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Cuomo announces partnership with Bill Gates to "revolutionize" NY schools in wake of coronavirus

Alan Macleod
MintPress News
Wed, 06 May 2020 05:59 UTC
bill gates beijing
© Mark Schiefelbein | APGates speaks at a Toilet Expo in Beijing, Nov. 6, 2018.
Taking time off from mismanaging a pandemic and turning lifesaving masks sent from all over the country into an art installation, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared yesterday that he would use the deadly COVID-19 virus as an opportunity to "revolutionize" the state's school system, inviting Microsoft founder Bill Gates to implement his controversial ideas about education statewide. Cuomo did not divulge many details of what his imagined education revolution would look like but did mention virtual education and remote learning. However, Gates is best known for one thing in education: charter schools.

"Bill Gates is a visionary in many ways and his ideas and thoughts on technology and education he's spoken about for years but I now think we have a moment in history where we can incorporate and advance those ideas," Cuomo said. "When does change come to a society?...[when] we get moments in history" he added, "I think this is one of those moments."

One of only two centibillionaires in history, Gates is the world's most popular businessman according to polling company YouGov, enjoying a 54 percent positive and only nine percent negative opinion rating. Nevertheless, Cuomo's announcement was met with consternation by many. "Right-wing Wall Street puppet Cuomo is going to work with billionaire capitalist Bill Gates, one of the richest human beings in history, to privatize public education. "Philanthropy" is a scam. The Gates Foundation's goal is to privatize everything so billionaires can profit," wrote journalist Ben Norton.

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Megaphone

Germany: Thousands of protesters slam isolation measures

Darko Janjevic
Deutsche Welle
Sat, 09 May 2020 05:32 UTC
lockdown protest germany
Over 3,000 people rallied in Munich and thousands more gathered in Stuttgart and across Germany on Saturday to demand the lifting of restrictions ordered by the German authorities. Many of the protesters defied the guidelines which call for a limited number of participants and for social distancing to be maintained during such events.

The protesters accuse politicians and medical workers of spreading panic and infringing on the population's rights with the prolonged lockdown. Some of the rallies included anti-vaccination activists.

In Munich, police used loudspeakers to urge the protesters to minimize the infection risk. While the participants failed to heed the instructions, the police decided not to disperse the gathering "on the grounds of proportionality" as the participants were not violent. However, the authorities dispersed a separate right-wing demonstration which gathered around 25 people in the same city, according to the Germany's public broadcaster ARD.

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Clipboard

Here's how to become a prepper

Daisy Luther
The Organic Prepper
Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00 UTC
how to become a prepper
If the coronavirus has inspired you to become a prepper, you're not alone. At long last, prepping has become mainstream due to runs on supplies, shortages, and stay-at-home orders throughout the country. More folks than ever before are seeing the wisdom of having extra food and household goods on hand. It can help you through not only disasters and pandemics, but also through personal financial problems.

But delve into most preparedness websites (including this one) and it can start to get overwhelming when you read articles about civil unrest, EMPs, and existential catastrophes. You'll see articles about guns and outdoor survival and all sorts of things in which you have absolutely no interest.

And more than that, it's kind of overwhelming. It can make you feel like, "Wow, I will never be able to have a bunker in Montana with 150,000 rounds of ammo. I don't even know how to build a fire. Why even bother?"

Before we get started with the "how to's" here are a few things you should know.
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Stormtrooper

Stasi? New York City more than doubles number of 'social-distancing ambassadors' after cops' enforcement of Covid-19 rules causes backlash


RT
Sun, 10 May 2020 16:55 UTC
People practicing social distancing in NYC
© AP/Ronald BlumPeople practice social distancing while enjoying the nice weather at Central Park's Sheep Meadow, Saturday, May 2, 2020, in New York.
Following troubling viral videos of arrests and concerns about racial disparity in enforcing Covid-19-related social distancing, Mayor Bill De Blasio says he is increasing "ambassadors" in the city from 1,000 to 2,300.

"Enforcement has always been the last resort," the mayor said at a press conference Sunday.

His comment comes in the wake of the city having come under increased scrutiny thanks to a viral video, of what some have flagged as police brutality, showing NYPD officers arresting several people suspected of breaking social-distancing rules, and also to statistics showing the last few months have seen far more minorities ticketed for breaking the city's virus-stalling guidelines.

The mayor had previously acknowledged the disparity in enforcement and promised to "fix it"; on Sunday, he announced a plan to increase the number of "social-distancing ambassadors" in the city from 1,000 to 2,300.
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Bullseye

Biden's #MeToo scandal could split movement's solidarity with the Democrat Party

Kyle Morris
Breitbart
Sun, 10 May 2020 20:41 UTC
metoo pokret
Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow recently discussed the dismissal by women within the Democrat Party of the recent sexual assault allegations waged against former Vice President Joe Biden.

"Joe Biden has zero evidence to suggest he wasn't a criminal here," Marlow said, before describing Tara Reade's consistency with the allegations. "It fits a pattern. The eighth time a woman has said Biden had been inappropriate with them throughout his career. This is a woman who was a Biden employee."

Marlow also discussed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's "sterling defense" of Biden during an interview on MSNBC where she considered the situation to be a "closed issue."

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Brick Wall

Lockdown fanatics scare me far more than Covid-19

Brendan O'Neill
Spiked
Fri, 08 May 2020 00:01 UTC
London police
© Getty
Their extremism is a menace to liberty and livelihoods. They must be stopped.

I know I'm meant to be scared of Covid-19. But I'm far more fearful of the lockdown fanatics. These people who are so blase about the halting of economic life, and who bristle at any suggestion that the lockdown should be eased, pose a graver threat to the future of the UK than coronavirus does. They are a menace to liberty, reason and people's livelihoods. Our society is taking steps to tackle Covid - now we need a huge collective effort to face down lockdown fanaticism.

The lockdown fanatics were out in force yesterday. No sooner had there been hints from Downing St that the lockdown might be mildly eased than they had taken to their computers and media platforms to condemn such reckless talk of restoring a small amount of everyday liberty. #KeepTheLockdown trended on Twitter. Labour Party people insisted the lockdown must stay. Labour has effortlessly moved from being the party that wanted to keep us in the EU against the will of the largest democratic vote in history to being the party that wants to keep us all in our homes despite expert predictions of the largest economic contraction on record if we don't get back to work.
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Bacon

Shuttered meat-processing plants coming back; new protections for workers

Chris White
Daily Caller
Sat, 09 May 2020 09:13 UTC
Smithfield
© Reuters/Shannon StapletonSmithfield, South Dakota processing plant
Meat-processing plants are slowly coming back online after health officials shut them down, yet there is still disagreement over whether these safety precautions are different than those the plants employed before the closures.

Processing facilities and health officials deep-cleaned, sanitized and placed plastic dividers between workstations to help prevent future coronavirus infections, said Sarah Little, vice president of communications for the North American Meat Institute. She told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the measures are similar to what plants were doing before they closed.

Processing plants are "implementing CDC/OSHA Guidelines. But they were doing that before the guidelines even came out," Little said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines plant owners were given after a rash of closings due to virus infections.
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Stock Down

COVID-19 unemployment may have an ultimately higher cost than the disease

A Political Junkie
Viable Opposition
Fri, 08 May 2020 19:00 UTC
unemployed covid-19 coronavirua
© REUTERS/Nick OxfordPeople who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S. April 6, 2020.
With untold millions of workers around the world finding themselves on the wrong side of the employment equation thanks to governments' attempts to "flatten the COVID-19 curve" by shuttering the economy, a look at the impact of unemployment on physical and mental health is in order. After the Great Recession, many public health researchers around the world looked at the potential for links between the stress caused by unemployment and health. In this posting, I will touch on some of the research that has been done, showing us what we can expect from the COVID-19 related economic shutdown.
1.) A study entitled "Job Displacement and Mortality: An Analysis Using Administrative Data" by Daniel Sullivan and Till Von Wachter looked at the impact of job displacement on mortality among Pennsylvania's high-tenure workers who leave companies that are experiencing large declines in employment (i.e. mass layoffs affecting at least 30 percent of the company's work force). The study found the following:

"Our estimates suggest a 50%-100% increase in the mortality hazard during the years immediately following job loss. The estimated impact of displacement on annual mortality rates declines substantially over time, but appears to converge to a 10%-15% increase in the hazard rate. If these increases lasted beyond the 25-year window we follow, they would imply a loss in life expectancy of 1.0-1.5 years for workers displaced in middle age. In contrast, we find little effect of job loss on mortality for workers displaced near retirement age."

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Shopping Bag

Geneva: 1,000+ Swiss line up for free food amid coronavirus lockdown


RT
Sun, 10 May 2020 04:55 UTC
food queue
© Reuters/Fabrice CoffriniPeople queue for bags of food and essential products in Geneva, Switzerland, May 9, 2020.
More than 1,000 people queued up in Geneva to get free food parcels. The anti-coronavirus measures that have been in place since mid-March have taken a heavy toll on the country's poor.

Hundreds of people turned out to get free food from charities in one of the world's leading financial centres, typically associated with wealth, on Saturday. As those gathered had to follow the social distancing rules, the procession stretched for more than 1.5km (a mile).

Those most eager to receive food assistance began lining up in a file starting as early as at 5:00 am, according to the Caravane de Solidarite association, the main organizer of the event. It's the sixth time the group has been doling out food since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, head of the organization, Silvana Mastromatteo, told AFP.

She noted that the number of those seeking assistance has grown with each time.
Queue 2
© Reuters/Denis Balibouse
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Windsock

Mexican president bets big against renewables

Irina Slav
Oilprice.com
Thu, 07 May 2020 10:00 UTC
CENACE
© Gobierno de MexicoCentro Nacional de Control de Energia (CENACE)
It sounds like a news report out of yet another dystopian novel: Mexico is halting grid connection for new solar and wind power projects. In a world rushing to produce clean energy, Mexico has suddenly stood out like a sore thumb. But, as usual, there's more to the story.

The country's National Energy Control Center, or Cenace, announced it would suspend grid connections of new solar and wind farms until further notice earlier this week. The motivation behind the decision was the intermittency of solar and wind power generation, which, according to the state-owned power market operator, could compromise Mexico's energy security in difficult times. Cenace wrote in a document setting out the rules of the country's electricity market during the Covid-19 lockdown:
"The intermittent generation from wind and PV plants affects the reliability of the national electricity system, [impacting] the sufficiency, quality and continuity of power supply."
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