SMALL ERROR: I make up these posts to auto publish in advance. There are a few little details I have to do for each one. Sometimes I forget when I run out and none appears till I notice or someone tells me, and I make more, and very rarely, like today, I make a mistake in one of the details.
This was set to autopublish on the 21st, which it did, and I didn’t notice. So it didn’t appear where it should in the timeline till I fixed its publish time and date.
Sorry for any confusion.
Eeyore.
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.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid
Status of COVID-19
As of 19 March 2020, COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious disease (HCID) in the UK.
The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID. This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak. Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria. They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.
The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID.
The need to have a national, coordinated response remains, but this is being met by the government’s COVID-19 response.
Cases of COVID-19 are no longer managed by HCID treatment centres only. All healthcare workers managing possible and confirmed cases should follow the updated national infection and prevention (IPC) guidance for COVID-19, which supersedes all previous IPC guidance for COVID-19. This guidance includes instructions about different personal protective equipment (PPE) ensembles that are appropriate for different clinical scenarios.
Definition of HCID
In the UK, a high consequence infectious disease (HCID) is defined according to the following criteria:
acute infectious disease
typically has a high case-fatality rate
may not have effective prophylaxis or treatment
often difficult to recognise and detect rapidly
ability to spread in the community and within healthcare settings
requires an enhanced individual, population and system response to ensure it is managed effectively, efficiently and safely
Classification of HCIDs
HCIDs are further divided into contact and airborne groups:
contact HCIDs are usually spread by direct contact with an infected patient or infected fluids, tissues and other materials, or by indirect contact with contaminated materials and fomites
airborne HCIDs are spread by respiratory droplets or aerosol transmission, in addition to contact routes of transmission
List of high consequence infectious diseases
A list of HCIDs has been agreed by a joint Public Health England (PHE) and NHS England HCID Programme:
Contact HCID Airborne HCID
Argentine haemorrhagic fever (Junin virus) Andes virus infection (hantavirus)
Bolivian haemorrhagic fever (Machupo virus) Avian influenza A H7N9 and H5N1
Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) Avian influenza A H5N6 and H7N7
Ebola virus disease (EVD) Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
Lassa fever Monkeypox
Lujo virus disease Nipah virus infection
Marburg virus disease (MVD) Pneumonic plague (Yersinia pestis)
Severe fever with thrombocytopaenia syndrome (SFTS) Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)*
DAILY MAIL – Will we ever learn the truth about China and the pandemic?
Two inquiries are ‘cloaked in secrecy’, WHO lets Beijing vet investigators and it appoints British scientist with links to Wuhan, writes IAN BIRRELL
Explosive emails from a group of top-level scientists and Government doctors in the United States reveal one suggested Covid-19 could have originated from human activities rather than arising naturally from animals.
Another asked if it might have been deliberately engineered.
The documents also show that a key letter sent early in the pandemic from America’s top scientists to the White House had a line deleted that suggested the virus could have been ‘an unintentional release from a laboratory’.
These revelations come as evidence of China’s cover-up grows, alongside fears the World Health Organisation, widely criticised for its failure to challenge Beijing at the start of the pandemic, is letting the regime dictate its inquiry into the origins.
The WHO has allowed China to vet scientists taking part in the probe, while also appointing to its ten-strong team the British charity chief Peter Daszak whose funding for research on bat viruses in a high-security Wuhan laboratory was stopped on safety grounds.
Daszak, president of Eco-Health Alliance, has led efforts that have dismissed concerns over lab leakage as a ‘baseless’ conspiracy theory. Also, to the fury of critics, he is heading a task force on the pandemic’s origins for The Lancet medical journal.
Although it is crucial to find the pandemic’s source in order to help protect against further eruptions, some experts fear that official investigations will sweep aside even the possibility that Sars-Cov-2 – the strain that causes Covid-19 – might be man-made.
‘A lot of time has been lost and there is still no evidence of an effective independent investigation starting into the origins of Covid-19,’ said Nikolai Petrovsky, professor of medicine at Flinders University in Australia and a leading vaccine researcher.
David Relman, an expert on emerging infectious diseases, has condemned both the WHO and Lancet inquiries for being ‘cloaked in secrecy’ and demanded that conflicts of interest must be ‘addressed’ to ensure credibility.
‘Rather than resorting to hunches and finger-pointing, each scenario must be systematically and objectively analysed using the best available science-based approaches,’ he wrote in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences.
Relman, professor of microbiology and immunology at California’s Stanford University School of Medicine, also challenged those who deny there could have been a laboratory leak. ‘If Sars-Cov-2 escaped from a lab to cause the pandemic, it will become critical to understand the chain of events and prevent this from happening again,’ he said. Fears that the scientific establishment closed ranks to protect prominent figureshave been intensified with the release – via a freedom of information request – of thousands of revealing emails from Ralph Baric, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina.
Baric’s team carried out controversial research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, creating chimeric viruses (new hybrid micro-organisms) to test the ability of bat-borne viruses to infect human cells. He has admitted they can be made without any signs of manipulation.
The epidemiologist joined discussions among a group of experts in Government and universities brought together by an official at the US Department of Homeland Security after reports of a strange new respiratory virus killing people in Wuhan.
The chain of correspondence was given the jocular subject tag of Red Dawn. On February 10 – the day one official wrote that China had stopped including its asymptomatic cases in data, thus making it appear to the world that its outbreak was slowing – they were joined by Mark Keim, a former White House adviser on disaster prevention.
He offered the group – which included the senior medical officer in the department’s Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office – a nine-point list of ‘situational assumptions’ that began by clearly stating: ‘The novel virus could be anthropogenic rather than zoonotic.’
Anthropogenic means something that results from human actions. Zoonotic is a disease transmitted naturally from animals to humans.
Dr Keim told The Mail on Sunday he wanted fellow experts to keep their minds open, adding: ‘We know that both anthropogenic and zoonotic pathogens exist.’ Keim explained that although epidemics tended to be zoonotic, scientists should only eliminate theories based on firm evidence. ‘We have to be careful about making assumptions that have no proof,’ he said.
On March 5, another participant questioned whether evidence in strains of the virus ‘suggested this is engineered’. Baric responded firmly, saying: ‘There is absolutely no evidence that this virus is bio-engineered.’ The new documents outlining this dialogue were obtained by US Right To Know, a public health research body investigating bio-safety.
The group is consulting lawyers because many pages of the emails appear to be redacted and it is also feared thousands more identified in the initial search for documents have not been handed over. ‘We are concerned the Chinese and US Governments may not tell us the truth about the origins of Sars-Cov-2,’ said executive director Gary Ruskin.
Another set of exchanges centred on the White House’s request in February for the nation’s top experts at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to assess the virus origins.
The first draft of the reply said the initial expert view was there was no evidence the disease was engineered. But a footnote asked if a line should be added saying ‘this does not preclude an unintentional release from a laboratory studying the evolution of coronaviruses’.
This did not, however, appear in the final letter from the academies. Nor was there any mention of the virus binding sites, which was also asked about in the first draft, after another infectious diseases expert, Trevor Bedford, warned that ‘if you start weighing evidence, there’s a lot to consider from both scenarios’.
Bedford, an expert on the evolution of viruses, explained last week that ‘we could not say definitely whether emergence into human population occurred via zoonosis or lab escape’ but he wanted to rule out any ideas of a deliberately-released bioweapon. ‘I still view zoonosis as the most likely scenario, but I still view this as not definitive,’ he added. Meanwhile, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have had to divulge details about bat coronavirus samples in their possession, which they have admitted were linked to the deaths in 2012 of three miners from a similar respiratory disease. Shi Zhengli, a renowned Wuhan-based virologist who has worked closely with Baric and is known as Batwoman for her expeditions to gather samples in caves, had to clarify a paper in Nature magazine written with two colleagues at the top-security laboratory after inconsistencies were spotted.
This highly-influential paper, sent on the day China belatedly admitted to human transmission, disclosed the existence of a virus called RaTG13 that is the closest known relative to Sars-Cov-2, with more than 96 per cent genetic similarity. It was sampled from a horseshoe bat and stored at their lab.
Other experts questioned why more information was not shared about this strain. It later emerged the name was changed from another virus identified in a 2016 paper –but, unusually, was not cited and obscured links to the dead miners.
Following complaints, Nature made the Wuhan scientists print an ‘addendum’ confirming the virus was linked to the miners – and that they have eight more bat-borne Sars viruses, collected in the same mine, about 1,000 miles from their city.
Nature said comments had been ‘raised’, leading it to conclude the paper was ‘insufficiently clear’ on some details. ‘The scientific findings described in the original paper are not affected by these clarifications,’ said a spokesperson.
‘The addendum contains some important corrections, but raises more questions than it answers,’ said one Western expert, pointing out the original paper masked any connection to the miners by claiming they died of a fungal infection. ‘Why now the abrupt about-turn, and why when first asked did they deny a viral connection?’
‘If a coronavirus scientist discovered a novel strain of virus and had reason to believe it may be connected to human deaths, it is a hard stretch to suggest no attempts would then be taken to recreate the virus to study it further.’
He also asked why genetic sequences of the other eight samples at the lab were not being shared. ‘How do we know none of these other viruses were not used as a backbone to create Covid-19? ‘
Prof Relman has also said it was plausible to believe the genetic sequence of Sars-Cov-2 might have been ‘recovered from a bat sample and viable virus resurrected from a synthetic genome to study it before that virus accidentally escaped’.
The WHO’s team investigating the pandemic’s origins is expected to travel to China next month, more than a year after the virus emerged in Wuhan. But there are concerns they are relying on Chinese data and have given Beijing the right to vet scientists taking part.However, a WHO spokesman said it is ‘customary’ for a host nation to agree to any investigatory teams deployed in their country. The inclusion of the controversial Briton, Peter Daszak, though, in its team provoked concern among critics, given his strong views and apparent conflicts of interest.
The US government stopped a $3.7 million (£2.8 million) grant to his charity after The Mail on Sunday disclosed it was funding the Wuhan laboratory. The MoS also revealed that the lab’s top safety official admitted last year to bio-security concerns.
A later letter sent by the main US health research funding body asked Daszak’s Eco-Health Alliance why the Wuhan Institute ‘failed to note’ that the bat virus was isolated from a mine where men died ‘with an illness remarkably similar to Covid-19’. The charity, backed by 77 Nobel laureates, complained of having grants ‘inexplicably’ suspended since they were ‘studying the very family of viruses responsible for Covid-19’.
Last month, emails obtained under another freedom of information request showed Daszak – who is paid $410,000 (£303,000) a year – drafted a statement to The Lancet, then persuaded 26 other prominent scientists to sign it, condemning ‘conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin’.
The signatories include six of the 12 experts appointed to The Lancet Commission’s task force investigating the virus origins, which is headed by Daszak.
Richard Ebright, a biosecurity expert and professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, said Daszak should be disqualified because of his ties to the Wuhan lab and that his inclusion suggested both inquiries would be ‘crude whitewashes’. But David Nabarro, special envoy to the WHO director-general on Covid 19, defended the inclusion of a man he described as ‘one of the finest scientists I know’, on the basis of Daszak’s world-beating expertise on bat coronaviruses and China. The inquiry’s terms of reference admit that no route of transmission from bats to humans has yet been identified and, intriguingly, reveal there were 124 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in China by the end of last year – an increase on the 41 previously identified.
For its part, the Chinese government has been pushing hard the unproven theory that the virus began in another country and the document does not rule out ‘the possibility that the virus may have silently circulated elsewhere’ before infecting people in Wuhan.
It does, however, add that the virus has been ‘remarkably stable’ since being first reported in the city and spreading around the world, ‘suggesting that the virus was well adapted to human transmission from the moment it was first detected’.
This claim was first published in a study – revealed by this newspaper in May – that raised questions over how the virus became so adept at infecting humans. It also challenged claims the disease originated in a Wuhan wildlife market, which was ruled out later that month by Beijing.
In the meantime, medical staff who responded to the first outbreak of Covid 19 in Wuhan have been warned they could be charged with espionage – which carries the death penalty – if they reveal details about the disease’s eruption in the city. (Almost every case in China’s courts ends with conviction.)
This is the latest disturbing attempt by Communist Party chiefs to suppress details about the pandemic’s outbreak which was followed by the arrest of doctors who tried to warn local citizens and by outside experts barred from entering China.
This gag is thought to have been imposed about three months ago as President Xi Jinping’s government sought global credit for success in controlling infections. ‘The world is already paying the price from China’s cover-up after this problem blew up in a climate of secrecy and now they seem to be making it even worse,’ said Tom Tugendhat, the Tory MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9071191/Will-learn-truth-China-pandemic-writes-IAN-BIRRELL.html
SWISS POLICY RESEARCH
Facts about Covid-19
Fully referenced facts about covid-19, provided by experts in the field, to help our readers make a realistic risk assessment. ( + links on the page )
Overview
1. Lethality: According to the latest immunological studies, the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) of covid-19 in the general population is about 0.1% to 0.5% in most countries, which is comparable to the medium influenza pandemics of 1957 and 1968.
2. Treatment: For people at high risk or high exposure, early or prophylactic treatment is essential to prevent progression of the disease and avoid hospitalization.
3. Age profile: The median age of covid deaths is over 80 years in most countries and only about 5% of the deceased had no serious preconditions. In contrast to pandemic influenza, the age and risk profile of covid mortality is thus comparable to normal mortality and increases it proportionally.
4. Nursing homes: In many Western countries, up to two thirds of all covid deaths have occurred in nursing homes, which require targeted and humane protection. In some cases it is not clear whether the residents really died of covid or of weeks of stress and isolation.
5. Excess mortality: Up to 30% of all additional deaths may have been caused not by covid, but by the effects of lockdowns, panic and fear. For example, the treatment of heart attacks and strokes decreased by up to 40% because many patients no longer dared to go to hospital.
6.Antibodies: By summer 2020, global hotspots such as New York City and Bergamo had reached antibody levels of approximately 25%. Capital cities such as Madrid, London and Stockholm were around 15%. Large parts of Europe and the US, however, were still below 5%.
7.Symptoms: Up to 40% of all infected persons show no symptoms, about 80% show at most mild symptoms, and about 95% show at most moderate symptoms and do not require hospitalization. Mild cases may be due to protective T-cells from earlier common cold coronavirus infections.
8. Long covid: About 10% of symptomatic people report post-acute or long covid, i.e. symptoms that last for several weeks or months. This also affects younger and previously healthy people with a strong immune response. The post-viral syndrome is known from severe influenza, too.
9.Transmission: According to current knowledge, the main routes of transmission of the virus are indoor aerosols and droplets produced when speaking or coughing, while outdoor aerosols as well as most object surfaces appear to play a minor role.
10.Masks: There is still little to no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of cloth face masks in the general population, and the introduction of mandatory masks couldn’t contain or slow the epidemic in most countries. If used improperly, masks may increase the risk of infection.
11.Children and schools: In contrast to influenza, the risk of disease and transmission in children is very low in the case of covid. There was and is therefore no medical reason for the closure of elementary schools or other measures specifically aimed at children.
12.Contact tracing: A WHO study of 2019 on measures against influenza pandemics concluded that from a medical perspective, contact tracing is “not recommended in any circumstances”. Contact tracing apps on cell phones have also failed in most countries.
13. PCR tests: The virus test kits used internationally may in some cases produce false positive and false negative results or react to non-infectious virus fragments from a previous infection. In this regard, the so-called cycle threshold or ct value is an important parameter.
14. Medical mismanagement: In the US and some other countries, fatal medical mismanagement of some covid patients occurred due to questionable financial incentives and inappropriate protocols. In most countries, covid in-hospital mortality has since decreased significantly.
15.Lockdowns: The WHO warned that lockdowns have caused a “terrible global catastrophe”. According to the UN, lockdowns may put the livelihood of 1.6 billion people at acute risk and may push an additional 150 million children into poverty. Unemployment, bankruptcies and psychological problems have reached record levels worldwide.
16.Sweden: /In Sweden, total mortality without lockdown has so far been in the range of a strong influenza season. 70% of Swedish deaths occurred in nursing homes that were not protected quickly enough. The median age of the Swedish covid deaths is 84 years.
17. Media: The reporting of many media has been unprofessional, has maximized fear and panic in the population and has led to a massive overestimation of the lethality and mortality of covid. Some media even used manipulative pictures and videos to dramatize the situation.
18.Vaccines: Several medical experts warned that express coronavirus vaccines may be risky. Indeed, the vaccine against the so-called swine flu of 2009, for example, led to cases of severe neurological damage and lawsuits in the millions. In the testing of new coronavirus vaccines, too, serious complications and failures have already been reported.
19. Virus origin: The origin of the new corona virus remains unclear, but the best evidence currently points to a covid-like pneumonia incident in a Chinese mine in 2012, whose virus samples were collected, stored and researched by the Virology Institute in Wuhan (WIV).
20. Surveillance: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warned that the covid pandemic may be used to permanently expand global surveillance. In several parts of the world, the population is being monitored by drones and facing serious police overreach during lockdowns.
https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/
FACT
Karry Mullis, the inventor of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology regarded the PCR as inappropriate to detect viral infection. The reason is that the intended use of PCR was, and still is, to apply it as a manufacturing technique, being able to replicate DNA sequences millions and billions of times and not as a diagnostic tool to detect viruses.
He also said Fauci is a liar, he will get in front of a camera and say what the people who pay him want him to say.
Kary Mullis
Check out FAUCI the CON MAN, Christmas on youtube
global news – Coronavirus: Virus variants in UK, South Africa contain same mutation in different variant, WHO says
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday commented on the new variant of the novel coronavirus being experienced in the U.K. and South Africa, stating while it transmits easier, there’s no evidence at this time that proves it’s deadlier.
Tedros also said virus mutations are “natural” and “expected.”
Tedros also reiterated the need for COVID-19 vaccine distribution to reach “the world’s poorest and most vulnerable” people in low-income countries to end the pandemic.
He said even though the Covax facility last week (which assists in the production, development and distribution of vaccines) had “secured access” to nearly $2 billion of “promising vaccine candidates,” it still requires US$4.6 billion to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for at least 20 per cent of low-income countries’ populations.
WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said the new strain of the novel coronavirus from the U.K., which was first reported to the WHO on Dec. 14, is being studied in labs, which are looking for three different things with this version of the virus: transmission, severity of illness and the body’s antibody response following infection.
She added studies are ongoing regarding this new variant.
twitter @ClareCraigPath
Spanish antibody testing has failed to confirm COVID in 87% of their hospitalised patients and even 53% of their ICU COVID patients.
Looks like Spain is in a false positive pseudo-epidemic.
@plaforscience
During the ‘2nd wave’ 87% of those fast covid admission/discharge (<7 days) showed NO IgG, never were covid infected.
EIGHTY SEVEN per hundred of those in the hosp lists is fake.
56% of long hospitalisation weren't infected either.
Even 53% of supposed covid ICUs is false.
https://twitter.com/ClareCraigPath/status/1341131426008346624
Germany: “Very high” probability that new COVID strain is already in country – RKI head
BioNtech can make mutation-beating vaccine in 6 weeks: business chief
BioNTech’s Chief Business Officer tells AFP that the company is “absolutely delighted” by the EU’s approval of the vaccine.
BioNtech says that thanks to the mRNA technology, it can have a new vaccine ready “in six weeks” if necessary against the mutated strain detected in Britain.
Deutsche Pravda – BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin: “Our vaccine will likely work for mutated coronavirus variants”
“Even though this new variant has multiple mutations, only one percent of this protein is changed.
And that means 99 percent are still the same,” Biontech CEO Ugur Sahin told DW.
He said his company needed two weeks to determine whether the vaccine can inactivate it.
“Scientifically the likelihood is high” that the vaccine developed by Biontech and Pfizer will work against the new variant, Sahin said, adding that “I am confident that if there is a need for a change, that the technology that we are using, the messenger RNA technology, could deliver the change.”
In case the current vaccine did not work, “we can produce a new vaccine in about six weeks,” Sahin said, adding that the production would be followed by a lengthy trial and approval process.
“We have to discuss with the authorities whether they would accept such a change of the vaccine.
This is a scientific and medical discussion.”
Biontech has announced deliveries to EU member states before Christmas and expects to send out 12.5 million doses before the end of the year.
“We are really interested in making our vaccines globally available.
And we are working with authorities worldwide to ensure that they can get access to our vaccine,” Sahin said.
Top US scientist Anthony Fauci receives Moderna Covid-19 vaccine
Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top infectious disease scientist, receives a dose of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine along with US Health secretary Alex Azar and other senior officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
europravda – How is Europe preparing for the return of Chinese tourists?
At least 5 million Chinese tourists a year visited Europe before the COVID-19 crisis and industry professionals are now preparing for their return to the continent.
channel 4 – Wuhan a year after the emergence of the Covid virus
It’s almost a year since the Chinese city of Wuhan was plunged into an unprecedented lockdown when people began getting sick and dying from an unknown virus, named Covid-19.
The outbreak sparked a global pandemic – to devastating effect.
A year later and life in Wuhan is relatively normal, the crowds and the bustling commercial activity are back.
And along with it, an effort to change the narrative on where the virus came from.
Yvonne Murray, who works for the Irish broadcaster RTE, has filmed this special report for us.
reuters – Wuhan’s nightlife in full swing
Nightlife in Wuhan, the original epicenter of COVID-19, is back in full swing almost seven months after the city lifted its stringent lockdown and the city’s young partygoers are embracing the catharsis.
What Wuhan Looks Like One Year After The First Outbreak
BBC – Covid: WHO to investigate virus origins in China’s Wuhan
A team of 10 international scientists will travel to the Chinese city of Wuhan next month to investigate the origins of Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
Beijing has been reluctant to agree to an independent inquiry and it has taken many months of negotiations for the WHO to be allowed access to the city.
The virus is thought to have come from a market in the city selling animals.
But the search for the source has led to tensions, notably with the US.
President Donald Trump’s administration has accused China of trying to conceal the initial outbreak.
FR4NCE – PR4VD4 Wuhan markets find a new normal as Chinese authorities float new origin theory for Covid-19
Almost a year has passed since the Huanan wholesale market in Wuhan, China – the suspected source of the Covid-19 pandemic – closed down.
Anti-coronavirus measures are in place here and at other markets, but Chinese authorities now say that imported frozen food, rather than trade in live animals, caused the virus’ outbreak.
South China Morning Pravda Seeking the invisible: hunt for origins of deadly Covid-19 coronavirus will take scientists to Wuhan
BBC Bats, roadblocks and the origins of coronavirus
The World Health Organization is preparing to visit China next month, after being tasked with investigating the origins of the Covid-19 virus.
In the meantime, the BBC has been to Yunnan province in the south of China where a decade-long project has been taking place to sample the viruses carried by bats.
But, as our China correspondent John Sudworth reports, the Chinese authorities appear to be far less keen on scrutiny
Deutsche Pravda – Mutated coronavirus strain drives infections in South Africa
Over the weekend, travel bans were also imposed on South Africa, as it was believed that the UK strain was also found there.
But South African health officials and scientists leading the country’s virus strategy, the new variant, known as 501.V2, was different from the one in the UK.
Nonetheless, like in Britain, officials have said that the mutation was driving the country’s resurgence of the disease, with higher numbers of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
South African scientists on the ground said they are currently studying if the vaccines against COVID-19 will also offer protection against the country’s new strain.
CBC – Dozens of airline passengers fined for not masking
More than 70 passengers on Canadian airlines have been slapped with fines or warning letters by Transport Canada in recent months for refusing to wear a mask on board a flight.
CBC – Provincewide lockdown begins in Ontario on Boxing Day
All of Ontario will move into a lockdown on Boxing Day in a bid to curb climbing COVID-19 case numbers.
The lockdown will remain in place until at least Jan. 23, 2021, in southern Ontario and until Jan. 9 in the province’s north.
Anti-vaxxers Could Face Public Transport Ban In France
People who fail to get a Covid-19 vaccination could be banned from using public transport in France, according to a draft law sparking angry protests from opposition politicians on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday got his cabinet’s backing for a bill that is designed to provide a legal framework for dealing with health crises, including the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the text, which will now be submitted to parliament, a negative Covid test or proof of a “preventative treatment, including the administration of a vaccine” could be required for people to be granted “access to transport or to some locations, as well as certain activities”.
The government’s vaccination campaign is to start on Sunday, and officials already face widespread resistance to a treatment developed in record time since the outbreak hit Europe early this year.
A recent poll by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper found that 59 percent of respondents said they would not get a Covid shot, one of the highest rates in the European Union.
President Emmanuel Macron has promised that coronavirus vaccinations, though strongly recommended, will not be mandatory, a pledge reiterated by Health Minister Olivier Veran on Tuesday.
“I say it once again, vaccination is not mandatory,” Veran said, while also appearing to leave the door open to modifications of the bill as it “matures” during parliamentary debates.
But opposition politicians condemned the draft law, with Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right RN party, calling it an “essentially totalitarian” measure.
“In a backhanded way, this bill does not aim to make vaccinations mandatory, but will prevent anybody who doesn’t comply from having a social life,” she said.
Suspend our freedoms
RN party spokesman Sebastien Chenu said Macron’s government was planning “a health dictatorship”.
Guillaume Peltier, deputy leader of the centre-right LR party, said it was “inconceivable” that the government should be allowed to “get all the power to suspend our freedoms without parliamentary control”.
Centrist senator Nathalie Goulet said the draft was “an attack on public freedoms”, while the far-left deputy Alexis Corbiere said “we could at least have a collective discussion if the idea is to limit our public liberties.”
Laureline Fontaine, a law professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle university in Paris, told AFP that the draft bill would effectively curb parliament’s powers, “because these exceptional measures could all be implemented by decree.”
“It potentially gives nearly unlimited powers to the executive authorities,” she said.
Public-sector minister Amelie de Montchalin tried to quell the opposition, saying the bill was “not at all made to create exceptional powers for the government” or “create a health state”.
She said there would be a debate about the bill during which “everything that needs clarification will be clarified.”
The EU gave the green light for a Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, paving the way for the first inoculations to start across 27 countries just after Christmas.
https://www.barrons.com/news/anti-vaxxers-could-face-public-transport-ban-in-france-01608649204
MSNBC – Low Public Trust Could Hurt Vaccine Distribution In Minority Communities
Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu discusses low public trust and disinformation that could hurt the coronavirus vaccine distribution in minority communities.
Six plus hours of patriots in Oregon.
https://youtu.be/R1cOrWw9msc
Six Muslims Held in India for Allegedly Trying to Convert Hindu Woman to Islam for Marriage (sputniknews, Dec 22, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/india/202012221081535848-six-muslims-held-in-india-for-allegedly-trying-to-convert-hindu-woman-to-islam-for-marriage/
“The new law against illegal conversion, which came into effect on 28 November, has so far seen six police complaints (FIRs) and 29 people booked for offences. About 15 people, all Muslims, have been arrested across the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Six Muslims have been arrested in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in a case filed under the newly promulgated ordinance against unlawful conversions, NDTV reported on Tuesday.
Police in the State’s Etah district said a case was filed after a 21-year-old woman went missing and her father lodged a complaint alleging that his daughter had been kidnapped by a Muslim man and his relatives. He alleged that it was for conversion to Islam and marriage, as cited by NDTV.
Although the Hindu woman and the Muslim man have not been tracked down so far, the police have announced INR 25,000 ($338 approx.) award for the five others accused in the case.
Though the report of the missing girl was registered on 25 November, the First Information Report (FIR) under the unlawful conversion law was filed nearly a month later, with the police failing to explain the delay.
The “unlawful conversion” law has been under fire from various quarters in India, with many criticising it for infringing on citizens’ fundamental rights. It has been termed as unconstitutional by many, including former judges.”
CBC – Canada to accept 100 refugees whose claims were denied by Australia
Switzerland: No evidence new COVID strain more likely to cause “severe disease or mortality” – WHO
Although the new coronavirus strain found in South Africa and the UK has been reported to transmit faster, there is no evidence of it causing severe disease or mortality, said Head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Ghebreyesus, during a press conference with WHO officials in Geneva on Monday.
“Viruses mutate over time; that’s natural and expected. The UK has reported that this new variant transmits more easily but there is no evidence so far that it is more likely to cause severe disease or mortality,” he briefed the journalists, urging to double down on public health basics to suppress the virus effectively.
WHO Chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that “the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mutating at a much slower rate than the influenza virus,” emphasising that none of the mutations had made an impact on the virus susceptibility to any vaccine.
A new spark of worry has been triggered across the EU following the discovery of a new strain of COVID-19 in the UK which is reported to have increased transmissibility, with many countries choosing to implement travel bans to help contain the spread of the new strain of the virus.
More than 40 countries banned UK travelling after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a coronavirus mutation that is up to 70 percent more transmissible.
Another incompetent con man
Polls in US and Europe show high level of vaccine skepticism
The US drug regulator has approved a second Covid vaccine for emergency use, boosting hopes of an end to the pandemic.
The Moderna jab is being rolled out alongside the Pfizer-Biotech shot, which has also been given the green light in the UK.
But despite the apparent breakthroughs, manufacturers are facing a wall of public reluctance.
The latest poll in the US showed 64% of the population are willing to get the vaccine. In Europe, a survey in the science journal ‘Nature’ found that only 54% of people would take the jab in France and 65% in Italy.
While in the UK, more than half of respondents said they were concerned about possible side effects.
Staff at hospitals in DC, Texas turn down COVID-19 vaccine
Many employees at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., have reservations about taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and CEO Anita Jenkins is trying to get workers to follow her lead by getting vaccinated, according to CNN.
The hospital, a major healthcare provider for the Black community, received 725 doses of the Pfizer vaccine Dec. 15 and expects to receive a second shipment this week. As of Dec. 18, only about 600 of the hospital’s 1,900 employees had signed up for the shots, according to Kaiser Health News.
“There is a high level of mistrust and I get it,” Ms. Jenkins told Kaiser Health News. “People are genuinely afraid of the vaccine.”
The vaccination numbers, though low, still exceeded expectations, Ms. Jenkins told CNN. An internal hospital survey of about 350 employees in early November showed that 70 percent were not willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine or would not take it immediately after it became available.
Ms. Jenkins received the shot Dec. 15 in hopes of inspiring staff to get vaccinated. She’s part of a widespread effort by healthcare experts and community leaders to combat vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans. About 35 percent of Black Americans said they probably or definitely would not get the vaccine if it was determined to be safe by scientists and widely available for free, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study cited by CNN.
Howard University Hospital isn’t the only healthcare provider with workers who turned down the vaccine. At Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Texas, so many workers declined the COVID-19 vaccine that the hospital offered doses to other medical workers in the region, according to ProPublica.
The hospital received 5,850 doses of the vaccine, and it quickly became clear that not enough people eligible for the vaccine, like staff who work directly with COVID-19 patients, were opting to get it, DHR Health CMO Robert Martinez, MD, told ProPublica.
“You start to see similar numbers across the country, all this mistrust and misinformation,” Dr. Martinez said.
After the first day of distribution, DHR reached out to other hospitals and healthcare facilities in the region to offer doses of the vaccine. ProPublica reported that the vaccine ended up going to non-medical personnel as well, including state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. He told ProPublica he was invited to take the vaccine by DHR after officials explained to him that all eligible workers who wanted the vaccine received it.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/staff-at-hospitals-in-dc-texas-turn-down-covid-19-vaccine.html
Éric Zemmour émet des doutes sur les vaccins contre le Covid 19, Christine Kelly en sueur!!!
MEMRI – Hamas Official Ahmad Kulab: It Is Forbidden for Muslims to Congratulate Christians on Christmas
In a December 19, 2020 broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza), Ahmad Kulab, the Head of the Department for Training of Preachers in Hamas’ Ministry of Religious Endowments, warned against Muslim participation in Christmas celebrations.
He said that it is forbidden for Muslims to congratulate Christians on their holidays, explaining that this would be denial of Islamic faith.
Kulab added that Christian holiday celebrations must be restricted to Christian homes or places of worship.
He also said that the image of Santa Claus constitutes an invasion of Muslim countries, and that it glorifies early Christian missionaries.
Canadian Imam to the Youth, Victoria, BC, Younus Kathrada, the daily Madrasah for children 5 and up said:
“Muslims must be offended when people worship Jesus.”
“ Ask yourself about your children, who are their closest friends? who are here people that they want to be with? are they Muslim or non-Muslim. I swear by Allah that these types of things are more dangerous than the CORONAVIRUS or any other plague or virus. The Quran says “Do not take Infidels as allies.”
We need to be aware of this that we can carry out that obligation of ours, which is enjoying good. And forbidding evil, speaking up, enjoying good — advising one another, speaking up, enjoying good, forbidding evil, of course all within the guidelines laid down for us in our Shari’ah.”
“ Humiliate the unbelievers and polytheists and to destroy the enemies of Islam, the heretics and the atheists. He goes on to “beseech Divine aid in granting victory to those waging jihad on your path and every place and in granting them victory over their enemies and your enemies.”
twitter @Rothbard
WHOA! There is a FASCINATING revelation [re: Internet connected US VOTING SYSTEMS & TABULATION SOFTWARE] in this Frontline interview w/ Celeste Wallander from Oct. 25, 2017.
She was the Former “Special Assistant to Obama for National Security Affairs & Senior Director for Russia
Tell me this lady wasn’t obsessed with getting Trump.
35:10 – discussion shifts to the election
51:44 – retaliation options (START WATCHING HERE)
52:31 – sanctions and planning for the retaliation
53:38 – fake surprise
53:50 – puzzlement
Watch her body language (facial expression, blinking of her eyes). Russia was never involved, they are not communist country anymore. Russians, have got this saying “Keep your finger on the pulse”, just to be sure what’s going on.
more on the thread :
https://twitter.com/Rothbard1776/status/1341252511949348865
===========================================
MSNBC – DEC 21 2020 – Peter Strzok: Trump Downplaying The Russia Threat Is ‘Exactly Where We Started’
Former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok concludes that Trump is finishing his presidency just as he started: undermining threats from Russia and with General Michael Flynn back in the White House.
sara carter – Twitter will clear POTUS account followers: Biden campaign
President-elect Joe Biden‘s campaign digital director on Tuesday said that the accounts which the official POTUS and White House Twitter accounts follow will all be unfollowed by Twitter when Biden becomes president in January, Twitter reportedly told Biden’s team, The Hill reports.
Retweeting the Wall Street Journal’s Emily Glazer, who herself shared an article she wrote about how President Donald Trump will be held to different Twitter rules once he’s no longer in office, Rob Flaherty, Biden’s Digital Director, on Tuesday morning made the statement about the POTUS and White House accounts.
“In 2016, the Trump admin absorbed all of President Obama’s Twitter followers on @POTUS and @WhiteHouse — at Team 44’s urging,” Flaherty tweeted, referencing Barack Obama’s role as the 44th president. “In 2020, Twitter has informed us that as of right now the Biden administration will have to start from zero.”
Twitter spokesperson Nicholas Pacilio would not confirm Flaherty’s statement and stated that the social media platform is still talking with the Biden transition team about the transfer of the accounts.
“Twitter has been in ongoing discussions with the Biden transition team on a number of aspects related to White House account transfers,” Pacilio said in a statement.
In response to Pacilio, Flaherty reaffirmed his earlier statement, saying, “Hey @NickPacilio — happy to share the email thread where we pushed back and we were told this was unequivocal.”
Following this fiery retort, Pacilio replied, saying, “Hey Rob, no need i’m familiar with it!”
According to the Biden transition team, per The Hill, the social media platform will send out a one-time notification suggesting users who follow Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Twitter follow the “transition46” account which will be rebranded as the White House account. However, the POTUS, FLOTUS, and “PressSec” accounts will start with following zero accounts.
Both accounts together have 59.2 million followers, with the POTUS account having 33.2 million and the White House account having 26 million. Nonetheless, their total doesn’t even come close to the 88.5 million who follow President Trump’s personal account.
https://saraacarter.com/twitter-will-clear-potus-account-followers-biden-campaign/
Migrants Attacked Jews Celebrating Hanukkah in Paris No-Go Suburbs (breitbart, Dec 22, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/22/jews-celebrating-hanukkah-attacked-paris-no-go-suburbs/
“Police arrested four people, two of them illegal immigrants, in the Paris no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis on suspicion of assaulting a Jewish family which was celebrating Hanukkah.
The incident took place in the commune of Aubervilliers, Seine-Saint-Denis, on Thursday at around 8:40 pm when the Jewish family was in their vehicle listening to Hebrew music and “messages of peace”.
According to a report by broadcaster France Bleu, a group of people yelling antisemitic slurs approached the family, proceeding to shake the car and throw glass bottles at the vehicle.
Two fo the four suspects are said to be illegal adult migrants and the two others were minors, according to investigators.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin condemned the attack, writing: “Yesterday evening, in the middle of Hanukkah, a family from Aubervilliers was insulted and attacked because they were Jewish. In France, in 2020.”
“The perpetrators were arrested very quickly by the police. They should be punished commensurate with the gravity of these facts,” Mr Darmanin added.
For years, the heavily migrant-populated Seine-Saint-Denis has had a problem with antisemitism to the extent that in 2017 it was reported that members of the Jewish community were leaving the neighbourhood entirely.
“It’s hard to explain, it’s provocations, it’s looks,” a local synagogue president said and added: “There are places where we do not feel welcome.”
In 2019, Jerome Fourquet, director of polling firm Ifop, stated that over the last 15 years, the number of Jews fleeing the area due to antisemitism had soared.
“Over fifteen years, numbers of Jewish populations or families have collapsed in a series of municipalities from Seine-Saint-Denis,” Mr Fourquet said.
“In Aulnay-sous-Bois, the number of families of Jewish faith has thus decreased from 600 to 100, at Blanc-Mesnil from 300 to 100, in Clichy-sous-Bois from 400 to at 80 and at La Courneuve from 300 to 80,” he added.”
37,000 Migrants Lost After Skipping Bail or Fleeing Detention Centres (breitbart, Dec 22, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/22/37000-migrants-lost-skipping-bail-fleeing-detention-centres/
“The British government has lost track of over 37,000 migrants after they skipped bail or absconded from detention centres, a freedom of information request has revealed.
Home Office figures revealed that the majority of the migrants are classified as “in-country absconders” after having failed to report to immigration officials or simply escaped from detention centres. An estimated 134 are categorised as “port absconders”, meaning that they evaded border controls in order to enter the UK.
The figures showed that in total, 37,302 foreign nationals have gone unaccounted for over the past three decades until the end of September this year, the Mail on Sunday reported.
The Home Office failures mean that a group of migrants equivalent to the entire population of British towns such as Redcar in North Yorkshire or Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire is now missing.
In response to the figures, Migration Watch Chairman Alp Mehmet said: “This is a shocking failure. It is ridiculous to intercept those crossing the Channel illegally or after they emerge from the back of lorries, only to turn them loose to disappear into the undergrowth of the shadow economy.
“It simply makes it easy for potential absconders. This gap in immigration control can easily be plugged with more effective enforcement and better use of detention. If only the political will were there to do it.”
The data release comes as eight supposed asylum-seekers disappeared from the makeshift migrant camp at the Napier Barracks in Folkestone, Kent, last week…”
Swedish Academic Rejects Alleged Economic Benefits of Mass Migration (breitbart, Dec 22, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/12/22/swedish-academic-rejects-alleged-economic-benefits-mass-migration/
“Swedish Professor of Economics Mats Hammarstedt has rejected claims that mass migration can be economically beneficial over the long term, citing problems of integration.
Professor Hammarstedt, who teaches at the Linnaeus University in Växjö and the Institute for Business Research, said that integration failures, particularly of asylum seekers, have contributed to a much higher unemployment rate among migrants over the long-term.
In an article for the Swedish publication Dagens Industri, Hammarstedt said: “The lack of integration of foreign-born people into the labour market is well documented and the situation has remained largely unchanged in recent decades.”
He added: “Every year, the public sector redistributes resources from domestic-born to foreign-born, and the long time it takes for refugee immigrants and their relatives to establish themselves in the labour market means that refugee immigration entails a cost to public finances even long after the refugees have immigrated to Sweden.”
The professor gave an example of unemployment rates for African and Asian migrants across nearly a decade, writing: “For people born in Africa and Asia (aged 15 to 75), unemployment in 2010 was 26 per cent and 24 per cent respectively. In 2019, the unemployment rate in these groups was almost exactly the same levels (26 per cent and 22 per cent respectively).”
“Thus, the share of unemployed in these groups remained largely unchanged during a period when the groups have almost doubled in size. This development of recent decades thus means that the group of unemployed in Sweden is increasingly made up of people born in countries outside Europe,” he added.
According to the professor, a long-term economic benefit from mass migration can only be seen when there is successful integration.
“Instead, the problems risk worsening in the long term, as new people are constantly to be integrated and unemployment in the growing groups remains largely unchanged,” he said.
The Swedish academic joins several others over the years who have challenged the idea that mass migration is an economic positive for countries receiving migrants.
In 2016, a study from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany, found that language barriers and lack of qualifications among migrants led to a higher overall unemployment rate and lower tax revenue in the long-term.
The French parliament released a similar study in January which was slightly more optimistic, saying mass migration was a net neutral for the economy but did not boost growth.
The report noted that 43 per cent, nearly half, of migrants coming to France had no school diploma or college education.”
New Findings Could Be Imminent but Access to Evidence Denied; Trump Team Shifted Focus
China bought media in every country that matters. But Japan stood as a proud exception
Afraid of France’s intentions, China praises Sino-French relations, but it’s too little too late
4,320 views
•Dec 22, 2020
Brazil decides to drill a hole in their wallets
Over a thousand trucks stuck to leave UK
Thousands of trucks are lined up at an airfield outside of London, unable to enter France, after French President Emmanuel Macron decided to take a 48-hour hiatus from all travel coming in from the UK.
And like the majority of travel-related interruptions in 2020, the reason is Covid.
More specifically, though, the ban was issued due to a new variant of coronavirus making the rounds in England.
The temporary trade and travel ban has raised fears of an impending perishable food shortage in the UK, if these restrictions drag on.
Speaking at a press conference, Boris Johnson claimed that there were a total of 170 trucks stuck in that line, but several hours later Home Secretary Priti Patel said that there were actually over 1,500.
+ comments on the YT page
SKYCOPTER: M20 turned into lorry park
The Sky News helicopter has seen lorries parked for miles along the M20 after France shut its border to the United Kingdom.
RT UK Tempers EXPLODE as truck drivers are barred from getting back to Europe
Tempers are building as truck drivers are waiting to get out of Britain after France barred entry from England after a new ‘variant’ of COVID was identified.
There are now reports of the military being deployed for testing to allow for drivers to return home.
Coronavirus Vaccine: Who Should Get It First?
Gravitas: Denmark’s mink industry nears collapse
Gravitas: The Philippines to raise the age of consent
Gravitas: Why is Canada giving refuge to extremists?
Gravitas: Baloch activist found dead in Canada, Toronto police say it’s a ‘non-criminal death’
Silencing North Korean Defectors in South Korea
MSNBC – Voting Machine Companies Threaten Right-Wing Media Companies With Legal Action
New York Times media columnist Ben Smith discusses his reporting on voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion threatening conservative media companies with defamation lawsuits, causing some shows to conduct damage control.
Gravitas: The ‘consequences’ of insulting Erdogan
“Flynn reveals harrowing experiences of last 4 years; Insurrection Act explained | NTD highlights” NTD – December 22, 2020
I attended this widely reported meeting.
@realDonaldTrump won “BIGLY”, the entire world knows it. Now strong hearts are required. We have a process, America is awakened and both the TRUTH & GOD are on our side. “May His light shine upon thee”
General Flynn – December 22, 2020 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/GenFlynn/status/1341364461102379008
Tracy Beans – Link
Dark To Light: A Meeting With The President – Podcast
by Tracy Beans – December 21, 2020
https://uncoverdc.com/2020/12/21/dark-to-light-a-meeting-with-the-president/
SETI Detected a Strange Radio Signal From Proxima Centauri
Gravitas: A weapon to defeat the ‘mutant’ Wuhan virus?
“One Simple Statistic Shows Cuomo Is Destroying NYC’s Restaurant Industry For No Reason” by Brad Columbo – December 14, 2020
https://fee.org/articles/one-statistic-shows-cuomo-is-destroying-nyc-s-restaurant-industry-for-no-reason/
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tells Conservatives They Aren’t Welcome
Amy Stephens – November 17, 2016
So he wants to know “who are they?”
Liberty – 6 playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdPac5SY1R8GYFYzP9TH9RObZypgc5JQw
#3 – These are the Times That Try Men’s Souls
North Korea: The Perfect Dystopia | China Unscripted
MEMRI – Iranian Amb. to China: Relationship Between Iran, China Is Heart to Heart – Not Just Official Basis
Mohammad Keshavarz Zadeh, Iran’s Ambassador to China, said in a December 29, 2020 English-language interview on CGTN (China) that the Iranian and Chinese people have been connected to each other for a thousand years through the Silk Road.
He said that the relationship is a heartfelt relationship, not only one on an official or government basis.
Keshavarz Zadeh also said that in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, Iran can serve as a bridge between China and Europe and the Middle East.
Documentary: 2020 Election Investigation | Crossroads with Joshua Philipp
Taiwan deploys 8 fighter aircrafts, 6 warships after passage of Chinese warship
Cornell Student Government Fails To Disarm Police, So They Expel Opposition Members And Vote Again
Members of Cornell University’s student government tried to pass a resolution last month that would disarm the school’s police, but the resolution failed.
Following that failure, anti-police activists within the student government worked to expel other members who had opposed the resolution and then held a second vote to disarm campus police, which narrowly passed on December 10, The College Fix reported.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/cornell-student-government-fails-to-disarm-police-so-they-expel-opposition-members-and-vote-again
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Georgia Now Has ‘Credible Process’ to Perform Signature Audit of Election
By Jack Phillips
December 22, 2020 Updated: December 22, 2020
biggersmaller Print
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday said he was briefed about Georgia’s mail-in ballot signature verification, saying officials have the ability to conduct a signature audit, as was requested by President Donald Trump and other prominent Republicans.
“I have just been briefed about the signature verification system in Georgia regarding 2020 mail-in ballots. From what I’ve been told, sounds like they now have a credible process in place to do a signature audit,” he wrote, without elaborating. “Look forward to hearing the results!”
It’s not clear if Graham, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was referring to a signature audit of the ballots cast during the Nov. 3 presidential election—or an audit for future elections, including the Senate runoff election in Georgia. It’s also unclear about what agency or officials had briefed Graham.
Over the past month or so, President Donald Trump has pushed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger to conduct a “signature verification” during an election audit. Trump on Dec. 5 wrote he would “easily” and “quickly” win Georgia if Kemp or Raffensberger “permit[ted] a simple signature verification” and asked them to perform the audit.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/sen-lindsey-graham-georgia-now-has-credible-process-to-perform-signature-audit-of-election_3629370.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-12-22-3
Acting DHS Secretary: Struggle With China ‘Nothing Short of a Civilizational Conflict’
By Masooma Haq
December 22, 2020 Updated: December 22, 2020
biggersmaller Print
Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chad Wolf affirmed the intelligence agency’s assessment of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) threat to the United States in his speech Sunday when he warned that the CCP’s goal is to upend the American way of life.
“China threatens the livelihood, prosperity, and well-being of each and every American. Your homes, your schools, your jobs, your retirement accounts, and your health are all at risk. Our struggle with China is nothing short of a civilizational conflict,” Wolf said at a virtual event hosted by The Heritage Foundation in Washington.
“Our founders had a powerful vision for this nation. To be a bastion of freedom, a shining ‘city upon a hill,’ and a beacon of hope to those suffering across the world—including those fleeing oppressive, authoritarian regimes,” Wolf continued.
Wolf told listeners that the CCP fundamentally opposes free and open economic and democratic societies and views the United States as “a political and ideological threat. It wants to reshape the world in its image: centrally-planned and authoritarian.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/acting-dhs-secretary-struggle-with-china-nothing-short-of-a-civilizational-conflict_3629172.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-12-22-3
Cameroon Governor: Boko Haram Has Infiltrated Top Levels of Government (breitbart, Dec 22, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/12/22/cameroon-governor-boko-haram-has-infiltrated-top-levels-of-government/
“Members of the Nigerian Islamic terror group Boko Haram have established close ties in neighboring Cameroon’s political and business circles in recent months, a Cameroonian government official said, Voice of America (VOA) reported over the weekend.
“Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, on Nigeria’s border, says that within the past two months, Boko Haram has been establishing ties with top officials of his region. He spoke via a messaging app from the northern town of Maroua,” the U.S. government-funded broadcaster reported on December 19.
“Security reports indicate that Boko Haram has infiltrated some political, business, and elite circles along Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria,” Bakari told VOA.
“Boko Haram accomplices in the communities supply food and money for the terrorists to procure weapons,” according to Bakari, who added that the Cameroon military “has been assigned to arrest those who have established ties with Boko Haram.”
VOA said it could not independently confirm Bakari’s allegations. While the governor did not disclose how many people have been arrested in Cameroon for establishing ties with the Nigerian terror group, local media reported last week that the Cameroon military arrested a former member of the nation’s parliament, Blama Malla, “for alleged ties with the Boko Haram. He has been detained in the northern town of Mora,” according to the broadcaster.
Cameroon authorities have allegedly accused Malla of supplying cattle and money to Boko Haram. Malla is a member of Cameroon President Paul Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party.
Cameroon troops arrested Malla “after his cousin, a member of a local militia in the border town of Kolofata in the Mayo Sava administrative unit, was seen transporting 10 cattle to a border area where Boko Haram fighters hide.” The cousin confessed to Cameroon authorities “that he had received orders from Malla to supply the cattle to Boko Haram,” local media reported.
The Cameroon government has not issued a statement on Malla’s alleged arrest.
“There is suspicion and fear that these towns have already been infiltrated [by Boko Haram],” the BBC reported of Cameroon towns along the Nigerian border that had recently suffered from attacks by the terror group in 2014.
“Boko Haram is not just carrying out raids and abductions, they now control entire towns just across the border in Nigeria, and the very real concern here [in Cameroon] is that the militants are seeking to raise the flag of their so-called caliphate in Cameroon as well,” the British broadcaster added. At the time of the report, Cameroon’s elite battalion had “lost dozens of its men” in its fight to protect Cameroon towns from Boko Haram attacks.
Nigerian officials, including former president Goodluck Jonathan, have long accused Boko Haram of infiltrating government and military ranks within Nigeria. According to VOA, Cameroon officials have also accused Boko Haram of similarly sabotaging militias formed to fight the terrorists throughout the Lake Chad Basin. The Chad Basin connects Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, Boko Haram’s historic stronghold, with neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
Boko Haram terrorists sparked an Islamic insurgency in northern Nigeria in 2009. Since then, the jihadi group has perpetrated mass kidnappings and massacres as part of a larger effort to establish an Islamic caliphate in the region. The insurgency has spread throughout the Chad Basin over the past decade, killing an estimated 36,000 people and displacing about two million others according to the U.N.”
Hostile Reaction in Detroit Forced Election Official Into Hiding
By Charlotte Cuthbertson
December 21, 2020 Updated: December 22, 2020
biggersmaller Print
William Hartmann felt like he was stuck in a “Mission Impossible” movie when he left a Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting in Detroit in November.
Law enforcement advised him not to return home and instead escorted him, with just the clothes on his back, to a friend’s house for safety.
“I was scared,” Hartmann told The Epoch Times. “[The police] actually had people stationed outside in different locations, watching, in case anything happened. They were there for three or four days.”
Hartmann said he didn’t venture outside for a week.
“I was afraid that somebody might recognize me when I was out and want to beat me up,” he said.
Hartmann was one of two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers who initially refused to certify the election results due to imbalances in the numbers.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/hostile-reaction-in-detroit-forced-election-official-into-hiding_3627709.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-12-22-2
US rolls out new Syria sanctions that hit Syrian first lady and her family
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-rolls-out-new-syria-sanctions-that-hit-syrian-first-lady-and-her-family/ar-BB1c9nYo
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it is imposing sanctions on 18 individuals and entities — including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s wife and some of her immediate relatives, the commander of the Syrian military intelligence, the Central Bank of Syria and close advisers to Assad — in an effort to hurt Assad economically and draw him back to the negotiating table to find a political solution in Syria.
“Today, the United States is imposing sanctions on 18 more individuals and entities,” said Joel Rayburn, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Syria, during a call with reporters. “These individuals and corrupt businesses are impeding efforts to reach a political and peaceful resolution to the Syrian conflict as called for by UN Security Council Resolution2254. Today’s sanctions demonstrate our resolve to curtail the ability of pro-regime actors, including military commanders, members of the Syrian Parliament, Assad regime entities and financiers from using their positions to perpetuate Bashar al-Assad’s futile and brutal war.”
Rayburn said that efforts by the Syrian first lady, Asma al-Assad, and her immediate family on behalf of the regime have perpetuated the Syrian conflict.
“Asma al-Assad has spearheaded efforts on behalf of the regime to consolidate economic and political power, including by using her so-called charity and civil society organization. Her and her family’s corruption is one of the many reasons that this conflict lingers on,” Rayburn said.
[..]
‘Turkey, Indonesia should unite against Islamophobia’
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-indonesia-should-unite-against-islamophobia-161038
“Turkey and Indonesia should work together to support the Muslim community against Islamophobia and discrimination, according to Turkey’s foreign minister on Dec. 22.
“We should support the [Muslim] community by working together with Indonesia and fight against these,” Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu told a press conference alongside Indonesian counterpart Retno Parsudi in Jakarta.
Çavu?o?lu highlighted the increased threats of Islamophobia and discrimination against the Muslim world and said the two countries should also stand together against attempts to harm their values.
“As two important Muslim countries we must protect the mutual aims and interests of our countries and the [Muslim] community,” he said.
He noted that 2020 was the 70th year of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Ankara and Jakarta, adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s planned Indonesia visit next year would initiate a High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council between the two countries.
Çavu?o?lu said the countries had also agreed to increase the bilateral trade volume to $10 billion from current $1.5 billion, as well as to boost investments in both nations.
Çavu?o?lu and Parsudi also inked a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic cooperation, as well as diplomat exchanges and training.”
Greece should be held responsible for migrant murders: Minister
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/greece-should-be-held-responsible-for-migrant-murders-minister-161040
“Turkey’s interior minister urged the EU on Dec. 21 to hold Greece responsible for its “murders” of asylum seekers.
“Dear [European Commissioner for Home Affairs] @YlvaJohansson, Torture and inhumane treatment by Greece has now turned into murder. Won’t Greece be held responsible for these murders ignored by @Frontex?” Süleyman Soylu said on Twitter.
Soylu shared a video showing the moments of the irregular migrants’ rescue and one of them speaking about what they experienced with Greek officers.
“In the video, the man recounts the bad treatment he and the others received from the officers and that three out of five irregular migrants who were stranded at sea lost their lives as their boat deflated.
Soylu also shared a statement by the Turkish Coast Guard Command on the incident which said that on Dec. 19, teams were dispatched to the area to rescue the irregular migrants, who were reportedly stranded on three boats.
The statement said 31 irregular migrants in total were rescued, adding the irregular migrants claimed they were beaten by Greek staff and their valuable belongings were taken from them.
“While they were being embarked on lifeboats in order to be left to Turkish territorial waters, five migrants fell into the sea from a punctured lifeboat,” it cited migrants as saying.
“Two of the five migrants who fell into the sea were taken alive. But three of them lost their lives. The three migrants who lost their lives were taken with a separate lifeboat,” it added.”
Spain: Illegal migrant from Morocco destroys car of a woman who refused to give him money (VIDEO)
https://rmx.news/article/article/spain-illegal-migrant-from-morocco-destroys-car-of-a-woman-who-refused-to-give-him-money-video
“A video clip of an illegal migrant from Moroccan trashing the car of a Spanish woman who had previously refused to give him money has emerged and is currently circulating on social networks.
Rubén Pulido, the spokesman for Spain’s right-wing populist party Vox, uploaded the shocking footage to social media where it’s been shared thousands of times.
“A few minutes ago, in Aguadulce (Almería). Cultural enrichment due to the refusal, by the vehicle owner, to give a tip for the ‘parking service,’” Pulido wrote on social media.
The incident, which was recorded by the owner of the vehicle, took place earlier this month in the coastal town of Aguadulce, in the province of Almería, and saw the illegal migrant from Moroccan destroy the woman’s car after she refused to pay him money, Spanish news portal OK Dario reports.
A video clip of an illegal migrant from Moroccan trashing the car of a Spanish woman who had previously refused to give him money has emerged and is currently circulating on social networks.
Rubén Pulido, the spokesman for Spain’s right-wing populist party Vox, uploaded the shocking footage to social media where it’s been shared thousands of times.
“A few minutes ago, in Aguadulce (Almería). Cultural enrichment due to the refusal, by the vehicle owner, to give a tip for the ‘parking service,’” Pulido wrote on social media.
The incident, which was recorded by the owner of the vehicle, took place earlier this month in the coastal town of Aguadulce, in the province of Almería, and saw the illegal migrant from Moroccan destroy the woman’s car after she refused to pay him money, Spanish news portal OK Dario reports.
In the video, the irate Moroccan man can be seen belligerently and repeatedly kicking the woman’s car on all sides, denting its body and knocking off both of its side mirrors. After losing interest in the first vehicle, the culprit then starts hitting the windows of another vehicle parked nearby, before he aggressively confronts the woman filming and assaults her.
Although the Guardia Civil managed to track down and arrest the perpetrator two days after the incident took place, the illegal migrant was released from the jail’s custody hours after the arrest, according to reports.
For some time, both the Guardia Civil and the National Police have warned the country’s ruling leftist coalition government of an “avalanche” of illegal migrants flooding the region…”
Trump foils China’s plans to install its own loyal Dalai Lama in Tibet
Joe Biden Will Be The Most Anti-Second Amendment President We’ve Seen Including His Cabinet Picks
I can’t watch, I can barely read the title.
twitter @realDonaldTrump
+ 4 min VIDEO
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1341537886315950080
Trump Demands Congress Increase Covid-19 Stimulus Checks from $600 to $2,000
Asia = $1,400,000,000
Egypt = $1,300,000,000
Sudan = $700,000,000
Ukraine = $453,000,000
Israel = $500,000,000
Burma = $135,000,000
Nepal = $130,000,000
Cambodia = $85,500,000
Pakistan = $25,000,000
American Citizens = SCREWED
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled he may not sign a $900 billion coronavirus relief package just one day after Congress passed it with bipartisan support.
In a video posted on his Twitter account, Trump said the bill included “wasteful and unnecessary” items and demanded that lawmakers increase the stimulus checks due to go out to most Americans from the “ridiculously low” amount of $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple.
“I am asking Congress to amend this bill,” Trump said, adding he wanted Congress to “send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a Covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done.”
The president’s comments cast doubt on whether the virus aid package will become law. They come days after the White House indicated that the president would sign it. Trump was largely not involved in the frantic negotiations over the bill, only to raise objections after it passed the House and the Senate.
The aid package is attached to a $1.4 trillion measure to finance government operations through September. If the president does not sign it, government funding would lapse on Dec. 28.
Tucker: Congress tells struggling Americans to take ‘$600 and shut up’
Tucker Carlson sounds off on bloated spending bill, with millions going to Sudan and Pakistan.
Gravitas: Are Pakistani death squads operating abroad?
How China Shaped the Coronavirus Narrative
you need a 2/3rd’s majority in the Senate to ratify a treaty. Classifying the Iran deal and the climate accords as treaties is clever as it will ensure their death.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/sen-cruz-urges-trump-to-file-paris-climate-and-iran-nuclear-agreements-as-treaties_3629523.html
That’s why 0 didn’t put the Iran Deal to a vote.
Special Message Fron President Trump
Donald J Trump – December 22, 2020
“I am going to go on an eight minutes and drop all kinds of information about last Friday night. Tune in.”
Patrick Byrne – December 22, 2020 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/PatrickByrne/status/1341547309193187329
12-22-20 David v. Goliath plays out in Fyk v. FACEBOOK in the Supreme Court
Ann Vandersteel – Streamed live 2 hours
BREAKING: Patrick Byrne details his visit with Sidney Powell and General Flynn to meet with the President of the United States. Lots of BOOMS!
MG Show – December 22, 2020 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/intheMatrixxx/status/1341471932152213511
Byrne At White House – Podcast
The MG Show | December 22, 2020
https://www.inthematrixxx.com/podcasts/