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Ridiculous: Idaho police say woman violated stay-at-home order for yard sale

Maddie Capron
Idaho Statesman
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 15:44 UTC
Police
A northern Idaho woman could face jail time after police said she had a yard sale, which violated the state's stay-at-home order during the coroanvirus pandemic.

Police issued a citation Friday to the homeowner, who they said was having a yard sale over the past week, Rathdrum Police Department said in a news release on Facebook.

The yard sale is not considered an "essential business" as part of Idaho's stay-at-home order, police said.

Violating the stay-at-home order in Idaho is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in a county jail or a $1,000 fine, or both, the Idaho Statesman reported.

"The family has had a yard sale for the past week within the City of Rathdrum," Rathdrum Police Department said in the statement. "A garage sale/yard sale is not an essential business and should not be open for business."
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Eye 1

Tennis legend Marat Safin: "They're preparing people for microchip implants"


RT
Tue, 14 Apr 2020 11:53 UTC
Marat Safin
© Getty Images / Paul KaneMarat Safin
Russian tennis legend Marat Safin has suggested the coronavirus pandemic could be a pretext for the mass implanting of microchips into humans, as the former world number one gave an unexpected take on the crisis.
"I think they are preparing people for 'chipization' [chip implants]," Safin, 40, said in an Instagram chat with Russian outlet Sports.ru.

"Back in 2015, Bill Gates said we'll have a pandemic, that the next enemy is a virus, not a nuclear war.

"They did a simulation at the Davos [economic] forum of what it would be like. I don't think Bill Gates is a predictor, he just knew.

"I think with this virus the situation isn't like what we're being told, but people believe it all, the horror stories on TV.

"Some people believe civilization will end, I don't believe that. We'll just be going around with chips soon," Safin added, continuing his unorthodox take on the current crisis.
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Corona

US/UK media promotes evergreen Russian boozing stereotypes, but latest data shows alcohol sales down during Covid-19 pandemic

Jonny Tickle
RT
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 20:22 UTC
alcohol booze russian vodka coronavirus
© Reuters / Maxim ShemetovAn employee places bottles of vodka in a supermarket amid the coronavirus pandemic in Moscow.
Western media is a funny beast. While demanding balanced and sensible coverage of their own state's internal affairs, stories about Russia seem to be treated as the follies of bonkers, backward people in a far-flung freakshow.

If all you knew about this country came from the likes of the Washington Post and the Guardian, you'd be forgiven for thinking Russian streets were teeming with balalaika-playing bears, AK-47-wielding communists, and KGB officers Cossack-dancing in the snow. By now, you'd have thought such caricatures would have gotten old, yet despite the current trend towards wokeness, lazy and hackneyed stereotypes are back in fashion.

In recent weeks, Anglo-American news outlets have resorted to exploiting the most famous and lazy Russian trope of all: The demon drink.

Comment: See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Deadliest mass killing in Canada's history: At least 18 dead after man goes on shooting spree in Nova Scotia - UPDATES

Alexander Quon
GlobalNews.ca
Sun, 19 Apr 2020 07:47 UTC
Wortman
© Nova Scotia RCMP - HOGabriel Wortman, 51, has been identified by RCMP as the suspect in their active shooter investigation in Portapique, N.S., on April 19, 2020.
Nova Scotia RCMP said a suspect in a shooting investigation near Portapique, Nova Scotia was taken into custody on Sunday. They identified the suspect as 51 year-old Gabriel Wortman, but would not specify the number of victims or say whether any individuals had been killed in the incident.

Multiple people, including one member of the RCMP, are dead after a shooting rampage in a community in rural Nova Scotia on Sunday.

Gabriel Wortman, 51, is believed to be the primary suspect in the shooting spree that occurred in and around the area of Portapique, N.S.

Multiple sources told Global News that Wortman is dead. A body matching the description of Wortman was seen at the Enfield Big Stop on Highway 102.

Comment: UPDATE April 19 21:25 CET

Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported that at least 16 people were killed across Nova Scotia before the gunman was 'neutralized' after an exchange of gunfire. Authorities warned earlier that there might be more victims as they were still investigating. Police said they do not know the motive of the rampage yet, but it appeared to be "very random in nature," as some of the victims had no relation to the shooter. This was the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history.

UPDATE April 20 13:11 CET

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed that at least 18 were killed, with police saying that they believe the attacker targeted specific victims only to then go on killing random strangers. He has also disguised himself and his vehicle. Conflicting reports said that the killer had been detained but now authorities have confirmed he is "deceased" following a firefight with police.

RT provides further information of how the events unfolded:
  • He made his car look like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruiser and wore a police uniform, which indicates the attack wasn't totally spontaneous.
  • The chase for the suspect, who changed vehicles at least once, went along one of Nova Scotia province's busiest highways and ended near a gas station 35 kilometers north of Halifax around noon Sunday.
  • Const. Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the RCMP and mother of two, was killed responding to the active shooter incident, while another RCMP officer is in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
  • One of the victims was informally identified by her sister as Lisa McCully, an elementary school teacher and a volunteer at the Berwick bible camp.
The Nova Scotia massacre has become the deadliest mass killing in the history of Canada, overshadowing the 1989 mass shooting at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college, which led to tighter gun controls. Earlier, authorities warned that there might be even more victims as the investigation is ongoing and involves "multiple" crime scenes, some with "structures on fire."







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Health

NHS staff told not to tweet about 'political issues like lack of PPE'

Sam Truelove
Mirror
Sun, 19 Apr 2020 20:21 UTC
nurse ppe mask
© Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesThere are concerns that there is not enough PPE for NHS workers.
A NHS trust has told staff not to tweet about "political issues" during the coronavirus pandemic, including the shortage of PPE.

Workers at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust were sent the social media guidance via a staff newsletter on Friday.

In the newsletter, seen by the East Anglian Daily Times, staff were told to avoid tweeting about "political issues, such as PPE, testing and exit strategies".

Comment: God forbid medical staff give a personal account of what's going on in the hospitals on social media. Other than giving kudos to their workmates, everything else would be considered 'political'. Unless it's cringy Tiktok videos of dance routines. Those are OK.

See also:

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Red Flag

Far-left extremists call for assault of police officers, prison guards during pandemic

Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
True North
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
far left extremists police
The violent call to action also asks fellow extremists to sabotage fibre optic cables and relay antennas to disrupt communication services.

Canadian far-left extremist websites are seeking to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to further their radical views through violent means.

Montreal Counter-Information and North Shore Counter-Info are calling on their followers to issue death threats, engage in vandalism and assault unsuspecting police officers and prison guards.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Intensive CIA spying on Assange targeted his infant child

Oscar Grenfell
World Socialist Website
Sat, 18 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
spying on assange
A meeting between Assange and his legal advisor Geoffrey Robertson illegally spied on by UC Global
Spanish daily El País and the Italian newspaper Fatto Quotidiano this week revealed new details of the intensive surveillance and dirty tricks operations targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was a political refugee in Ecuador's London embassy.

Both articles indicated that a particular focus of the spying, which was allegedly orchestrated by the US Central Intelligence Agency, was identifying Assange's immediate family members. It raises the ominous possibility that plans were afoot to harm Assange's relatives, including his infant child.

The reports are the latest exposures of the spying, which was conducted by UC Global, a private Spanish firm contracted by the Ecuadorian authorities to provide security to the embassy building.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

'Exercising my rights is terrorism?' The View's Joy Behar ripped online after she calls armed lockdown protesters 'terrorists'


RT
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 23:41 UTC
Demonstrators Virginia
© REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueDemonstrators hold signs as they gather in opposition to Virginia's stay-at-home order and business closures in Richmond, Virginia, U.S., April 16, 2020.
The View's Joy Behar was told to check her privilege after she labeled protesters who brought arms to anti-lockdown rallies "terrorists." Her comment has sparked outrage both online and from a co-host.

Behar has received a swift pushback from fellow host Meghan McCain, after she took a swipe at protesters who turned up at rallies across several US states to call for the lifting of the restrictive lockdown measures that have dealt a heavy blow to the American economy, driving the unemployment rates to record highs.

"These people are being egged on by right-wing media and people like Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh. And why are you bringing guns to a rally... you want to call yourself protesters, leave your guns home. Those are terrorists who bring guns to things, to rallies," Behar said.

Behar went on to add that she does not "trust" those who took to the streets to protest the lockdowns. "Don't listen to these people," she added.

Comment: Meanwhile "terrorists" clog Buffalo, demanding Cuomo lift the lockdown in New York:
A motorcade of protesters has jammed up Niagara Square in Buffalo, New York. The demonstrators want lockdown measures lifted in their corner of the Empire State, but their defiance has angered some citizens.

Sticking to their cars to maintain social distance, a crowd of protesters blocked the streets of central Buffalo on Monday, calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to reopen the economy of New York State. While New York City has seen more than 130,000 cases of coronavirus and 10,000 deaths, Erie County, where Buffalo is located, has seen 2,200 cases and 143 fatalities.

Despite the discrepancy, Cuomo's stay-at-home order applies to the entirety of the state.



"Everything Cuomo is doing is aimed at New York City. But we have to suffer the consequences and it has to stop," one protester told local media on Sunday.

Cuomo has extended the shutdown until May 15, after President Donald Trump announced he would leave the decision on when to re-open up to state governors. However, New York is not the only state reluctant to relax the lockdown, and similar protests have broken out in more than ten states in recent days, including in Texas, Washington, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

In scenes repeated across the country, protesters flew a mix of American, Gadsden, and even Confederate flags from their cars.



See also: Five protests against state government lockdowns held on Sunday in Tennessee, Washington, Colorado, Illinois and Florida - More planned...

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Syringe

Immunologist: There has never been a vaccine for coronavirus, and unlikely there will ever be one

Candace Sutton
news.com.au
Sun, 19 Apr 2020 07:02 UTC
Immunologist Professor Ian Frazer
Immunologist Professor Ian Frazer


One of Australia's most eminent vaccine developers says there may never be a vaccine against COVID-19 for some very good reasons.

Professor Ian Frazer, the immunologist who co-invented the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine which prevents cervical cancer, said a coronavirus vaccine was "tricky".

He told news.com.au that although 100 different teams around the world were testing for vaccines, medical scientists did not have a model of how to attack the virus.

The professor of medicine at Queensland University, which is testing for its own COVID-19 vaccine, said immunisation against coronavirus was similar to immunising against the common cold.

"It is tricky, vaccines for upper respiratory tract diseases, because the virus lands on the outside of you," Prof Frazer said.

"Think of us as a football, with the skin and respiratory tract on the outside o f the football and the lungs are where the outside interfaces with the inside.

"The place where the virus lands is outside us and it tries to infect the cells within us.

Comment: See also:

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Stock Down

From panic-buying to lockdowns of eateries & manufacturing: Truckers, railroads face supply chain turmoil, spikes & plunges

Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Tue, 14 Apr 2020 00:00 UTC
sinking ship
"There has been a clear divide between winners and losers."

Panic buying in late February and March was followed by a sudden shift in consumption in mid-March away from restaurants, schools, college campuses, office buildings, other work locations to supermarkets, warehouse clubs, and ecommerce. For weeks, brick-and-mortar retail supply chains failed to keep up, and bare shelves in some product categories became a common sight. But the supply chains at the other end of the spectrum ground to a halt, stuck with goods that had no place to go.

This divergence has shown up in the trucking business. March was busy for truckers hauling dry-van trailers and refrigerated trailers (reefers). The Van Load-to-Truck ratio in the spot market surged by 56% from February and by 84% from March last year, according to DAT Trendlines. The Reefer Load-to-Truck ratio surged by 45% from February and by 91% from March last year.

But in April so far, all this has unwound. In the week ending April 12, the Van Load-to-Truck ratio plunged 44% from a week earlier. For the past two weeks, "Van spot freight volumes lost 20%," DAT reported, "and national average rates lost 8¢ per mile, to $1.78, reflecting declines all over the country."
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