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Fri, 29 Oct 2021
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How to properly royal: Duchess of Kent led secret double life as Hull primary school teacher

Duchess of kent music teacher
© Wansbeck Primary School
The Duchess of Kent with Wesbeck Primary School children during her stint as a music teacher
She is perhaps not the best known member of the Royal Family.

But the Duchess of Kent has nevertheless remained a firm favourite, with the emergence of details about her secret double life away from royal duties helping to further endear her to the public.

Married to the the Queen's cousin Prince Edward, The Duke of Kent for 50 years, she stepped back from formal royal duties in the 1990s, and in 2002 wrote to The Queen to rescind the 'Her Royal Highness' title granted to her upon marriage.

It stands in stark contrast to the more recent departure of another royal Duchess, Meghan Markle, whose interview with Oprah Winfrey has rocked the establishment.

Comment: Heads-up, Meghan!


Arrow Up

Italy to be first EU country to produce Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine

Sputnik V
© Reuters / Agustin Marcarian/ Reuters / Alberto Lingria
An Italian flag flutters in front of Piazza Navona in Rome as the city remain under Covid-19 lockdown. Doses of the Sputnik V arrive at the airport of Buenos Aires.
Italy has signed an agreement with Russia to launch the production of the Sputnik V vaccine, with first batches expected to come out of an Italian plant as early as June. This would make it the first EU nation to produce the jab.

The deal was signed between the Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which bankrolls the production and distribution of Sputnik V, and Italy's Adienne Srl company, the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (CCIR), which facilitated the negotiations, said in a statement on Monday.

Adienne Srl is located in the northern Italian province of Monza and Brianza and is part of a major Swiss group, Adienne Pharma & Biotech. The company was the first to propose signing the strategic cooperation deal with the RDIF, and the talks continued for several months after that, CCIR said.

Comment: Note also that countries dealing with Sputnik V are allowed to produce the vaccine themselves, meanwhile those dealing in the experimental RNA technologies are suspiciously guarded: The Inanity of RNA Vaccines For COVID-19

See also:


Yellow Vest

Demonstrators occupy French national theaters in anti-Covid lockdown protest over 'cultural restrictions'

protests lockdown france national theaters
© AFP / Bertrand Guay
A French activist holds a placard reading 'Macron, Castex, Bachelot, are non-essential' at the French Theatre Odeon theatre de l'Europe, in Paris, on March 6, 2021
Protesters have occupied three of France's national theaters in opposition to coronavirus shutdowns, as cultural spaces have remained closed since the country's lockdown began in October.

The theater occupations come amid growing anger in the country over the continued closure of cultural sites due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, with Pau Theater, Colline Theater and the National Theater of Strasbourg invaded by protesting students.

Comment: While Macron was initially successful at quelling the Yellow Vest's economic protests with the excuse of the pandemic restrictions, they appear to be returning, with the added fuel of the social damage wrought by those same restrictions


Broom

BuzzFeed lays off 47 HuffPost workers less than a month after buying it

Jonah Peretti BuzzFeed
© Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s chief executive, in Laguna Beach, California, on 18 October 2017.
Jonah Peretti announced move in staff meeting on Tuesday while HuffPost's Canada operation was also closed

The news website BuzzFeed has laid off 47 HuffPost workers in the US, the majority of them journalists, and closed down HuffPost's Canadian operation, reportedly without warning to staff, less than a month after purchasing the rival company.

Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed's chief executive, announced the move in a virtual staff meeting on Tuesday, as the company also warned it could trim operations in the UK and Australia.

The job cuts amount to nearly 30% of HuffPost's US-based journalists, at a time when most news outlets across the country are shrinking or facing closure.

Comment: There was sympathy for the individual journalists who lost their livelihoods in a field where getting employment is difficult.


However, the Twitterati wasted none on the shrinking of HuffPost outlets, which many viewed as a purveyor of woke politics:







Bad Guys

Hospital-owning Frist family 'made a killing' during pandemic, with wealth soaring by $8.1 billion

billionaires
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The 660 U.S. billionaires have seen their combined wealth skyrocket by over $1 trillion during the coronavirus pandemic.
"HCA and the Frists join the ranks of pandemic profiteers that have seen their fortunes soar during a time of national tragedy."

As the Covid-19 crisis continues to widen the yawning chasm between the super-rich and everyone else in the United States, a new analysis published Monday by the Institute for Policy Studies reveals Tennessee's billionaire Frist family — the leading shareholders in the nation's largest private healthcare conglomorate — has seen its combined wealth more than double since last March.

The IPS policy brief, entitled Frist Family Pandemic Fortunes (pdf), shows the family of Thomas F. Frist Jr. — who in 1968 founded Healthcare Corporation of America (HCA) along with his father Thomas F. Frist Sr. and Jack C. Massey — has seen its combined personal fortune soar from $7.5 billion on March 18, 2020 to $15.6 billion on March 8, 2021, an increase of 108%.

Comment: The author of this text goes with the official narrative about the pandemic and the number of people who died from Covid. The reality is that in 2009 the WHO changed the definition of a pandemic so they could manipulate and enable the Big-Pharma to sell more vaccines, among other reasons. Officially according to CDC the death rate is so low that you have a bigger probability of dying in a car accident than being killed by this virus. The official numbers of people who died from this virus are unreliable. All people who died from not receiving medical care due to lockdowns and "with Covid" are in this group according to the instructions that hospitals received from CDC. Add to that the number of "asymptomatic" cases and false positives, and you have a statistical nightmare.

See also:


NPC

Cancelled! Mumford & Sons banjo player apologizes for endorsing book critical of Antifa, 'takes time' off the band amid backlash

mumford
© Reuters / Steve Marcus; Reuters / Stephanie Keith
FILE PHOTOS.
Hounded by a mob of enraged netizens, Mumford & Sons banjo player Winston Marshall has retracted an endorsement of conservative journalist Andy Ngo's book on Antifa, drawing accusations of caving in to "bullies."

"Over the past few days I have come to better understand the pain caused by the book I endorsed," the British musician wrote in a tweet on Tuesday night. "I have offended not only a lot of people I don't know, but also those closest to me, including my bandmates and for that I am truly sorry."

"As a result of my actions I am taking time away from the band to examine my blindspots... Please know that I realize how my endorsements have the potential to be viewed as approvals of hateful, divisive behavior."

Comment: Andy Ngo who wrote the book has direct experience of Antifa supporters:
Ngo himself has been attacked by Antifa militants before, and was left with a brain injury after a mugging and beating in 2019.
See also:"Normal" gets cancelled as Unilever vows to drop word from all brands
And check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: Joshua Slocum: We're Living in a Cluster B World




NPC

NYT journo melts down after Tucker Carlson showed widely-available image of her, after claiming online attacks 'destroyed' her life

Tucker Carlson Taylor Lorenze new york times reporter
© Fox News
Tucker Carlson takes NYT reporter Taylor Lorenz (inset) to task
The New York Times' Taylor Lorenz blasted Fox News' Tucker Carlson for airing a segment that featured a widely-available picture of her face, insinuating it was part of the harassment she claims has "destroyed" her life.

Lorenz earned widespread attention - and criticism - this week after saying she deals with "deep trauma" stemming from "online harassment."

"It's not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I've had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life. No one should have to go through this," she tweeted on Monday, in commemoration of International Women's Day.

Comment:


Shoe

High school football coach fired after raising concerns about critical race theory in his daughter's middle school curriculum

Coach David Flynn
© Flickr/Photo/Kate Flock/Wicked Local
A high school football coach who led a Massachusetts school district's team for nearly a decade was fired in early 2021 after he raised concerns about the use of critical race theory in his 7th-grade daughter's curriculum.

David Flynn, with the help of Judicial Watch, filed a federal lawsuit in February seeking damages from Dedham Public School (DPS) administrators including the superintendent, high school principal, and high school athletic director for violating his First Amendment rights to speak out.

The lawsuit explains that Flynn was released from his position just a few months after talking with his 7th-grade daughter's history teacher, principal, Superintendent Michael J. Welch, and three more people on the Dedham School Committee about the quiet changes to the middle school's "World Geography and Ancient History I" curriculum without notification or review by the parents.

Comment: See also:


People 2

Yellen says COVID-19 is having an 'extremely unfair' impact on women's income, jobs

Janmet Yellen mask
© REUTERS/Tom Brenner
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen attends an economic briefing with U.S. President Joe Biden in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 5, 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an "extremely unfair" impact on the income and economic opportunities of women, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday, calling for long-term measures to improve labor market conditions for women.

Yellen, in a dialogue with International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva, said it was critical to address the risk that the pandemic would leave permanent scars, reducing the prospects for women in the workplace and the economy.

She noted that women's participation in the workforce was already lower in the United States before the pandemic than in Europe, another issue that needed to be addressed.

Comment:


Bad Guys

Austin, TX sees attempt at black liberation 'autonomous zone' called 'Orisha Land'

orisha land texas black liberation
© fourhundredandone.com
A black autonomous zone -- Orisha Land -- is forming in Austin
They reject government and 'envision sovereignty as the vehicle to a freedom that has yet to be experienced by the African Diaspora'

A black liberation autonomous zone is forming in Austin, which is the Texas State Capitol. The developers of the city's "sovereign citizen" collective reject state authority to "protect Black liberation and prosperity," according to their published information.

"On Sunday, February 14th, 400+1's L1 Collective led an eleven mile car procession around the perimeter of what is now 400+1 protected territory, renaming the area Orisha Land, and rejecting the state's authority within it," the group has written on its website.

"400 + 1 is a framework constructed to achieve and protect Black liberation and prosperity. This construct encourages diversity in skill and passion among its members while developing a unified ideology. 400 + 1 acknowledges the necessity of building upon the triumphs of our ancestors while critically analyzing the mistakes of the past. Ours is a youth-driven movement that envisions sovereignty as the vehicle to a freedom that has yet to be experienced by the African Diaspora," according to fourhundredandone.com.

Comment: Apparently Austin's law enforcement has reached the end of its patience with a notice to the "Orisha Land" members to vacate Rosewood Park and the surrounding areas:
The black autonomous zone — Orisha Land — that has been developing in Austin over the past several weeks was apparently served a notice by the city to vacate public property. The group is incensed over the notification and promised they "are not f***ing going anywhere."

The developers of the Austin's "sovereign citizen" collective called Orisha Land reject state authority to "protect Black liberation and prosperity," Law Officer reported on Tuesday. We reached out to city authorities for a comment, but never received a reply.

On Wednesday, a woman believed to be one of the group's leaders, Njera Eshe Emeya Keith (according to her Instagram profile), said city authorities "tried to deliver a notice to vacate."

Toward the end of the three-plus minute video statement, the woman said, "In case it's not f***ing clear, we are not f***ing going anywhere." She then repeats herself twice, and says, "So try harder. Come harder. Cuz this is just the beginning of the battle. This is just the beginning of the fight. We're not going any-f***ing-where."

The Austin Police Department issued a press statement on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, regarding the officer-involved shooting of Jordan Walton.
Case: 2021-0411020

Date: February 10, 2021

Time: 5:21 p.m.

Location: 2900 block of Rogge Lane

Deceased: Jordan Walton, Black male, born 6-10-1999

The Austin Police Department continues to investigate the officer involved shooting that occurred during the evening hours of Wednesday, February 10, 2021.

At approximately 5:18 p.m., the Austin Police Department responded to a 911 call of a black jeep that crashed into a house at the intersection of Rogge Lane and Manor Road. The caller stated a male subject left the scene of the crash on foot.

Austin 9-1-1 received a separate call at 5:21 p.m. from a resident in close proximity of the crash. This caller stated that someone broke into their residence. APD officers responded to the second caller's location and attempted to make contact with them. While at the front door, a disturbance was heard inside and patrol officers forced entry into the residence. The suspect fired a gun at officers and a patrol officer returned fire. APD SWAT was requested and arrived on scene.

The suspect exited the residence holding a child hostage. An APD SWAT Officer fired a shot, striking the suspect, who was then pronounced deceased on scene. The child and female inside the residence were brought to safety and uninjured.

This incident was captured on body worn camera. Per APD protocol, both officers have been placed on Administrative Leave. The two officers involved have 8 and 13 years of service with the department. APD will conduct two concurrent investigations into this incident: a criminal investigation by the APD Special Investigations Unit in conjunction with the Travis County District Attorney's Office, and an administrative investigation conducted by the APD Internal Affairs Unit, with oversight from the Office of Police Oversight.