Month: April 2020

Exercise Cygnus: UK Gov’t Response Was Modified Before COVID-19 Event

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30 April 2020 — 21st Century Wire

Robin Kayser

It’s April 2020, and since March, the UK has swiftly commissioned and built vast, temporary, intensive care hospitals, in readiness for a predicted epidemic number of severe COVID-19 cases.

They are called NHS Nightingale Hospitals, and to date there are seven of them, either open or planned. The first one was announced on 24 March by the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, and was opened almost immediately on 3 April at the London Excel Centre. It has a capacity of some 4,000 beds. The other temporary field hospital sites are in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Bristol, Exeter, Harrogate, and Washington.

Additionally, over the last month, some 8,000 beds in private hospitals have been re-assigned for Covid-19 use, along with other NHS beds in hospitals all over the UK. By the beginning of April, one third of all non-ICU NHS beds had been converted into potential ICU beds for possible Covid-19 patients. Yet, by 12 April, the London Nightingale had treated just 19 patients, and to date, only 41 patients have been treated.

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Farewell to the God of Plague: The Eighteenth Newsletter (2020)

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30 April 2020 — Tricontinental

Li Zhong
Li Zhong, Medical workers putting on their gowns to fight the ‘evil’ virus, 2020.

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 30 June 1958, Mao Tse-tung read in Renmin Ribao (People’s Daily) that schistosomiasis – or bilharzia – had been eradicated in Yukiang (Jiangxi Province). He was so inspired that he wrote a poem called ‘Farewell to the God of Plague’:

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COVID-19 exposes the weakness of Brexit

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30 April 2020 — True Publica

By TruePublica: There’s an irony being played out – a cruel one really. The COVID-19 crisis has unearthed some stark truths about how our country should be governed. One of those truths was just how important our key workers really are. Right now, the most dangerous job and most dangerous place in the country to practice it is to be a frontline medic in a hospital. This is closely followed by all other key workers that keeps the infrastructure of daily life moving. It is only in the face of a crisis that threatens us all do we remember this.

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More journalists barred from Gov’t daily press briefings – for asking wrong questions

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30 April 2020 — True Publica

More journalists barred from Gov't daily press briefings - for asking wrong questions

By TruePublica: On 3 February, (remember how long ago that was) political journalists walked out of a Downing Street press briefing en masse after a Dominic Cummings associate attempted to ban selected reporters from attending. The Prime Minister’s Director of Communications, Lee Cain, tried to prevent journalists from the Independent, the i, the Mirror, HuffPost, PoliticsHome, and others from covering the briefing, on the grounds that they had not been specifically invited. A handful of media had received invitations to a “No10 technical background briefing on the UK’s future relationship with the EU;” however, the journalists who had been invited walked out in protest to the barring of access for their colleagues.

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WATCH: Perspectives on the Pandemic #5 In this highly-charged follow-up interview

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30 April 2020 — Off Guardian

Knut Wittkowski says his initial claim has been vindicated

Following up his original interview, Prof Knut Wittkowski discusses the mainstream coverage of his opinions, recent studies on the numbers of infected in New York, and the Swedish government’s approach and much, much more.

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Backing the Wrong Horseman

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29 April 2020 — Craig Murray

Nobody knows how many people died as a result of the UK/US Coalition of Death led destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and, by proxy, Syria and Yemen. Nobody even knows how many people western forces themselves killed directly. That is a huge number, but still under 10% of the total. To add to that you have to add those who died in subsequent conflict engendered by the forced dismantling of the state the West disapproved of. Some were killed by western proxies, some by anti-western forces, and some just by those reverting to ancient tribal hostility and battle for resources into which the country had been regressed by bombing.

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COVID Update – Focus on Vitamin D

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29 April 2020 — Dr. Malcolm Kendrick

by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick

I have found, I suspect like almost everyone else, that it is almost impossible to keep track of what is going on with COVID. Stories swirl and multiply, and almost everyone seems to be trying to get something out of it. People are claiming miracle cures and success – but it is difficult to verify any such claims.

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The Models, the Tests and Now the Consequences

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28 April 2020 — F. William Engdahl

By F. William Engdahl

Neo28Apr2020

Since late in January the world has undergone staggering changes which in many cases may be irreparable. We have given decisions over every aspect of our lives to the judgment of tests and to the projections of computer models for the coronavirus first claimed to have erupted in Wuhan China, now dubbed SARS-CoV-2. With astonishing lack of transparency or checking, one government after the other has imposed China-model lockdowns on their entire populations. It begins to look as if we are being led like sheep to slaughter for corrupted science .
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Exclusive: OPCW insiders slam ‘compromised’ new Syria chemical weapons probe

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28 April 2020 — The Grayzone

OPCW whistleblowers Douma Syria

Current and former staff members of the OPCW have denounced the organization’s IIT report alleging Syrian government sarin use at Ltamenah, criticizing its reliance on rumor, hearsay, “scientifically flawed” claims and the influence of unqualified, secret “experts” aligned with the Western-backed opposition.

By OPCW Insiders

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United States Imposed Economic Sanctions: The Big Heist

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10 March 2020 — MROnline

End Deadly U.S. Sanctions

by

Since the start of the great recession in 2008 the U.S. has become increasingly dependent on the use of unilateral economic sanctions to achieve its policy objectives against its declared targets. Presently, sanctions impact one-third of humanity in 39 countries. Economic sanctions not only cause untold death and devastation to a given country by denying it access to U.S.-dominated markets—which restricts its ability to generate wealth, stabilize its currency against price fluctuations and provide critical services and resources for its people—but economic sanctions also serve to justify and conceal theft, through asset freezes and seizures, at a rate only previously accomplished through invasion and occupation.

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Why “Planet of the Humans” is crap

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29 April 2020 — MROnline

Originally published: EcoEquity by Tom Athanasiou (April 23, 2020)

Mostly, Planet of the Humans is just so fucking bad. So bad that its good points are useless. It does have some good points–there seem to be a lot of rock festivals in Vermont that claim, incorrectly, to be running on solar. They totally deserve ridicule. But you would never recommend this film to anyone. You’d be carrying water for the fossils if you did. So it’s a failure on its own terms, since it wants, or pretends to want, to bring the truth about renewables to the green movement. And it may even, judging from the ending, where both Bill McKibben and the Sierra Club are said to clarify their positions, make us a bit more careful about our tactical alliances. But boy oh boy does this guy—Jeff Gibbs is his name—know less than he thinks.
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No letup in Israeli attacks on Gaza fishers

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27 April 2020 — The Electronic Intifada

Tamara Nassar

Men and boys parse through fish on the seaportPalestinians prepare fish for sale at the Gaza seaport, 27 February. Ashraf Amra APA images

The coronavirus pandemic has derailed a lot of activities, but not Israel’s attacks on Palestinian fishers.

Israeli warships have increased their assaults in recent months, causing injuries to fishers and damage to boats.

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The real reason why the gov’t is offering £60,000 to bereaved families of COVID19 medics

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28 April 2020 — True Publica

The real reason why the gov't is offering £60,000 to bereaved families of COVID19 medics

On March 20th TruePublica published the story about the UK government that ran a national pandemic flu exercise back in 2016. It was codenamed Exercise Cygnus. The report of its findings was not made publicly available as part of the general antipathy towards the NHS in general by the Conservative party. The then chief medical officer Sally Davies, commented on what she had learnt from it in December 2016.

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Why It’s Ugly To Criticize Trump For Dodging The Vietnam Draft

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28 April 2020 — Caitlin Johnson

By Caitlin Johnstone

There’s a popular tweet going around saying “Do you know what the 58,220 American Dead from the Vietnam War will have in common with the 58,220 American dead expected this midweek? Donald Trump refused to fight for either one of them.”

The tweet has thousands of shares and made it to the front page of Reddit today. Liberals love it.

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Pandemic Delays: Postponing the Assange Extradition Hearing

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28 April 2020 — Counter Currents

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“Mr Assange will be facing a David and Goliath battle with his hands tied behind his back.”

Edward Fitzgerald QC, lawyer for Julian Assange, April 27, 2020

Julian Assange must have had time amidst cramped and hostile surrounds, paper work, pleas and applications, to ponder what circle of Dante’s Hell he finds himself in.  Ailing but still battling, the WikiLeaks publisher, through his lawyers, made another vicarious appearance at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday to delay the next stage of extradition proceedings slated for May 18.  He would have appeared via video link, but medical advice suggested it would be unsafe for him to do so at Belmarsh prison.

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Covid-19 and The Red Dawn Emails

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28 April 2020 — The Voltaire Network

by Thierry Meyssan

The Covid-19 outbreak has so far killed more than 200,000 people and frightened billions more into panic. A panic that deprives most of them of any critical sense and pushes them to make or approve stupid political decisions. A group of personalities, Red Dawn, whose correspondence was revealed by Kaiser Health News and the New York Times website, managed to impose an apocalyptic ideology: China would have declared war on us and we could only protect ourselves by confining all civilians.

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How the poor die in New York

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21 April 2020 — Red Flag

Jasmine Duff

Van Dyke I is a series of 22 hulking brick apartment blocks in Brownsville, the poorest part of Brooklyn, New York. At least 10 people have died there from COVID-19, including a mother and son whose bodies were discovered only after neighbours reported the smell to city officials. There are no tributes to them, no obituaries. “So many people have died this week. It’s enough”, Lisa Kenner, president of the Van Dyke I resident association, told Politico.

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What Will Happen with a Rushed COVID-19 Vaccine? Selected Stories

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27 April 2020 — Global Research

The Dengvaxia Disaster Was Twenty Years in the Making—What Will Happen with a Rushed COVID-19 Vaccine?

By Children’s Health Defense, April 27, 2020

For several weeks, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates have been beating the drum about a COVID-19 vaccine, seeking to keep the world’s coronavirus optics focused on a medical intervention that Gates acknowledges to be risky enough to require indemnification against lawsuits. The two are casting a COVID-19 vaccine—which they speculate could be ready in as little as 18 months—as the passport for a return to “normalcy.” The two opinion leaders’ gambit seems to be backfiring among people savvy enough to understand that Fauci’s and Gates’ organizations, pocketbooks and agendas are driving the rush for an indemnified vaccine. Other Americans may be too distracted by the historically unprecedented lockdown, however, to think through the safety issues raised by a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
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