Society's ChildS


Stock Down

English councils need £1 billion bailout as costs of lockdown bite

Patrick Butler
The Guardian
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 22:45 UTC
council
© Alicia Canter/The GuardianA man in Islington, where the council estimates it has spent an extra £5.4m since the crisis began.
Ministers are preparing a £1bn bailout to prevent a number of English councils from collapsing into insolvency as a result of huge cashflow problems caused by the coronavirus lockdown.

The move, expected on Saturday, follows warnings that councils face liabilities running into several billion pounds due to the soaring costs of dealing with the crisis, as well as a massive expected shortfall in council tax income.

Councils have been spending millions extra on providing social care and on housing rough sleepers throughout the lockdown, despite haemorrhaging even larger amounts in lost revenues from council tax, parking and leisure fees.
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Heart - Black

Some US banks are keeping customers' stimulus checks if accounts are overdrawn because there is no law against it

Emily Flitter and Alan Rappeport
The New York Times
Thu, 16 Apr 2020 20:11 UTC
stimulus check
© Douglas Sacha/Getty ImagesThe federal act that authorized stimulus checks for Americans does not specifically prohibit banks from taking the money to cover customers’ debts.
For some struggling Americans, the arrival of a deposit from the Treasury Department to help with basic expenses like rent and groceries during the coronavirus crisis was something to count on — until their financial institutions got in the way.

Frustrated customers say banks have been seizing some, or all, of their relief payments because their accounts are overdrawn, in some cases as a result of pandemic-caused hardship.

Joseph James Davis Jr. said his bank in Mena, Ark., took more than $2,000 after he fell victim to a check-cashing scam in a moment of desperation.

"I've never been scammed before," said Mr. Davis, 41.
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V

'Aggression, rudeness, arrogance': UK police provoke outrage after telling journalist 'you're killing people' by not going home


RT
Thu, 16 Apr 2020 18:11 UTC
london police
© Reuters / Dylan Martinez
The London Metropolitan Police have come under fire after footage emerged showing officers from the Territorial Support Group (TSG) berating a journalist for filming them apprehending an individual at a park in the UK capital.

The incident, which reportedly took place in Finsbury Park, North London on April 5, was caught on camera by the journalist in question - Michael Segalov - and was posted on Twitter on Thursday. The footage shows officers hurriedly taking a woman to a TSG van with Segalov capturing the action from a distance.

The journalist's presence appears to irritate the police, and a number of officers could be seen confronting him - themselves possibly violating the two-meter social distancing rule.
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Bulb

Michigan governor's 'overly restrictive' coronavirus lockdown doing 'serious harm': state chamber head

Ben Klayman
Reuters
Thu, 16 Apr 2020 19:50 UTC
Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer needs to revise the recent extension to her stay-at-home order or risk doing serious harm to the state's economy, including potentially driving hundreds of companies out of business, the head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce said on Thursday.

Whitmer extended the state's stay-at-home order last week through the end of April and added some restrictions for businesses in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. She has faced attacks from Republicans in Michigan who say her more restrictive order was unnecessarily straining the state's economy.

Corporate officials are voicing frustration as well.

"The current stay-at-home order is one of the most vague, one of the most difficult to understand and one of the most overly restrictive orders in the country," state chamber Chief Executive Rich Studley said in a telephone interview. His organization represents about 5,000 companies with more than 1 million employees in the state.
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Bizarro Earth

Six Afghan workers killed outside US' Bagram Airfield by unidentified gunman

Phillip Walter Wellman
Stars and Stripes
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 12:00 UTC
Bagram
A U.S. aircraft takes off at Bagram Airfield in 2016. Six Afghan workers at Bagram were killed about 500 yards from the base by a gunman Thursday, an Afghan official said.
Six Afghans who worked at Bagram Airfield were shot dead Thursday just outside the base, an Afghan official said.

The workers were driving home in a motorized rickshaw and were about 500 yards from the base when an unidentified gunman began shooting at about 10 p.m., said Wahida Shahkar, a spokeswoman for the governor of Parwan province, where Bagram is located.

"These people were ordinary workers at Bagram, like cleaners and others," Shahkar said, adding that three others were injured in the attack.

The gunman fled the scene by motorcycle, Shahkar said.

Comment: See also: US envoy meets Taliban in Doha after start of prisoner swaps

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People 2

Britain charters emergency flight of Romanian fruit pickers to save farms, despite lockdown rules

Frank Furedi
RT
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 17:36 UTC
Romanian
© Getty Images / Phil Clarke Hill / In PicturesA chartered plane with Romanian seasonal workers arrives at London Stanstead Airport, 16th April 2020, in London, United Kingdom
There is something shameful about the shipping in of Romanian farm workers. Not because I have any problems with them, but because at a time of national emergency we should be mobilising people to contribute to saving our farms.

An emergency airlift of Romanian farm workers has landed in Britain to save its agricultural industry amid the Covid-19 crisis. To Britain's shame, farmers cannot find 'experienced workers' to pick asparagus and other vegetables.

People throughout England have been mystified by the news that, despite the restrictions on travel imposed by the lockdown regulations, dispensation has been given to growers to import Romanian farm labour. Many are also confused as to why - at a time of mass unemployment - farmers need to fly in labourers from abroad. When hundreds of thousands of people have volunteered to contribute to the national effort to help society deal with the pandemic, getting people to support the farming industry seems like an obvious way forward.
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Handcuffs

Iran: Ex-TV presenter arrested for accusing regime of coronavirus cover-up and clerics for inactivity, lethargy

Benjamin Weinthal
The Jerusalem Post
Wed, 15 Apr 2020 22:42 UTC
disinfecting streets
© Reuters/WANA/Ali KharaEmergency workers disinfect streets in Tehran, Iran
The security forces for the Islamic Republic of Iran arrested a former TV presenter, Mahmoud Shahriari on Wednesday because he alleged the regime engaged in a cover-up about the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Shahriari was arrested for "disseminating false news about the novel coronavirus outbreak in Iran," the Iranian-regime controlled Young Journalists Club (YJC) said.

Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, first reported outside of Iran on Wednesday about the arrest, citing the YJC outlet — a news agency run by the state-controlled Radio and TV network (IRIB). Radio Farda wrote that
"Shahriari had accused the government of initially covering up the spread of the virus to not discourage people from participating in the state-run ceremonies, celebrating the 41st anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic on February 11."

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Lockdown food parcels intended for thousands in need criticized as inadequate by MPs

Liam Thorp
Liverpool Echo
Thu, 16 Apr 2020 10:51 UTC
uk food parcel
This was the government food supply sent to supposedly keep 6,500 vulnerable residents stocked up while they are isolating at home
A few kit kats, some beans and 10 bottles of cordial - this was the extent of a "disappointing" food delivery from the government aimed at supplying around 6,500 vulnerable Merseyside residents.

This image shows the lacklustre delivery that arrived in Wirral, intended to keep the borough's 6,534 most vulnerable residents stocked up while they were being told to isolate at home because of the dangers of coronavirus.

Now all Wirral MPs have written to Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick to criticise the delivery - and ask what steps are being doing to improve things.

Comment: See also: Mafia distributes food to Italy's struggling residents



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Corona

Best of the Web: Coronavirus - Lies, damned lies and statistics

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 18:18 UTC
Lies, Damned lies and Statistics
© PR Week
The numbers are in on the great Covid-19 pandemic . . . but unfortunately those numbers are unreliable. From mendacious models and puffed-up projections to dodgy death data and tainted tests, today on The Corbett Report James highlights what the accredited scientists and award-winning researchers are saying about the pandemic pandemonium of 2020.

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Eye 1

Abused infant suffers 'broken ribs, liver, lung injuries & multiple brain bleeds' from man in polyamorous relationship once celebrated by media

Katy Faust and Stacy Manning
The Federalist
Wed, 15 Apr 2020 02:36 UTC
Ethan Baucom Tory Ojeda
A few months back, the media celebrated 20-year-old Tory Ojeda, a pregnant woman with four live-in boyfriends. In December, multiple outlets covered the five-some's open relationship, dismissing opponents with "LOVE DON'T JUDGE."

Tory acknowledged their unconventional family has had to "overcome judgement in public spaces" and hopes someday relationships like theirs will be "more common." She knows Christopher is her baby's father but says, "We're all raising the baby together — so everyone's Dad."

You don't have to care about Tory's consensual adult relationships, but everyone should care about "unconventional" families that statistically put children in risky households. Polyamorous homes by their very nature always fall into that category.

The mountain of data on family structure reveals children fare best in the home of their married mother and father. For overall child well-being, any two (or five) will not do.

Comment: Wow! Who could have predicted an unholy mess from this situation? Turns out pretty much all of society minus the perverse progressives who celebrated this twisted 'family'. The liberal agenda has poisoned interpersonal dynamics so that it frees and defends the worst parts of people. Corrupting indulgence has been encouraged to run wild. The result is horrifying, maddening, and tragically predictable.

See previous story: Social rot: 20 yr-old woman with 4 exclusive lovers to have a baby 'raised' by all

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