Conspiracy Theory on the Coronavirus

The coronavirus that causes Covid19 is quite selective. It is quite mild in children and young people, and most of those who died from it or complications from it, are older people.

The virus originated in China.

China's one-child policy has resulted in an ageing population. And this top-heavy population pyramid will mean that each working adult will have to support many elderly.

China's "social support" system will not be able to support an ageing China.

If only there were some way to... reduce the burden from an ageing population...

Some thoughts of the US Presidential Elections 2020

As of this writing, the Democratic candidates are down to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

Biden has a lead and is likely to hold the lead and win the nomination. Which will be a sad thing. But understandable.

Politics are conservative.

Until it is not.

Malaysian Political Drama Feb 2020

I need to include a date in the title or you might ask, "political drama? which one?" So this one, as reported in brief by The Washington Post:

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamad, the world’s oldest national leader, resigned.“Under Malaysia’s constitution, the entire cabinet must be dissolved if the prime minister resigns,” Shibani Mahtani and Jonathan Edward report. “As the prime minister’s office announced Mahathir’s intent to resign, his political party, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party, known as Bersatu, said it would be leaving Malaysia’s ruling coalition. About a dozen other prominent members of parliament also left to form an independent bloc in the Southeast Asian country’s legislature. The king, Sultan Abdullah of Pahang, has not commented publicly on the matter. The political drama on Monday appeared to thwart one of Southeast Asia’s most celebrated democratic transitions, and returned Malaysia to a time of backdoor political plotting and palace intrigue. The move also appeared aimed at preventing [Anwar Ibrahim] from taking over as leader.”

Washington Post 

25/2/2020

Daily 202, News email 

China in the Year of the Metal Rat 2020

So this is the Year of the Metal Rat (from Jan 25 2020).

But for some, it is also the Year of the Golden Rat, and it starts on 4 Feb 2020.

And this Rat Year is especially auspicious as it is a double spring year.

Tell that to China who is dealing with the Covid19 , a.k.a. the  "Wuhan virus".

Technically, that virus/epidemic started in Dec 2019 (the Year of the Earth Pig), and lingered into the new year.

The Year of the Rat - for Malaysia

In the aftermath of the historic 2018 Malaysian General Election that swept UMNO out of power after 60 years, and brought in fresh hope in the Hope Alliance that is Pakatan Harapan (PH), this piece pointed out how fragile a coalition government is, and offered some scenarios as to the challenges this fragile coalition could face.

One of the scenarios suggested was this:

Or Dr M, after ensuring that Najib has been dethroned from UMNO's leadership, may lead Bersatu back to UMNO. Then BN (with Bersatu) could ally with PAS, and based on the current numbers, they would have 109 seats. They just need 3 more seats for BN to be back in power. This could be from defecting PKR or Amanah MPs (DAP would be very unlikely), or the independents, or STAR, or Warisan.

The Future of Covid19

Chinese experts "believe" (officially) that the epidemic will run its course and die out (just like SARS did) in April.

Whether they REALLY (medically/scientifically) believe that, or they are required OFFICIALLY to believe that, is arguable.

They may be right. Or they may be official.

This video provides a more medical/scientific consideration of the two scenarios (or three depending on how you understand the situation/their explanation.

Can a Carrier Group Defend against China's "Carrier Killer"?

In my Oct 2016 post on Singapore's possible Aircraft Carrier Ambition, I suggested that China just needs to build up the numbers and performance of their "Carrier-killer" missile the DF21.

This video (not mine) explores how the US carrier group might defend against the DF21.