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Best of the Web: Sweden: The One Chart That Matters

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Sat, 25 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
People dying Sweden
While the Covid-19 epidemic continues to drag on in the United States, it's largely over in Sweden where fatalities have dropped to no more than 2 deaths per day for the last week. Sweden has been harshly criticized in the media for not imposing draconian lockdowns like the United States and the other European countries. Instead, Sweden implemented a policy that was both conventional and sensible. They recommended that people maintain a safe distance between each other and they banned gatherings of 50 people or more. They also asked their elderly citizens to isolate themselves and to avoid interacting with other people as much as possible. Other than that, Swedes were encouraged to work, exercise and get on with their lives as they would normally even though the world was still in the throes of a global pandemic.

The secret of Sweden's success is that its experts settled on a strategy that was realistic, sustainable and science-based. The intention was never to "fight" the virus which is among the most contagious infections in the last century, but to protect the old and vulnerable while allowing the young, low-risk people to circulate, contract the virus, and develop the antibodies they'd need to fight similar pathogens in the future. It's clear now that that was the best approach. And while Sweden could still experience sporadic outbreaks that might kill another 2 to 300 people, any recurrence of the infection in the Fall or Winter will not be a dreaded "Second Wave", but a much weaker flu-like event that will not overwhelm the public health system or kill thousands of people.

Comment: Among the many who have been rendered deaf, dumb, blind and hystericized about the virus, and who have been writing about the Swedish model, there has been an all-too-few number of good journalists who are peircing the think veil of BS - and managing to bring some much needed objectivity to the discussion.

See also:

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Megaphone

Best of the Web: Government-mandated masks and vaccines are unreasonable, unethical, unconstitutional, and unhealthy. I absolutely refuse to participate in either

Gregg Scott
@greg_scott84 / Twitter
Sun, 26 Jul 2020 09:26 UTC
coronavirus
What I'm going to say is based on my experience thus far and the research I do. I've noticed that there's a grave disparity between what we see on the mainstream news - as well as some independent, online sources - and what many other doctors and scientists who are not promoted by the MSM are saying.

The government and their affiliated "experts" have gone back and forth on whether masks actually prevent the spread of Covid. They have gone back and forth on whether asymptomatic people can transmit Covid. They have gone back and forth about whether it is actually airborne or not. How are we to actually believe what we're told?

I've seen video after video after video of doctors and field experts saying that when they test people in hospitals six times and all six are positive, that all six are counted as new cases. I've seen doctors and nurses saying that they are made to put suspected patients in the same rooms as patients who have tested positive. I've seen videos of people saying they've submitted unused test swabs in and they all tested positive. I've seen many reports about Florida alone saying that all the clinics "messed up" by only including positive tests in their press releases. I've seen reports about animals and fruit testing positive when submitting human test samples in other countries.

Comment: See also:

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Red Pill

Best of the Web: Why Sweden remains mask-free

Freddie Sayers
The Telegraph
Fri, 24 Jul 2020 23:07 UTC
sweden town square
© Ali Lorestani/TT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Masks may only have been mandatory in British shops since yesterday, and British airports for a couple of months, but what I saw as I arrived in Sweden this past week already felt oddly transgressive, almost indecent.

At no point on the journey does anyone tell you that you can remove your face mask, so when we landed in Stockholm, my fellow passengers on the quarter-full SAS flight from Heathrow kept them on up the gangway and into the airport terminal. Then you notice that the customs officers aren't wearing them as they check your passport, nor the airport staff swooshing around on silent scooters, but you keep it on just in case. Only when you finally emerge from the baggage hall and into the row of waiting taxis do you realise: nobody is wearing one. Not a single person. In Sweden, it's a mask-free world.

In central Stockholm the restaurants and shops are busy, even if less busy than they might normally be; there's a table-service-only rule, so many bars have queues of patient Swedes outside to avoid any overcrowding inside. The outside watering holes of Stureplan and along the waterfront at Strandvägen are positively booming.
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UFO

Best of the Web: Pentagon plans to 'make some UFO findings public' as US govt drops more hints of 'alien disclosure'

Ralph Blumenthal & Leslie Kean
New York Times
Thu, 23 Jul 2020 20:44 UTC

Comment: For a few years now there have been hints from the US govt that they're 'slowly acclimatizing' the general public to the 'UFO/'alien' reality. Of course they wait until a major mass media global distraction event like the Covid scamdemic to do it...


UFOs disclosure billboard
Slow 'progress'
Despite Pentagon statements that it disbanded a once-covert program to investigate unidentified flying objects, the effort remains underway — renamed and tucked inside the Office of Naval Intelligence, where officials continue to study mystifying encounters between military pilots and unidentified aerial vehicles.

Pentagon officials will not discuss the program, which is not classified but deals with classified matters. Yet it appeared last month in a Senate committee report outlining spending on the nation's intelligence agencies for the coming year. The report said the program, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force, was "to standardize collection and reporting" on sightings of unexplained aerial vehicles, and was to report at least some of its findings to the public within 180 days after passage of the intelligence authorization act.

While retired officials involved with the effort — including Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader — hope the program will seek evidence of vehicles from other worlds, its main focus is on discovering whether another nation, especially any potential adversary, is using breakout aviation technology that could threaten the United States.

Comment: Drip-drip-disclosure? Perhaps. It's interesting that an ever-wider circle of 'the elite' seem to know more details...

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Pistol

Best of the Web: In broad daylight: Murder of black Trump supporter Bernell Trammell spurs call for federal investigation

Mary Kay Linge
New York Post
Sat, 25 Jul 2020 12:37 UTC
Bernell Trammell
© Adebisi AgoroBernell Trammell, 60, was shot and killed in Milwaukee on Thursday.
The shooting death of a black Trump supporter in Milwaukee has state Republicans calling for a federal investigation.

Bernell Trammell, 60, a dreadlocked activist known for carrying handmade signs through the streets reading "Vote Donald Trump 2020," and posting them on his storefront, was gunned down by an unknown assailant on his sidewalk Thursday afternoon, police said.

"Because of Trammell's well-known political activism and the possibility that his murder could be politically motivated, I respectfully request that United States Attorney Matthew Krueger open an investigation," said Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, late Friday.

Comment: So being a black Trump supporter now comes with a death sentence. We guess Black Lives don't Matter after all.

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Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Portland protests have no goal except violence and anarchy

Andy Ngo
New York Post
Fri, 24 Jul 2020 16:35 UTC
portland protest police
© AP Photo/Marcio Jose SanchezProtesters in Portland clash with federal officers.
At the end of May, rioting and looting broke out in Portland, Ore., as it did in dozens of other American cities in response to the police-involved death of George Floyd. In one night, hundreds of rioters ravaged downtown, breaking into jewelry stores, the mall and banks. They left a trail of broken windows and fires in their wake. That was seven weeks ago. And while violent protests have ebbed or stopped everywhere else, it has continued and grown stronger in Portland.

For 58 days, mass protests and riots have taken over parts of the city. Some streets and areas are literal "no-go zones" at night — either blocked by fires or teams of "guards."

Day after day, hundreds and even thousands take to the streets and claim the territory as theirs. They cycle through a number of chants like "All cops are bastards" and "F- -k the police." A large number of them participate in violent criminal acts such as arson and assault. They've made it a game to lure law-enforcement officers out of buildings so they can assault them with blinding lasers, paint, rocks and other weapons.

Those who don't engage in direct violence cheer them on, assist in "de-arresting" comrades and act as cop watchers. Rioters try, and have succeeded in, breaking into Portland police facilities. Now they're focused on the federal Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse in response to the Department of Homeland Security sending in reinforcements earlier this month.

Besides the violence and anarchy, what exactly do the rioters want?

Comment: Ngo mentions "other weapons." RT gives a rundown on what the Portland rioters have been using: ropes and electric saws, high-powered lights including lasers (three federal agents were likely permanently blinded by their use), projectiles including glass bottles and ball bearings, leaf blowers to redirect tear gas, not to mention spray paint and starting fires. Some footage of all these in action:









Police declared a riot after the fence surrounding the federal courthouse was torn down:



Meanwhile, the UN's human rights office decries the 'disproportionate use of force' by law enforcement against protesters.

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Control Panel

Best of the Web: Kiev foreign ministry: 'Black boxes confirm illegal interference with Ukrainian Airlines plane downed in Iran'


Al Jazeera
Sun, 26 Jul 2020 07:00 UTC

Comment: Well, well, well. Among other things, what does this mean for Iran's official stance that no foul play was involved in downing the Ukrainian Airlines plane?...


The flight recorders from a Ukrainian plane shot down by Iran confirm illegal interference, Ukraine says.
ukrainian airlines tehran funeral
The transcript from the black boxes from a Ukrainian jet accidentally shot down by Iran on January 8 confirms the fact of illegal interference with the plane, according to Ukraine's deputy foreign minister.

Yevhenii Yenin's remarks came on Friday, a day after an international team examining the flight recorders from the jet had completed a preliminary analysis of the data in France.

"Grateful to all partners who helped bring this moment closer. Black boxes from #PS752 were read out and deciphered successfully. The transcript confirmed the fact of illegal interference with the plane," Yenin wrote on Twitter.

He also said Kyiv was expecting an Iranian delegation to visit Ukraine next week for talks.


Comment: Other media outlets are spinning the Ukrainian official's comment at him saying simply that 'Iran illegally downed the plane'.

Obviously!

But that isn't what he implied. He implied that interference took place which contributed to causing Iran to down that plane. Whether, by that, he means to suggest that Iran deliberately shot it down, or that she was tricked into doing so, remains open. However, given high levels of Iranian-Ukrainian cooperation on this matter, such an accusation is unlikely.

As we speculated at the time, it appears that Iran's air defense system operator was 'tricked' into reading the UA flight as an incoming US 'retaliatory' missile, part of which may have involved altering the radar signature of the UA plane.

And yet, within days of the incident, Iran 'ate the fault'. Why?

Well, the Iranian govt was riding on its 'propaganda victory' of successfully targeting US bases in Iraq. The accidental downing of the UA flight put a dampener on that, so they apparently decided it was best to 'make the problem go away' rather than protest innocence and imply that some third party bested their air defenses.

Was Iranian Missile Operator Tricked Into Shooting Down The Ukrainian Airlines Plane Over Tehran?

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Vader

Best of the Web: "Honey, I shrunk the people's constitutional rights!" How administrative tribunals are replacing constitutional courts

Rosemary Frei
OffGuardian
Sat, 25 Jul 2020 06:02 UTC
Canada Charter
Chris Weisdorf was penalized for parking improperly in December 2017 and he decided to fight the fine. But he slammed up against legal structures that give virtually unchecked power to untold numbers of administrators around the world who oversee and enforce everything from parking regulations to public-health edicts.

The parking-ticket system in Toronto, Ontario - where Weisdorf had committed his offense - had been replaced with an Administrative Penalty System (APS). The bylaw creating APS was billed as streamlining the court system. After very little public consultation and notice it was approved overwhelmingly by Toronto city council in July 2017 (there appears to no longer be a record online of the council vote).

The bylaw contains Orwellian redefinitions designed to wriggle traffic- and parking-law violations out of the category of what the Supreme Court of Canada views as criminal offenses and into the administrative category — and along with that, defendants out of the purview of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is the core of the Canadian constitution.

The bylaw's redefinitions include calling offenses 'infractions,' defendants 'customers' and parking tickets 'parking violation notices.' And in what Weisdorf calls "a legal oxymoron for the ages," monetary penalties are deemed to be 'not punitive.'
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Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: Highest flooding in Europe for 500 years, historical records show correlation with abnormal cold

University of Barcelona
Heritage Daily
Sat, 25 Jul 2020 20:24 UTC
As the pictures show, Verkhoyansk was hit by summer snow, which is not unknown but hardly common.
As the pictures show, Verkhoyansk was hit by summer snow, which is not unknown but hardly common.
An international research project coordinated by the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), with participation from researchers of the University of Barcelona, shows for the first time that flood pattern over the last decades in Europe have changed compared to past centuries.

The study, published in the journal Nature, concludes we are in one of the most flood-rich periods in Europe from the last five hundred years.

The study shows that, within the last half of the millennium, the last three decades are among the most important periods regarding frequency and magnitude of floods in Europe. Also, during these three decades, distribution of the floods have changed, as well as the temperature of the air and flood seasonality, with a higher percentage of floods in summer. Regarding the temperature of the air, from 1500 to 1900, floods used to take place with higher frequency during cold climate phases, while after 1990, floods increased within the context of global warming.


Comment: It would appear the 500 year old pattern still stands, because the evidence shows that our planet is now seriously cooling: Antarctica's coldest March temperature on record - a 'global warming' destroying -75.3℃/-103.5℉


The data analysis identified nine periods of floods that were more abundant and the associated regions. Among the most notable periods are 1560-1580 (western and central Europe), 1760-1800 (most part of Europe), 1840-1870 (western and southern Europe), and 1990-2016 (western and central Europe). According to the analysis, the current phase is the third most severe regarding floods. However, this data is at the expense of the duration of the current phase of abundant floods, to be concluded. Now, floods cause annual damages accounting for more than 100,000 million euros, and the general tendency of abundant floods is increasing.

Comment: If the earth changes we're seeing today are anything to go by, it's likely that these shifts to extremes in weather occur across the planet, not just in Europe, as per the study above: Also check out SOTT radio's: As well as SOTT's monthly documentary SOTT Earth Changes Summary - June 2020: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs:



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UFO

Best of the Web: Drip-drip disclosure: Pentagon UFO unit 'to publicly release some findings' after ex-official says 'off-world vehicle' found

Gena Spocchia
Independent
Fri, 24 Jul 2020 00:00 UTC
the UFO
© The Patent/unknown
A Pentagon UFO unit will make some investigations public as ex-advisors suggest that "vehicles not made on this earth" were placed in US government storage.

The team will update the US Senate's Intelligence Committee on its unidentified flying object (UFO) research every six months, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Publicly named in 2019 as the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force, the Pentagon unit succeeded an investigative UFO program that was said to have been disbanded prior to 2017.

One former official, Eric Davis, told The Times that he briefed the US Department of Defense in March about the retrieval of "off-world vehicles not made on this earth". The Pentagon consultant and subcontractor said objects he believed "we couldn't make...ourselves" were discovered during his time on the unit, where he has worked since 2007.

Comment: See also:
US Senate Select Committee report refers to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

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