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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: In four US state prisons, nearly 3,300 inmates test positive for coronavirus -- 96% without symptoms

Linda So and Grant Smith
Reuters
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 20:01 UTC
Marion Correctional Institution
© REUTERS/Dane RhysThe exterior of the Marion Correctional Institution where there have been positive cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Marion, Ohio, U.S., April 22, 2020.
When the first cases of the new coronavirus surfaced in Ohio's prisons, the director in charge felt like she was fighting a ghost.

"We weren't always able to pinpoint where all the cases were coming from," said Annette Chambers-Smith, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. As the virus spread, they began mass testing.

They started with the Marion Correctional Institution, which houses 2,500 prisoners in north central Ohio, many of them older with pre-existing health conditions. After testing 2,300 inmates for the coronavirus, they were shocked. Of the 2,028 who tested positive, close to 95% had no symptoms.

Comment: These isolated populations, like prisons and cruise ships, offer a very interesting perspective. If in a captive population not everyone is getting it and, more importantly, almost all the people who do get it are asymptomatic, what does this say about the 'deadly pandemic' raging across the planet? This virus is a dud, but the world has reacted to it by making everyone a prisoner in their own homes. Heads should roll for this.

See also:

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Stock Down

Best of the Web: The death of US oil

Art Berman
Oil Price
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 19:00 UTC
us oil
It's game-over for most of the U.S. oil industry.

Prices have collapsed and storage is nearly full. The only option for many producers is to shut in their wells. That means no income. Most have considerable debt so bankruptcy is next.

Peggy Noonan wrote in her column recently that "this is a never-before-seen level of national economic calamity; history doesn't get bigger than this." That is the superficial view.

Coronavirus has changed everything. The longer it lasts, the less the future will look anything like the past.

Most people, policy makers and economists are energy blind and cannot, therefore, fully grasp the gravity or the consequences of what is happening.

Comment: See also:

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Hardhat

Best of the Web: The paranoid style in COVID-19 America: The public health establishment is desperate to maintain hysteria in the populace

Heather Mac Donald
Spectator
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 17:05 UTC
Cyclists in Central Park, New York City
Cyclists in Central Park, New York City
To grasp the urgency of lifting the ubiquitous economic shutdowns, visit New York City's Central Park, ideally in the morning. At 5:45 am, it is occupied by maybe 100 runners and cyclists, spread over 843 acres. A large portion of these early-bird exercisers wear masks. Are they trying to protect anyone they might encounter from their own unsuspected coronavirus infection? Perhaps. But if you yourself run towards an oncoming runner on a vector that will keep you at least three yards away when you pass each other, he is likely to lunge sideways in terror if your face is not covered. The masked cyclists, who speed around the park's inner road, apparently think that there are enough virus particles suspended in the billions of square feet of fresh air circulating across the park to enter their mucous membranes and to sicken them.

These are delusional beliefs, yet they demonstrate the degree of paranoia that has infected the population. Every day the lockdown continues, its implicit message that we are all going to die if we engage in normal life is reinforced. Polls show an increasing number of Americans opting to continue the economic quarantine indefinitely lest they be 'unsafe'. The longer that belief is reinforced, the less likely it will be that consumers will patronize reopened restaurants or board airplanes in sufficient numbers to bring the economy back to life.

Comment: See also:

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Yoda

Best of the Web: Belarus President Lukashenko on why he's resisted Coronavirus lockdown: 'People will raise me up on pitchforks'


Sputnik
Thu, 30 Apr 2020 00:02 UTC

Comment: Does Lukashenko have even bigger balls than Putin?...


Lukashenko
© DesconocidoBelarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
Belarus has reported a total of 11,289 COVID-19 cases and 75 coronavirus-related fatalities among its population of 9.5 million people. The country is one of the few nations in Europe that's chosen not to introduce widespread quarantine measures to tackle the pandemic, with workplaces, schools, shops, parks and other public places staying open.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has explained why his government continues to stubbornly refuse the introduction of nation-wide restrictive measures to tackle the coronavirus, a month-and-a-half after most of the rest of the industrialized world has put various 'stay at home' orders in place.

"There are some people pushing us, saying 'come on, Lukashenko you blankety-blank, introduce quarantine'. Listen, people would raise me up on pitchforks if I did so," the Belarusian president said, speaking to residents of a rural area in Gomel region, southern Belarus on Sunday.

Comment: Lukashenko is acting from common sense, a rare commodity these days.

But what's more, he's acting from the point of view of someone who assumes that the lockdowns measures are to prevent the spread of a virus that threatens to decimate the population. He's not seeing said decimation, so he doesn't understand why the lockdowns were implemented.

Lukashenko is articulating what every halfway sensible leader was thinking... BEFORE they were told SOMETHING that the rest of us (Lukashenko included) were not privy to.

What was it that they were told?

That this virus has 'certain properties' that would make people... change psychologically in some way? Become 'rebellious'??

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Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: 'FREE AMERICA': Elon Musk divides opinions after calling lockdown 'fascist' and tweeting 'give people their freedom back!'


RT
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:27 UTC
elon musk
© AFP / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / WIN MCNAMEEElon Musk
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has come out in favor of reducing restrictions on freedoms and businesses, sparking a fierce debate on Twitter. Some lauded him and others chastised him for putting profits ahead of people's safety.

The Tesla and SpaceX founder called on Wednesday for the US to lift the lockdown, tweeting "FREE AMERICA NOW" and "Give people their freedom back!"

He also attached links to a Wall Street Journal article suggesting lockdowns were ineffective and to another praising Texas for announcing more businesses will be allowed to reopen on Friday.

Comment: He also let out an expletive-laden rant during Tesla's Q1 2020 earning phone call, calling the lockdown orders around the country "fascist, " and called shelter-in-place orders "forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights."

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Ambulance

Best of the Web: Covid-1984 Phase Two: Arbitrarily Expand the Definition of the Disease

Jon Rappoport
NoMoreFakeNews.com
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
covid deaths
As I've described in previous articles, the CDC and WHO deploy several strategies to pump up the number of COVID cases. For example, the diagnostic test, which spits out many, many false-positive results.

After all, the authorities must somehow convince the dumbed-down public that the "epidemic" is alive and spreading.

Next up: we will see new symptoms added to the list of COVID indicators. In 1987, I watched the shameless manufacture of so-called AIDS-related diseases. The CDC definition of AIDS, which I printed in my book, AIDS INC., took up 15 pages. The only non-AIDS-related disease left after the CDC got through was infection by aliens from the Orion Belt.

So here we go again.

Comment: As more studies emerge showing that infections from the virus are more widespread and thus it is FAR LESS lethal than all the experts have been predicting, people will start to question the totalitarian containment measures taken - and the PTB can't have that happen, can they?

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Yoda

Best of the Web: Craig Murray: The disgusting lies on Harry Dunn's death must stop

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.
Wed, 29 Apr 2020 18:37 UTC
anne Sacoolas, Harry Dunn
Anne Sacoolas (L) Harry Dunn (R)
Beyond any doubt, it would have been Dominic Raab's personal decision to grant a fake diplomatic immunity to Anne Sacoolas and permit her to leave the country. I have watched with sheer horror the Tory crocodile tears, the ministerial meetings with Harry Dunn's brave but distraught family, and the PR pretence that the UK is seeking Anne Sacoolas' return, now that she is safely back at CIA HQ. It is perhaps the most nauseating display of individual hypocrisy I have ever seen in politics. The callous abuse of Harry Dunn's suffering family and the sheer cynicism of the patent charade that the government is supporting them, leave me deeply depressed - and very angry.

It may surprise you, but I have known and worked with some Tories who were at heart honorable men. The centre of this government is estranged from the very concept of personal honour.

Comment: Some background on the whole sordid case. Mr. Murray indeed has his own troubles stemming from his exposure of another travesty of justice:

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Dollar

Best of the Web: Craig Murray defense fund launched

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 17:31 UTC
craig murray
My Defence Fund now stands at £46,002, well on the way towards its target of £60,000.

There have so far been 2,205 donors, to each of whom I am very grateful, especially so many dedicated supporters who have stood by me in campaigns for civil liberties and for Scottish independence. But perhaps I may just note it was also heartwarming to receive donations from a few long term political opponents who are appalled by this attack on freedom of speech, and several senior lawyers likewise. Which is an interesting contrast with Scottish MSM journalists, who on social media all seem delighted at the prospect that anyone who counters their joint narrative should go to jail.

Legal Defence Fund over half way to the target in just 16 hours! £34,212 raised from 1,507 individuals. 54% of donors in Scotland, 22% in England, 14% in USA. I am choked with gratitude at the support. Will post further updates.
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Health

Best of the Web: Almost 90% of COVID-19 patients at New York's largest hospital system have died after being placed on ventilators

Yaron Steinbuch
NY Post
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:59 UTC
ventilator
© AFP via Getty Images
Almost 90 percent of COVID-19 patients who were placed on ventilators in New York's largest hospital system have died from the coronavirus, according to a study.

Overall, 88 percent of the patients treated at Northwell Health died after receiving mechanical ventilation, Dr. Safiya Richardson at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and her colleagues found.

Of the 2,634 patients whose outcomes were known, 14 percent were treated in the intensive care unit, 12 percent were placed on ventilators and 3 percent received kidney replacement therapy, the study said.

Twenty-one percent of the total group died, according to the findings, which were was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Critical questions for Dr. Shiva about his attempts to splinter the health freedom movement

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Children's Health Defense
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 05:24 UTC
Robert Kennedy Shiva 01
For many months I have remained silent in the face of defamatory and dishonest attacks against me by Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai. My approach was to ignore the sniping to preserve the unity of the Health Freedom Movement. However, Shiva has expanded his malevolent campaign to include venomous salvos against our community's most prominent and effective leaders, including Del Bigtree, Mark Blaxill, Dr. Rashid Buttar, Polly Tommey and Samoan-Australian activist Taylor Winterstein. Because he now has some of our outstanding spokesmen in his gun-sites, and because his poisonous volleys have begun to damage the solidarity that is critical to our success, I reluctantly make this response.

Little Lies / Big Lies

I had never heard of Shiva when he approached me on the street following a January 6th, 2020 Trenton rally. We had a friendly chat and took a photo. Afterwards, he tweeted that I had refused to shake his hand. A half-dozen photos of us shaking hands soon surfaced, proving his statements false. It was only then that I learned he was running as a fringe candidate for U.S. Senate against my nephew, Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy. It is axiomatic that a man who lies about small things, will also lie about the large. I made a note to fact check Shiva's assertions. I advise others to take similar precautions.
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