[SUMMIT] Sweden, a country which never imposed significant lockdown measures, has officially declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is "over" and announced that it will be lifting all remaining restrictions.
"As we know this pandemic, I would say it’s over," Minister of Health Lena Hallengren told Dagens Nyheter. "It’s not over, but as we know it in terms of quick changes and restrictions it is."
According to Reuters, these comments were as close as possible to the country "effectively declaring the pandemic over."
From today, bars and restaurants are allowed to stay open beyond 11pm again and there are no limits on guest numbers.
Attendance limits for indoor venues and vaccine passports, which were temporarily introduced in response to the Omicron variant, have both been scrapped.
Most testing rules for COVID-19 have also been abolished.
Sweden being the first country to declare the pandemic a done deal will be sure to infuriate lockdown fanatics and mask zealots.
Despite being on the receiving end of an intense backlash, the country’s approach of refusing to impose harsh lockdown restrictions has been completely vindicated.
Unlike other Europeans countries such as France and Spain which imposed draconian lockdown rules, Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate is comparatively better and the country is exiting the pandemic while other nations are refusing to lift restrictions for at least months more.
The Scandinavian country did not enforce strict mask mandates, with senior epidemiologist Anders Tengell asserting that face coverings were in fact "dangerous" because they provided a false sense of security while failing to stop the spread of the virus.
As we highlighted in October 2020, Sweden again refused to follow other European countries by re-imposing lockdown rules, arguing that those beset by loneliness and misery of being isolated had suffered enough.
#3
Despite being on the receiving end of an intense backlash, the country’s approach of refusing to impose harsh lockdown restrictions has been completely vindicated.
Unlike other Europeans countries such as France and Spain which imposed draconian lockdown rules, Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate is comparatively better and the country is exiting the pandemic while other nations are refusing to lift restrictions for at least months more.
#4
Next crisis, let's lock down all the politicians and "experts." I recommend ball-gags instead of masks.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2022 8:31 Comments ||
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#5
The monthly email from the local hospital system had the traditional heart attack/diabetes/etc health stuff at the top. Covid things were down at the bottom which suggests things are winding down.
Reported cases are up, likely due to passing out tests like lollipops, but few deaths, mostly with the usual co-morbidities.
Well, I looked up Sextuple in the online Merriam Webster, and:
Examples of sextuple in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web: Verb
Covid-19 deaths will likely sextuple, from 3,000 to more than 18,000.
— Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 10 Aug. 2021
The Scandinavian country did not enforce strict mask mandates, with senior epidemiologist Anders Tengell asserting that face coverings were in fact "dangerous" because they provided a false sense of security while failing to stop the spread of the virus.
This has been touched on here at Rantburg; that if there were to be a serious air contamination, chemical, biological, whatever, everyone who believed in magic masks will be the first to check out.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Alexander Polegenko
[Regnum] A large crack formed on the facade of the Count's building of the Khan's Palace in Bakhchisarai, this became known on February 8. Since February 9, the palace has been closed to tourists for an indefinite period. How the building of the Count's building looks today and what work is being done - in the photo report of Alexander Polegenko from the scene.
A huge crack appeared on the wall of the building of the Count's building of the Khan's Palace during earthworks. According to the Republican Ministry of Culture, excavation of a trench for a storm sewer system was carried out at the Embankment with Three Bridges facility of the Khan's Palace complex of buildings as part of the restoration in accordance with the project documentation. In the process, objects with signs of archaeological heritage were discovered, and earthworks were suspended.
Later, due to heavy rainfall, the building of the Count's Corps sank, a crack began to appear. And the day before, on February 8, employees of the department of state protection of cultural heritage of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan established that part of the object "Count (secular) building" has no foundation.
Now restoration work in the area of the Count's building has been suspended, and the restoration of the building itself is scheduled for April. In the meantime, the facade of the building has been reinforced with supporting buttresses, scaffolding is being installed to further dismantle the roofing from tiles and bulk soil in order to reduce the load on the supporting structures of the building.
It should be noted that in total the structure of the object of cultural heritage of federal significance "The complex of structures" Khan's Palace "includes 16 objects. At the moment, work has been completed in full at four sites, namely, the Northern Dyurbe tomb, the Southern Dyurbe tomb, the Dilyary-Bikech Dyurbe tomb and the Tomb Rotunda. Restoration work continues at five more sites. Starting from April 2022, it is planned to start work on the objects "Count (secular) building" and "Khan's kitchen".
[Washington Examiner] Supply chain problems and high labor costs are driving another hike in grocery prices.
A Goldman Sachs report showed that consumers should expect "substantial increases in food prices" in the likes of a 6% climb this year — similar to what people experienced last year.
A Bureau of Labor Statistics report indicated that prices across a range of goods and services rose 7% between December 2020 and December 2021. It's the largest annual inflation growth in more than 40 years.
Food prices overall saw the largest increase since 2008, with a 6.5% jump in December. Meat prices went up 15%, while egg prices increased by 11%.
#1
A Goldman Sachs report showed that consumers should expect "substantial increases in food prices" in the likes of a 6% climb this year — similar to what people experienced last year.
Wow, I want to shop where these people do. Must be one of those special shops for the elite like in the FSU.
#4
Cars, food, energy, Medical coverage and costs, Gasoline, you name it. ALL are rising in cost IF you can find them. So realistically the US consumer is seeing 21% to 100++% price increases, depending on the item needed.
However, for some lame reason, DC Congress only saw fit to allow a
Social Security 2022 COLA of only 5.9%.
So DC think about this, we see you spending $### Billions bailing out industries or protecting other nations. But you have failed to protect your own senior citizens/Voters.
Also was the Inflation the other shoe in the Pandemic to drop?
Because both Covid-19/22 and Inflation are literally killing Seniors.
It is like both were designed/engineered to eliminate the Elderly, those in unprotected demographic groups with lower incomes and those with existing medical issues.
#6
Food prices overall saw the largest increase since 2008, with a 6.5% jump in December. Meat prices went up 15%, while egg prices increased by 11%.
Bull, but just out of curiosity within the study, what items are keeping that average down? Because it sure as Brussel Sprout farts isn't my day to day items.
"Well, younger self, what do you think I did this morning?"
"You traveled to work in an automated heli-car!"
"Wrong. I squealed with glee when I say single serving Ice Tea was available."
Congress does not control the COLA adjustment to Soc Security. It is based on BLS data per statute.
Also the reason it was 5.9% was that it is based on a Oct1 to Sept 30 calculation, i.e., the fiscal year. The high Oct, Nov and Dec 2021 increases will be factored into next year's COLA
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/10/2022 11:13 Comments ||
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#8
To keep the prices the same, they decrease the serving sizes. Today, I splurged and had TWO Ritz crackers
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/10/2022 11:45 Comments ||
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#9
Remember the other day I made a crack about portions sizing switching to metric so they could more precisely hide that?
Yeah....
Somebody noticed the other day, and I have not been able to confirm, a pasta company size which had been listed at "1 lb (450 grams)" was now listed IIRC as simply "400 grams".
#12
I had a positive brain fart early last fall (21).
I realized that I would need some new truck tires before the end of spring (22).
So I bought 4 in October, took delivery when they made it thru the blockade, and tucked them away in the barn.
On THE DAY of the big freeze I took them back to the dealer for mounting and disposal. I got an extra 4 months of wear out of the old ones. The new mudders worked beautiful in the ice and snow, and following mud.
The dealer told me if he could get them now they would be something like $100 more/each and the cost of mount and balance would also be $10 more/each, which he ate due to the pre-existing contract.
#14
Sir, congress has been failing us all for years.
Posted by: Chris ||
02/10/2022 14:45 Comments ||
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#15
I stll feel congress is Failing Seniors.
Given that Congress is taking an ever bigger chunk out of workers’ paychecks to cover Social Security and Medicare because there are ever fewer workers supporting each retired person, and given that the younger workers will have to work years longer than their elders before they’ll be able to collect anything at all, it seems fair that those already retired share some of the cost. The promises Congress made to future retirees in the past were impossible to keep, as was being discussed by the time I started paying attention in the first half of the 1980s.
I say this with the knowledge that because I’m short six months of the minimum years of paid employment to get back anything that I paid in, and because Mr. Wife was fairly ruthless about saving all the years of our marriage, it is highly likely that he and I will get nothing at all from Social Security when the time comes.
Despite Congress’s promises, designed to buy votes for the Democratic Party, Social Security is returning to its original purpose: a safety net for the elderly poor, not a state pension plan for the working class.
[BRICS] US President Joe Biden said after his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that he will "end" the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe if Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
"If Russia invades ... there will no longer [be] a Nord Stream 2," Biden said during a joint press conference with Scholz. "We will bring an end to it."
When pressed for more details on just exactly how the US can achieve this, Biden could only mutter: "I promise you, we'll be able to do it." "Listen, Fat"
The American president of course found it difficult to answer this question because his country is not involved in the Nord Stream 2 project and has very little influence over it - the only thing Washington can hope for is that sustained pressure on European allies will make them capitulate to their demands.
However, the reality is that Germany, Europe’s most important country alongside France, has its own economic interests that must be served and not compromised for the sake of the US. Berlin has defended its ability to complete the pipeline, despite the fact that the US opposes the project in any way possible. Washington has no interest in the fact that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is vital for the German economy and industry.
None-the-less, to try and appease Washington, Scholz stressed to journalists that Germany was "absolutely united" and that "we will do the same steps, and they will be very, very hard to Russia." "How hard?"
"Very hard"
This is on the assumption though that Russia will invade Ukraine, something that the Kremlin has continually stressed it has no ambition of doing despite the constant warnings and rhetoric emanating from Washington. Both Berlin and Paris understand that Russia does not want to invade Ukraine and desperately want the manufactured crisis to end.
Brandon Weichert, author of "Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower" and a former US congressional staffer, said to the Express newspaper this week: "Paris is hesitant about getting too bogged down in a Russo-American fight over Ukraine for the same reason that Germany is desperate to avoid escalation in the particular fight over Ukraine."
"Paris, like Berlin, fears the prospects of their own countries becoming frontline states yet again in either a renewed Cold War between Russia and the US or, more frighteningly, an actual war," he added.
Following talks on Friday in Moscow between Russian and French Presidents Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron, the Financial Times, citing French sources, reported that Russia had "moved" towards de-escalating the situation around Ukraine.
Specifically, the meeting was said to revolve around the withdrawal of Russian troops from Belarus after the end of their exercises in the country. According to sources, this will lead to further meetings and the signing of an agreement on "structured dialogue on collective security."
#1
"Washington has no interest in the fact that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is vital for the German economy and industry."
Convenient yes, vital no.
I think Germany would have appreciated some clear words from Biden that the closure of Nord Stream 2 would come along with a U.S. boycott of Russian oil.
It seems to be a little hypocritical to demand sacrifices from others (especially if you benefit from them).
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/10/2022 6:52 Comments ||
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#2
Don't see how the Biden admin could impose comprehensive sanctions on Russia w/o terminating trade both ways (except for basic food). If oil/gas exempted, the Republicans would rake them over the coals for hypocrisy and would become an election issue.
[Hot Air] Remember that non-alignment NBC News noted between the Biden administration and Democratic governors chafing at eternal masking? When the White House hurriedly added a COVID-19 press briefing from its task force to the schedule this morning, most people expected to see a shift in the "science" to reflect support for blue-state rollbacks.
Instead, CDC director Rochelle Walensky delivered ... a heapin’ helping of the status quo:
Then what was the purpose of adding a briefing today? Apparently, the White House knew it would get lots of questions about Biden’s gubernatorial allies breaking ranks on the pandemic restrictions, thanks to their own political "science," so to speak. Rather than bend to the reality that Americans — including some of Biden’s fellow Democrats —have begun revolting against these restrictions, the CDC and Walensky wants to double down on them instead. For now, anyway.
If that was going to be the message, though, why hold a last-minute press briefing? Walensky et al could have just released a statement to the same effect without raising expectations of some kind of change. This White House has proven remarkably incompetent at that kind of expectations management.
The data on the CDC’s tracking website might give a hint as to why they’re reluctant to move at the moment. Daily deaths with COVID-19 diagnoses attached have plateaued but not yet started declining, and deaths are a lagging indicator:
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met Friday to debate the risks of developing myocarditis after receiving Moderna's or Pfizer's vaccines.
Though rare, Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines have both been linked to a risk of myocarditis.
However, the risk was higher following the second dose of Moderna's vaccine in people ages 18 to 39, according to the CDC's safety surveillance program.
I missed this one. Remember the J&J had already been warned about.
And looky there, risks increase with number of shots.
[FOX News Carlson Podcast]Contrary to what was previously believed, or we were led to believe, the Vice President of the United States was not at Capital Hill on Jan 6th, she was actually visiting the DNC. That would be the same DNC at which a 'racist, insurrectionist' pipe bomb was found that same day. A pipe bomb constructed using primitive, kitchen clock 'one hour detonation' technology. The contents (explosive material) of the bomb have never been revealed by the FBI, nor has any associated DNA evidence. Similarly, only a few minutes of the video of the suspected bomb planter has been released by the most advanced bomb analysis center in the world.
With Harris destined at any moment to assume the Presidency, numerous Harris senior staff members have submitted their resignations. Strange, could there be something known to them, but not us? Is it likely that Harris will herself soon be handing in her resignation? A resignation based on her or her staff's activities in the vicinity of the DNC on or about 6 January ?
With Biden slipping rapidly, is this, or was this the plan to eliminate Harris as the heir apparent to the Oval Office ?
Hat tip to Carlson and his sleuths. This could be the largest stone he has yet flipped over.
#5
A resignation based on her or her staff's activities in the vicinity of the DNC on or about 6 January ?
We ain't that lucky.
Not to mention that no - repeat, NO - Democratic politician is going to make the call to push her out, and she knows it. The only way she's leaving the Executive Branch is at the end of a term.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/10/2022 10:16 Comments ||
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#7
The amount of time Tucker spent on the Cackle-Jackal's location last night, the explicit ways he made it clear that the SS detail was meant to find the device (functional but unarmed, as if on safe) just as the Capitol incursions began, and the detailed descriptions of the failed FBI analysis and forensics can only have one meaning. It was a part of a coordinated effort with government involvement. Someone has fed Tucker more and his focus for over 5 minute of broadcast time was meant to drive a lot of questions and push to investigate by the viewership. This seems a vital component on revealing the true origins of the Capitol incursion and I suspect the role of agent provocateurs by design of those in the deep state with this kind of revolutionary tradecraft?
#8
If it's out in the open now, it was sort of counter-productive over the long haul.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2022 13:27 Comments ||
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#9
I'ma going with #7. The Tucker knows more than he put out last night. He's got some excellent sources, and some very brave ones too. My guess (and only a guess), he's had some second party 'non-attributable' Secret Service help on this one. Again, just a guess.
#12
Just now, the link starts to play one Tucker video, then stops and plays one about "civilization collapsing in real time".
DuckDuckGO or Fox took it down?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/10/2022 17:25 Comments ||
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#13
Based on her great success, the Do-nothing border czar is going to become the Do-nothing J6 false flag operation czar. Smacks of more cover-up of Deepstate evil.
[PJMedia] The story couldn’t have been more heartwarming. Matiullah Matie, an Afghan refugee who is a husband and father of eight children, cried out "Salaam! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!" as he greeted a family of Hmong refugees. Matie had previously been resettled in Wausau, Wis., and had come to make the new arrivals feel at home. He also took the opportunity to talk at length to the media about his experience as a refugee, and became the exclusive focus of a WSAW report a week later. On Wednesday, however, the mediagenic Matie’s star turn came to a sudden and sickening halt: he was arrested for sexual assault.
Wausau residents did everything they could to make the Matie family feel welcome. WSAW noted that "people have been coming to their home constantly to help them with their immediate needs and to get them connected with community resources." The Maties reciprocated the kindness: "Each encounter greeted with Afghan hospitality, either some milk tea, food, or both." Matiullah Matie explained, "A person to coming here should eat and drink something with us." Marvelous!
The Matie family, said WSAW, once lived in the Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, which Afghans refer to as "Little America." Matie "worked alongside numerous U.S. agencies in Afghanistan including the Marines, Army, USAID, and Spirit of America," and "also spoke publicly against the Taliban
Continued on Page 49
#1
Are we, a la Rotherham, going to be required to look the other way to avoid rocking the multicultural boat?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/10/2022 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
Not to worry. Parents worrying about what strangers are doing to their kids are domestic terrorists. Eventually they will all be rounded up in camps.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/10/2022 7:00 Comments ||
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[PJMedia] A nineteen-year-old in Aurora, Colo. faces charges of first-degree arson, as well as second-degree assault and obstructing a peace officer or firefighter, after he set a fire in his house. The circumstances are an indication of the new era in America that years of Leftist policies have brought us.
The young man’s name is Muhammed Ibraheem Afia. On Sunday morning, he seized his sister’s dolls and set them on top of a lit stove. Then, according to KDVR, he "sprayed lighter fluid around the house and lit 16 candles in another room because ’God told him to.’"
Afia was more specific than the KDVR report about which God he had in mind (the KDVR report also gives his name as "Afie," but the police report has "Afia"). The report indicates that what caused the entire incident was Afia’s anger over his sister’s "idols." According to that report, "The idols were baby dolls in his sister’s room. He placed two of the baby dolls on a lit stove to burn them. He sprayed lighter fluid inside the residence, but did not directly light the lighter fluid on fire. He lit approximately 16 candles in an unoccupied, unsupervised room."
Continued on Page 49
#1
Substitute the 'rona for Allah, St Fauci for the Prophet (PBUH), and America for the true believer's house, and you get a fair approximation of what the Branch COVIDians have done to us these past two years
#2
Well, then the insurance can deny payment, because it was obviously an act of God, amiright?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/10/2022 9:30 Comments ||
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#3
Burning down the house is easy. He is lucky Alan didn't give him a hard task, like building an ark. Permits, contractors, zoning, Oy! And don't get me started on lumber costs.
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.
[Washington Examiner] Supply chain problems and high labor costs are driving another hike in grocery prices.
[FOX News Carlson Podcast]
