The Deep State takes over

 

STASI  was the East German State Security Organization. Its motto: Schild und Schwert der Partei   (Shield and sword of the Party). Every State has an organization of that kind, from the Krypthaya of the Spartan State to President Putin's alma mater to Germany's Defense of the Constitution something. That is the real Deep State. The real source of power. The Chinese State is in crisis mode and has drawn the sword from its scabbard and replaced all local authorities with heavyweight political police officers. Pic. Ying Yong, the new boss of Hubei province. 

The rules have changed, it is hardball from now on. 

Cutie

cutie

High IQ people doing crazy things

The Chinese people are among the most intelligent so I wonder what to do with Emperor Jingdi's tomb. He built an underground tomb (pic. Han Yangling Museum in Xi'an, China) full of clay sheep, pigs and other domestic animals, so he would not starve in the netherworld. His colleagues were even crazier, they manufactured clay soldiers by the thousands to guard them. My father explanation was that there is something wrong with the human mind. 

Worse than first estimated

I did not want to blog about the new non-flu Wuhan disease, but it is becoming too important and urgent, so I have to follow its development. A recent Los Alamos Lab paper estimates that it is unstoppable..." the number of infected individuals during early epidemic double every 2.4 days, and the R0 value is likely to be between 4.7 and 6.6."

This bad flu kills mostly over 50 males already with some disease, like me. Young people is safe. Should I be afraid? I have completed my life cycle and am surviving only to help the next generation. Of course the new flu worries me. Half of Japan's budget goes to pay pensions and health care for the elderly. After the epidemy they will have a balanced budget. It is a godsent disease to heal the economy. 

The 1914 worldwide epidemy killed mostly babies and children. When I visited the Jaszbereny Jewish cemetery, saw many monuments with syrupy inscriptions for dead children. It must have been horrible. 

STETL - Budapest Jewish Rock

Hungarian Jews are not what you imagined.

The Weeky Portion: Yitro

This week we Jews are reading the chapter where the African  priest Yitro visits Moses and Zipporah and the grandchildren. The Jews are torturing Moshe with their moral questions, so the old man advises: Write down the Law and appoint judges. So Moshe went up the mountain and after fasting and consulting with God, produced two tablets with ten simple rules. From then on there could be no more doubts what was to be considered politically correct.

Commenting on the chapter, Rabbi Tarfon asked himself why is that only the Israelites received God's commandments? Why not the "Children of Esau" tribe? Obvious, answered Rabbi Tarfon, those Esau people are warlike, "You shall not murder" is not for them. What about the sons of Ishmael, the Arabs? "You shall not steal" was not for them since they live robbing caravans in the desert. Presumably, the Greeks would never accept a bodiless god having beautiful naked marble statues of their nubile goddesses and muscular athletes? Having run out of worthy candidates, God noticed Moshe starving on the hilltop and offloaded his stone tablets on him. On us. Left: Hebrew tablet found in the ruins of Gezer. 

China Today

I feel I have to post this picture of China today. A family trying to escape wrapped up in poliethilene bags, from shoes to head. It reminds me of Saddam Hussein's missile attack on Israel, when we expected poison gas  and protected ourselves and our homes with plastic sheets and tape. It seems effective. Hope we shall be spared of similar views in Israel. But we may be not.