Society's ChildS


Pistol

Coronavirus researcher nearing 'very significant findings' dead in apparent murder-suicide

bing liu pittsburgh
Liu was at his home in Ross Township (pictured) on Saturday afternoon when a man walked through an unlocked door and shot him multiple times in the head, neck and torso
A researcher who was reportedly nearing some "very significant findings" in his work on the coronavirus was found killed at his Pittsburgh-area home, a local TV station reported.

Bing Liu, 37, was fatally shot in his head, neck and torso over the weekend in Ross Township, Pennsylvania, in what police are calling a murder-suicide, according to CBS Pittsburgh affiliate KDKA.

A second man, who police say knew Mr. Liu but did not identify, was found nearby in his car with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Ross Township detectives do not believe there is a suspect loose, KDKA reported.


Comment: Very fishy. One wonders if Liu was on the verge of beating Bill Gates to the punch. Or maybe his work exposed the man-made modifications in SARS-CoV-2...

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Mr. Potato

Pro-lockdown extremists in denial about why we did it in the first place

michigan protesters
© EPAArmed protestors, upset with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer extending her stay at home order through April, joined in "Operation Gridlock" near the state capitol in Lansing last month.
We will be in a fight against the novel coronavirus for months, if not years, and yet it is time to declare mission accomplished on one very important goal.

The lockdowns of much of the country were undertaken "to flatten the curve" and largely to prevent the hospital system from being overrun. It was a near-run thing in New York and New Jersey, but the dykes held, thanks to the incredible sacrifices of front-line health workers.

Now, the rhetoric around the shutdowns has shifted, and not very subtly — flattening the curve and saving the hospitals are "out," and not allowing any additional cases to emerge is "in."

Comment: In other words, 'flattening the curve' has been accomplished so the authorities are switching to a new narrative to justify keeping people locked in their homes for the foreseeable future. The lockdown was never about preventing deaths, it was about exerting authoritarian control over the population. The justifications will change whenever the old narrative has become obsolete.

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Heart

Still human: Amazon engineer quits; 'snapped' when company fired workers calling for coronavirus protections

Amazon packing workers
© Alan Berner / The Seattle TimesAmazon workers stand at their stations in a Kent warehouse, which employs 2,500 people who handle goods coming in and out. Computer screens are ubiquitous, giving workers information about their tasks and running updates on their rate per hour.
Tim Bray, a senior Amazon software engineer, has resigned from his role at the company after five years, citing "dismay" over Amazon's decision to fire outspoken critics of its labor practices.

In a fiery blog post, titled "Bye, Amazon," Bray, a vice president at Amazon Web Services (AWS), said his last day at the company was Friday. Bray said he "snapped" after Amazon fired Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two former user experience designers who criticized Amazon's climate stance and, most recently, its treatment of warehouse workers amid the coronavirus. Amazon has said it fired Costa and Cunningham for "repeatedly violating internal policies."

"I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about employees frightened of Covid-19," Bray wrote in the blog post, adding that "remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned."

Bray did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon declined to comment on Bray's resignation.

Comment:


Quenelle

Mishandling of Black Death 640 years ago led to the Peasants' Revolt - it's time we modern-day peasants rebelled over Covid-19

Bank of England
© Getty images / Dan KitwoodFILE PHOTO: People walk past The Bank of England in London, England
The coronavirus is killing poor people at twice the rate of better-off people, and exposing the appalling inequalities and injustice of our broken system. We need a new revolt, to bring about real change.

"Things cannot go well in England, nor ever will, until all goods are held in common, and until there will be neither serfs nor gentlemen, and we shall be equal" said the Priest John Ball, during his speech before marching into London with Watt Tyler during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the first great popular rebellion in UK history.

Nearly 650 years later, the Office for National Statistics has released data which show what some sociologists have been saying for generations, that class inequality in Britain is our greatest shame: the coronavirus is killing twice as many people in poor areas as in rich ones.

Ambulance

Taliban claims responsibility for deadly attack on Afghan military site as peace deal crumbles further

Afghan National Army soldiers
© Reuters / Omar SobhaniFILE PHOTO. Afghan National Army soldiers keep watch.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a military training center in the Helmand Province. Amid the failing peace process, the militant movement accuses Kabul of stalling on an agreed prisoner exchange.

"Dozens of members belonging to the enemy forces have been killed and wounded in the attack," said Qari Yousuf Ahmedi, a spokesman for the Taliban, referring to the Sunday bombing.

The truck bomb attack in Nahri Saraj district in the south of the country killed at least five members of the Afghan security forces, TOLO news reported citing the provincial governor's office. A security source said the blast "destroyed" the base and left as many as 18 dead.

Vader

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot warns stay-at-home violators: 'We will take you to jail, period'

Lori Lightfoot
© Screenshot via Twitter
Following reports of half a dozen parties being held around the Chicago area this weekend, Mayor Lori Lightfoot issued a sinister warning to stay-at-home violators: "We will take you to jail, period."

She then proceeded to yell at a small group of teens who were hanging out in a parking lot across the street. It was a moment that brilliantly captured the collapse of common sense among government officials trying to enforce an extreme and increasingly unreasonable form of social distancing.

Lightfoot's press conference on Saturday addressed the news that Chicago police had broken up several social events with more than 50 people in attendance on Friday. The authorities had learned that more parties were expected to take place on Saturday and Sunday.

"We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we have to, we will arrest you," said Lightfoot. "Don't make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and refuse to do what's necessary to save lives in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail, period."

Airplane

Seven dead as plane carrying aid hit by rocket grenade in Somalia

plane shadow
© Natalia Seliverstova / Sputnik
According to Kenyan news outlet Kahawa Tungu, the plane was a light Kenyan Embraer 120 aircraft with six people onboard.

Seven people have perished after a plane carrying aid supplies crashed in southern Somalia, Reuters quoted a security official as saying. The official provided no further details about the incident, who the plane belonged to or what kind of aid it carried.

Kenya's Kahawa Tungu previously reported that the plane was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade launched by Ethiopian forces. The media outlet understands that the plane was brought down by mistake.

​The Embraer 120 plane belonging to African Express was reportedly downed while landing in the town of El Bardale. Ethiopian forces controlling the town were unaware that the plane was scheduled to land there, according to the Kenyan media outlet.


Bulb

SOTT Focus: Your Mask is Making You Meaner, Dumber, More Afraid & Less Safe

masks
© EFE
I'll try to keep this respectful but it's not easy because the masks that so many of you are so proudly wearing are the pinnacle of stupidity and I just don't know how to be nice about communicating that.

I know we're all desperate to stay positive. And I know most Americans don't have the time or energy to really look past the top-line news they see and hear. And I know the media, academia and Hollywood are very effective at shaping our impressions of social and political goings-on. And I know politicians on both sides of the aisle are congratulating you for "doing your part" to help beat the COVID-19 virus. And I know that makes you feel good at a time we could all really use some lifting up.

It's a powerful cocktail of forces especially when virtually everyone you know is 100% bought in, too. But as every good parent will at some point tell their children: just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't make it right.

Attention

Opioid deaths surge amid social isolation orders

opioids
© Illustration by Guardian Design Team/Christophe Gowans
Lynn sat in the parking lot of her opioid treatment clinic in Columbus, Ohio, for hours on a recent Tuesday. Like in other parts of the country, the coronavirus pandemic was leading to longer wait times for medication — in this case, Suboxone.

Around her, people idled in their cars or stood in a smoking area until the doctor called them inside via text message. The process to get treatment took nearly four hours. "I was worried COVID might escalate more. I didn't want to be dependent on something that I wouldn't be able to get all of a sudden," said the 30-year-old, who asked to be identified only by her middle name. "I kind of weaned myself off Suboxone. That led to an overdose."

Lynn has struggled with heroin addiction since 2018. She said she hadn't used opioids for three months, until she was hit by the stresses and isolation of COVID-19, which public health officials fear may be contributing to relapses in Ohio's recovery community and beyond. Lynn thought she could taper off doses of Suboxone, a drug containing buprenorphine that's used to treat opiate addiction, in case the pandemic caused more roadblocks for her treatment.

Red Flag

Police probe shooting of Michigan security guard in confrontation over face mask

Calvin Munerlyn commemoration
© Jake May/Associated PressFamily and friends lift their candles to the sky and release balloons to honor Calvin Munerlyn during a vigil Sunday, May 3, 2020, in Flint, MI.
Michigan State Police investigators are looking into reports that a Flint dollar store security guard was fatally shot Friday after an argument with a customer who refused to wear a mask in the store.

The 43-year-old guard was shot in the head at about 2:15 p.m. Friday at the Family Dollar store at 877 Fifth Ave. He later died in an area hospital. Police are not yet releasing the name of the guard.

Michigan State Police 1st Lt. David Kaiser said Sunday that detectives are investigating a flood of reports on social media from people who say the violence sparked when the guard told a customer he had to wear a mask, a policy set forth by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"We're seeing a lot of these reports on social media, so we're investigating them," Kaiser said. "We'll talk to all the potential witnesses."