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House committee demands Bezos testify regarding 'misleading' statements

Taylor Hatmaker
Tech Crunch
Fri, 01 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Bezos
© BFN NewsAmazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Amazon is in hot water with a powerful congressional committee interested in the company's potentially anticompetitive business practices.

In a bipartisan letter sent Friday to Jeff Bezos, the House Judiciary committee demanded that the Amazon CEO explain discrepancies between his own prior statements and recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, the letter addressed Amazon's apparent practice of diving into its trove of data on products and third-party sellers to come up with its own Amazon-branded competing products.

As the Journal notes, Amazon
"has long asserted, including to Congress, that when it makes and sells its own products, it doesn't use information it collects from the site's individual third-party sellers — data those sellers view as proprietary."
In documents and interviews with many former employees, the Journal found that Amazon does indeed consult that information when making decisions about pricing, product features and the kinds of products with the most potential to make the company money.

Comment: See also:
GOP Sen. Hawley asks DOJ to open a criminal investigation into Amazon

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Brick Wall

Public opinion, not scientific advice, is what is keeping us in lockdown

Daniel Hannan
The Telegraph
Sat, 02 May 2020 20:00 UTC
lab testing
© Anthony Kwan/BloombergMinisters keep repeating that they are Guided By The Science, but the trouble is that there is no such thing as The Science.
What has come over us? Is Covid-19 turning us into a nation of authoritarians? Are we secretly enjoying the lockdown and its associated feelings of community, simplicity and purpose? Were some of us longing all the while to be bossed about? Opinion polls continue to show massive support for the restrictions, with more people wanting them tightened than loosened.

In the most recent survey, 70 per cent of British voters wanted businesses to be closed unless the coronavirus was "fully contained", with only 23 per cent disagreeing, making us the most illiberal of the 14 nations polled. Think about that for a moment. Eradication is not a realistic possibility: even if we find a vaccine, the coronavirus will continue to circulate, as bird flu and swine flu still do. So seven in ten of us are asking for an open-ended lockdown.

When the closures were imposed, no one tried to claim that they would halt the disease. Rather, they were intended to buy time, to "squash the sombrero". But the distinction between preventable deaths and deaths per se was quickly lost. Commentators began to speak of "defeating the disease", and politicians realised that they would be judged only on the number of coronavirus-related fatalities.

Comment: See also:

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Cheeseburger

NYPD sends 1,000 officers to enforce social distancing in NYC


Sputnik
Sun, 03 May 2020 01:48 UTC
NYC park lockdown
© REUTERS / EDUARDO MUNOZ
While the police have welcomed citizens to enjoy the sunny weather, they also reminded them not to forget about the federal guidelines on social-distancing, introduced amid the new coronavirus pandemic.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has dispatched 1,000 officers in New York City to ensure citizens comply with social distancing guidelines over the weekend, according to NYPD chief Terence Monahan.

Throughout the weekend, officers are making sure New Yorkers maintain a six-foot distance from each other while using public transportation, eating out in restaurants, and just chilling in the parks. No large gatherings are allowed.

Comment: Tell us again how this isn't a police state?

See also:

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Cow

Why are farmers destroying food while grocery stores are empty?

Claire Kelloway
Washington Monthly
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
empty grocery store
© iStock
Turns out letting "efficient" monopolies control our food supply was a terrible idea.

For many Americans, grocery shopping has become an intensely stressful experience. To maintain social distancing, people must queue before entering stores. Once inside, they must scramble to find increasingly scarce products, including household staples from milk and eggs to pork and beef. Others can no longer afford to go to grocery stores. Instead, they wait for hours to get goods from food banks that are also running short on supplies.

But in a seeming paradox, farmers are destroying their products — including many of the same goods that stores lack. Dairy Farmers of America, the country's biggest dairy co-op, has called many of its members and instructed them to dump their milk. The cooperative has estimated that farmers are now dumping up to 3.7 million gallons of milk per day. Sanderson Farms, a chicken processor, smashes 750,000 eggs each week. Farmers have been plowing their produce into the ground.

Comment: All it takes is one major crisis to reveal the inadequacy of our decrepit systems of distribution. It's ironic that the massive, highly specialized monopolies are the ones failing while the diversified small-scale operations are having to adjust to increased demand. It could end up that an unintended consequence of the lockdown is that the future may be a whole lot greener.

See also:

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Arrow Down

Australia a 'standout loser' for damaging economy without COVID-19 immunity, Nobel prize-winner says

Adam Creighton
The Australian
Sun, 03 May 2020 14:12 UTC
sydney opera house australia
© Getty ImagesOne of the world’s top scientists has branded lockdown measures a ‘huge mistake’ and Australia a ‘standout loser’ for damaging its economy.
One of the world's top scientists has branded lockdowns a "huge mistake" and called Australia a "standout loser" for "massively" damaging its economy and society without obtaining immunity to COVID-19.

In an extraordinary 30-minute interview Michael Levitt, who won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2013, also slammed Baby Boomers for "really screwing up" the world. "If I was a young person now I would say, you guys are going to pay for this," said Professor Levitt, 72.

Professor of structural biology at Stanford University, he said "panic" stemming from "incorrect numbers" had prompted lockdowns whose damage "will exceed any saving of lives by a huge factor - there is no doubt in my mind".

Comment: See also:

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Pistol

Liberals' assault-rifle ban leaves both sides in gun-control debate unhappy

Patrick White
The Globe and Mail
Sat, 02 May 2020 08:41 UTC
canadian prime minister justin trudeau
© Adrian Wyld/The Canadian PressPrime Minister Justin Trudeau during an announcement on a ban on military style assault weapons during a news conference in Ottawa, May 1, 2020.
The Liberal government is prohibiting hundreds of "military-grade assault rifles" - including two of the firearms used in last month's mass shooting in Nova Scotia - partly fulfilling a long-standing pledge to ban a style of gun that has become associated with mass shootings worldwide.

But rather than instituting a promised program that would require owners to surrender their guns in exchange for government compensation to remove them from civilian circulation, the government said on Friday the program will be voluntary. Current owners will be allowed to keep their guns beyond a two-year amnesty period.

Groups on both sides of the rancorous gun debate expressed dismay over the new measures.

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Conservative Candace Owens is suspended from Twitter after challenging tyrannical Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer

Jim Hoft
Gateway Pundit
Sat, 02 May 2020 10:07 UTC
candace owens
Candace was locked out of her Twitter account.

The Pro-Trump author, speaker and pundit has over 2.2 million followers on the social media platform! Candace is also one of President Trump's most vocal and popular supporters.

Candace wrote The Gateway Pundit and sent us the tweet that infuriated the Twitter elites:

"Apparently @GovWhitmer believes she is a duly elected dictator of a socialist country. The people of Michigan need to stand up to her. Open your businesses. Go to work. The police think she's crazy too. They are not going to arrest 10,000,000 people for going to work.

Comment: See also:

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NPC

Endless snowflakery: Portland, Oregon county creates race-specific 'grounding space' for escaping 'whiteness' during pandemic

Carrie Sheffield
Just The News
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 23:47 UTC
lockdown rules coronavirus covid-19
© Alex Milan Tracy/Anadolu Agency/ Getty ImagesPortland, United States - April 3: People walk their dog in Lillis Albina Park in Portland, Ore., on April 3, 2020, as people continue to practice social distancing measures under a statewide stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
In a daily report dedicated to news updates and guidance for county employees fighting the coronavirus, an Oregon county in the Portland area said it was creating a safe "grounding space" for minority staff to escape a predominant "whiteness."

The April 5 "situation report" from the Multnomah County Office of Emergency Operations Center announced that the "Emergency Operations Center Equity Officer is hosting a grounding space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) employees to share, heal, connect, and get grounded in a space that is not dominated by whiteness."
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Megaphone

Rent strike protests target Cuomo in NYC and Albany

Denis Slattery and Wes Parnell
The Daily News
Fri, 01 May 2020 17:49 UTC
Demonstrators called on Gov. Cuomo to “cancel rent” on Friday.
© Wes Parnell/New York Daily NewsDemonstrators called on Gov. Cuomo to “cancel rent” on Friday.
Frustrated tenants struggling to pay rent amid the coronavirus crisis took their complaints straight to Gov. Cuomo on Friday as they staged multiple protests across the city and in the state capital.

As thousands of New Yorkers signed off on a planned rent strike for the month of May, demonstrators descended upon the Capitol Building in Albany and converged on Cuomo's Manhattan office to demand rent relief.

Massive banners hung from the 59th St. Bridge around midday made the message clear as demonstrators called on the governor to "cancel rent."

"A lot of people are suffering economically because of this crisis and we are asking for the governor's support," said Alavaro Paulino Jr., who led a mariachi band outside Cuomo's Third Ave. office.

Cars rolled by with signs calling on the governor to "make the billionaires pay" and "cancel rent" jutting from their windows as mask-clad protesters petitioned Cuomo to provide relief for "excluded workers" that would include undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for unemployment or federal benefits.

Comment: Obviously Gov Cuomo hasn't been paying attention to the many protestors in New York City (further down):











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Corona

'We don't care about coronavirus': Thousands attend mass prayer in Afghanistan during Ramadan, defying quarantine


RT
Sat, 02 May 2020 23:49 UTC
Muslims praying Afghanistan
Thousands of defiant Muslims have held public prayers during Ramadan in Afghanistan, ignoring Covid-19 safety measures. Their radical leader previously said that dying from the virus would be a form of martyrdom.

A large crowd of followers of hardline Salafist preacher Mujib Rahman Ansari had gathered for an open-air group prayer near the Gazer Gah Sharif pilgrimage site in Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city. The worshippers sat in tight rows, close to each other, ignoring social distancing norms and not wearing masks or other protective gear.

"We don't care about the coronavirus. We believe God created the coronavirus. I think it is just a creation of God, just as we are. It was God's will to create such a virus," one of the attendees told Ruptly video agency.

Comment: Despite the fear from those who've bought into the hysteria, these worshipers are likely to fair just fine.

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