#1
Oh-ho. The research was performed by Drs Jayanta Bhattacharya (left), John Ioannidis (center) and Eran Bendavid (right), who are now under investigation by the university for making the virus appear more widespread but less deadly than believed.
Not 50-80 times more, but only 54 times more. Didn't follow the narrative!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/26/2020 14:02
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#2
Obviously a politically motivated persecution. The clique decided to eliminate the one voice of Truth and Scientific Integrity in Corona-hoax.
#3
Except that, Ioannidis himself publicly stated that he welcomed critiques of the study and even invited people to suggest changes -- which he and Bhattacharya and Bendavid quickly adopted and put forth in a revised version.
As Ioannidis has repeatedly said - about not just this study but every biomedical researcher's studies: "this is exactly how science should work. … Preprints are not immutable final versions.”
Compare his and Bhattacharya and Bendavid's openness, honesty and humility with Neil Ferguson's behavior. Ask yourself who deserves more trust.
#4
This is no doubt revenge against Ioannidis for calling BS on fake causality that is rife in medical studies - most notoriously with hormone therapy prescribed to women as a heart disease preventive and arterial stents.
Each was a fraud that cost billions; it was Ioannidis and his crusade for transparency and opening research to critique who exposed these frauds. Obviously the man has many enemies - despite (or maybe also because of) his honesty and humility.
"John P.A. Ioannidis, chief of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, works with colleagues around the globe to scrutinize treatments that account for huge chunks of the health- care tab but that are, he says, virtually worthless and sometimes harmful.
"Ioannidis says financial influence is one of several factors that can, deliberately or unintentionally, skew study design and methodology and undermine the validity of published research findings. His extensive publications pointing out these problems are reverberating throughout the scientific community—and threaten entire medical specialties that have organized themselves around big-ticket, but low-value, interventions.
"'Fixing this involves a rethinking of the process that won't happen overnight and is not very cheap,' Ioannidis says. 'However, if we continue in the same path we will run out of money, as a country, even the whole world . . . there is a cloud of ineffective interventions, or minimally effective interventions that are extremely expensive and therefore not worth it. We need to sort out that mess.' "
Regarding the hormone therapy and heart stent debacles:
"Those two treatments 'cost billions of dollars and supported the existence of entire specialties for many years,' Ioannidis and his co-authors wrote in January in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Ioannidis says the data clearly show that patients were subjected to risk with no chance of benefit. ..."
There is no 'blame' here. As Ioannidis wrote in his response to critiques of his famous 2005 paper, biomedical research errors are to be expected. Ioannidis called then and now for openness, humility and honesty: "having many teams with transparent availability of all results and integration of data across teams leads to genuine progress. We need replication, not just discovery."
Above all, humility and respect for uncertainty:
"Scientific investigation is the noblest pursuit. I think we can improve the respect of the public for researchers by showing how difficult success is. Confidence in the research enterprise is probably undermined primarily when we claim that discoveries are more certain than they really are, and then the public, scientists, and patients suffer the painful refutations."
Your snark needs to be re-directed toward the likes of Neil Ferguson.
Just admit it, g: This was vastly overhyped, it created extraordinary damage to the world beyond your little garden, and now the tide is turning and leaders are recognizing - though they'll never ever admit - that they f'ed up royally.
It is becoming obvious with every week that the lockdown will cause more deaths than it sounds ared. So foolish.
For these reasons the lockdown is collapsing in the red states. Democrats have taken notice and are now scrambling to come up with a new narrative. Even Pomade Boy in California is starting to feel the heat.
#10
The freudian projection from you regarding the catastrophically wrong projections (and not for the first time either) of Fergusson are detected by those who quickly worked out lockdown was a mistake.
#11
While the entire Accela corridor is trying to figure out if / when you can get a manicure or a haircut, we here in Florida are having a manned space flight this week.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 15:50
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#12
And, none of you are helping that poor, sick "it's just starting" guy by baiting him. Just ignore him. He's happy with his delusion. The rest of you, get back to work. America needs your effort directed to constructive pursuits.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 15:55
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#13
The New York Timesgets it: even as sensibly-managed state Florida rebounds under Gov. DeSantis, the NYT concludes that locked-down California has been well and truly fooked:
"Across California there is a growing sense that the pandemic will reshape the state’s economy, with long-lasting pain. ...
"In Los Angeles...the jobless rate has reached 24 percent, roughly equal to the peak unemployment of the Great Depression, in 1933.
“Economic free fall,” is how Tom Steyer, the former presidential candidate, described it . He is heading the state’s economic recovery task force, a group of business leaders, labor activists, economists and former governors who have begun meeting to plot a way out. California faces a daunting budget deficit of $54 billion, which could force painful cuts to schools, social programs, health care and road building. ...
"As the debate on reopening is increasingly shaped by the country’s partisan divide, many conservative states are moving more quickly to restart their economies and many liberal states, like California, are taking more precautions. According to location data compiled by Google, Californians have more strictly abided by stay-at-home orders than people in other states..."
#14
Steyer no doubt has big plans to remake Cali's economy making Greta love dolls and Trump voodoo dolls.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 16:21
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#15
And where are the glowing stories about how dope kept Colorado afloat thru the lockdown scam?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 16:22
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#16
The people have decided the scientists had their chance. We listened early not to wear masks or be afraid to go to china town for New Years or Mardi Gras. Then we listened to various projections and mixed messages. Now folks are using their own experience to make decisions. They do not see Walmart or supermarket employees dropping like flies or home delivery people dying daily or front line workers giving up.... but they see way more people bothered with the lockdown and shutdown.
This article is just another distraction; the masses have stopped listening to the ‘scientists’ and politicians.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 18:53
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#22
Read Tim Dorsey. The Thirst Mutilator from Addiction World.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 19:00
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#23
Read Randy Wayne White too.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 19:01
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#24
Never met him. He used to be a reporter, IIRC, so being a jerk is highly possible.
His books make me laugh out loud (literally), even if they tend towards being formulaic.
#25
I used to be a reporter. Instawhoever called me a jerk. So I guess that's how it is. I'm cool with that.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 19:44
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#26
Read Thomas McGuane.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 19:46
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#27
"How are you doing today?"
"I'm dying."
"How do you feel about that?"
"Don't know. Never done it before."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 19:51
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#28
I used to be a reporter.
That’s an actual Rantburger category that includes at least two moderators, along with programmer/systems analyst, military, mechanic, lawyer, engineer, and professor. Also housewife. And Steve, Army of. ;-)
#2
#1 First off all, Israel is not a sit of holy - we have our share (maybe more than our share) of rug-merchants. But, you can have agricultural machinery, or you must have braceros.
#3
Wait, we've invented a missile that runs on food, as opposed to cheap, readily available hydrocarbons?
And while I admire genius, I can't help thinking that greenhouse gas emissions would be way down on my List of Worries if I were in a situation where deploying Tomahawks was the thing to do.
#11
What makes JP-10 attractive? Specifically, it has 11 percent higher density than conventional JP-8 (Jet A) fuel – clocking in at 142,000 BTUs per gallon compared to 125,000 for jet fuel (gasoline, by the way, has 115,000 BTUs).
What makes it unattractive? Well consider the problem that Raytheon faced, when it saw JP-10 prices soar from $13.09 per gallon to $25 per gallon between 2006 and 2010.
[New York Post] Hundreds of publicly traded companies appear to be keeping government-backed loans meant to help small businesses weather the coronavirus crisis.
Only 68 of the 424 public firms that disclosed receiving $1.3 billion in loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program had pledged to return them as of early Monday morning, according to regulatory filings compiled by data-analysis company FactSquared.
That suggests 356, or roughly 84 percent, of those companies are holding onto the money amid the Trump administration’s pledge to crack down on abuse of the $659 billion program. Officials gave firms until May 18 to repay loans without facing further scrutiny.
Some 76 of those companies had enough cash and cash equivalents on hand to cover operating expenses until at least June, a Reuters analysis found.
The firms keeping loans include upscale restaurant operator ONE Group Hospitality, which got $18.3 million from the pool of money meant to help small businesses cover payroll and overhead costs, FactSquared’s database showed. There’s also Hallador Energy, a coal firm that got $10 million, and high-end hotel company Sotherly Hotels, which got nearly $10.4 million, according to the data.
[CNBC] Stock futures traded sharply higher early Tuesday to begin a holiday-shortened week, as optimism grew about the reopening of the economy and a potential coronavirus vaccine.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed to an implied opening gain of about 516 points. Dow futures added 513 points or 2.1%. S&P 500 futures gained 1.9%. Nasdaq-100 futures also rose 1.9%. U.S. markets were closed Monday in observance of Memorial Day.
Here’s what the markets were watching:
American biotech company Novavax said Monday it started the first human study of its experimental coronavirus vaccine. The company said it expects initial results on safety and immune responses in July. Last week, another biotech Moderna reported positive development on its vaccine trial where all 45 participants had developed coronavirus antibodies. There are 10 vaccines in clinical evaluation and 114 in pre-clinical evaluation, according to a running tally by Fundstrat.
Economic activity continued to pick up as states begin opening up their economies. The biggest gainers in the premarket were directly tied to the reopening. Carnival shares jumped 11%. MGM Resorts climbed 9%. United Airlines and Southwest Airlines rose 7% each.
The S&P 500 was set to meet or exceed its 200-day moving average after the open Monday. The benchmark needs to gain 1.8% to reach the milestone. Many technical analysts look at that moving average as a sign of the long-term trend. Rising above it could signal a change in long-term trend from bearish to bullish.
"Next month we will know Bank stress test results; whether oil prices are a bounce or something more sustained; and if we have moved out of COVID season or into a second wave," Christopher Harvey, Wells Fargo’s head of equity strategy, said in a note. "If things break positively, we would expect to see a healthy rotation toward cyclicals, smaller caps, and value stocks."
The moves in stock futures followed a solid week for Wall Street that saw the 30-stock Dow rise 3.3%, posting its best weekly performance since April. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also climbed more than 3% last week.
The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. topped more than 1.6 million as deaths rose to more than 97,000, a tally from Johns Hopkins University showed as of Monday.
Meanwhile, investors kept an eye on the U.S.-China tensions, which showed signs of escalation over the weekend. White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said Sunday the U.S. will likely impose sanctions on China if Beijing implements national security law that would give it greater control over autonomous Hong Kong.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:55
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#2
'pump-n-dump' is how they make their money.
There won't be a vaccine (soon), and business won't be able to reopen because they can't recall their help fast enough.
#3
The stupidly large injection of unnecessary money to the usual suspects will keep the stock market over pumped. It will all be about getting out at the right time. As always.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 10:14
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#4
It's a stock-picker's market. Aside from buying Skid's favorite hooch-maker, there are plenty of good picks out there. Southwest is a top pick.
If a company is priced as if it's going bankrupt but in fact has plenty of cash in the bank and zero risk of going bankrupt, then its stock is a Buy.
For example, Buffett may be right about the airlines with weak balance sheets, mediocre management and lots of international exposure, but none of that applies to Southwest. That well-managed and lean airline doesn't need to completely fill its planes with passengers in order to keep going. Last I checked they have s.t. like $12 billion in cash reserves (including a recent infusion of $3B from Uncle Mnuchin) -- so even at 50-60% passenger capacity they could keep on burning $20m per day and stay afloat for years. In the meantime they can offset the lost passenger revenue with new cargo revenues.
"You could easily have 1 to 2 million jobs created a month in the four [jobs and unemployment] reports before November,” he said.
“And then toward the end of October, we will get GDP growth for the third quarter, at an annualized rate, and it could be double-digit positive economic growth. So these will be the best jobs and growth numbers ever.”
#7
I would expect the never-Trump brigade of Socialist and Rino econofreaks to try and talk up expectations so Trump's recovery can't possibly make them. Then they blame him for the failure to meet "their" ridiculous predictions.
[AspenBeat] So here we are, the smart but cursed primate that is weirdly programmed to enjoy stimulation but to abhor the work that it requires.
That’s where fear comes in. Of all our emotions, the most powerful — and the most stimulating — is fear.
Moreover, fear is not just highly stimulating but is also easy to get. We can simply watch a scary movie or take a roller coaster ride. Or get hysterical about COVID killing us.
#1
Wanted to send a pic of various far and or scary health officials, but the system ain't having it today.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:20
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#2
Fat and or scary. Even spelchek is against me today.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:21
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#3
Sent a picture titled HealthExperts.jpg to Pix. Is it there? not that I can see.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:24
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#4
I think a lot of the over-reach we are seeing is from folks that ignored the thing early and are now over-compensating or simply in love with the power.
#7
Sent a picture titled HealthExperts.jpg to Pix. Is it there?
I don’t see it, M. But I think image submissions go into a separate hopper for Fred to approve personally. In the meantime, check out Health Care: Grandma under Pix. I had no idea that was there.
(Reuters) - Tim Harris was preparing to relocate for an assignment with energy services firm Halliburton Co (HAL.N) for the fifth time in 15 years when his career came to a halt.
A third-generation employee, Harris rose through the ranks at the top shale-oil services provider to oversee oilfield crews. He sailed through several busts, with the exception of a 9-month break in 2016.
But April’s historic price crash, which has left U.S. crude prices down 50% since January, put him and tens of thousands of oil service veterans out of work. The cuts have gone deep into the ranks of managers, taking seniority and skills gained through past downturns.
Such cuts, which are expected to accelerate this year, spell trouble for firms when it comes to restaffing and tapping know-how from prior busts, said some industry executives interviewed by Reuters.
Halliburton this month cut 22% of its headquarters staff while Schlumberger recently reshuffled its executive team and warned of "significant" expenses for job cuts this quarter. Oil major BP plans to cut half its senior managers in coming months.
Since March, some 66,300 oilfield jobs, or 8.5% of the sector’s workforce disappeared, according to an analysis by trade group Petroleum Equipment and Services Association. For all of 2016, when crude oil prices slumped amid a supply glut, employment in the sector fell 17.4%.
"Losing talented people is a concern," said Kevin Broom, a PESA director who did the analysis. "We’re going to need that knowledge and expertise when demand returns."
Harris has cut his oil ties, moving to Amazon.com, where he accepted an entry-level manager’s job in light of the 14.7% April U.S. unemployment rate.
The oil industry could struggle to re-hire experienced managers if other sectors rebound first, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council.
Career website LinkedIn.com has dozens of goodbye posts from workers with 15- to 30-year careers in the oilfield, many with top firms Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes Inc. More than two dozen tributes appeared recently from mid- to senior-level Schlumberger executives.
#3
Certainly a church is not the building, but that doesn't mean churches need to be singled out for special regulatory attention. We've seen a number of governors take action like ticketing people listening to a church service over the radio. Governors have issued orders that treat building capacity differently depending on whether it is a store, restaurant or a church. That sure looks like hostility to religion to me.
The ChiCom virus isn't evenly distributed. Your exposure is different in a crowded city vs rural America. Everything is a situation. One size fits all isn't going to work.
No one remembers, but once upon a time, a President and a Governor had a disagreement over civil rights that lead to a troop deployment and some dramatic news footage. I believe the President (and America!) came out on top in that one.
#7
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 16:50
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[Babylon Bee] LANSING, MI—Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered all citizens to barbecue indoors this Memorial Day.
The executive order restricts all Memorial Day barbecue celebrations to inside only.
"You're more than welcome to celebrate your freedoms with a barbecue as long as you don't go outside," she said, wagging her finger like a school teacher. "Naughty boys and girls hold barbecues outdoors where the big, scary coronavirus can get them. Good boys and girls barbecue inside where it is safe."
Anyone who disobeys the order will be put on time-out and sent to bed without any dessert. Those who continually disobey will be grounded and have their Nintendo privileges taken away.
At publishing time, sources had confirmed this restriction would likely be extended through Labor Day 2025.
[NYP] China’s "bat woman" researcher warns that the deadly coronavirus surfacing now is "just the tip of the iceberg" in terms of what humans may soon face without a global effort to prevent similar infectious outbreaks.
"If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious-disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings," Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese scientist specializing in viral transmissions from bats, told CGTN in an interview that aired Monday.
"If we don’t study [the viruses], there will possibly be another outbreak," warned Shi, whose was dubbed "bat woman" by the press because of her research involving the mammals. "I mean, we go entire weeks without observing proper safety protocols. Anything could happen!" *chortles*
#2
"If we want to prevent human beings from suffering from the next infectious-disease outbreak, we must go in advance to learn of these unknown viruses carried by wild animals in nature and give early warnings,"
Or we can say and do nothing for weeks, months. Vast quantities of PPE can be clandestinely purchased in advance of a full outbreak. Outside inspectors and researchers can be prohibited from visiting Wuhan and learning more. A vast disinformation campaign can be quickly assembled to blame animals, Gaia, and westerners.
She did stop short of recommending universal mail-in ballots for the upcoming election.
#12
If the Chinese really mean to do germ warfare, we will have to smoke their entire country. And The phone call to the Russian Premier will be interesting.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 18:33
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#13
"We are putting 21,000 megatons in. We will consider it a sign of good faith if you put in 18,000 megatons."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 18:35
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[Washington Insider] The United States cannot rely on China in a crisis. That is one of the clear lessons learned from the global pandemic.
The Chinese Communist Party lied about the virus, and people lost their lives and their livelihoods. China knew the risk, and the regime covered it up.
By the time the coronavirus hit America, China had hoarded the protective equipment we sorely needed. The Chinese government wouldn’t even allow U.S. scientists access to the country to help the world respond.
This is the frightening reality we face.
It is imperative for Congress to take all necessary steps to make sure our country is no longer dependent on China, especially not for critical medical supplies.
As a senator and as a doctor, I am committed to seeing that our nurses and doctors have our full support to care for patients on the front lines. This is not just a matter of public health; it is also a matter of national security. Our fighters in medical scrubs are every bit as important as our brave men and women in military uniform.
Clearly, the medical supply chain was ill-equipped to handle this epidemic. Surgical masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer quickly became scarce commodities. This situation cannot be allowed to repeat itself.
#5
America has already started to disengage. Remember Trump strong-arming Canada and Mexico over issues? A big part of that was to stop Chinese goods from being re-labeled and exported to the United States, a market the Chinese otherwise not have access to under NAFTA.
People who went completely bananas in a two month government paid vacation will give up cheap stuff?
Perhaps you misunderestimate the ability of Americans to hold a grudge. It's that Jacksonian thing.
Yeah, we like cheap stuff. But lately, the entire world has gotten a better idea of the actual cost of Made in China. A whole lot of people are going to be reading product labels more closely.
#6
Yeah. Everybody else has us all figured out. Then we make an atomic bomb. Then we use it. Twice.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 8:49
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#7
Imagine how worked up The Good People™ would be if it came out an American lab had a virus that would sterilize all Chinese. Just imagine.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 9:09
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#8
Many of us have known for many years that it is not in our best interest to be entangled with China. Sen. John Barrasso, like many in our elite political class, is a little late to the party. But I suppose we should welcome them if they really do finally get it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/26/2020 12:50
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#9
Just researched online trying to find an American-made, electric chainsaw. When you get into details on the manufacturers websites, every one admits that they say made in USA in brochures but in the fine print is means assembled in American, from parts all over the world, and every stinking one of them list China as one of the parts manufacturers among others. Impossible to get an idea of what parts come from where but I suspect the vast majority are from the Chinese. Their strategy of undercut existing competitors in other countries, drive them out of business, and then carefully cut quality and reliability to ramp up the profit margin to cover upfront losses. Long view has eaten our manufacturing lunch when MBA jerks look for a fat quarter to pad their bonuses and never seem to notice market share erosion over years.
#10
Give up on the electric part and buy a Stihl or Husqvarna.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 16:06
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#11
Sadly, so much manufacturing left the US that it will be a tough chore to find decent equipment that was "Made in the U.S.A.". Perhaps the next best alternative is to support our northern neighbors and try to find something Canadian. Hell, even Mexican...keep the dough in our continent, if possible. But, easier said than done most likely.
[Breitbart] Universities are beginning to cut sports programs as budgets continue to be devastated by the coronavirus. However, one professor thinks that those schools are using the pandemic as an excuse to cut sports programs they wanted to get rid of anyway.
B. David Ridpath, associate professor of sports business at Ohio University and interim president of the Drake Group, a national nonprofit advocacy organization, blasted the schools looking to cut sports to make up for budget holes.
"There’s a lot of fat that can be cut before sports being dropped," Ridpath said. "I think dropping sports is basically a knee-jerk reaction, and many of the schools are using the pandemic as an excuse for something they already wanted to do. There may come a time where dropping a sport is a viable solution, but it should be the last one and based on many different things.
"Dropping a sport and saying you are doing it for gender equity, I think, is an excuse," the professor exclaimed.
Looking a the programs that have been cut, it does appear that men’s programs have been hardest hit.
"All but three of the 15 programs that have reportedly been eliminated at Division I colleges," the paper notes, "including Cincinnati, Old Dominion, Akron, Central Michigan, East Carolina, and Florida International are men’s sports, which are often the first to be trimmed as schools, especially those with football programs, strive to comply with Title IX, the federal law requiring gender equity for participation and scholarship opportunities."
There are reportedly 499,217 student-athletes in the U.S. system of higher education, the more programs that are cut, the more of these students who will not be paying tuition, the paper reminds readers.
"Dropping these sports, you’re likely losing bodies, and that counts against your overall enrollment," Ridpath noted. "Enrollment is going down nationwide, and (colleges cutting sports) are not really looking at the whole picture here."
The cuts seen already including four sports cut at Akron, the elimination of baseball at Bowling Green, an end to the men’s indoor and outdoor track and field programs in Central Michigan, and the suspension of men’s and women’s tennis at Green Bay, the paper said.
#7
When I was at CWRU I accidentally saw a down of one college football game while looking out a high rise window near the stadium.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 6:08
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#8
Back to A&Ms, practical studies that the state needs for commerce and health, a return on investment. Let private institutions cover the rest without public subsidizes.
#9
Dunno, seems to me some colleges are sports teams with a library attached for show. Read that a winning football team was a real money-maker.... you didn't think all those wymyn's studies programs paid for themselves did you?
#11
Just go ahead and start formal minor leagues for football and basketball and stop treating illiterates to free degrees.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/26/2020 8:24
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#12
Good. Cut away. To paraphrase a recent article, this crisis is just accelerating things that were already in motion. And NCAA football...what a racket.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 9:13
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#14
It will be fun to watch college sports boosters and forever quarantine nuts wandering around in circles muttering to themselves.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 9:24
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#15
The biggest and best football programs are profit centers. Their universities use them to fund the expensive campus recreational and athletic facilities used by tens of thousands of ordinary students who don't play competitive sports.
What will likely happen is that football + women's sports will survive and maybe even thrive. But those men's sports that are not revenue-generating will be whacked. Say goodbye to some/all of: men's rowing, water polo, lacrosse, wrestling, gymnastics, fencing etc.
[RADIOSHABELLE] First-term U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar ...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She was apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side... won the DFL endorsement Sunday to run in the Aug. 11 primary election for a Minneapolis-based congressional seat that has been in Democrats’ hands since 1963.
The party endorsement sets up a primary race with Antone Melton-Meaux, an attorney-mediator and political newcomer whose campaign has been based on a series of critiques of Omar’s stormy first 16-months in Congress.
The DFL balloting was conducted online over a nine-day period after the pandemic made in-person congressional conventions impossible.
Omar, 37, was first elected to Congress in 2018 after a rapid rise through the state Legislature. She was the first Somali-American elected to both a state Legislature and to Congress. She has cut a high-profile path in Washington, championing a litany of progressive causes and publicly sparring on Twitter with President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... , which has made her a frequent target of the right.
Omar also faced criticism last year from Jewish leaders and some fellow Democrats for several past tweets and remarks about the political influence of Israel. She faced another significant uproar for voting "present" on last year’s House resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. She said the measure should have more broadly condemned human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... abuses worldwide, including in the U.S.
Her campaign operation also has been the subject of scrutiny after it was revealed that she had a romantic relationship with a D.C.-based political consultant, to whom she is now married.
Both Omar and Melton-Meaux are running as progressive Democrats and champions of immigrant rights. But Melton-Meaux, 47, has vowed to focus more on the needs of the Fifth Congressional District, which includes St. Louis Park, Richfield, Crystal, Robbinsdale, Golden Valley, New Hope, Fridley a part of Edina.
Congressional incumbents rarely lose party backing for endorsement, and Melton-Meaux earlier committed to running in the DFL primary in August in the event he fails to get the endorsement. He has racked up a handful of high-profile endorsements from Minneapolis-area DFLers, and has had some success in fundraising.
The Republican-endorsed candidate is Lacy Johnson, a north Minneapolis businessman who has encouraged black voters to abandon the Democratic Party. But the strongly DFL district has not elected a Republican to Congress in decades.
DFLers in northeastern Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District also voted to endorse health care advocate Quinn Nystrom to challenge Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber in November.
#2
Yes. How much spittle can forever quarantine fanatics produce over this?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 6:59
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#3
Neither Gov. Cooper nor the Alamance County Sheriff's Department has returned a DailyMail.com request for comment.
*hits goggle translates*
"Piss off."
Love the headlining; yeah they hit the track about 1:00 and by 4:00, boom, huge increase in cases.
/puts chips on If Its That Bad, Why Shady Reporting? venn circle.
A drone for Libyan Air Force under GNA destroyed Monday two fuel tankers for militia groups south of Sirte, army spokesperson Mohammed Ganunu declares pic.twitter.com/jaN2Vsg62s
#2
Hubby (I was surprised to find out she has one) ran the "Do you know who I'm married to?" game to try to get his pleasure boat moved while it's illegal for everyone else to take their boats out. What a winner.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:41
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#5
Whittier (sic) has said some of the protesters had “nooses and swastikas,” along with guns, as they screamed, “Lock her up!”
I have seen ZERO pix of "nooses and swastikas" at that protest, which is curious since one would expect that to be front page news. This the first time I've heard any mention of "Lock her up!", but if it gets repeated enough, it will all become true. That's how facts work nowadays.
To be fair, for Memorial Day, Whitmer has walked back some of her sillier orders, like the no power boating edict. This left boat and dock service companies with a huge backlog of work they normally would have started weeks ago.
#6
Probably from the same people who spat and shouted the N-word when Nancy and the democrats walked across the street years ago.
You know, the magical ones who cannot be video taped or recorded - kind of like a Vampire cannot be seen in a mirror.
Did't Bretbart put up a 100K bounty for a legitimate video recording of the spitting-N-word event? No takers.
#7
Did you see Whitmer's sign language interpreter? That is an entire state's worth of virtue signalling wrapped in one nutty package. Tax payer funded, of course.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) carried out a new dronezap over the Idlib countryside that targeted the commander of a Ottoman Turkish-backed krazed killer faction.
According to a field report from the Idlib Governorate, the Syrian Arab Army drone targeted the positions of the so-called "Syrian National Army’s" 1st Brigade, as they attempted to move across the front-line town of al-Bara’a.
The report said the dronezap hit the vehicle of the 1st Brigade’s commander, "Abu Ahmad", as he was making his way across the front-line town.
The Syrian Arab Army has recently increased their strikes on the Idlib front-lines, as they continue to target the krazed killer movements along this imperative axis in northwestern Syria.
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05/26/2020
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[RADIOSHABELLE] At least five people were killed and 15 others injured on Sunday in a roadside blast in Baidoa town in southwest Somalia.
A police officer, who declined to be named, said that a land mine went kaboom! near an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Baidoa during Eid al-Fitr celebrations.
"The blast occurred near an IDP camp where many people were holding traditional Eid celebrations. We can confirm five people died and 15 others were maimed," the officer said, adding that the casualties could rise as there were many people at the scene.
A front man of the Somali government, confirmed the incident, saying the earth-shattering kaboom occurred where people were holding Eid al-Fitr celebrations.
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05/26/2020
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[Jpost] Islamic Center of Hamburg is Iran's supreme leader's long arm in Germany
The Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) in the city-state of Hamburg said last week that it plans to introduce an initiative to outlaw the Iranian regime-controlled Islamic Center because of its link to the terrorist organization Hezbollah.
The front man for the CDU in the Hamburg parliament, Dennis Gladiator, told Die Welt that "all official contact to the Islamic Center of Hamburg should immediately end, an association ban should be examined and introduced as well as the cancellation of the state contract with the Schura [the association of Islamic communities] as long as the Islamic Center of Hamburg is part of the association."
Continued on Page 49
[The News (Pak)] KARACHI: Three warnings issued by the air traffic control to lower the altitude were ignored by the pilot of the ill-fated PIA plane that had crashed on Friday.
The PK-8303 tragedy has become the third most-catastrophic aviation disaster in Pakistain's history.
The plane crashed into a narrow residential street in Bloody Karachi thereby lowering the altitude to zero, happy? Continued on Page 49
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#1
"A dream of competence, too closely confronted"___ Somebody or another
[Jpost] Five Paleostinians were detained by IDF forces after confrontations erupted on Monday night at the security check point north of Qalqilya, Walla News reported, citing Paleostinian sources.
The report further states that flash and smoke grenades were thrown during the altercation.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Libyan National Army (LNA) announced the arrest of a Syrian national, Mohammad al-Ruwaidani, who was said to be “one of the most dangerous ISIS operatives from Syria.”
According to the LNA’s spokesperson, Ahmad Al-Mismari, the Libyan Army captured Al-Ruwaidani while they were clashing with the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) forces at the Tripoli front.
Al-Mismari said that Al-Ruwaidani was fighting in Libya “under the auspices of the Turkish intelligence as Emir of the Legion of the Levant,” noting that he was fighting in the ranks of the Government of National Accord, which they said is “led by Turkish officers.”
A video showing the ISIS operative was released by the Libyan National Army’s media channel; it shows the moment that their forces apprehended him.
It is not clear when Al-Ruwaidani went to Libya, but given the recent arrival of a large number of Turkish-backed militants, it is likely that he joined a Free Syrian Army (FSA) faction before going to the North African nation.
[AnNahar] Israeli warplanes conducted mock raids on Monday flying at medium altitude over the southern region of Marjayoun,
...home of the South Lebanon Army during the Israeli occupation (1982-2000), the town is Christian while the surrounding district is Shiite Muslim, which makes it Hezbollah country...
the National News Agency reported.
Israel has intensified its breach of Leb ...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... ’s illusory sovereignty recently, conducting reconnaissance flights over several regions mainly the South.
Also in April, Lebanon filed a complaint with the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... against Israel after its warplanes used Lebanese airspace to fire missiles at targets in Syria.
Odd that a drug approved in America in 1955, and subsequently approved for the treatment of rheumatic disease during pregnancy, among other purposes, would suddenly develop safety concerns.
[Jpost] The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
Hydroxycholoroquine has been touted by Donald Trump ...the Nailer of NAFTA... and others as a possible treatment for the disease caused by the novel 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... . The US President has said he was taking the drug to help prevent infection.
"The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board," Tedros told an online briefing.
He said the other arms of the trial - a major international initiative to hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus - were continuing.
The WHO has previously recommended against using hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent coronavirus infections, except as part of clinical trials.
Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies program, said the decision to suspend trials of hydroxychloroquine had been taken out of "an abundance of caution."
#5
Early in this Jacobean revenge play, the word was that HOCQ was used in conjunction with an antibiotic
, Azo-something-something, but that the antibiotic had some serious side effects...like heart failure. So there were treatments using a different unpronounceable antibiotic. I wonder if WHO-dat is using the nasty stuff in their experiment in order to get the "correct" result.
#6
Part of their payback to Trump for 'disrespecting' them.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/26/2020 8:03
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#7
BP, China and WHO are inseparable.
This is all just a kabuki dance by the Globalist anti-Trumpers.
Mercutio; you were thinking of Zithromax (azithromycin), also known as Z-Pak, is an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and infections of the ears, lungs and other organs.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The South Korean intelligence agency continues to monitor a new missile submarine that is set to enter the service of the North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... n Navy, the Yonhap Agency said.
The agency quoted today, a South Korean intelligence source: "According to our information, the submarine is ready to enter the service of the North Korean naval forces. We are closely following the process of entering the combat service."
According to South Korean intelligence, a new non-nuclear missile submarine has been built in military shipbuilding yards in Sinbu, on the country’s east coast. "Intelligence believes that the displacement of the new submarine water is 3,000 tons, and it is armed with three medium-range ballistic missiles of the Bukchksong type. -3.
In October 2019, the first test of this missile, with a range of 450 km, was carried out.
The Yonhap agency indicated that the new missile submarine might become part of North Korea’s strategic forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2020
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#1
It has 4 150mm cannon, a catapult, and a corvus.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/26/2020 0:11
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[IsraelTimes] No coppers injured in alleged attempted attack in Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of the capital; earlier, 2 shot in West Bank after alleged attempt to stab soldiers.
An East Jerusalem man armed with a utility knife and tear gas attempted to stab a police officer, who shot him, in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of the capital on Monday, police said. No coppers were maimed. The assailant was taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
According to police, the assailant ran at a group of officers while holding the knife and tear gas, screaming, "Allahu Akhbar" — God is great, in Arabic.
"The [officers] responded, opening fire directly at him," police said.
The attack occurred on the border between Jabel Mukaber and the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Earlier in the day, two Paleostinian men were shot in the central West Bank, with the Israel Defense Forces saying they had attempted to stab a group of soldiers and locals insisting it was an unprovoked shooting by the Israeli troops.
According to the IDF, the suspects tried to stab a group of soldiers operating outside the Havat Amichai outpost near the Shiloh settlement. The soldiers then shot up the two, hitting them, according to the army, adding that no soldiers were maimed in the incident.
Nidal Rabi, a resident of the nearby Paleostinian village Turmusaya, who had been at the scene both before and immediately after the incident took place, denied the army’s characterization of it as an attempted stabbing. Speaking to The Times of Israel, he said the two men were brothers, farmers from the nearby al-Mughayyir village, who had been working in their wheat fields along with several other relatives when a group of settlers arrived at the scene accompanied by soldiers and ordered them to leave.
"One of the farmers had a sickle in his hand, but he did not attack the soldiers," Rabi said. "Nonetheless, he was shot in the stomach and the other farmer was shot in the leg."
A local activist, Kathem Haj Mohammad, told the Wafa official Paleostinian Authority news site that the IDF soldiers shot tear gas at the villagers who came to the aid of the injured shepherds.
The man who had been shot in the leg was undergoing surgery at the Paleostine Medical Complex in Ramallah, while his brother, who had been shot in the stomach, did not require an operation, Rabi said.
#3
I had one yesterday, on Memorial Day. Probably still get two or three per week. And how they spoof the phone number to closely resemble yours. Annoying scum bags.
Such brave, bold Lions of Islam, whose fame is such that we did not even notice their devastating attack.
[AlAhram] Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group said on Monday it was behind a blast in a small town in southern Libya on Saturday, the bad boy group's first attack in the country for at least a year.
The blast targeted a security point at the entrance to Taraghin, 780 km (590 miles) south of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , but did not cause any casualties, a resident said.
A local military commander, Abdesselam Shanqala, said the explosives were concealed in a vehicle belonging to the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and there were no casualties.
An LNA military source said Islamic State group was growing more active in the south after the arrest of one of its commanders.
The last attack in Libya that Islamic State group said it was responsible for took place in May last year on a pipeline in the south.
The group became active in Libya after the turmoil that followed the overthrow of Muammar Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him... in 2011, and it took control of the coastal city of Sirte in 2015 but lost it in late 2016 to local forces backed by US Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s.
[Jpost] Paul Whelan, a US national who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports, has been in jug since he was detained in a Moscow hotel room in December 2018.
Russian prosecutors asked a court on Monday to sentence former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is on trial accused of spying for the United States, to 18 years in a maximum security prison, his lawyer said.
Whelan, a US national who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports,
...a pretty selection, but we’ve not seen any indication of interest by any of them in this case...
has been in jug since he was detained in a Moscow hotel room in December 2018. He says he was set up in a sting and has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to the charge.
"The prosecution has made a very harsh demand, it's absolutely unjustified and groundless. To be honest, we're in shock," Whelan's lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told news hounds after Monday's hearing.
The court will announce its verdict on June 15, he said.
The trial, which began on March 23, has been closed to the public as its content broaches classified information. Many of the case's details have emerged through his lawyer.
US Ambassador in Moscow John Sullivan said the proceedings amounted to a "secret trial" and a "mockery of justice."
"There is no legitimacy to a procedure that is hidden behind closed doors. It is not transparent, it is not fair, and it is not impartial," he said.
The prosecution accuses Whelan of being at least a ranking US military intelligence colonel and that he was caught red-handed trying to obtain secrets, his lawyer said.
Contrariwise, the Marine Corps was under the impression they’d given him a bad conduct discharge in 2008 for larceny from the USMC. It has been suggested he is but a simple con man, which would explain the Russian prosecutor’s confusion...
The defense said Whelan had only believed he was receiving photographs of a trip that he and an acquaintance had been on, not classified material, and that he had been tricked, Zherebenkov said.
...apparently not even a good con man...
"This was a game by Russia's Federal Security Service ... the successor to the KGB... ...," he said.
US authorities have called the charges against Whelan spurious and have called on Russia to release him, describing the case as a "significant obstacle" to improving bilateral ties.
Whelan, 50, has used his appearances at hearings to allege he has been ill-treated by prison guards and been denied medical attention. Russian authorities have accused him of faking health problems to draw attention to his case.
#1
I can't forget Paul Powell, Illinois Secretary of State who died unexpectedly in 1970. In his tiny Springfield hotel room (not his home) they found $800,000 in cash. In shoe boxes, under the bed.
He was serving with Gov. Otto Kerner, who lived to go to prison.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/26/2020 10:10
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[TheDrive] The Venezuelan military has pledged to protect the tankers, which are carrying gasoline, from any American attempts to seize them.
The Venezuelan military has sent a contingent of forces, including at least one of its Russian-made Buk-M2E surface-to-air missile systems, as well as BM-21 Grad and BM-30 Smerch artillery rocket launchers, to conduct exercises on the island of La Orchila off the country's coast in the Caribbean Sea. This propaganda show of force comes as the regime of dictatorial President Nicolas Maduro has pledged to escort five Iranian tankers carrying approximately 1.5 million barrels of gasoline safely into port in Venezuela, vowing to block any attempts by the United States to seize the ships on the high seas.
Video and pictures of the Russian-made weapon systems on Isla La Orchila first emerged on May 22, 2020. Maduro subsequently announced the drills during a televised meeting with top military commanders in Caracas. He further framed them as part of a broader effort, dubbed Bolivarian Shield, to improve the country's ability to respond to any foreign aggression, which officially began in February.
"We witnessed military exercises ... on the island of La Orchila, with the test of the most precise missile systems for the defense of waters and coasts," Maduro said. "We were testing the Russian Buk missile, absolute precision ..., a powerful missile."
Military exercises have been carried out on Orchila island recently including this BM-30 Smerch pic.twitter.com/CZ0RsTn5DM
— CNW (@ConflictsW) May 22, 2020
The Venezuelan armed forces do not have any land-based anti-ship missiles, which would pose a greater potential threat to any American warships that might be in the area and poised to board any of the Iranian tankers. They do have a limited number of Russian-made air-launched Kh-31s for their Su-30MK2 Flanker fighter jets and may still have some Franco-Italian Otomats for the Mariscal Sucre class frigates and Federacion class fast attack craft.
La Orchila is an island and a military base off the coast of Venezuela, north of Caracas. It has numerous beaches, including one where the sand is markedly pink (Arena Rosada).[1][2][3]
There is a presidential retreat on this island, and the residential complex reserved for the military houses consists mainly of elevated houses made of wooden logs. There is also a court for bolas criollas. All the facilities are connected by pathways, mostly unpaved but smooth and clean.[citation needed]
#2
In 2018, the Russian military released a plan to deploy supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers to the island. According to Colonel Eduard Rodyukov, a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Military Sciences, in turn, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that "the arrival of Russia’s Tu-160 strategic bombers to Central America is kind of a signal to Trump to make him realize that abandoning nuclear disarmament treaties will have a boomerang effect."[6]
[AlAhram] The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela ...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... has moored at a port serving the South American country's El Palito refinery, the nation's oil minister said Monday, and Refinitiv Eikon data showed a second vessel had entered its waters.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is providing Venezuela with 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and refining components in a move criticized by US authorities as both countries are under US sanctions, according to the governments, sources and calculations by TankerTrackers.com.
Refinitiv Eikon data showed that the tanker Fortune docked at one of El Palito's berths around 1 a.m. local time (0500 GMT).
A second vessel, the Forest, entered Venezuelan waters and was being escorted by the country's military on Monday morning, according to the Eikon data and Venezuela's navy. A third tanker, the Petunia, was approaching the Caribbean, according to the data.
Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela's economy vice president and recently named oil minister, posted photos on Twitter of the Fortune arriving.
Venezuela is suffering acute gasoline shortages due to the near-collapse of its 1.3 million barrel-per-day refining network after years of underinvestment and mismanagement, as well as US sanctions aimed at ousting socialist President Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet... Venezuela's refining network in May increased its joint crude processing rate to about 215,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 110,000 bpd in March, following the arrival of spare parts supplied in flights by Iran's Mahan Air, according to three people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The 146,000-bpd El Palito refinery is now in the process of restarting its fluid catalytic cracker, a key unit for finished fuel production, one of the people said.
The 187,000-bpd Puerto la Cruz refinery, which serves Venezuela's eastern region, remains out of service, the people said.
Venezuelan officials have portrayed the arrival of the gasoline as a victory over US sanctions.
Washington and Venezuela's opposition, which argue that Maduro is usurping power since rigging his 2018 re-election, say the gasoline will likely be available only to security forces and well-connected individuals.
Five Iranian tankers carrying 1.5 million barrels of fuel set off for Venezuela in March and April.
Though Venezuela sits on the world’s largest proven oil reserve, it is in desperate need of refined fuel, with long queues for petrol being reported even in the capital Caracas. Decades of government mismanagement and corruption coupled with the American sanctions that seek to oust Maduro from the presidency have caused economic havoc in the country, compelling millions to flee abroad.
The US has expressed defiance in its application of the sanctions despite their devastating impact.
"Our maximum pressure campaign, which includes financial & economic sanctions, will continue until Maduro’s tyrannical hold ends," the US National Security Council said in a tweet. "The humanitarian & economic crisis endured by Venezuelans is the fault of 1 person—Maduro."
Washington has piled similarly substantial economic pressure on Iran, using sanctions that have mostly taken aim at the country's once lucrative energy sales. Since the US withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal two years ago, Tehran's oil exports have shrunk from 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to to less than 300,000 bpd. In a bid to bolster its faltering economy, Iran has sought other destinations for its oil and petroleum based derivate, including Venezuela.
Fuel-related shipments between the two OPEC allies have previously stoked American ire, with Washington imposing sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA after US officials said it sent about $50 million worth of fuel refining product to Iran between December 2010 and March 2011. The US continues to question the motives behind a strengthened relationship between its two far-flung adversaries.
"You have to ask yourself what interest Iran has in Venezuela," said Admiral Craig Faller, head of US Southern Command, speaking at an event hosted by the Florida International University this week. "It is to gain a positional advantage in our neighbourhood as a way to counter US interests."
[TWITTER]
#Venezuelan Air Force provided top cover for #Iranian oil tankers by F-16 and Su-30 war jets. Now the second Iranian oil tanker have entered Venezuelan waters. pic.twitter.com/o3nAinUQNH
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#1
As a claimant to the Eastern/Russian orthodox church, doesn't Moscow have a interest in Constantinople and restoring Hagia Sophia to its rightful status? Asking for a friend.
[Sudan Tribune] The deputy head of the Sovereign Council Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo "Hemetti" said some members of the former Transitional Military Council (TMC) caused sedition between Sudan and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... pointing they incited to reject a visit of the Qatar foreign minister while encouraging him to come.
Hemetti speaking at Sudan 24 TV on 24 May 2020 In an interview with Sudan 24 TV channel, on Sunday, Hemetti said that they decided to refuse to receive the Qatari foreign minister in April 2019 because he had arrived without their knowledge in the country.
He added that this misunderstanding was deliberately caused by some members of the military council who were in contact with the Qatari government and coordinated with them the visit without informing the council.
"They demanded (in a TMC meeting) to not authorize the entry of the Qatari minister to cause a conflict between us and Qatar," he added.
"So the fitna (sedition) happened, but we have no position against the State of Qatar," he stressed.
On June 26, 2019, Hemetti already admitted they had made a mistake when they had refused to receive the Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.
"We recognize that from the beginning we boycotted them and we did not receive them. We admit that we were wrong, we had not to boycott them, and we are supposed to welcome them like others," Hemetti said at the time.
The Military Council was perceived as taking the side of the Saudi-UAE alliance against Qatar particularly when the former announced a three billion grant in support to Sudan after the ouster of the former Islamist regime.
During the interview, he lengthy talked about some military and remnants of the regime who were working from within the military council to bring them down adding created discord between them and the forces of the revolution.
Hemetti placed the deterioration of relations between them and Qatar within this context. However, women are made to be loved, not understood... he did not give the names of these generals who were behind this decision.
On April 24, three members of the Military Council ’resigned’ under the pressure of the street because of their affiliation with the Islamic Movement and the ousted regime.
The three generals - Omer Zain Elabidin, Jalal Aldin al-Sheikh, and Babikir al-Tayeb - were tasked with the negotiations with the revolutionary forces.
It worth mentioning that Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan the head of the military council, last April, sacked the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Badr al-Din Abdallah Mohammed-Ahmed, after issuing a statement about a visit by a Qatari delegation without notifying the Council.
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#1
The USA should have long ago 'listed' the Islamist al-Thani family of Qatar. However, as it served as the Gulf wing of the Democrat Party, and as the cointinually stupid US military set up a regional military base in Qatar, Washington is hoist on its own petard. The State Department thus appears to support a nation that does little but make trouble.
[Daily Caller] The Dispatch’s Jonah Goldberg slammed White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, saying Sunday that her behavior was "indefensible and grotesque." Couch: "Jonah? That's a mirror?" She assigned the WH correspondents homework. And it's a long weekend!
Anchor Chris Wallace was also critical of McEnany as he and Goldberg discussed her most recent press briefings on "Fox News Sunday." "Bad."
"Yep. Bad."
"Disgraceful."
"Indefensible."
"Grotesque."
[adjective]
[another adjective]
Wallace was actually first to take a shot at the new press secretary, referencing a Friday briefing during which McEnany had laid out the questions she believed the press should be asking. "I have to say that if Kayleigh McEnany had told Sam Donaldson and me what questions we should ask, that would not have gone well, Jonah," Wallace said. [Insert comment about boring new bungholes]
"I think her behavior is indefensible and grotesque," Goldberg replied. Ummm... Why?
"I think that what she has done is — there’s this cliche in Washington that President Trump wants Roy Cohn as DOJ, as attorney general. What Donald Trump wants in a press secretary is a Twitter troll who goes on attack, doesn’t actually care about doing the job they have and instead wants to impress really an audience of one and make another part of official Washington another one of these essentially cable news and Twitter laboratory arenas." Uhuh. So now hark back to the Good Old Days® of Sean Spicer and Sarah Sanders. What'd you guys have to say then?
Josh Holmes, who previously served as chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, argued that the press actually put McEnany — and all Trump spokespeople — in a position where they were constantly being forced to defend themselves. No! But that cannot be?
"The confrontational nature by which journos pose the questioning is not really to obtain much information so much as to try to back them into a corner and I think she said, ’I’m not going to play that game,’ so yeah, it is completely different," Holmes explained. But... but... she can’t do that!
Wallace took one last shot as the segment ended, saying, "Let me just say, Sam Donaldson and me and the Reagan White House, we were pretty tough on the White House press secretaries and we never had our religious beliefs questioned or were lectured on what we should ask." Dude, it isn't just an audience of one.
#2
McEnany is very sharp. I've watched her flip through that binder full of 'gotcha questions' and prepared responses. I'll bet she updates it daily. She does her homework. I believe the Orange Man has found a winner.
#5
So are they admitting that they would also not report on such an obvious story for political reasons because that is what Kayleigh is saying without saying it and everyone in that room was smart enough to know that but danced around the elephant.
#8
Notional Review, The Atlantic, etc. are all vanity funded by people who could instead easily put orphans thru school or just donate to St. Jude's Childrens' Hospital. But they need to talk to the people who run your life...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 9:47
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[Sky News (AUS)] EXCLUSIVE: The coronavirus that has become a world-wide pandemic may have been created in a "cell-culture experiment" in a laboratory, according to prominent scientists who have conducted ground-breaking research into the origins of the virus.
Flinders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky has completed a scientific study, currently undergoing peer review, in conjunction with La Trobe University in Victoria, which found COVID-19 was uniquely adapted for transmission to humans, far more than any other animal, including bats.
Professor Petrovsky, from the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University who has spent the past 20 years developing vaccines against pandemic influenza, Ebola and animal SARS, said this highly unusual finding left open the possibility that the virus leaked from a laboratory.
Continued on Page 49
#3
The last statement found from the Office of Natl Intelligence: ODNI News Release No. 11-20, April 30, 2020. Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19
WASHINGTON, D.C. “The entire Intelligence Community has been consistently providing critical support to U.S. policymakers and those responding to the COVID-19 virus, which originated in China. The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.
“As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security. The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”
[Adventures in Capitalism] I have now run a few companies. Over time, I have experienced a repeated epiphany; which is that you never realize which employees are useless until they go on a vacation and nothing bad happens. Now, this isn’t a dig at good employees; good ones find ways to delegate their responsibilities and still check their emails—great ones work harder while on vacation. However, the bad ones often vacation themselves out of a job—oddly, those are usually the ones who keep reminding me about how valuable they are. Ironic right?
I bring this up because most employees just went on a 3-month forced vacation. As I speak with my friends, they’re all saying the same things;
-For 80% of employees, work from home went better than expected and my friends are now wondering why they need an office building and the associated expenses.
Continued on Page 49
[LidBlog] President Trump directing the federal government to cut more regulations. The most visual of which will be in the medical field.
The Trump administration is looking to slice through the occupational regulations permanently that hinder doctors and other medical professionals to help spur on economic growth in recovery throughout 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. Many of these same regulations were initially suspended to help with the COVID-19 cases swamping hospitals.
Tomas Philipson, acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said, "The White House has a great interest in further cutting down occupational regulations or state licensing requirements that are unnecessary. Obviously, we want to have exams for medical doctors, etc., but that’s something that I think is very valuable in terms of an overall economic agenda."
It’s more than only medical regulations, however.
President Trump signed a new executive order last Tuesday that directs the heads of all federal agencies to "identify regulatory standards that may inhibit economic recovery," if they don’t impair public health or safety. He added, "Agencies should address this economic emergency by rescinding, modifying, waiving, or providing exemptions from regulations and other requirements that may inhibit economic recovery."
Deregulation has been a big part of President Trump’s economic agenda. It’s incredible what can be accomplished when you slash the red tape. People forget that tax cuts were not the only reason the economy got hot before the CoronaVirus shutdown. A considerable part of the recovery was the cutting of government regulations and red tape that tied the hands of businesses and empties their wallets.
During his first year as POTUS, the Trump administration got rid of twenty-two regulations for every one added, and the regulation removal has continued throughout his administration. "President Trump is achieving more on regulatory reform than many thought possible," Anthony Campau, a visiting fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation, said in an October 2009, written statement.
#1
Probably the most important reason to vote to reelect him. When I was working (in a bank), the number of employees we had just to fill out government paperwork was staggering.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/26/2020 11:48
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#2
And here they thought that they are the only ones who know how not to waste a crisis.
Fawziya Abikar, health minister, said 31 people recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of people who have been discharged from hospitals to 235.
The minister said five patients succumbed to the disease, raising the total number of deaths to 66.
Somalia has taken urgent measures to counter the effects of COVID-19 and contain the spread of the virus, including closing schools, banning large gatherings, and suspending both international and domestic passenger flights.
Active Cases: 2,873,549 Currently Infected Patients
2,820,382 (98%) in Mild Condition
53,167 (2%) Serious or Critical
Hackers tried to sabotage Israeli anti-coronavirus efforts — report
[IsraelTimes] Channel 12 news reports that among the cyber attacks on Israeli websites last week was an attempt to break into the computer system of institutes working to find a cure for the coronavirus.
According to the report, which does not cite a source, hackers attempted to break in, not to steal information, but to sabotage the research being done. It says the attempts were unsuccessful.
The report does not say what institutes were hacked. Israel’s military bio-defense institute is thought to be leading efforts for a vaccine, and has announced a possible breakthrough. A number of other Israeli bodies, both private and government-run are also doing research into how the disease develops and spreads in the hopes of stemming it.
Sudan coronavirus death toll rises to 382
[Sudan Tribune] Sudan on Monday reported 19 more 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... deaths, bringing the country’s corpse count from the epidemic to 165, the federal health ministry said in a statement.
According to a daily news bulletin, the health authorities dated 23 May 2020 but released on Monday due to the Eid holidays, five death were recorded in Khartoum state, six in Gezira state, one in North Kordofan state, one in Gedaref state and six in North Darfur state.
Also, on Saturday, the authorities recorded new 192 confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 3820.
According to the report, 124 new cases were registered in Khartoum state, 30 Gaderef state, 7 in North Kordofan state, 11 in Sennar state, 11 West Kordofan and 2 in the Blue Nile state.
In comparison with neighbouring countries, Sudan comes after Egypt, which recorded (17825) cases, but it is ahead of Æthiopia (655), South Sudan (655), Chad (687), Libya (75) and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... (39).
The report said that 34 patients recovered from the respiratory disease bringing total recoveries to 458.
But with the number of UK coronavirus cases dropping every day, there may not be enough people to test it on, according to the institute's director Professor Adrian Hill.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's a race against the virus disappearing, and against time. We said earlier in the year that there was an 80% chance of developing an effective vaccine by September.
"But at the moment, there's a 50% chance that we get no result at all. We're in the bizarre position of wanting COVID to stay, at least for a little while."
Mink pass coronavirus to humans in the Netherlands
[DW] At least two people have caught the coronavirus from mink in the Netherlands, in probably the first mink-to-human transmission cases. The risk of infection outside mink farms is "negligible," Dutch officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2020
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#11
@ #9 That is incredible...and outright fraud. Disgusting. Gotta have a reason to inflate the numbers. Meanwhile, millions are unemployed because of this disgusting farce.
#12
The Billy Jeff Clinton regime counted 25 year old drug soldier gang bangers as "child victims of gun violence," so this sort of intentional misrepresentation is not new. In Sweden, a newborn that never leaves the hospital is not counted as ever having been alive. Welcome to Gerbil Health Statistics Land™
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 15:05
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#13
Now the New York Times and Politico are coming out with stories that show elite Democrats starting to panic over the economic devastation they've wrought as they see the red states starting to reopen while California and New York remain locked down.
Watch the narrative start changing as we get closer to the Democratic Convention.
typical long StrategyPage essay
Over the weekend LNA (Libyan National Army) forces began moving away from the capital, Tripoli, which they had trying to take since April 2019....What prompted the seemingly sudden LNA retreat was the refusal of the LNA leader to go along with a truce deal that the Russians, Turks and GNA were willing to accept.
A major factor in the Russian withdrawal was an economic and public health crisis back home.
Most Turks do not support foreign wars. a lot of interesting UAV stuff too - Russian anti air stuff has been pawned by Turkish UAVs but Turkish UAVs are being pawned by some Chinese weapons.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/26/2020
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#1
Strategy Page is always worth reading. This is longer than usual though, so perhaps something to read over lunch.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2020
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#1
Heard Carrie Lam (Chinese stooge and official Mom of Honk Kong) on the Beeb saying how the National Security law is no big deal because it will only be used against evil-doers and other nasty people. No doubt, the citizens of Hong Kong felt as reassured as I did.
An Israeli scientist has invented technology that aims to make face masks clean themselves using power from a phone charger.
Yair Ein-Eli has applied for a US patent for his innovation, which he says will boost hygiene and mitigate mask shortages. A poll just conducted by the Washington Post found that some 66 percent of American health workers surveyed said their workplaces face shortages of the masks that are most suitable for protection from 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...
He estimated that his cleaning mechanism can be added at around 90 cents (3 shekels) per mask.
"Our idea could change masks from disposable items into gadgets that people clean, meaning they wouldn’t need replacing so regularly and hospitals wouldn’t need such large supplies," said Ein-Eli, dean of the faculty of materials science and engineering at the Technion — Israel Institute for Technology. He estimated that his cleaning mechanism can be added at around 90 cents (3 shekels) per mask.
The self-cleaning masks will look like regular face coverings, apart from an input for a USB cable. This is to power the heating element inside the mask, which gets it hot enough to kill germs. This is the only modification needed to regular masks to make them self-cleaning, Ein-Eli said.
"We have inserted a heating element of carbon fibers, and connected it to a USB input like one used to charge cellphone," Ein-Eli told The Times of Israel. "The element can heat the mask to 65 to 70 degrees Celsius (149°-158° Fahrenheit), and it heats anything absorbed in the layers of the mask."
He said that a 15- to 30-minute heating cycle would be enough to clean a mask. "If you are in your car and take your mask off, you can simply connect it to your cigarette lighter charger, and then put it back on as if it’s a new mask," said Ein-Eli.
He is hoping to license the technology to companies that will introduce it to their designs, initially for masks of the N95 grade and higher, which are intended for health professionals. "We’re aiming initially at medical staff who need masks and need to know that they are well-cleaned and working and functioning," he said, adding that he then envisages it being marketed to the general public.
Ein-Eli got interested in masks by accident, in March. "I received a shipment via UPS, and asked the delivery man why he’s wearing a mask," he recalled. "Then I asked how long he’s been wearing it for, and he said four days. I could see it had been used lots — it was really dirty, and that’s clearly a problem."
[Jpost] Sonovia developed an almost-permanent, ultrasonic, fabric-finishing technology for mechanical impregnation of zinc oxide nanoparticles into textiles.
Sonovia’s Sonomask has been recognized by the US Food and Drug Administration as "Registered for Marketing," the company told The Jerusalem Post.
An Israeli start-up, Sonovia developed an almost-permanent, ultrasonic, fabric-finishing technology for mechanical impregnation of zinc oxide nanoparticles into textiles. The company sped up efforts to manufacture masks using its anti-pathogen fabric at the start of the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague) crisis in Israel. Now, three months later, it has undergone extensive tests that showed positive results, including its latest filtration results — inhalation and exhalation — which showed a 98% success rate for stopping aerosols that are less than five microns in diameter, the size of the droplets that World Health Organization officials think are transmitting the contagion. Typical respiratory droplets exceed this size.
Other tests showed that it has a 99.8877% viricidal effect, meaning the fabric works to deactivate viruses so that they cannot enter host cells, after an exposure time of 24 hours.
It was these results that helped enable the company to receive its FDA status.
The company launched commercial sales earlier this month.
Dr. Jason Migdal, a research scientist with Sonovia said that, "now armed with FDA approval, it’s our objective to completely replace the wasteful and non-viricidal disposables and proceed to compare efficiency overall against largely impractical medical respirator" masks.
[And wasn't it the CDC which was trying to cook the books by inflating the deaths by, a-hem, COVID-19?]
[Conservative Review] Most people are more likely to wind up six feet under because of almost anything else under the sun other than COVID-19.
The CDC just came out with a report that should be earth-shattering to the narrative of the political class, yet it will go into the thick pile of vital data and information about the virus that is not getting out to the public. For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26%. Officials estimate a 0.4% fatality rate among those who are symptomatic and project a 35% rate of asymptomatic cases among those infected, which drops the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) to just 0.26% — almost exactly where Stanford researchers pegged it a month ago.
#1
In case of unknown like CV-19 was in February, one has two choices.
You could assume the worst case scenario and act accordingly - like the People of Israel.
Or, you could assume the best case scenario - like the swine of Sweden.
Less than 300 dead in Israel, more than 4000 in Sweden. Enjoy your feeding trough.
...Trying to figure out how to make Trump look bad for it.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/26/2020 4:30
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#8
Let's see in a year what the relative excess deaths are...
The whole point of lockdowns for this shamdemic was to stop the health services being overwhelmed (they were nowhere near and the transfer of resources killed more than COVID did) not to prevent people getting COVID.
The COVID government over-reaction mirrors the cytokine storm over-reaction of the immune system that kills.
#9
Forever quarantine rapidly replaced gerbil worming as religion for the irreligious because the sacrament was so much more readily accessible.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 6:32
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#10
The 'media' has been screaming fire in a crowded theater for a couple months now. Time to start talking 'media control' as much as they talk 'gun control'. I'd start off with making the libel laws singular, all equal before the law, no two tier public vs private. Then like any other business subject them to liability for conveying a false or fabricated 'product'.
#11
Easier to just ignore the media. It should now be standard practice for lawyers to impeach the testimony of anyone who says they believe what the media spews out.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:51
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#12
"And you believed this why? Please don't insult the judge and jury by saying you believed it because it was on the front page..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:53
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#13
Sweden and Israel have many different parameters that influence their total deaths besides just public policy response to the virus. Two big ones would be climate, and age distribution which are both very different and both favor Israel.
See Israel age structure
and Sweden age structure
#15
Upwards of 70 percent of the Covid19 death toll in Sweden has been people in elderly care services (as of mid-May 2020). We summarize the Covid19 tragedy in elderly care in Sweden, particularly in the City of Stockholm. We explain the institutional structure of elderly care administration and service provision. Those who died of Covid19 in Stockholm’s nursing homes had a life-remaining median somewhere in the range of 5 to 9 months. Having contextualized the Covid19 problem in City of Stockholm, we present an interview of Barbro Karlsson, who works at the administrative heart of the Stockholm elderly care system. Her institutional knowledge and sentiment offer great insight into the concrete problems and challenges. There are really two sides to the elderly care Covid19 challenge: The vulnerability and frailty of those in nursing homes and the problem of nosocomial infection—that is, infection caused by contact with others involved in the elderly care experience. The problem calls for targeted solutions by those close to the vulnerable individuals. - cite
#18
Ford County, Kansas
Big food processing node, facilities and transportation
1600 cases out of 40,000 population*
2 hospitalizations
0 deaths
*three or four months of counting, whenever they started counting. In fact, Kansas has more or less quit official stat keeping; updates are sporadic and the shoulder shrugging well hidden.
#20
Give it a rest, g. We dispatched that bogeyman of yours weeks ago.
Again: the national and American state tallies for COVID are completely inconsistent and cannot be meaningfully compared.
This fact alone undercuts all the BS we've heard about non-existent causal relationships between this or that government measure and the actual infection and fatality rate. Our policymakers are sleepwalking in a fog of garbage data.
Re. Sweden, their extremely comprehensive and overly cautious statistical approach is guaranteed to yield significantly higher numbers than their neighbors -- or any other nation or political entity. For starters, Sweden counts nursing home deaths; most countries - e.g. Norway - and many US states until recently did not.
Given that somewhere around half the deaths worldwide have occurred in nursing homes, it should be obvious that, relative to global averages, Sweden is OVER-counting while many nations and American states - most egregiously New York State - have been UNDER-counting.
State after state, nation after nation around the world is now revising its numbers to correct their stupid and inaccurate methods. Sweden has not done so because they never gamed their numbers to begin with.
Even the CDC has now admitted in effect that Dr. Ioannidis, Dr. John Lee and others were right to call BS on their funny numbers and hallucinatory models.
#26
I admit. I admit everything. There is no coronovirus. It's all subliminal messages sent by Bill Gates via Windows 10. It's all a plot to destroy American economy. In fact not a single person outside USA suffered from coronovirus. It's all false news promulgated by UN.
Dr Ioannidis is the greatest scientist in the World (of warcraft).
#28
More fun and games, this time from Washington State, which has (grudgingly, indirectly, through a bureaucrat's remark) admitted its COVID fatality counts have been inflated by at least 22%:
“So our method that we use to give up-to-date counts related to COVID death is not our usual process for how we track data for deaths in Washington,” Dr. Katie Hutchison, Health Statistics Manager for DOH. “We had to modify what we normally do in order to quickly meet the data and informational needs of the pandemic. We’re aware that there is some confusion about how this works and whether or not this modified process is accurate.”
“Our dashboard numbers do include any death to a person that has [at any time] tested positive to COVID-19."
#30
See
Israel age structure
and
Sweden age structure
ECOnhzna dear, before you do the link thingie you have to type a bit of text and highlight it for the link to hold on to. Otherwise you did it perfectly. I just went into your comment and added some text so your links could be seen. It helps to click on Preview when you think you’re done, to check if you missed anything before hitting Submit.
#32
Quarantine religionists are going to need psychiatric long term care.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 15:25
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#33
Admit it, this is a data shitshow.
Once the "experts" get ahold of the data, it's all platinum. Once they plug it into their models, all you rubes just stand back and keep your mouths shut.
/truth
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 15:40
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#34
* With the proper "Experts" adjusting the data
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2020 15:42
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#35
For starters, Sweden counts nursing home deaths; most countries - e.g. Norway - and many US states until recently did not.
Lex which states aren't, weren't counting nursing home death?
Even the governors of New York and Minnesota who are murdering seniors have been counting them.
There is wide variation in the types of data that states are reporting.
Nine states report fully comprehensive data on cases and deaths at the facility level, including Illinois and Oregon.
Other states, including Michigan, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, report data at the county level, citing privacy concerns about reporting at the facility level.
Three states provide data on facilities only, with New Mexico providing a list of facilities with reported cases, and Arizona and Maine reporting a total number of facilities.
There is also some variation in the types of facilities that states include in their long-term care facility counts. Five states report data on nursing homes only, while the remaining states report on long-term facilities more generally.
State definitions of “long-term care facilities” can include a range of settings, including assisted living facilities, personal care homes, and intermediate care facilities.
Michigan and New Mexico are the only two states to report on congregate settings more generally, without providing a breakout for long-term care facilities.
States also vary in their inclusion of residents versus staff in the reporting cases and deaths.
Eight states report data on residents only, 17 states report data on residents and staff together, and the remaining states do not specify who is included in their data.
States also varied in how often they update the data, with the majority of states updating the data daily. Kentucky and Utah provide the data via a daily press conference, and other states report that they update the data several times a week or weekly.
Seven states, including California, Illinois, and New York, did not clearly report how often their data was updated (Table 1).
Taiwan to fire up missile programme as Tsai puts focus on asymmetric warfare against mainland China https://t.co/9R0AUIrfmY Boost to weapons would allow island to brace for PLA’s first advance before an ally stepped in to help, analyst says
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2020 7:47
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#3
Strategic targets - that's like dams and such, right?
Ports, ammo dumps, etc. Anything that causes significant amounts of civilian death would be a mistake. It would open the door to a nuclear attack on Taiwan, unless Taiwan reveals a hitherto unknown missile-borne nuclear capability as a deterrent.
#4
If Taiwan ever does unveil such a missile defense capability, China's plans for invasion are over. At least until their navy and air force are built up massively (or if they ever are, at this rate).
The Crocodile would be Emmerson Mnangagwa, the chosen party replacement as president in late 2017 after Robert Mugabe was shoved off the throne.
[The Telegraph] The footage makes for uncomfortable viewing. Sobbing almost uncontrollably, her whole body heaving as she spoke, Zimbabwe’s youngest MP relived her ordeal at the hands of men she is convinced were agents of the state.
Arrested for having the temerity to take part in an anti-government protest on May 13, Joana Mamombe says she was taken into a forest and thrown into a pit with her fellow detainees, two female members of the opposition’s MDC Alliance.
For the best part of 36 hours, the women were allegedly beaten, sodomised with handguns and forced to drink each other’s urine.
For many Zimbabweans, the allegations levelled by Ms Mamombe, 27, carry overtones of the presidency of Robert Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in 2017 and died last September....
[Jpost] In addition to their study, the researchers also contacted Google, Microsoft, Cloudflare, Amazon, Dyn (now owned by Oracle), Verisign, and Quad9, leading them to update their DNS software.
Israeli researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya have discovered a previously unknown Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) exploit, potentially thwarting future attacks using this DDoS technique, according to a blurb from TAU on Thursday.
As part of a new study, Prof. Yehuda Afek of TAU’s Blavatnik School of Computer Science, Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center and the Checkpoint Institute and Prof. Anat Bremler-Barr, Vice Dean of IDC's Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, with the help of TAU doctoral student Lior Shafir, provide an in-depth description of the new technique that may have allowed a small number of computers to carry out a DDoS attack on a massive scale, which is dangerous for critical infrastructure.
In addition to their study, the researchers also contacted Google, Microsoft, Cloudflare, Amazon, Dyn (now owned by Oracle), Verisign, and Quad9, leading them to update their DNS software in response to the threat. Consequently, , Prof. Afek and Prof. Bremler-Barr have been responsible for stopping hundreds of cyberattacks.
Referencing a major cyberattack in 2016 that crippled Amazon, Reddit, Spotify and Slack along the US east coast, the researchers suggest the cause may have been due to the weakness within the DNS.
"The DNS is the essential Internet directory. In fact, without the DNS, the Internet cannot function. As part of a study of various aspects of the DNS, we discovered to our surprise a very serious breach that could attack the DNS and disable large portions of the network," Prof. Bremler-Barr explained.
"The attack in 2016 used over 1M IoT devices, whereas here we see the same impact with only a few hundred," added Prof. Afek. "We are talking about a major amplification, a major cyberattack that could disable critical parts of the internet."
Dubbed "NXNSAttack" (Non Existent Name Server Attack), the newly discovered technique takes advantage of exploits in common DNS software that converts the domain names you click or type into the address bar of your browser into IP addresses. The NXNSAttack may lead a DNS server to do hundreds of thousands of requests based on the hacker's one request, crashing the system.
"To mount the NXNSattack," Prof. Afek notes, a hacker acquires for a price or simply penetrates, an authoritative server, redirecting the resolver to send hundreds of thousands of requests to the servers.
"The attacker sends such a request multiple times over a long period of time, which generates a tsunami of requests between the DNS servers, which are subsequently overwhelmed and unable to respond to the legitimate requests of actual legitimate users."
"A hacker that discovered this vulnerability would have used it to generate an attack targeting either a resolver or an authoritative DNS server in particular locations in the DNS system. In either case, the attack server would be incapacitated and its services blocked, unable to function due to the overwhelming number of requests it got. It would prevent legitimate users from reaching the resources on the Internet they sought," Shafir described.
"Our discovery has prevented major potential damage to web services used by millions of users worldwide. The 2016 cyberattack, which is considered the greatest in history, knocked down much of the Internet in the US, but an attack like the one we now prevented could have been more than 800 times more powerful," concludes Prof. Afek.
[MOVIEWEB] Porn legend Ron Jeremy is the subject of some new sexual assault allegations. The allegations are currently "under review" by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. Jeremy found himself back in the public eye recently by trying to save a tree in Bayside, Queens, which he claims his father planted on the day he was born. Suddenly, the adult star, nicknamed the "Hedgehog," was trending all over the world on social media, bringing his name back into the headlines and into many alleged bad memories.
Ron Jeremy has been accused of sexual assault by over a dozen women, which includes ten adult performers and two journalists. Out of 11,292.5 women he's doinked. (One was a midget.)
With Jeremy's name trending, it was easily discovered that he has some current allegations out there. "Sexual assault allegations against Ron Jeremy are under review by our office. No filing decision has been made," said Greg Risling, a Los Angeles District Attorney's Office public information officer. Another recent allegation allegedly took place at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on the Sunset strip in 2018.
During the height of the #MeToo movement, Ron Jeremy's past sexual assault allegations became public news again. At the time, Jeremy called those allegations, "pure lies or buyer's remorse." After years of thinking their stories wouldn't be taken seriously, women started coming forward about Jeremy and his actions over the years, which seems to have been a well-known secret in porn circles, like a lot of others who have been accused of sexual assault over the years. "He tried to forcefully kiss me on the lips and he grabbed my ass," one woman wrote on Twitter. Others had stories that were a lot worse than that.
Since Ron Jeremy's sexual assault allegations became public news back in 2017, he has been banned from a lot of adult entertainment events, including the AVN Awards, which are considered to be the Academy Awards of porn, along with the XBIZ Awards, and Exxotica conventions. Now that saving the trees has found the porn star back in the headlines, people have been bringing up his allegations on social media in response. Porn actress Janice Griffith responded to Jeremy's original tree-saving tweet by asking, "Did Ron tweet this in between bouts of sexually harassing people? he's banned from almost all adult industry events for groping people without consent."
Janice Griffith also claims that Ron Jeremy groped her without consent when she was a teenager. Jeremy has not responded to the latest round of sexual assault allegations and the Los Angeles District Attorney's office has yet to reveal any further details. At this time, they will only confirm that he is under investigation. As with most cases like this, Jeremy will more than likely deny the allegations, though it's unclear what will happen with the LAPD after their investigation. The Daily Beast was the first to report on Ron Jeremy's latest sexual assault allegations.
#5
[ ] Get paid to boink super-hot women
[ ] Grope and rape and risk jail with mundane women
Normally the only thing stopping the average joe from selecting the first option is being camera shy and that the industry would't want them. Both are not factors with Mr Jeremy so if true this really have crossed over into the Twilight Zone.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2020 10:10
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#9
Frank - I used the word 'p0rn' in a post about an hour ago and it got deleted; it's funny how the word can be used in the article but not in a comment.
#10
just put a zero in place of the O? That usually works for me
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2020 10:24
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#11
Pr0n is the internet approved™ filter beater.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 16:17
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#12
We say all kinds of crazy stuff here, but a post was deleted just for the word pee-oh-arr-enn? If there was a URL or something, sure, but just the word? Come on....
#13
It removes Pr0n spam, Clem. Along with other s3xual and online C@sinos. You haven;t been here, long enough, apparently, to remember the bad old days. Check the O-Club late at night, before we sweep the spam
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2020 18:10
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#14
but a post was deleted just for the word pee-oh-arr-enn?
You clearly don’t remember when a major time suck for the moderators was to delete the spams that arrived over the course of every single day, Clem. Most of the moderators have day jobs — they can’t take a half hour or an hour just to delete stuff here. So Fred wrote a little routine that automatically deleted anything that contained the most common spam terms. If you want to see what it looks like, hang out in the O Club chat room for a few days — he turned off the routine there, and as a result the moderators poke our heads in several times a day to delete the accumulation, trying not to delete the comments buried among them.
Too funny, except for the real dead man, of course.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
They use a picture of Tibor Cerna, who is one of the 108 Yugoslav Army soldiers who died during the Battle of Kosare in 1999. pic.twitter.com/SmaOatq6bD
[Mises] Media pundits and politicians are now in the habit of claiming it was the pandemic itself that has caused unemployment to skyrocket and economic growth to plummet. The claim is that sick and dying workers, fearful consumers, and disrupted supply chains would cause economic chaos. Some have even claimed that economic shutdowns actually help the economy, because it is claimed allowing the spread of the disease will itself destroy employment and economic growth.1
Leaving aside the fact there's no evidence lockdowns actually work, we can nonetheless look to past pandemics—where coercive government interventions were at most sporadic—we should see immense economic damage. Specifically, we can look to the the pandemic of 1957-58, which was more deadly than the COVID-19 pandemic has been so far. We can also look to the 1918-19 pandemic. Yet, we will see that neither produced economic damage on a scale we now see as a result of the government mandated lockdowns. This thoroughly undermines the claims that the lockdowns are only a minor factor in economic destruction, and that the virus itself is the real culprit.
#3
^Let us, for a change ignore Sweden vs. its neighbors and look at Montana vs. Nebraska: 15 deaths per million vs. 77. I wonder what the difference is?
#5
/\ There were ZERO cases of CV-19 reported among the Sentinelese people of Montana and Nebraska. Not certain if that fact is relevant, but it is a fact.
#7
It's my bet that more have been killed by the redirection of virtually all treatment into "exciting" fighting covid rather than treating the actually sick.
Most of the excess mortality will come from people who died waiting for treatment that would normally be available!
In the UK the ONS estimated 55,000 excess deaths but 35,000 died with suspected covid (i.e. that's the absolute maximum that actually died from it).Therefore at least 20,000 out of the 55,000 died from the health service just not being there.
#8
Treating people with cancer, diabetes, heart failure or COPD is so boring. Not hero work.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:30
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#9
Yeah, and I'm fed up with the commenter who says Chinavirus is "The Only Thing™" Get over it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:34
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#10
He seems to need deprogramming.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 7:36
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#11
Nebraska has meat-packing plants with workers who speak 40 different languages and must work to feed their families, as well as the essential service of feeding America?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/26/2020 9:33
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#12
In Nebraska 1/6 of the cases were in packing plants. Moreover, Montana has meat packing plants too.
#13
People say "meat packing plant." Have you looked at the mechanics of the work place? The lifestyles of the employees outside work. Yes. No. PhD epidemiologists have it all figured out. At a distance. With a mask. And a scarf.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/26/2020 10:20
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— 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗿 ♿ (@theconservador) May 25, 2020
"We've also expanded our investigation into the Mueller team and everything that happened with Mueller and the people at DOJ and FBI that were above Mueller. And so, we will be making criminal referrals in the coming weeks against the Mueller team. We're just now putting that together and, of course, as always, waiting on more documents that we really need to come out," Nunes told Fox News host Gregg Jarrett Sunday evening.
Nunes argued that Mueller should have immediately shut down his operation because he knew the dossier had been debunked by the FBI and that there was no coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Rep. Nunes previously made 8 criminal referrals to the DOJ alleging ’potential violations’ of the law related to the Trump-Russia investigation.
US Attorney General Bill Barr then appointed US Attorney from Connecticut John Durham to investigate the origins of Spygate. When they get marched I'll believe it, but with Barr. Not going to happen.
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.
[New York Post] Hundreds of publicly traded companies appear to be keeping government-backed loans meant to help small businesses weather the coronavirus crisis.
[CNBC] Stock futures traded sharply higher early Tuesday to begin a holiday-shortened week, as optimism grew about the reopening of the economy and a potential coronavirus vaccine.
[Babylon Bee] LANSING, MI—Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered all citizens to barbecue indoors this Memorial Day.
[NYP] China’s "bat woman" researcher warns that the deadly coronavirus surfacing now is "just the tip of the iceberg" in terms of what humans may soon face without a global effort to prevent similar infectious outbreaks.
[Washington Insider] The United States cannot rely on China in a crisis. That is one of the clear lessons learned from the global pandemic.
[Breitbart] Universities are beginning to cut sports programs as budgets continue to be devastated by the coronavirus. However, one professor thinks that those schools are using the pandemic as an excuse to cut sports programs they wanted to get rid of anyway.
[RADIOSHABELLE] First-term U.S. Rep. 
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
[Babylon Bee]
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) carried out a new 
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least five people were killed and 15 others injured on Sunday in a roadside blast in Baidoa town in southwest Somalia.
[The News (Pak)] KARACHI: Three warnings issued by the air traffic control to lower the altitude were ignored by the pilot of the ill-fated PIA plane that had crashed on Friday.
[Jpost] Five Paleostinians were detained by IDF forces after confrontations erupted on Monday night at the security check point north of Qalqilya, Walla News reported, citing Paleostinian sources.
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...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...
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
[IsraelTimes] No 
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
[Jpost] Paul Whelan, a US national who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports, has been 
[AlAhram] The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel to 
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[Daily Caller] The Dispatch’s Jonah Goldberg slammed White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, saying Sunday that her behavior was "indefensible and grotesque."
[Sky News (AUS)] EXCLUSIVE: The coronavirus that has become a world-wide pandemic may have been created in a "cell-culture experiment" in a laboratory, according to prominent scientists who have conducted ground-breaking research into the origins of the virus. 
...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...
...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...
[The Telegraph] The footage makes for uncomfortable viewing. Sobbing almost uncontrollably, her whole body heaving as she spoke, Zimbabwe’s youngest MP relived her ordeal at the hands of men she is convinced were agents of the state.
[Jpost] In addition to their study, the researchers also contacted Google, Microsoft, Cloudflare, Amazon, Dyn (now owned by Oracle), Verisign, and Quad9, leading them to update their DNS software.
[MOVIEWEB] Porn legend Ron Jeremy is the subject of some new sexual assault allegations. The allegations are currently "under review" by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. Jeremy found himself back in the public eye recently by trying to save a tree in Bayside, Queens, which he claims his father planted on the day he was born. Suddenly, the adult star, nicknamed the "Hedgehog," was trending all over the world on social media, bringing his name back into the headlines and into many alleged bad memories.
