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Canada’s Quarantine Hotels Backfire As People Starved | ZeroHedge

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2021

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/canadas-quarantine-hotels-backfire-people-starve

Tyler Durden's Photoby Tyler Durden

A couple of weeks ago, the Canadian government introduced a new set of rules forcing international air travelers to quarantine in hotels for three days upon arrival; the plan has since backfired, “after a series of endless, chaotic setbacks including food shortages and even alleged sexual assaults,” according to RT News. 

Vancouver’s local radio station CKWX reports travelers have become upset at Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Toronto after they waited hours for their meals. 

Arunthia Urmi, who traveled outside of Canada to visit her father, said she waited hours for food, only to receive nothing more than a flimsy piece of salmon – barely a meal. She also said:

“There was no water. There was no fork or knife, no utensils. No salt or pepper. Nothing,” Urmi said.

Twitter user Raymond Truesdale documented the frustration between travelers at the Toronto hotel and staff. 

Truesdale said, “Here at Hotel Sheraton airport terminal 3 They were ill-prepared for this 3-day quarantine No kitchen staff no food they say no water people have come to lobby boondoggle.”

Here at Hotel Sheraton airport terminal 3
They were ill prepared for this 3 day quarantine
No kitchen staff no food they say no water people have come to lobby boondoggle pic.twitter.com/Zdcl37XuNY — Ray Truesdale (@RaySuperurass) February 26, 2021

Multiple confrontations broke out between those in quarantine and hotel staff about lack of food and water. 

@Canada help at Sheraton airport boondoggle pic.twitter.com/NZ5N3KOSiG — Ray Truesdale (@RaySuperurass) February 26, 2021

This time there was “no food, no water.”

Wow unbelievable no food no water pic.twitter.com/3UZC7rhWLk — Ray Truesdale (@RaySuperurass) February 26, 2021

…and when they got food – the hotel price gouged the living hell out of those in quarantine. Judging by the content of the food, it was certainly not worth $50. 

This what being served in one quarantine Hotel Sheraton gateway airport Toronto 50 dollars ordered at 4 pm got delivered at 10 pm pic.twitter.com/bw50W7yXzy — Ray Truesdale (@RaySuperurass) February 28, 2021

The mandatory quarantines have restricted these people from going outside to retrieve food. So they must rely on staff who were not adequately equipped with supplies. 

At a Holiday Inn quarantine in Toronto, residents also complained about water shortages, cold food, and a lack of utensils.

“I was so hungry. I called so many times,” one woman told CTV News.

Canadian officials were underprepared as the lack of security and confusion among hotel staff resulted in starving people. 

 A spokesperson for the Minister of Health said they had been informed of many of these mishaps. 

“We’re aware of reports that some travelers have experienced issues with food and accommodation at government-authorized hotels during their mandatory 3-night hotel stopover,” they said in an email.

“The Public Health Agency of Canada is working directly with hotel partners to find solutions to these issues.”

Police at Toronto Pearson International Airport slapped several people with fines after they attempted to escape quarantine. 

Other reports state there have been multiple sexual assaults at these quarantine hotels – calls for lawmakers to end the program are mounting.

Canada’s sudden imposition of mandatory hotel quarantine for incoming air travelers has done nothing to suppress the virus’ spread but has only created more problems. 

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McDonald’s Response to Minimum Wage Hikes Totally Undercuts the ‘Fight for $15,’ New Study Shows – Foundation for Economic Education

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2021

This is exactly the mistake made by minimum wage advocates. They see only the nominal rise in workers’ weekly paychecks that a government mandated wage increase can bring. Yet they fail to see beyond that. They fail to consider the future workers who will not be hired at all and the millions of minute price increases that would largely erase nominal wage gains regardless.

https://fee.org/articles/mcdonald-s-response-to-minimum-wage-hikes-totally-undercuts-the-fight-for-15-new-study-shows/

Brad Polumbo
Brad Polumbo

The push for a $15 federal minimum wage continues across the country. But new research shows that if the “Fight for $15” wins, the biggest loser may just be your wallet next time you want to chow down on a Big Mac or Egg McMuffin.

A recently-released study reveals that past minimum wage hikes resulted in much higher menu prices for consumers. 

Princeton economist Orley C. Ashenfelter and Czech economist Štěpán Jurajda studied price and wage data from almost every McDonald’s restaurant in the US. They found a “full or near-full price pass-through of minimum-wage-induced higher costs of labor.” In English, this means that by vastly increasing production costs,  minimum wage hikes resulted in an equivalent increase in menu prices. 

What does this mean? 

Well, minimum wage hikes are intended to help workers. Proponents say that everyone deserves a “living wage” and argue that a government-mandated wage increase will mean higher wages for workers. In contrast, the most common counterpoint against minimum wage increases is that they lead to unemployment. This is indeed true, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that a $15 federal minimum wage would eliminate at least 1.4 million jobs. 

However, the McDonald’s example reminds us that there’s another angle to this debate as well. Even if minimum wage hikes didn’t shed jobs, they would still cause harm in other ways.

Supporters of hiking the minimum wage point to workers’ nominal wages and argue, correctly, that some workers would see higher numbers on their checks every week. However, nominal figures aren’t actually what matter. A worker’s real income and standard of living is best measured by the purchasing power of their wages.

If a McDonald’s cashier’s take-home pay increases 20% after a minimum wage hike, but the prices for the food and other things they spend their wages on increase by a similar amount, they aren’t actually any better off. 

This would happen throughout the economy, not just in fast food.

One poignant example comes courtesy of the Heritage Foundation’s Rachel Grezler, who studied how minimum wage hikes would impact the cost of childcare; an enormous expense for many working-class families. 

“Childcare costs would increase by an average of 21 percent—an extra $3,728 per year for two children—and up to 43 percent, or more than $6,000, in some states,” Heritage reports. “The impacts would be greatest in lower-cost areas; in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, costs would surge between 37 percent and 43 percent.” 

So, much to the chagrin of progressive legislators hawking minimum wage hikes, working parents wouldn’t actually be helped by a nominal rise in their weekly paycheck, because it would simply lead to higher prices for the goods and services they rely on. 

So why do proponents of minimum wage hikes continue to push the policy despite these realities? It’s simple: They fall victim to the tragically widespread fallacy, first identified by economist Frederic Bastiat, of focusing on the seen and ignoring the unseen.

In explaining Bastiat’s theory, economist Henry Hazlitt decried the “persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups.” 

Hazlitt called this “the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.”

This is exactly the mistake made by minimum wage advocates. They see only the nominal rise in workers’ weekly paychecks that a government mandated wage increase can bring. Yet they fail to see beyond that. They fail to consider the future workers who will not be hired at all and the millions of minute price increases that would largely erase nominal wage gains regardless. 

As McDonald’s response to minimum wage hikes clearly shows, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. That’s why the “Fight for $15” would hurt most the very same working Americans it’s meant to help—who’d be stuck paying more for their next Big Mac, McFlurry, or (overrated) McDonald’s french fries. 

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The Abby Honold Act Will Gut Justice – The Future of Freedom Foundation

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2021

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/the-abby-honold-act-will-gut-justice/

by Wendy McElroy

You are hauled in by the police and accused of rape. Being innocent, you demand to know details of the accusation: when, where did the crime occur, and on what’s the evidence? The police respond, “the young woman’s allegation is the only evidence, and her account has shifted several times about when and where. Now prove you did not rape her.” This Kafkaesque scenario inverts the presumption of innocence by assuming you are guilty merely because you are accused.Accusers/victims must be heard within the framework of fair police procedures, especially due process, where accusations stand or fall on their merit.
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A bill before Congress seeks to gut the presumption of innocence upon which all of due process rests. The Abby Honold Act would fund and expand “trauma-informed” law enforcement in police departments across the land. This #Metoo-approach to allegations of sexual abuse requires the police to “believe the woman” and automatically view her as a victim. The Act redefines due process and objective police work as attacks on accusers because the presumption of innocence is granted to an accused and the burden of proof is placed on an accuser who is asked for evidence. (Men are victimized by sexual abuse, as well — and at rates similar to women — but male victims constitute a small percent of reported assaults.)

The Act and its underlying #Metoo politics are pernicious. They draw on the natural compassion people feel toward sexual victims and use this response as a moral mandate to gut justice. The currently popular drive to reform the police is hijacked to pull off a revolution instead — one that heads in the wrong direction by deliberately embedding bias and subjectivity into law enforcement in the name of crusading virtue. Only a unrepentant villain could object to believing a rape victim — a position that silences most critics.

Background

In January 2021, Amy Klobuchar reintroduced a 2017 version of the Act in the Senate; Tom Emmer (R-MN) reintroduced it in the House. The bill’s text describes its purpose: “To authorize the Office on Violence Against Women to improve the handling of crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by incorporating a trauma-informed approach into the initial response to and investigation of such crimes.” [Note: some presentations of the Act include the words “evidence-based” even though “trauma-informed” is a diametrically opposed concept.]

The Abby Honold Act is named after a former University of Minnesota student who was violently raped in 2014. Her case became a media sensation because the investigation was badly conducted and this was deemed to be the norm within police departments. Honold spent the next few years campaigning for federal funds with which to retrain police officers on how to handle sexual abuse cases.

Standard police procedure is supposed to address an accuser in an unbiased manner in order to collect evidence that supports or invalidates an allegation. This is called the Reid method, which has three steps: factual analysis to develop or discard leads, interviews to gather more information, and interrogations to elicit a confession. Police execution often falls short, but this is the ideal procedure. By contrast, trauma-informed police procedure is called the Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview (FETI) and is proudly biased in favor of the accuser. The manual, “FETI Forensic Experiential Trauma Interview,” opens, “The real key to FETI is not the exact questions, but the approach: sympathetic, believing, victim-centered.” Like a therapist, the investigator uses “principles and techniques developed for forensic child interviews (open-ended non-leading questions, soft interview room and empathy).”

The process also has three steps. First, the accuser/victim is believed. Second, contradictions, memory gaps, and inconsistencies in the accuser/victim’s testimony are not considered disprobative. Investigators work with an accuser/victim to build a case that reconciles gaps or contradictions in testimony with the explicit goal of convicting an accused. A guide to FETI states, “Trauma victims often omit, exaggerate, or make up information when trying to make sense of what happened to them or to fill gaps in memory.” Third, factors that cast doubt on the accuser/victim’s testimony are dismissed; for example, a history of false allegations is not relevant.  In short, the investigator eschews standard evidence-gathering techniques. The proposed Rape Accusation Program Employee for You (RAPEY) Act in Texas is an example. The RAPEY Act prohibits the use of lie detectors on accusers/victims.

An account of the RAPEY Act explains, “The bill’s author … believes in science.” What is the science to which objectivity, evidence, and due process must bow?

Weaponized Science

See the rest here

This post was written by: Wendy McElroy

Wendy McElroy is an author for The Future of Freedom Foundation, a fellow of the Independent Institute, and the author of The Reasonable Woman: A Guide to Intellectual Survival (Prometheus Books, 1998).

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Erie Times E-Edition Article-Report: US wasted billions on cars, buildings in Afghanistan

Posted by M. C. on March 3, 2021

Peter Van Buren wrote a book about his experience as a government employee trying to rebuild Iraq.

He was tasked with building a multi-million $ frozen chicken plant in an area where there was no electricity let alone any refrigerators.

The military routinely leaves $millions of equipment behind when abandoning bases. In the ME it often ends up with jihadists.

https://erietimes-pa-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=1c69ad246

Kathy Gannon

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ISLAMABAD – The United States wasted billions of dollars in war-torn Afghanistan on buildings and vehicles that were either abandoned or destroyed, according to a report released Monday by a U.S. government watchdog.

The agency said it reviewed $7.8 billion spent since 2008 on buildings and vehicles. Only $343.2 million worth of buildings and vehicles “were maintained in good condition,” said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which oversees American taxpayer money spent on the protracted conflict.

The report said that just $1.2 billion of the $7.8 billion went to pay for buildings and vehicles that were used as intended.

“The fact that so many capital assets wound up not used, deteriorated or abandoned should have been a major cause of concern for the agencies financing these projects,” John F. Sopko, the special inspector general, said in his report.

The U.S. public is weary of the nearly 20-year-old war and President Joe Biden is reviewing a peace deal his predecessor, Donald Trump, signed with the Taliban a year ago. He must decide whether to withdraw all troops by May 1, as promised in the deal, or stay and possibly prolong the war. Officials say no decision has been made but on Monday, Washington’s peace envoy and the American who brokered the U.S.-Taliban deal, Zalmay Khalilzad, was back in the Afghan capital for a tour of the region.

Taliban insurgents and the Afghan government have been holding onagain- off-again talks in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar but a deal that could bring peace to Afghanistan after 40 years of relentless war seems far off.

After Kabul, Khalilzad will travel to Qatar’s capital of Doha and neighboring countries, including Pakistan, to push anew for progress in the Doha talks and a cease-fire to end the relentless violence.

Analyst Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal said the findings by SIGAR are not surprising. The reasons for the financial losses include Taliban attacks, corruption and “throwing money at the problem without considering the implications,” he said. “It is one thing to build a clinic and school, it is another to operate, maintain, and in many cases defend this infrastructure from Taliban attacks,” said Roggio. “Additionally, the West has wildly underestimated the impact of Afghan corruption and in many cases incompetence. It was always a recipe for failure.”

U.S. agencies responsible for construction didn’t even ask the Afghans if they wanted or needed the buildings they ordered built, or if they had the technical ability to keep them running, Sopko said in his report.

The waste occurred in violation of “multiple laws stating that U.S. agencies should not construct or procure capital assets until they can show that the benefiting country has the financial and technical resources and capability to use and maintain those assets effectively,” he said.

Torek Farhadi, a former adviser to the Afghan government, said a “donorknows- best” mentality often prevailed and it routinely meant little to no consultation with the Afghan government on projects.

He said a lack of coordination among the many international donors aided the wastefulness. For example, he said schools were on occasion built alongside other newly constructed schools financed by other donors. The construction went ahead because once the decision was made – contract awarded and money allocated – the school was built regardless of the need, said Farhadi.

A SIGAR report says about $1.2 billion of buildings and vehicles, out of $7.8 billion spent since 2008, were used as intended. RAHMAT GUL/AP, FILE

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From Taiwan To Iran, US Aggression Overtakes Biden’s Promises

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2021

The Biden Administration’s promise to embrace diplomacy over Trump’s perceived unilateralism took a blow last week with the US attack on Syria. That is not the only hot spot where diplomacy as we understand it seems to have been abandoned. Today we have a look at the three hot spots. And finally today…Dr. Seuss cancelled???

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An Interview with Matthew Tyrmand

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2021

Some of my favorite and our most significant investigations in my opinion include the 2016 Democracy Partners investigation into voter fraud, which involved Bob Creamer and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, the left-wing House member representing the northside of Chicago. It was another Obama-style community organizing operation from Chicago, which was organizing for Hillary Clinton’s campaign by busing people in to Wisconsin from Chicago and trying to start fights at Trump rallies to then create an optic that Trump inculcates and catalyzes violence, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/an-interview-with-matthew-tyrmand/

By Edward Welsch

Just returned from a trip to Europe, journalist Matthew Tyrmand sat down for an interview with Chronicles to discuss his work and thoughts about the future of America after the 2020 election. He was informed by officials on re-entry to the U.S. that the Department of Homeland Security had revoked his “Global Entry” status, which speeds the way through customs. Tyrmand believes  he’s one of many people, including conservative journalists and former Trump administration officials, who have had that privilege revoked now under the new administration.

Tyrmand, who is the son of Chronicles Founding Editor Leopold Tyrmand—the anti-Communist, Polish ex-patriot writer, critic, and jazz musician—is a board member of Project Veritas, deputy director-at-large of the government transparency nonprofit Open the Books, and an investigative journalist who reported on alleged pay-for-play corruption by Hunter Biden and his associates.

Tyrmand: Yeah, turns out the Department of Homeland Security has been revoking global entry permits to Trump admin people and other conservatives, just out of pure spite. Wouldn’t give me a reason, but they hassled me at the customs kiosk about who I was and who I was with, what I was doing, all that rigamarole. So, welcome to America in 2021!

Q. That’s pretty scary… Tell us about how you got your start as a writer. You hadn’t intended to follow your father’s footsteps and actually spent your twenties working in finance in New York.

Tyrmand: Steve Bannon recruited me to write for Breitbart about what was going on in Poland and Central Europe, about the Euroskeptic movement that grew out of Nigel Farage’s UKIP movement pushing for Brexit. So we were trying to push our ideas past the mainstream gatekeepers, which the silent majority embraced, since they had seen what Bannon calls “the Party of Davos” taking over—those who don’t believe in borders or sovereignty, and who believe that technocratic elites should rule the world.

See the rest here

Edward Welsch

Edward Welsch is the executive editor at Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.

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Disarming the deplorables – spiked

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2021

Nothing frightened Southern segregationists as much as the sight of armed African Americans. It was a powerful symbol as well as an actual threat to the Ku Klux Klan and others bent on frustrating the aspirations of black Americans.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/01/disarming-the-deplorables/

Kevin Yuill

The new culture war on guns has nothing to do with saving lives.

In racially segregated Monroe, North Carolina, in 1961, a crowd of some 2,000 people gathered to prevent a picket by the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter, which aimed to desegregate the local swimming pool. Robert F Williams, the head of the chapter, was forced off the road as he neared the pool, as another car backed into his. As the crowd advanced on his car, Williams pulled out a pistol and pointed it at a man moving towards him with a baseball bat. Williams then stepped out of the car and waved a carbine before the crowd, which went silent. Williams recalled:

‘There was a very old man, an old white man out in the crowd, and he started screaming and crying like a baby, and he kept crying, and he said, “God damn, God damn, what is this God damn country coming to that the niggers have got guns, the niggers are armed and the police can’t even arrest them!” He kept crying and somebody led him away through the crowd.’

Nothing frightened Southern segregationists as much as the sight of armed African Americans. It was a powerful symbol as well as an actual threat to the Ku Klux Klan and others bent on frustrating the aspirations of black Americans.

But today, much of the media appear to be just as disturbed at the prospect of white guys with guns. The ‘assault weapon’ has become the avatar for the white militia man, just like the ‘Saturday night special’ (a cheap, small-calibre handgun) used to symbolise African-American rioters.

Open season on ‘white extremists’ has been declared. ‘White extremists’ means any person who appears in public with an assault weapon (essentially, a semi-automatic rifle with a pistol grip or other military-style parts). The disturbing scenes at the Capitol building in January have provoked a new phase in the battle against what Joe Biden has called ‘weapons of war’ – even though none of the Capitol invaders carried assault weapons. Now anyone defending gun rights – and even guns themselves – is branded a danger to democracy, and a racist.

‘More than ever, assault weapons are an undeniable threat to representative government’, charged the Chicago Sun Times earlier this month. Last week, a writer in the Washington Post wrote of the ‘extremism of the gun imperialists [which] is directed against democracy itself’ (my italics).

In the New York Times, in January, another writer spelt out what he saw as the connection between guns and the threat to democracy, saying people use ‘the implicit threat of [toting a gun] as a means of asserting the privilege of walking away from the table of representative democracy when the outcome doesn’t suit you. Possessing a gun doesn’t protect free speech, as gun-rights activists often claim. The gun is the speech.’ Commenting on a pro-Trump rally in 2020, the same writer also noted that the ‘military-style rifles paraded alongside banners for Donald Trump… suggested that one of America’s two major parties was, in effect, acquiring an armed adjunct, like Hezbollah or the old Sinn Fein’.

In the Atlantic last month, one writer said that ‘men with assault rifles slung over camouflaged shoulders are the avatar of lawlessness’. He continued: ‘We must ban assault rifles and open carry. Their legality is premised on ideas that are inimical to democracy itself.’ And this month, an article in the Boston Globe claimed ‘white identity politics’ is ‘at the heart of the gun-rights movement’.

Do they have a point? Certainly, the 6 January riot targeted a legitimate election result. But it had no connection with assault weapons. And assault weapons are no more deadly than are ordinary rifles. According to Statista, the number of people murdered with any rifle in 2019 – including assault weapons – was 364, which is far smaller than the number of Americans who drown in swimming pools or baths annually. Rifle deaths have remained at the same rate year on year, despite a constant increase in the supply of guns. This war on guns is not about saving lives.

As for the charges of racism, if anything it is the gun-control laws that these pundits call for that are racist. Racial disparities in convictions for existing gun laws are even more shocking than in other elements of criminal justice. In 2016, black people accounted for more than half of offenders convicted of firearms offences carrying mandatory minimum sentences.

Given that nearly half of all Americans live in a home with guns, and that most Americans deplored the violence at the Capitol, it is unfair to call gun owners hostile to democracy. They may be worried about it after last year’s Black Lives Matter riots. According to the Small Arms Survey, Americans rapidly increased their purchases of guns last year to 393million. Sales to black Americans – who were also frightened by the widespread rioting – rose by 58 per cent last year.

The majority of Americans do not want further gun controls. Instead, this is a dispute over an emblem and over the history of the country. The gun is a symbol of power, self-reliance and equality in the USA, which is why black leaders from Frederick Douglass to WEB DuBois to the Black Panthers praised black gun ownership. Those who attack guns and gun-owners indict this American tradition along with the American Constitution and the American Revolution. This is a country that formed itself and remained free because of widespread possession of guns.

The battle over gun controls looks set to become a major part of the culture war. Sixty years ago, segregationists hated the idea that blacks had some access to power – votes and weapons – and did their best to take them away in the name of defending democracy. Today’s elite wants to disarm the deplorables.

Kevin Yuill teaches American studies at the University of Sunderland.

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We Are Witnessing A Last Minute Mass Exodus Before The Final Collapse Of Our Major Cities

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2021

Deplorables separating themselves from Millennials and snowflakes.

Is this the precursor to secession?

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/we-are-witnessing-a-last-minute-mass-exodus-before-the-final-collapse-of-our-major-cities/

by Michael Snyder

Americans fled the big cities “in droves” in 2020, and one recent survey discovered that even more Americans are planning to move in 2021.  The corporate media is attempting to frame this mass exodus as a temporary phenomenon, but there is nothing temporary about it.  Millions upon millions of people can see that our society is literally melting down all around us, and they want to get somewhere safe while they still can.  In recent weeks, I have written articles about the specific problems that we are witnessing in Chicago and San Francisco, but the truth is that virtually all of our major cities are coming apart at the seams, and this is motivating more people than ever to seek greener pastures.

With so many Americans looking to move, this has pushed up home prices in desirable suburban and rural areas to insane heights.

In fact, in some parts of the country it is difficult to find a decent home for sale at all.  In Bozeman, Montana one man has actually resorted to walking around with a cardboard sign asking for someone to sell him a house…

“I’m just asking for someone to sell us a home. My sign says please sell me a home,” said Sean Hawksford, a Bozeman resident.

You may have seen Hawksford strolling down Main Street with a cardboard sign, asking for leads on a house for sale.

This is not a homeless man that we are talking about.

Sean Hawksford is a family man that owns a successful business, and he has been approved for a mortgage.

He just can’t find a house to buy.

According to Hawksford, he has made 18 offers over the past 6 months, but none of them have been accepted…

“It’s been about 6 months, we’ve made I think 18 offers now on different properties and haven’t had one accepted yet,” said Hawksford.

“It’s been a little bit tough with them, and all of my first-time homebuyers to be honest with you,” said Jeff Bent, the Hawksfords’ realtor in Bozeman.

I warned that this would happen.

I warned that when things started to get crazy many Americans wouldn’t be able to move because there would be a crushing amount of demand for available housing as hordes of Americans suddenly sought to relocate.  NBC News has used the term “droves” to describe the mass exodus that we witnessed last year…

Americans fled big cities in droves to escape the coronavirus pandemic — and many of them are staying, permanently or indefinitely. But escape means something different depending on whom you ask.

We have never seen anything like this before in U.S. history.  According to the Pew Research Center, about one-fifth of all Americans either moved or know someone who moved in 2020…

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center while the pandemic was in full swing in June 2020 found that approximately a fifth of Americans moved or know someone who moved as a result of COVID-19. The reasons they gave for people moving were extremely varied — ranging from being called into active military duty to college housing being closed down to, of course, sudden financial constraints.

The corporate media keeps trying to blame COVID for the mass migration, but now the COVID pandemic is fading and Americans are still moving in large numbers.

In fact, one recent survey actually found that “20% more people are planning to move in 2021 than moved in 2020”.

If I was currently living in a major city on the east or west coast, I would be highly motivated to move too.

For example, just check out what is happening in Los Angeles…

Los Angeles, the state’s largest city and arguably the most populous now in the United States, has become a byword for violent crime and especially the stronghold of the enormous, ultraviolent and rapidly growing MS 13 organization, routinely mislabeled as a mere “gang” in media reports. MS 13 has up to 50,000 members worldwide of whom at least 10,000, officially, and probably twice as many according to the private assessments of many police officers are in LA.

Jeremiah Babe recently went into the wealthy areas of downtown Los Angeles, and the footage that he captured was mind blowing.

L.A. has never looked like this, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

Of course many would argue that San Francisco is in even worse shape…

San Francisco – America’s “anything goes” city – is in even worse shape. Its most famous, historically popular and beautiful stylish locations are now swamped with aggressive, unsanitary street people who openly urinate and defecate in the streets. Public services, long superb, are now appalling.

For much more on the tragedy that is playing out in that once beautiful city, please see my previous article entitled “The Reason Why A Lot Of People Are Leaving San Francisco Might Surprise You”.

Of course it isn’t just individuals that are moving.  In recent months we have seen large numbers of businesses choose to relocate.  At one point, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made headlines all over the globe when even he decided that it was time to leave California for good…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has left California and is now a resident of Texas.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Musk said that the move made sense, amid plans underway for a new Tesla factory in the Austin area.

I certainly can’t blame him.

What rational person would choose California over Texas at this point?

On the east coast, hordes of businesses have left New York as well.  If you can believe it, even the New York Stock Exchange is thinking of leaving…

The head of the world’s largest financial market, Stacey Cunningham, floated the idea of leaving New York in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal to avoid taxes.

When people think of Florida, they often picture restaurants and shopping, the kind of business you do on vacation. But more and more, people are choosing to move down to the sunshine state because there’s no income tax, and the cost of living is low.

Perhaps they will need to rename it “the Florida Stock Exchange” if they actually pull the trigger on such a move.

Sadly, when things get really bad in this nation, no part of the country will be fully immune.

We will all feel the pain, and the suffering will be off the charts.

But if you do feel motivated to relocate, I would do it as soon as possible, because later this year global events will start accelerating at a very rapid pace.

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

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Massive number of flu cases are re-labeled COVID cases « Jon Rappoport’s Blog

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2021

All you have to do is run the test at more than 35 cycles. Most labs run the test at 40 cycles. A cycle is a quantum leap in magnification of the swab sample taken from the patient. When you run the test at more than 35 cycles, false-positives come pouring out like water from a fire hose. [4] [5] [5a] [5b]

So…with ordinary flu symptoms plus a false-positive PCR test…voila, you have a COVID case.

Researcher Peter Doshi did much to answer that question. In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (online) published his shocking report, which created tremors through the halls of the CDC, where “the experts” used to tell the press that 36,000 people in the US die every year from the flu.

“[According to CDC statistics], ‘influenza and pneumonia’ took 62,034 lives in 2001—61,777 of which were attributable to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was the flu virus positively identified.”

https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2021/03/01/massive-number-of-flu-cases-are-re-labeled-covid-cases/

by Jon Rappoport

The number of COVID cases has been faked in various ways.

By far, the most extensive strategy is re-labeling. Flu is called COVID.

We don’t need charts and graphs to see this. It’s right in front of our eyes.

The definition of a COVID case allows flu in the door. There is nothing unique about that definition. For example, a cough, or chills and fever, would constitute “a mild case of COVID.” [1] [2]

A positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 would also be required, but as I’ve shown in my recent series on the test, obtaining a false positive is as easy as pie. [3]

All you have to do is run the test at more than 35 cycles. Most labs run the test at 40 cycles. A cycle is a quantum leap in magnification of the swab sample taken from the patient. When you run the test at more than 35 cycles, false-positives come pouring out like water from a fire hose. [4] [5] [5a] [5b]

So…with ordinary flu symptoms plus a false-positive PCR test…voila, you have a COVID case.

Keep in mind that, overwhelmingly, most COVID cases are mild. In other words, they’re indistinguishable from ordinary flu.

But there is a rabbit hole here, and we can go down that hole much farther. The next question is: what is a flu case? What is it really?

Researcher Peter Doshi did much to answer that question. In December of 2005, the British Medical Journal (online) published his shocking report, which created tremors through the halls of the CDC, where “the experts” used to tell the press that 36,000 people in the US die every year from the flu.

Here is a quote from Doshi’s report, “Are US flu death figures more PR than science?” (BMJ 2005; 331:1412): [6] [7]

“[According to CDC statistics], ‘influenza and pneumonia’ took 62,034 lives in 2001—61,777 of which were attributable to pneumonia and 257 to flu, and in only 18 cases was the flu virus positively identified.”

Boom.

You see, the CDC creates one overall category that combines both flu and pneumonia deaths. Why do they do this? Because they disingenuously assume the pneumonia deaths are complications stemming from the flu.

This is an absurd assumption. Pneumonia has a number of causes.

But even worse, in all the flu and pneumonia deaths, only 18 revealed the presence of an influenza virus.

Therefore, the CDC could only say, with assurance, that 18 people died of influenza in 2001. Not 36,000 deaths. 18 deaths.

Doshi continued his assessment of published CDC flu-death statistics: “Between 1979 and 2001, [CDC] data show an average of 1348 [flu] deaths per year (range 257 to 3006).” These figures refer to flu separated out from pneumonia.

This death toll is obviously far lower than the old parroted 36,000 figure.

However, when you add the sensible condition that lab tests have to actually find the flu virus in patients, the numbers of annual flu deaths plummet even further.

In other words, it’s all promotion and hype.

But we’re not finished yet. Because…what test were researchers using to decide there were 18 cases of honest flu, in which a virus was found and identified? Answer: unknown.

It’s quite probable the test didn’t really isolate a flu virus at all. It only identified some marker that was ASSUMED, without proof, to be unique to a flu virus.

If so—ZERO cases of actual flu were found in the population.

Instead, what we had was “flu-like illness.” Chills, cough, congestion, fever, fatigue; the ubiquitous symptoms that describe about a billion cases of illness, every year, worldwide.

The cause of those billion cases? There is no single cause. Instead, there are many factors, ranging from sudden weather changes to air pollution, to malnutrition, to sub-standard sanitation…on and on.

That being the case, we can now say: Many, many cases of FAKE FLU are being relabeled FAKE COVID.

Now we’re getting real.

The medical cartel “discovers” (markets) huge numbers of so-called unique diseases—each disease with a purported specific cause: virus A, virus B, virus C…

For each virus, there must be at least several highly profitable drugs that supposedly kill the germ. And for each germ, there must be a vaccine that prevents the disease.

Billions and trillions in rewards follow.

And so does CONTROL. Control of minds.

Because the population is tuned up by ceaseless propaganda to believe in the rigid one-disease one-germ notion.

And when the time is right, the medical cartel can even claim a new germ is decimating the world, and they must “destroy the village in order to save it.”

Which is the psychotic fiction we are in the middle of, right now.

The Holy Church of Biological Mysticism needs your support. Give them your time, your money, your livelihood, your future, your loyalty, your faith.

If you do, you are their most important product.

SOURCES:

[1] https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/08/03/covid-case-numbers-far-lower-than-claimed/

[2] https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2021/02/03/covid-a-disease-in-name-only/

[3] https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/tag/pcr/

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Vy6fgaBPE (starting at 3m50s)

[5] https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download

[5a] CDC-006-00019, Revision: 06, CDC/DDID/NCIRD/ Division of Viral Diseases, Effective: 12/01/2020; see: https://web.archive.org/web/20210102171026/https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download

[5b] CDC-006-00019, Revision: 05, CDC/DDID/NCIRD/ Division of Viral Diseases, Effective: 07/13/2020; see: https://web.archive.org/web/20200715004004/https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download

[6] https://www.bmj.com/content/331/7529/1412

[7] https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/331/7529/Reviews.full.pdf

The Matrix Revealed

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

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The Virus Is Your Fault, Says the Fauci Regime – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on March 2, 2021

Thus Elaine Godfrey at The Atlantic just wrote, “In November I wrote a story about how COVID-19 was overwhelming Iowa’s hospitals. Back then, public-health experts predicted another big surge after the holidays, but it never came. I went back to those experts to find out why.”

Those “experts” have been wrong over and over again, yet Godfrey still considers this mysterious.

She’d better follow up with these people who were totally wrong, ask them why they were totally wrong, and then uncritically repeat their answers to her audience.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/03/thomas-woods/the-virus-is-your-fault-says-the-fauci-regime/

By Tom Woods

You’ve heard it again and again:

The spread of the virus is your fault.

According to our opinion molders, any movements in the COVID-19 numbers are a reflection of the compliance, or otherwise, of the public with the usual array of the state’s so-called mitigation measures.

Now if we had any actual journalists, some of them would observe the absurdity of all this. After all, societies with little in common and remote from each other have seen exactly the same curves; we’re supposed to believe that this is because their peoples all complied, and then didn’t comply, and then complied again on exactly the same timetable?

Can people really be this thick?

Thus Elaine Godfrey at The Atlantic just wrote, “In November I wrote a story about how COVID-19 was overwhelming Iowa’s hospitals. Back then, public-health experts predicted another big surge after the holidays, but it never came. I went back to those experts to find out why.”

Those “experts” have been wrong over and over again, yet Godfrey still considers this mysterious.

She’d better follow up with these people who were totally wrong, ask them why they were totally wrong, and then uncritically repeat their answers to her audience.

Now she could have consulted people who have been right, and who have been critical of the public-health apparatus, to see if maybe these folks have some insight into why the always-wrong people were wrong yet again, but that would be journalism, and that is not Elaine Godfrey’s field.

No, instead she wrote a follow-up article called, “Iowans Were Scared into Taking the Virus Seriously.”

Yes, this is the best she can do: public-health officials did such a good job panicking about a “surge” that they persuaded people to change their behavior!

Know what the trouble with this is?

Iowan public-health officials must have scared people so much that the scariness spread into North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas, too, which had identical curves and declines in their numbers with no change in public-health messaging and no change in the public’s behavior.

Oops!

Note, too, that this decline occurs during the holidays, when we were told there’d be a major spike. Yet in these states the numbers fell. Is that because people in these states got together and coordinated a gigantic decision to follow “public health” guidelines at precisely the same moment, or might climate zones and seasonality have more to do with it?

Naturally, Iowa’s relatively more laissez-faire approach had the usual suspects screaming and predicting doom. “Iowans can expect to see nothing less than a tsunami,” said Dr. Eli Perencevich. “In a lot of ways, Iowa is serving as the control group of what not to do.”

“Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing,” warned the Atlantic.

And then hospitalizations plummeted.

In late 2020 the authorities in Minnesota tried to claim that their most recent wave of ruining people’s lives had helped get their state’s case numbers down faster than neighboring states.

But in fact the numbers showed neighboring states doing as well or better than Minnesota.

Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana adopted completely different policies and implemented them at different times. And yet their hospitalization curves look strikingly similar.

It’s almost as if none of this makes any difference, isn’t it?

Well, a member of the mainstream media — on MSNBC, no less — finally, after months and months, asked The Question.

Her guest: White House COVID adviser and crazed doomer Andy Slavitt.

She asked him:

“Contrast states like Florida and California, California basically in lockdown and their numbers aren’t that different from Florida.”

Slavitt proceeded to do everything but answer the question.

He began with this:

“Look, there’s so much of this virus that we think we understand, that we think we can predict, that’s just a little bit beyond our explanation.”

This is all I’ve been asking them to say for the past year. Admit that they don’t fully understand it, and that it doesn’t behave the way their mitigation guidance seems to suggest it does. Finally someone admits it.

And then, on to the evasion of the question:

“What we do know is that the more careful people are, the more they mask and social distance, and the quicker we vaccinate, the quicker it goes away and the less it spreads, but we have got to get better visibility into variants, we don’t know what role they play, large events, etc.

“As we all have learned by this time, this is a virus that continues to surprise us. It’s very hard to predict. And all around the country, we’ve got to continue to do a better job, and I think we are, but we’re done yet.”

That’s it. That’s all he had to say.

Sorry we decimated your savings, took away your sources of joy, destroyed your business, and stole a year of your children’s lives. We’re just learning, you see.

And we “know,” said Slavitt, that the more people “mask and social distance,” the quicker it goes away and the less it spreads.

In fact, we “know” no such thing. Graph the results any way you like: lockdown stringency, people’s mobility patterns, mask mandate dates, whatever. The results are completely random. They absolutely do not show a clear pattern whereby ruining your life solves the problem.

Not to mention: the very California/Florida comparison the anchor is asking him about clearly contradicts this claim, but Slavitt just repeats it robotically anyway.

Slavitt also mentions “large events,” of which there have been precious few in California over the past year. But there have been a ton in Florida, where I live. Shouldn’t our state be marked by piles of corpses at the side of the road, and California be a paradise – especially since our state has a much higher elderly population?

Well, I’ve taken phenomena like this and assembled it in the form of charts that tell the story better than any essay can.

It’s a free eBook called COVID Charts CNN Forgot.

Enjoy:

http://www.ChartsTheyForgot.com

Tom Woods [send him mail; visit his website] is the New York Times bestselling author of 12 books and host of the Tom Woods Show, which libertarians listen to every weekday. Get a free copy of Your Facebook Friends Are Wrong About the Lockdown: A Non-Hysteric’s Guide to COVID-19.

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