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Gold Coins

Best of the Web: America's super-rich see their wealth rise by $282 Billion in three weeks of lockdown

Alan MacLeod
Mint Press News
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Gates Buffet Bezos
America's billionaires have accrued more wealth in the past three weeks alone than they made in total prior to 1980.

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies found that, while tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, America's ultra-wealthy elite have seen their net worth surge by $282 billion in just 23 days. This is despite the fact that the economy is expected to contract by 40 percent this quarter. The report also noted that between 1980 and 2020 the tax obligations of America's billionaires, measured as a percentage of their wealth, decreased by 79 percent. In the last 30 years, U.S. billionaire wealth soared by over 1100 percent while median household wealth increased by barely five percent. In 1990, the total wealth held by America's billionaire class was $240 billion; today that number stands at $2.95 trillion. Thus, America's billionaires accrued more wealth in just the past three weeks than they made in total prior to 1980. As a result, just three people ­- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffet - own as much wealth as the bottom half of all U.S. households combined.
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Fire

Best of the Web: Riots break out in Lebanon as currency crashes - Lockdown failing as citizens torch banks, army vehicles

Bassem Mroue
Associated Press
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 18:35 UTC
Lebanese riot
© AFP / FATHI AL-MASRI
Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in northern Lebanon Monday amid a crash in the local currency and a surge in food prices. Dozens of young men smashed the fronts of local banks and set fire to an army vehicle, as the protests turned into riots.

The Red Cross said its teams were working on evacuating wounded people in Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city and one of the most neglected regions in Lebanon.


Comment: Evacuating wounded people? How bad is this thing?


Scattered anti-government protests resumed last week as the government began easing the weeks-long lockdown to limit the spread of the new coronavirus in Lebanon, which has reported 710 cases and 24 deaths so far.


Comment: Right, so that's the problem then: Lebanese leaders went full lockdown on their people for nothing.


The number of registered cases has dropped over the past two weeks, leading to the shortening of the nighttime curfew by one hour and allowing some businesses to resume work on Monday.


Comment: So one of the 50+ countries that was seeing mass protests last Fall has now returned to that state despite Corona1984.

How long before more populations rise up.

2020 may turn out to be an explosive year.

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Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: Medical Martial Law: UK to send military units to 'COVID-19 outbreaks' for 'contact tracing & mass testing'... for next FOUR YEARS

Ben Spencer
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 18:11 UTC

Comment: ...which means this is what they're going to roll out everywhere (across NATO-stan, anyway).


Soldiers in face masks, gloves
© AFP via Getty ImagesSoldiers in glasses, face masks, plastic aprons and gloves pass items across a car.
A fleet of rapid-response testing units is being set up to help stop a resurgence of coronavirus once the lockdown is lifted, the Government's testing tsar reveals today.

Responding rapidly to outbreaks in schools, care homes and workplaces is 'absolutely crucial' to easing the restrictions, said Professor John Newton.

Scores of mobile testing units will be ready by next month as part of a contact tracing and testing programme to get Britain moving again, he told the Daily Mail.

There are already 48 mobile units in operation, run by Armed Forces staff to test key workers for coronavirus at prisons, police stations and care homes.

These units - part of a drive to hit the Government's target of conducting 100,000 tests a day by Friday - will be doubled to 96 within a few days.

Once ministers are ready to lift the lockdown, their focus will be switched to targeted outbreak control as part of a 'test, track and trace' system.

Comment: Oh NOW the prat recommends no lockdown. AFTER the country's wrecked. What a genius. Give 'im another PhD.

See also:

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No Entry

Best of the Web: Silencing dissent: Ex-UK diplomat and activist Craig Murray indicted for blog posts in Kafkaesque case

Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Murray
© Unknown/KJNCraig Murray
Craig Murray, a former UK diplomat turned anti-war activist, has been charged with contempt of court for writing blog posts. He faces a possible two years in jail, with no jury and no freedom of speech defense permitted.

The suspicious indictment represents a heavily politicized, Kafkaesque case in which Murray has virtually none of his rights guaranteed. It also appears to be a part of the British government's aggressive crackdown on the Scottish independence movement.

In comments to The Grayzone, Murray described the case against him as a thoroughly undemocratic attack on free speech, and warned it may be punishment for his dissident journalism and activism exposing the UK's crimes and lies.

Murray said he faces the possibility of "no jury, no 'beyond reasonable doubt' test, no public interest defence allowed, no freedom of speech defence allowed, and up to two years in jail and an 'unlimited' fine."

Comment: Their strategy seems to be: make an example of prominent and popular writers/journalists to frighten all others into silence or submission. First they came for Assange, now they're 'spreading their wings' to target dissenters of all stripes.

While internal British issues like 'Brexit' and Scottish secession may have motivated the prosecution of Murray, it strikes us that it's more likely Murray came on the Clinton gang's radar for his hints that he has evidence concerning who and how exactly the Podesta and DNC emails were sent to Wikileaks in 2016...

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House

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

Natasha Lennard
The Intercept
Sat, 25 Apr 2020 07:00 UTC
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.


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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Assange prosecutors claim he's being charged with espionage, but he's really being accused of sedition

Joe Lauria
Consortium News
Sun, 26 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Assange
© Reuters/KJNEspionage or Sedition? Either way it is an assault on First Amendment rights.
The United States has had two sedition laws in its history. Both were repealed within three years. Britain repealed its 17th Century sedition law in 2009. Though this crime is no longer on the books, the crime of sedition is really what both governments are accusing Julian Assange of. The campaign of smears, the weakness of the case and the language of his indictment proves it.

The imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher has been indicted on 17 counts of espionage under the 1917 U.S. Espionage Act on a technicality: the unauthorized possession and dissemination of classified material — something that has been performed by countless journalists and publishers over the decades. It conflicts head on with the First Amendment.

But espionage isn't really what the government is after. Assange did not pass state secrets to an enemy of the United States, as in a classic espionage case, but rather to the public, which the government might well consider the enemy.
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UFO 2

Best of the Web: Slow-motion alien disclosure continues: Pentagon confirms 3 UFO videos it leaked years ago are 'legit'

Stefan Becket
CBS News
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 19:59 UTC
UFO footage from Jan 2015
© US Department of Defense
The Pentagon on Monday formally released three unclassified videos taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified aerial phenomena."

One of the videos shows an incident from 2004, and the other two were recorded in January 2015, according to Sue Gough, a Defense Department spokeswoman. The videos became public after unauthorized leaks in 2007 and 2017, and the Navy previously verified their authenticity.


Comment: Unauthorized, yeah right! They leaked them to test the waters. Few noticed anyway, and Covid1984 has amply demonstrated that 'the herd' is obeying everything it's commanded to do (for now), so they know it's 'safe' to finally admit that they're not really 'top dog' out there.


"After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena," Gough said.
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Smoking

Flashback Best of the Web: Smoke, Lies And The Nanny State

Joe Jackson
joejackson.com
Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:58 UTC
joe jackson smoking
For thousands of years in the Americas, and about 500 years pretty much everywhere else, tobacco has been a friend to mankind. It has been used to relax, to stimulate, and to treat various ailments. It has been a vital part of rituals both social and spiritual. It has been used as currency. Whole communities have been founded on it - including, arguably, the United States of America.

Wait a minute. Scratch that! Smoking is a vile, filthy habit that will almost inevitably kill you. No one smokes willingly; they are simply pathetic addicts, duped by evil tobacco companies. Tobacco is a plague which must be wiped out.

Like most people these days, I was more inclined, up until a few years ago, to believe the second paragraph than the first. I was a very moderate smoker and almost gave up. But something about the sheer hysteria of the anti smoking movement, and the various holes and contradictions in their arguments, made me suspicious. Some time in the late 1990s I arrived in Los Angeles and, as my taxi pulled out of the airport, I was confronted by a huge red billboard: SECONDHAND SMOKE KILLS. I thought: even heavy smokers take several decades to develop lung cancer. Surely a nonsmoker, even regularly exposed to smoke in the air, would have to live to be about 300 to catch up? And how exactly would you know it was smoke that killed them, as opposed to, say, the appalling LA smog?

Since then I've researched the smoking issue in depth. I've unraveled reams of statistics, met with doctors and academics, and networked with scores of other researchers and activists who are trying to get at the truth. I'm now convinced that the dangers of smoking - and particularly 'passive' smoking - are greatly exaggerated, for reasons which have more to do with politics, power and profit than objective science. I believe the anti-smoking movement - especially lobby groups like ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) - has far too much money and influence, and that their dishonesty and bullying tactics should be worrying even to those who hate tobacco.
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House

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

Mike Whitney
The Unz Review
Sun, 26 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
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:

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Einstein

Best of the Web: Trump and Putin talk: How is this bad?

Phil Butler
New Eastern Outlook
Mon, 27 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Trump and Putin
According to MSN and most mainstream American news outlets, the Trump administration has caused certain lawmakers on Capitol Hill deep concern over a gesture of peace and brotherhood between nations. The coming row will show the world, the real purveyors of crisis and war on our planet. Read on to find out who they are.

MSN bills a document drafted by the Trump administration as an "unusual declaration intended to commemorate the 75th anniversary of a meeting between American and Soviet troops at the Elbe River on April 25, 1945." But, such an olive branch only seems unusual if we consider the never-ending conflict between the United States and Russia as acceptable.

The MSN reporters cannot even come up with a decent provocation to justify their one-sided report. The best Microsoft's news dogs can come up with is Russian fighters buzzing American Navy planes over the Mediterranean Sea. That's as if the US Navy never practiced targeting Mig or Sukhoi jets whenever they're close by. Readers of American media get a constant menu like this. Russia helping Syria. Putin wants to remake the Soviet Union. And so on.

The ones so deeply concerned include Rep. Eliot Engel (D, NY), who is, if you can imagine, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. What this psychopath Tweeted should make a chill run down your spine if you ever wondered about world peace:
"Everyone knows that Trump has a bizarre infatuation with Russia's autocratic leader and that Trump constantly plays into Putin's hands."

Comment: See also:

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