition to the president. The most ridiculous comment came from one of the other speakers who recommended that schools "dust off" their "pandemic preparation" checklists. I kid you not. I was in the USAF for 30 years and if any agency has checklists for any and every eventuality, every contingency it would be the US military. Not once in those 30 years did I ever run across a "pandemic preparation" checklist. Today I received a note from the middle school which our middle granddaughter attends. The principal, bless his heart, sent out "the" checklist. LOL. It started with, "wash your hands frequently."

Love him or hate him: who would you rather have in charge with regard to coronavirus? Bush II, Barack Obama or Donald Trump? With the first, in over his head; with the second, a lot of speeches. With Trump, we will see heads roll after the first US coronavirus-related death if it could have been prevented. Those CDC folks may seem smug on the outside but inside they know their futures are in the hands of a demanding president up for re-election later this year. 

China and Apple: soon to part ways.

Pipelines: Putin is building a multi-billion-dollar Nordstream 2 pipeline to bring natural gas from Russia to Germany. Meanwhile, New York bans natural gas from neighboring Pennsylvania. Putin must think we're nuts.

Campaign 2020 funding: drying up. The stock market implosion will put an end to frivolous campaign donations. Won't affect Bernie, Steyer, or Bloomberg. Buttigieg, Pocahontas, Biden, Klobuchar: last nail in their coffins. Earlier it was reported "Hollywood" has even said "enough is enough."

Coronavirus: the smartest thing the administration could do is post daily seasonal flu deaths in the US alongside coronavirus deaths in the US and remind people that the CDC-sanctioned "flu shot" is less than 45% effective. [My hunch: the "flu shot" is significantly less than 45% effective; the CDC would want best number possible, and would post results under optimum testing conditions.]

Hope springs eternal. Royal Dutch Shell (does Queen Elizabeth allow them to use the word "Royal"? -- just wondering, but I digress) says it will continue with plans for "massive" deep-water drilling plan in Mexico even though the company knows it is unlikely to see any production under the current Mexican government. Link here:

The global oil major plans to drill four wells this year, and a similar amount next year, said Alberto de La Fuente, Shell’s Mexico country chief. It’s part of a drilling campaign that will include 10 to 13 wells and cost from $800 million to $2.4 billion.

Shell has a major position in Mexico’s deep-waters at a time when access is hard to come by. Mexico’s new government under Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, has promised to reverse the neoliberal policies of his predecessor and has canceled further auctions and joint-venture opportunities with state owned Petroleos Mexicanos.

“First oil, if we are successful, is unlikely to occur before the end of AMLO’s term, due to the complexity of deep-water fields, which can take anywhere from five years to a decade to start producing,” De La Fuente, who’s also president of AMEXHI, the national hydrocarbons association.

What's wrong with this list? See story at this link. Saudi Aramco signed 66 MOUs worth $21 billion for oil, gas, refining projects.

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Backyard Birding

I'm very new at this, and it won't get much better. So if you are into "birding" this is NOT the site to visit.

Showing up at the same time as the male cardinal above, the bird in the bottom photo is most likely a very young cardinal. I was thinking "something else," but the red beak really really suggests a cardinal. In addition, a male-female cardinal pair are regular visitors to our backyard patio, so it would be likely they have hatchling or two.