Aug 04

Today’s News 4th August 2021

  • Police Open Murder Probe After Belarusian Opposition Activist Found Hanged At Kiev Park
    Police Open Murder Probe After Belarusian Opposition Activist Found Hanged At Kiev Park

    Belarus and its strongman President Alexander Lukashenko are once again under scrutiny in the West after the leader of an exiled opposition group was found dead in a public park in Kiev, Ukraine on Tuesday.

    The New York Times is reporting that 26-year old Vitaly Shishov, who ran the opposition activist organization Belarusian House group (BHU) out of the Ukrainian capital was found dead by hanging at a park near his home. The BHU assists Belarusian democracy activists or anyone else who has run afoul of government authorities in fleeing abroad. 

    Image via FT

    Ukrainian police are treating it as a pre-meditated murder case given they suspect it was “murder disguised as suicide,” according to CNN. Shishov went missing after leaving his home for his daily jog on Monday, and on Tuesday he “was found hanged today in one of Kiev’s parks, not far from his place of residence,” a police statement indicated. “Vitaly’s mobile phone and personal belongings were removed from the scene.”

    Foul play, and possibly a planned hit by Belarusian intelligence and security services is being widely suspected based especially on the following allegations: 

    • Shishov’s colleagues say he was “under surveillance” before his death and have accused Belarusian authorities of killing him.
    • One colleague, Yuri Shchuchko, said police had warned BHU about threats to activists and the presence of the Belarusian KGB in Ukraine, according to the BBC.

    Following months of massive protests last year into early this year after Lukashenko in August 2020 declared himself winner of a contested election, the longtime ruler began his sixth term in office by cracking down on the demonstrations and unrest.

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    The Belarusian opposition is now widely blaming the government in Minsk for essentially orchestrating Shishov’s assassination. “Devastated by the news of the death of the Belarusian activist Vital Shyshou who was found hanged in Kyiv. My heart is with his family. It is worrying that those who flee Belarus still can’t be safe,” opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has been living in exile in Lithuania tweeted hours after the tragic news.

    BDU said in a statement on Tuesday: “Vitaly was under surveillance. There were appropriate notifications to the police about the facts. Also we were repeatedly warned by local sources and by our own people in Belarus about all kinds of provocations up to kidnapping and liquidation,” CNN reports. “Vitaly treated these warnings with stoicism and humor, stating that at least in this way, it would be possible for BDU to get out of the info vacuum,” the exiled opposition group added.

    Belarus was already under the international spotlight this week after the bizarre saga of Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. The athlete sought shelter in the Polish embassy in Tokyo after publicly criticizing Belarusian Olympic officials over their handling of the games. She claimed Belarusian security services attempted to put her on a plane back home where she would face severe punishment, according to her statements. She will reportedly be given asylum in Poland.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/04/2021 – 02:45

  • Editor-In-Chief Of Germany's Top Newspaper Apologizes For Fear-Driven COVID Coverage
    Editor-In-Chief Of Germany’s Top Newspaper Apologizes For Fear-Driven COVID Coverage

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

    The editor-in-chief of Germany’s top newspaper Bild has apologized for the news outlet’s fear-driven coverage of COVID, specifically to children who were told “that they were going to murder their grandma.”

    In a speech delivered to camera, Julian Reichelt said sorry for Bild’s coverage which was “like poison” and “made you feel like you were a mortal danger to society.”

    Reichelt directed his main sentiment towards children who have been terrorized by fearmongering media coverage which has caused child depression and suicides to soar across the world.

    “To the millions of children in this country for whom our society is responsible, I want to express here what neither our government nor our Chancellor dares to tell you. We ask you to forgive us,” he said.

    “Forgive us for this policy which, for a year and a half, has made you victims of violence, neglect, isolation, and loneliness.”

    “We persuaded our children that they were going to murder their grandma if they dared to be what they are, children. Or if they met their friends. None of this has been scientifically proven.”

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    “When a state steals the rights of a child, it must prove that by doing so it protects him against concrete and imminent danger. This proof has never been provided. It has been replaced by propaganda presenting the child as a vector of the pandemic.”

    Reichelt noted how moderate voices who attempted to offer calmer perspectives on the pandemic “were never invited to the expert table” and urged viewers “don’t believe this lie,” when encountering alarmist proclamations from the government.

    The journalist called on authorities to open schools and sports halls instead of polling stations, warning that those who imposed brutal lockdown measures, “will have on their conscience and will leave in the history books, a multitude of innocent souls.”

    Bild has a daily circulation of 1.24 million copies and is the best-selling newspaper in Europe, adding even more weight to this story.

    As we highlighted yesterday, Germans protesting against plans to impose domestic vaccine passports were brutalized by police during demonstrations that took place in Berlin.

    The ugly scenes prompted the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer to put in a request for eyewitnesses ahead of a potential investigation.

    Germans were protesting against plans to ban unvaccinated people from a plethora of different venues, including restaurants, cinemas and stadiums.

    As we previously highlighted, Germany’s domestic spy agency is monitoring anti-lockdown protesters, claiming they are potentially involved in a plot to subvert the country.

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/04/2021 – 02:00

  • A New State Of Segregation: Vaccine Cards Are Just The Beginning
    A New State Of Segregation: Vaccine Cards Are Just The Beginning

    Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “The things we were worried would happen are happening.”

    – Angus Johnston, professor at the City University of New York

    Imagine it: a national classification system that not only categorizes you according to your health status but also allows the government to sort you in a hundred other ways: by gender, orientation, wealth, medical condition, religious beliefs, political viewpoint, legal status, etc.

    This is the slippery slope upon which we are embarking, one that begins with vaccine passports and ends with a national system of segregation.

    It has already begun.

    With every passing day, more and more private businesses and government agencies on both the state and federal level are requiring proof of a COVID-19 vaccination in order for individuals to work, travel, shop, attend school, and generally participate in the life of the country.

    No matter what one’s views may be regarding the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is an unnerving proposition for a country that claims to prize the rights of the individual and whose Bill of Rights was written in such a way as to favor the rights of the minority.

    By allowing government agents to establish a litmus test for individuals to be able to engage in commerce, movement and any other right that corresponds to life in a supposedly free society, it lays the groundwork for a “show me your papers” society in which you are required to identify yourself at any time to any government worker who demands it for any reason.

    Such tactics can quickly escalate into a power-grab that empowers government agents to force anyone and everyone to prove they are in compliance with every statute and regulation on the books. Mind you, there are thousands of statutes and regulations on the books. Indeed, in this era of overcriminalization, it is estimated that the average American unknowingly breaks at least three laws a day.

    This is also how the right to move about freely has been undermined, overtaken and rewritten into a privilege granted by the government to those citizens who are prepared to toe the line.

    It used to be that “we the people” had the right to come and go as we please without the fear of being stopped, questioned by police or forced to identify ourselves. In other words, unless police had a reasonable suspicion that a person was guilty of wrongdoing, they had no legal authority to stop the person and require identification.

    Unfortunately, in this age of COVID-19, that unrestricted right to move about freely is being pitted against the government’s power to lock down communities at a moment’s notice. And in this tug-of-war between individual freedoms and government power, “we the people” have been on the losing end of the deal.

    Now vaccine passports, vaccine admission requirements, and travel restrictions may seem like small, necessary steps in winning the war against the COVID-19 virus, but that’s just so much propaganda. They’re only necessary to the police state in its efforts to further brainwash the populace into believing that the government legitimately has the power to enforce such blatant acts of authoritarianism.

    This is how you imprison a populace and lock down a nation.

    It makes no difference if such police state tactics are carried out in the name of national security or protecting America’s borders or making America healthy again: the philosophy remains the same, and it is a mindset that is not friendly to freedom.

    You can’t have it both ways.

    You can’t live in a constitutional republic if you allow the government to act like a police state.

    You can’t claim to value freedom if you allow the government to operate like a dictatorship.

    You can’t expect to have your rights respected if you allow the government to treat whomever it pleases with disrespect and an utter disregard for the rule of law.

    If you’re tempted to justify these draconian measures for whatever reason—for the sake of health concerns, the economy, or national security—beware: there’s always a boomerang effect.

    Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now, rest assured, these same practices can and will be used against you when the government decides to set its sights on you.

    The war on drugs turned out to be a war on the American people, waged with SWAT teams and militarized police. The war on terror turned out to be a war on the American people, waged with warrantless surveillance and indefinite detention for those who dare to disagree.

    The war on immigration turned out to be a war on the American people, waged with roving government agents demanding “papers, please.”

    This war on COVID-19 is turning out to be yet another war on the American people, waged with all of the surveillance weaponry and tracking mechanisms at the government’s disposal. You see, when you talk about empowering government agents to screen the populace in order to control and prevent spread of this virus, what you’re really talking about is creating a society in which ID cards, round ups, checkpoints and detention centers become routine weapons used by the government to control and suppress the populace, no matter the threat.

    No one is safe.

    No one is immune.

    And as I illustrate in my new novel, The Erik Blair Diaries, no one gets spared the anguish, fear and heartache of living in a police state.

    That’s the message being broadcast 24/7 with every new piece of government propaganda, every new law that criminalizes otherwise lawful activity, every new policeman on the beat, every new surveillance camera casting a watchful eye, every sensationalist news story that titillates and distracts, every new prison or detention center built to house troublemakers and other undesirables, every new court ruling that gives government agents a green light to strip and steal and rape and ravage the citizenry, every school that opts to indoctrinate rather than educate, and every new justification for why Americans should comply with the government’s attempts to trample the Constitution underfoot.

    Yes, COVID-19 has taken a significant toll on the nation emotionally, physically, and economically, but there are still greater dangers on the horizon.

    As long as “we the people” continue to allow the government to trample our rights in the so-called name of national security, things will get worse, not better.

    It’s already worse.

    We’ve been having this same debate about the perils of government overreach for the past 50-plus years, and still we don’t seem to learn, or if we learn, we learn too late.

    Curiously enough, these COVID-19 mandates, restrictions and vaccine card requirements dovetail conveniently with a national timeline for states to comply with the Real ID Act, which imposes federal standards on identity documents such as state drivers’ licenses, a prelude to a national identification system.

    Talk about a perfect storm for bringing about a national ID card, the ultimate human tracking device.

    In the absence of a national ID card, which would make the police state’s task of monitoring, tracking and singling out individual suspects far simpler, “we the people” are already being  tracked in a myriad of ways: through our state driver’s licenses, Social Security numbers, bank accounts, purchases and electronic transactions; biometrics; by way of our correspondence and communication devices (email, phone calls and mobile phones); through chips implanted in our vehicles, identification documents, even our clothing.

    Add to this the fact that businesses, schools and other facilities are relying more and more on fingerprints and facial recognition to identify us. All the while, data companies such as Acxiom are capturing vast caches of personal information to help airports, retailers, police and other government authorities instantly determine whether someone is the person he or she claims to be.

    This informational glut—used to great advantage by both the government and corporate sectors—has converged into a mandate for “an internal passport,” a.k.a., a national ID card that would store information as basic as a person’s name, birth date and place of birth, as well as private information, including a Social Security number, fingerprint, retinal scan and personal, criminal and financial records.

    A federalized, computerized, cross-referenced, databased system of identification policed by government agents would be the final nail in the coffin for privacy (not to mention a logistical security nightmare that would leave Americans even more vulnerable to every hacker in the cybersphere).

    Americans have always resisted adopting a national ID card for good reason: National ID card systems have been used before, by other oppressive governments, in the name of national security, invariably with horrifying results. After all, such a system gives the government and its agents the ultimate power to target, track and terrorize the populace according to the government’s own nefarious purposes.

    For instance, in Germany, the Nazis required all Jews to carry special stamped ID cards for travel within the country. A prelude to the yellow Star of David badges, these stamped cards were instrumental in identifying Jews for deportation to death camps in Poland.

    Author Raul Hilberg summarizes the impact that such a system had on the Jews:

    The whole identification system, with its personal documents, specially assigned names, and conspicuous tagging in public, was a powerful weapon in the hands of the police. First, the system was an auxiliary device that facilitated the enforcement of residence and movement restrictions. Second, it was an independent control measure in that it enabled the police to pick up any Jew, anywhere, anytime. Third, and perhaps most important, identification had a paralyzing effect on its victims.

    In South Africa during apartheid, pass books were used to regulate the movement of black citizens and segregate the population. The Pass Laws Act of 1952 stipulated where, when and for how long a black African could remain in certain areas. Any government employee could strike out entries, which cancelled the permission to remain in an area. A pass book that did not have a valid entry resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of the bearer.

    Identity cards played a crucial role in the genocide of the Tutsis in the central African country of Rwanda. The assault, carried out by extremist Hutu militia groups, lasted around 100 days and resulted in close to a million deaths. While the ID cards were not a precondition to the genocide, they were a facilitating factor. Once the genocide began, the production of an identity card with the designation “Tutsi” spelled a death sentence at any roadblock.

    Identity cards have also helped oppressive regimes carry out eliminationist policies such as mass expulsion, forced relocation and group denationalization. Through the use of identity cards, Ethiopian authorities were able to identify people with Eritrean affiliation during the mass expulsion of 1998. The Vietnamese government was able to locate ethnic Chinese more easily during their 1978-79 expulsion. The USSR used identity cards to force the relocation of ethnic Koreans (1937), Volga Germans (1941), Kamyks and Karachai (1943), Crimean Tartars, Meshkhetian Turks, Chechens, Ingush and Balkars (1944) and ethnic Greeks (1949). And ethnic Vietnamese were identified for group denationalization through identity cards in Cambodia in 1993, as were the Kurds in Syria in 1962.

    And in the United States, post-9/11, more than 750 Muslim men were rounded up on the basis of their religion and ethnicity and detained for up to eight months. Their experiences echo those of 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were similarly detained 75 years ago following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Despite a belated apology and monetary issuance by the U.S. government, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to declare such a practice illegal. Moreover, laws such as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) empower the government to arrest and detain indefinitely anyone they “suspect” of being an enemy of the state.

    So you see, you may be innocent of wrongdoing now, but when the standard for innocence is set by the government, no one is safe.

    Everyone is a suspect.

    And anyone can be a criminal when it’s the government determining what is a crime.

    It’s no longer a matter of if, but when.

    Remember, the police state does not discriminate.

    At some point, it will not matter whether your skin is black or yellow or brown or white. It will not matter whether you’re an immigrant or a citizen. It will not matter whether you’re rich or poor. It won’t even matter whether you’ve been properly medicated, vaccinated or indoctrinated.

    Government jails will hold you just as easily whether you’ve obeyed every law or broken a dozen. Government bullets will kill you just as easily whether you’re complying with a police officer’s order or questioning his tactics. And whether or not you’ve done anything wrong, government agents will treat you like a suspect simply because they have been trained to view and treat everyone like potential criminals.

    Eventually, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, when the police state has turned that final screw and slammed that final door, all that will matter is whether some government agent chooses to single you out for special treatment.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 23:45

  • San Diego To Ban "Ghost Gun" Kit Sales
    San Diego To Ban “Ghost Gun” Kit Sales

    Readers are aware Democrats are coming for “ghost guns” and have already begun to ban these unserialized weapons.

    Ghost guns are untraceable to the federal government and can be bought at gun stores or online in 80% lower kits. Since the lowers are unfinished and involve some drilling and tinkering, the lowers are not considered guns, thus don’t need to be serialized. 

    Difference Between 80% Lower Vs. Firearm 

    The days of purchasing 80% lower kits are coming to an end in at least one city. 

    San Diego City Council leaders voted Monday to approve a bill to ban ghost gun sales across the city, according to local news ABC10. 

    Councilmembers voted 8-1, with one member, Chris Catem, voting the lone “no.” 

    The proposal, called the E.N.U.F. (Eliminate Non-Serialized Untraceable Firearm) Ordinance, will “prohibit the possession, purchase, sale, receipt, and transportation of non-serialized, unfinished frames and unfinished receivers, and non-serialized firearms within the City of San Diego.” 

    Councilmember Marni Von Wilpert introduced the proposal last month. Von Wilpert released a statement Monday after the vote: 

    “The spread of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ is fueling gun violence in our city and today’s vote will help keep firearms out of the hands of people who pose danger to our communities—including violent criminals, domestic abusers, individuals suffering from mental illness, and terrorists.”

    Cate, who voted against the proposal, told other councilmembers, “this law does nothing to prevent mass shootings. This law does nothing to hold criminals accountable. This law does nothing to make us safer.”

    Councilmembers will reconvene on Sept. 14 for a second reading ahead of the bill going into law. 

    San Diego Police have reported the number of unserialized guns seized continues to rise every year exponentially. In 2019, police seized 77 ghost guns, and that number soared to 211 in 2020. The number this year could swell to more than 400. 

    Ghost gun seizures are up across the country.

    In Baltimore City, Maryland, police estimate they will find “250 to 300” ghost guns this year. 

    President Biden has been an advocate for banning ghost guns and crushing the National Rifle Association. 

    The banning of 80% lower kits will push more and more people to 3D-print weapons.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 23:25

  • Why Americans No Longer Trust The Biden Administration
    Why Americans No Longer Trust The Biden Administration

    Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

    For libertarians – and even many non-libertarians – it’s not shocking to discover that a US Administration lies and deceives the electorate. For government on all levels, lying to the American people is as American as apple pie. Sometimes the liars are held to account for their deception, but most often they are not.

    Watching these early months of the Biden Administration it’s hard not to think that lying, deceiving, and manipulation is rising to a whole new level.

    Take “ending the endless war” in Afghanistan. President Biden was cheered for achieving what even Donald Trump could not deliver: an end to the pointless 20 year – and several trillion dollar – war in Afghanistan. By the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we were told, the war would be over.

    The only people furious about this decision were the bombmakers at Raytheon and the rest of the military-industrial complex and the laptop warriors in the Beltway think tanks. It turns out, they really didn’t need to worry.

    The US is not finally leaving the Afghan people alone to run their country as they see fit. Just this week, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that the US is increasing – not ending – its airstrikes on Afghanistan. The US would be pulling regular military troops out of the country (though likely keeping CIA, Special Forces, and mercenaries on the ground), but it would continue to bomb Afghanistan using “over the horizon” facilities from the Persian Gulf.

    I’m sure that makes Afghan victims of US bombs feel much better.

    Then last week Biden announced an “end of the US combat mission” in Iraq by the end of the year. While we’ve heard that line before, still it seemed like good news. However, as usual, the devil was in the details. While the “mission” was over, the US troops would remain in-country in an “advisory role.” This is despite the fact that the Iraqi Parliament formally requested last year that US troops leave the country.

    Biden has bombed anti-ISIS militias supported by the Iraqi government twice this year (so far).

    The 900 US troops illegally occupying Syrian territory would also remain in-country, the Biden Administration announced last week.

    Also, just over a week ago President Biden told us that if we got the vaccine we would not get Covid. Then a few days later his own CDC released data from a Massachusetts study showing that 78 percent of the people who caught Covid were fully vaccinated. Is it any wonder Americans have lost all faith in “the science” as it pours forth from the politicized “scientists” in charge of US public health institutions?

    The US mainstream media has morphed into a de-facto arm of the Biden Administration, however, covering up for all of these lies and word-games and holding precisely no one in government accountable. So much for a free media acting as a check on government power.

    In fact, any “enemy” country overseas with such a subservient press would be targeted for a State Department color revolution.

    Governments lie. We understand that. It is the nature of politics and power.

    In the absence of independent institutions to hold government accountable, however, such lies become indistinguishable from facts, and soon “freedom” itself becomes slavery, as Orwell wrote. Let’s hope more of America wakes up soon.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 23:05

  • Plague-Carrying Chipmunks Spark Closures In South Lake Tahoe
    Plague-Carrying Chipmunks Spark Closures In South Lake Tahoe

    Just week after reports of the literal plague being discovered in Colorado, killing a 10-year-old girl; officials are closing some areas on the south shore of Lake Tahoe after some chipmunks tested positive for plague.

    The Tahoe Daily Tribune reports that the Taylor Creek Visitor Center, Kiva Beach and their parking areas will be off limits through Friday.

    It spreads to humans through bites of infected fleas or through contact with infected animals via the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and causes severe symptoms which have a rapid onset, but El Dorado County spokesperson Carla Hass said on Monday that there has been no human contact (yet), though we do note that officials say symptoms of plague usually show up within two weeks of exposure to an infected animal or flea and include fever, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes..

    The CDC has written that “human plague infections continue to occur in rural areas in the western United States, but significantly more cases occur in parts of Africa and Asia.” Some recent cases have been observed in places like Mongolia. 

    “It’s important that individuals take precautions for themselves and their pets when outdoors, especially while walking, hiking or camping in areas where wild rodents are present,” said Public Health Officer Dr. Nancy Williams in a press release last year when a person was the first in five years in California to contract plague.

    “Human cases of plague are extremely rare but can be very serious.”

    The question is – were the squirrels and chipmunks wearing masks?

    Forest Service officials expect the facilities to be open again by the weekend.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 22:45

  • Israel Revives COVID Restrictions As Cases Soar, Warns Of Possible Lockdown In September
    Israel Revives COVID Restrictions As Cases Soar, Warns Of Possible Lockdown In September

    Despite being the most heavily vaccinated country in the world, Israel has just imposed new restrictions on its population, and the body responsible for generating its COVID policies just admitted that a lockdown in September is no longer a remote possibility.

    Israel’s coronavirus cabinet announced Tuesday night that starting Aug. 20, the country will revive its full green pass system. Starting Sunday, masks will be mandatory in all indoor and outdoor gatherings and even fully vaccinated parents responsible for caring for a child in quarantine will be demanded to isolate as well (for children 12 and under).

    Israel reported nearly 4K new cases over the previous 24 hours it announced on Tuesday, the biggest daily jump in new cases since March, when the country’s vaccination program was still in its infancy. Another 7 people were reported dead from COVID on Monday, bringing the 48 hour death toll to 17, the highest level in four months.

    Source: Worldometer

    Israel’s ‘green pass’ system grants access to places and activities only for people who have been fully vaccinated, who have recovered from COVID, or who tested negative in the past 72 hours. With the new restrictions, the system  will only apply to gatherings with more than 100 people. But pretty soon, the restrictions could be tightened, according to the Jerusalem Post.

    Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli Health Ministry announced that both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers coming to Israel from the US and 17 other countries will need to quarantine for 2 weeks starting Aug. 10.

    The JPost also reported that the Health Ministry has opened the door to a possible lockdown this fall if hospitalizations and deaths increase.

    “The Delta epidemic is extremely contagious, and is spreading all over the world,” said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. “Avoid crowds, and get vaccinated – now. Otherwise, there will be no choice but to impose more severe restrictions, including a lockdown.”

    Defense Minister Benny Gantz added: “We need to prepare the public and public opinion for a lockdown in September, which is a month in which the economic damage will be less, and accelerate the immunization effort to try to prevent it.”

    Also on Tuesday, Gantz announced that an additional 1K reservists will be called back to support the ministry’s activities related to the pandemic. Soldiers are employed for several logistical activities. And an additional 500 medics are going to be recruited to assist the Health Ministry’s vaccination efforts.

    Less than a week has passed since the Israeli government announced it would start administering booster shots to people over age 60. And now that at least two European nations have said they’re preparing to dole out booster shots, it’s only a matter of time before Big Pharma gets its way in the US, leading to more sales for Pfizer and Moderna at newly inflated prices.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 22:25

  • "People Slept In Airports" – Spirit, American Cancel Hundreds of Flights Amid Staffing Shortage
    “People Slept In Airports” – Spirit, American Cancel Hundreds of Flights Amid Staffing Shortage

    Travel chaos is unfolding across US airports as American Airlines Group Inc. and Spirit Airlines Inc canceled hundreds of flights Tuesday, the third consecutive day of cancellations following “concerns that crew shortages are adding to problems that initially were caused by weather and technology issues,” according to Bloomberg. 

    FlightAware’s flight tracker website showed that at least 800 flights were canceled into or out of the US on Tuesday afternoon. American canceled 288 flights, or about 9% of its schedule today, 563 Monday flights, and 300 Sunday flights. Spirit canceled 347 flights, or about 50% of all flights Tuesday, after canceling 42% of its Monday flights due to weather and what eventually transpired into “operational challenges.”

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    Internet search trends for “flight canceled” spiked on Monday and Tuesday. The most common search query was “spirit cancelled flights.” These searches were seen across dozens of states. 

    Frustrated travelers tweeted horror stories of their experiences over the last few days. Some said there were no re-booking options, stranding them at airports for multiple days. 

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    Others blamed staffing shortages.   

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    American’s pilot’s union told USA Today the airline “can’t keep blaming flight cancellations on the weather” as staffing shortages disrupt hundreds of flights and leave thousands of travelers stranded at airports Tuesday. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 22:05

  • "I Know It Seems Weird": NIH Director Suggests Parents Wear Masks At Home Around Children
    “I Know It Seems Weird”: NIH Director Suggests Parents Wear Masks At Home Around Children

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    The head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested Tuesday that parents should wear masks while at home around children even if they don’t have COVID-19.

    “It’s clear that this variant is capable of causing serious illness in children. You heard those stories coming out of Louisiana pediatric ICUs, where there are kids as young as a few months old who are sick from this,” Dr. Francis Collins said during a CNN interview, although he admitted that such cases “[are] rare.”

    But he added that “anyone who tries to tell you, ‘ah you don’t have to worry about it if you are a young, healthy person,’ there’s many counterexamples.”

    “That’s the reason why the recommendations are, for kids under 12, that they avoid being in places where they might get infected, which means recommendations of mask-wearing in schools and at home,” Collins said.

    “Parents of unvaccinated kids should be thoughtful about this and the recommendation is to wear masks there as well. I know that’s uncomfortable. I know it seems weird, but it is the best way to protect your kids.”

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    So far, about 400 children under the age of 18 have died with COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    While “studies have consistently shown that children, adolescents, and young adults are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infections,” the agency also said, “children and adolescents have had lower incidence and fewer severe COVID-19 outcomes than adults.”

    COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2 or the novel coronavirus.

    A number of studies, separately, have also shown that children are at an extremely low risk of suffering severe health problems or dying from COVID-19.

    A study from July obtained by the Wall Street Journal suggested that a child’s odds of surviving a COVID-19 infection is about 99.995 percent. It also noted there is no evidence yet that the Delta COVID-19 variant causes more deaths or severe illnesses among children.

    Last week, the CDC issued an update to its guidance around mask-wearing, saying that vaccinated individuals should wear face coverings in high-transmission areas. The agency also is now recommending that children, staff, and teachers wear masks in public schools regardless of vaccination status.

    “If your child is younger than 2 years or cannot wear a mask, limit visits with people who are not vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown and keep distance between your child and other people in public,” the agency says in its recent revision.

    The CDC, however, does not recommend that people wear masks at home unless they are sick.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 21:45

  • Japanese Government Starts "Naming And Shaming" Quarantine Rulebreakers
    Japanese Government Starts “Naming And Shaming” Quarantine Rulebreakers

    The Olympics are in full swing and COVID cases have continued to climb in Tokyo (and across Japan).

    And while top medical officials, including the head of the Japan Medical Association, call for a nationwide state of emergency to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases in Tokyo and elsewhere, the government has instead been forced to limit hospitalizations only to the most severe COVID cases as worries grow about the country’s health-care system being overwhelmed. Some have complained this policy might boost the COVID death toll, which remains surprisingly low in Japan despite the country’s elderly population: Just over 15K people have died in a country with more than 126MM people.

    As the domestic dispute over what should be done next to quell the rise in COVID cases triggered – as much as the government is loath to admit it – by the decision to hold the Olympics despite the surge, Japan is trying a new strategy: naming and shaming COVID lawbreakers.

    Reuters reports that Japan has carried out the threat to publicly shame those not complying with border control measures: the government released the names of three people who broke quarantine rules after returning home from a trip overseas.

    The health ministry said late on Monday that the three Japanese nationals (Reuters didn’t republish the names) had clearly avoided contact with authorities after recently returning from abroad.

    The announcement, the first of its kind, sparked a flurry of speculation among Japanese social media users regarding their jobs and locations.

    Japan is asking all travelers from overseas, including its own citizens, to self-quarantine for two weeks, during which they are asked to use a location-tracking smartphone app to verify their location.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 21:25

  • Parent Organization Sues Florida School District To Locate Alleged "Very Pornographic" Children's Textbooks
    Parent Organization Sues Florida School District To Locate Alleged “Very Pornographic” Children’s Textbooks

    Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A lawsuit has been filed against Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) after two public records requests were denied. Both requests sought information regarding a list of 42 books the requestor believes have “very pornographic” content that may be available to children as young as four years old.

    “The lawsuit was filed reluctantly but we had to say to Broward County that we need this information,” Rick Stevens, one of the founders and co-managing directors of Florida Citizens Alliance (FLCA) and pastor of Diplomat Westland Church in Cape Coral, Florida, told The Epoch Times.

    “It is public information and, since the first part of June we have been trying to get them to respond.”

    A teacher leads an English class on the first day the children were allowed to return this year for in-person classes at a school during the coronavirus pandemic in Berlin, Germany on March 9, 2021. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

    FLCA is the organization that requested the information from BCPS.

    “We want to know what materials they have in their media centers and libraries,” Stevens said, explaining that the two months of delays and excuses they faced to find simple answers begs one question: “What are they trying to hide?”

    “The truth is, the school district is stonewalling,” Alexander Bumbu of Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) explained to The Epoch Times. “That’s why the lawsuit was necessary. We wanted to know if they’re hiding something and we’re very concerned that they are possibly exposing kids to inappropriate stuff.”

    “PJI is one of the largest, faith-based, non-profit legal defense firms in the country with offices from coast to coast,” Bumbu explained. “Since our founding in 1997, PJI has been a beacon for parental rights. In that role, PJI represents FLCA, a parental rights organization, which informs parents about potentially pornographic materials in their government schools. FLCA compiled a list of books and hired PJI to file a public records request to learn if Broward County Public Schools possesses any of those books and which schools those books are located in.”

    A similar request, with a different list of books, was made to BCPS and other Florida school districts in 2019. Back then, BCPS admitted to having 82 percent of the listed books.

    “That is a fact that BCPS would no doubt be embarrassed about now,” Bumbu attested. “Under Florida law, BCPS is responsible for monitoring the materials in its schools. Floridians have a clear right to see those materials. FLCA is doing what any parent would do if they were concerned about what his or her kid is being exposed to in school.”

    ‘A Jaw-dropping Experience’

    “One of the books on the list that FLCA submitted in 2019 has a drawing of a naked woman bent over forward holding a hand-held mirror to examine her genitalia,” Bumbu explained, calling the first time he saw the image “a jaw-dropping experience.”

    “BCPS admitted in 2019 to having this book in some of their schools, including an elementary school,” Bumbu added. “If you can’t be shown these images on your evening news, they should not be shown to your kid in school.”

    The image described by Bumbu is in a book titled It’s Perfectly Normal, recommended on Amazon for children “10 and up” in grades 5 to 8. Another image in the book depicts a man and a woman engaged in sexual intercourse.

    “Sexual intercourse happens when two people—a female and a male or two females or two males—feel very sexy and very attracted to each other and want to be very close to each other in a sexual way,” the book reads as it goes into a graphic description of sexual intercourse.

    It’s Perfectly Normal wasn’t on the 2021 list of books submitted to BCPS by FLCA. Therefore, FLCA doesn’t know if that book is still being made available to 10-year-olds.

    “In the end, they still didn’t provide all of the information I asked for,” Bumbu noted, explaining that BCPS is still withholding exactly where in the schools the books they admit to having from the 2021 list are located: media centers, instructional materials, supplemental materials, or reading lists.”

    “Our parents send their children to school with the expectation that their children will get a good education and the school will take care of them,” Stevens said. “Well, when the parents send their children to school they have a reasonable expectation that the school is doing the same thing, monitoring the materials and making sure they are the right kind of things for their children to be exposed to. We don’t know what’s going on in Broward County, so we can’t help but wonder what they’re trying to hide from the parents and the residents of Florida. That’s what we want to find out. What are they trying to hide?”

    “The foot-dragging Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) put me and Florida Citizens Alliance (FLCA) through an eight-week long saga and odyssey into the bureaucratic abyss,” Bumbu lamented. “BCPS finally provided me with a list Thursday, three days after I filed the lawsuit, but they didn’t provide all of the information I asked for.”

    The list BCPS provided shows which schools the books are located in but it doesn’t specify where in the school those books are located.

    Matter of Great Concern

    For those who aren’t concerned with children as young as 4 years old being exposed to books showing or talking about people engaged in sexual acts, Bumbu believes the two months of stonewalling by BCPS should still be a matter of great concern.

    “BCPS’s stonewalling undermines Floridians’ rights to access public records,” Bumbu insisted. “That is why it’s imperative that a public example be made of BCS to show that government school districts can and should be held accountable for disregarding Floridians’ rights to access public records.”

    Keith Flaugh, managing director of FLCA, said advocates of the inappropriate material are trying to accuse his organization of trying to “ban books.”

    “We’re not banning books,” Flaugh told The Epoch Times, explaining they are trying to prohibit the availability of inappropriate materials to minors. “It’s not banning books any more than it’s banning guns or drugs from school property. These are harmful materials and our public schools have no place distributing or allowing them.”

    “These books are sexually explicit and age-inappropriate,” Flaugh insisted, “and books like It’s Perfectly Normal are very pornographic.”

    Books like Sex, Puberty and All That Stuff, on the 2021 list of inappropriate books, teaches minor children aged 11 to 16 all about erections and their alternative names: “stiffy, hard-on, and boner.” This Book is Gay (also on the 2021 list) provides minor children aged 14-17 detailed instructions—including explicit drawings—on how to have “boy-on-boy” and “girl-on-girl” sex.

    According to Flaugh, these books are in direct violation of Florida obscenity statutes, including statute 847.001, 847.012, and 1006.31.

    While BCPS admitted to having 82 percent of the books deemed inappropriate on their 2019 list, Bumbu said BCPS now claims to have only nine of the books on the “inappropriate content” list for 2021.

    “That’s still nine books, “Bumbu said.

    The most popular of the nine books is a Young Adult (YA) novel by Judy Blume called Forever, originally published in 1975. According to Amazon, the recommended grade level for this book is “nine and up.”

    “Nothing is glossed over: sexually transmitted infections, abortion, contraception and periods,” reads James Dawson’s review of the book for The Guardian in 2015. “What’s startling when reading Forever in 2015 is how modern it feels. The cherry on the cake is potentially gay character Artie. Yes: LGBT+ characters in a YA novel from before YA even existed. Amazing.”

    According to the list provided by BCPS, 86 schools—including Gulfstream Academy (K-8), Annabelle C. Perry, Beachside Montessori Village, and Coral Springs (PreK-8)—have at least one copy of the book. Without knowing where the books are located in each school, no one can find out if the book is available by choice to any child through the library or whether it is being used as a supplemental resource or recommended by a specific teacher through a reading list.

    “Arguably, Forever’s influence is so powerful it was almost the first and last word on teen sex,” Dawson opined of the book BCPS now may have available to Pre-K children as young as 4 years old. “Virginity was lost so perfectly it was almost as if no author ever need bother again.”

    In Florida, the age of consent is 18 years old, and sexual intercourse with someone who is under 18 is considered statutory rape. However, Florida does have a close-in-age exemption—also known as “Romeo and Juliet law”—which protects underage couples who engage in consensual sex from prosecution when both participants are significantly close in age and one or both are below the age of 18.

    As BCPS is still withholding information, Flaugh told The Epoch Times they are still moving forward with their lawsuit.

    Follow Patricia on Twitter: @PTolson1

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 21:05

  • Tesla's "Big Battery" Fire Highlights Growing Risks Related To Lithium-Ion Power Storage
    Tesla’s “Big Battery” Fire Highlights Growing Risks Related To Lithium-Ion Power Storage

    The conversation about lithium ion batteries has been so disproportionately focused on how “green” they can help the world become, nary a word is said about the trade-offs of implementing them at scale. 

    Just over the last two months, we’ve written not only about how much driving needs to be done in EVs to make them better for the environment than internal combustion engine vehicles, but we’ve also noted that EV carbon footprints aren’t necessarily as better than ICE vehicles as many people think.

    And it was no sooner than yesterday that we wrote a piece laying out concerns around metals used in the growing production of EV batteries. We noted that the industry was trying to solve the problem of creating a circular economy for the components, as a growing demand for EVs could eventually result in a crunch for the metals. 

    Today, the FT highlighted yet another risk associated with the use of batteries to story renewable energy: fire.

    Citing the giant fire in Australia at one of Tesla’s giant battery installations that we recently wrote about, the report questioned the risks of lithium use to store energy. The blaze, which took three days to be extinguished, started in a shipping container holding a 13 ton lithium ion battery and then spread to a second battery pack, the report notes.

    The “Victorian Big Battery” project is the largest in the country and is operated by French renewable energy developer Neoen. 

    “The incident comes as utilities around the world from Australia to California increasingly rely on large lithium-ion batteries to store renewable energy from the wind and the sun,” FT pointed out. These are the same types of batteries used in electric cars. 

    And this type of battery storage is on the rise. In fact, the market is set to grow 27x by the end of the decade. There have been a total of 38 large lithium ion battery fires since 2018, the report notes.

    A lithium fire in Beijing in April 2020 killed 2 firefighters and took 235 firefighters to control. In September 2020, a fire broke out at a lithium ion battery in Liverpool. In Arizona in 2019, a grid-scale lithium ion battery fire threw a firefighter “more than 20 meters” and left him with a brain injury and broken ribs.

    FT describes “thermal runway”, a term we often heard when talking about the Tesla “whistleblower” and alleged defects in Tesla batteries:

    Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire after a process called “thermal runaway”, which results when a battery is overcharged or crushed. Heat as well as a mixture of gases are produced, which when released form a vapour cloud that can ignite or cause an explosion. 

    Paul Christensen, a professor at Newcastle University, noted the risk: “We don’t have a definitive answer of what is the best way to deal with an EV [electric vehicle] fire or energy storage fire. They [lithium-ion batteries] are essential to the decarbonisation of this planet but their penetration into society has far outstripped our actual knowledge of the risks and hazards associated with them.”

    Matt Deadman, lead officer for alternative fuels and energy systems at the National Fire Chiefs Council in the UK, told FT: “It’s about cooling the batteries and you can extinguish the flame but lithium-ion batteries will produce their own oxygen as they break down — they will keep catching fire again, we just take as much as heat as we can out of them. At the moment we rely on tried and tested firefighting methods using water which is effective but it’s not a golden bullet for solving these things as quickly as you possibly can.”

    But as of now, it still appears that the “pros” outweigh the “cons” for lithium ion batteries. Gavin Harper, a research fellow at the University of Birmingham, concluded: “It is essential that we don’t stifle new innovation as it is imperative that we decarbonise rapidly, but at the same time, we need to take a precautionary approach as we deploy new technologies at scale.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 20:45

  • Banks Are Literally Begging Americans To Take Out Loans And Max Out Credit Cards
    Banks Are Literally Begging Americans To Take Out Loans And Max Out Credit Cards

    Last month when looking at the latest bank balance sheets, we showed that something was “terminally broken” in the US financial system: specifically, we showed that a “stunning divergence” had emerged between the total deposits at big banks which had just hit a record high courtesy of the Fed’s QE (as the fungible reserves injected by the Fed end up as cash on bank balance sheets and offset the concurrent surge in deposits) and the stagnant loan books, which had barely budged since the Lehman bankruptcy as most US consumers have no pressing need to expand businesses and ventures, a startling confirmation of the woeful state of the US economy when one peels away the fake facade of the record high stock market.

    In fact, looking at the chart below, one can see that all the Fed has done since the (first) financial crisis is to force bank balance sheets to grow ever larger not due to loan growth but to accommodate the trillions in reserves which alas earn next to nothing – unless they are invested directly in risk assets as JPMorgan’s CIO “Whale” did back in 2012 with rather unfortunate results – and which screams that something is terminally broken with the entire financial system.

    But while banks and financial analysts may pretend otherwise, everyone knows that such “growth” predicated on a reserve sugar high is hollow at best, and is why banks – whose entire net interest income  depends on loan growth – are so desperate to hand out loans.

    How desperate? We got the answer yesterday with the latest, July, Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey conducted by the Fed. We won’t waste readers’ time going over the specifics – we have done that frequently in the past most recently here – suffice it to say that all this survey measures is how tight – or alternatively loose – bank lending standards are in anything from C&I loans to auto loans, to residential loans, to multifamily loans, all the way to that American staple: credit cards. A positive net number means standards are tight – as they were in the second quarter of 2020 – while a negative number means standards are loose. Or as the case may be right now, the loosest they have ever been.

    Presenting: a visual representation of the latest SLOOS report.

    The chart is self-explanatory, but here are a few observations – not a single type of loan was on the “tight” side; instead every single type of loan tracked by the Fed was extremely loose by historical standards and when it comes to some loan types such as credit cards, C&I loans and small firm loans the lending standards have never been looser: when it comes to those categories of debt, banks – so desperate to grow their loan books – are literally begging Americans to take the money. Oh and one final note: not even at the peak of the 2005 housing bubble was it this easy to take out a loan!

    There is just one problem: the supply of consumer debt may be at all time high but the demand is at best tepid, and as the next chart shows, while it did tick up modestly, the percentage of banks reporting stronger loan demand is well within the historical range.

    Of course, this may well be a temporary state, and sooner or later banks may get just what they have wanted and demand eventually soars. It’s then – when the perfect storms of record easy loan supply and record high loan demand finally collide – that the truly runaway inflation the Fed has been hoping for for the past decade will finally result in a

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 20:25

  • Patients Victimized By Theranos Speak Out As Elizabeth Holmes' Fraud Trial Set To Begin
    Patients Victimized By Theranos Speak Out As Elizabeth Holmes’ Fraud Trial Set To Begin

    Earlier this summer, we highlighted a bombshell revelation concerning the federal fraud case against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. It appears that Theranos set a trap for the Feds that prosecutors walked right into. Here’s what happened.

    Back in 2018, Theranos turned over an encrypted copy of a database containing test results for thousands of patients. The database was supposed to serve as critical evidence that Theranos’s tests – which were run on competitors’ equipment that Theranos sometimes modified – provided fraudulent results. But somehow, the Feds never obtained the encryption key allowing them to access the data. Shortly afterwards, Theranos dismantled the original database, leaving the data lost forever.

    Because the Feds never got the key, all that data is lost, creating a serious problem for the Feds’ case, which must now depend on anecdotal evidence from patients who were allegedly defrauded. However, medical tests are actually frequently wrong, and the challenge for prosecutors now is there’s no obvious way for them to prove that Theranos’s tests were less accurate than their competitors. Holmes’ defense team complained to the judge that the loss of the database was a critical mistake by prosecutors, erasing proof of millions of accurate tests, exculpatory evidence they will no longer be able to use. The judge presiding over the case has proven sympathetic to this argument.

    Well, in its latest piece on Holmes’ trial, which is slated to begin later this month, WSJ lays out the difficult path ahead for prosecutors.

    To win conviction, prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in the Northern District of California must persuade the jury that Theranos’s machines didn’t work, that Ms. Holmes knew it and that she lied about the technology to receive money from investors and patients.

    With the data, the case would have been a slam dunk. But without it, prosecutors are being forced to resort to the next-best thing: compelling human testimony. And according to WSJ, prosecutors intend to call 11 patients and roughly the same number of medical providers to testify about their experience being defrauded by Theranos.

    That’s why these witnesses and their testimony will be the “wild card” as everything will depend on how the jury perceives their testimony.

    Most of their stories haven’t been previously reported. So, WSJ obtained a copy of the witness list, and started reaching out for comment, eventually contacting more than 30 witnesses.

    The Journal reached out to more than 30 people on the list of potential witnesses for this article, including all of those identifiable as medical providers or patients. The witness list, which consists of more than 200 names but no other details, was proposed by prosecutors to be used in the vetting of prospective jurors.

    One witness, nurse practitioner JoEllen Embry, took her problems with the tests directly Theranos after her patients received several terrifying false positivies. She said she recalls “screaming” at Holmes, only to be brushed off by the executive (who probably used her fake deep speaking voice, making the encounter even more surreal).

    Ms. Embry, a large Theranos customer, recalled screaming at Mr. Holmes in a call, demanding an explanation for the inaccurate tests, the court records say. Mr. Holmes told her the Theranos machines were “calibrated for finger stick” blood draws, she recalled, to which she responded: “My patients never had finger stick draws,” but rather had blood drawn from their arms. She said Mr. Holmes replied: “We’ll figure this out.”

    Unfortunately for Holmes, text messages obtained by prosecutors show Holmes knew about the deficiencies, yet kept offering the tests. In one message to her co-defendant, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, Holmes said she was “praying” the Theranos lab passed a federal inspection.

    Retired dentist Mehrl Ellsworth, who received a finger prick test that showed alarmingly high cancer markers indicating prostate cancer. In the end, the results were thrown out – but not before Dr. Ellsworth was thoroughly terrified.

    Instead of halting, Theranos kept running tests on Dr. Ellsworth, now 73, after his doctor advised him to get retested. The second one was normal for his age, and the third showed another big spike, again over 20.

    After that, Dr. Ellsworth recalled, Theranos sent a phlebotomist to his office who drew a full-size vial of blood. That result was normal again.

    Dr. Ellsworth, who has a background in microbiology, and his doctor concluded the high results were false positives. Dr. Ellsworth, now retired, said he had always suspected the Theranos test results were wrong.

    Finally, as WSJ points out, plenty of the discovery evidence has yet to be heard by the press. And there are plenty of witnesses who have yet to speak out. As jury selection begins, expect both the defense to go on a leaking spree. By the time it’s all over, there will be plenty of material for another round of documentaries and podcasts based on Holmes.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 20:05

  • "Don't Go Anywhere Near Your Grandkids": Australian Health Official Warns Grandparents
    “Don’t Go Anywhere Near Your Grandkids”: Australian Health Official Warns Grandparents

    Authored by Caden Pearsen via The Epoch Times,

    Queensland Chief Health Officer (CHO) Jeannette Young has warned unvaccinated grandparents not to go “anywhere near” their grandchildren as the CCP virus Delta variant spreads to four schools in the Australian state.

    This comes as Queensland recorded 16 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, all linked to a cluster at Indooroopilly High School in the state’s capital city, Brisbane.

    One of the new cases was another student at Indooroopilly High School, two at Brisbane Grammar School, two at Brisbane Girl’s Grammar School, three at Iron Side State School, five household family members connected to the new cases, and one neighbour of one of the known cases.

    “If you’re a grandparent of one of these kids, one of these households, and you haven’t been vaccinated, please don’t go anywhere near your grandkids,” Young told reporters on Tuesday.

    Young is also concerned that authorities have not yet been able to trace the outbreak to its source.

    “We know the very first two cases that arrived into Queensland on the 29th of June, but I don’t know how it’s got from either of those two people to the first family in that Indooroopilly, Taringa area,” she said.

    The state’s CHO also said that while she wished to vaccinate every teacher, there weren’t enough vaccine doses, but she urged any teacher of the age of 60 to get the AstraZeneca jab. “Younger teachers need to go and make that decision with their GP,” she added.

    A view of Indooroopilly State High School in Brisbane, Friday, July 30, 2021. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

    The Indooroopilly High School cluster has now grown to 47, with over 4,000 people now directed by the CHO to quarantine at home as a result.

    Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles reminded residents of their legal obligation to remain at their homes if the CHO has directed them to do so.

    “While all of us in the southeast (of Queensland) have to stay home, those who are subject to home quarantine directions are legally required to stay home,” Miles said.

    “They cannot leave home except in an emergency or to get a test.”

    Outlining the rules of home quarantine, Miles said people under these directions could not leave their residences unless it is to seek essential medical care, avoid injury or illness, escape the risk of harm, or to get tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

    People who are subject to home quarantine directives who need supplies or assistance can contact the Community Recovery Hotline on 1800 173 349.

    Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said, “The message this time, for this lockdown, is simple: don’t ask yourself ‘Can I go out?’ ask yourself ‘Should I go out?’” D’Ath said. “‘Is the reason I’m leaving my home so important it is worth risking an extension to the lockdown?’”

    The Queensland government on Monday urged people to reconsider the need to attend work, even if they had done so during previous lockdowns.

    Home learning is in place for Queensland state schools from Tuesday until the end of the week, with private schools having similar arrangements, Miles said on Monday. “This is the first time that we’ve seen an outbreak like this one, spreading in schools amongst students, teachers, and parents,” he said.

    “It will likely see thousands of people subject to home quarantine directions,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 19:45

  • Infrastructure Bill Mandates Drunk-Driver Detectors For New Cars
    Infrastructure Bill Mandates Drunk-Driver Detectors For New Cars

    The $1 trillion infrastructure bill – a bipartisan 2,702-page bill that has been locked in negotiations for months between Democrats and Republicans will mandate all new vehicles must have the technology to detect drunk drivers and alert systems to check backseats before turning off the vehicle. A final vote is likely before next Monday. 

    Sensors embedded within the vehicle’s cabin will track the driver’s eye moment and monitor signs of being distracted, impaired, or tired. Bloomberg notes this technology is similar to ones that police officers use when pulling over suspected drunk drivers.

    Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, released a statement that read: “We can’t wait any longer to make our roads safer from drunk driving accidents.” She went on to say, “The inclusion of my bill in the bipartisan infrastructure package will help incentivize the development and implementation of technology to stop drunk driving once and for all and save lives.”

    Another provision in the bill was to combat deaths of children accidentally left in hot cars called a “door logic” alert that reminds drivers to check the backseat when turning off the engine. 

    Janette Fennell, president of Kids and Car Safety, said more than 1,000 children had died in hot cars since 1990. 

    “The Senate version is only requesting a reminder system that does not detect anything,” Fennell said. “It does not let you know if there is an actual child in the back seat.”

    Other provisions in the bill include mandates for automatic braking and crash avoidance systems and rear guards for semitrailer trucks. 

    Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to push the bill into a vote before the monthlong break beginning Aug. 9. In the coming days, the passage of the infrastructure bill proves pivotal for President Biden’s economic agenda. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 19:25

  • Virtue Signaling: What Is It And Why Is It So Dangerous?
    Virtue Signaling: What Is It And Why Is It So Dangerous?

    Authored by Olivia Eriksen via RealClearEnergy.com,

    If you say the phrase ‘virtue signaling’ nowadays, the chances are you’ll be met with people becoming increasingly defensive, claiming that everything has to be picked apart and overanalysed.

    However, that’s not the case.

    This article is going to unpack what exactly virtue signaling is, discuss why it’s so dangerous, and offer some examples of everyday virtue signaling from both the wider public and public organisations.

    So, what is virtue signaling?

    Virtue signaling is defined at the act of publicly expressing opinions in order to demonstrate that you are a good person. However, this has become muddied with placing more importance on the appearance of moral correctness, than the correctness itself.

    There are of course some instances in which claiming that a person or organisation is virtue signaling is untrue, however there are many cases in which good is only done at the bare minimum level, and it’s only done in order to receive praise. This is dangerous virtue signaling.

    Why is it so dangerous?

    There are a number of reasons why virtue signaling is dangerous, not least because it encourages a climate of reduced empathy and understanding of others, the motives behind acts become warped, and it creates a world in which the bare minimum becomes the accepted standard.

    Doing a good deed to help another should come from a place of empathy and compassion. But, when it is done to serve a selfish desire for public praise, this understanding for others is shallow at best. A social injustice cannot be truly understood if someone is only looking at it in terms of how they can utilise it to boost their public image. When good deeds become less about doing good and more about self-promotion, are they really good deeds anymore?

    There is an argument to be made that whatever the motive, doing good will be beneficial to someone, somewhere, however all too often when virtue signaling is involved, it’s likely that only the bare minimum of support is being given. And, when virtue signaling is normalised, so too is this minimal level of effort, and it doesn’t take long for this level to become the accepted standard.

    Virtue signaling in the wider public

    Social media is a massive culprit for opening the door to mass virtue signaling in the greater public. With offering support being as easy – and requiring very little thought – as sharing someone’s Instagram story, or re-tweeting something on Twitter, feeds have been flooded with posts that stand up against social issues.

    While this is great and is a vital step towards affecting change, it’s telling how quickly the support fades. Take the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, and the Sarah Everard case of this year as examples. For weeks after the horrendous events that triggered these social movements, social media was overflowing with support for those affected by racial or gendered discrimination and abuse. But, for as quickly as the support came, it disappeared just as fast. Social media has made virtue signaling trendy, which ultimately offers no help to those who need it.

    Examples within public organisations

    Countless companies have been accused of virtue signaling in one form or another, with arguably the biggest being greenwashing. Younger generations are taking on the burden of trying to resolve our planet’s climate crisis, and are standing up to anyone who is falsely advertising their efforts to help. Greenwashing is when false information is provided on how environmentally friendly a company or person is. Given the current climate emergency, greenwashing has got to be one of the worst forms of virtue signaling around.

    Quorn foods have come under fire for misrepresenting their carbon footprint as smaller than it is; numerous cleaning product companies have been challenged on their claims of products being ‘non-toxic’ while containing ingredients that are harmful to people, animals, and the environment; and Nestlé chocolate have been confronted over their claims of producing ‘sustainably sourced chocolate’, while their cocoa supply chain has been shown to have virtually no environmental standards in place.

    No one should be able to get away with pulling the wool over others’ eyes by way of virtue signaling, no matter how big the company.

    We can, and should, do better. In a world where education is more accessible than ever, there is no excuse for showing virtue outwardly but refusing to do the work internally to back this up. I wonder how much ‘good’ we’d see online and in adverts if there was no one watching. We need to be able to recognise when our actions are more virtue signaling than genuinely virtuous, in order to affect real change and be true allies to those who need them.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 19:05

  • Former Intel Chief Pushing To Move 2022 Beijing Olympics "On National Security Grounds"
    Former Intel Chief Pushing To Move 2022 Beijing Olympics “On National Security Grounds”

    President Trump’s final director of national intelligence during the last months of the administration is a well-known China hawk who previously dubbed China “National Security Threat No. 1”. This week John Ratcliffe is garnering new attention for urging the IOC to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing.

    Former DNI Ratcliffe told Axios that the Chinese Communist Party’s “mass cover-up of COVID’s origins and its initial outbreak, in addition to its crimes against humanity in Xinjiang” mean the games should be moved “on national security grounds”. 

    Associated Press

    The Winter Olympics are scheduled to open in Beijing in a mere six months, opening on February 4 and running through February 20, based in Beijing and towns in neighboring Hebei province.

    “We’ve got to get our priorities in order, and standing strong against the CCP’s global ambitions must be at the top of the list,” Ratcliffe added in the fresh statements.

    As we detailed earlier, Ratcliffe excoriated China in a Monday Op-Ed or rejecting new plans by the World Health Organization to investigate the lab-leak theory, which was “remarkable not only because of China’s continued belligerence, but also because the WHO was once complicit, caving to the CCP’s initial pressure to dismiss the lab leak theory and downplay the CCP’s coverup.”

    He further wrote for FOX that while the 2022 Winter Games should happen, “We should not punish hard-working athletes who have dedicated their lives to preparing for this moment.”

    Instead, “the world – and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – should not allow Beijing to enjoy the benefits of hosting a massive global event while rejecting transparency and refusing to allow inquiries into, much less answering for, the deaths of millions of people around the world” – in reference to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

    John Ratcliffe, via The Hill

    He went on to slam the Biden administration for failing to hold Beijing accountable, noting that going through with allowing China to host the upcoming winter games will only do the opposite – that is boost their global reputation.

    “The seven Olympic values are friendship, excellence, respect, courage, determination, inspiration and equality. The CCP’s coverup of the virus’s origins have proven once again that they are no friend of the world,” Ratcliffe wrote.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 18:45

  • US Navy Sends Ship To Shadow Hijacked Tanker As It Heads Toward Iranian Waters
    US Navy Sends Ship To Shadow Hijacked Tanker As It Heads Toward Iranian Waters

    (update-6:37PM eastern): The US State Department late in the day has said it is aware of reports that the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess has been hijacked by multiple heavily armed militants. 

    The ship is reportedly headed for Iranian waters, after multiple reports pointed the finger at an Iranian forces hijack incident in progress, though details have still remained murky and unconfirmed as the ship continues to move.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Iran has meanwhile issued a formal denial that it’s forces are behind Tuesday’s events off the coast of UAE, as Bloomberg reports:

    Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, denied reports that Iran’s forces boarded moving ships in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman and warned against “rumors and the fake news of Western and Zionist media,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news.

    Earlier he called the incident “utterly suspicious” and said Iran was prepared to provide assistance to any ships in distress in the area and help with efforts to investigate the event.

    Late in the day there are new reports that the US Navy is sending a vessel to the vicinity as part of the continuing investigation of the fluid situation.

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    * * *

    (update-12:50PM eastern): A flurry of bizarre and unconfirmed reports are coming out of the Gulf waters where one or more foreign vessels are believed seized by the Iranians, however, which Tehran is denying, calling the reports “suspicious”. Britain’s Sky News reports:

    A group of eight or nine armed individuals are believed to have boarded the vessel, named Asphalt Princess, the security source told Sky News.

    “It was an unauthorised boarding in the Gulf of Oman,” the security source said. There is no British link to the tanker.

    It comes as the Associated Press reported that at least four vessels sent out warnings saying they had lost control of their steering.

    And then there’s this hugely alarming unconfirmed report circulating…

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    * * *

    (update-12:38PM eastern): While there are still many unknowns about the developing distressed tanker incident in the Persian Gulf off the UAE coast, including whether the incident has impacted one or possibly up to a few tankers, reports are now pointing to a hijacking in progress likely by Iranian forces.

    Journalist and defense editor for the UK Times Larisa Brown is citing British government sources to say the Panamanian-flagged Asphalt Princess has been boarded by hostile entities.

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    The vessel now appears to be moving, according to real-time tracking data, viewable here.

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    Earlier speculation abounded over reports that the nearby Golden Brilliant may be under distress as well, possibly in a mine attack incident.

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    * * *

    (update-11:22AM eastern): Statements from Iranian state sources are saying a foreign tanker has struck a mine in the Persian Gulf.

    While few details are as yet known or confirmed, international maritime aerial patrols are said to be en route to observe the vessel or vessels directly, possibly including US aircraft in the region.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    However, these early reports out of Iran remain unconfirmed, but seem to point to another major security incident unfolding after last Thursday’s deadly drone attack on the Israeli-managed Mercer Street tanker.

    One of the potentially distressed tankers is Singaporean flagged ‘Golden Brilliant’ chemical ship. Interestingly, it’s managed by “the same company that managed the Andrea Victory, which Iran attacked with a limpet mine in May 2019,” according to one observer.

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    Omani observer aircraft are said to now be over waters where one or more vessels may be disabled.

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    If the mystery incident is confirmed to have been a mine attack, expect the US military to be en route…

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    * * *

    The UK has ordered ships to exercise extreme caution in Persian Gulf waters off UAE’s coast as an unknown incident is unfolding, though few details have initially been given.

    A non-piracy incident is currently underway east of Fujairah, with “investigations ongoing,” an urgent alert from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) indicates. “The warning notice, based on a third party source, advised vessels in the area to exercise extreme caution,” Reuters writes of the developing notification.

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    It’s as yet unclear which vessel may be involved in a potential distressed situation, but open source maritime tracking information suggests at least one vessel has been deemed “not under command”. 

    In technical terms this simply means means that a vessel is unable to maneuver at this time.

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    Reuters reports the following: 

    The Maersk Messina (Singapore flag), Asphalt Princess (Panama flag), and an unnamed tanker are in the area, according to MarineTraffic.

    The Front Crown and Golden Brilliant, both located nearby are listed as “Not Under Command”, meaning that through some exceptional circumstance, they are unable to maneuver and are therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel.

    The region is on edge following last week’s drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker off Oman which left two international crew members dead. Israel and the US have warned they are preparing ‘action’ against Iran, which they blamed for the incident.

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    Iran for its part has said it will respond with a “strong and crushing” military response to any provocations. While the developing incident in the Gulf could simply be a vessel temporarily experiencing technical difficulties, there are fears of a new incident related to the renewed Iran and Israel ‘shadow war’ in the region.

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    Iranian state media is reporting this, however:

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    developing…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/03/2021 – 18:38

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