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"Masks on, clothes off": First strip club in America reopens

strip club stage money
Dozens of states are already in the process of reopening their crashed economies. Now the first strip club in the country, located in Wyoming, has resumed pole dancing operations and threw a grand reopening party last Friday called "masks on, clothes off."

"When they [state officials] reopened the restaurants and bars in Wyoming, we were super excited because it's been very difficult for us," Kim Chavez, the owner of "The Den," told FOX31.

"It's been horrible to go almost three months without any kind of income," Chavez's husband, Greg Chavez, said.

Brick Wall

Should Britain relax the two-metre distance rule?

social distancing
Could the Government be about to relax the two-metre rule for social distancing? On Wednesday morning, professor Robert Dingwall, a sociologist who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, questioned the rule, saying he had tried to trace the scientific justification for it but couldn't. The evidence, he said, was 'fragile'. Some countries, such as the US and Spain, have also set a distance of two metres but others, such as Australia, Germany and the Netherlands are content with 1.5 metres and others, such as Norway and Finland are happy with a single metre.

The two-metre rule is going to be a huge impediment to relaxing lockdown. As an example, a standard train carriage in Britain is 2.8 metres wide. It is possible to maintain one metre social distancing by only using the window seats, but it is impossible to maintain two metres distance when people have to walk up and down the aisles. Likewise, one metre social distancing is practical in shops and restaurants while two metres is either impossible or impractical for commercial reasons.

Before this pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control was already recommending distancing of six feet (just under two metres) as a means of avoiding the transmission of influenza - and some claim it is a rule of thumb which has been in use since the 1930s. However, a Chinese study in the journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases studied the atmosphere in hospital wards in Wuhan at the peak of the epidemic and detected the virus present in the air up to four metres away from an infected patient.

Comment: Britain should not relax the social distancing rule; they should scrap it altogether. There is no evidence that it works and only makes life inconvenient (or in some situations, impossible). Trying to mitigate exposure to the virus is a fool's game - it's everywhere. The best defense against the virus is a strong immune system.

See also:


Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: State murder: Thousands of UK cancer patients could die early due to lockdown delays

mammogram
© BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesA mammogram screening for breast cancer. Researchers have warned that coronavirus-related delays in diagnosis and treatment of a range of cancers could lead to a rise in deaths.
Thousands of people with cancer could die early because so many hospitals have suspended surgery for the disease while the NHS battles the coronavirus, experts warn today.

The pandemic will have "a terrible indirect impact on the lives of cancer patients" for months to come, on top of the devastation for families who have lost a loved one to Covid-19, according to research by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).

The authors say that the disruption to NHS cancer treatment, and especially delays to operations to remove tumours, will lead directly to some people's disease having become incurable.

Comment: See also: Genocide of the 'impure': Surge in Do Not Resuscitate orders for learning disabilities patients issued during UK lockdown


Colosseum

UK universities facing £760m loss as lockdown causes surge in students deferring courses

Christ's College
© Joe Toth/REX/ShutterstockRichard Adams Education editorA sign at Christ's College, Cambridge.
British universities face a potential £760m blow to their funding after about one in five students said they would not enrol in the next academic year if classes were delivered online and other activities curtailed.

A survey of students applying for undergraduate places found that more than 20% said they were willing to delay starting their courses if universities were not operating as normal due to the coronavirus pandemic, which would mean there would be 120,000 fewer students when the academic year begins in autumn.

The results, released by the University and College Union (UCU), come as universities are wrestling with how to reopen campuses for students while protecting them from Covid-19.

A number of universities including Cambridge have said they will conduct all lectures online throughout the 2020-21 academic year, offering "blended learning" that mixes online teaching with tutorials and in-person seminars where possible.

Comment: What the above highlights is the dilapidated state of the UK's educational institutions, because they were already in the red (despite quadrupling tuition fees in recent years) and they were heavily relying on foreign students just to function. But what we are also seeing are the initial effects that government fomented hysteria, along with a draconian lockdown, have on a population and its economy - and it's likely that there's much worse up ahead:


Windsock

The curious timing of NYT takedown: Why has US liberal media turned on #MeToo darling Ronan Farrow now?

Ronan Farrow
© Patrick McMullan via Getty Images / David CrottyRonan Farrow attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills, California. February 09, 2020
Woody Allen's son is a big name thanks to his award-winning coverage of Harvey Weinstein. He may be a fame-hungry celebrity who was simply in the right place at the right time, but there's more to this spat than meets the eye.

Mia Farrow and Woody Allen's (almost equally) famous son found himself trending on Twitter on Monday following the hullabaloo surrounding the attempted character assassination of him in the New York Times with their headline, 'Is Ronan Farrow Too Good To Be True?' I'm just surprised the so-called 'newspaper of record' went with an interrogation point in their headline, because it felt like a rhetorical question to me.

It's preposterous how this media celebrity is often hailed as "arguably the most famous investigative reporter in America" as a result his #MeToo reporting, because - sorry - when it comes to his journalism, he appears to be nothing more than a one-trick pony.

Comment: Taken together with this recent article it seems that the New York Times is attempting to dial back some of the vehemence created by the "Believe All Women" and the MeToo movement. Surely it's just pure coincidence that those things which were ignored or trampled upon - such as journalistic integrity, facts, due process, and so forth - when the accused was Trump and Kavanaugh are important now that the accused is their favorite candidate for the presidency.

RT covered some of the response to Matt Lauer's article about the dubious journalistic integrity of Ronan Farrow here:
On Tuesday, Mediaite published a lengthy article written by disgraced NBC journalist Matt Lauer, challenging how Farrow's book depicted him and titled 'Why Ronan Farrow Is Indeed Too Good to Be True'

The liberal journalist types that appear to be Mediaite's core audience would have absolutely none of it. In less than two hours, the tweet announcing Lauer's article was ratioed with over 1,600 replies to just 300 likes, with the vast majority savaging the former Today Show host for even daring to open his mouth on this subject, or any subject, ever.

More than one person brought up the claim that Lauer "had a remote door lock button on his office so he could have sex in the workplace with people who worked under him."

Others compared Lauer's complaint to Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine commenting on the rebellion, or Harvey Weinstein on rape laws.

There was also an obligatory reference to the villain from Harry Potter books.

"This is truly, truly shameful," said journalist Erin Biba, adding, "This is not journalism, this is blatant and outright support of sexual assault."

Farrow himself commented on the story, calling Lauer "just wrong" and saying that his book was "thoroughly reported and fact-checked, including with Matt Lauer himself."

Amid the overwhelming condemnation of Lauer's piece were a few voices, such as independent journalist Michael Tracey, urging people to actually read the article - setting aside how they felt about Lauer - and asking whether Farrow "exercised even basic journalistic fairness or circumspection before accusing him of rape."

Mediaite columnist John Ziegler also drew fire for agreeing with Lauer and calling his piece "a very legitimate story here about journalistic malfeasance on the part of someone to whom the news media has blindly given enormous power."

Lauer hosted the Today Show until he was fired in November 2017 over a "detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace," as NBC News chairman Andy Lack put it at the time. He does not question that his relationship was inappropriate, but denies Farrow's claim it was rape and cites evidence that contradicts 'Catch and Kill' in numerous places.

The liberal media establishment has soured on crusading against sexual assault in recent months, after a former staffer came out with accusations against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. A number of prominent Democrats simply declared they didn't care and would vote for Biden anyway, while others suddenly argued that no one ever said all women should be believed when it came to these kinds of accusations.

Even Smith's criticism of Farrow's due diligence, however, never brought up a problematic article he co-authored against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, during whose confirmation the very same people told a very different story.



Question

UK politicians who urged us all to 'follow the science' now turn on the scientists for being WRONG. But will the people buy it?

uk parliament/covid vaccine
© Reuters / Jessica Tailor
Furious finger-pointing has broken out in the UK as experts and politicians try to distance themselves from the consequences of the government's calamitous Covid-19 lockdown strategy.

It's not often that one witnesses grown-ups playing pass the parcel in public. But this is what is happening in the UK: experts and politicians are rapidly passing the 'blame parcel' back and forth, driven by the mounting fear of ending up holding it when the music stops.

Sir Adrian Smith, a statistician and the incoming president of the Royal Society, this week demanded that the government should stop passing the buck and stop saying they "are simply doing what scientists tell us" over coronavirus. He insisted that they be more open about the advice they have received. His concern is that the scientists will be blamed for any shortfalls, especially when the devastating health and economic consequences of the lockdown become apparent.

Eye 2

'Atlantic' editor, promoter of erroneous conspiracy ginning up Iraq war, bemoans Arab 'propensity' to conspiracy thinking

Jeffrey Goldberg editor atlantic magazine
© ScreenshotJeffrey Goldberg at Jewish Community Center in Manhattan on December 5, 2019.
Jeffrey Goldberg is very busy as editor of The Atlantic so it's understandable that he trots out old reporting in a piece denouncing Donald Trump as a peddler of conspiracy theory for questioning the official coronavirus death toll.

But look at the old reporting: Back in Cairo in 2001, an Islamist told Goldberg that Arabs didn't execute the strike on the World Trade Center. So Goldberg is back to his old beat, telling us what a scary neighborhood Israel is in.
The Middle East is a cauldron of conspiracy, a place where the most bizarre theories often have real policy consequences.
But credulity is hardly confined to the Middle East, and Goldberg doesn't have a right to lecture anyone on the topic. Famously, in the runup to the Iraq war, Goldberg's own credulity contributed to the rush to a bad judgment. He propagated a few conspiracy theories that turned out to be bogus, and disastrously so.

Comment: The Atlantic seems to have been a shill for every bad political idea in the last three decades:


Light Sabers

UK government likely to keep schools closed after Labour-led local councils rebel against plan to reopen on June 1

closed school
© REUTERS/Mark Hartnell
A revolt of mainly Labour-led local councils has pushed 10 Downing Street to admit it will not penalize some 1,500 primary schools in England who said they'd disobey its call for reopening from Covid-19 closures.

Schools across the UK were shuttered due to the pandemic on March 20, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government sought to open them back up on June 1, so the pupils would get at least a month's worth of classroom time before the summer holidays.

That plan is now looking highly unlikely, as eighteen local councils - including two led by the PM's own Conservatives - have openly rejected the plan, along with the opposition Labour party and the NASUWT teachers' union. Just five percent of NASUWT members believe it is safe to reopen the schools on June 1, the union said.

Heart - Black

'Total fiasco': Dismay after UK minister admits government prioritized NHS over care homes during Covid-19 early stages

elderly man
© REUTERS/Steven WattAn elderly resident with a carer at Ashgreen House Residential and Nursing Home
UK hospitals were prioritized over social care homes during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, a government minister has admitted, prompting public anger in light of the huge amount of Covid-19 deaths among the elderly.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland became the first UK government minister on Wednesday to ostensibly concede that they decided to direct the majority of resources toward the NHS at the detriment of care homes in terms of protection against the deadly Covid-19 disease.

It also appears to fly in the face of rhetoric peddled by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who has insisted in recent days that they have "tried to throw a protective ring around" care homes "right from the start" of the outbreak.

Cell Phone

Dangerous precedent: Refusing to unlock your phone? Jail. UK judge sentences activist under TERRORISM law

Paul Golding
© Martyn Wheatley/Global Look Press/Keystone Press AgencyPaul Golding
The leader of the anti-immigrant group Britain First was fined and given a suspended sentence for refusing to unlock his phone and computer to police after returning from a trip to Russia last year, under UK anti-terrorism laws.

Paul Golding, 38, was ordered to pay a £21 ($26) surcharge and £750 ($918) in costs, and given a nine-month "conditional discharge" by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot at the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday.

He was charged with "wilfully refusing to comply" under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act. Police testified that Golding had refused their demand to unlock his iPhone and Apple computer when they stopped him at Heathrow Airport on October 23 last year, as he returned from a trip to Moscow.