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© Geoff Robins / AFPA man arrives at the entrance to the Toronto Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto, Ontario on November 23, 2020, the first day of a new lockdown in the city.
Since being told one year ago that the curve-flattening would be a two-week process, many Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses have instead been forced to close for much of the year (while big-box superstores have remained open).
Dan Kelly, the president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, recently tweeted against the enforced closures, asking Ontario Premier Doug Ford for "a new plan."
In a separate tweet, Ford, pretending that his policies hadn't destroyed businesses and impoverished the working class, wrote of firing up the economy, creating more jobs, and getting people back on their feet.
Tell that to the small businesses barely operating, or those unlikely to ever reopen again.
Almost one year ago, former President Trump declared a national emergency and the White House announced a 15-day plan to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Governments around the world either preceded the U.S. or soon followed with similar pronouncements. The upsurge in totalitarianism since these edicts were installed is mind-boggling.
Staying home, social distancing, and hand washing were the first steps in the slippery slope towards medical martial law. Then came the lockdowns and mandatory face mask policies. These were soon followed by pressure to take a COVID-19 test, contact tracing, and quarantines. Next were vaccines that were rushed to production, given only "emergency use authorization" by the FDA and still deemed experimental, having completely skipped long-term safety studies. Now, the threat of vaccine passports/certificates represents the next step towards complete tyranny and subjugation of the people.
All of these draconian measures have served as social engineering tools to get people used to having "experts" and government officials tell them what to do. In fact, you could argue that all of humanity (outside those in authority) has been slowly tortured over the past year. With staggering numbers of suicides and rising rates of substance abuse, many decided to just check out. The remaining masses have been subjected to classical conditioning like Pavlov's dogs. During this "plandemic", most people have been retrained to depend on authorities to tell them when they can go to work, visit loved ones, travel, go to church, hug someone or even shake their hand.
Comment: See also:
- The New Normal (Phase 2)
- Step toward 'new normal'? New York rolls out 'Covid passport' at event venues to prove attendees' vaccination & testing status
- EU will propose creating Covid-19 vaccine passports in March
- UK foreign sec says Covid vaccine passports 'under consideration' just days after vaccine minister calls idea 'discriminatory'
- Tel Aviv sees protests against vaccine coercion, 'green passes' to live normally
© ReutersA man wearing a protective face mask walks past an illustration of a virus outside a regional science centre
Governments should adopt a strategy of eliminating Covid-19. Who could argue with that? After five months of lockdowns over the past year in the UK, everyone is mightily sick of living with restrictions. If there is a way of driving the virus out altogether, perhaps we should take it. But the demands of the 'Zero Covid' movement seem to be an odd mix of uncontroversial policies and extending authoritarian measures indefinitely.
The campaign group was set up last summer, predominantly by left wingers such as trade unionists, local councillors and academics, and seeks to entirely eradicate the virus from our shores.
© XinhuaLocal residents walk in a street at a scenic spot in the ancient city of Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 16, 2020.
Xu Guixiang, deputy director of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee, revealed the information at a Xinjiang-related press conference held by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
Under the banner of so-called "freedom of the press" and without investigation and verification, the BBC followed the trend and quoted the so-called Xinjiang-related "research report" of pseudo-scholar Adrian Zenz, producing and broadcasting fake news, making irresponsible remarks on Xinjiang-related policies, and spreading rumors and slander, Xu said, noting that the British media outlet has become a platform for the dissemination of Zenz's lies about Xinjiang.
Comment: Even amongst a significant number of British citizens the BBC is considered to be the propaganda arm of the ruling government:
- BBC exodus: Britons overwhelm phone lines & website in rush to cancel TV licenses
- BBC deliberately broadcasts 'coded negative imagery' of Corbyn, top British lawyer claims
- BBC backtracks and admits children's wards are NOT seeing a surge in severe coronavirus admissions
- War Propaganda: The false BBC report that gave Israel the excuse to attack Syria
© AFP / Ludovic MARINParisians are getting away while they can
The new restrictions, announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex late on Thursday, apply to around a third of the country's population affecting Paris and several other regions in the north and south.
The government has insisted that the new month-long lockdown will be more limited than the two others imposed last year, with schools open and outdoor exercise allowed for an unlimited amount of time.
Comment: What with the nonsensical, ever changing rules it's becoming increasingly difficult to deny that these lockdowns are more of a warped psychological game than a scientifically backed strategy.
© Murray Sanders/Daily MailSue Reid has revealed how she was left shocked and upset when doctors secretly, and without consent, applied a do not resuscitate order for her partner Nigel Griffiths, who died at home last May
Not years, perhaps, but enough precious time to enjoy our summer garden while getting to know his new granddaughter, Cosima. Instead, politely and with grace, he died on our sofa 36 hours later.
He was desperately weak when he was discharged in a wheelchair from the hospital by two nurses. When I tried to put a seatbelt round him in the back seat of the taxi, he said: 'No, too much pain'.
Sue Reid has revealed how she was left shocked and upset when doctors secretly, and without consent, applied a do not resuscitate order for her partner Nigel Griffiths, who died at home last May
Comment: Could the PTB make their intentions any clearer?
- Genocide of the 'impure': Surge in Do Not Resuscitate orders for learning disabilities patients issued during UK lockdown
- Ill children, autistic people, seniors pressured to sign 'do not resuscitate' forms
- Care homes 'ordered not to resuscitate' residents during height of pandemic
- 'Avoidable deaths': Do Not Resuscitate orders issued AGAIN - People with learning disabilities targeted during second lockdown
- Criminal! NY issues do-not-resuscitate guideline for cardiac patients amid induced coronavirus panic
- Chilling! Physicians send out 'do not resuscitate' forms, telling those like my disabled daughter to sign them
© AP/Seth WenigNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo
The internal inquiry into the allegations lodged by the staffer, who is still employed by the governor's office, is being handled by Cuomo's senior aides, the Albany Times Union reported. A senior Cuomo aide told the newspaper:
"We have our own inquiries ongoing. We have an obligation to investigate any claim of sexual harassment. And we ... were directed to continue our own inquiry."The woman's accusations against Cuomo are already being investigated separately by state Attorney General Letitia James.
A lawyer for the accuser, who has not been identified and has not filed a formal complaint against Cuomo, blasted what he called the governor's office "shadow investigation." He told the Times Union:
"It's absurd. Why would you be doing that? It's not appropriate, and obviously we're concerned with the ramifications and the effect on witnesses and the quest for the truth."
© Reuters / Adrees LatifA US Border Patrol agent instructs asylum-seeking migrants as they line up along the border wall after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico on a raft, in Penitas, Texas, US, March 17, 2021
"The number of migrants that come across on foot has ramped up substantially in just the last few weeks," Chris Riggs, the mayor of Gila Bend, an Arizona border town of 2,000, told RT.
Mayor Riggs said he began worrying after the town was notified that border control officials will be releasing migrants in the local community after processing them quickly. At the same time, federal agencies did not provide enough information about the expected arrivals, he said.
Comment: The number of minors arriving at the southern border of the U.S. is threatening to overwhelm resources:
More than 14,000 migrant children are currently held in US custody, a senior administration official said, insisting there's no "crisis" at the border soon after Biden's press secretary invoked the very same term.
The official said the number of youths detained after attempting to cross the border had soared to 14,000 during a Thursday press briefing, noting that they are divided between facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Border Patrol.
While the official argued that "Children presenting themselves at the border is not a national crisis," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki appeared to contradict that statement during a presser earlier on Thursday, referring to a "crisis on the border." Pressed by reporters, she amended the phrase to "challenges on the border."
Psaki's self-correction is in line with the administration's public stance on the situation at the southern border. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that aired on Tuesday night, Biden sought to downplay the current surge of migration, though reluctantly agreed that it "could be" larger than other spikes seen in recent years. While telling asylum-seekers "don't come over," the president also insisted federal agencies are working as fast as possible to transfer young migrants from border police facilities to "safe" HHS-run holding areas.
However, though Axios reported in late February that some 700 underage migrants were being detained by the Border Patrol, that figure has since soared to around 4,500, the official said. The majority of them, nearly 3,000, have been held beyond the three-day limit set out under federal guidelines, according to CBS News. Another 9,500 are now in HHS custody.
The updated figure comes amid reports that the Biden administration handed down an informal "gag order" for Border Patrol agents, barring them from speaking publicly about the ongoing immigration surge or taking reporters on 'ride-alongs' to witness it for themselves.
Biden also told ABC that adult migrants have not been allowed to enter the country, but the senior official said on Thursday that there are "certain limits" on Mexico's ability to absorb families that are turned away. In some cases, they are accepted into the US so their asylum requests can be heard by a judge, added the official.
Despite the repeated denials of any border crisis, Biden's Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged this week that the US is currently "on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years," adding that the conditions there continue to deteriorate. While the president recently said he has no plans to visit the border anytime soon, Mayorkas is expected to make a stop there on Friday, according to ABC News.
- CBP sends reinforcements to US-Mexico border amid surge in migrants; 'not a crisis' says Homeland Security chief
- Republicans slam Biden's return to 'Catch and Release' for 25K asylum seekers
- Biden's getting the Obama band back together again for an encore performance celebrating nostalgia for a never-was golden age
© Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty ImagesNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo
A New York City nursing home director tells Fox News that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's order last year requiring such facilities to take in COVID-positive patients released from hospitals was "ridiculous" and that he warned state officials "we can't be doing this."
Michael Kraus, the administrator of the Silver Lakes Specialized Care Center in Staten Island, said he immediately raised the alarm after first hearing about the March 25, 2020, order in a conference call with other directors, hospital leaders and state officials.
"I said that's ridiculous. We can't be doing this. It's just not right to the residents," Kraus told Fox News in an exclusive interview with correspondent Aishah Hasnie that aired Thursday on America Reports.
Comment:
- Cuomo under fire as probe finds Covid-19 nursing-home deaths in NY were undercounted by up to 50%
- Cuomo's COVID cover-up hid nearly 1,900 NYC nursing home deaths
- Nursing homes were bullied into accepting Covid-19 patients
- Cuomo advisers convinced DOH to omit certain nursing home COVID deaths from official tally
- Cuomo stonewalled COVID-19 nursing home data. But it was worse than just a coverup.
- Cuomo created disabled group home deathtraps, says whistleblower
- Cuomo callously addresses COVID nursing home report: 'Who cares!'
- Amid COVID, nursing home uproar, a mass exodus of Cuomo health officials
- Rand Paul calls for Cuomo to be impeached over coronavirus response
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