Society's Child

Cancel culture comes for Woody Allen (again)

Quillette
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 23:36 UTC

In 2003, a 19-year-old worker at a Colorado resort accused NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant of raping her in his hotel room. Bryant's endorsement deals were canceled, and it looked like this might be the end of his career. But prosecutors dropped the case when the alleged victim decided not to testify. Bryant, who admitted that he had engaged in adulterous sex with his accuser, argued that the liaison had been consensual, apologized publicly, and settled a subsequent civil suit on undisclosed terms.

By the time Bryant died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, his public image had been restored, and Bryant received the NBA's equivalent of a state funeral. When Washington Post writer Felicia Sonmez tweeted out a reference to the sexual-assault allegation amidst the grieving, she was suspended from work, and chastised by the Post's executive editor, who told her, "A real lack of judgment to tweet this. Please stop. You're hurting this institution."

Money for wars but not vaccines? Bernie panel ladles harsh truths as Americans face paying out-of-pocket for coronavirus treatment

RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 23:19 UTC

A panelist who took part in a coronavirus roundtable hosted by presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders scoffed at the idea that free vaccines to combat the illness would be untenable, noting that there's always cash to fund US wars.

The Vermont senator assembled a group of medical professionals in Detroit on Tuesday to discuss how the United States could best deal with the ongoing health crisis.

During the question and answer session, one audience member highlighted how Sanders has promised to provide free vaccines against the illness, and asked how the self-described democratic-socialist plans to pay for it.

Sanders chuckled, and then yielded to a member of his panel, Deborah Burger, who serves as the president of National Nurses United, the country's largest nurses' union.

Coronavirus death toll in Italy jumps to 631 from 463 in a day, 10,000+ cases throughout the country, plus other COVID-19 updates

RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:35 UTC

© REUTERS/Remo Casilli
A delivery man wears a protective face mask as he rides a bicycle at Campo de Fiori, in Rome, Italy, March 10, 2020.

Another 168 people in Italy have died of the COVID-19 coronavirus, bringing the death toll to 631, while the total number of cases rose by over ten percent to 10,149. The entire country is locked down in quarantine.

Tuesday's jump in the deaths, from the previous record of 463, represents a 36 percent rise and the largest in absolute numbers since the infection was first noticed on February 21, the Civil Protection Agency said.

Some 877 patients were in intensive care, up from 733 on Monday. The number of patients who recovered has also risen, however, and stood at 1,004 on Tuesday as opposed to 724 the day before.

The rising numbers come on the day the nation-wide quarantine imposed by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte went into effect, closing off Italy's borders. All public gatherings, including sporting events, have been banned and civilian movement has been restricted. Schools and universities have been shuttered through April 3.

Comment: Spain's parliament has been suspended for at least one week after a lawmaker tested positive. Israel has introduced mandatory quarantine for all visitors coming from abroad. Saudi Arabia will impose a $133k fine on any visitor providing inaccurate health or travel history disclosures. Iran's leader Khamenei cancelled his traditional New Year's speech in Mashhad. Iraqi authorities have closed the holy city of Najaf. And while cases are exploding in Iran and Italy, China continues to see their own numbers going down - all temporary hospitals in Wuhan have now been shut down. (See more updates and stats here.)

For an idea of what Italian hospitals and doctors are going experiencing, here are some accounts. The biggest issue is that the hospitals are not equipped for the number of serious cases requiring intensive care. Doctors are having to choose who gets a spot in the ICU, and who doesn't. These are cases over and above their regular workload. So while numbers in absolute terms are not yet very high - hospitals are already working at or above their capacity to treat serious cases coming in. If China could reverse the exponential spread of its own cases, other countries should be able to do the same. In the meantime, the medical system will be struggling to keep up in countries where that has yet to happen and spread of cases is still growing exponentially.

See also:

Black Widow: Now that female superheroes are mainstream, are people ready for a RUSSIAN one?

Matthew Kadish
RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 09:44 UTC

Black Widow is a movie about a female superhero - supposedly a big selling point in the #MeToo era. The problem is she is also Russian, a risky label in these politically charged times. Or are Americans too jaded to even care?

Much is being made in the media about Marvel Studio's female-led superhero movie Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, the highly trained superspy who has been a mainstay in many Marvel films, dating back to her debut in Iron Man 2 in 2010. Though Johansson's portrayal of the character has been extremely popular among audiences, Marvel has been slow to give the character her own movie, until now.

This snail's pace of development for such a high-profile female superhero has drawn much criticism from both the media and fandom alike, along with controversies surrounding Johansson being paid less than her male counterparts in the Avengers films. With the success of female-led films such as Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman, many who support women's representation are eyeing Black Widow to help elevate the role of women in the superhero genre - a movie genre that has traditionally been dominated by male characters.

But the real question when it comes to the Black Widow film isn't so much 'are audiences ready for a female superhero?' After all, the success of recent female-led superhero movies and characters proves that they are. No, in this politically charged time period during an election year, the better question is, 'are audiences ready for a Russian superhero?'

Sanity prevails: UK appeals court rules people cannot define themselves as gender neutral on passports

Maya Oppenheim
The Independent
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:06 UTC

A campaigner who wants passports to include a category for those who do not identify as male or female has lost a Court of Appeal challenge over gender neutral passports.

Christie Elan-Cane, who wants passports to include an "X" category for such individuals, believes the current UK passport policy infringes the right to privacy. But senior judges dismissed the appeal, a decision Elan-Cane described as "devastating".

The campaigner, who has been fighting for legal and social recognition for non-gendered identity for more than 25 years, added: "It is bad news for everyone who cannot obtain a passport without the requirement imposed by the UK government that they should collude in their own social invisibility.

Comment: Non-binary people may have an 'identity', but their DNA still has an immutable gender. No piece of paper can undo that. What will the activist do if/when passports include biometic data?

Some have already succumbed to the madness:

Panicked politicians making a show of 'doing something' are the real danger of the coronavirus outbreak

Frank Furedi
RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 12:25 UTC

It does not help that numerous psychologists are telling us 'don't let coronavirus tip society into panic'. As a sociologist with a professional interest in how fear works I can confirm that nobody decides to panic.

People panic when the messages communicated to them incite them to be afraid of fear itself. Unfortunately, the message that we frequently encounter is one that makes me feel like I am in the middle of a very, very slow but very long Hollywood disaster movie.

In recent weeks the West European media has become obsessed with worst case scenarios. It is as if they are overcome by a disturbing malaise of disaster pornography and love exposing their listeners to speculative forecasts about the millions that could die if the coronavirus turns out more prevalent and more deadly than we now imagine.

Comment: The following articles give a more realistic perspective of the danger posed by the virus than presented in the media:

Austria bans entry for people from Italy over coronavirus fears

RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 10:43 UTC

© Global Look Press/Matthias Balk/dpa
10 March 2020, Austria, Gries Am Brenner: A paramedic speaks to the passenger of a car coming from Italy at a checkpoint on the Brenner motorway A13.

Austria is imposing a blanket ban on all people entering from Italy unless they have a medical certificate, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has proclaimed, though Austrians currently in Italy are strongly encouraged to return.

"There will be an entry ban for people [travelling] from Italy to Austria, with people who have a medical certificate being an exception," Kurz said on Tuesday, as cited by local media.

Meanwhile, Austrians who find themselves in Italy will be allowed to return, but "they must be kept in isolation for two weeks."

A Quebec ban on religious symbols upends lives and careers

Dan Bilefsky
The New York Times
Sat, 07 Mar 2020 00:01 UTC

© Nasuna Stuart-Ulin
Nour Farhat in her law office in Montreal. As a Muslim woman wearing the hijab, she is prohibited under a new law from working as a public prosecutor unless she agrees to remove her hijab while at work.

A Muslim lawyer who wears a head scarf has put aside her aspiration to become a public prosecutor.

A Sikh teacher with a turban moved about 2,800 miles from Quebec to Vancouver, calling herself a "refugee in her own country."

And an Orthodox Jewish teacher who wears a head kerchief is worried that she could be blocked from a promotion.

Since the Quebec government in June banned schoolteachers, police officers, prosecutors and other public sector employees from wearing religious symbols while at work, people like these three women have been grappling with the consequences.

Comment: See also:

Sunday protests in Baghdad leave 3 dead, over 40 injured

Sputnik
Mon, 09 Mar 2020 12:03 UTC

Three have people died and 44 got injured in Sunday's civil unrest in Iraq's capital of Baghdad, Fadhil Gharawi, a member of the Iraqi High Commission For Human Rights' Board of Commissioners, said on Monday.

"Three people died, 44 were injured in clashes that took place yesterday, on Sunday, at Khilani Square, in the center of Baghdad," Gharawi said in a statement, according to Al-Sumaria TV channel.

On Sunday, protests took place in Baghdad to commemorate the International Women's Day.

The protests in Iraq have been ongoing since October 2019, with the participants demanding an end to corruption and an improvement to the quality of life in the country.

Comment: See also:

Manufacturing a crisis: Wikipedia slashes Spanish Flu death rate

Catte Black
Off-Guardian
Mon, 09 Mar 2020 00:01 UTC

We've had a couple of people BTL take issue with us regarding the case fatality rate (CFR) of the 1918 Spanish Flu. Citing Wikipedia and the CDC we gave that rate as being between 10-20%. A couple of commenters, however, insisted the actual CFR was 2-3%, and this led us to look further.

What we found was quite interesting.

This is the pre-February 22 2020 opening paragraph of the 'Mortality' section on the Wiki page for the Spanish flu (our emphasis):

The global mortality rate from the 1918-1919 pandemic is not known, but an estimated 10% to 20% of those who were infected died (case-fatality ratio). About a third of the world population was infected, and 3% to 6% of the entire global population of over 1800 million[51] died.[2]

Comment: These changes to the Wikipedia page clearly show a manipulation for the purpose of making the coronavirus appear more dangerous than it actually is. Now why would they want to do something like that?

See also:

Ehret an idiot beyond belief

smertzasmert

.. .. are wheel barrel sales are up too?

Jibrish

I doubt any pureblood would object to the "vaccinated" being masked, but if they (the "vaccinated") still feel unsafe then maybe their problem is...

HashAttack2

I said this would happen...now they are looking to mandate companies with less that 100 employees...shits getting real, people[Link]

Bezel Bub

it's all a lie ! :O

cracker

Society's Child

Cancel culture comes for Woody Allen (again)

Money for wars but not vaccines? Bernie panel ladles harsh truths as Americans face paying out-of-pocket for coronavirus treatment

Coronavirus death toll in Italy jumps to 631 from 463 in a day, 10,000+ cases throughout the country, plus other COVID-19 updates

Black Widow: Now that female superheroes are mainstream, are people ready for a RUSSIAN one?

Sanity prevails: UK appeals court rules people cannot define themselves as gender neutral on passports

Panicked politicians making a show of 'doing something' are the real danger of the coronavirus outbreak

Austria bans entry for people from Italy over coronavirus fears

A Quebec ban on religious symbols upends lives and careers

Sunday protests in Baghdad leave 3 dead, over 40 injured

Manufacturing a crisis: Wikipedia slashes Spanish Flu death rate

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