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Best of the Web: Is lockdown essential? Comparing the Swedish experience with the Imperial College model suggests otherwise

Rob Slane
The Blogmire
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 17:54 UTC
imperial college
I wonder how many people who claim that lockdown is essential to dealing with Covid-19 have actually looked at the original Imperial College report, which sparked the British Government's decision to shut down much of the economy and place the most draconian measures on the population ever seen. Had they done so, they might have been shocked to find that the modelling they used assumes the measures would be put in place for 5 months:
"Suppression strategies are assumed to be in place for 5 months or longer." (p. 6)

"The blue shading shows the 5-month period in which these interventions are assumed to remain in place." (p. 10)
Would those who accepted lockdown as absolutely necessary have been quite so ready to accept it had they known that it would need to be put in place for 5 months? My guess is no, yet that is what "the science" they followed actually calls for. Of course it remains to be seen whether the Government will continue on this course, or whether most of the media and large sections of the public who demanded and welcomed the draconian measures are prepared to continue backing that particular horse, but if they are to be consistent and "led by the science", as they have so far claimed, they are going to have to insist that lockdown should continue until late August, as the Imperial College model says it should.

But as I have said repeatedly, I see no evidence for the necessity of lockdown, for two reasons. Firstly because the case fatality rate of Covid-19 does not warrant it (the evidence points to between 0.1%-0.5%, and a recent study from Stanford University suggests it may be between 0.12% and 0.2%). And secondly, because I have seen no evidence to suggest that a lockdown strategy makes any real difference in reducing cases and deaths.
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Chess

Afghanistan releases another 71 Taliban prisoners in step toward peace talks


RFE/RL
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:56 UTC
Taliban prisoners
© ReutersA group of Taliban prisoners is released from Bagram prison, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, on April 11.
Afghanistan says it has released another 71 Taliban prisoners in a further step toward bringing the two sides together to negotiate a peace settlement.

Javed Faisal, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in a tweet that detainees had been released from seven prisons in the Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan, Faryab, Uruzgan, and Baghlan provinces.

The Western-backed government in Kabul has released a total of 432 Taliban inmates since April 8.

A pact signed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29 calls for the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters as a confidence-building measure ahead of formal peace talks aimed at ending the 18-year conflict in Afghanistan.


Comment: Note the pact is missing a rather important player: Afghanistan! The US is making deals for the country, and more or less forcing them to comply.

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Pumpkin 2

Disgraced tie-eating dimwit Saakashvili offered post of Deputy Prime Minister in Ukraine


RFE/RL
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 16:33 UTC

Comment: They cannot be serious?


Mikheil Saakashvili
Ukraine's government has offered former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili the post of deputy prime minister to supervise reforms.

Saakashvili, an ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, wrote on Facebook on April 22 that he plans to submit to the Ukrainian parliament his proposals "for the urgent changes" needed in "this very difficult period" faced by Ukraine.

"It is a great honor for me to receive a proposal from President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy to become a deputy prime minister.... I also had a very meaningful and useful conversation with Prime Minister [Denys] Shmyhal, during which we discussed in detail all the issues related to my possible work in the government," Saakashvili wrote.

Comment: RFE/RL left out of few details (some of which they even initially reported!), but that's okay - we have them covered: Here's Saakashvili's last appearance in The Ukie-stan in late 2018:

Clown world, we're living in clown world.

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Bad Guys

Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee: 'No reason to dispute' 2017 conclusion on Russian meddling


RFE/RL
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:28 UTC
Richard Burr
© Jim Watson / AFPU.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr also warned that Russia's interference efforts continue.
In a bipartisan report, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has reaffirmed its support for the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the goal of helping Donald Trump get elected.

Among the key findings of the report released on April 21 is that the intelligence-community assessment, which came out in January 2017, "presents a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case that Russia engaged in an attempt to interfere" with the U.S. election.

It says that the assessment "reflects proper analytic tradecraft" and "represented the kind of unbiased and professional work we expect and require from the Intelligence Community."

The intelligence community's 2017 assessment found that Russia's goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process; denigrate the nominee of the Democratic Party, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and harm her electability and potential presidency.

Comment: Senator Burr appears to be a dirty crook as well as a liar. Just last month the FBI and DOJ were investigating him for selling off a great quantity of his stock just prior to the market collapsing after the US coronavirus lockdown. He's long been a rapid Russiagater pushing 'high confidence of assessments' over any actual fact of Russian interference in the US elections.

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Pistol

Predictable: Trudeau promises swift action on gun control following Nova Scotia shooting

Andrea Gunn
The Chronicle Herald
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 15:26 UTC
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
© Blair Gable/ReutersPrime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed Sunday's mass shootings in Nova Scotia and provided his daily update on the fight against COVID-19 in a news conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Monday, April 20, 2020.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will strengthen gun control legislation as soon as possible.

As MPs debated in the House of Commons about how to facilitate a return to Parliament during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trudeau addressed Canadians Monday about the tragic shooting in Nova Scotia that left at least 18 dead on Sunday.

"Just how can this happen, we may never know why, but do know this, know one man's action cannot build a wall between us and a better day no matter how evil, how thoughtless and how destructive," Trudeau said. "Canadians are kind and generous, we are there for each other and we look out for one another. As families grieve the loss of a loved one, all Canadians are standing with them."

Comment: See also: Deadliest mass killing in Canada's history: At least 18 dead after man goes on shooting spree in Nova Scotia - UPDATES

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Dollar

Senate passes $484B 'Phase 3.5' coronavirus stimulus package by voice vote amid tensions in chamber

Gregg Re
Fox News
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 02:28 UTC
Chuck Schumer
© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, FileSenate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks to reporters as he arrives for a meeting to discuss the coronavirus relief bill on Capitol Hill Washington
The Senate on Tuesday passed a nearly $500 billion coronavirus "Phase 3.5" relief bill that would replenish a small business rescue program known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), provide hospitals with another $75 billion and implement a nationwide virus testing program to facilitate reopening the economy.

The measure passed by voice vote, which simply requires each side to holler "yay" or "nay," with the louder side winning. Ahead of the bill's passage, some Republicans voiced their frustrations that there was not a full roll call vote, even as some senators remained at home amid the pandemic. "This is not acceptable," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on the Senate floor. "We should not be passing legislation ... without Congress actually being in session."

And, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., declared that Congress should stop "printing bailout cash" because the U.S. "can manage this disease without the draconian lockdown of the economy." Announcing his opposition to the stimulus in no uncertain terms, he told colleagues: "We can't continue on this course."
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Eye 1

Coronavirus inspires DYSTOPIAN new AI social-distancing enforcement tool


RT
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 02:25 UTC
Landing AI's
© YouTube / Landing AILanding AI's "social distancing detector"
An AI start-up company has developed a video surveillance system that can tell if we're abiding by social distancing rules. It's the latest example of the pandemic inspiring what some might view as sinister technology.

As Covid-19 went on its inexorable gallop across the globe, it spread with it the fear that governments and corporations would use it as an excuse to encroach on the freedoms of citizens with new dystopian-sounding monitoring methods.

Californian software developer Landing AI has created a video tool that can be used to ascertain whether people are following social distancing rules.

"Landing AI has developed an AI-enabled social distancing detection tool that can detect if people are keeping a safe distance from each other by analyzing real-time video streams from the camera," the company chirps, in a blog post about the new software.
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Light Saber

Palestinian diplomat says US ambassador to Israel lied about giving $5Mln in COVID-19 aid to Palestinians


Sputnik
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 02:08 UTC
coronavirus covid-19 West Bank Palestine
© AP Photo / Majdi MohammedPalestinian worker sprays disinfectant as a preventive measure to help contain the coronavirus, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Wednesday, April 8, 2020.
Palestinian Ambassador to France Salman Harfi said on Tuesday that US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman lied about Washington providing $5 million to help the Palestinian Authority curb the spread of the coronavirus, saying that Palestinians "did not get a cent" from the pledged funds.

On Thursday, Friedman wrote on Twitter that he was pleased that the US was giving $5 million to Palestinian hospitals and households for meeting immediate, life-saving needs in combating COVID-19.

"He is lying, we don't know where they are going to spend them but not for the Palestinian health care or Palestinian hospitals. The one who wants to donate can go directly to the representative of the Palestinian people and to say: 'I want to resume my help, I was wrong.' The United States gave nothing to the Palestinian people, we didn't get a cent," Harfi said.

Comment:

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Dollar

Best of the Web: A Real New Deal & Debt Jubilee or a Green New Deal & Global Dictatorship?

Matthew Ehret
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Green new deal
As scary as it is for some to admit even at this stage of the game, the current financial system sits precariously on the edge of a meltdown beyond anything ever recorded in human history. Normally, such a systemic meltdown would generate such turbulence and panic that the masses of complacent subjects would be induced to action in defense of their families and nations, however under current circumstances, the coronavirus pandemic has ensured that no such mass movement, or policy fight has taken shape.

As I wrote in a February 27th editorial Why the Coming Economic Collapse Will NOT be Caused by Coronavirus, the inevitability of the meltdown has been well known to all leading central bankers and highly placed officials in "a position to know" for a very long time. This fact was known even before the new wave of emergency bailouts were begun in September 2019 starting with $50 billion/night of overnight repo loans. It was known even before the age of bailout was created to postpone the 2008-09 collapse of the system under threat of Martial Law. It was known before Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999 and over-the-counter derivatives were deregulated in 2001. Let's just say it's been a part of a very ugly plan for a very long time.

But make no mistake, you didn't have to be a "highly placed" banker or technocratic social engineer to know this collapse was going to happen. No crystal ball was ever needed.

Comment: See also:

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Black Magic

Bill Gates and the depopulation agenda: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calls for an investigation

Peter Koenig
Global Research
Sat, 18 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For over twenty years Bill Gates and his Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have been vaccinating foremost children by the millions in remote areas of poor countries, mostly Africa and Asia. Most of their vaccination program had disastrous results, causing the very illness (polio, for example in India) and sterilizing young women (Kenya, with modified tetanus vaccines). Many of the children died. Many of the programs were carried out with the backing of the WHO and - yes - the UN Agency responsible for the Protection of Children, UNICEF.

Most of these vaccination campaigns were implemented without the informed-consent of the children, parents, guardians or teachers, nor with the informed-consent, or with forged consent, of the respective government authorities. In the aftermath, The Gates Foundation was sued by governments around the world, Kenya, India, the Philippines - and more.

Bill Gates has a strange image of himself. He sees himself as The Messiah who saves the world through vaccination - and through population reduction.

Around the time, when the 2010 Rockefeller Report was issued, with its even more infamous "Lock Step" Scenario, precisely the scenario of which we are living the beginning right now, Bill Gates talked on a TED show in California, "Innovating to Zero" about the use of energy.

He used this TED presentation to promote his vaccination programs, literally saying, "If we are doing a real good job vaccinating childen, we can reduce the world population by 10% to 15%".


This sounds very much like eugenics.

Comment: See also:

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