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Best of the Web: Corruption of science: Multiple journals reject major mask study amid hints that it shows masks don't stop COVID

Daniel Payne
Just the News
Fri, 23 Oct 2020 17:35 UTC
PeepsMasked
© Sputnik/Anton DenisovMasked in Moscow
A major study out of Denmark that sought to examine the efficacy of face masks at limiting the spread of COVID-19 has reportedly been rejected by multiple academic journals amid hints that the study found face coverings are not effective in protecting individuals from the coronavirus.

Masks have been among the most persistent and controversial flashpoints of the COVID-19 epidemic for months. Health officials around the world initially argued strongly against their use, claiming that studies over the years had demonstrated that masks were ineffective at stopping respiratory viruses and unnecessary for the current pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, for example, told CBS' "60 Minutes" in March: "Right now, in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks."

Growing concerns over a purportedly high rate of asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 led many of those same officials, including Fauci, to reverse their recommendations, urging people to wear masks whenever they go out in public.

Reflecting the new public sentiment on masks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges Americans to "wear masks in public settings, like on public and mass transportation, at events and gatherings, and anywhere they will be around other people."

Mandates by governors and national leaders over the past several months have further enforced those conclusions, with many public leaders issuing orders for citizens to don face coverings while in grocery stores, on public transport, and even in open outdoor areas such as public parks.

Danish study has reportedly been ready for months

In spite of their now-ubiquitous presence in most of the Western world today, relatively little evidence exists to support widespread use of face-masking to prevent the spread of respiratory disease. A 2019 World Health Organization review of pandemic mitigation measures, for instance, found "no evidence" that face coverings helped to stop the spread of influenza.
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Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: Blockbuster report outlines how the Biden family was compromised by China


ZeroHedge
Sat, 24 Oct 2020 16:28 UTC
joe hunter biden china money
Money for nothing?
In a day when half the US population remained transfixed by the ongoing revelations about the contents of Hunter Biden's "laptop from hell" and the other half was doing everything in its power to ignore the news which the socials have conveniently been desperate to censor, a far less noticed but perhaps just as important investigative report authored by the unknown Typhoon Investigations, was released by Christopher Balding, Associate Professor at Peking University HSBC School of Business Shenzhen, China and also Bloomberg contributor (which is odd considering the clear anti-Trump bias of the Bloomberg media empire) exposing Biden activities in China which "the press has simply refused to cover", and which reveals "how Biden was compromised by the Communist Party of China."

In a series of tweets around noon on Thursday, Balding said that he had really "not wanted to do this but roughly 2 months ago I was handed a report about Biden activities in China the press has simply refused to cover. I want to strongly emphasize I did not write the report but I know who did."

Some more background on the origins of the report from Balding's website:
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Dollar Gold

Best of the Web: Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax TV: Joe Biden got 50 percent of 'bribe money'


Newsmax
Tue, 20 Oct 2020 22:00 UTC
rudy giuliani
Former Vice President Joe Biden used his son Hunter Biden as a "bag man" and got 50% of the "bribe money" from foreign entities, Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax TV.

Appearing Tuesday on "Greg Kelly Reports," Giuliani, who says he is in possession of a copy of a hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, said the current Democrat presidential nominee could have used several "flunkies" as a "bag man" rather than his own son, but instead involved Hunter in a purported bribery scheme with Chinese businesses.

"Ten percent of the money that was being whacked up, that was $10 million a year, and then 50% of the profits with three Chinese Communists, one of whom was a Chinese intelligence operative — that 10% of that was going to H. for 'the big guy,'" Giuliani said.

Comment: See also:

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Pistol

Best of the Web: "Smoking gun" email from laptop shows Burisma's goal was to buy influence via Hunter Biden and Devon Archer

Shipwreckedcrew
RedState
Wed, 21 Oct 2020 04:16 UTC
Biden Burisma Zlochevskyi
© UnknownFormer US VP Joe Biden • Burisma • Nikolay Zlochevskyi
On December 6, 2015, Joe Biden ordered Ukraine President Petr Poroshenko to fire Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, threatening to withhold $1 billion in US aid to the Poroshenko government if he did not do so.

Newly revealed evidence taken from Hunter Biden's laptop, in the form of an email dated November 2, 2015, from Vadym Pozharskyi to Devon Archer and Hunter Biden at their Rosemont Seneca Partners email addresses shows, unequivocally, that Burisma's purpose in placing them both on the Board of Directors, and hiring Blue Star Strategies, a Washington DC PR firm, in November 2015, was to influence United States and Ukrainian government policies for the benefit of Burisma and its exiled owner, Nikolay Zlochevskyi. It was Zlochevskyi, a Ukraine oligarch, who was paying Archer and Biden a reported $83,000 a month — each — to serve on the Bursima Board.

This memorandum was referenced by Tucker Carlson the night of the NY Post story on Biden's laptop, but an image of the email only found its way online today.


Comment: See also:

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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Lockdown Lunacy 4.0: The Illusion of Control

J.B. Handley
jbhandleyblog.com
Thu, 22 Oct 2020 18:12 UTC
lockdown
The story I will tell my grandchildren someday will go something like this:

A totalitarian regime — China — flipped out and locked down an entire city when they discovered a new virus. Most of the world's leaders, throwing out a century of hard-earned knowledge about how to manage through infectious disease outbreaks, ended up doing the same thing in a panicky week fueled by trumped-up death models created by people with fancy degrees. As the details began to emerge that the original forecasts and death rates were way overblown, most leaders doubled-down on stupid policies, unwilling to acknowledge an obvious truth: governments don't stop viruses. Instead, they continued to take their shockingly-acquiescent populations on a year-long snipe hunt. Mercifully, a few countries and U.S. states took a different path, so that a world without these ridiculous policies exists to highlight the idiocy.

Italy: did everything right...and now the virus is back?

In yesterday's Daily Beast, the headline tells the whole story: Italy Did Everything Right to Stop a Second Wave of the Coronavirus. So What Went Wrong? The article explains:
What's particularly troubling about the return of COVID in Italy is that the country has done everything experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have been advising. Face masks in public places have been compulsory for months, social distancing is strongly enforced, nightclubs have never reopened, and sporting arenas are at less than a third of capacity. Children who are back at school are regularly tested and strictly social-distanced, and yet, the second wave seems completely unstoppable.
So, wait. Italy is following, more strictly, the many recommendations being made by Governors and public health officials here in the U.S., and yet the problem is getting worse? The article continues:
While ruling out another full lockdown, Italian health officials are instead urging people to limit their own movements, even as concern grows that by keeping them at their homes, they are inadvertently encouraging private parties where the spread seems to be the worst at the moment. Italy's health ministry released data this week showing that 80.3 percent of the new infections "occur at home" while only 4.2 percent come from recreational activities and schools.
I found this article to be shockingly honest for a somewhat mainstream publication, and the conclusion for anyone with the capacity to think independently is fairly obvious: you can't stop a virus. And, for reasons that I'm sure psychologists will be analyzing for decades to come, both your fellow citizens and many politicians seem to be suffering from a deeply destructive condition: the illusion of control. The Daily Beast's article concludes with a dreary statement that I think every American will soon realize is true for all of us, too:
But for many, the sacrifices that helped during the first round seem lost now, as though they had been made in vain.

Comment: Handley's previous entries in this series are still worth reading:

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Black Magic

Best of the Web: Lockdowns will cause 10 times more harm to human health than COVID-19 itself, says infectious disease expert

David Staples
Edmonton Journal
Wed, 21 Oct 2020 17:43 UTC
corona dilemma
The Corona Dilemma, as described by economist Paul Frijters, The London School of Economics
The harm caused by lockdowns is much worse than the disease of COVID-19. That's the argument from numerous public health officials and economists around the world, including an Alberta expert in infectious disease and critical care, Dr. Ari Joffe of the Stollery Children's Hospital and the University of Alberta.

"I'm truly worried the (lockdown) approach is going to devastate economies and the future for our children and our grandchildren," says Joffe, who has practised at the Stollery for 25 years and has now written a review paper on the impacts of the lockdown.

The cost of lockdowns in Canada is at least 10 times higher than the benefit in terms of population health and well-being, he estimates, at least if you account for numerous variables such as economic recession, social isolation and impacts on life expectancy, education and the full gamut of health-care priorities.

If you look at the issue worldwide, lockdowns will cause at least five times and, more likely, as much as 50 times more harm than benefit.

Many public health experts continue to implement mandatory lockdowns, as seen recently in Ontario and Quebec. But Joffe no longer supports most such measures, which is an about-face from his position in March.

Comment: Meanwhile, there is this bit of correspondence from Ellen Townsend, published the Lancet:
The lockdown to "flatten the curve" of COVID-19 has caused harm to many people globally. Over the past 6 months it has been nearly impossible to discern what the UK government strategy is in relation to the virus: suppression, or following of the model used in Sweden to foster community immunity? In mid-September, things became clearer: the UK is on a course for suppression until a vaccine or effective mass testing is in place. For good measure, UK residents have all been punished by new limits to the number of people socialising together, and have been warned that further restrictions could be imposed unless their supposedly reckless social behaviour improves. Frightening graphs depicting scenarios rather than predictions have been used to terrify people about the resurgence of the virus. However, it might be years before a safe vaccine is available, and the mass testing proposal dubbed moonshot is scientifically unsound and could do more harm than good.

There is another way. One which takes account of the fact that COVID-19 does not have equal effects across age groups: for young people the risk of COVID-19 seems to be very low but the mental health of young people has been disproportionately affected during this crisis. We should allow young people to go about their lives normally and protect those who are older and more susceptible in a humane and compassionate manner; infectious diseases specialists have good ideas about implementing this suggestion. However, in late September, hundreds of healthy, young students in Scotland and Manchester, UK, have been locked down, banned from visiting home and family, and threatened that they might not be able to go home for Christmas. It is hard to see how this policy is within the bounds of human rights and I am deeply concerned about the impact of such measures on mental health and wellbeing.

Many people have highlighted the need not to medicalise natural reactions to the global crisis that the global community is facing as a mental illness. However, the global community cannot, and should not, ignore the evidence amassing to suggest that people of all ages are struggling. Increases in suicidal ideation and self-harm have been observed among young people in China before and after lockdown according to prospective studies that were able to collect cohort data. It is clear that young children have been badly affected by lockdown.

Moving forward, nations should prioritise young people. They have suffered immensely in this crisis and sacrificed a lot. Moreover, the economic devastation will have an enormous impact on young people who will bear this burden for years to come. The association between economic downturn and suicide has been shown repeatedly across the globe.Services and support for those in distress should now be prioritised and made easily accessible, in the virtual and real world. Mental health should not be left behind in this crisis. For young people, whole-school approaches involving mental health awareness have been shown to reduce suicidal ideation and behaviour. Such evidence-based mental-health interventions should be implemented, urgently, at scale in the community.


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Attention

Best of the Web: Biden business partner confirms email, Joe Biden's push to make millions from China

Michael Goodwin
New York Post
Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:53 UTC
Hunter Biden
© Getty ImagesHunter Biden
Wait until Scranton hears about this.

One of Joe Biden's ways of contrasting himself with President Trump has been to declare the election a battle of Park Avenue values vs. Scranton, Pa., values.

Now we learn that Biden has secretly been playing footsie with China.

The statement Wednesday night asserting that the former vice president was a willing and eager participant in a family scheme to make millions of dollars by partnering with a shady Chinese Communist firm is a singular event in a presidential race already overflowing with drama and intrigue.

The dynamite assertion, believable because it aligns with earlier information we know to be true, came in a statement by Tony Bobulinski, who describes himself as a former partner of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden and Joe's brother Jim in the China scheme. Bobulinski unloads his bill of accusations in blunt but precise language and detail.

He confirms that he was one of the recipients of the May 13, 2017, email published by The Post eight days ago. That email, from another partner in the group, laid out cash and equity positions and mysteriously included a 10 percent set-aside for "the big guy."

Sources have said the "big guy" was Joe Biden. In a matter-of-fact manner, Bobulinski states that the "email is genuine" and that the former vice president and the man leading in the 2020 race is indeed "the big guy."


Comment: One of the emails Bobulinski shared, sent May 20, 2017, shows James Gillar, who originally approached him about the China deal, warning Bobulinski not to mention Joe Biden's involvement:
"Don't mention Joe being involved, it's only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid," a screenshot of the message from Gilliar read.

Bobulinski said Gilliar and fellow partner Rob Walker were "paranoid about keeping Joe Biden's involvement secret."
Here's the press conference he held yesterday:


Breitbart has more quotes from the laptop from hell showing Hunter's associates viewed his direct 'pipeline' to the Obama-Biden administration as 'currency.'

Meanwhile, secret service travel records confirm the trips mention in Hunter's emails:
In one email reported by the Post, sent from Hunter Biden to his business partner Devon Archer dated Apr. 13, 2014, Hunter refers to a trip to Houston slated for "tmrw." Secret Service records released by Johnson and Grassley corroborate details of the trip with a travel entry from Hunter Biden for Apr. 13, 2014 to Apr. 14, 2014 to Houston.

In another email published by the Post, senior Burisma adviser Vadim Pozharski allegedly wrote on May 12, 2014 of a trip to Como Lake. Secret Service records reported a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Lake Como, Italy just more than a month earlier dated Apr. 3 to Apr. 6.

"Other reports indicate that, in May 2014, Mr. Biden and Mr. Archer may have been in Doha, Qatar," the senators wrote. "USSS records contain a travel entry for Hunter Biden to Doha, Qatar on May 11, 2014 - May 14, 2014."
But no worries. When in deep, just blame Russia:




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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Great VIRAL Debate: Round 2: Dr Rancourt's Second Response


OffGuardian
Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:29 UTC
great viral debate rancourt
The gong sounds for Round Two of The Great VIRAL Debate. Track this debate's progress in our Coronavirus Debate Section. Dr Piers Robinson is our chair. Off-Guardian is your host. The proposition under debate is:
SARS-COV-2 merits suppression measures in order to combat the virus rather than the herd/community immunity approach
Dr Rancourt, arguing against the proposition, responds to Tim Anderson's first response from 17 Oct:

Tim spins a narrative about COVID-19, which is primarily intended to validate the state practice of medicine in select socialist jurisdictions ("China, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria"), while invalidating the state practice of medicine in select neo-liberal jurisdictions ("UK, USA, Sweden, Brazil").

Tim is focussed on political doctrine, and thus unable or unwilling to address my criticisms of his partisan views about COVID-19. I reiterate my criticisms below.

Likewise, it appears that Tim (who is in Australia) is significantly mistaken in terms of what actually occurred in Syria, according to a report by on-site investigative journalist Eva Bartlett.[1] Are Tim's interpretations of the actual events for other countries also mistaken?

Comment: See also:

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Sheriff

Best of the Web: Hunter is now the hunted

L
somebitchtoldme.com
Thu, 22 Oct 2020 21:15 UTC
Hunter Joe biden emails burisma laptop
© NY Post photo composite
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're likely already very aware of the scandal going down in the Biden family. No, not the one about Joe not being able to remember what state he's in or what office he's running for.

The Hunter Biden scandal. The big one.

On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published a story titled, 'Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad.'

It nearly broke Twitter. In fact, it kind of did.

Twitter locked down the New York Post's Twitter account and started 12 hour bans on accounts that were sharing the information. It was a huge, huge mess.
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Eye 2

Best of the Web: Ghislaine Maxwell's deposition about sordid child sex business with Jeffrey Epstein 'unsealed'

Rebecca Rosenberg
New York Post
Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:45 UTC

Comment: ...and the names of every 'elite' scumbag in it have been redacted. Hence 'unsealed' is in quotes...


Ghislaine Maxwell
© Laura Cavanaugh/Getty ImagesGhislaine Maxwell
A deposition detailing the seamy relationship between Ghislaine Maxwell and the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was released Thursday just before a court-imposed deadline, after months of wrangling by her defense lawyers to keep the sordid documents from the public eye.

The newly unsealed transcript is from Maxwell's seven-hour civil suit deposition in April 2016 and includes hundreds of denials from the British socialite, who said she knew nothing of Epstein's alleged abuse of underage girls.

It also includes pointed questions from Giuffre's lawyer about her sex life, as well as her ties to former President Bill Clinton, who was pals with Epstein.

Comment: RT adds:
Maxwell refused to say whether she participated in any of Epstein's massage sessions, and kept quiet as prosecutors grilled her on the deceased pedophile's sexual interests. "I cannot tell you what Jeffrey's story is," she said when asked whether "Jeffrey Epstein had a sexual preference for minors."

Throughout the mammoth 450-page interview, Maxwell remained guarded and evasive. Asked whether she was ever aware of any underage girls visiting Epstein's Palm Beach home, she said that "the house is actually quite large," so she would have been unaware of every visitor who came to see Jeffrey.
Followers of the story are rabidly combing through the files, among them anonymous legal expert TechnoFog. Some excerpts:





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