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Let’s Not Waste a Crisis – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on May 13, 2020

Here’s a question for you. Which entities produce greater consumer
satisfaction: for-profit enterprises such as supermarkets, computer
makers and clothing stores, or nonprofit entities such as public
schools, post offices and motor vehicle departments? I’m guessing you’ll
answer the former. Their survival depends on pleasing ordinary people.
Public schools, post offices and motor vehicle departments’ survival are
not strictly tied to pleasing people but rather on politicians and the
ability of government to impose taxes.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/05/walter-e-williams/lets-not-waste-a-crisis/

By

Former Barack Obama adviser Rahm Emanuel, during a recent interview, reminded us of his 2008 financial crisis quotation, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.” The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a wonderful opportunity for those of us who want greater control over our lives. Sadly, too many Americans have already taken the bait. We’ve allowed politicians and bureaucrats to dictate to us what’s an essential business and what isn’t, who has access to hospitals and who hasn’t, and a host of minor and major dictates.

Leftist politicians who want to get into our pocketbooks are beginning to argue that the COVID-19 pandemic is the best argument for a wealth tax. Let’s first define a wealth tax. A wealth tax is applicable to and levied on a variety of accumulated assets that include cash, money market funds, real property, trust funds, owner-occupied housing and other wealth accumulations. Assume a taxpayer earns $150,000 a year and falls in the 32% tax bracket. That individual’s income tax liability for the year will be 32% x $150,000 or $48,800. Say the taxpayer has a net worth of $500,000 consisting of a business or home and the government imposes a wealth tax of 32%, the person’s tax liability is $160,000.

The problem with most politicians is when they enact a law, they seldom ask, “Then what?” They assume a world of what economists call zero elasticity wherein people behave after a tax is imposed just as they behaved before the tax was imposed and the only difference is that more money comes into the government’s tax coffers. The long-term effect of a wealth tax is that people will try to avoid it by not accumulating as much wealth or concealing the wealth they accumulate.

A wealth tax has become increasingly attractive because it lends itself to demagoguery about the significant wealth disparity in the United States. The Federal Reserve reports that, in 2018, the wealthiest 10% of Americans owned 70% of the country’s wealth, and the richest 1% owned 32% of the wealth. That fact gave Democratic presidential contenders such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren incentives to propose a wealth tax as a part of their campaign rhetoric. Leftists lament that multibillionaires such as Charles Koch, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and Sheldon Adelson have not made charitable efforts to address the coronavirus crisis.

My questions to these political leeches are: To whom does the billionaire’s wealth belong? And how did they accumulate such wealth?

Did they accumulate their great wealth by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man, as has been the case throughout most of human history? No, they accumulated great wealth by serving and pleasing their fellow man in the pursuit of profits. Unfortunately, demagoguery and lack of understanding has led to “profit” becoming a dirty word. Profit is a payment to entrepreneurs just as wages are payments to labor, interest to capital and rent to land. In order to earn profits in free markets, entrepreneurs must identify and satisfy human wants in a way that economizes on society’s scarce resources.

Here’s a question for you. Which entities produce greater consumer satisfaction: for-profit enterprises such as supermarkets, computer makers and clothing stores, or nonprofit entities such as public schools, post offices and motor vehicle departments? I’m guessing you’ll answer the former. Their survival depends on pleasing ordinary people. Public schools, post offices and motor vehicle departments’ survival are not strictly tied to pleasing people but rather on politicians and the ability of government to impose taxes.

Some advocates of wealth taxes and other forms of taxation might argue that they are temporary measures to get us over the COVID-19 crisis. Do not buy that argument. The great Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman once said, “Nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program.” The telephone tax was levied on wealthy Americans with telephones in 1898 to help fund the Spanish-American War. That tax was repealed over 100 years later in 2006. One of the objectives of the World War II withholding tax was to bring faster revenues to fight the war. The withholding of taxes is still with us blinding Americans on the taxes they pay. Let us not allow a crisis to bamboozle us again.

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Bill Gates, HR6666, Remdesivir, Deaths in Italy « Jon Rappoport’s Blog

Posted by M. C. on May 13, 2020

“In 2009, the New York Times reported that the Gates Foundation was
partnering with media companies to write and shape stories to ‘embed’
messages in primetime dramas:”

https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/05/12/bill-gates-hr-6666-remdesivir-deaths-in-italy/

Each of these subjects deserves its own article. Bill Gates would
require a library of thick volumes. I don’t have the time to write
separate pieces, since I’m also busy with other research on the fake
pandemic.

So I’ll hit the highlights.

BILL GATES: Here, from FAIR, the long-standing media-watch group, is a September 4, 2016, article, “This Guardian piece touting Bill Gates’ education investment brought to you by Bill Gates.” It adds a layer of explanation about Gates’ Death Star:

“The Gates Foundation gives grants in the hundreds of thousands and
often millions to such media organizations as NBCUniversal, Al Jazeera,
BBC, Viacom (CBS) and Participant Media (the producer of pro-charter
school documentary Waiting for Superman). Both Gates and the Gates
Foundation are sizable shareholders in Comcast, which is the primary
investor in Buzzfeed and Vox, as well the parent corporation of MSNBC
and NBC News—the latter of which teamed up with Gates and other noted
education experts like Exxon and University of Phoenix Online for the
week-long charter school commercial ‘Education Week’.”

“In 2009, the New York Times reported that the Gates Foundation was
partnering with media companies to write and shape stories to ‘embed’
messages in primetime dramas:”

“’It [the Gates Foundation] is less well known as a behind-the-scenes
influencer of public attitudes toward these issues by helping to shape
story lines and insert messages into popular entertainment like the
television shows ER, Law & Order: SVU and Private Practice. The
foundation’s messages on HIV prevention, surgical safety AND THE SPREAD
OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES have found their way into these shows.” [CAPS are
mine]

“His enormous wealth and the reach of media parent corporations seem
to exempt Gates from routine disclosure requirements. He was offered up
as an education expert in the pro-charter Waiting for Superman, without
any mention of the fact that he donated at least $2 million to the film
and had a media partnership with its distributor, Viacom. He is given
softball interviews in Comcast-backed Vox without disclosure that he’s a
major Comcast investor. Because his stake in media companies is
laundered enough times, it’s assumed not to merit mention.”

“In the case of the Guardian, Gates effectively owns an entire
vertical, so when one of his investments is written up, one doesn’t
notice the conflict of interest—like a fish doesn’t notice water.
Because his influence is everywhere, it appears to be nowhere.”

HR6666: This aptly numbered bill is moving forward
in the US House Energy and Commerce Committee. Titled TRACE, “Testing,
Reaching, And Contacting Everyone,” it officially embeds the snitch
culture—with benefits for new agents of the State:

“To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award
grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19,
and related activities such as contact tracing, through mobile health
units and, as necessary, at individuals’ residences, and for other
purposes.”

“The Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may award
grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19,
to trace and monitor the contacts of infected individuals, and to
support the quarantine of such contacts…”

HR6666 funds this enterprise to the tune of “$100,000,000,000 for
fiscal year 2020; and such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal
year 2021 and any subsequent fiscal year during which the emergency
period continues.”

Why don’t they simply advertise: “Have you always wanted to run
around like a little fascist, targeting the unwary, the sheep, the
outliers, the rebels, the dissenters? Here’s your chance. The State will
pay you to do it. Who knows? Maybe the government will design a uniform
for you, embroidered with the logo of a skull or a virus with spikes.”

REMDESIVIR: This is the Fauci COVID drug. He wants
the antiviral to hit the market yesterday. At the Alliance for Human
Research and Protection (ahrp.org), an article points to the fraud:

“Fauci’s Promotional Hype Catapults Gilead’s Remdesivir”:
“[On 4/29], Gilead [the manufacturer of remdesivir] issued a press
release announcing that it ‘was aware of positive data emerging from [a]
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) study’.”
[Gilead provided assistance on study design and conduct to NIAID.]

“Based on the ‘positive data’ from the NIAID study, the Food and Drug
Administration approved emergency use of remdesivir against COVID-19 on
May 1.”

“…Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the President’s Coronavirus Task
Force, and heads the NIAID, since 1984, has a vested interest in
remdesivir. He sponsored the [NIAID] clinical trial whose detailed
results have not been peer-reviewed. What’s more, [on May 1] HE declared
the tenuous results to be ‘highly significant,’ and pronounced
remdesivir to be the new ‘standard of care.’”

“Dr. Fauci made the promotional pronouncement while sitting on a
couch in the White House, without providing a detailed news release;
without a briefing at a medical meeting or in a scientific journal – as
is the norm and practice, to allow scientists and researchers to review
the data.”

“What Dr. Fauci failed to disclose to the public in his promotional
pronouncement was that the [list of] primary outcomes [measures for
success or failure] of the [NAID] study [NCT04280705] were changed on
April 16, 2020. Changes in the Primary Outcome are posted on Clinical
Trials.gov.”

“Changing primary outcomes [measures] after a study has commenced is considered dubious and suspicious.”

“Reuters News reported that highly respected prominent leaders in the
medical community — such as Steven Nissen, MD, the chief academic
officer at the Cleveland Clinic and Eric Topol, MD, director and founder
of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California – were
unimpressed by remdesivir’s tentative, modest benefit at best.”

“…the NIAID-Gilead study results have not been published in
peer-reviewed literature – nor have details of the findings been
disclosed. However, they were publicly promoted by the head of the
federal agency that conducted the study, from the White House. What
better free advertisement?”

So…take this admittedly toxic drug. Convincing data? No need. Just
trust Fauci. Like other drugs of its type, remdesivir inhibits the
machinery of cell-reproduction in the body.

DEATHS IN ITALY: I have reported on this con in the
past. Italy’s own National Institute of Health has been combing through
the records of patients who have died. Their average age? 79.5. And the
overwhelming percentage of these people were already suffering from
multiple, long-term, serious health conditions—and had certainly been
treated with a number of toxic medical drugs. Claiming their deaths
stemmed from the purported COVID-19 virus would be absurd.

Add to these facts the horrendous air pollution in areas of Northern
Italy. Toxic air can easily explain the lung conditions attributed to
the virus.

In recent years, the annual number of flu cases in Italy averages
roughly five million. It’s a simple matter to label some of these people
COVID-19.

I’ve also indicated that vaccination campaigns could account for
destruction of health in Northern Italy. I have a few possible clues in
that regard.

Colorado Naturopathic Doctor, Michael Murray writes: “Could a new flu
vaccine be partly responsible for the COVID-19 mortality rate in
Italy?…My colleague, Dr. Alex Vazquez, provided me with a valuable
insight. In September 2019, Italy rolled out an entirely new type of
influenza vaccine. This vaccine called VIQCC is different than others.
Most available influenza vaccines are produced in embryonated chicken
eggs. VIQCC, however, is produced from cultured animal cells rather than
eggs and has more of a ‘boost’ to the immune system as a result. VIQCC
also contains four types of viruses – 2 type A viruses (H1N1 and H3N2)
and 2 type B viruses…”

Well-known Italian writer, Br. Alexis Bugnolo, states: “Italians are
still trying to understand why Bergamo, of all the cities of Italy, is
the epicenter of the Coronavirus epidemic…”

“One factor may be that the city was vaccinated en mass not once, but
twice, in the 2 months preceding the Coronavirus outbreak in the city.”

In the fall [2019], according to records 141,000 doses of vaccine
against the winter flu were administered by the local health board. Of
those, 129,000 were Italians over 65 years of age. Of those, 129,000,
70% had grave heart problems.”

“Then, again, in December, from the 24th through to January, there
was a mass vaccination program against Hepatitis-C of 21,331 citizens of
Bergamo. And in the surrounding province, another 12,000 citizens.”

At doctorsinitaly.com: “In September 2019 was made available for the
first time in Italy a ‘cell-based’ flu shot, called VIQCC or QIVc, that
is produced from cultured animal cells rather than eggs.”

“VIQCC is a quadrivalent flu vaccine that contains 2 type A viruses
(H1N1 and H3N2) and 2 type B viruses. It is approved for people ages 9
and older.”

ANY vaccines given to people whose immune systems are already
weakened—such as the elderly and infirm—are automatically dangerous and
life-threatening at a high level. Two vaccines within the space of a few
months, one of which has added new viral material and/or a variety of
new cellular and genetic debris—plus the usual toxic chemicals—and you
have a potential recipe for disaster.

SOURCES:

* https://fair.org/home/this-guardian-piece-touting-bill-gates-education-investment-brought-to-you-by-bill-gates/

* https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6666/text?r=2&s=1

* https://ahrp.org/faucis-promotional-hype-catapults-gileads-remdesivir/

* https://doctormurray.com/does-the-flu-shot-increase-covid-19-risk/

* https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/tag/italy/

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Will the Grinch Steal Christmas? – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on May 13, 2020

I don’t think the people who plan to test, track, monitor and force
vaccinate all of humanity actually understand humanity all that well. I
think they really believe that we can be controlled through fear and
through force. And to be fair to them, those things have been awfully
effective in the past. But I don’t think they are going to work this
time.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/05/bretigne-shaffer/will-the-grinch-steal-christmas/

By

I keep thinking about the ending of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” How this poor guy’s evil plan doesn’t come off the way he expected it to, all because he doesn’t really understand the Whos. Because all he can see are the material trappings of Christmas, he assumes that that’s all everybody else sees too. But that’s not what Christmas means for the Whos, and after he takes away all of their things, they celebrate anyway.

I have long felt that we are being conditioned, by politicians and others who benefit by having ordinary people afraid of each other and at each others’ throats, and by an entertainment culture that continually pumps out apocalyptic narratives in which the worst of our human nature rises to the top. This culture gives us worlds in which people are pitted against each other in a desperate battle for survival and the only way to make it out alive is to lie, cheat, steal, brutalize, kill–and sometimes eat–one’s fellow human beings.

It feels to me as if someone with an agenda has been manufacturing these narratives, “training” us to think of each other as nothing more than competitors for scarce resources, enemies even. And to live accordingly. I haven’t seen the film “Contagion”, but I am told that it is representative of this trend: As soon as there is a big disruption in society, the social fabric immediately tears apart and people begin looting and killing each other.

But that’s not what I’m seeing around me now. What I’m seeing is people coming together, helping each other, encouraging each other. Yes, some of the nastier aspects of humanity are surfacing too: The people who report businesses and individuals for violating the draconian orders, and the police officers who unthinkingly obey those orders. But looking around me, the first seem to be the exception, and even the second is not universal. Neighbors are helping each other; people are sewing masks (for all the good they may do); and many local sheriffs across the country are recognizing that these lockdowns constitute a violation of fundamental rights, and are refusing to enforce them.

They join thousands of individuals who are choosing to ignore the unconstitutional edicts, to gather together, to worship, to open their businesses and to go to the beach, in defiance of the orders.

I believe that the people who have orchestrated this (not the virus, but the statist responses to it) were fully prepared for civil unrest, looting, food riots, and violence. But I’m not sure they were prepared for this.

I’m not sure they were prepared for a former marine to stand on a truck and speak to a line of police officers in riot gear about their oath to uphold the Constitution, about their own consciences and being able to sleep at night. I’m not sure they were prepared for hundreds of protesters to stand and pray for the stormtroopers who stood between themselves and the California State Capitol building. I’m not sure they were prepared for a hairdresser to risk jail so that she could feed her family–or for so many of those around her to support her in doing so.

I don’t think the people who plan to test, track, monitor and force vaccinate all of humanity actually understand humanity all that well. I think they really believe that we can be controlled through fear and through force. And to be fair to them, those things have been awfully effective in the past. But I don’t think they are going to work this time.

The tools of those who would control all of humanity are very limited. Fear, propaganda, and force can indeed be powerful. But they are not what has kept humanity going for thousands of years. We haven’t survived as a species because we are good at brutalizing each other, or at lying and cheating. We’ve survived because of our ability to cooperate, to build networks of trust, and to trade for mutual benefit. These are all things a Grinch can’t understand.

Are people afraid? Yes–but I suspect not as much as our would-be overlords would like us to be. And more and more, people are recognizing that the thing we really need to fear is an entity that can shut down our entire society at its pleasure. People are catching on. And it’s just possible that a whole lot of us did in fact learn the right lessons from our history with the total state in the Twentieth Century.

I don’t think the Grinches who seek to use Covid-19 to achieve their dreams of world domination expected any of that. And I suspect that–just like in the book–even after the Grinch has taken our stuff, savaged our economies, and done its best to drive us apart from each other with its edicts and its fear-mongering… we’re going to get together and sing anyway. And there will be nothing it can do to stop us.

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Erie Times E-Edition Article-Officials: No timetable for county to enter green phase

Posted by M. C. on May 13, 2020

State and county leadership has not changed.

Erie County might not enter…

Dahlkemper said that she asked about a timetable to enter the green…

They didn’t say specifically…

Dahlkemper received no guidance from Wolf or Levine…

“The response we got was that they have not determined…

http://tinyurl.com/ycvtbghc

Erie County might not enter the green phase of Pennsylvania’s COVID-19 reopening plan until all of the other counties in the state have left the red, or most restrictive, phase.

Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper said that she asked about a timetable to enter the green, or least restrictive, phase during a conference call Tuesday with Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, M.D.

“They didn’t say specifically, but I understood that they want everyone to get to yellow,” Dahlkemper said.

Twenty-four Pennsylvania counties, including Erie and Crawford counties, entered the yellow phase on Friday. Thirteen more counties will enter the yellow phase this Friday.

But all of the counties in the eastern part of the state remain in the red phase with no timetable to advance to yellow. In addition, Dahlkemper received no guidance from Wolf or Levine about the criteria needed to move from yellow to green.

“The response we got was that they have not determined what those data points would be, but they want to get us all transitioned to yellow,” Dahlkemper said.

Dahlkemper reported two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the county Tuesday. The county’s total has risen to 122 during the pandemic.

Ninety-seven of those people have recovered from the virus, Dahlkemper said. Two have died. That leaves just 23 active cases of COVID-19 in the county, even though 27 cases have been reported since Thursday.

“To be recovered, you need to be 72 hours past your last symptoms,” Dahlkemper said when asked about the recent cases.

“Some do recover quickly, and also when did some of these people get tested or get the results of their test,” Dahlkemper said.

The county has recorded 2,734 negative test results. Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews. com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.

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Can we trust Covid modelling? More evidence from Sweden | The Spectator

Posted by M. C. on May 12, 2020

In Britain, it’s argued that if the number of Covid deaths is far lower than the models predicted, well, this is the result of lockdown! Some even argue that the difference between the predicted and the actual is the lockdown effect. But you can’t say that for Sweden. We banned gatherings of more than 50 people, but that was about it. All other behavioural change was voluntary: something the models did not properly understand.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-we-trust-covid-modelling-more-evidence-from-sweden

Johan Norberg

At last we’re getting a debate about Covid-19 modelling. When people finally got to look under the hood of the famous Imperial College study, they found twisted and tangled code. And most of the model’s predictions bear little resemblance to what is actually happening. Some defend the models by saying that their predictions turned out to be wrong only because governments imposed harsher restrictions than the coders expected.

If so, we have a perfect experiment. Sweden did not close borders, shut down schools, businesses, restaurants, gyms or shopping centres and did not issue stay at home orders. So it should be the one country where the models fit. Let’s see.

Maria Gunther and Maria Westholm at Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s biggest daily, just took a look at two of the most influential models in Sweden, both were inspired by the Imperial College study and published on the preprint server MedRxiv in April. Both were used by critics to argue that the Swedish model would quickly break our health care system – and that we had to make a U-turn into lockdown, as Britain did.

Here are the models’ prediction of the number of Covid-19 patients in Swedish intensive care units, ICU (the highest curve is a model without lockdown):

H. Sjödin et al: ‘Covid-19 health care demand and mortality in Sweden in response to non-pharmaceutical (NPIs) mitigation and suppression scenarios’, 7 April. The graph suggests critical care demand would peak above 16,000 patients per day by early May, and pre-pandemic intensive care unit capacity would be exceeded 30-fold.

<img class="ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image–fit-bounds ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image–loaded" src="data:;base64,” />

Then came J. Gardner et al, ‘Intervention strategies against Covid-19 and their estimated impact on Swedish healthcare capacity’, 15 April.  It was an even more pessimistic assessment, showing a peak of over 20,000 patients by early May – with an ICU requirement around 40 times the actual capacity.

<img class="ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image–fit-bounds ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image–loaded" src="data:;base64,” />

Sweden’s Public Health Agency rejected the models. It instead planned for a worst-case scenario that was much less pessimistic, suggesting a peak around 1,700 ICU patients in the middle of May. Still more than three times more than the pre-pandemic capacity. Sweden, almost alone in the world, refused to lock down. And here is how things eventually worked out.

<img class="ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image–fit-bounds ResponsiveImage2-module__real-image–loaded" src="data:;base64,” />

The number of patients in ICU has been fairly stable around 500-550 since mid-April. This means that capacity was never exceeded. At this moment, when the models suggested that Sweden would have 30 to 40 patients fighting over every available ICU bed, there is spare capacity in beds, equipment and personnel of around 30 percent (partly as a result of a doubling of the pre-pandemic capacity).

Gardner et al predicted that Sweden would have 82,000 Covid-19 deaths by 1 July. That implies around 1,000 deaths every day since the paper was published in mid-April. However, the total number of Swedish Covid-19 deaths at the time of writing is 3,313.

One reason why the models failed is that they – just like most countries’ politicians – underestimated how millions of people spontaneously adapt to new circumstances. They only thought in terms of lockdowns vs business as usual, but failed to consider a third option: that people engage in social distancing voluntarily when they realise lives are at stake and when authorities recommend them to do so.

And obviously, there is an argument that these models scared us into changing our behaviour and ramping up capacity, and so helped us to avoid a disaster. But they were also clearly based on faulty assumptions that would always result in absurd predictions. We know this, because both models actually assumed that it was already too late, and estimated that ICU capacity would be exceeded by around 10 times even if Sweden switched to strong mitigation.

The need for ICU beds in Sweden will be ‘at least 10-fold greater [than capacity] if strategies approximating the most stringent in Europe are introduced by 10 April’, wrote Gardner et al.

Those strategies were never introduced in Sweden, and yet, additional ICU capacity is 30 percent and the number of patients in intensive care has been declining for two weeks. The newly constructed field hospital in Stockholm, with room for hundreds of patients, has still not received any patients. It will probably never have to open. Here’s a zoomed-in graph of eventual ICU: numbering in the hundreds, not the predicted thousands.

In Britain, it’s argued that if the number of Covid deaths is far lower than the models predicted, well, this is the result of lockdown! Some even argue that the difference between the predicted and the actual is the lockdown effect. But you can’t say that for Sweden. We banned gatherings of more than 50 people, but that was about it. All other behavioural change was voluntary: something the models did not properly understand.

As countries plan how to leave lockdown, they can look at Sweden and ask: what happens if you don’t involve the police, if you don’t issue edicts about how many of your relatives or neighbours you can visit, and just ask people to be careful? Might that work? The Swedish experiment casts huge doubts on the models, and makes the case for trusting the public.

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Sweden’s Coronavirus Strategy Will Soon Be the World’s | Foreign Affairs

Posted by M. C. on May 12, 2020

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/sweden/2020-05-12/swedens-coronavirus-strategy-will-soon-be-worlds

By Nils Karlson, Charlotta Stern, and Daniel B. Klein

China placed 50 million people under quarantine in Wuhan Province in January. Since then, many liberal democracies have taken aggressive authoritarian measures of their own to fight the novel coronavirus. By mid-March, almost all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had implemented some combination of school, university, workplace, and public transportation closures; restrictions on public events; and limits on domestic and international travel. One country, however, stands out as an exception in the West.

Rather than declare a lockdown or a state of emergency, Sweden asked its citizens to practice social distancing on a mostly voluntary basis. Swedish authorities imposed some restrictions designed to flatten the curve: no public gatherings of more than 50 people, no bar service, distance learning in high schools and universities, and so on. But they eschewed harsh controls, fines, and policing. Swedes have changed their behavior, but not as profoundly as the citizens of other Western democracies. Many restaurants remain open, although they are lightly trafficked; young children are still in school. And in contrast to neighboring Norway (and some Asian countries), Sweden has not introduced location-tracing technologies or apps, thus avoiding threats to privacy and personal autonomy.

Swedish authorities have not officially declared a goal of reaching herd immunity, which most scientists believe is achieved when more than 60 percent of the population has had the virus. But augmenting immunity is no doubt part of the government’s broader strategy—or at least a likely consequence of keeping schools, restaurants, and most businesses open. Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency, has projected that the city of Stockholm could reach herd immunity as early as this month. Based on updated behavioral assumptions (social-distancing norms are changing how Swedes behave), the Stockholm University mathematician Tom Britton has calculated that 40 percent immunity in the capital could be enough to stop the virus’s spread there and that this could happen by mid-June.

Sweden has won praise in some quarters for preserving at least some semblance of economic normalcy and keeping its per capita death rate lower than those of Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. But it has come in for criticism in other quarters for exceeding the per capita death rates of other Nordic countries and in particular, for failing to protect its elderly and immigrant populations. People receiving nursing and elder-care services account for upward of 50 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Sweden, according to Tegnell, in part because many facilities were grievously slow to implement basic protective measures such as mask wearing. Immigrants have also suffered disproportionately, mainly because they are poorer on average and tend to work in the service sector, where working remotely is usually impossible. But Swedish authorities have argued that the country’s higher death rate will appear comparatively lower in hindsight. Efforts to contain the virus are doomed to fail in many countries, and a large percentage of people will be infected in the end. When much of the world experiences a deadly second wave, Sweden will have the worst of the pandemic behind it….

The rest here

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Gov. Wolf Faces Backlash: ‘How Dare You Have the Audacity to Call Anyone a Coward?’

Posted by M. C. on May 12, 2020

Add to that coercing compliance through refusal of relief funds.

Government grammar

You have a fiend in Wolf.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/12/gov-wolf-faces-backlash-how-dare-you-have-the-audacity-to-call-anyone-a-coward/

by Hannah Bleau

Gov. Tom Wolf (D) is facing immense backlash from all sides — residents, local and state leaders, including Rep. Ryan Warner (R), who reminded the governor he is not the “supreme ruler of Pennsylvania.”

Wolf on Monday sharply criticized Pennsylvania leaders and business owners who are moving to reopen in violation of his orders, stating they are committing a “cowardly act.”

The proclamation drew backlash from residents and state leaders, including Rep. Warner, who blasted the governor on social media.

“Governor Wolf, how dare you have the audacity to call anyone a coward. Cowardly? My man, you don’t even have the COURAGE to openly answer questions from the press,” Warner wrote.

“Instead, you cower behind a staff member who filters and then asks you the questions,” he continued.

“Let me remind you sir, you are not the supreme ruler of Pennsylvania,” he added, reminding Wolf that “Whether it’s 1776 or 2020, we are not ruled, nor will we EVER be ruled, by one man- and especially not by one man who doesn’t even have the courage to openly face the media.”

Warner continued:

Do you want to know why sheriffs, district attorneys, municipalities, counties and businesses across this commonwealth are defying your orders? It’s because this is the United States of America pal, where the people have the voice. Whether it’s 1776 or 2020, we are not ruled, nor will we EVER be ruled, by one man- and especially not by one man who doesn’t even have the courage to openly face the media.

Cowardly? Not addressing the people who are now going eight weeks without a paycheck because of the complete failure of a system that you and your department are directly responsible for is cowardly. Hiding your secret business waiver list until you were forced to disclose it by a subpoena is cowardly. Consulting with governors from other states rather than consulting with the elected officials of your own state is cowardly, and then calling out those very same elected officials who you chose to ignore, rather than work with, is flat out insulting. As I’ve said before, you’ve granted yourself unprecedented powers and you expect to take minimal responsibility for all that’s at hand. Instead, you blame and threaten those who try to make a difference….and that sir is the definition of a coward.

We are two months into your disaster declaration and at this point I’d like you to give me one reason why you still need to be making unilateral decisions and bypassing the legislative process? I think it is well beyond the time that this General Assembly runs the resolution that removes your power and restores it rightfully back to the people of this great commonwealth.

Governor Wolf, how dare you have the audacity to call anyone a coward. Cowardly? My man, you don’t even have the COURAGE…

Posted by PA State Rep. Ryan Warner on Monday, May 11, 2020

Sean Parnell, Republican Candidate for the 17th Congressional District of Pennsylvania, also addressed the governor following his threats.

.@GovernorTomWolf it’s easy to threaten & hurl insults while you’re sitting inside the Governor’s mansion still getting a paycheck,” Parnell said.

“You’re insulated from any hardship. You don’t get to call people who are trying to feed their families cowards & deserters,” he added. You work for US”:

Wolf set off a political firestorm on Monday after doubling down during his press conference, contending that he could prevent counties from defying his orders and accusing those who are clamoring to reopen as giving up the fight against the virus and engaging in a “cowardly act.”

“To those politicians who decide to cave in to this coronavirus, they need to understand the consequences of their cowardly act,” Wolf said as he attempted to pit business owners against local leaders who, like them, want to reopen.

Politicians who are “urging businesses to risk their lives and risk the lives of their customers or their employees by opening prematurely” are “engaging in behavior that is both selfish and unsafe,” Wolf stated, issuing threats to business owners — threats that included the loss of health department certificates, liquor licenses, and certificates of occupancy.

“By opening before the evidence suggests you should, you’re taking undue risks with the safety of your customers,” the governor warned business owners, accusing them of doing something “morally wrong” and adding, “that’s also really bad business.”

Pennsylvania House Republicans responded to Wolf’s remarks on Monday, affirming their support of frustrated citizens:

Calls for Wolf’s impeachment have also increased, following his controversial presser.

Be seeing you

 

 

 

 

 

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Watch “Officer’s Message to Police: We Are Trampling People’s Liberties” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on May 12, 2020

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The privately owned CDC played up flu deaths in 2003 because the public was declining their advice on the flu shot — Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch

Posted by M. C. on May 12, 2020

“Cause-of-death statistics are based solely on the underlying cause of death [internationally defined] as ‘the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death,'” explains the National Center for Health Statistics. Because the flu was rarely an “underlying cause of death,” the CDC created the sound-alike term, “influenza-associated death.”

The CDC’s decision to play up flu deaths dates back a decade, when it realized the public wasn’t following its advice on the flu vaccine. During the 2003 flu season “the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving a lot of orders for vaccine,”Dr. Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at CDC’s National Immunization Program, told National Public Radio. “It really did look like we needed to do something to encourage people to get a flu shot.”

Remember CDC is a private subsidiary of Big Pharma. EWR From the huffingtonpost The CDC’s decision to play up flu deaths dates back a decade, when it realized the public wasn’t following its advice on the flu vaccine. During the 2003 flu season “the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving a lot of […]

via The privately owned CDC played up flu deaths in 2003 because the public was declining their advice on the flu shot — Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch

The CDC’s decision to play up flu deaths dates back a decade, when it realized the public wasn’t following its advice on the flu vaccine. During the 2003 flu season “the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving a lot of orders for vaccine,”Dr. Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at CDC’s National Immunization Program, told National Public Radio.

Flu results in “about 250,000 to 500,000 yearly deaths” worldwide, Wikipedia tells us. “The typical estimate is 36,000 [deaths] a year in the United States,” reports NBC, citing the Centers for Disease Control. “Somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 Canadians a year die of influenza and its related complications, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada,” the Globe and Mail says, adding that “Those numbers are controversial because they are estimates.”

“Controversial” is an understatement, and not just in Canada, and not just because the numbers are estimates. The numbers differ wildly from the sober tallies recorded on death certificates — by law every certificate must show a cause — and reported by the official agencies that collect and keep vital statistics.

According to the National Vital Statistics System in the U.S., for example, annual flu deaths in 2010 amounted to just 500 per year — fewer than deaths from ulcers (2,977), hernias (1,832) and pregnancy and childbirth (825), and a far cry from the big killers such as heart disease (597,689) and cancers (574,743). The story is similar in Canada, where unlikely killers likewise dwarf Statistics Canada’s count of flu deaths.

Even that 500 figure for the U.S. could be too high, according to analyses in authoritative journals such as the American Journal of Public Health and the British Medical Journal. Only about 15-20 per cent of people who come down with flu-like symptoms have the influenza virus — the other 80-85 per cent actually caught rhinovirus or other germs that are indistinguishable from the true flu without laboratory tests, which are rarely done. In 2001, a year in which death certificates listed 257 Americans as having died of flu, only 18 were positively identified as true flus. The other 239 were simply assumed to be flus and most likely had few true flus among them.

“U.S. data on influenza deaths are a mess,” states a 2005 article in the British Medical Journal entitled “Are U.S. flu death figures more PR than science?” This article takes issue with the 36,000 flu-death figure commonly claimed, and with describing “influenza/pneumonia” as the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

“But why are flu and pneumonia bundled together?” the article asks. “Is the relationship so strong or unique to warrant characterizing them as a single cause of death?”

The article’s answer is no. Most pneumonia deaths are unrelated to influenza. For example, “stomach acid suppressing drugs are associated with a higher risk of community-acquired pneumonia, but such drugs and pneumonia are not compiled as a single statistic,” explained Dr. David Rosenthal, director of Harvard University Health Services. “People don’t necessarily die, per se, of the [flu] virus — the viraemia. What they die of is a secondary pneumonia.”

Pneumonia, according to the American Lung Association, has more than 30 different causes, influenza being but one of them. The CDC itself acknowledges the slim relationship, saying “only a small proportion of deaths… only 8.5 per cent of all pneumonia and influenza deaths [are] influenza-related.”

Because death certificates belie claims of numerous flu deaths, CDC enlisted computer models to arrive at its 36,000 flu-death estimate. But even here it needed to bend conventional medical terminology to arrive at compelling death numbers.

“Cause-of-death statistics are based solely on the underlying cause of death [internationally defined] as ‘the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death,'” explains the National Center for Health Statistics. Because the flu was rarely an “underlying cause of death,” the CDC created the sound-alike term, “influenza-associated death.”

Using this new, loose definition, CDC’s computer models could tally people who died of a heart ailment or other causes after having the flu. As William Thompson of the CDC’s National Immunization Program admitted, influenza-associated mortality is “a statistical association … I don’t know that we would say that it’s the underlying cause of death.”

The CDC’s decision to play up flu deaths dates back a decade, when it realized the public wasn’t following its advice on the flu vaccine. During the 2003 flu season “the manufacturers were telling us that they weren’t receiving a lot of orders for vaccine,”Dr. Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at CDC’s National Immunization Program, told National Public Radio. “It really did look like we needed to do something to encourage people to get a flu shot.”

The CDC’s response was its “Seven-Step ‘Recipe‘ for Generating Interest in, and Demand for, Flu (or any other) Vaccination,” a slide show Nowak presented at the 2004 National Influenza Vaccine Summit.

Here is the “Recipe that fosters influenza vaccine interest and demand,” in the truncated language that appears on his slides: “Medical experts and public health authorities [should] publicly (e.g. via media) state concern and alarm (and predict dire outcomes) – and urge influenza vaccination.” This recipe, his slide show indicated, would result in “Significant media interest and attention … in terms that motivate behavior (e.g. as ‘very severe,’ ‘more severe than last or past years,’ ‘deadly’).” Other emotive recommendations included fostering “the perception that many people are susceptible to a bad case of influenza” and “Visible/tangible examples of the seriousness of the illness (e.g., pictures of children, families of those affected coming forward) and people getting vaccinated (the first to motivate, the latter to reinforce).”

The CDC unabashedly decided to create a mass market for the flu vaccine by enlisting the media into panicking the public. An obedient and unquestioning media obliged by hyping the numbers, and 10 years later it is obliging still.

Be seeing you

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Medical Coup D’état – The Culling of Humanity

Posted by M. C. on May 12, 2020

The US and Canada poured millions of dollars into the experiments at the
Wuhan lab and the funding was green-lit by none other than Dr. Anthony
Fauci in 2015. Trump’s cabinet is stacked with global elites and
people like Dr. Fauci that are intimately associated with the WHO. Just
last year, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
the organization led by Dr. Fauci, funded scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other institutions for work on gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.

People who intentionally spread the coronavirus could face criminal charges under federal terrorism laws, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official said recently. How about we add to that anyone who intentionally acted to destroy the world, using, a virus as a cover, should also face criminal charges. This lockdown madness is probably going to be prolonged far longer than we can imagine, the economic loss is going to be staggering, the level of human suffering colossal.

https://drsircus.com/general/medical-coup-detat-the-culling-of-humanity/

In four US state prisons, some 3,300 inmates test
positive for coronavirus — 96% without symptoms.

Health official policy makers were cheered for their swift, decisive action during the beginning of the Corona pandemic. However, the price that will be paid, by humanity, for their actions, will be so high that they will find themselves having to answer for more than their critical lack of foresight. Now that there is growing evidence that the severity of the quarantine regime has essentially zero impact on the mortality metrics, and that death predictions have crashed by a factor of 20, we have reason to seriously doubt the reasoning and motives of the top health officials.

Not only were health officials not prepared medically speaking (no idea how to treat), and complicit in the creation of the virus, but they came on with immeasurable arrogance directing humans to stop whatever they were doing to crush the world economy and life as we know it. It is madness, insanity, a form of collective suicide in terms of civilization, culture, business and even agriculture; a cruelness and we now know who to blame.

When the body count from starvation, increased suicides, and deaths from critical patients, who stay at home out of fear of going to the hospitals, is counted we might find ourselves witnessing new Nuremberg trials; where health officials are accused of pharmaceutical genocide. What they have done is not just going to be bad. It’s going to be worse than any of us think it’s going to be.

How many people died from not receiving medical
care as the fear of going to the hospital kept them at home?

People who intentionally spread the coronavirus could face criminal charges under federal terrorism laws, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official said recently. How about we add to that anyone who intentionally acted to destroy the world, using, a virus as a cover, should also face criminal charges. This lockdown madness is probably going to be prolonged far longer than we can imagine, the economic loss is going to be staggering, the level of human suffering colossal.

What we are living through is a medical coup d’état, which is normally thought as a revolt performed through violence. Typically, it is an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power by a political faction, the military, or a dictator but in this case its a group of high ranking health officials, with people like Bill Gates participating with all his heart, who are doing the dirty deed. Read the rest of this entry »

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