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Best of the Web: Looming in NYC: Largest rent strike in almost a century - millions unable to pay

rentstrike
© Ted S. Warren/APScene in Seattle, WA April 1, 2020
Want a grim picture of the state of American dissent during the coronavirus pandemic? Take an overview of media coverage from the last week. The press focused disproportionate attention on a few hundred white reactionaries, in a small number of states, rallying against social distancing measures — buoyed, of course, by tweets from President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, some of the most radical and righteous acts of mass resistance this country has seen in decades — from a wave of labor strikes to an explosion of mutual aid networks — are earning but a fraction of the media focus accorded to fringe, right-wing protesters.

Based on mainstream news coverage alone, for instance, you'd likely never know that organizers and tenants in New York are preparing the largest coordinated rent strike in nearly a century, to begin on May 1.

At least 400 hundred families who live in buildings each containing over 1,500 rent units are coordinating building-wide rent strikes, according to Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator for Housing Justice For All, a New York-based coalition of tenants and housing activists. Additionally, over 5,000 people have committed, through an online pledge, to refuse to pay rent in May.

Comment: Structuring a 1M strong 'post Covid no income' outcome
The majority of tenants in the Cosmopolitan Houses complex in Woodside, Queens have joined a rent strike that hopes to enlist upwards of one million New Yorkers, set to begin May 1, organizers told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Strikers in New York are expected to be joined by groups in Philadelphia, Chicago, multiple California cities and elsewhere across the US.

Led by the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance, the New York rent-strike movement has brought together an impressive coalition of tenants' rights and labor groups to petition for a total suspension of all payments for the duration of Governor Andrew Cuomo's 'New York Pause' order, which has brought the state's normally-bustling economy to a standstill and thrown millions into unemployment. They also want a $10 billion investment in affordable housing, to include improving the quality of existing public housing, repurposing vacant properties into permanent housing for the homeless, and topping up the budget for subsidized housing.

Just 55.7 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by PropertyNest expected to be able to pay their rent "as usual" come May 1, though a sizable percentage more (15.8 percent) planned to borrow the money, pay late, or work out other agreements with their landlords.



Chart Bar

SOTT Focus: The Undeniable Correlation Between Lockdown And The Unprecedented Destruction of Economies, Jobs And Lives

question mark
Leaving aside the fact that multiple studies show that Covid-19 has a case-fatality of between 0.1% and 0.5% (see here and here for instance), I remain bemused at the attempts of those who believe lockdown is essential to dealing with the virus to explain away the very simple fact that there is *so far* no correlation whatsoever between the policy they advocate and a reduction in deaths.

There are many ways of showing that there is no correlation, but the simplest is to compare a country not in lockdown — Sweden, for example — with those that are. Yet despite having done this using as many metrics as you like (daily figures, daily figures per million, daily figures per 100,000, weekly figures, weekly figures per million, weekly figures per 100,000), and despite the fact that not one of them shows Sweden doing any worse than countries in lockdown, there seem to be 101 reasons given by some (mainly on Twitter) as to why the figures shown aren't showing what they should show, and that if only other figures were shown they would surely show what should be shown. Something like that.

Okay, so let me try and show a real correlation, but to do so I first need to demonstrate absence of correlation again. Below is a chart showing weekly deaths per million people for 13 European countries, as well as the United States. Of these countries, only one (Sweden) is not in lockdown (although a few States in the US aren't as well), but as you can see, *so far* it is doing no worse than the others. In fact, it is doing better than some, despite its apparent suicide mission caused by not locking people up under house arrest and putting its economy into a nosedive:
slane stats covid

Comment: Do read more of Rob Slane's work on the Covid-19 madness:


Question

Tajikistan acting as if there's a pandemic, although it has no (ZERO) coronavirus cases (officially)

Tajikistan citizens coronavirus masks
© Radioi Ozodi (RFE/RL)While the government has said there are no coronavirus cases in Tajikistan, some Tajiks have chosen to wear masks to protect themselves.
Wearing rubber gloves and a homemade face mask, a middle-aged woman named Ziyoda sells herbs at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Khujand, the ancient Tajik city that is one of the oldest in Central Asia.

She comes in close contact with dozens of customers every day, some haggling with her as buyers have done with sellers in Khujand since its days as a stop along the Great Silk Road. Others just stop to chat with Ziyoda as they carefully select coriander, spring onion, or early garlic leaves from her stall.

Some customers wear face masks -- but many don't.

Ziyoda, 48, shrugs nonchalantly when she's asked if she worries about contracting the coronavirus in the busy bazaar.

"The government says we don't have the coronavirus," she says. "I thought about staying at home when there were rumors recently that someone died in the [nearby] Rasulov district. But our officials said it wasn't coronavirus and that people shouldn't believe such false rumors."

Attention

Missouri snitches get doxed! Personal info from 900+ tattlers exposed online

covid snitches missouri
A spree of social media posts this week warn that St. Louis County released the information it got from people who reported businesses in violation of the stay-at-home order.

The document, released in response to a Sunshine Law request, included names and contact information of the people making the reports. In their messages, some asked for anonymity.

Posts and comments in response to the document invited retaliation against the people who utilized the county's inbox for tips about non-essential businesses that stayed open.

The I-Team's PJ Randhawa talked with a woman whose tip was among those released. Patricia asked that we not use her last name, because she fears what someone might do with the information in the document.

Comment: Careless whispers: How the German public used and abused the Gestapo
It's been estimated that only 15 per cent of Gestapo cases started because of surveillance operations. A far greater number began following a tip-off from a member of the public. Every allegation, no matter how trivial, was investigated with meticulous and time-consuming thoroughness. It's been estimated that about 40 per cent of these denunciations were personally motivated. [...] During the second World War, denunciations increased as a raft of new regulations were brought in. This was a golden age for snitchers.
See also:


Airplane

JetBlue becomes the first US airline requiring passengers to wear face coverings

jetblue
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
JetBlue became the first US airline to require passengers to wear face coverings on flights to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The new policy goes into effect May 4 and comes after the airline began to require all crew members wear face masks on flights.

"Wearing a face covering isn't about protecting yourself it's about protecting those around you," said Joanna Geraghty, president and chief operating officer, JetBlue.

"This is the new flying etiquette. Onboard, cabin air is well circulated and cleaned through filters every few minutes but this is a shared space where we have to be considerate of others."

Comment: No good choices: A mask may block out some pollution but have other ill health effects:
A person wearing any kind of mask faces breathing resistance as air filters through the device, making the wearer work harder to inhale than he would without the mask. This can have several adverse physiological effects when the mask is worn for long periods of time. Moreover, carbon dioxide that is exhaled can get trapped in the chamber of the mask the re-enter the body each time the mask user inhales. This delivers less oxygen into the body than when the person is not wearing a mask.

"It can lead to oxygen shortage, suffocation, respiration trouble, and heart attacks," said Dr D Saha, scientist and additional director at the Central Pollution Control Board.

He pointed out that masks are a potential source of bacteria and viruses. "The moisture from exhalation inside the mask, when in constant contact with the 37 degrees Celsius warm human body, becomes ideal place for virus and bacteria to thrive," he said. This could result in the growth of microbes on masks and aid the spread of airborne diseases like influenza.
See also:


House

Best of the Web: The lockdown is not backed by science. And now the economy is flatlining

running off cliff
Can we admit that we were wrong? Can we admit that the coronavirus is not going to kill "hundreds of thousands or even millions" of Americans? Can we admit that the public health system is not going to buckle and collapse? Can we admit that we fashioned our public policy on flawed computer models that proved utterly worthless? Can we admit that the number of people infected is significantly larger than the official numbers? Can we admit that the percentage of fatalities is going to be significantly lower? Can we admit that the majority of people who have died are over 60 with serious underlying conditions like high-blood pressure, diabetes, obesity etc? Can we admit that there is no "historical scientific basis" for using "lockdowns" to fight a pandemic? Can we admit that "social distancing", "shelter in place", "self isolation" and "self quarantine" are arbitrary directives aimed at social control and not science-based remedies derived from serious research? Can we admit that the new data and the hard science do not support the existing policy but suggest that savaging civil liberties, decimating the economy and keeping the entire population in a perennial state of hysteria, is a gross overreaction that has done incalculable damage to the country, to our economic well-being, and to our tattered credibility as a responsible nation?

The bottom line is this: The data and the science do not support the current policy. That alone should give us pause.

Comment: See also:


Light Saber

SOTT Focus: If Sweden Succeeds, Lockdowns Will All Have Been For Nothing


Comment: The following criticism of the draconian lockdowns is from the mainstream media (alt-media criticism on this topic is in short supply these days). It takes the 'COVID-19 pandemic' as a given - that is, its author assumes the officially-reported numbers are correct and that the virus is of course something governments and people ought to take precautions against.

Nevertheless, the author points out that Sweden - the ONLY country in Christendom whose government did not go 'full Hitler' on its population - is reporting essentially the same (low - really low) 'COVID-19 death numbers' as every other country, a 'fly in the ointment' that completely exposes the lockdowns as having ZERO EFFECT on preventing or mitigating the so-called 'pandemic'...


people outside
When foreign commentators discuss Sweden's light-touch response to Covid-19, they tend to adopt an affronted tone. Which is, on the surface, surprising. You'd think everyone would be willing the Nordic country to succeed. After all, if Sweden can come through the epidemic without leaving a smoking crater where its economy used to be, there is hope for the rest of the world. So far, many signs appear encouraging. The disease seems to be following the same basic trajectory in Sweden as elsewhere.

Although we must wait for complete data, modelling by country's authorities suggests that the infection rate in Stockholm peaked on 8 April. If so, we need to consider the implication, namely that, once basic hygiene and distancing measures are in place, tightening the screw further perhaps makes little difference. Which would be good news for the rest of us. Adopting Sweden's more laissez-faire response might not restore our economies to full health, but it would at least allow us to bring them out of their induced comas.

Sweden is, broadly speaking, sticking to the approach that Britain followed in the week before the lockdown - the approach, indeed, that our strategists had wargamed in cooler-headed times. On 23 March, in an abrupt shift, Britain's shops were closed and its people told to stay at home.

What had changed? Was it the hysterical media demand for a Continental-style crackdown? Or the furious reaction to people visiting beauty spots on Mothering Sunday? Or was it the Imperial College model, published a few days earlier, which warned of hundreds of thousands of deaths unless there was a mass quarantine? Whatever the explanation, the lockdown soon took on a momentum of its own, with every new death turned into an argument for tighter restrictions.

Comment: See also:


Airplane

Lower your expectations: Boeing CEO says 'it will be years' before global aviation returns to pre-pandemic levels

Boeing
© EPA-EFE/Arhiva
Air traffic may not bounce back for two or three years, Boeing Co. Chief Executive David Calhoun said, outlining the tough outlook for global aviation to the plane maker's shareholders on Monday.

"The health crisis is unlike anything we have ever experienced," Mr. Calhoun said at the annual meeting. "It will be years before this returns to pre-pandemic levels."

Mr. Calhoun laid out the coronavirus pandemic's toll on the industry: Global airline revenues are set to drop by $314 billion this year. In the U.S., more than 2,800 planes are idled. Passenger demand is down 95% from last year.

"We are in an unpredictable and fast-changing environment, and it is difficult to estimate when the situation will stabilize," he added. "But when it does, the commercial market will be smaller and our customers' needs will be different."

Handcuffs

Hundreds charged worldwide in takedown of largest child pornography website

child porn
South Korean national and hundreds of others charged worldwide in the takedown of the largest darknet child pornography website funded by bitcoin Dozens of minor victims who were being actively abused by site users rescued

Jong Woo Son, 23, a South Korean national, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for his operation of Welcome To Video, the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content. The nine-count indictment was unsealed today along with a parallel civil forfeiture action.

Son has also been charged and convicted in South Korea and is currently in custody serving his sentence in South Korea. An additional 337 site users residing in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington State and Washington, D.C. as well as the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Brazil and Australia have been arrested and charged.

Comment: Executive Order Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption

Issued on: December 21, 2017

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (Public Law 114-328) (the "Act"), section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)) (INA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the prevalence and severity of human rights abuse and corruption that have their source, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States, such as those committed or directed by persons listed in the Annex to this order, have reached such scope and gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and economic systems. Human rights abuse and corruption undermine the values that form an essential foundation of stable, secure, and functioning societies; have devastating impacts on individuals; weaken democratic institutions; degrade the rule of law; perpetuate violent conflicts; facilitate the activities of dangerous persons; and undermine economic markets. The United States seeks to impose tangible and significant consequences on those who commit serious human rights abuse or engage in corruption, as well as to protect the financial system of the United States from abuse by these same persons.

I therefore determine that serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

I hereby determine and order:

Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:

(i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order;

(ii) any foreign person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General:

(A) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse;

(B) to be a current or former government official, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in:

(1) corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery; or

(2) the transfer or the facilitation of the transfer of the proceeds of corruption;

(C) to be or have been a leader or official of:

(1) an entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, any of the activities described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section relating to the leader's or official's tenure; or

(2) an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order as a result of activities related to the leader's or official's tenure; or

(D) to have attempted to engage in any of the activities described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section; and

(iii) any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General:

(A) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of:

(1) any activity described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section that is conducted by a foreign person;

(2) any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or

(3) any entity, including any government entity, that has engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, any of the activities described in subsections (ii)(A), (ii)(B)(1), or (ii)(B)(2) of this section, where the activity is conducted by a foreign person;

(B) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or

(C) to have attempted to engage in any of the activities described in subsections (iii)(A) or (B) of this section.

(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the effective date of this order.

Sec. 2. The unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into the United States of aliens determined to meet one or more of the criteria in section 1 of this order would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, and the entry of such persons into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, is hereby suspended. Such persons shall be treated as persons covered by section 1 of Proclamation 8693 of July 24, 2011 (Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United Nations Security Council Travel Bans and International Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions).

Sec. 3. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the types of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.

Sec. 4. The prohibitions in section 1 include:

(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; and

(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

Sec. 5. (a) Any transaction that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, causes a violation of, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.

(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.

Sec. 6. For the purposes of this order:

(a) the term "person" means an individual or entity;

(b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and

(c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States.

Sec. 7. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render those measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to this order.

Sec. 8. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA and the Act as may be necessary to implement this order and section 1263(a) of the Act with respect to the determinations provided for therein. The Secretary of the Treasury may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States. All agencies shall take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.

Sec. 9. The Secretary of State is hereby authorized to take such actions, including adopting rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to me by IEEPA, the INA, and the Act as may be necessary to carry out section 2 of this order and, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, the reporting requirement in section 1264(a) of the Act with respect to the reports provided for in section 1264(b)(2) of that Act. The Secretary of State may, consistent with applicable law, redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States consistent with applicable law.

Sec. 10. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, is hereby authorized to determine that circumstances no longer warrant the blocking of the property and interests in property of a person listed in the Annex to this order, and to take necessary action to give effect to that determination.

Sec. 11. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, is hereby authorized to submit recurring and final reports to the Congress on the national emergency declared in this order, consistent with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).

Sec. 12. This order is effective at 12:01 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, December 21, 2017.

Sec. 13. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 20, 2017.


Stormtrooper

Cops wage elaborate undercover scheme to arrest woman for giving a manicure out of her home

Arrest Woman for Giving a Manicure Out of Her Home
Two Texas police officers went undercover in an elaborate sting operation to catch citizens giving salon services for money in their own home. The cops posed as regular citizens needing to get a manicure. Tipsters (also known in some neighborhoods as "rats" or "snitches") pointed police to a woman who was advertising manicure services on social media — the horror.

Laredo police arrested Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia, 31, at the 1200 block of Harding Street after she allegedly agreed to provide an undercover officer with a manicure. Again, the horror. Castro-Garcia was arrested and charged with "Violation of Emergency Management Plan C/B" and was taken to the Webb County Jail where she was offered a $500 bond.

In a separate and unrelated case Brenda Stephany Mata, 20, was arrested at the 1100 block of Hubner Street after she allegedly offered to do an undercover cop's lashes. Just like Castro-Garcia, she was charged with "Violation of Emergency Management Plan C/B" and was also taken to Webb County Jail for booking.

Only 11 of the nearly 300,000 residents of Laredo, Texas have reportedly died of COVID-19 complications. Had the ladies not been making money for their salon services the police would never have been tipped off by citizens ratting out their neighbors for presumably trying to feed themselves and their families.

Comment: And again: We need more of these conversations, now; everyone needs to be thinking through and discussing what's occurring with those open enough to consider the dire implications of authoritarianism gone wild.