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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: How Western media colludes with tiny Navalny-linked group of doctors to weaponize Russia's Covid-19 battle

Anastasia Vasilyeva
© AFP / AFPTV / Romain COLASAnastasia Vasilyeva
If you know the country well, you will know this: There two Russias - the one 146 million people live in, and the fantasy version Western media outlets describe.

Both exist in parallel universes. This is why most English-speaking Russians usually react with a mixture of shock and horror when their language skills become proficient enough to read what the foreign press is writing about their homeland.

Now, predictably, Russia's response to Covid-19 is being weaponized as part of the mythical 'information war'. This is because Western media coverage of the country generally isn't about journalism; instead, it's about activism. This means that only Russians who fit its narrative are given agency.

MIB

Best of the Web: US Intelligence report warned of coronavirus outbreak as early as November

Hubei
© AFP via Getty Images, FILEAmbulance medical staff arrive at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital with an elderly woman, who recovered from COVID-19, at Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, March 30, 2020.
Ambulance medical staff arrive at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital with an elderly woman, who recovered from COVID-19, at Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, March 30, 2020.
According to an exclusive ABC News investigation the National Center for Medical Intelligence warned the military and White House about the spread of the virus in China as far back as late November.

As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China's Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting.

Concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document's contents.

Comment: The South China Morning Post reported on the 22nd March 2020: Coronavirus Did NOT Originate in China: Lombardy Doctors Have Been Dealing With 'Strange Pneumonia' Since at Least NOVEMBER

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Dollar Gold

Best of the Web: Bill Gates's Charity Paradox

bill gates priest philanthropist
© Illustration by Jason Seiler
A Nation investigation illustrates the moral hazards surrounding the Gates Foundation's $50 billion charitable enterprise.

Last fall, Netflix premiered a three-part documentary that promises viewers a rare look at the inner life of one of history's most controversial businessmen. Over three hours, Inside Bill's Brain shows us a rare emotional side to Bill Gates as he processes the loss of his mother and the death of his estranged best friend and Microsoft cofounder, Paul Allen.

Mostly, though, the film reinforces the image many of us already had of the ambitious technologist, insatiable brainiac, and heroic philanthropist. Inside Bill's Brain falls into a common trap: attempting to understand the world's second-richest human by interviewing people in his sphere of financial influence.

Comment: The whole concept of 'philanthropy' clearly needs a reboot. Bill Gates likely cares little if any about the world's poor and disadvantaged, but has simply found a way through charity to weild power and influence over the world. His vision reportedly includes mass vaccinations, population controls, rampant genetic modification and complete surveillance of every individual on the planet. Has anyone voted for this? Gates giddy glee at the lockdown measures currently gripping the planet give away his entire game - he wants a world population under total domination and control with himself seated on the throne.

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Attention

Best of the Web: Total U.S. deaths DOWN 10% in March from prior years, further raising question of COVID impact

nothing-burger
According to data obtained from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics Mortality Surveillance System website, total U.S. deaths for the first three weeks of March are DOWN 10% from the average of the prior four years for the same three week period.

The average for weeks 9 through 11 for the four prior years was a total of 170,555 deaths. For weeks 9 through 11 this year, the total is 153,015, meaning 17,540 fewer people died in America during the first three weeks of March than could be reasonably expected. And the gap between historic deaths and weekly deaths is widening. For week 11, just 47,655 Americans died, 8,773 and 15% fewer than the average for week 11 in the prior four years. And while data on week 12 is not complete, it is trending similar to week 11 and will likely be down by 15% (around 8,700 deaths less than expected) even though 1,919 COVID-19 deaths were reported (in week beginning 3/22).

26,000 Fewer U.S. Deaths in March

The final data for March could show a total of 26,000 or more FEWER DEATHS in the month than would be expected without even factoring in the impact of 4,000 COVID deaths.

Comment: So... WHY THE GLOBAL LOCKDOWN?


Smoking

Best of the Web: ANOTHER study finds smokers are less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19

smoker
© Getty Images
Smoking may reduce the likelihood of being hospitalised with coronavirus, claims a study.

Here is the abstract of the study - Smoking, vaping and hospitalization for COVID-19 - by researchers at the University of West Attica in Greece and New York University.

Red Flag

Best of the Web: As a GP, I fear our Covid-19 lockdown will result in significantly more deaths than we are trying to prevent

Medical staff
© REUTERS/Hannah McKay
We are paying too high a price to try to combat Covid-19. Not just in terms of the £350 billion ($430 billion) bill, but also in the health costs our actions are causing.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought a very thorny issue to the forefront. How much money can we, as a society, spend on keeping people healthy or alive? No one has ever fully got to grips with this question, but it has never been more important than now.

America has set aside $2 trillion to deal with the crisis, and Britain £350 billion - which is almost three times the current yearly budget for the entire NHS. Is this a price worth paying?

Comment: The good doctor is applying logic - from his perspective as a medical professional - to the situation and arriving at the core issue: there is no way in hell this global lockdown has been instituted to 'save lives'!

Clearly, something else is going on.


Attention

Best of the Web: Setting up to fail: Gates funded clinical trial on hydroxychloroquine uses Vitamin C as placebo

hydroxychloroquine
As many as 4,000 seriously ill coronavirus patients in New York are being treated with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, state health officials say.

President Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential life-saver, although there is no widespread scientific evidence to date showing it helps battle COVID-19.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month said health care providers in the state would be using the drug in combination with the antibiotic Zithromax, or azithromycin, for some last-ditch cases, based on potentially promising research.

Comment: What a transparent scam! Why they would actually tell journalists they're using vitamin C as a placebo is either stupidity or hubris (or both).

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Attention

Best of the Web: Beware the creeps who enjoy a new pandemic power

Pence/Fauci
© Official White House photoUS VP Mike Pence • Dr. Anthony Fauci
The problem with people referring to this bizarre pandemic life limbo as "the new normal" is that there are people out there, both in and out of positions of responsibility, who are digging this opportunity to boss us around. And it is troubling to see that there are a number of prominent folks who are in no hurry to curtail their ability to boss us around. We need to note carefully who these people are and ensure that they never get a chance to control anything again.

You are starting to see more of that as this drags out. You have got Nancy Pelosi, Gavin Newsom and others thinking this is a great time to get our socialism on. You also have functionaries - all of whom are still getting paychecks - who are way too eager to start issuing orders instead of relying on citizens to behave rationally. We don't need to be ordered around, but they can't resist the ordering. The moron mayor of LA is offering rewards to freedom narcs, and government hacks making stores refuse to sell "non-essential" items - what the hell they are thinking telling us what is and is not "essential" anyway? They are thinking, "Hey, this power stuff is fun!" Which is why you should never give power to someone who enjoys it.

Comment: Power has made its choices. It's time for the people to make theirs.


Stock Down

Best of the Web: Researchers warn the COVID-19 lockdown will take its own toll on health

other costs of covid
© Illustration/REUTERS/Maryanne Murray
It's the most dramatic government intervention into our lives since World War II. To fight the coronavirus outbreak, governments across the globe have closed schools, travel and businesses big and small. Many observers have fretted about the economic costs of throwing millions of people out of work and millions of students out of school.

Now, three weeks after the United States and other countries took sweeping suppression steps that could last months or more, some public health specialists are exploring a different consequence of the mass shutdown: the thousands of deaths likely to arise unrelated to the disease itself.

The longer the suppression lasts, history shows, the worse such outcomes will be. A surge of unemployment in 1982 cut the life spans of Americans by a collective two to three million years, researchers found. During the last recession, from 2007-2009, the bleak job market helped spike suicide rates in the United States and Europe, claiming the lives of 10,000 more people than prior to the downturn. This time, such effects could be even deeper in the weeks, months and years ahead if, as many business and political leaders are warning, the economy crashes and unemployment skyrockets to historic levels.

Comment: The above article is coming from the perspective that "the coronavirus is bad, but..." But what if the coronavirus isn't any worse in it's death toll than the seasonal flu? Or even not as bad? Then how can all the above consequences be justified?

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Cardboard Box

Best of the Web: Let them eat vaccines: Foodbanks overwhelmed as America's poorest starve during lockdown

unemployment GDP
America is crashing into a depression. In just two weeks, 10 million people have claimed unemployment benefits. This has put unprecedented stress on food bank networks across the country, a new investigation via The Guardian shows.

The US labor market is in free fall - the increasing lockdowns across major US metropolitan areas have forced millions of people out of work and into a hunger crisis.

The Guardian shows demand for food aid in some regions of the country has surged eightfold in recent weeks as RealInvestmentAdvice.com's Lance Roberts warns the unemployment rates in the US could spike to levels not seen since the "Great Depression," or about 15-20% in the second quarter.

The National Guard has been deployed for a variety of reasons: One is to support local area hospital systems, another is to maintain social order, and now soldiers in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Phoenix have supported food banks to ensure shortages do not materialize, mostly because that would trigger social unrest among the working poor.

Comment: Well ZeroHedge, maybe you should have thought about some of these things before you jumped on the CoronaHoax in January?

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