Society's ChildS


Briefcase

Law firm to investigate colleges nationwide for failure to refund tuition money

Addison Smith
Campus Reform
Wed, 20 May 2020 12:00 UTC
Mills College
© Carolyn Jones/EdSource
While coronavirus continues to cause uncertainty about the fall 2020 semester, many college students are suing their schools for failing to issue sufficient tuition refunds--- if any at all.

But one law firm is taking it a step further: Hagens Berman law firm launched an investigation into all 5,300 colleges and universities in the country, representing students and parents seeking financial compensation for colleges being forced to close early in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the firm's website, several of Hagens Berman's class-action lawyers are teaming up with parents and students across the nation who have been forced to continue to pay for school tuition despite nationwide closures of all schools forcing students to finish online.
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Arrow Up

Chile: Hunger sparks violent protests; demand for government action increases

Lucas Leiroz
InfoBrics
Wed, 27 May 2020 00:00 UTC
woman/riot police
© Reuters/Ivan AlvaradoWoman detained by riot police protesting the lack of help from the government during quarantine in El Bosque area in Santiago, Chile, May 18, 2020.
There is no doubt that the best way to combat the spread of the global pandemic of the new coronavirus is through a strong policy of social isolation and quarantine, aiming to reduce the risks of contagion through physical contact between people. Such biological risk management policies imply, however, certain social costs, such as closing trade and suspending several jobs, which has consequences, such as unemployment and bankruptcy of companies. Therefore, for a country to survive, it is necessary to implement a series of auxiliary measures, such as government assistance to the neediest, price control of basic items, among others. When a state fails to implement such measures, the result is complete social chaos and then the population is put at a crossroad between the virus and misery.
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Black Magic

BOMBSHELL: Planned Parenthood officials admit under oath to selling aborted body parts

Cassy Fiano-Chesser
LiveAction.org
Tue, 26 May 2020 14:56 UTC
planned parenthood
© Screen shot from YouTube
An explosive new video from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) contradicts past claims from Planned Parenthood that the corporation never participated in the sale of aborted baby body parts but merely donated them and was compensated for expenses. Featuring testimony from Planned Parenthood officials under oath in 2019, as well as documents from those officials' admissions, the video shows these executives and directors admitting to actually selling body parts, which is illegal.

Numerous depositions are featured in the video, including from Tram Nguyen (Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast's Senior Director of Abortion Access), Dr. Dorothy Furgerson (Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte), and Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the former senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, among others. More testimony and documents are available on the CMP website.
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Bullseye

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger says online encyclopedia scrapped neutrality, favors lefty politics

Brian Flood
Fox News
Fri, 22 May 2020 00:01 UTC
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger
© Getty ImagesWikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger wrote that the site is now “badly biased."
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger penned a blog post last week declaring that the site is "badly biased," "no longer has an effective neutrality policy" and clearly favors lefty politics.

Sanger - who is no longer involved with Wikipedia - wrote that it has long forgotten its original policy of aiming to present information from a neutral point of view, and nowadays the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia "can be counted on" to cover politics with a liberal point of view.

"There is a rewritten policy, but it endorses the utterly bankrupt canard of journalistic 'false balance,' which is directly contradictory to the original neutrality policy. As a result, even as journalists turn to opinion and activism, Wikipedia now touts controversial points of view on politics, religion, and science," Sanger wrote. "Examples have become embarrassingly easy to find."

Comment: Good on Sanger for calling it out. But Wikipedia's bias goes well beyond partisan stances. The website has a materialist, 'official narrative' bent that invades articles across the expanse of the site. From climate change to vaccines to natural health - Wikipedia is nowhere near neutral almost across the board. Pretty much the only place you'll find neutrality on the site are on pages that are entirely without controversy.

See also:

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Arrow Down

Best of the Web: The CDC confirms remarkably low coronavirus death rate. Where is the media?

Daniel Horowitz
The Blaze
Mon, 25 May 2020 19:37 UTC
CDC corprate sign logo
Most people are more likely to wind up six feet under because of almost anything else under the sun other than COVID-19.

The CDC just came out with a report that should be earth-shattering to the narrative of the political class, yet it will go into the thick pile of vital data and information about the virus that is not getting out to the public. For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26%. Officials estimate a 0.4% fatality rate among those who are symptomatic and project a 35% rate of asymptomatic cases among those infected, which drops the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) to just 0.26% — almost exactly where Stanford researchers pegged it a month ago.

CDC covid-19 infections
© CDC/screenshot

Until now, we have been ridiculed for thinking the death rate was that low, as opposed to the 3.4% estimate of the World Health Organization, which helped drive the panic and the lockdowns. Now the CDC is agreeing to the lower rate in plain ink.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

We shouldn't indulge this deluded two-metre social distancing rule any longer

Ben Kelly
The Telegraph
Fri, 22 May 2020 09:21 UTC
social distancing
© OLI SCARFF /AFPPeople adhere to social distancing as they queue to enter a shop in Manchester
Social distancing is an unsustainable fantasy. We must get real, making sure to balance the risks along with ensuring quality of life

Social distancing is a fantasy. There, I've said it, and now you've heard it, you can't unhear it. Let's stop pretending that this is going to work. It isn't. Let go of the comfort blanket because like it or not, every individual citizen is going to have make their own risk assessments, use their common sense and make their own decisions about how to live their lives. "Stay away from everyone" is a clear message but not credible. "Stay alert" will just have to do.

During the surreal early weeks of the lockdown, the notion of long-term social distancing seemed logical and sensible, but as the weeks rolled by, the utter ludicrousness of it became apparent. Matt Hancock helped to emphasise the absurdity of it all when he said that it will not be possible to hug anyone outside of our household until the virus was "totally sorted". Risible.

A government minister telling the British people that they will not be able to touch another person outside of their "household" for an undefined amount of time just about sums up the madness of this time. I would think him a dangerous totalitarian if it wasn't obvious he was just flailing around haplessly unsure what to say or do.

Comment: See also:

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Brick Wall

Norway 'could have controlled infection without lockdown': health chief


TheLocal.no
Fri, 22 May 2020 00:00 UTC
Camilla Stoltenberg, Director General Norwegian Institute of Public Health
© Difi/FlickrCamilla Stoltenberg, Director General of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, believes less far-going measures would have been sufficient.
The head of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health believes Norway could have brought the coronavirus pandemic under control without a lockdown, and called for the country to avoid such far-reaching measures if hit by a second wave.

Camilla Stoltenberg, the agency's Director General, told state broadcaster NRK that the agency's analysis now suggested less restrictive measures would have been sufficient.

"Our assessment now....is that we could possibly have achieved the same effects and avoided some of the unfortunate impacts by not locking down, but by instead keeping open but with infection control measures," she said.

Comment: See also:

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Cloud Lightning

Circular firing squad scores a hit: Real reason Michael Moore's film axed from YouTube is climate wrongthink, not copyright

Helen Buyniski
RT
Tue, 26 May 2020 19:53 UTC
michael moore
© Reuters / Carlos AllegriMoore burnishing his liberal cred at Bernie Sanders rally.
Michael Moore's popular yet controversial exposé of the "green" movement's corruption has finally been knocked off YouTube by a tactic that's as cowardly as it is underhanded. Nothing upsets a cult like a successful apostate.

Planet of the Humans, posted to YouTube for free viewing on Earth Day, to the horror of the climate-change industrial complex, was removed from the platform on Monday, after a British environmental photographer filed a copyright claim. The deplatforming represents a triumph for the deep-pocketed "green" superstars who've been tearing their hair out over the film for the past month, livid over the unflattering portrayal of their crusade by the once-beloved liberal filmmaker, but unable to shut him up.

Photographer Toby Smith claimed the film - which had been viewed more than 8.3 million times before its removal - used "several seconds" of footage he'd shot of rare earth elements being mined without his permission. Unlike previous attempts to get the film taken down - which targeted its distributor with claims the film was packed with falsehoods and "fossil fuel industry talking points" - this angle of attack was successful, concealing the iron fist of censorship within the velvet glove of copyright law.

Comment: See also:

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Brick Wall

Japan ends coronavirus emergency with 850 deaths and no lockdown

Jason Lemon
Newsweek
Mon, 25 May 2020 11:26 UTC
tokyo face masks
© CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/GettyPeople wearing face masks cross a street in Tokyo's Shinjuku area on May 25 amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced the end of his state of emergency declaration for the novel coronavirus pandemic, with just 851 deaths reported and without ever implementing a lockdown.

"I have decided to end the state of emergency across the nation," Abe said during a televised press conference on Monday. "In just over a month and a half, we almost brought (the infection) situation under control."

Abe cautioned that lifting the order did not mean that the novel virus was gone from Japan. "Our battle against the virus will continue," he said, while urging the Japanese people to continue following stringent social distancing guidance.

Comment: It's quite likely that, much as with Russia, the Japanese did not count every death with coronavirus, despite comorbidities, as deaths from coronavirus. This will make a remarkable difference with the numbers and give a much more realistic view of how deadly the virus truly is. Had western nations been following the same logic, their numbers would likely have appeared similar to Japan's. But they wouldn't want that, now would they?

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NPC

Best of the Web: The Great UnReason of 2020: The 'curious, but quite authentic, inability to think'

Jack Kerwick
Frontpage Mag
Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00 UTC

Comment: ...hence Sott.net is 'the world for people who think'. Our relatively small readership is roughly how many out there can think!


Hannah Arendt.
Upon the Nazis' rise to power, Hannah Arendt, a Jewish woman who would go on to become a considerable 20th century philosopher, had to flee with her family from her native Germany.

Once the war was over and some prominent Nazis were brought to justice, Arendt attended the trial in Jerusalem of Adolph Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust.

The experience left an indelible impression upon her, one that would shape the trajectory of her philosophical thinking. What she observed was that, much to her surprise, Eichmann wasn't the incarnation of evil that she expected to encounter. His actions were monstrous, yes; but he was remarkably ordinary or "banal," to use Arendt's term of choice.

What struck Arendt was Eichmann's "curious, but authentic, inability to think."
"However monstrous the deeds were, the doer was neither monstrous nor demonic, and the only specific characteristic one could detect in his past as well as in his behavior during the trial and the preceding police examination was something entirely negative: it was not stupidity but a curious, quite authentic inability to think."
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