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Briefcase

EU's pandemic 'rescue' deal will just make bloc's debt problem worse - Max Keiser


RT
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:20 UTC
euros
© Reuters / Andrea Comas
The European Union's coronavirus "rescue" deal is really just a €500 billion increase in debt which could ultimately "make the problem worse," former Wall Street stockbroker Max Keiser told RT.

The EU agreed on a breakthrough €500 billion rescue package for countries hit hardest by the Covid-19 epidemic on Thursday, having failed to come to an arrangement earlier in the day.

The agreed upon half trillion is significantly less than the €1.5 trillion the European Central Bank had said the bloc might need to deal with the fallout from the pandemic - and it may not even do the trick at all.

"This added debt will ultimately make the problem worse. Debt is the primary problem, so adding more debt won't solve the problem," Keiser, who hosts the Keiser Report on RT said.
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Attention

Pundit Chuck Todd is wrong: There are huge downsides to media alarmism

Mollie Hemingway
The Federalist
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:09 UTC
Chuck todd meet the press
© NBC'Meet the Press' host Chuck Todd
There are no costs associated with being "overly alarmist" in the face of a global pandemic, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd claimed on Sunday. His comment encapsulates the attitude of the media and other elites as they drive people and state and local governments deeper into a panic that has resulted in the loss of tens of millions of jobs, the likely permanent closures of hundreds of thousands of businesses, a general inability to pay rent and other monthly bills, a lack of treatment for non-coronavirus health problems, the closure of churches and schools, the exacerbation of disparities by socio-economic status in educational attainment, disruptions to the supply chain, and the destruction of trillions of dollars of American wealth.

Pushing governors and other politicians to do even more to shut down communities and their economies, Todd asked former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, "Are you surprised that more politicians aren't erring on the side of caution here? Because there seems to be if you're wrong about this, boy, is that a bad way to be wrong. If, if you're wrong and you've, and you've been overly alarmist, well, nobody's, nobody extra has died. But if you're wrong and you've underplayed, boy, you've got a lot to answer for."

Comment:

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Apple Green

Exporters like Russia won as Covid-19 fears pushed grain market up, but now veggies may get sliced & diced


RT
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:09 UTC
Combines harvest wheat
© REUTERS / Ilya NaymushinFILE PHOTO. Combines harvest wheat in Krasnoyarsk Region in Russia.
Coronavirus tanked global markets, but for grain producers like Russia, the pain was eased by a surge in prices. More bad news is on the horizon, however, as virus-induced labor shortages threaten the fruit and vegetable supply.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a worldwide economic slowdown, sending the prices of oil and many other commodities into free fall. Grain prices went sharply against this trend, surging in the second half of March and prompting observations in Russia that carbohydrates were becoming more valuable than hydrocarbons.

This provided an unexpected economic boon for Russia, the world's number one exporter of wheat, followed by the US, Canada, and Australia.

Peak is behind us

Russian wheat producers had the upper hand over that short period of growth, thanks to the devaluation of the ruble, which kept their offerings extra competitive. But the global grain markets have rebounded in the first week of April and now seem to have stabilized. Prices are unlikely to rise further in the coming weeks and months, industry analysts tell RT.
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Cell Phone

Twitter jams open a back door to track your phone - which may already be in use by the government

Helen Buyniski
RT
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 15:54 UTC
social media, internet prison mural
© Reuters / Dinuka Liyanawatte
Twitter is no longer allowing users to hide private data like their phone's unique tracking identifier from advertisers, at the same time the US government is apparently targeting advertiser data to track Covid-19. Coincidence?

The social media giant announced the changes in a popup when users logged in on Wednesday, glibly informing those outside Europe that they would no longer be able to disable sharing "mobile app advertising measurements" and that there was nothing they could do about it.

Comment: See also: We cannot allow Facebook and Twitter to use Covid-19 to launch their own coup d'état

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Health

CDC Director: 'We'll see this outbreak continue to decline over the weeks ahead'

Ian Hanchett
Breitbart
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield
During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that we will see the coronavirus outbreak "continue to decline over the weeks ahead."

Redfield said, "I think we're coming to the peak, as we sit here today, we're able to see the other side of the curve, and we'll see this outbreak continue to decline over the weeks ahead."

Comment: Reading between the lines, Dr. Redfield seems to be saying that things won't 'go back to normal'. There is no back to normal. Get used to this.

See also: Habituating us to a new normal - We're not going back

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Info

Democrats trying to use coronavirus crisis to rewrite all US election law

David Harsanyi
New York Post
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 19:55 UTC
vote by mail
© APIf the coronavirus remains a hazard in November, Democrats say the only solution to preserve the November election, is national voting by mail.
I'm sorry, but you have no constitutional "right" to vote by mail. You have no constitutional "right" to vote six days after an election is over. Nor do you have any "right" to censor information related to an election. Not even during a pandemic.

This week, the US Supreme Court ruled that a lower federal court couldn't overwrite Wisconsin's election laws and force the state to accept ballots without any postmark deadline nearly a week after the election. Likewise, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Tony Evers didn't have the authority to arbitrarily suspend in-person voting.

If these dictates had been allowed to stand, they would have created destructive precedents, taking elections out of the hands of local legislatures. If we discard legal norms every time there's a crisis, we no longer have a nation of laws.
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X

The staggering hypocrisy of the BBC

Brendan O'Neill
Spiked
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 00:01 UTC
Emily Maitlis
© Getty
Emily Maitlis's patrician lecture on last night's Newsnight was nauseating.

We've seen much grotesque hypocrisy and opportunism during the Covid-19 crisis, from the Corbynista left virtually cheering the virus on in order to expose 'Tory failings' to the curtain-twitching sections of society relishing the new opening for squealing on their neighbours and agitating for a police state. But last night's Newsnight, and in particular Emily Maitlis's staggeringly hypocritical and deeply patrician mini-lecture to the nation about life in lockdown Britain, took the biscuit. Reader, the elites are straight-up taking the piss out of us now.

The chattering classes and the regressive left are, naturally, fawning over Ms Maitlis's solemnly delivered platitudes, treating her virtually as the Princess Diana of Covid Britain. What did she do to deserve such cringe-inducing accolades? She had a pop at the government - as is her wont; Maitlis is one of the least objective journalists in the already objectivity-challenged BBC - and she asked us to feel sorry for poorer people in small homes who will be having a hard lockdown. Yes. We know. Unlike Ms Maitlis, some of us actually know and are related to people like that, which is why we cautioned against a stringent lockdown precisely as the media elite, including the BBC, were incessantly barking at ministers: 'Where's the lockdown? Bring it on. Put us under house arrest.'

Comment: We can already see the spin that's going to go into overdrive as the hard consequences of the lockdown start to manifest. It's a shame but 'it had to be done'. This is nonsense. Many experts who were kept out of the public limelight have been saying from the beginning that the world's handling of COVID-19 are a severe overreaction and that they will have dire consequences for the world. For the BBC to turn around and blame the politicians for what they've been calling for from the beginning is pusillanimous in the extreme.

See also:

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Books

School closures likely to have little impact on spread of coronavirus, review finds

Sally Weale
The Guardian
Tue, 07 Apr 2020 07:31 UTC
school closures
© Getty ImagesThe gates of Carew Academy in Wallington, Surrey, decorated with rainbow signs during the lockdown.
UCL say small benefits should be weighed against profound economic and social costs.

School closures are likely to have a relatively small impact on the spread of Covid-19 and should be weighed against their profound economic and social consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable children, according to a UK review.

The research, led by University College London (UCL), is the first to look at evidence behind many governments' decision to shut schools and keep pupils at home.

According to the UN's education body, Unesco, more than 90% of the world's pupils have been affected by closures.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Best of the Web: Minnesota senator Dr. Scott Jensen reveals COVID-19 death certificate instructions, suggests they're designed to INFLATE death toll


OffGuardian
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 06:14 UTC
dr. scott jensen
Minnesota State Senator Scott Jensen appeared on a local news show to report that doctors were receiving instructions from the Minnesota Department of Health to report Covid19 as a cause of death, even if the patient was never tested.

Senator Jensen, who is also a practising physician, said he had never before in his thirty-five-year career received specific instructions on how to fill out a death certificate.

The apparent policy of Minnesota - to report any and all pneumonia or "flu-like illness" decedents as Covid19 cases, with or without a test - ties in with the US policy as described by the CDC's official memos.


This is not new information, we covered the guidelines from the CDC, here.

In fact the governments of Italy, Germany, the UK and Austria all doing the same thing.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

March 30 transcript reveals Dr. Birx lied to American public about IHME models. Projected numbers INCLUDED lockdown measures

Jim Hoft
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 09 Apr 2020 05:52 UTC
dr. birx
Oh dear, she's starting to sound like Joe Biden!

On Wednesday Dr. Deborah Birx again stated the "models of the models" were continuing to project less and less coronavirus fatalities not because they were highly flawed but because Americans were obeying the lockdown orders.
Dr. Birx: "Many of you have done the analysis of the same models that we utilized. And if you do the models of the models you end up with that range... and they have consistently decreased the mortality... That is modeled on what America is doing. That is happening."
Here is video of Dr. Birx from Wednesday's press conference.


Comment: See also:

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