Reader’s Links for May 6, 2020

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Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

102 Replies to “Reader’s Links for May 6, 2020”

    • Just in time for summer, wanna bet this makes it immune to the heat and humidity of summer?

      The next question, natural mutation of genetic engineering?

      How many more mutations are waiting in line to be released?

      The old saying is Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action . In this case I think twice is enemy action and will raise grave doubts about an accidental release. Of course the accidental release might has happened and China iis following their original plans at an earlier date.

  4. Sorry, but I had to have a dark humoured laugh after reading this and thought this needs to be shared with all of us standing under the CCP/WHO/Globalist build Gallows, waiting their turn for the “Rope-Dance”, some kicking and screaming like us, but the majority patiently waiting for the drop.

    Tanzania: President queries kits after goat and fruit test positive for Covid-19

    Read more at:
    https://punemirror.indiatimes.com/news/world/tanzania-president-queries-kits-after-goat-fruit-test-positive-for-covid-19/articleshow/75529018.cms

  5. Rouhani Warns of ‘Crushing Response’ if Arms Embargo Against Iran Extended (sputniknews, May 6, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202005061079209986-rouhani-warns-of-crushing-response-if-arms-embargo-against-iran-extended/

    “Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Tehran would oppose any efforts by the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on the country.

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Tehran will deal a ‘crushing response’ if the arms embargo against the country is extended, and added that US President Donald Trump had made a stupid mistake by exiting the 2015 Nuclear Deal.

    “If America wants to return to the deal, it should lift all the sanctions on Tehran and compensate for the reimposition of sanctions … Iran will give a crushing response if the arms embargo on Tehran is extended,” Rouhani said on Wednesday.

    The Trump administration has been trying to extend the United Nations ban on the sale of conventional weapons to Iran beyond the October deadline, proposing sanctions and even considering making the argument that the US is still effectively a party to the Iran nuclear deal, despite its decision to withdraw from the agreement in May 2018.

    US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has earlier pledged that Washington will do everything in its power to extend the punitive measures placed on Tehran…”

    • Talk Big, stomp your feet because you don’t really have much else.

  6. Pope Francis Appeals on Behalf of ‘Exploited’ Migrant Workers (breitbart, May 6, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/05/06/pope-francis-appeals-on-behalf-of-exploited-migrant-workers/

    “Pope Francis launched an appeal Wednesday on behalf of migrant workers exploited during the coronavirus lockdown.

    “On 1st May, I received several messages about the world of work and its problems. I was particularly struck by that of the farm workers, among them many migrants, who work in the Italian countryside,” the pope said via videoconference after his weekly general audience Wednesday.

    “Unfortunately, many are very harshly exploited. It is true that the current crisis affects everyone, but people’s dignity must always be respected,” he said.

    “That is why I add my voice to the appeal of these workers and of all exploited workers,” the pontiff concluded. “May the crisis give us the opportunity to make the dignity of the person and the dignity of work the centre of our concern.”

    The Italian economy has been devastated by the two-month lockdown that was meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus, but which effectively shut down the economy, destroying the livelihoods of millions of Italians. The national lockdown, imposed even on regions virtually unaffected by the virus, means that able-bodied workers up and down the peninsula have been denied opportunities to provide for themselves.

    Businesses in Italy laid off over 3 million workers after the government shuttered all “non-essential” operations and a further three million self-employed workers found themselves without work and with no unemployment benefits.

    Italy’s travel, hospitality, and tourism sector, which employs over two million Italians and accounts for some 13 percent of the nation’s GDP, was brought to a complete standstill by the lockdown’s severe regulations.

    Even amidst the nation’s cautious reopening of certain businesses during the so-called “phase two” of the lockdown, many remain without work or income. Italy’s health crisis has passed and the total number of positive coronavirus cases has been in daily decline since April 21, but the administration of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has decided to keep the population under strict control.

    As Vatican News reported this week, the unprecedented lockdowns have “triggered massive unemployment and economic hardship for millions of people across the globe, and Italy has been one of the worst-affected nations.”

    Economic data released in late April showed that Italy is now officially in a recession after its gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.7 percent in the first quarter of the year.

    This is Italy’s worst economic quarter since 1995, when Eurostat began its monitoring.

    Forecasters have estimated that 10 million Italians, a fifth of the total number of adults, will be cast into poverty because of the lockdowns, unable to meet essential expenditures on food, medicines, and shelter.”

  7. Indian troops kill top Kashmir rebel leader (abcnews, May 6, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/indian-troops-kill-top-kashmir-rebel-leader-70530347

    “Government forces killed a top rebel commander and his aide in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday and shut down cellphone and mobile internet services during subsequent anti-India protests, officials and residents said.

    The dead commander, Riyaz Naikoo, was the chief of operations of the disputed region’s largest indigenous rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, which has spearheaded an armed rebellion against Indian rule.

    Naikoo was the group’s top commander for almost eight years and was responsible for recruiting dozens of Kashmiris to fight against India, according to officials. He shot into prominence after a 2016 public uprising following the killing of the group’s charismatic leader, Burhan Wani.

    Police and army soldiers launched an operation in the Awantipora area in southern Kashmir late Tuesday based on a tip that some militant commanders were sheltering there. They used earth movers to dig up several patches of land, including a school playground, looking for possible underground hideouts, residents said.

    On Wednesday, as the government forces began house-to-house searches in the area, they came under heavy gunfire from rebels, police said. In the ensuing firefight, two militants were killed, a police official said on condition of anonymity, keeping with government policy. He identified one of the slain rebels as Naikoo.

    Before joining the group, Naikoo was a mathematics teacher.

    Some anti-India protests and clashes between protesters and government forces were also reported in the area where the gunfight occurred.

    Authorities first blocked mobile internet service, a common Indian tactic in the region when such fighting erupts. As the fighting continued and word spread that Naikoo was trapped, they also stopped mobile phone service.

    Authorities say it is necessary to halt cellphone and internet service to prevent anti-India protesters from assembling.

    In 2019, the government imposed a monthslong total communication blackout during an unprecedented military crackdown in the strife-torn region.

    India has stepped up its counterinsurgency operations across Kashmir in recent months during a coronavirus lockdown. Militants have also continued their attacks on government forces and alleged informants. More than two dozen militants and about a dozen Indian troops were killed in April, the most in any month since August 2019, when India revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status and statehood and imposed direct federal rule.

    There also has been almost daily fighting over the last several months along the rugged and mountainous frontier that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

    India and Pakistan both claim the territory in its entirety. Most Kashmiris support the rebel goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.

    India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the anti-India rebels. Pakistan denies this, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the militants and to Kashmiris who oppose Indian rule.

    Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.”

  8. Indonesian president tells Cabinet to use “whatever means” necessary to fight COVID-19

  11. Virus researcher dead in suspected murder; Leaked documents show coverup; Scholars warn 2nd outbreak

  13. (Richard: If new mutations are going to keep showing up machines like these are going to be needed in all nations)

    COVID-19: How Singapore residents can collect free reusable masks from these vending machines

  15. Worksites emerge as “hubs” of virus transmission between clusters in Singapore

  16. South Korea enters “new normal” as it records no new local COVID-19 infections

  18. “N. Korea’s new ballistic missile support facility is nearing completion”

    • N.K. media denounces fake news in S.Korea over Kim Jong-un’s health/G-Dragon wins a Chinese AD deal

    • CCP Launches Battle to the US? Trump Says Conclusive Evidence The Virus Originated in China |Joshua

  23. Covid War: Central Team Pulls Up Mamata Government Over Discrepancies In Covid-19 Data| To The Point

  25. Amid Coronavirus Trump Admin Gives Rare Speech Urging China’s People to Own Their Future—Steve Yates

  27. Brad Johnson Former CIA Operative- The Hammer Of Justice Cometh (video starts ar 1 minute 43 seconds)

    • 15 minutes in and it is great.

      He has come around to my point that if there is evidence that Obama ordered the Third World Political attacks on opponents we have to indict him or we will officially be a Third World Country.

    • Around 35 minutes in Brad is talking about why the Dems have to win and why Michelle Obama will be trying for the VP or even the Presidency.

    • 53 minutes in the names of some of the people that Barr is suppose to have indicted and the charges against some of them. I don’t know if these are real the People in on the Soft Coup are in big trouble.

      If this comes out before the election the Dems don’t stand a chance.

      One of the charges is “Conspiracy to Commit Treason.”

  29. CCP Exploits Virus to Erode Hong Kong’s Freedom | CCP Virus | COVID-19 | Coronavirus | Epoch News

  30. Kosovo Albanian woman charged with joining IS terror group (abcnews, May 6, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kosovo-albanian-woman-charged-joining-terror-group-70532829

    “Kosovo prosecutors on Wednesday filed terrorism charges against an ethnic Albanian woman who allegedly joined a terror group in Syria.

    The special prosecutors’ office said the suspect, identified only as D.D., left Kosovo in October 2014 to go to a Syrian city after crossing through North Macedonia and Turkey.

    There it said she joined her husband, a fighter with the Islamic State group, who trained her how to use a weapon and made her part of their logistics group.

    After her husband was killed in the fighting she married another IS fighter, living and operating in Syria’s conflict zones until December 2018 when she was arrested near the border with Turkey.

    The defendant is part of a group of 110 Kosovo citizens repatriated from Syria last year. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the charges.

    About 30 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo are still believed to be with terror groups in Syria and Iraq.”

  31. Greece: Locals stop migrants from camps reaching new housing (abcnews, May 6, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/greece-locals-stop-migrants-camps-reaching-housing-70533257

    “Protesting locals stopped asylum-seekers relocated from congested Aegean island camps from reaching new accommodation in northern Greece and set fire to a hotel where they were supposed to be housed, Greek authorities said Wednesday.

    Police said about 150 protesters prevented buses carrying 57 people brought to the mainland from the eastern island of Lesbos from reaching a rented hotel at a village in the northern region of Pella, and set fire to a room on the hotel’s ground floor.

    No injuries or arrests were reported. Greece’s COVID-19 lockdown only allows public gatherings of up to 10 people, who must observe social distancing.

    The buses were rerouted to another village in the Pella region, where protesters had sent up roadblocks to prevent them being housed in a local hotel. The group was eventually driven to the northern city of Thessaloniki, where they were put up in a local hotel.

    Smaller protests also occurred at a hotel in the northern region of Kilkis, where 250 asylum-seekers from Lesbos were being taken to. Those protests were short-lived, however, and the migrants were housed in the facility which already accommodates asylum-seekers, authorities said.

    Greece’s government has vowed to ease massive overcrowding in refugee camps on the eastern islands, where tens of thousands of migrants and refugees live, and has begun moving some to the mainland.

    Due to lockdown measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, new arrivals on the islands from the nearby Turkish coast are not allowed into the camps. So far no coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the island camps, although two refugee camps on the mainland were put under quarantine due to local outbreaks.”

    • Thessaloniki [from 2017]
      A century ago, Jewish Salonica burned

      The home to the largest and most dynamic LADINO-speaking Sephardi Jewish community in the world was rebuilt, only to be destroyed anew

      “…Pillaged relics of the Jewish dead became the literal building blocks of urban renewal – a systematic and violent process begun a century ago, in the wake of the fire of 1917, intensified during the German occupation and continued in its wake.

      “The result can be seen today. A stroll through Salonica reveals many modern buildings and a vast university campus in a city still suffering from a financial crisis. But few will notice that many of those modern buildings were built on land expropriated from Jews in 1917 – or again in 1943.…”

      http://www.timesofisrael.com/a-century-ago-jewish-salonica-burned/

  32. VICE News – Scientists Need Millions of Volunteers for COVID-19 Research. Big Tech Is Helping Out.

  33. Associated Press –Former CDC Chief: 100K virus deaths by month’s end

    The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Congress Wednesday the world is still in the beginning stages of the coronavirus pandemic, which he said could go on for “many months and possibly many years.”

  34. channel 4 – Coronavirus contact tracing explained – as NHS launches app on Isle of Wight

    If the trial of the NHS track and trace app proves successful it will be rolled out later this month – and along with it, a crucial 18,000-strong team of contact tracers, still to be fully recruited.

    In the meantime, one group of retired GPs has organised volunteers to run a pilot programme in Sheffield. Their aim is to show how important old fashioned shoe leather epidemiology can be.

  35. London bloodbath: Two stabbed as lockdown violence erupts – Air Ambulance scrambled (express, May 6, 2020)
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1278634/london-news-streatham-stabbing-police-uk-knife-crime-air-ambulance-police

    “A LONDON AIR ambulance is alleged to have been called after a witness claimed “two young boys” had been stabbed in the capital on Wednesday afternoon.

    Reports have emerged of “two boys” being stabbed on Wednesday afternoon in Orpington, south London. One witness claimed they had seen “two young boys running across the road asking for help” – both of whom had been stabbed. Although the witness described the two victims as young boys, the Met Police as of yet has not confirmed their ages.

    The Met Police said: ” Police are dealing after two males were found stabbed in Orpington.

    “Officers were called by LAS at 12:36hrs on Wednesday, 6 May to Crofton Road, Orpington.

    “Two males were at the location with apparent stab-wounds.

    “Both have been taken to hospital, condition awaits.

    “A crime scene is in place.

    “No arrests at this time.”

    The witness added they stopped to help before an air ambulance was apparently called.

    They wrote: “The gravity of incident meant London Air ambulance had to be called.”

    The condition of the two men is not yet known.

    The attack in south London comes after a pensioner was attacked in a Co-Op supermarket in Wales.

    The attack occurred yesterday afternoon in Pen-y-Graig on Tylacelyn Road.

    One man was later pronounced dead, while another was later revealed to be in a stable condition.

    A 29-year-old woman from Porth is in custody.

    An eyewitness to the attack said: “I just saw a hat and cans on the floor outside the Co-op as I was pulling up and thought ‘that’s strange’, then paramedics arrived.

    “My husband went to go into the Co-op but got stopped by people who told him that there was a woman inside with a knife who was stabbing people.

    “I stayed in the Jeep and more police and paramedics arrived and they went to a man who was in the van parked in front of my Jeep.

    “This was the man who had been stabbed repeatedly, they took him out of the van and placed him into the ambulance.”

    Rhondda MP Chris Bryant told BBC Radio Wales: “This isn’t what you expect to happen in the Co-Op in Penygraig.

    “In fact, members of my staff often pop up there for a sandwich at lunchtime.

    “Everyone will be quite shocked.

    “We don’t know the circumstances at all, police are trying to track down all the elements of it at the moment.

    “You couldn’t get more ordinary or normal than the Co-Op in Penygraig could you?””

  36. Paul Weston – Neil Ferguson’s Legacy of Doom
    He has his ways with words.

  37. politico – Hungary no longer a democracy, Freedom House says

    The NGO describes “a stunning democratic breakdown” in the Eastern European country.

    Hungary is no longer a democracy, Poland is about to go down the same path, democracy in the Balkans is eroding because of Chinese and Russian influence, and the EU is doing nothing to stop it all, according to the NGO Freedom House’s latest Nations in Transit report, out Wednesday.

    In the study, which covers 29 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia, the authors describe “a stunning democratic breakdown,” saying that there are “fewer democracies in the region today than at any point since the annual report was launched in 1995.”

    According to the report’s methodology, Hungary is now a “hybrid regime,” having lost its status as a “semi-consolidated democracy” due to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s continued assaults on the country’s democratic institutions.

    […]

    https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/hungary-no-longer-a-democracy-report-239807
    ================================================
    bloomberg – Orban’s Hungary Is No Longer a Democracy, Freedom House Says

    Hungary should no longer be considered a democracy after an unprecedented consolidation of power by the European Union member’s leader, according to an annual survey of countries that once lay behind the Iron Curtain.

    Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s dismantling of checks and balances over the past decade, including a decision to indefinitely rule by decree triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, pushed the nation into the “hybrid regime” category between democracies and autocracies, according to a report published Wednesday by Freedom House, a Washington D.C.-based rights group.

    […]“Anyone who doesn’t conform to their liberal view, gets downgraded,” Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on Twitter, referring to Freedom House. Without providing evidence, he also blamed Hungarian-born financier George Soros, whom Orban has demonized for promoting a liberal agenda, for allegedly influencing the report.

    […]

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-05/coronavirus-hits-value-of-europe-s-priciest-soccer-players

    ============================================
    Freedom House

    Hungary

    TRANSITIONAL OR HYBRID REGIME

    Democracy Percentage 49.40 / 100

    Democracy Score 3.96 / 7

    more :

    https://freedomhouse.org/country/hungary/nations-transit/2020

  38. Special Report: U.S. rearms to nullify China’s missile supremacy

    HONG KONG (Reuters) – As Washington and Beijing trade barbs over the coronavirus pandemic, a longer-term struggle between the two Pacific powers is at a turning point, as the United States rolls out new weapons and strategy in a bid to close a wide missile gap with China.

    The United States has largely stood by in recent decades as China dramatically expanded its military firepower. Now, having shed the constraints of a Cold War-era arms control treaty, the Trump administration is planning to deploy long-range, ground-launched cruise missiles in the Asia-Pacific region.

    https://www.oann.com/special-report-u-s-rearms-to-nullify-chinas-missile-supremacy-2/

  39. (Richard: Here we go again, another whistle blower complaint that is going to prove to be nothing but more Deep State BS.)

    Another set-up: Usual lawyers behind ‘whistleblower’ complaints at HHS, including latest from departed BARDA director
    By J.E. Dyer May 6, 2020

    The evidence of behind-the-scenes organization is almost laughable here. It seems all the old methods and players are mounting another effort.

    Dr. Richard Bright, formerly the director of the HHS research agency known as BARDA – Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority – filed a “whistleblower” complaint that will fall in the purview of the HHS Inspector General on Tuesday. In it, according to CNN, he alleged that “his early warnings about the coronavirus were ignored and that his caution at a treatment favored by President Donald Trump led to his removal.”

    Bright was moved from BARDA to a position at the National Institutes of Health in April 2020. He described this transition at the time (22 April) as an ouster, and said he was being retaliated against for bucking the Trump administration.

    Interestingly, Bright reportedly says that he “raised concerns about US preparedness for coronavirus starting in January,” with the substance of his concerns apparently being “shortages of critical supplies, including masks.” It is not clear why that fell within an R&D director’s purview, but perhaps we will find out. CNN indicates that the 63-page complaint from Bright contains “a lengthy series of exhibits” in which “some of the memos [apparently about his warnings] are provided, including warnings on shortages of masks and syringes to administer an eventual vaccine.”

    https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/05/06/another-set-up-usual-lawyers-behind-whistleblower-complaints-at-hhs-including-latest-from-departed-barda-director/

  40. THE VIDEO ISRAEL’S HATERS TRIED TO HIDE
    video – 2 mins 18 secs

  41. A Dallas hair salon owner who defied a Coronavirus lockdown order will spend seven days in jail, according to a local news report. The salon owner refused to keep her business closed and defied a direct cease and desist order from Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins in April.

    “Shelley Luther, a Dallas hair salon owner who opened in violation of the governor’s executive order, sentenced to 7 days in jail for civil / criminal contempt of court and fined $7,000,” CBSDFW reported Andrea Lucia tweeted on Tuesday.

    Lucia later corrected her tweet and reported the fine to be $500 per day — $3,500 so far and growing.

    https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/05/05/report-texas-hair-salon-owner-gets-jail-sentence-for-violating-coronavirus-lockdown-order/

    • DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has called for the “immediate release” of a Dallas salon owner who was arrested and sent to jail for opening her business in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s stay-at-home orders.

      Shelley Luther, owner of Salon A La Mode, was sentenced to seven days in jail Tuesday after Dallas judge Eric Moye said she violated those orders as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

      Paxton said he believes the judge is abusing his authority and that her arrest seems like a “political stunt.” In a full statement, Paxton said:

      https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/05/06/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-immediate-release-jailed-dallas-salon-owner-shelley-luther/

  42. “Democrat Dallas Judge Eric Moye Who Sentenced Shelley Luther to 7 Days in Jail for Opening Her Hair Salon Is an Obama Loyalist”
    by Joe Hoft – May 6, 2020
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/democrat-dallas-judge-eric-moye-sentenced-shelley-luther-7-days-jail-opening-hair-salon-obama-loyalist/

    “JUDGE ERIC MOYE SENTENCES SHELLEY LUTHER FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT, DALLAS, TEXAS” Jeff Morgan – May 5, 2020

    Dallas District Court Eric Moye sentenced Shelley Luther for contempt of court for opening up a salon. Shelley opened up her shop to keep her business from going bankrupt and to give her employees the ability to make money and feed their families.

  43. WSJ – Why Empty Planes Keep Flying Through the Pandemic

    As coronavirus shuts down travel, flights carrying a handful of passengers might seem absurd, but airlines are often left with no other options

    JetBlue Flight 65 flew from New York to Albuquerque, N.M., with only seven passengers on board on April 21. There was no good reason to operate the nonstop flight—except for who was booked on the return trip.

    One, two, three, four, five, six. Six passengers total. But all of them were medical professionals going from New Mexico to New York to help with coronavirus response. Once JetBlue’s operations team learned who the passengers were, the airline decided it shouldn’t cancel the 200-passenger Airbus A321. Flight 66, the return to New York’s Kennedy Airport, was flagged as a high priority/care flight to air-traffic controllers.

    The idea of so many flights with so few passengers has left many wondering why airlines continue to fly nearly empty airplanes. It seems like airlines are burning cash, fuel and goodwill. Don’t they know what they’re doing?

    They do. Airlines say they scrambled in March and April to ground as many trips as they could. But they still found themselves locked into flying many trips with hardly any passengers for a number of operational reasons that show just how complex airline schedules are and how hard the choices are that airline dispatchers and operations executives must make.

    Airlines have grounded roughly three-quarters of their capacity, and it still hasn’t been enough. More than 90% of traffic has disappeared. For American, 99% of flights have been less than 20% full.

    Sometimes flights had a few travelers on essential business or key top customers, so they flew. Other times it was a few passengers going to funerals, births or other life events. Canceling on them would be devastating.

    “As strange as this sounds, now our obligation to customers has actually never been more important and also, unfortunately, never less profitable,” says Vasu Raja, American’s senior vice president for network strategy.

    Besides critical travel, airlines say there are often operational reasons that they need to fly when even the two or three people on board might be scratching their heads wondering why the flight exists.

    In some cases, a flight might have to go with a handful of fliers because a later flight in that airplane’s schedule had more people. Fly two on one trip to get to 60 waiting for the next flight.

    Delta says it has had very light loads on flights because of a flock of no-shows in March and April. Passengers realize they can get a voucher for your ticket whether you cancel ahead of time or not, and at some points in the crisis, airlines were begging customers not to call overloaded phone lines.

    Sometimes it isn’t the aircraft that had to get there, but the crew: pilots and flight attendants needed somewhere else for later flights.

    Some aircraft need to get to a maintenance base for overnight routine work. American does maintenance on Airbus A319 jets in Pittsburgh, so dispatchers would hesitate to cancel a flight to Pittsburgh if the airplane wouldn’t get its necessary maintenance work and be ready for the next day.

    Overnight parking is in short supply at many airports housing grounded planes. So a jet may need to make the last trip of the day with one or two passengers just so the airline can get it to its assigned parking space. JetBlue says it has parking in Boston—perhaps one of the few times a vehicle could find more parking in Boston than elsewhere.

    Southwest says it has had instances where a few passengers luck out with their flight because the plane has a large cargo payload, often medical supplies.

    Southwest has particular trouble canceling a flight here and a flight there because its planes hopscotch across the country. If an aircraft is scheduled to go from Baltimore to Nashville, Tenn., to Houston to Los Angeles to Phoenix to St. Louis, it’s hard to pull one or two flights out of that schedule.

    May and June schedules have been reconstructed to reduce operational challenges and the number of flights with only a handful of customers, though there will still be plenty of light loads. There’s also a growing concern that there will be heavier loads on flights where passengers won’t be able to socially distance in a 12-foot-wide tube as much as they might like.

    Airlines are setting limits beyond just blocking middle seats. Delta says it won’t book more than 60% of the seats on a flight. American says its limit is being worked out, but it will fly trips with more than half the seats filled, although on average the airline expects fewer than 20% occupied.

    Adding to the complexity is a requirement in the federal airline bailout part of the Cares Act that requires airlines to maintain service to all the cities they currently serve. Airlines have asked for waivers for particular cities where there’s service from other airlines, but the Transportation Department has denied many of the requests.

    For smaller carriers, that requirement is more of a burden. Spirit suspended flights to 26 cities in early April and asked for waivers from the DOT. But the government said the airline had to resume flights to 25 of the 26—the one waiver granted was for Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. The governor of Puerto Rico asked the Federal Aviation Administration to move all flights to the island to San Juan, where passengers can be screened.

    Some airlines are filing more waiver requests, arguing they shouldn’t be forced to fly empty airplanes to big hubs with plenty of other service. On Tuesday, Spirit and JetBlue got some relief when the DOT said the two carriers could drop 16 large cities that have plenty of other flights. Carriers are also complying by turning nonstop trips into one-stop flights. Spirit is flying from Orlando to Pittsburgh, then to Latrobe, Pa., just 46 miles by air from Pittsburgh International Airport, then back to Orlando, because the DOT wouldn’t let it drop flights to Pittsburgh or Latrobe.

    Airlines say because of the complexity of schedules, the need to figure out which aircraft to put in storage and uncertainty over travel patterns in the pandemic, schedules in April weren’t as efficient or coordinated as what they’ve put together for May, June and beyond.

    American says it has revamped its schedule starting in May so that most trips are out and back from hub airports, making them easier to cancel if there are only a few passengers booked. The carrier has also scheduled crews to stay with the same airplane all day so flights don’t have to be operated just to get a crew to an airplane.

    American is no longer connecting passengers in New York, Washington, D.C., or Los Angeles, turning those cities into spokes rather than hubs. To some extent, Miami and Philadelphia aren’t connecting hubs anymore, either. That means fewer nonstop itineraries available and more passengers funneled onto the same flights.

    Many airline executives have been through the 2001 terrorist attacks, the Great Recession and various other epidemics, ash clouds and annual hurricanes and blizzards. When something happens in the world, airlines usually feel it. Tearing apart networks it took years to build was something for which they, in effect, have been well-trained.

    American’s decision to ground its international fleet for most of April and May was done in a 20-minute phone call, Mr. Raja says.

    “A lot of our careers have been marked by dealing with crises, each of which was completely unprecedented,” he says. “We’ve spent more time with bad times than with good times.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-empty-planes-keep-flying-through-the-pandemic-11588771233

  44. O’Keefe Strikes Again! Insider Reveals CBS News Staged Coronavirus Testing Line with Fake Patients (VIDEO)

    James O’Keefe strikes again!

    CBS News staged a Coronavirus testing line at the Cherry Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan with fake patients and an insider who witnessed the whole thing spilled the truth to Project Veritas.

    The CBS News crew wanted more people in line for their video shoot at the Coronavirus testing site in the parking lot.

    One registered nurse said personnel at the medical center were given the heads-up to expect the CBS News crew. “We knew they were coming. We had no clue that we’re going to have to, like, do fake patients.”

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1258018688231407618

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/okeefe-strikes-insider-reveals-cbs-news-staged-coronavirus-testing-line-fake-patients-video/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=daily

  47. WHO: Threat of new lockdowns ‘very real’

    The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns the risks of returning to lockdown if countries emerging from pandemic restrictions do not manage transitions “extremely carefully and in a phased approach.”

    • The Who says ‘there can be no going back to business as usual’ after pandemic

      The World Health Organization warned world leaders Wednesday that there can be “no going back to business as usual” following the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended economies and wreaked havoc on nearly every country across the globe.

      The World Health Organization warned world leaders Wednesday that there can be “no going back to business as usual” following the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended economies and wreaked havoc on nearly every country across the globe.

      “This virus likes to find opportunities to spread and if these lockdown measures are lifted too quickly, the virus can take off,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s lead scientist on Covid-19, said during a press conference at the agency’s Geneva headquarters. “The only way to control and suppress this virus, this Covid-19, is to actually find [cases], quarantine those contacts, isolate the cases and it will be brought under control.”

  48. Andrew Cuomo’s NUMBER ONE Coronavirus Rule for Lockdown, Stay at Home; Is he right? | Ep. 207
    3,002 views
    •Premiered 4 hours ago

  50. Our Dangerous Illusions About Risk

    The most formidable risk we are facing isn’t the coronavirus.

    The coronavirus pandemic and the draconian lock-down responses to it have given us an object lesson in just how irrationally we evaluate and compare risk. For all our pretenses that “experts” have enough reliable knowledge to mitigate risk based on facts, we still make policy decisions based on fear, self-interest, or ideology. Even before the current medical crisis, our distorted and excessive aversion to risk has led to policies rife with moral hazard that create new and more dangerous consequences.

    There’s no doubt that the current shut-down of the economy and public spaces is a consequence of bad risk assessment. These policies were based on lethality models that lacked sufficient data such as the rate of infection, and that projected numbers of dead later reduced significantly. Stoked by panic and incomplete models, radical self-quarantining was mandated even for the healthy young, and open-air activity proscribed even though a viral load necessary to sicken us requires enclosed, crowded spaces and prolonged exposure to a carrier.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/our-dangerous-illusions-about-risk-bruce-thornton