This is probably just a bump in the road for China. In a nation of over one billion, this type of outbreak is not bad. I would not even pay attention to it. That would be my opinion if I were a Sinophile on the level of Mr. Scientism. I enjoy his Twitter account but have rarely met spouses who love each other as much as he loves China. I respect the moves the Chinese have made to greatly strengthen their sovereignty. I have written on this for years, so there is no denying it. It is still reasonable to criticize them. The effects of this small virus could be system altering or destroying.

Where is Xi? There was a point at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa where the Soviets went to see Stalin. He falsely thought they were coming to arrest him for his terrible leadership but the lemmings wanted him to speak to the nation. It was the first time many Russians had ever heard him speak. He ended up being a continuous presence, famously not leaving Moscow as the Germans drew closer. Where is Xi? The man put on a show of consolidating power and eliminating rivals for years. He is in charge for life. He does not even show up on television. Rise to the moment, a real one not a sham Western media created faux event, with a little flair.

Things are going to get real very quickly. The lockdowns are spreading to millions more. I still want to know how they are going to feed all of these millions with their pig and chicken stock gone. What about the factories that closed for the New Year? When do they come back? How long before multinationals relocate production or place orders with firms in Mexico and America? This is a regime that has built itself as beyond reproach because they provided economic joy and opportunity for everyone. Make your money, let us rule. This works as long as you have the mandate of heaven.

When will people start attacking barricades and checkpoints? Multinational firms are led by spineless executives who change entire corporate policies because of one mass shooting or some SJW viral campaign. They will make bottom line decisions when viral videos coming out of China resemble the turning point scenes in zombie movies. You can keep track of the anxiety if you read this site. Political risk is real. Pandemic risk is real. China can suppress news, but suppressing news releases is only going to leave them at the mercy of what horrendous pictures and videos leak out.

Moldbug’s post on coronavirus jumps the gun a bit with wishful thinking that globalism dies. Tyler Cowen sees coronavirus as something that may boost Trump’s vision of nationalism, in effect, a softer version of Moldbug’s essay. That old truth that identity matters will not be denied. How many of you posters are all about Happenings and burning the cities in a cleansing fire? Protect your loved ones, stock up on food and goods, hope that we slow this down and can limit the effect it has on America, but why be afraid at the possible secondary and tertiary effects? Our version of globalism uses African slave mining that destroys ancient forests to send raw materials for Asians in hive cities to work 12 hour shifts assembling goods all so some fat underclass American can be placated because they have a smartphone. An old truth can re-emerge. There is a reason to be cautious and wary of the outsider who has come to town, especially one with wares to trade that you have never seen before. That is not all that they bring.

On to the links…

Student Debt Rise But Not How You Think – Student debt is $1.6 trillion or so. Student enrollment is down though. What is behind the continuous rise in the debt? Not what you would expect. Students are taking out less new debt. What is happening is a slow down in repayment that is making the total debt number look awful. This is a combination of factors but some goes right back to an Obama era program that allowed super low repayments linked to income levels. Once again, a progressive fix ends up making the problem look worse than it was.

Loyalty Oaths – Academia came up and promoted woke ideology and said it would fix problematic structures. Now they must drink from the poisoned cup. The new diversity hurdles for hiring act as loyalty oaths. I have no sympathy for the academics, but I do hope this gets shredded in courts so that the rest of us can get breathing space.

Attack Rootlessness – Agnostic suggests not just closing borders to foreign scabs but closing internal movement so that Brooklyn stays Brooklyn and the Midwest keeps their bright kids. This is a great blog, and I suggest making it a weekly read.

Spanish Politics – Spain seems to repeat old cycles. In a bizarre move, the left said they would have to go after church land holdings again. The oldest grievances die the hardest. This essay gives a rundown of what the situation in Spain is like.

Andrew Sullivan Asking for Miracles – It is a broken society when an HIV infected homosexual has been a voice of reason to push back against the woke SJW left. He has been trying to stake out borders and limits this past year. He now hopes for a miracle to hold America together. Why bother?

American Hippopotamus – This is a long read, but of all the links, I’d read this one.

Zero HP on Our Status Game– This is a long Twitter thread that covers the anxiety and incentives behind the woke status game. It comes down to social capital. They will take it from you to make sure you cannot do anything else.

On Replacism – This traces the genealogy of the current open borders madness. France is an interesting nation to use as the focus because it has undergone such a wild transformation, has created a backlash movement before others and carries with it a cultural chauvinism that both considers itself superior but also considered anyone a member who spoke its language. I like that is points a clear finger at high finance, plus it talks up our friend BAP.

NormieRO gets it – The author of Whiteshift gets some visibility on NRO. NRO allowed him to state that populism was going to happen when you stuff millions of ‘others’ into nations while handcuffing the natives. We all know this, but it is great to see even normie GOP sites laying it out for others to see.

The New Millenial Right – It is interesting to see the Tablet engage with these guys, but it gets a lot wrong or avoids a lot of things. It does seem to say “hey look at these flashy dressing grifters in DC”. It mentions Tucker once, never mentions Sailer, and talks up Julius Krein. Stop it’s so lame. They still have no idea what is coming.