Society's ChildS


Brick Wall

Ireland has the strictest lockdown regime in the Western world - New Oxford study

Ireland PM Micheal Martin
A new study has claimed that Ireland has been put under the strictest COVID-19 lockdown regime in the Western world.

Researchers at the University of Oxford ranked the pandemic strategies of 180 countries on a 'stringency map', factoring in the impact of public health restrictions on education, the workplace, socialisation, international travel and freedom of movement.

Comment: See also:


Dollars

Emergency monthly checks for parents could turn permanent under Senate Democrats' push

  • Senate Democrats want to make permanent a new stimulus program that would temporarily provide checks to families.
  • Sen. Sherrod Brown said he wants to tie it to a plan for postal banking.
  • Under the House stimulus plan, families could receive a monthly check of $250 or $300 per child starting on July 1.
Sen. Sherrod Brown
© Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesSen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) talks with reporters on Capitol Hill.
Emergency monthly checks for parents could turn permanent under Senate Democrats' pushJoseph Zeballos-Roig Feb. 25, 2021, 10:00 PMSen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) talks with reporters on Capitol Hill.

Senate Democrats said on Thursday they would seek later this year to turn a proposed emergency federal check program for parents into a permanent piece of the American social safety net.

"As soon as we pass the Recovery Act, we will fight to make it permanent and to make sure they can get the checks monthly if they choose," Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio told reporters on a press call.

Brown was referring to a plan to dramatically revamp the child tax credit, a top Democratic priority in the $1.9 trillion stimulus package. It aims to provide $3,600 over the year to families with young children aged 5 and under, and send $3,000 to those with kids between 6 and 17.

Sherlock

Covid cases fall slightly across UK to last October's levels, when it locked down for second time

lockdown uk mask
© AP Photo/Matt DunhamCovid rates are now at the same levels in the UK as they were in October.
Covid-19 levels have fallen across the UK to rates similar to mid-October 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported Friday, with slightly more than 421,000 cases in the community for the week ending February 19.

The weekly ONS snapshot said that one-in-145 people in England have the virus compared to one-in-115 the week before. In Northern Ireland, it is one-in-95 compared to one-in-105 previously. In Wales, it is one-in 205 from one-in-125 before, and in Scotland one-in 225 compared to one-in-180.

The ONS said these levels of infection in the community are similar to rates reported in mid-October, before the four nations of the UK tightened lockdown rules for a second time and prior to when the more contagious mutant strain took hold initially in the southeast of England.

Comment: Even though an experimental vaccine has been given to millions, cases are the same as October, a time when the government terrified the public into accepting another lockdown; this time, however, in a continuation of the nefarious nonsense, Bojo is talking of 'road map' out of lockdown - maybe:


Magnify

Amnesty revoking Navalny's 'prisoner of conscience' tag reminds us it shouldn't only go to only those we like

Amnesty Navalny
© AmnestyRussian opposition activist Alexei Navalny Sputnik / Pavel Bednyakov; (inset)
Amnesty International's statement that it doesn't consider Alexey Navalny a prisoner of conscience has his supporters up in arms. The group's efforts to defend the activist don't stack up, but the decision is wrong nonetheless.

A prisoner of conscience, simply defined, is somebody who is imprisoned because of his or her religious or political beliefs. The term is value-free. It doesn't matter what you believe, or the nature of your character; if your beliefs land you in jail, you're a prisoner of conscience. You can be quite revolting, but the label still fits.


Comment: Maybe, but perhaps a priority should be to demonstrate that the person actually has a conscience?


One might say that there are limits - some things are so beyond the pail that no civilized society can accept them. But even then, just believing something obnoxious is not normally considered a reason for imprisonment - you have to do something to promote those obnoxious beliefs, in which case you're not a prisoner of "conscience" but of something else.

Comment: See also: Amnesty International: An unmasked face of British intelligence


Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Police baton-charge freedom protesters in Dublin - Ireland under strictest and longest lockdown in Western world

protest dublin lockdown
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in Dublin to protest Ireland's restrictive lockdown policies. But the Saturday gathering soon turned violent, as police were pelted with bottles, cans, and even fireworks.


Comment: Fact-check: many thousands of people were in attendance.


Ireland's first national lockdown in 2020 was the longest in Europe, and the nationwide restrictions currently in place have been ranked the fourth-toughest in the world - and the toughest in Europe - by researchers at Oxford University. With the highest level of restrictions set to remain in place until early April at the earliest, hundreds of protesters gathered in Dublin on Saturday to protest the measures.


After symbolically assembling at the General Post Office, where Irish revolutionaries declared independence from Britain more than a century ago, the hundreds-strong crowd marched to St. Stephen's Green, a park that had been closed by police in anticipation of the protest.

The demonstration devolved into violence along the way. Police officers blocking the route to the park were heckled and shouted at by the protesters. Video footage then showed one protester shooting a firework into an officer's face at point-blank range.


Comment: And there are no doubt many more major protests to come - globally - throughout 2021.


Biohazard

Belgian govt warns that masks it distributed in 2020 may contain TOXIC chemicals

lungs
© Anna Shvets from Pexels
Millions of cloth facemasks distributed by the federal government in Belgium in 2020 may contain toxic chemicals according to a newly-leaked report from Sciensano, the Belgian Institute for Public Health.

The Belgian government purchased 15 million Avrox masks and dispensed them through private pharmacies to its 11.5 million citizens. However, due to additional mask sales and delivery efforts by local authorities and private companies, only an estimated third of the federally-distributed masks were actually used.

The masks were produced in Asia by Luxembourg firm Avrox and now an investigation is underway following complaints from rival Belgian mass manufacturers about the possible contamination of the Avrox masks with toxic nanoparticles of silver and with titanium dioxide, used to dye the masks white.

Comment: Masks are harmful to the wearer as it is: 4-year-old almost dies due to lung infection caused by prolonged mask wearing - doctor rants 'how many children must die?'

See also: Mandatory masks and movement restrictions are violation of human rights - Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina


Eye 1

Welcome to Snitch Nation: From kids to parents, it's a race to rat out your (former) loved ones before they get you first

coronavirus billboard uk
© Helen Buyniski
In the grand tradition of divide and conquer, the ruling class has set in motion a fool-proof way to keep us from uniting against the Great Reset and attendant restrictions on human freedoms - dupe us into snitching on each other!

In order to achieve the proper level of blanket obedience, it's important that ordinary people trust the government unquestioningly - and fear and hate those who don't. This is best accomplished by discrediting and distancing the target population from all non-approved information sources, whether that's Grandma down in Florida or their favorite alt-media YouTube channel. The target must be informed in no uncertain terms that they're in the midst of an 'infodemic' - a deadly (if invisible and intangible) swarm of ideas that must be resisted at all costs by keeping one's eyes and ears firmly fixed on the news networks, lest one fail to keep up with the ever-shifting New Normal.

Comment: It's telling that nearly every country that enforced brutal, rolling lockdowns also created their own snitch hotlines: Also check out SOTT radio's:


2 + 2 = 4

Boys are girls: America's great struggle session

boy girl baby sex differences
© Stock
We have written earlier about the stolen election and the Great Struggle Session to which the American people are being subjected by the political left.

The stolen election is, however, only the latest agenda item in the left's project of reality subversion.

Another whip with which the left has been painfully tormenting the American public for some years now is the so-called "trans" movement. Trans is an umbrella term for a body of assertions, notions and activities that strike most ordinary people as largely absurd. Perhaps the most shocking among them is the concept of transsexuality. This is the idea that boys can become girls and men can become women and vice versa.


Comment: The reason they strike most ordinary people as absurd is because most ordinary people are fairly resistant to histrionic social contagions. (The most susceptible are the ruling class, in addition to young people, especially young girls.)


The assumption behind the concept of transsexuality is that human beings who have been born as biological males can turn into females and those born as biological females can turn into males. The process of changing from one sex to another is referred to as "transitioning."

The problem with this idea is that it is simply not possible for a person to change their sex. This is because our sex is hardwired into our person on the most fundament level of our physical existence.

Calendar

Boris Johnson: Workers will return to offices in 'a few short months'

Boris Johnson
© John Sibley/ReutersEU parliament shelves vote on Brexit deal after Boris Johnson 'violates' agreement
Commuters will return to offices "in a few short months", Boris Johnson has predicted, dismissing the idea that lockdowns will lead to a permanent shift towards working from home.

Speaking at a rail industry conference via video call on Friday, the prime minister said he was confident workers would return to traditional work patterns when lockdown restrictions were eased.
"I know that some people may imagine that all conferences are going be like this, held over Zoom, Teams or what have you and we've got to prepare for a new age in which people don't move around, do things remotely, they don't commute any more.

"I don't believe it. Not for a moment. In a few short months, if all goes to plan, we in the UK are going to be reopening our economy. And then, believe me, the British people will be consumed once again with their desire for the genuine face-to-face meeting that makes all the difference to the deal or whatever it is."

Comment: Johnson slyly puts both scenarios out there.


Health

Alarming increase in Dutch needing Red Cross food support

Man grocerystore
© Deposit Photos
The number of Netherlands residents who need help to buy food is increasing alarmingly, the Red Cross reported. In May last year, the aid organization issued abut 2,200 shopping cards and food parcels per week. In the coming weeks, that will be scaled up to 6 thousand cards and parcels, NOS reports.

The shopping card contains credit with which groceries can be bought at the supermarket. Single persons receive 15 euros per week. Families get more, depending on their composition.

According to the Red Cross, more and more people need help. In May it was mainly undocumented migrants, homeless people, and migrant workers who asked for aid. Now the organization is seeing more and more students, entrepreneurs and single parents who lost their jobs and income in the coronavirus pandemic.

The Red Cross encountered student mentors coming to ask for help because students can't afford anything other than bread. Flexible workers are facing high fixed costs and can hardly afford food. More and more entrepreneurs and self employed people are also knocking on the door, the aid organization said.