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Bizarro Earth

Long lockdown? New Zealand's borders closed all year, UK sees no summer holidays & lockdown next winter, Singapore threatens restrictions for 5 years

Ardern
© REUTERS/Praveen Menon/File PhotoPrime Minister Jacinda Ardern addresses her supporters at a Labour Party event in Wellington, New Zealand, October 11, 2020.
New Zealand's borders will remain closed for most of this year as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, but the country will pursue travel arrangements with neighbouring Australia and other Pacific nations, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday.


Comment: With the excess death rate everywhere being little more than a bad flu season - less in some areas - and with the strong likelihood that any increase is due to the lockdowns rather than any virus, one can hardly claim that there's any pandemic, never mind a 'raging' one.


Medical authorities, meanwhile, may approve a COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week, Ardern said, as pressure mounts for a start to vaccinations after the country confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus in the community in months.

"Given the risks in the world around us and the uncertainty of the global rollout of the vaccine, we can expect our borders to be impacted for much of this year," Ardern said at a news conference.

Comment: British MPs are conditioning people to get used to endless lockdowns and restrictions:
Speaking on Tuesday, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, told Sky News the government was carefully reviewing its border policy to prevent new Covid-19 variants coming into England.

"I can only say to you that as we vaccinate more of the adult population, if there are new variants, we need to be very careful. It's important we continue to review our announcement," Zahawi said.

"Countries have to review their borders. We did this in January and tightened up on pre-departure testing," he noted, adding that a new variant could undermine the progress made in the vaccination campaign.


When flights in and out of Britain have essentially continued throughout the last year of lockdowns with little restrictions it's clear that these measures are farcical.


Asked whether Britons could think about booking a summer holiday soon, Zahawi said: "Absolutely not."

"It's far too early. There are currently 37,000 people in hospital with Covid. It's far too early to think about summer."


'With covid' - even the NHS Director revealed that they actually are in hospital for other reasons.


The vaccines minister said an announcement was likely to be made today as to whether people entering England would be required to quarantine in a designated hotel. On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the idea of so-called quarantine hotels was something the government was "definitely looking at".

"We have to realise there is at least the theoretical risk of a new variant that is a vaccine-busting variant coming in, and we've got to be able to keep that under control," Johnson told reporters.


Their theories have never lived up to reality.


There has long been concern that travellers arriving from overseas are not adhering to the country's self-isolation rules.

Compared to its European neighbours, the UK has made good progress in vaccinating people against Covid-19. As of Monday, more than 6.5 million people across Britain had been vaccinated.
The UK's housing minister revealed on TalkRadio that it may lockdown next winter:


Singapore is being more open with its tyranny and is threatening at least another 5 years of restrictions:
"At some point in time the pandemic will pass, but it may take four to five years before we finally see the end of the pandemic and the start of a post-COVID normal. What will this new post-COVID world look like? No one can tell," he said.


We can make an educated guess that it will feature totalitarian government, limited freedoms, violation of health and privacy, and mass unemployment.


Mr Wong, who co-chairs the COVID-19 multi-ministry taskforce, was speaking at the Singapore Perspectives 2021 conference hosted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).
Wong
© Jacky Ho for IPSEducation Minister Lawrence Wong speaks at the Institute of Policy Studies Singapore Perspectives Conference on Jan 25, 2021.
In a 30-minute speech on the final day of the four-day conference, the minister highlighted how there are still many uncertainties to contend with in the next few years, while sharing his hopes about how the future can be "reset" once the pandemic is over.

"Reset" was the theme of the hybrid conference, held online and in-person at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, which sought to imagine how Singapore could look like in 2030.


Did the world need a 'reset' after a real pandemic like the Spanish flu? If not, why do we need one now? Isn't it more likely that politicians like Wong are actually using the manufactured crisis as cover to push another agenda?


Mr Wong said there was still "great uncertainty" about how the coronavirus will shape society in the coming years. Adhering to safe management measures like mask-wearing and avoiding crowds will continue for this year and "maybe a good part of next year", he said.

"Beyond that, the availability of COVID-19 vaccinations will progressively restart global travel, but getting the world vaccinated won't be quick or easy," he added.


If one follows the mainstream narrative, then vaccinations as the key to world travel doesn't make sense, because they claim that they don't stop viral transmission and they aren't designed to deal with the mutations, so it seems we'll have restrictions, vaccines and mandatory ID cards but the (harmless) virus will still be ever present.


The Government has planned for everyone in Singapore to be vaccinated by the third quarter of this year, but Mr Wong said that there could still be "bumps along the way".

He noted that the current vaccines may not be so effective against new mutant strains of the virus, and will have to be modified to counter them.

"In the positive scenario, this means the vaccine becomes a bit like an annual flu jab ... or perhaps we develop a vaccine that works for all strains. But in the worst case, we end up always a step behind an evolving virus, and you will not be able to catch up in time," he said.

"So there are still tremendous uncertainties ahead of us. And the bottom line is that we live in a shared world and no one is safe until everyone is safe."


When asked later by moderator Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez on whether 2021 will be a re-run, a sequel or a re-make of 2020, Mr Wong said there are important differences between the situation now and last year - mainly that Singapore is better prepared to fight the virus and that there are now vaccines available.

"What we need to do really is to tide through now until the point where everyone in Singapore is vaccinated, maybe the third quarter of the year. Perhaps at the end of the year, there is a solution."

"REBOOT" FOR THE FUTURE

Looking ahead to the post-pandemic future, Mr Wong said the current crisis can set the stage for a "software update" or a "reboot" of Singapore after the damage inflicted by the virus.

"We must reset our social compact to emerge as a fairer and more equal society. The pandemic may be indiscriminate about who it infects but its impact is anything but equal. It has, in fact, widened the gulf between the haves and the have-nots," he said.

He said that Singapore started to prioritise reducing inequality a decade ago, and that last year, many emergency measures were introduced to help lower-income groups. But this year, the temporary measures will have to "taper down" as the economy improves.

However, he foresees that Singaporeans will need more assurance and support in a more uncertain and volatile world.

"The impact of the pandemic has created an added impetus to strengthen our social support system. There will be a permanent shift towards further strengthening of our social safety nets in Singapore to protect the disadvantaged and vulnerable," he said, adding that it will have to be done in a "sustainable manner over the long term".

The minister added that meritocracy in Singapore should not "ossify into a hereditary system".

"We start by intervening early and uplifting our children from birth. That's a key focus and priority for me in the Ministry of Education - that's why we're making significant investments in pre-school," said Mr Wong, who took over the education portfolio this year after the General Election in July.


Every dictator knew that you had to get the children when young.


Expanding on his outlook for Singapore's education system, he said the country is making "fundamental shifts" in its model to facilitate education for life.

"We want to have multiple entry points across the age distribution and across the entire skill spectrum. And thereby enable everyone to reskill, upgrade and continuously improve to be the best possible version of themselves," he said.

GREENER, MORE UNITED SINGAPORE

Mr Wong said that the pandemic has also thrown a spotlight on the unequal value society places on different types of workers, and added that this needs to change.

"Merit has become narrowly defined by academic and cognitive abilities but there's a wide range of abilities and aptitudes needed for societies to thrive," he said.

"We've come to better appreciate the contributions of our essential workers ... We must honour them for their work and accord them the dignity and respect they deserve. We must ensure they receive fair remuneration for the important work they do."

Mr Wong highlighted two more ways Singapore can "reset" - to become greener and to strengthen solidarity among its people.


The green agenda as the establishments way to claw ever more power for themselves: The Greta Reset: Welcome to the UK 2030 - the no petrol, no transport, no freedom of movement Net Zero future


He said that the pandemic led to a temporary fall in carbon emissions when human activity came to a standstill, and the natural world began to heal.

"We cannot go back to the status quo ante ... climate change will be the existential emergency of our time. So we must build a greener economy and society that's more environmentally sustainable."

He said that while the pandemic sharpened divisions in some counties, it has brought Singaporeans together.

"I am confident that we will prevail and emerge stronger from this crucible, and I do not say this lightly. I speak from my own conviction of seeing the best of Singaporeans over the past year in the face of adversity and very tough conditions," he said.

A renewed sense of solidarity is important as it will help Singapore build a better society, said the minister.

"My hope is for Singapore to emerge as a fairer, greener and more equal country with a much stronger spirit of solidarity and shared purpose," he said.
For insight into just what's going on, check out SOTT radio's NewsReal #34: Covid By Numbers:




X

Rand Paul calls Trump impeachment trial 'dead on arrival' after 45 GOP senators vote against it

rand paul
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul declared former President Trump's Senate impeachment trial "dead on arrival" on Tuesday after 45 Senate Republicans voted against holding the proceeding, viewing it as unconstitutional.

Rand, a Kentucky Republican, had called for a procedural vote regarding holding a trial, claiming the Senate shouldn't address the article of impeachment against Trump filed by the House this month because Trump is now out of office.


If a trial were to proceed, Trump would become the first former president to face an impeachment trial.

In Paul's view, the votes of 45 Republicans against holding a trial proved his point - and likely rendered any upcoming trial to be moot.

"If you voted that it was unconstitutional, how in the world would you ever vote to convict somebody for this?" Paul told reporters after the vote, according to Politico. "This vote indicates it's over. The trial is all over."

Comment: See also: US President Donald Trump impeached for a second time


Family

Texas Judge blocks Biden's plan to pause deportations

joe biden
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Last Wednesday, after Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the United States, the top official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo demanding many deportations to be paused. But on Tuesday, a Texas judge blocked the move.

U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, who was nominated by former President Trump on February 4, 2020, then confirmed by the Senate on June 3, 2020, issued a temporary restraining order blocking the move for 14 days on Tuesday.

Comment: See also:


Attention

DC National Guard commander says Pentagon restricted his authority before riot

Maj. Gen. William Walker
Pentagon officials restricted the commander of D.C. National Guard's authorities ahead of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, the commander told The Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday.

Normally, a local commander would be able to make decisions on taking military action in an emergency when headquarters approval could take too much time.

But Maj. Gen. William Walker, the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, told the Post the Pentagon took that power away from him ahead of the Capitol riot, which meant he could not immediately deploy troops when the Capitol Police chief called asking for help as rioters were about to breach the building.

Comment: Meanwhile, the Capitol Police Chief has apologized. From the Hill:
The acting Capitol Police chief on Tuesday offered a formal apology to Congress for the agency's security failures during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of former President Trump's supporters, acknowledging police failed to adequately prepare despite knowing in advance that armed militia groups and white supremacists posed a threat.

"I am here to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the department," Yogananda Pittman, the acting Capitol Police chief, testified during a briefing with members of the House Appropriations Committee.

"On Jan. 6, in the face of a terrorist attack by tens of thousands of insurrectionists determined to stop the certification of Electoral College votes, the department failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours," Pittman told lawmakers.

Pittman was not in charge of the Capitol Police force on Jan. 6 or in the days leading up to the riot. She has been serving as acting chief since Jan. 11, following the resignation of former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who stepped down shortly after the riots.

Pittman said that Capitol Police knew in the days before the riot that militia groups and white supremacist organizations would be part of the efforts to protest Congress formally certifying President Biden's Electoral College victory. She also said that they knew some participants intended to bring weapons.

"We knew that there was a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target," Pittman said. "The department prepared in order to meet these challenges, but we did not do enough."



NPC

Following the Woke Orthodoxy: 85% diversity on Biden people team

biden administration
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesPresident Joe Biden conducts a virtual swearing-in ceremony for members of his new administration
The Biden administration will announce a slate of political appointees to the Office of Personnel Management on Monday, and more than 85% of them identify as people of color, women or LGBTQ, according to a copy of the list obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: President Biden has pledged a diverse Cabinet and government, and his gatekeepers to it reflect that promise through their own ranks.

The backstory: The office is in charge of recruiting new government employees and managing their benefits. The president has yet to name an office director, but Kathleen McGettigan — a longtime civil servant who also served in a temporary capacity at the start of the Trump administration — currently is acting director.

Some of the new hires at the office:
  • Chief of staff: Chris Canning served as a senior adviser to the director of the office during the Obama administration.
  • General counsel: Lynn Eisenberg most recently served as deputy general counsel for the Biden-Harris campaign.
  • Press secretary: Shelby Wagenseller was deputy chief operating officer of the 2020 Democratic National Convention Committee.
  • Senior adviser to the chief of staff: Dave Marsh most recently served on the Biden-Harris transition team.
  • Senior adviser to the director: Mini Timmaraju most recently was executive director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Comcast.
  • White House liaison: Jason Tengco was the chief of staff for the Biden-Harris campaign's coalitions department.

Comment: What does diversity matter if the foreign policy is still going to be regime change wars and imperial demands?


Chess

Best of the Web: After COVID, Davos moves to Great Reset

chess pieces
With the USA Biden Presidency, Washington has rejoined the Global Warming agenda of the Paris Accords. With China making loud pledges about meeting strict CO2 emission standards by 2060, now the World Economic Forum is about to unveil what will transform the way we all live in what WEF head Klaus Schwab calls the Great Reset. Make no mistake. This all fits into an agenda that has been planned for decades by old wealth families such as Rockefeller and Rothschild. Brzezinski called it the end of the sovereign nation state. David Rockefeller called it "one world government." George H.W. Bush in 1990 called it the New World Order. Now we can better see what they plan to impose if we allow.

The Great Reset of the World Economic Forum is a 21st Century rollout for a new form of global total control. "We only have one planet and we know that climate change could be the next global disaster with even more dramatic consequences for humankind. We have to decarbonise the economy in the short window still remaining and bring our thinking and behaviour once more into harmony with nature," declared WEF founder Schwab about the January 2021 agenda. The last time these actors did something at all similar in scope was in 1939 on the very eve of World War II.

Comment: The world is getting wise to what the elite-manufactured Great Reset is all about:

Don't miss what may be the next shoe to drop in this process:

Another Mega Group spy scandal? Samanage, sabotage, and the SolarWinds hack portends possible attack on Microsoft world-wide in service of Great Reset


Better Earth

Time ripe to end 'illogical hostility' between Tehran and Tel Aviv, former Iranian Ayatollah says

Tehran
© CC BY-SA 3.0 / Hansueli Krapf / Aerial View of Tehran
Iran-Israel tensions escalated in late November 2020, when prominent Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in an attack that Tehran blamed on Tel Aviv, who has remained silent on the matter.

Hostilities between Tehran and Tel Aviv should end, former Iranian ayatollah Abdol-Hamid Masoumi-Tehrani told the Israeli news network Channel 12.
"It is time for the Iranian regime to stop inventing enemies that don't exist", Masoumi-Tehrani, who is currently an opposition figure, asserted, citing the "many years of friendship" between "Iranians and Jews".
The ex-ayatollah went on by claiming that he "hasn't met Iranians who don't have a positive opinion of Israel".

Comment: It's difficult to know if Masoumi-Tehrani is hopelessly naive about Israel's multi-pronged and mostly covert acts of aggression towards Iran over the last two decades - or if he actually knows and understands what's going on - but thinks his statements are actually a viable approach to detente with Israel. Which would also be hopelessly naive.

In either case, Israel has for many years now sought to not only demonize Iran before the world but to literally bring it to its knees.

Why else would Israel send no one less than the head of its notorious Mossad (for goodness sake!) to dictate what US policy should be towards Iran?!? Mossad chief to outline Israeli 'demands' to Biden for rejoining Iran nuclear deal


Dollar

Dr. Fauci was among highest-paid federal officials in 2019 — He banked more than President Trump's $400,000

Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci was among the highest-paid federal officials in 2019 — the last year for which data is available — even surpassing the $400,000 salary earned by former President Donald Trump, according to a Monday Forbes report.

Fauci serves as the director of the National Institute for Health's (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and as chief medical adviser to the president. His salary of $417,608 placed him solidly among the top earners out of some 4 million federal employees, and making Fauci the highest-paid doctor on the government's payroll, according to data reported by Forbes.


Comment: Its galling that this technocratic monster is actually being paid with taxpayer money that is, in effect, aiding him in destroying the lives of many millions of individuals through his lies and obfuscations; this income being in addition to the money he's made owning the patents of his underlings' work, and God knows whatever other kickbacks he's pocketing from Big Pharma.

Not to mention the suppression of non-patented medication that could help countless numbers of people...




Biohazard

WHO advisor says COVID-19 likely started as leak from laboratory

vaccine lab
© Sputnik / Alexey DanichevFILE PHOTO
One year after the pandemic started, World Health Organization advisor Jamie Metzl wants China to come clean about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

The Kansas City-born, New York-based Metzl, who served as Deputy Staff Director of the Foreign Relations Committee under then Senator Joe Biden (2001-2003) and before that on the National Security Council (1997-99) and the State Department (1999-01) under President Bill Clinton), theorizes it was most likely an accidental lab leak in Wuhan.

"There's no irrefutable evidence," said Metzl, who was appointed to the WHO's expert advisory committee on human genome editing in 2019 and is also the author of Hacking Darwin.

Comment: Coronavirus was mostly likely tweaked in a lab, but it appears that the US and its infamous biowarfare program is responsible: Compelling Evidence That SARS-CoV-2 Was Man-Made

See also:


Bad Guys

Wrong target: UN chief urges global alliance to counter rise of neo-Nazis

António Guterres
© Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged coordinated global action on Monday to build an alliance against the growth and spread of neo-Nazism and white supremacy and the resurgence of xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and hate speech sparked partly by the COVID-19 pandemic.


Comment: Critical Race Theory nonsense. There is no growth and spread of white supremacy. They just changed the definition of the word so that everyone who disagrees with the new racism is automatically a "white supremacist." Notice the "partly sparked by Covid" bit. What a convenient virus it is turning out to be.


The U.N. chief also urged international action "to fight propaganda and disinformation." And he called for stepped up education on Nazi actions during World War II, stressing that almost two-thirds of young Americans do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.


Comment: First point: what they say is propaganda and disinformation. Their own propaganda and disinformation is okay, though. Second point: great. Give equal time to the Gulag and Mao's Great Famine and Cultural Revolution.


Guterres spoke at the annual Park East Synagogue and United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Service marking Wednesday's 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, held virtually this year because of COVID-19.

He said the pandemic "has exacerbated longstanding injustices and divisions."

"Propaganda linking Jews with the pandemic, for example, by accusing them of creating the virus as part of a bid for global domination, would be ridiculous, if it were not so dangerous," he said. "This is just the latest manifestation of an anti-Semitic trope that dates back to at least the 14th century, when Jews were accused of spreading the bubonic plague."


Comment: We see a lot at SOTT. One thing we haven't seen is this looney conspiracy theory. We've seen a LOT of mainstream Covid nonsense, however, and countless other straight-up lies shoved down the public's throats.


Comment: Canada is doing their part: