Society's Child

WaPo leaves the pack, admits polls show Crimeans prefer to be part of Russia

Bryan MacDonald
RT
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 23:59 UTC

© Reuters/Maxim Shemetov
People take part in celebrations on the anniversary of Crimea's return to the Russian Federation, in Sevastopol, Crimea.

One of the curious things about Western media coverage of Crimea since 2014 has been the consistent narrative that Russia's reabsorption of the peninsula was carried out against the will of locals.

Look, you can make legitimate arguments about international law and the way the process was carried out. But attempts to give the impression Moscow somehow dragged residents kicking and screaming into the Russian Federation have always been ridiculous.

The overwhelming majority of Crimeans want to be part of Russia. This fact is not disputed by any credible expert on the post-Soviet space and is also borne out by opinion polling, including surveys carried out by American and German companies.

Leaving Palestinians in limbo, Israel and the PA deprive thousands of their ID cards

Rakan Abed El-Rahman, Pam Bailey
The New Arab
Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00 UTC

For 14 years, Ayman Ghanam, a 43-year-old from the Gaza Strip, has sought to obtain the document that, like an American social security number, governs every aspect of daily life: a Palestinian ID card. But like 23,500 other Palestinians, he has been refused this basic document by the Israeli government because of a rigid refusal to bend the rules.

Ghanam's father had travelled to Egypt when the 1967 six-day war broke out, resulting in the Israeli occupation of Gaza. The Israeli government assumed authority for issuing IDs to its new "subjects," but since the elder Ghanam was out of Gaza, he (and many others like him) wasn't assigned one. That means his children, including Ayman, don't have IDs either.

Even though Israel insists it stopped occupying the Gaza Strip when it withdrew its 8,000 settlers in 2005, it continues to retain control over who receives Palestinian IDs - along with many other aspects of daily life, such as travel. Without an ID card, Palestinians cannot qualify for a passport.

Comment: See also:

Manufactured Terror? Doctor arrested in Minnesota on terrorism charge, caught with help of FBI "informants"

KARE 11
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 07:14 UTC

Muhammad Masood, 28, was taken into custody at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday by FBI agents.

A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic research coordinator was arrested Thursday in Minnesota on a terrorism charge, after prosecutors say he told paid FBI informants that he had pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State group and wanted to carry out lone wolf attacks in the United States.

Muhammad Masood, 28, was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday by FBI agents and was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Prosecutors say Masood was in the U.S. on a work visa. They allege that starting in January, Masood made several statements to paid informants — whom he believed were members of the Islamic State group — pledging his allegiance to the group and its leader. He also allegedly expressed his desire to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS and a desire to carry out lone wolf attacks in the U.S.

At one point, Masood messaged an informant "there is so much I wanted to do here .. .lon wulf stuff you know ... but I realized I should be on the ground helping brothers sisters kids," according to an FBI affidavit.

Comment: Whenever we hear that FBI informants have been involved in the capture of a suspected terrorist on US soil, we'd do well to remember that MOST of these cases are NOT what they appear to be; the FBI being largely responsible for setting up and stage managing the perception of radical Islamic terrorism in the US. At the very least one would do well to be more than a little skeptical given the FBI's track record:

And much, much, much, much more since 2001.

Russia sitting pretty: Oil price crash not catastrophic for Russian economy — Kremlin

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 16:13 UTC

The current turmoil on the global oil market is not disastrous for Russia, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, noting the country has a safety cushion.

Russia holds vast gold and foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the economy in times of economic uncertainty. The country's total gold holdings amounted to 73.2 million troy ounces (2,276.8 tons) as of February 1, and are worth around $116 billion, while the country's total reserves have recently eclipsed $580 billion, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Russia.

"Certainly, the price situation is unpleasant... But we can't agree that this is a disaster for Russia in the medium term because our government has a solid safety cushion which for several years could provide an opportunity to fulfill all social obligations, development plans, and so on."

Comment:

Russia's gold & near-zero debt give it best chance of thriving in post-coronavirus hysteria and global economic apocalypse - Max Keiser

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 07:00 UTC

The coronavirus pandemic has popped a quadrillion-dollar financial bubble and we can expect a very deep and prolonged period of adjustment, RT's veteran business commentator Max Keiser believes.

Comment: Perhaps things will never truly adjust and, just like with the financial implosion and bail outs of 2008, it's only a matter of time before reality forces societies to confront their collective delusions once more.

The financial crisis, which many believe we have just entered, stems from the times of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, with the establishment of 'neoliberal' policies "that enriched bankers and destroyed workers by giving bankers free reign to borrow and speculate without oversight or accountability," Keiser told RT. Now, governments will have to adjust to a new reality, and having a low debt and massive reserves could be the trump card, according to the former Wall Street stockbroker.

"Russia has the best hand at the geopolitical poker table. The Kremlin, for 20 years, has been doing the opposite of everyone else by reducing their national debt to near zero, and buying thousands of tons of gold while simultaneously raising living standards," he said.

Comment: See also:

Two Turkish soldiers killed in rocket attack by 'radical groups' in Syria's Idlib

Sputnik
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 19:58 UTC

The situation in northern Syria recently calmed down, as Moscow and Ankara reached a ceasefire, suspending clashes between Syrian forces on the one side, and Turkish troops and Turkey-backed militants on the other.

Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and one more injured in a rocket attack by "radical groups" in the Syrian province of Idlib, the Turkish Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

Turkish forces responded with retaliatory fire against detected targets of the radical groups, the statement added.

Later, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's center for Syria reconciliation, Rear Adm. Oleg Zhuravlev, confirmed that two Turkish servicemen were killed in a clash with militants from a terrorist group on the M4 highway.

Comment: See also:

Botched 'Islamist attack': Car driven into Barcelona airport, two arrested

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 09:31 UTC

Police cordoned off a section of Barcelona's El Prat airport after an apparent failed Islamist attack, in which two men drove a car through the terminal building's doors.

The Mossos d'Esquadra, Barcelona's police force, confirmed that two men attempted to storm the Terminal 1 bulking at the El Prat international airport at approximately 5am local time on Friday.

The men made it as far as the food court of the airport, reportedly shouting Islamist slogans, before they were arrested.

Technicians from Spain's bomb squad Tedax were also deployed to investigate the vehicle which was found to not contain any explosive devices. No weapons or ammunition were discovered in the vehicle either.

Comment: More than a bit bizarre considering how well known it is that most European countries are on lockdown with very few travelling at the moment. They may be mentally deranged or that whoever is behind this is hoping that it will be a 'gentle' reminder that 'terrorism' is ever present. I guess we'll see whether this is just the beginning.

See also: Knife wielding man shot dead by police in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on the same day of a similar incident in France

Licence to kill: Proposed emergency Coronavirus Bill protects NHS against negligence claims

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 08:07 UTC

Emergency coronavirus legislation will empower the government to "provide indemnity for clinical negligence liabilities of healthcare professionals and others arising from NHS activities carried out as part of the response to a coronavirus outbreak."

The proposed Coronavirus Bill will, if it becomes law, provide the state with sweeping, authoritarian powers to regulate the public's behaviour throughout the emergency, in order to mitigate its potentially devastating effects.

By providing "indemnity for clinical negligence liabilities arising from NHS activities connected to the diagnosis, care and treatment of those who have been diagnosed as having coronavirus disease or who are suspected, or who are at risk, of having the disease" through the Secretary of State for Health or "a person authorised by the Secretary of State", the bill aims to "ensure that, in the exceptional circumstances that might arise in a coronavirus outbreak, sufficient indemnity arrangements are in place to cover all NHS activities required to respond to the outbreak," according to explanatory notes provided by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Chillingly, scariest coronavirus death toll may not come from covid-19

W. E. Messamore
CCN
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 07:06 UTC

A great deal of scientific research indicates the coronavirus containment strategy will cause more deaths than COVID-19 would have.

© REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
The link between unemployment and suicides will be a concern that has to be addressed while the majority of the population stays-in to duck the coronavirus pandemic.

While many countries are in lock down to prevent COVID-19 deaths, the reaction to coronavirus is likely to kill more people than the disease itself.
That's because coronavirus layoffs have already surged across the US. And unemployment projections are already as high as 4.6 million.
Meanwhile, there's a firm body of scientific literature establishing a strong link between unemployment and higher suicide rates.

Many people will die because of coronavirus, but drastic containment strategies in many countries may leave even more dead. Alarmingly, the death toll from a now imminent coronavirus recession could be much higher than that from COVID-19.

Comment: The death toll as a result of the measures government are taking will be far higher than the coronavirus. On top of higher suicides, there will also be more people stressed out because they can't make ends meet. That stress leads to disease and all that follows. Whatever aid package the government gives them, it is not a substitute for having something to occupy their time with. People (at least the majority) need something other than just to be perpetually looking for work. See also:

Russia testing MULTIPLE prototype Covid-19 vaccines

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 03:23 UTC

Russia's research center of virology and biotechnology, known as the Vector Institute, is testing multiple different vaccine prototypes against the Covid-19 disease, in a race to find a cure for the virus behind a global pandemic.

This week, the institute "began immunogenicity studies in sensitive laboratory animals ... of all developed vaccine prototypes," said consumer watchdog agency Rospotrebnadzor in a statement on Friday.

The Russian Health Ministry's Research Institute of Influenza previously said a prototype vaccine could take between four and six months, with a three-year timetable for a final product, but researchers at the institute suggest it could come much sooner.

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Solare

Pfizer is just another word for murder. Don't get pfizered.

Steve S

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DeliciousTears

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Jibrish

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Solare

Society's Child

WaPo leaves the pack, admits polls show Crimeans prefer to be part of Russia

Leaving Palestinians in limbo, Israel and the PA deprive thousands of their ID cards

Manufactured Terror? Doctor arrested in Minnesota on terrorism charge, caught with help of FBI "informants"

Russia sitting pretty: Oil price crash not catastrophic for Russian economy — Kremlin

Russia's gold & near-zero debt give it best chance of thriving in post-coronavirus hysteria and global economic apocalypse - Max Keiser

Two Turkish soldiers killed in rocket attack by 'radical groups' in Syria's Idlib

Botched 'Islamist attack': Car driven into Barcelona airport, two arrested

Licence to kill: Proposed emergency Coronavirus Bill protects NHS against negligence claims

Chillingly, scariest coronavirus death toll may not come from covid-19

Russia testing MULTIPLE prototype Covid-19 vaccines

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