Society's ChildS


Hourglass

Best of the Web: Revolutionary times give way to systemic collapse - 'the system cannot handle it'

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
moneypit
© ClipDealer/KJN
Some have queried how it could be that President Putin would co-operate with President Trump to have OPEC+ push oil prices higher - when those higher prices precisely would only help sustain U.S. oil production. In effect, President Putin was being asked to underwrite a subsidy to the U.S. economy - at the expense of Russia's own oil and gas sales - since U.S. shale production simply is not economic at these prices. In other words, Russia seemed to be shooting itself in the foot.

Well, the calculus for Moscow on whether to cut production (to help Trump) was never simple. There were geo-political and domestic economic considerations - as well as the industry ones - to weigh. But, perhaps one issue trumped all others?

Since 2007, President Putin has been pointing to one overarching threat to global trade: And that problem was simply, the U.S. dollar.

And now, that dollar is in crisis. We are referring, here, not so much to America's domestic financial crisis (although the monetisation of U.S. debt is connected to a threat to the global system), but rather, how the international trading system is poised to blow apart, with grave consequences for everyone. In other words, Covid-19 may be the trigger, but it is the U.S. dollar - as President Putin has long warned - that is the root problem:

Comment: And so, one way or another, global revolution is coming. The globalists will attempt to direct it to their liking, but it may overwhelm them.

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Stop

Tucker Carlson flip-flops: Now he's AGAINST the COVID-19 lockdown

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
map US
© Fox NewsThese 8 states are doing very well without lockdowns, even when the numbers are normalized by many factors.
Most of us on Planet Earth are living through a never-before-attempted experiment in dealing with a crisis. The lockdowns of cities, states and entire nations, intended to slow the spread of a particularly nasty virus have been undertaken by governments of all types, not just authoritarian regimes like China. But what has the effect been?

Well, according to this report by Tucker Carlson, there is increasing evidence that the answer to this question is precisely none at all.


Comment: Very good, Tucker.

Now perhaps you wish to retract all of your earlier reports this year in which you personally pleaded with the US president to 'take this thing seriously' and implement major 'health measures'??

Tucker Carlson drove down to Mar-a-Lago to warn Trump of 'coronavirus threat'

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Binoculars

'Pandemic drone' test flights in Connecticut are monitoring social distancing, detecting virus' symptoms

Alison DeNisco Rayome
CNET
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 11:22 UTC
Flying drone
© Teeraphon Phooma/EyeEm/Getty ImagesDrones are being used to help monitor social distancing efforts and detect COVID-19 symptoms from afar.
A series of "pandemic drones" is taking part in a test flight in a COVID-19 hotspot in Connecticut with the goal of monitoring social distancing efforts and detecting the virus' symptoms.

Drone manufacturer Draganfly is working with the police department in Westport, Connecticut, to test the drones. Located in Fairfield County -- adjacent to New York City -- Westport was the first town in the state to report several coronavirus infections, according to a Wednesday press release from Draganfly.

The drones include specialized sensor and computer vision systems that can display a person's temperature, heart and respiratory rates, as well as detect people sneezing or coughing in a crowd, the release said. The technology can accurately detect infectious conditions from 190 feet away, as well as measure social distancing efforts, according to Draganfly.
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Family

Oxford University to begin human trials with 'breakthrough' coronavirus vaccine

Callum Keown
MarketWatch
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 11:41 UTC
blue hands vaccine
© Getty ImagesOxford University's Jenner Institute is developing coronavirus vaccine.
A coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University will enter human trials as early as this Thursday, according to the U.K.'s health secretary.

The U.K. government will provide £20 million ($24 million) to the university's team and a further £22.5 million to Imperial College, where scientists are also working on a vaccine. Scientists at Oxford have previously said the aim is to produce a million doses of the vaccine by September.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock praised both teams for making "rapid progress" and said the U.K. will throw "everything we've got" at developing a vaccine.

He also said the government would invest in manufacturing capabilities so that if either vaccine was successful it could be available for British people
"as soon as humanly possible. We are going to back them to the hilt and give them every resource that they need to get the best possible chance of success as soon as possible. The upside of being the first country in the world to develop a successful vaccine is so huge that I am throwing everything at it."
However, he insisted vaccine development was a "process of trial and error and trial again."

Comment: "...reaching this stage in normal times would "take years" There is probably a really, really good reason for this. A vaccine 'from scratch' sounds absolutely researched! As for Oxford, it wants the money and the notoriety.

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Beaker

France's most recognized virologist: 'The West is managing Covid-19 worse than poor countries'


RT
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 15:15 UTC

Comment: From the point of view of actually tackling the virus, yes, the West is managing this abominably. But that isn't the agenda...


Raoult
© UnknownProfessor Didier Raoult
The world's experience with Covid-19 has exposed the fact that wealthy nations are not necessarily more prepared than poorer ones to deal with a pandemic and they are often too slow to act, French biologist Didier Raoult said.

In a video posted on YouTube, Raoult noted that many of the countries with the highest coronavirus mortality rates are "wealthy countries." This reveals "a disconnect between wealth and the ability to respond to situations of this kind."

The difference could lie in how rich and poor countries have chosen to deal with the virus, Raoult believes.
"The rich and developed countries have had less significant results than the poor countries, which chose to treat [Covid-19] like pneumonia with common drugs and which cost nothing."
Raoult has been at the center of an international debate over the use of the hydroxychloroquine anti-malaria drug which he promoted as a possible treatment for the coronavirus, citing his own small study and some positive experiences with the drug in China.

Comment: This is because the agenda in the west was never about actually 'tackling Covid-19'. It was and is about leveraging the virus/illness to implement totalitarian social control.

See also:

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Bullseye

US Dept of Defense publishes accounts of troops who experienced Iran's retaliatory strike on January 8


Sputnik
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 06:47 UTC
2 US troops
© Ako Rasheed
The Iranian attack on US military bases in Iraq on 8 January followed an American drone strike that killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. Before the attack, Iranian officials had said Tehran would retaliate against US forces for Soleimani's killing.

The US Department of Defense on Tuesday released a 36-page dossier of firsthand accounts from the airmen who were present during the "retaliatory" missile strike by Iran on 8 January.

The document includes stories from soldiers who were at the US bases of Ayn al-Asad, Erbil, Camp Taji, and Al Taqaddum in Iraq during the attack.

Iran warned the Iraqi government about the attack shortly before it happened, and the information was reportedly passed to the Americans. According to the DoD report, the warning gave the base commanders little time to make "life or death decisions based on little information and a lot of gut", many of them thinking that everyone who was left at the airbase would "perish".

The officers there had to quickly compile lists of their personnel divided into two groups: those who should be evacuated and those who would remain to maintain operations, according to the new DoD report.
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X

UPMC: Feared coronavirus surge 'simply hasn't happened' - will resume elective surgeries

David Wenner
pennlive.com
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 05:55 UTC
Dr. Yealy
© UPMCDr. Donald Yealy at a virtual news conference April 21, 2020.
UPMC [University of Pittsburgh Medical Center] said Tuesday the predicted surge of COVID-19 patients hasn't arrived and cases are on the decline in central and western Pennsylvania. In light of that, UPMC plans to resume some of the elective surgeries that were canceled as the result of government directives to conserve beds and supplies for COVID-19 patients.

"The very high surge we prepared for simply hasn't happened," said Dr. Donald Yealy, UPMC's chair of emergency medicine. However, state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Tuesday that while the state has begun talking to hospitals about resuming some surgeries, "we're not there yet."

Of 5,500 beds in the UPMC hospital system, only 2% are occupied by COVID-19 patients, as are 8% percent of intensive care beds, according to Yealy, who also said UPMC has strong supplies of protective equipment such as masks, shields and gowns.

The 118 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at UPMC hospitals are "not a significant increase from last week," he said.

Yealy further said the rate of positive coronavirus tests done through UPMC hospitals has dropped to 6.6 percent, down from 12 percent earlier in the pandemic, another sign the coronavirus threat is declining in areas served by UPMC.
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Footprints

Sarah Sanders to AOC: Unlike congresspersons, American workers have to show up to get paid

Jennie Taer
saraacarter.com
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Sanders AOC
© Red JournalistsFormer WH Press Secretary Sarah Sanders • US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
During an appearance on Fox & Friends Thursday, Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders sounded off on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who suggested that American workers orchestrate a national boycott when the economy reopens after the coronavirus, saying she needs to look back to where she came from and remember that she still gets paid as a member of Congress regardless of whether she's doing her job.
"This is the same Congresswoman who just last week was celebrating the devastation of the oil and gas industry and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are tied to that because she hoped it would provide momentum for her Green New Deal.

"This is also a person who may want to go back to her roots and remember that most Americans, unlike those in Congress have to show up in order to get paid and that they don't have the luxury of not doing their job and still being able to provide for her family like she does as a member of Congress.

"There are people that are really hurting. The President is looking for ways to protect, to help them. She might want to join in that effort instead of putting people down who are struggling and trying to figure out how best to help their families and provide that food. She might wanna go back and remember that when she was a bartender and not a member of Congress, she didn't have that luxury."
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Cheese

On the outskirts of Paris, the food bank queues grow longer

Yanathan Van der Voort
Reuters
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:06 UTC
Food bank line in Clichy-sous-Bois, France
© Reuters/Charles PlatiauFILE PHOTO: Residents line up during a food distribution by volunteers from ACLEFEU association in Clichy-sous-Bois near Paris during a lockdown imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in France, April 22, 2020.
The queue for the food bank snaked for hundreds of metres, out of the shuttered marketplace bordered by tower blocks and down the side of a four-lane highway on the outskirts of one of Europe's wealthiest cities.

In Paris's depressed suburbs, the number of people relying on food handouts is soaring as a strict coronavirus lockdown plunges France into its deepest recession since World War Two.

Many worked in the grey economy before the outbreak, and now receive little protection from France's generous welfare state.

"There were lots of women who worked looking after children... There was a whole economy based on getting by," said Bachir Ghouinem, volunteering at the food bank in Clichy-sous-Bois, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the city centre.
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Star of David

Bio-terror: Israeli squatters with Covid-19 break quarantine, assault Palestinians in nearby hamlet

Juan Cole
Informed Comment
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Palestine Covid
© Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA/ShutterstockPalestinian security forces arresting a shop owner who did not abide by the lockdown in Hebron last month.
On Wednesday, a band of 20 Israeli squatters diagnosed with Covid-19, who had been placed in quarantine in their squatter-settlement on Palestinian land in the West Bank's Ghor Valley, ghoulishly broke out and attacked a nearby Palestinian hamlet. They are members of the violent "Hilltop Youth" extremist group.

The Israeli terrorists, operating in Palestinian territory, burned cars, stoned civilians, and attacked individuals. They beat a young Palestinian woman so badly that she had to be rushed to the emergency room in an Israeli hospital.

Since she has now likely been infected, this injury may be a death sentence, since comorbidity conditions severe enough to require hospitalization would worsen her chance of surviving when she contracts the virus and it attacks her lungs.

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