Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

US small business bailout program doomed as banks balk at terms

Helen Buyniski
RT
Thu, 02 Apr 2020 21:41 UTC
New Orleans
© Reuters / Jonathan BachmanThere's no business like no business. New Orleans, Louisiana
A $350 billion small business bailout, a vital fiscal lifeline for millions of enterprises facing certain doom at the hands of coronavirus-inspired lockdowns, may be dead on arrival due to fears of banks doing the lending.

Thousands of banks expected to participate in the Trump administration's coronavirus stimulus loan program for small businesses are getting cold feet at the eleventh hour, representatives from those banks told a handful of media outlets on Thursday. If they pull out, the entire future of the program is uncertain - and with it the future of millions of American small businesses that employ half the country's workforce and are facing utter economic devastation if the lifeline promised by their government doesn't arrive soon.

With applications for the loans due to open at midnight on Friday, time is running out for the Paycheck Protection Program to pull itself together. The $350 billion segment of the $2 trillion coronavirus fiscal stimulus package signed into law last month was designed to give the small and medium-sized enterprises a nice low-interest (0.5 percent) loan to tide them through the crisis. Applicants can ask for as much as 2.5 times their average monthly payroll and won't even have to pay back the money if they use it to keep their business running.

Comment: The situation is the same in the UK, and it's not like governments couldn't have foreseen it happening because it is simply a repeat of 2008: UK banks not lending government backed emergency loans to small businesses, up to a million may go under

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Eye 1

The Covid-19 crisis: Defending humanity against the elite coup

Robert J. Burrowes
Global Research
Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Elite
In a recent article I reported existing evidence on the way in which COVID-19 is being used to implement, but also divert attention from, initiatives being taken by the global elite to consolidate and expand its power in significant ways, and perhaps to make the final drive to take total control of global society. See 'Observing Elites Manipulate Our Fear: COVID-19, Propaganda and Knowledge'.

Moreover, while global attention is focused on COVID-19, attention has been distracted from the many other ongoing crises - particularly including the vast range of threats that constitute an imminent danger to human existence: see 'Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth'- and no doubt other undesirable initiatives being carried out by the global elite outside our view. In addition, activism has been stymied as activists are either themselves distracted by COVID-19 or hindered by the measures (such as 'social distancing' and bans on public gatherings) introduced to supposedly deal with it.

Before and since writing 'Observing Elites Manipulate Our Fear', more evidence has been published pointing at an elite coup with governments around the world introducing draconian measures severely curtailing human rights and freedoms (including those involving the internet) and destroying national economies.
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V

Belarus president refuses to cancel anything - and says vodka and saunas will ward off COVID-19

Connor Sephton
Sky News
Mon, 30 Mar 2020 01:16 UTC
Alexander Lukashenko
President Alexander Lukashenko took part in a game of ice hockey this weekend
Few measures have been enforced to curb coronavirus in Belarus - instead, people are being urged to drink vodka and go to saunas.

The country - specifically its president - has shrugged off concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak, starkly illustrated on Sunday with the nation's football matches continuing as normal.

As most countries enforce strict measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, fans continued to shuffle into football grounds as they would any other weekend.

Few social distancing measures appear to be in force, but spectators at some grounds did have their temperatures checked before being granted entry.
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Control Panel

If the virus hadn't caused the crash, something else would have

Satyajit Das
Bloomberg
Tue, 31 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Asset values were priced for perfection.
© Philip Fong/AFP/Getty ImagesAsset values were priced for perfection.
The novel coronavirus has already had a significant impact on the global economy, which will worsen if the outbreak and the shutdowns designed to contain it continue for very long. But it's only an accelerant: If not Covid-19, as the disease caused by the virus is known, something else would have started the conflagration. Shortfalls in revenue and cash flows, caused by the shutdowns, have simply exposed the vulnerabilities of a structurally unsound economic and financial system.

A fall in revenue is problematic but manageable without debt. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, debt levels were increased rather than reduced, encouraged in part by low policy rates and the abundant liquidity engineered by central banks globally. Global debt as a percentage of GDP rose from around 250% in 2007 to 325% in 2019. Current debt levels are triple what they were in 1999. Businesses and households, with declining or no income and high levels of borrowing, now face an existential struggle to meet large financial commitments.

A second problem is that, in the "everything bubble," asset prices were priced for perfection. Policymakers boosted the values of financial assets to increase economic activity via the wealth effect, and to support borrowing to protect financial institutions.
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Attention

Coronavirus crisis - Sick west goes viral

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik News
Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:46 UTC
Victoria underground station
© REUTERS /TOBY MELVILLEA man in a protective face mask walks past a British government public health campaign advertisement at Victoria underground station.
The world is in a sick place. We're not just talking about the escalating coronavirus pandemic, serious though that is with global deaths doubling over the past week. What is also sick is the way gestures of solidarity are being cynically twisted.

Take the arrival of Russian medical aid to the US this week. That was promptly arranged after US President Donald Trump asked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call for help in coping with the coronavirus crisis. Even before the Antonov-124 cargo plane touched down at JFK airport certain US media outlets were labelling the gesture of solidarity as a "propaganda gimmick" by the Kremlin.

It was surmised that the Russian response to the US request for aid was "to push efforts for relief from sanctions" imposed by Washington. The cynical inference is that supposed Russian conniving and deceit knows no bounds in the black art of manipulation.

How about just simply acknowledging the evident fact that Russia is sending vital medical help to the US at a time of need motivating by no other sentiment than basic humanitarian compassion? The fact that Russia has been slapped with numerous US sanctions over recent years since the Ukraine crisis as well as stemming from bizarre claims of Moscow meddling in the 2016 US presidential election - only goes to show Russia's capacity for magnanimity. Simple as that folks.

The same pathetic distortion was earlier voiced regarding Russian and Chinese aid to Italy and other European countries stricken with the deadly virus.
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Pistol

"Shoot them dead": Duterte orders Philippines police to kill anyone 'causing problems' during quarantine

Kay Koch
Got Tech Daily
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:00 UTC

Comment: Duterte appears to have been infected with this coronavirus, the main behavioral effect of which is that it's amplifying what's already within people. In his case, it's definitely making him 'more of himself'!


duterte
Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday issued a "shooting-to-kill" command for police officers for anyone who violates Chinese coronavirus quarantine orders.

"Shoot them dead," Duterte said in a makeshift address on national television Wednesday night. Referring to people who violated strict Philippine closing orders aimed at stopping the spread of the Chinese coronavirus, Duterte directed police, military and district (barangay) authorities to shoot quarantine violators dead at the streets, causing "problems".

"I will not hesitate. My orders are to the police and the military, also to the barangay (district officials), if there is a problem or the situation that people are struggling with and your lives are online, fire them. Understand? Death. Instead of causing trouble, I will send you to the grave."

The video appeared later from Duterte's remarks:

Comment: Duterte is known for his shocking and inflammatory rhetoric and it remains to be seen just how this order might be applied and why Duterte might consider such extreme measures to be necessary. After all, the Philippines is not a Western nation; Duterte has cracked down on rampant criminality through severe penalties, the Philippines even fought off an invasion by ISIS, so perhaps there are more reasons for Duterte to be concerned about those 'causing trouble'? Or perhaps Duterte, like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, is just finally losing it?

Whilst not as extreme, it is notable, and chilling, that many countries have been increasing the punishments for quarantine violation and have been bringing in emergency laws giving unprecedented powers to the police to crackdown on citizens, and these measures aren't intended to be withdrawn anytime soon:

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Attention

This is how it starts

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
coronavirus effect
© AFPWhere's the threat?
The brevity of this post is out of proportion to the enormous importance of the subject. But I want to let you know I am thinking and working on it.

It is a recognised pattern for dictatorship to commence with emergency measures designed to combat a threat. Those emergency measures then become normalised and people exercising arbitrary power find it addictive. A new threat is then found to justify the continuation.

It is by no means clear to me that it is a rational response to covid-19 to tear up all of the civil liberties which were won by the people against authority through centuries of struggle, and for which people died. To say that is not to minimise the threat of covid-19. It is also worth pointing out that a coronavirus pandemic was a widely foreseen eventuality. People keep sending me links to various TV shows or movies based on a coronavirus pandemic, generally claiming this proves it is a man-made event. No, that just proves it is a widely foreseen event. Which it is.

Comment: Or: this is how it finishes. The disease is in the system and the mask is coming off!

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Boat

Trump ups military assets in Caribbean to bolster bogus Maduro indictment and offers a shift in US policy

Matt Spetalnick, Phil Stewart
Reuters
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 05:08 UTC
Cartoon shipsCaribbean
© Unknown
The Trump administration said on Wednesday it was deploying more U.S. Navy warships and aircraft to the Caribbean to prevent drug cartels and "corrupt actors" like Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to smuggle more narcotics.

President Donald Trump said he was doubling U.S. military resources in the region, including destroyers, surveillance planes and personnel, in an anti-drug crackdown to deal with what he called a "growing threat."

The beefed-up operation - quickly dismissed by the Maduro government - will also call for sending Navy ships closer to Venezuela, according to a U.S. official and two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But it was unclear how close they would get to Venezuelan shores, the sources said.

Trump, joined by Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, made the announcement at the start of the White House's daily briefing on efforts to battle the spreading pandemic. It followed the indictment last week of Maduro and more than a dozen current and former officials on charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug trafficking and corruption.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration offered, however, to begin lifting Venezuela sanctions if the opposition and members of Maduro's Socialist Party form an interim government without him, marking a shift in a U.S. policy.

Comment: The US has manufactured another excuse to justify its vendetta against Maduro. Never mind it was Guaido who was photographed in the company of Colombian drug-runners who helped him get back and forth across the border.


See also:

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Target

Adam Schiff mulls a 9/11-ish 'nonpartisan commission' on coronavirus as his new vendetta against Trump

Helen Buyniski
RT
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 22:45 UTC
9/11, Schiff
© Gulf News/Det/NYC Police Aviation Unit/AP/KJN9/11 • Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff
House Democrat Adam Schiff has called for a 'nonpartisan' probe modeled after the 9/11 Commission to find out what went wrong with the US response to Covid-19, an inquiry that will no doubt lead to President Donald Trump.

Schiff, who chairs the House intelligence committee, told the Washington Post about his plans in an interview, pledging to introduce a bill that would enact a nonpartisan commission to study "our mistakes" in dealing with the epidemic. The commission's work, he said, would have to wait until after the crisis, but he assured the outlet his committee was already reviewing "intelligence materials" pertaining to the pandemic.

Comment: Stuck in a loop, Schiff will (again) increase chaos to a 'feverish' pitch by pitting the Democratic leadership and its gullible constituency against the president. The result will be lucky to match his bogus impeachment efforts. That this is a crucial time to bring the country together to heal and reboot its economic engine won't even cross the barren landscape of his mind.

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Star of David

What does Israel need? The Arab world ruled by dictators

Asa Winstanley
Middle East Monitor
Wed, 01 Apr 2020 11:44 UTC
Yossi Cohen
© Miriam Alster/Flash90Yossi Cohen, Director of Mossad
In February, the chief of the Mossad, Israel's global death squad, visited Doha, the capital of Qatar; Yossi Cohen was accompanied by Major General Herzi Halevi, the head of the Israeli army's Southern Command. They went at the invitation of Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani and met with national security advisor Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-Masnad.

Their meetings were effectively indirect negotiations with the Gaza Strip's ruling authorities, led by Hamas. The Israelis reportedly argued for the natural-gas-rich emirate to continue paying millions in aid to the besieged coastal enclave.

Even these indirect, limited negotiations with Hamas - the Islamic Resistance Movement whose armed wing opposes Israel's military incursions - were treated as a minor scandal in Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The visit to Qatar was revealed by his bitter rival, the former minister (and anti-Arab psychopath) Avigdor Lieberman, who told the media about it in order to embarrass the Prime Minister in the most recent round of the apparently interminable cycle of General Elections in Israel.

Unfortunately, this contact between Qatar and Israel has a precedent. The government in Doha has actually ramped up its ties with Israel over the past few years.
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