Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 21 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Bullseye

It's time for an alternative to lockdown

Jay Bhattacharya
The Spectator
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:00 UTC
self isolate sign
© Getty images
As France and Germany lock down again - and as Britain considers whether to follow suit - many people will be wondering: can't we think of a better way to handle this pandemic? No one is in any doubt about the threat posed by the Coronavirus. But nor should there be any doubt about the harm posed by lockdown: the mental health, the economic destitution, the deep damage inflicted on families, communities and societies. Perhaps the worst of it is the idea that, when lockdown ends, the virus resumes - and you are back where you started. Where is the exit strategy? And where is the assessment of the costs?

We should, in moments of crisis, be open to ideas about how best to handle it. The previous strategy - lockdown - cannot claim to have been a great success. Which is why it's strange to see such hostility in so many quarters to the idea of even debating a better way out of this mess. The Great Barrington Declaration calls for another way. The focused protection ideas discussed in the Declaration would minimise the harms that would befall those at high and low risk of mortality from Covid should they become infected. The plan would protect higher-risk people (mainly older people over 70) by devoting overwhelming resources and ingenuity to the cause of preventing exposure to infected Covid patients. It would protect lower risk people who face a much greater medical and psychological harm from lockdowns than they do from Covid (an infection fatality rate of five deaths per 10,000) by permitting them to resume their normal lives.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Bug

The new virus-induced feudalism

Jeffrey A. Tucker
American Institute for Economic Freedom
Sun, 25 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
open hands
In February 28, the idea of locking down and smashing economies and human rights the world over was unthinkable to most of us but lustily imagined by intellectuals hoping to conduct a new social/political experiment. On that day, New York Times reporter Donald McNeil released a shocking article: To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It.

He was serious. Most all governments - with few exceptions like Sweden and the Dakotas in the US - did exactly that. The result has been shocking. I've previously called it the new totalitarianism.

Another way to look at this, however, is that the lockdowns have created a new feudalism. The workers/peasants toil in the field, struggling for their own survival, unable to escape their plight, while privileged lords and ladies live off the labors of others and issue proclamations from the estate on the hill above it all.

Consider a restaurant at which I dined one week ago in New York City. The mask mandate is in full force except that diners can take them off once seated. The staff cannot. The wait staff of restaurants wear plastic gloves too. Here you have diners enjoying themselves with food and drink and laughter, many of whom work at home and have faced relatively less economic deprivation, which I assume given how much this class of diners is throwing around on evening revelry.
      Read More...
Candle

Thousands of witches plot 'Blue Wave' spell on Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 to force Trump from office

Steve Warren and Benjamin Gill
CBN News
Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00 UTC
Trump witches
Last year at this time, President Donald Trump was battling the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry against him. If that wasn't enough, media outlets reported "thousands" of witches were trying to cast a "binding spell" on him on Halloween.

Now those practitioners of witchcraft are at it again, celebrating the rare confluence of two "powerful" moon events in one month, all in an effort to get Joe Biden elected and President Trump removed from office.

Communicating via social media, the witches are plotting multiple "binding" events with their biggest attempt to spiritually attack the President on Oct. 31, right before the election. They've been using the hashtags #BindTrump and #MagicResistance, while calling for what they have named a "Blue Wave" spell on Oct. 31 and on Nov. 2.

Comment: Any half-way knowledgeable person will tell you that the problem with spells of this sort is that they quite usually, and ultimately, don't work out as intended! But it looks like these individuals are going to have to learn the hard way...

      Read More...
Bad Guys

Wimping out: Backlash causes Girl Scouts to delete post congratulating Barrett, honoring all women of SCOTUS


The Daily Wire
Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:07 UTC
trump coney barrett swear in
© Sky News
New Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and President Donald Trump at her White House swearing-in ceremony
The Girl Scouts of America has deleted a Wednesday social media post that congratulated Justice Amy Coney Barrett for becoming one of only five women in U.S. history to be appointed to the Supreme Court.

In a statement on social media, the Girl Scouts explained that the post was deleted because it was viewed as a political statement, instead of as simply congratulatory.

"Earlier today, we shared a post highlighting the five women who have been appointed to the Supreme Court. It was quickly viewed as a political and partisan statement which was not our intent and we have removed the post," explained the organization.

Comment: Such a fine example to set for today's young women. So much for the "tolerant Left" celebrating inclusiveness and 'all women'. Hypocrites.

      Read More...
Heart - Black

Covid-19 restrictions and enforced social isolation are killing the elderly

Suzy Khimm
NBC News
Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:46 UTC
nursing home
© Mariana Henninger / NBC News
Joanne Miles Thomas looks through a screened window at her father, George Miles Sr., a resident at a facility in Rochester, N.Y., on Oct. 10.
The moment that Tammy Roberg stepped off the elevator, she could hear her father's booming voice.

Chester Peske, 98, loved to sit in the lunchroom at Copperfield Hill and talk to the other memory care residents about everything from the weather to the history of the highway that connected his hometown to downtown Minneapolis, 6 miles away. While he had Alzheimer's disease, Peske still recognized his children when they came to the Robbinsdale, Minnesota, facility for weekly visits.

"He would talk and talk and talk," Roberg said with a laugh.

Then, in March, there was almost no one that Peske could talk to.

Comment: It's heartbreaking and maddening to witness how tyrants are using 'compassion' to literally kill the most vulnerable among us in the most inhumane of ways. People need connection with one another. It's what drives life forward. Crushing people's will to live and the last moments of their lives together is a cruelty beyond measure.

      Read More...
TV

Phildaelphia rioting now IGNORED by CNN and MSM outlets

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:18 UTC
not covering riots
When Fox News reported on the shooting of a black man (notice I did not capitalize his race, like most of the media are doing!) by police officers in Philadelphia, my initial thought was oh, hell, just when Trump seemed to be pulling ahead...

For sure, I thought, the mainstream media would be billboarding this all over the place as proof of the President's alleged "white supremacy" and that they would be doing everything to pin Trump as the cause of this sort of unrest.

I was wrong. Maybe.

Here at 4:05am EDT on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, six days until Election Day, are the splash pages of CNN and CBS News.

First, CNN:

Trump's move in states
      Read More...
NPC

Pronouns being used for social engineering to control thought and eliminate parent's ability to protect their children

Debbie Hayton
RT
Wed, 28 Oct 2020 20:36 UTC
LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter march
© REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Demonstrators take part in a joint LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter march on the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, New York, U.S. June 28, 2020
The social engineering around new terms to describe ourselves are baffling & unnecessary. Why are charities, multinationals & broadcasters like the BBC so keen to push this agenda and brainwash our children?

Language is not only the medium of our speech, but the medium of our thoughts, so when people set out to change our language, we are right to be concerned. Unshackled by anything equivalent to the Académie Française, which regulates the French language, English develops in response to usage. But we would be naïve to imagine that all change is passive when vested interests are keen to change the way we think.

In recent years, gender has been quietly replacing sex in language and policy across the English-speaking world. But the changes are not stopping there. While the transgender lobby has shrieked their mantra, trans women are women, the group formerly known as women are having words ripped from them, even by their own support organisations. The coordination is uncanny.
      Read More...
Yoda

Project Veritas: 'Ballot chaser' Raquel Rodriguez boasts judges, legislators 'In my pocket'


Project Veritas
Wed, 28 Oct 2020 17:15 UTC
Project Veritas ballot harvest
© Project Veritas
Texas 'Ballot chaser' Raquel Rodriguez caught in Project Veritas expose
'I'm Getting the Biden Vote Out, But I Mean, I'm Not Going To Do It For Free'... Some Texas Republicans Secretly Working For Democrats!

Project Veritas undercover journalists exposed more corrupt practices here by ballot chaser Raquel Rodriguez in the second part of their investigation released today.

"Raquel Rodriguez was recorded with hidden camera explaining how she and her confederates pressure and reward targeted voters in order to meet the vote totals campaigns and candidates have contracted them to meet," said James O'Keefe, the founder and CEO of Project Veritas.

"Raquel Rodriguez boasts about all the other political power brokers who are in her pocket and she told our journalists she has already brought in 7,000 votes," he said.

Comment: Rodriguez claims there are Texas Republican operatives secretly working for Biden's elections:


Project Veritas carries the fight to other culprits:




      Read More...
Headphones

Media maverick Joe Rogan interviews Alex Jones in latest podcast, snowflakes flip out, threaten to cancel Spotify subscriptions - UPDATE


RT
Wed, 28 Oct 2020 18:06 UTC
joe rogan alex jones spotify
© (L)Instagram / @timjdillon; (R) Spotify logo
Joe Rogan and Alex Jones from Rogan's Instagram account
Top podcaster Joe Rogan surprised his audience by having right-wing controversialist Alex Jones back as a guest on his show, prompting outcry online as outraged subscribers said they would cancel their Spotify subscriptions.

Rogan's Tuesday show turned out to be even more polarizing than usual - and somewhat unexpected given that the podcast's fans noticed in recent months that some episodes featuring conservative guests curiously never made it onto Spotify, where Rogan has an exclusive deal. Jones himself was previously banned on the platform in 2018, with Spotify citing "hate content" as the reason.

His reappearance on the show seems to have cleared up suspicions that Rogan had succumbed to editorial scrutiny following the missing episodes and his recent retraction after pushing debunked claims that left-wing activists had started wildfires in Oregon.

Comment: Spotify management can't afford to lose their big selling point as the free-speech supporting alternative to YouTube, which brought Rogan over to them in the first place. Indeed, BuzzFeed reports that Spotify management is defending the move internally. But that matters little to the SJW segment of their staff and audience. The GIF gods got in on the fun:



UPDATE: Spotify has surprisingly stood by Rogan, even behind closed doors:
In an internal email obtained by BuzzFeed News, Horacio Gutierrez, the company's chief legal officer and head of global affairs, wrote to managers about how to respond to employee complaints about content hosted on their platform.

Gutierrez said that potentially problematic material should be reported to Spotify's Trust & Safety department, but stressed that it was not appropriate to flag a piece of content just because it has stirred up controversy online. "It's all too common that things are taken out of context," he noted.

The executive went on to describe Spotify as "a place for creative expressions" and said it was "important to have diverse voices and points of view on our platform."
We are not going to ban specific individuals from being guests on other people's shows, as the episode/show complies with our content policies.
The email, which did not refer to Jones by name, also included "talking points" that top managers should use if asked about the podcast episode, BuzzFeed said.
Note the bit about "employee complaints." JP Sears probably wasn't far off!



      Read More...
Yellow Vest

Wave of furious anti-lockdown protests sweep Europe

Jemma Carr
The Daily Mail
Mon, 26 Oct 2020 16:13 UTC
barcelona lockdown protests October 2020
© AFP/Getty
Vast crowds gathered on the streets of Barcelona with angry protesters setting dustbins on fire
Protests erupted across Europe last night as thousands of angry demonstrators called on their governments to reconsider a second-round of lockdown restrictions.

In Italy, violence was reported in at least two major northern cities, Milan and Turin, as vast crowds protested freedom-limiting restrictions enforced to tackle a second surge in coronavirus cases. Witnesses said a number of luxury stores, including a Gucci shop, were ransacked in central Turin as crowds of youths took to the streets after nightfall, letting off huge firecrackers and lighting coloured flares. The city's mayor today berated the violent protesters who she said had 'polluted' a demonstration by bar and restaurant owners who are facing another economic slump.

In Milan at least 28 people were arrested after protesters threw Molotov cocktails at police in the capital of Lombardy, the original epicentre of the virus in Italy which is now seeing a resurgence of cases.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts