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Medical kidnapping: Children taken from parents against their will

Allie Parker
Medical Kidnap
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Katie Spencer, daughters
© Facebook
Katie Spencer and her daughters
With the amount of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. rising every day, the majority of states have issued mandatory social isolation, but does this include isolation from your own children?

Two mothers have recently spoken out about how the Coronavirus pandemic has been used to take away their children against their will, and some judges are ordering the removal of children due to potential exposure to the Coronavirus with their parents.

Healthcare workers at risk of losing their children due to possible COVID-19 exposure

A mother in Oklahoma shared a post on Facebook on March 21, stating,
"The police showed up on my doorstep at 10 PM and took my kids from me because I WORK IN A CLINIC."
According to the mother, and court documents shared on the social media site, a judge signed off on an ex parte hearing, approving the Emergency Motion to Modify Custody and for Pick-Up Order Due to Respondent Exposure to Coronavirus.
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Corona

Moscow bans all regular & charter flights starting March 27, except those bringing Russians home - and other Covid-19 news


RT
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 18:39 UTC
jet airliner plane
© Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov
As part of measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the Russian government is shutting down all regular and charter international flights from Friday. The only exception will be for those repatriating its citizens.

No resumption date has been published, so far, and the suspension will not apply to cargo routes.

The cabinet also requested that the Foreign Ministry assist Russian citizens abroad until their return home. Russian embassies around the world will receive additional funds to provide support.

So far, 652 Covid-19 cases have been registered in Russia, with more than half of those infected in Moscow.

Comment: The city of Moscow has shut down all non-essential shops and restaurants. The new total of Russian cases is 840. One Russian government employee has been quarantined after possibly contracting the virus. Russian experts are warning that self-isolation may lead to more domestic violence and crime. Putin has recommended 'green corridors' of sanctions-free trade to the G20, and warned that the key risk currently is unemployment. The WHO agrees with the Kremlin that it's too early to introduce strict quarantine measures in Russia. Russia's military/medical convoy is currently making their 600km trek through Italy to Bergamo - their primary mission is decontamination.

Johns Hopkins says confirmed cases of Covid-19 have passed 500,000. (Germany: 4,954 new cases, 49 deaths; Iran: 157 new deaths, total 2,234; Spain: 4,000 total deaths alleged to be Covid-related; U.S.: 1,000 deaths; France: almost 4,000 new cases in one day, 365 deaths.) China - despite recording no new locally-contracted cases - has drastically reduced international flights to prevent imported cases, and barred foreigners from entering the country. Iran banned all internal travel between cities. The U.S. military confirmed their first case within the Pentagon after a Marine tested positive. The U.S. Senate finally passed the $2 trillion relief bill, which is now headed to the House.

See also:

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Bizarro Earth

New York Times promotes face-veiling Indonesian Muslim 'Niqab Squad' as totally-not-extremist answer to Western feminism

Helen Buyniski
RT
Wed, 25 Mar 2020 18:45 UTC
Niqab Squad
© Global Look / Claus Bonnerup
The New York Times is singing the praises of Indonesia's born-again Muslim sects, profiling a group who mix Islamic doctrine with girl-power platitudes beneath their niqabs and hailing the garments as the answer to harassment.

The woker-than-thou outlet wants readers to know that these Indonesian ladies, who - unlike the vast majority of their countrywomen - sport the full-face veil known as the niqab, are anything but oppressed. They're photographed hitting bullseyes with bow and arrow from horseback, a feat made all the more impressive by the billowing folds of fabric that envelop their bodies, hiding all but their eyes.

The women profiled in the piece, many of whom are members of various traditionalist 'born again' Islamic sects, are depicted as eager to distance themselves from the extremism the veil tends to connote, even in majority-Muslim Indonesia, and the misogyny considered part and parcel of hardline Islamic regimes. But Indonesia is a secular country, and the Times sings the praises of the "thousands of mainly urban, middle-class women" who "have made [the choice to wear the niqab] for themselves," renouncing modern dress and "practicing sports that the Prophet Muhammad is thought to have enjoyed" at events around the country.
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Arrow Up

Chicago Amazon employees win fight for paid time off as company condemned for 'reckless' labor practices

Julia Conley
Common Dreams
Mon, 23 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Amazon workers with DCH1 Amazonians
© DHC1 Amazonians United/Medium
DCH1 Amazonians United Members pose together with Amazon workers from around the world.
Amazon warehouse workers in Chicago on Monday were credited with forcing the company to finally guarantee the paid time off policy clearly stated in Amazon's employee handbook, following a months-long campaign.

Amid condemnation over Amazon's treatment of its employees during the global coronavirus pandemic, the company released a memo to its 800,000-strong workforce stating that starting Monday, all part-time and seasonal employees will be permitted to submit paid time off (PTO) requests, just as full-time workers can.

The new policy is simply a confirmation of what's stated in the company's employee manual, wrote a group of warehouse workers in Chicago known as DCH1 Amazonians United.

"Amazon did not 'give' us PTO — we took our PTO from Amazon's greedy hands," wrote the workers in a Medium post Sunday. "We went up against the wealthiest man in the world and we won."

Comment: Bezos' continued inhumanity toward his employees in a time of global crisis underscores his true nature:

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Arrow Up

A record 3.3 million Americans just filed for unemployment benefits

Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 07:55 UTC
layoffs
The pace at which Americans are losing their jobs is absolutely breathtaking. According to the Wall Street Journal, the largest number of new claims for unemployment benefits ever recorded in a single week prior to this year was 695,000 during the week that ended October 2nd, 1982.

So that means that what we are now witnessing is completely unprecedented, as The US Department of Labor reports a stunning increase of 3.3 million people sought initial jobless claims last week amid the virus lockdowns (expectation was +1.7mm)

jobless claims
As Bloomberg wrote earlier, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard made a shocking prediction the other day that U.S. unemployment may hit a 30% in Q2. St. Louis Fed economist Miguel Faria-e-Castro published a blog post today explaining the back-of-the-envelope methodology used to arrive at a 30% unemployment rate. He noted that about 67 million people work in jobs with high risks of layoffs, including sales, production and food preparation. In addition, 27 million people work in businesses that require close physical contact, such as barbers and restaurant wait staff.

Considering the overlap between those two groups, Faria-e-Castro averaged them and concluded that 47 million people could lose their jobs. Add the current 5.7 million unemployed workers and divide by the 165 million people in the labor force, and he got 32% unemployment.

Comment: See: Massive social difficulties loom as worldwide job losses from coronavirus lockdown and economic downturn expected to reach 25 million

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Propaganda

Coronavirus fear mongering: MIT Biologist doubles down his attack on "Deep State"


TechStartups
Sat, 21 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai
On Thursday, we wrote a piece about Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, an MIT scientist with 4 PHD degrees, after he said in his famous tweet that "fear mongering on coronavirus will go down as the biggest fraud to manipulate economies." He also accused the "Deep State" of scaring people and not telling the real truth about the deadly coronovirus.

Dr. Shiva went on to say that the media and the "Deep State" are doing the world a disservice by exaggerating the impact of the virus. The story has received over two million views since the article was published over a week ago. In the meantime, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a board-certified family practioner in New York, treated 350 coronavirus patients with 100% success using Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

The global economy won't bounce back soon

Daniel Lacalle
Mises Institute
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 12:00 UTC
world economy
In February, the general consensus between large investment banks and supranational entities was that there would be a one-time hit to GDP in the first quarter due to the impact of the coronavirus, followed by a stronger, V-shaped recovery. The IMF expected a modest correction of global GDP of 0.1 percent, and the largest cut on estimates for 2020 growth was 0.4 percent.

Those days are gone.

The latest round of global growth revisions includes a slash of growth estimates for the first and second quarters and a very modest recovery in the third and fourth. Average GDP estimates are now down 0.7 percent, and JP Morgan expects the eurozone to enter a deep recession in the next two quarters (-1.8 percent and -3.3 percent in the first and second quarters), followed by a very poor recovery that would still leave the full-year 2020 estimate in contraction. The investment bank also assumes US slumps of 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, but a modest full-year growth. Capital Economics estimates a hit to the US economy for the full year that would cut 0.8 percent off previous estimates though still predicting growth, but a larger impact on the eurozone, with full-year 2020 growth at an avergae of -1.2 percent, led by a -2 percent prediction for Italy. This, unfortunately, looks like just the beginning of a downgrade cycle that adds to the issue of an economy that was already slowing in 2019.

Comment: As noted above, the economic situation was dire prior to the coronavirus hysteria:

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People 2

Britain's middle class are about to discover the cruelty of its benefits system

Polly Toynbee
The Guardian
Tue, 24 Mar 2020 06:00 UTC
universal credit
© Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
'People confronting universal credit's obstacles may join the half who find themselves propelled to local food banks.'
Millions of people are about to discover something they didn't know about British life. There is no longer a safety net. People who have paid tax and national insurance for years and never been near the social security system will be turning to it in their hour of need; yet far too late, like trapeze artists falling through the air, they will find that the net beneath them has been lowered dangerously close to the ground and is badly torn.

If these people once believed relentlessly misleading tabloid tales of benefit scroungers, they will have a rude awakening. They will find that when Iain Duncan Smith turned the screw on social security in 2012, he was right to warn claimants: "This is not an easy life any more, chum." As if it ever was.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has done well to honour 80% of wages for those "furloughed" from shut-down businesses - up to £2,500 a month. No one knows how many that covers and at what cost, but it was a macroeconomic necessity. One worry is the incapacity of the HMRC workforce, with 15,600 staff cut and 157 local offices with local knowledge closed: can they pay the wage subsidy to companies in time to save them? Many firms could still close, sending millions into unemployment.

Comment: Like the crash of 2008, the (near) collapse of 2020 may serve as a revelation to a significant proportion of those who, despite all the signs, were unwilling to face facts about the sorry state of the society they were living in:

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Hourglass

For a generation that's forgotten how to spend time alone, lockdown will be tough - psychologists

Pratibha Sharma
Sputnik
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 09:44 UTC
lockdown coronavirus
© REUTERS / Rupak De Chowdhuri
Stress is an intrinsic characteristic of the 21st century and so is the hyper social engagement to seek respite from it. With life on halt due to the lockdown, mental health professionals are seeing a sharp increase in anxiety and depression related queries as a result of limited social activities.

Eerie silence on streets, deserted clubs devoid of heart throbbing music and dead office spaces - sights like these are going to be the new normal for Indians during this unprecedented countrywide lockdown in response to the outbreak of the World Health Organization-declared coronavirus pandemic.

Psychologists point out that they have seen an increase in the number of queries from people who are quarantined, families that are spending more time together and parents who are worried about their kids holed up at home.

Comment: Perhaps a silver-lining to the lockdown is that some people, even if a tiny minority, might actually become reacquainted with themselves, being able to spend time alone and actually do some introspection. It may be a long shot, but forced isolation may possibly be an opportunity for growth.

See also:

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Attention

Milan Italy was overwhelmed with viral lung infections as recently as 2018 without feeding a global hysteria

Simona Ravizza
Anti-empire
Thu, 26 Mar 2020 10:25 UTC
How unusual is it for a certain number of localities world-wide to get swamped during the flu season? Apparently not that unusual at all
mass hysteria

Why didn’t we put the world under lockdown to flatten the curve in 2017-18?


Editor's note: This is a question I keep asking, how unusual is it for a few localities in the world to have their intensive care capacities swamped with severe lower respiratory infection cases during the flu season? We are supposed to think hospitals in a few cities in the world becoming swamped in this way is highly irregular and a sign COVID-19 is a threat like no other but is that really true? Is it the case hospitals never get swamped, or is it the case the media and thus the public never before paid much attention?

One thing that is clear is that SARS-CoV-2 is a mild virus that is extremely unlikely to kill you if you become infected (see 1,2,3). Another thing which is clear is that there is no excess mortality to indicate this influenza-pneumonia-coronavirus season has been particularly bad and that SARS-CoV-2 is, therefore, killing more people than whatever coronavirus it mutated from (see 1,2). Its only remaining claim to be a greater threat than what we deal with every year without governments subjecting us to house arrest is that it has the ability to overwhelm hospitals and force doctors to ration care as is happening now in Milan and happened before in Wuhan. Well here follows a (machine-translated) report from 2018 which makes it clear the intensive care capacity of a modern European metropolis was overwhelmed just two years ago — that metropolis just happens to be Milan.

This particular swamping may not have been quite as severe, but that's not the point. The point is that if we can find a previous less severe case of swamping even for Milan itself it would indicate that globally they are not at all unusual.
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