[LATimes] A powerful California union that claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers fighting the novel coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, the U.S. attorney’s office said Friday.
U.S. Atty. Scott Brady of the Western District of Pennsylvania said FBI agents and prosecutors stumbled onto the arrangement while looking into whether they could intercept the masks for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Defense Production Act.
The federal government has been quietly seizing supplies across the country, taking the orders placed by hospitals and clinics and not publicly reporting where the products are being routed.
But in this case, there was no warehouse, and there were no masks to seize.
Brady said investigators tracked the tip back to a Pittsburgh businessman, who said he had been working with the union to secure millions of masks, some of which were purported to be sitting in a Georgia warehouse. Brady said the businessman had been using WhatsApp to connect with a broker in Australia and a supplier in Kuwait, who are both now the target of a federal investigation.
Brady, the federal prosecutor, said the Pittsburgh businessman told investigators he was buying the masks at $3.50 each and turning a "slight profit" in the SEIU-led deal. The union said the masks were being purchased for $5 and that SEIU was not making any money. How about anyone affiliated with SEIU?
It’s unclear whether the Pittsburgh middleman intended to pocket the entire $9 million profit. Well, my goodness. Why am I thinking "60/40"?
#1
When the story first broke that the Service Employees International Union had a huge stockpile of masks, there was something sketchy about it.
/Paul Harvey voice
Now we know the rest of the story.
#8
Lori Loughlin was saying that a lot of these stockpiles were fake. Now it seems we may know why. Trump was right again. Find out who is doing the whining and start sniffing around.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2020 5:31 Comments ||
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#10
I saw a news report on TV about it. Yes, it was Lori. Probably trying to make amends to society. She has been trying to coordinate getting stashes of PPE into medical hands. She said one thing that has been frustrating is that often these stockpiles she unearths turns out to not exist. I figured after reading this article that there is all kinds of prearranged, ongoing fraud.
[GreatGameIndia] Gilead Sciences is an American biotechnology company holding the patent for drug Remdesivir for treating various Coronavirus in over 70 countries. The company has secured orphan drug status for Remdesivir, allowing it to exclusively obtain marketing revenues for up to 7 years. However, behind the benign image of a vaccine manufacturer, Gilead Science has a dark history of allegations of bioterrorism, including having Pentagon to bomb a competitors factory under the false pretext of association with Al-Qaeda.
SECRET BIOWEAPONS PROGRAM IN GEORGIA
After studying files released online by a former Georgian minister, Russian Defense Ministry declared that an illegal bioweapons research program may have been conducted under the guise of clinical trials by a U.S. funded biomedical laboratory in Georgia, killing 73 subjects.
#1
"The interesting part is, Gilead was part of the vaccine lobby at whose behest the WHO faked the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, and kept it a secret from people until committees were setup which exposed the entire racket."
I guess WHO works for the highest bidder. One day it's Gilead, another day it's China.
#7
GreatGameIndia's a fake news site run by a mercenary media studio, owned by three well known summbitches in Bangalore. They have begun to support the pro-islamist lobbies lately, after trying to win favour with the Right wing and failing. There are a number of news channels, sites and youtube groups that aim to damage Indian diplomatic efforts and sabotage our relations with allies. Those, however put up a different kind of fight.
The stories at GGI are all couched in superficial jargon to make them suspenseful to the clueless Indian public; if scrutinized carefully one can spot the fictive stuff outright. The lack of transparency in foreign policy and dearth of informative news about foreign developments in India allow such merc bastards to make quick bucks by formulating stories for the highest bidder.
The journalistic equivalent of those 'IRS' calls some Americans get from India, hoping to make you part with your money.
#9
The journalistic equivalent of those 'IRS' calls some Americans get from India, hoping to make you part with your money.
Wait. What? You mean the Police aren't coming to arrest me?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2020 5:47 Comments ||
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#10
^☺
#8 You're welcome, Clem.
Almost no news outlet is beyond adding some garnish these days, leaning this way and that. OpIndia is a good source for Right Wing news, sort of like the Breitbart of India. Times of India and HT are like the NYT and WaPo. The better new outlets in India are all paywalled.
But GGI are just a mischievous bunch of misfits with a creative bent.
#16
Where did I read it takes $500 million to get a drug through the FDA? Then you can't collect a dime until you've made that investment. A high-cure rate drug (Harvoni) for Hep C can cost over $100,000.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2020 11:56 Comments ||
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#17
Not without trying while their buddies demonize HCQ.
#18
Where did I read it takes $500 million to get a drug through the FDA?
That must hsve been some time ago, Bobby. Before the current excitement it was over $1 billion on average.
GreatGameIndia's a fake news site run by a mercenary media studio, owned by three well known summbitches in Bangalore.
Thank you, Dron66046. I couldn’t remember whether or not they were trustworthy, so I let it through. My memory is a bit like a waterlogged sponge, with facts pouring through instead of being retained.
#20
^ The studio apartment they work from is on the 15th floor of a commercial complex. I would also like to know if any of them can fly.
Interestingly, the main writer and originator of 'news' is someone educated in California, and supports Bernie. The relevant ministry is building a case against them, for the China-Canada Labs story.
#2
I fear that my Canuckistan is slowly, slowly sliding into position to become Venezuela of the north. I see it in the faces of my neighbours, I hear it in their conversations, and I watch them as they praise Turdeau and castigate Trump.
Prevailing attitude is ALWAYS "get as much money from the gummint as possible" without ever a thought as to where the gummint gets its money.
Stepping closely on my 8th decade and kinda happy that I won't be around to see the crash and burn.
#3
I fear that my Canuckistan is slowly, slowly sliding into position to become Venezuela of the north.
If you'll help us overthrow the Governor of Michigan, you can become part of the Upper Peninsula. Think about it. The western provinces are going to succeed anyway.
#1
The department said the largest share of the job losses during the period from March 13 to April 6 - almost 250,000 - came at firms with 50 workers or more, rather than the smaller businesses that dominate Mexico´s economic landscape.
#2
The department said the largest share of the job losses during the period from March 13 to April 6 - almost 250,000 - came at firms with 50 workers or more, rather than the smaller businesses that dominate Mexico´s economic landscape.
#3
The department said the largest share of the job losses during the period from March 13 to April 6 - almost 250,000 - came at firms with 50 workers or more, rather than the smaller businesses that dominate Mexico´s economic landscape.
I thought the Mexican economy has always been dominated by landscaping.
#2
Yeah, sure. I can do that right now with a slingshot and a beer can that will penetrate body armour covered in back bacon and I don't need £30,000 to buy it.
#7
Unnecessarily expensive. Two miles is not the reason to use it. At two miles you might as well call in a drone. The velocity is why someone would need it. But it's still too damned expensive. I was told it's the lightweight materials used that are pricey. For that it's still 10kg. They have been testing it since 2015 in fact. I saw a prototype in 2016 when I attended their Army expo. They disassembled the thing and showed it to me. Named 'Sumrak' (Dusk or something) it was a sleek thing. The prototype was light too. About 8kgs, without the scope. The company makes bespoke arms and kits and sells these high priced things to ostentatious purchasers like the UAE I think.
#8
Seems like you could get a lot of guys whacked for 30 large, given that you'd be shooting people in the scruffier parts of the world where you have a good exchange rate. You'd need to know somebody, of course.
[Bearing Arms] A Tacoma man who was shot as he put his Sig Sauer pistol in a holster has sued the company for millions, alleging the firearms have a history of going off without the trigger being pulled.
Cody Hoefs argues the company knew about the defect and failed to do a mandatory recall.
"... Sig Sauer concealed and propagated a defective deadly weapon so as not to jeopardize a $580,000,000 contract with the United States military, whereby it chose to put profit over the safety and well-being (of) both law enforcement and the general public," the lawsuit says.
The model, the Sig Sauer P320, was the subject of a CNN investigation in 2018.
Hoefs was at home Nov. 23, 2016 when he put his loaded pistol in the holster.
The gun went off "with no prompting while fully-seated in its Sig brand holster," and Hoefs suffered a gunshot wound to his right thigh and lower leg, the complaint says.
The lawsuit lists a series of similar incidents in which Sig Sauer guns went off "without the trigger being pulled, or simply while being handled, accidentally dropped, or while being holstered."
#2
"It is the opinion of this Court that the plaintiff is a dumb-ass, the sort of person who would shoot himself in the leg while putting his pants on. Dismissed."
#6
No knowledge of alleged "inanimate object murderous intentions" of Sig triggers. However, I did have a Remington 700 and that syphilitic bugger would go off without touching the trigger, so it's not beyond belief; still waiting for the evidence, however.
The virus is not PC
[ZDNet] "The chronic condition with the strongest association with critical illness was obesity, with a substantially higher odds ratio than any cardiovascular or pulmonary disease," write lead author Christopher M. Petrilli of the NYU Grossman School and colleagues
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/13/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
And imagine they already have problems breathing because they are obese. I also wonder how many of these are also smokers.
#3
^Gromgoru rises a hand. And I also have hypertension, and other things. On the other hand, in Israel, the virus mostly seems to get religious people - so, I figure, I'm reasonably safe.
#10
I thought I was short of breath with exertion, got a pulmonary function test. Everything was just fine, but the technician patted his tummy, whist looking at mine, and said, "Sometimes this restricts the free movement of the diaphragm."
So, being tubby means your deep breaths can't be so deep, because the fat gets in the way.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2020 9:50 Comments ||
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#13
I think there are also alot of ppl in New Yprok , New Jersey who have breathing problems from breathing in the smoke after 9/11. Anyone else think that may be a contributing factor of so many deaths there?
Posted by: Chris ||
04/13/2020 10:38 Comments ||
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[NYPOST] The US has more than 530,000 coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... cases with every state now under an emergency disaster declaration for the first time in history, according to the latest figures.
The tally from John Hopkins University also showed the corpse count in the country surpassing 20,000 on Sunday.
The rising number of infections comes after President Trump approved Saturday a major disaster declaration for Wyoming, ensuring that now all 50 states have federal funding available to fight the pandemic.
The declarations can also help state governments coordinate with federal resources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Army Corps of Engineers.
The US led the world Sunday for the number of confirmed COVID-19, followed by Spain and Italia, according to John Hopkins University.
#8
We're all going to be exposed. That was never in question. Flattening the curve was always only intended to spread things out enough to avoid overwhelming medical services, not to change the area under the curve (total number who get it).
[WND] Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order closing public school buildings also bans homeschooling, which is unconstitutional, contends a legal non-profit in the state.
"The Great Lakes Justice Center calls upon Gov. Whitmer to correct this unconstitutional action and assure parents in Michigan that they may continue to safely home school their own children while the EO is in effect," the organization said in a statement Thursday.
The April 2 order states "in-person instruction for pupils in kindergarten through grade 12 ... is suspended for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year."
#5
Exactly how did she plan to enforce this?
Parents will no longer be allowed to talk directly to their children
In Michigan, we seem to be oscillating between Democrat and Republican governors, whether by accident or arrangement, I don't know.
Last guy, Snyder, a Repub, did OK but was term-limited. The media worked hard to shift blame for the Flint water mess to the state instead of the City of Flint. The Repub candidate for governor was the state attorney general, a competent guy but powerfully uncharismatic. tl;dr: Whitmer, a Dem career pol got elected governor.
Her main campaign theme was #FIXTHEDAMNROADS, a perennial problem what with Michigan winters and the gas tax money having a tendency to wander off. Many are grumpy that her solution to fixing the roads turns out to be a gas tax increase. A recall petition has already been started.
She was one of the governors banning doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine, so she apparently has the bossy do-gooder gene. Look for this home-schooling order to be walked back, just like the HCQ ban was. On the plus side, she hasn't banned alcohol and weed stores are considered an essential business.
#6
Too bad Whitmer does not have to stand for reelection until Nov 2022. Can't imagine she would be reelected with so many big recent screw ups so close to November 2020.
#10
Another dagger aimed at the educrats us distance learning. We're going to see that, while most teachers absolutely suck at it -- and while distance learning is an absolute disaster for instruction in the performing arts for young adults/older kids -- those who have been offering homeschoolers online instruction since well before the crisis are doing just fine, thank you.
In other words, we will see very soon that, when you compare apples to apples, homeschooling vastly outperforms public schooling. Dagger, indeed.
#12
what are the recall options in MI...asking for a friend...
Posted by: Harry Darling of the Trolls5525 ||
04/13/2020 10:28 Comments ||
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#13
does not have to stand for reelection until Nov 2022
Though she could stand for election this November as Bidens (or his substitutes) VP - would be a perfect fit...
#14
There is a Supreme Court ruling that gives every American a fundamental right to home school. Came up in CA back in the 90's. Gets reversed in 3, 2, .....
#15
Kafka smiles... The students can't attend school, by decree, and can't homeschool, also by decree, but must be educated by the parents until they become adults. Contradictory, no?
[Business Insider] In St. Louis, Missouri, all but three people who have died after being infected with the coronavirus were African American.
In St. Louis, at least 14 of the city's 17 residents who died from the novel virus were also African American. 17 person sample? Obviously reparations are in order
All of the St. Louis' reported COVID-19 deaths were African American until April 10, when the City of St. Louis Department of Health reported the first deaths outside the racial minority group. The deaths of a Hispanic female in her 50s, a white male in 90s, and a woman in her 80s whose race was not identified in reports to the public health officials were announced on Friday in a press release.
Broadly, the novel virus has ravaged St. Louis' black community. Of the confirmed coronavirus cases whose race was reported in St. Louis County, 55% positive cases were black while 36.6% were white, according to data obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis County. (40% of St. Louis County's positive cases were unknown.)
Although African Americans make up more than half of St. Louis' coronavirus cases, only 24.9% of its population is African American only, while 68.2% of its population are white only, according to the US Census Bureau.
However, the unfortunate reality is that St. Louis is not the only US city to be grappling with the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19.
"If you look at the health disparities in the city of St. Louis, they're not unique," St. Louis' health director Dr. Fredrick Echols said during a briefing Wednesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
"Inequities exist across the U.S. and across the world, and it's posed a challenge for public health agencies, (which) have to address those issues and ensure all individuals, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, income, or educational attainment have access to quality health-related resources," he added.
The novel coronavirus has swept across the country infecting more than 542,000 and killing over 21,000 in the US alone, according to data collected by John Hopkins. As the number of people stricken by the coronavirus continues to soar, emerging data on the novel virus in the country shows that black communities have been hardest hit by the novel virus.
In Chicago, African Americans make up 30% of the population — but 72% of the people who've died from COVID-19 were black. The racial disparity is also evident in emerging data on coronavirus deaths in Louisiana, Illinois, New Jersey, and Michigan, according to CNN.
Buried lede:
Although data has laid bare the glaring racial disparities in the impact of the novel virus in St. Louis and beyond, US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said the impacts on black communities across American have more to do with social issues than race.
There have been some absolutely amazing intelligence community computer tools developed over the past 12-15 years that have taken the art of terrorism social networking and analysis to an entirely new level.
While for obvious reasons not frequently discussed, I am relatively certain these analytic tools are being employed in the CV fight.
#10
If you die in a car crash and test positive for CV, it wasn't the crash that killed you.
Below's a quick data grab. Makes me wonder if they were Medicaid participants (poorly run facilities), and if the spike of deaths in inner cities is a factor of state run/city run health care programs.
Female, 50-59, with underlying medical conditions
Female, 80-89, with underlying medical conditions
Female, 60-69, with underlying medical conditions
Male, 80-89, with underlying medical conditions
If you are keeping count: CV African deaths from the continent are less than 800.
#12
The Black communities largely ignored the requests to stay at home. They held conferences in Sun Valley, and infected the city, as one of many examples. Its not a racial issues, they decided to ignore it and Darwin took over.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/13/2020 10:54 Comments ||
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#13
If I were black, I'd want someone to look into exactly why this is happening. But under current political circumstances this can't happen. Catch 22.
[PUNCHNG] The Rivers State Police Command on Saturday raided suspected kidnappers’ den in Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area of the state, killing one fleeing suspect in the process. "Stop or I'll [BANG!] shoot!"
The police also recovered a cache of arms and ammunition reportedly used by the gang to terrorise motorists and passengers along the Ogoni-Uyo axis of East-West Road. "Stand and deliver, motorist! [ZOOM!] [BANG!]"
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Port Harcourt. "Greetings, journalists!"
"Greetings, Mr. Nnamdi Omoni!"
Arms and ammunition recovered from the hoodlums are one GPMG, one SMG and two G-3 rifles, one rocket launcher, five pump action guns and 933 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition. Others are: 1,111 rounds of 5.56mm, 222 rounds of 9mm, 909 rounds of 7.62mm, 74 rounds of 9mm of live ammunition, 728 live cartridges, four AK-47 magazines, two G-3 magazines and one SMG magazine. But no shutter guns.
Omoni said, ‘’The hoodlums who took flight on sighting the police, are alleged to be responsible for the kidnappings and robberies along the Ogoni-Uyo area of the East-West Road. "Arrr! Gimme yer dough!"
"I ain't got no dough!"
"You know anybody with dough?"
"My Uncle Bob, I think."
"Okay, into the trunk!"
‘’One of the kidnappers, Samuel Napoo, who had earlier been arrested and whose confession led police to the forest, however, attempted to escape but was immediately demobilised with a shot in his leg. [BANG!] "Ow! My leg!"
He was rushed to UPTH, where he was confirmed dead.’’ "Rosebud!"
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2020 00:00 ||
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#2
‘’One of the kidnappers, Samuel Napoo, who had earlier been arrested and whose confession led police to the forest, however, attempted to escape but was immediately demobilised with a shot in his leg. He was rushed to UPTH, where he was confirmed dead.’’
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Female prison officers have been raped by male-bodied inmates who self-identify as trans women, a former Minister has revealed.
The disclosure was made by Rory Stewart, the ex-Tory Cabinet Minister who oversaw prisons in 2018 and 2019 and who is now running as an independent candidate for Mayor of London.
It will fuel questions about policies that have allowed criminals with male bodies to describe themselves as female and demand to be housed in women's prisons.
Mr Stewart told GQ magazine: 'When I was Prisons Minister, we had situations of male prisoners selfidentifying as females then raping staff in prison.'
I’m confused. Why, when Mr Steward was minister and had the power and responsibility, did he not put s stop to such nonsense?
[Uh, yeah, thanks, Tony.]
[JustTheNews] The U.S. was given inaccurate information about the coronavirus at the beginning of the crisis Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Saturday.
When Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Fauci if he believes China or the World Health Organization "misled" him or if the WHO leader himself could have been "deceived," Fauci noted that while he does not know the details behind the inaccurate information, it was disseminated from the start of the crisis.
"You know I don't know where the missteps went, the only thing I know what the end result was, that early on we did not get correct information," Fauci said. "And the incorrect information was propagated right from the beginning because you know when the first cases came out, that were identified I think on December 31st in China and we became aware of this, they said this was just animal to human period."
"Now we know retrospectively that there was ongoing transmission from human to human in China, probably at least a few weeks before then," he said.
Fauci said once the illness hit the U.S. it became evident "that was misinformation right from the beginning."
He added that "whosever fault that was, you know, we're gonna go back and take a look at that when this is all over, but clearly it was not the right information that was given to us."
#1
Chinese knew by early Dec that the virus was transmitting human to human. It wasn't until late January they sort of admitted human to human transmission. The Chinese fucked the world over for 6 weeks as they drag netted the world for medical supplies.
#2
During those 6 weeks, Chinese were getting the fuck out of Wuhan and infecting the rest of the world.
January 21: The CDC announced the first U.S. case of a the coronavirus in a Snohomish County, Wash., resident who returning from China six days earlier. Washington, where nursing homes were devastated by Wuhan SARS soon after.
#5
The RNA profile (or whatever) of the virus China sent to the world scientific community in Jan was also faulty. The WHO and MSM seem to have covered that up.
Lately, they're sending out data about stuff from the State of Qin in the 7th century BC that 'seems to be working' according to them. Derivatives of chinese herbs and even the scales of Pangolins... dear Gawd in heav'n !
#9
If the people in this country who helped and paid China to make this deal funded them were from Israel in world war two they would have made ovens and has chambers and blamed Easter islanders! Phuck em!
[NYPost] Smithfield Foods, the world's biggest pork processor, said on Sunday it will shut a U.S. plant indefinitely due to a rash of coronavirus cases among employees and warned the country was moving "perilously close to the edge" in supplies for grocers.
Slaughterhouse shutdowns are disrupting the U.S. food supply chain, crimping availability of meat at retail stores and leaving farmers without outlets for their livestock.
Smithfield extended the closure of its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, plant after initially saying it would idle temporarily for cleaning. The facility is one of the nation's largest pork processing facilities, representing 4% to 5% of U.S. pork production, according to the company.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Saturday that 238 Smithfield employees had active cases of the new coronavirus, accounting for 55% of the state’s total. Noem and the mayor of Sioux Falls had recommended the company shut the plant, which has about 3,700 workers, for at least two weeks.
#4
Auto ship orders out of control. Excess inventory auto shipped and required to receive. 1000 eggs warehouse overstock sent to franchises who are required to receive. Reduced hours. Poor business performance. Whatcha gonna do when they come for you, poor boys, poor boys.
#8
Re #3: not sure that jives with why 3,700 employees were needed in the SD plant. That said, Food Faire carries smithfield and they ARE China-addicted.
#9
No idiot ships pork to China for slaughter and butcher then ships it back to the US for packaging. The company may be Chinese owned, but they're slaughtering and butchering in the US, of US-raised hogs.
Doesn't anyone remember that China's pig farms were going through a swine flu outbreak mid to late 2019?
And Dale needs to lay off the bath salts. Nothing he said makes sense.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/13/2020 8:36 Comments ||
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#10
I don't make this stuff up. Just pass on what I find in my many travels. Many many sources in all sorts of industry. Negative comments expected. Rantburg is my sounding board to maintain my balance. Today did find a local farm source for cured bacon. More interested in supporting local farms these days.
#15
Smithfield said it will resume operations in Sioux Falls after further direction from local, state and federal officials. The company will pay employees for the next two weeks, according to the statement.
“It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” Smithfield chief executive Ken Sullivan said in a statement Sunday. “These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers.”
The company has been running its plants to supply US consumers during the outbreak, Sullivan said.
“We have a stark choice as a nation: We are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,” he said.
Other major US meat and poultry processors, including Tyson Foods Inc., Cargill Inc. and JBS USA, have already idled plants in other states.
This is pretty serious stuff. The plant had 6% of the workers with active COVID, which is about half the cases in SD. That plant is about 10% of Smithfield's US operations and 5% of the US pork production.
It sounds like the CEO wants to keep going, but the state and local governments recommended a closure and now he's looking for help and direction from the government.
If we want to keep continuity in our food pipeline, the FDA/CDC/USDA need to step in quickly in these cases (not just this particular one) and set up procedures to get people back to work asap. Yes, invoke the Defense Production Act if necessary, and put teams in place at each plant to monitor and assist. It seems these plants are shutting down with little fanfare.
#17
WH Group Acquisition was "the largest ever takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese company, roughly doubling the number of US jobs tied to direct investment by China." This happened during the Obama administration. The WH Group wikipedia entry is worth reading.
#19
More: "In addition to owning over 500 farms in the US, Smithfield contracts with another 2,000 independent farms around the country to grow Smithfield's pigs. Outside the US, the company has facilities in Mexico, Poland, Romania, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Globally the company employed 50,200 in 2016 and reported an annual revenue of $14 billion. Its 973,000-square-foot meat-processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was said in 2000 to be the world's largest, processing 32,000 pigs a day."
#20
Even more: "In 1992 Smithfield opened the world's largest processing plant, a 973,000-square-foot facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, which by 2000 could process 32,000 pigs a day. Smithfield purchased John Morrell & Co in Sioux Falls, SD, in 1995 and Circle Four Farms in 1998. In 1999 it bought two of the largest pig producers in the United States: Carroll's Foods for around $500 million and Murphy Family Farms of North Carolina for $460 million. The latter was at that point the country's largest producer. Farmland Foods of Kansas City was added in 2003, as were Sara Lee's European Meats, ConAgra Foods Refrigerated Meats, Butterball (the poultry producer) and, in 2007, Premium Standard Farms. Smithfield sold its 49 percent share in Butterball in 2008 for an estimated $175 million. In 2009 Smithfield was assessed a $900,000 penalty by the U.S. Justice Department to settle charges that the company had engaged in illegal merger activity during its takeover of Premium Standard Farms.
The acquisitions caused concern among regulators in the United States regarding the company's control of the food supply. After Smithfield's purchase of Murphy Family Farms in 1999, the Agriculture Department described it as "absurdly big". According to agricultural researchers Jill Hobbs and Linda Young, writing in 2001, the acquisitions constituted a "major structural change" in the hog industry in the United States, leaving Smithfield in control of 10–15 percent of the country's hog production. As of 2006 four companies—Smithfield, Tyson Foods, Swift & Company, and Cargill—were responsible for the production of 70 percent of pork in the United States."
And yet the Obama administration allowed China to buy all that.
[Just give the statue back to the Russians and be done with it. Geeeesh.]
MOSCOW/PRAGUE (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday it had opened a criminal investigation after Czech authorities dismantled the statue of a Soviet military commander last week despite Moscow’s protests, escalating a rancorous diplomatic row over the issue.
The statue to Marshal Ivan Konev, who led Red Army forces during World War Two that drove Nazi troops from Czechoslovakia, is reviled by some in Prague as a symbol of the decades of Communist rule that followed the war.
But in Moscow Konev is lionised by authorities as a war hero, and the removal of his statue was cast as a diplomatic insult and part of what Russia sees as a dangerous attempt to rewrite history.
The statue to Konev, who also played a leading role in crushing the 1956 Hungarian uprising and building the Berlin Wall in 1961, was taken down on April 3 by municipal Prague authorities who said they planned to put it in a museum.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has appealed to Czech Defence Minister Lubomír Metnar to intercede, asking that the statue be sent back to Moscow.
Russia would be prepared to pay for transport or any other costs, the ministry said.
"We expect information from you about the place and time of its handing over," Shoigu said in a defence ministry statement late on Thursday.
The Czech Foreign Ministry said it was up to the Prague district municipality where the statue had been located to decide whether to give it to Russia.
On Friday, Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles probes into major crimes, said it had opened a criminal case into the suspected public desecration of symbols of Russia's military glory.
The Czech foreign ministry said it considered the move to be meddling in its internal affairs and that the statue would be treated in a dignified manner after its removal.
"If Russian bodies continue with confrontational statements and actions in this spirit, it will be a sign they have lost interest in developing mutually beneficial relations between our countries," it said.
Russia has no legal jurisdiction in the Czech Republic.
The statue has for years been the centre of controversy in Prague. It has been repeatedly vandalised and moves by municipal authorities to cover it up with tarpaulin sparked anger among local pro-Russian residents. Ahead of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the Soviet military campaign has become a highly sensitive subject for Moscow.
President Vladimir Putin has accused Russia's detractors of diminishing the Soviet war effort and its huge loss of life, and said Moscow must defend itself from what he has called the rewriting of history.
#2
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has been a controversial player in British politics for decades. Back in the 1980s, when the anti-nuclear cause was at its peak, his strong left-wing views placed him in the anti-NATO movement, while his long-term contacts with Irish Republican Army terrorists made Corbyn a subject of interest to the Security Service, popularly known as MI5.
However, a disturbing new report in The Sun reveals that Corbyn was much more than just a left-wing activist in the 1980s—he was spying on his own country for the Warsaw Pact. Although The Sun is a tabloid and not always meticulous with details, this report is based on the files of Communist Czechoslovakia’s State Security, known as the StB. To its credit, after the Soviet empire fell, the Czech Republic made StB files accessible to researchers. The Corbyn report is one of many bombshells to emerge from the musty files of Prague’s former version of the KGB.
[reuters] ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has appealed to international stakeholders for urgent debt relief for developing countries so they can deal more effectively with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Sunday.
Pakistan has recorded 5,183 cases of the virus, with 88 deaths. The country's already-struggling economy has been hit hard by nationwide preventive lockdowns that have brought economic activity to a halt and caused widespread unemployment.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a video message released by the foreign office, said he was worried people in the developing world would die of hunger as a result of lockdowns.
"Pakistan with a population of 220 million, so far the best stimulus package we can afford is $8 billion," Khan said in the video, adding that highly indebted countries lack fiscal space to spend on health and social support.
Pakistan, which is over $100 billion in debt to foreign lenders and spends the largest chunk of its budget on debt servicing, last week began a $900 million cash disbursement programme to 12 million poor families rendered unemployed due to lockdowns.
Khan said he appealed to world leaders, the heads of financial institutions and the secretary-general of the United Nations to get together to announce a debt relief initiative for developing countries.
Pakistan will receive $1.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of organisation's Rapid Financing Instrument to help finance the country's response to the virus.
It is also currently in the first year of a three-year $6 billion IMF programme to help its ailing economy.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/13/2020 10:25 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Looks like some cabinet minister needs a new landscaped estate in Deosai Park. And the Generals need to pay their local bar tabs.
[JPost] - Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem announced on Sunday that they have developed a new method of testing for COVID-19 which is not only 4-10 times faster than the tests most commonly used today, but also significantly cheaper, while supplying the same level of accuracy.
Moreover, most of the materials required to perform the new test are already available in Israel, easing significantly both the country's dire shortage of testing materials and its heavy economic dependence on foreign commercial markets.
...The method commonly used today for COVID-19 testing involves extracting RNA molecules from a patient's sample to determine if they have viral RNA within them, which confirms the presence of the coronavirus.
The new test developed by the researchers performs the same action, but is made from more commonly attainable materials, that produce results at a much higher speed.
Haviv said that, "We have an efficient RNA extraction method, 4-10 times faster than the current method. It is based on magnetic beads and can be performed both robotically and manually."
Other than the magnetic beads, all of the other materials needed to perform the tests are available for purchase in Israel. The beads themselves are recyclable and can be reused to perform future tests.
[NYPOST] Pope Francis ...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess... called for unity from around the world to confront the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... pandemic as he celebrated Easter Mass in solitude Sunday inside an empty St. Peter’s Square.
The 83-year-old pontiff made his traditional Easter address, urging the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... to step up to the "epochal challenge" caused by the pandemic.
"This is not a time for self-centeredness, because the challenge we are facing is shared by all, without distinguishing between persons," he said.
#2
I think he should fire his PR/outreach advisors. Good managers can make even the ridiculous look passable. He just appears more and more pathetic. Even the marxists have better shtick to sell.
h/t Instapundit
[PJ] - Perhaps the best thing that could come out of this entire debacle and turning America into a police state — where people are arrested for going somewhere in their cars and never leaving their cars — should be a total disdain for and disbelief in computer models. Computer modeling, IMO, is a bane of real mathematical modeling.
#4
The first of many problems with computer modeling is that there are so few good looking computers.
The second is that way too many people don't realize how "dumb" computer models are. Most spread sheets are models even if just your personal finance spread sheet. "gee what happens to my retirement if I'm making 200,000 a year instead of 20,000?......
[Military.com] The Army asked its "soldiers for life" who are trained in medical fields to come back to do battle against the novel coronavirus pandemic. And to date, more than 25,000 have answered the call, officials said.
The service first sent out an appeal in late March to retired officers and enlisted soldiers from a targeted set of specialties, asking for volunteers to re-don the uniform and reinforce Army communities thinned by emergency field hospital and personnel deployments to regions hit hardest by the virus. It would ultimately expand the call for volunteers to recently separated soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve and to "gray-area" soldiers -- Guardsmen and reservists who have completed 20 years but haven't yet met requirements for retirement.
The field totaled "approximately 800,000," officials said, meaning that more than 3% of all former soldiers contacted by the Army responded to say they could help.
Now, the service is working to process the horde of volunteers, ensuring those it takes are properly qualified and certified, and -- importantly -- not currently working in medical care in a civilian capacity.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Gilead Sciences is an American biotechnology company holding the patent for drug Remdesivir for treating various Coronavirus in over 70 countries. The company has secured orphan drug status for Remdesivir, allowing it to exclusively obtain marketing revenues for up to 7 years. However, behind the benign image of a vaccine manufacturer, Gilead Science has a dark history of allegations of bioterrorism, including having Pentagon to bomb a competitors factory under the false pretext of association with Al-Qaeda.
[Bearing Arms] A Tacoma man who was shot as he put his Sig Sauer pistol in a holster has sued the company for millions, alleging the firearms have a history of going off without the trigger being pulled.
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
[WND] Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's order closing public school buildings also bans homeschooling, which is unconstitutional, contends a legal non-profit in the state.
[PUNCHNG] The Rivers State Police Command on Saturday raided suspected kidnappers’ den in Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area of the state, killing one fleeing suspect in the process.
[reuters] ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has appealed to international stakeholders for urgent debt relief for developing countries so they can deal more effectively with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Sunday.
...Argentine liberation theologist, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He was elected pope in 2013. Rather than setting up shop in Avignon, where he belongs, the first Jesuit Pope chose to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse instead of the papal apartments. He is big on climate change, against consumerism, and in favor of throwing a blanket over homosexual activity within the clergy. He's not real sure about the Resurrection, about Christ's divinity, and a few other things that would have gotten him burned at the stake a few hundred years ago, but he's hot for a certain South American Earth Mother Goddess...
