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Data Privacy Advocates Alarmed By NHS’s New ‘Contact-Tracing’ App
Data Privacy Advocates Alarmed By NHS’s New ‘Contact-Tracing’ App
As both countries prepare to start unwinding the strict nationwide lockdowns imposed more than 6 weeks ago, the UK and France are collaborating on a new ‘voluntary’ surveillance app purportedly designed to help with ‘contact tracing’ for coronavirus patients.
The Evening Standard reports ministers from both countries have been “liaising” on the development of the new technology, which is expected to be ready within two or three weeks.
But why are the two allies collaborating on building their own ‘surveillance’ app instead of adopting a model proposed by Apple or Google? Well, apparently, British officials felt Apple’s treatment of user privacy was “too cautious”.
The app will use bluetooth to collect data from the phones of everybody one passes; should one of them test positive, a user will be notified.
A consultant to the French government said: “Apple appeared to be much more cautious about protecting client data and privacy than the French or British authorities.”
The smartphone app will track and trace any possibly affected persons near the user. Some have feared its use of Bluetooth could divulge confidential information about people’s locations.
To be sure, Matthew Gould, head of the unit at the NHS that’s in charge of developing the app, has said the location-tracking feature – pretty much the only reason to use the app – would be “opt-in”.
Matthew Gould, head of the NHS unit developing the app, has said the location aspect of the system would be “an opt in” and not compulsory.
“If you want to protect the NHS and stop it being overwhelmed while at the same time want to get the economy moving, the app is going to be part of the essential strategy,” he told the Commons science and technology committee.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
The Real Reasons Behind the Global Pandemic Lockdown, Part 2
The Real Reasons Behind the Global Pandemic Lockdown, Part 2
In Part 2 of The Real Reasons Behind the Global Pandemic Lockdown, I discuss and build upon the ideas from Part 1, in which I discuss the continuing misinformation being spread about the pandemic, the various creators of the pandemic narrative that includes not only State leaders but prominent billionaires, and the multiple signs of a new global financial market meltdown that will dwarf the 2008 global financial crisis. The use of a viral pandemic to shut down the global economy is a particularly effective tactic because like the war on terror, the war on this pandemic has as its enemy an unseen and still undefinable enemy (as the public unknowns about the pandemic far outweigh the public knowns, even though many State leaders and doctors, for political expediency, continue to forward unknowns as knowns). Therefore, when an enemy is undefinable, it can never be defeated and the war can be rolled out time and time again to enforce future lockdown measures. Please click anywhere below to play Part 2. In addition, please note that full podcast show notes and links to referenced information as well as the podcast topic timeline is available on the podcast link on my YouTube channel.
“Don’t Trace Me, Bro” — Just Say No to Contact Tracing
“Don’t Trace Me, Bro” — Just Say No to Contact Tracing
Contact Tracing? Really? That’s the next big government program to push for total surveillance over our lives. Now the real fallout from the Coronapocalypse comes to light.
The very people who created a fake pandemic out of faulty statistics, media fear-pimping and the rankest of propaganda are now pushing the total surveillance state to protect us (them?) from the next crisis.
James Corbett from the Corbett Report just published an excellent video discussing ‘contact tracing’ as promulgated by (who else?) the Clinton Global Initiative to create an army of new Brown Shirts to assist our wise and benevolent leaders in managing us like livestock.
James is urging us not to use their Orwellian term, and I agree with him. But the best way to do that is to make fun of it and them.
I propose just looking at them and saying, “Don’t Trace Me, Bro.”
As always when they want to herd us towards a terrible idea they first have to come up with a harmless sounding euphemism for it. Either that or just call it a war that we’re going to fight and win together, you know, for kids!
But this was always the plan with this virus. We can speculate as to why this has been done, why it was directed from the commanding heights of our society but, in the end, that speculation is irrelevant.
This is happening, it’s here and they are now working to square the circle. The goal is to finish off the last vestiges of anonymity and individuality started with the destruction of financial privacy during the Clinton Adminstration, which was wrapped in the classic government phrases “Know Your Customer” and “Anti-Money Laundering”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
They’re All High on Fed Fairy Dust
They’re All High on Fed Fairy Dust
Everybody realizes the US economy is in a bad spot. But most people still seem to believe it will bounce right back once we deal with the coronavirus.
They’re all high on Federal Reserve fairy dust.
US GDP contracted by 4.8% in the first quarter. It was the first negative GDP reading since a 1.1% decline in the first quarter of 2014 and it was the lowest level since the 8.4% plunge in Q4 of 2008.
And the worst is yet to come.
The Q1 GDP number only captures the first couple of weeks of coronavirus-inspired government lockdowns of the economy. In fact, in January Donald Trump and others were telling us that it was the best economy in the history of the world. That was also in the first quarter.
The first-quarter GDP print came in even worse than expected. Economists were projecting a contraction of 3.5 to 4%. The precipitous and rapid plunge in economic activity not only reflects the impacts of turning off the economy in the midst of coronavirus; it also reveals just how fragile the economy was before the pandemic.
Back in January, President Trump called it the greatest economy in history. Trump continued to talk up the economy during the State of the Union address, taking credit for the “strong” economic growth. At the time, Peter Schiff said nobody should be taking credit for the condition of the US economy. In fact, economic growth wasn’t much different than it was when Obama was president.
The only difference is we had to borrow even more money to achieve the same level of fake GDP growth that we did under Obama. The reality is nobody should be taking credit for the current US economy. The question is who deserves the blame?”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Where to Get Seeds When Online Sources are SOLD OUT
Where to Get Seeds When Online Sources are SOLD OUT
With the current shift in the economy, and with supply lines being interrupted all around the nation, there has been a massive – massive! – spike in the number of people interested in growing a garden this spring.
Hundreds of thousands – possibly millions – of new gardens are springing up across the country. Some are large, some are small, and all are important. Some people are calling them Victory Gardens, others are calling them crisis gardens. Even those living in high-rise apartments are planting “Victory Sills,” pots or glasses of water on their windowsills in which herbs or sprouting vegetables are rooting. Whatever the name, cumulatively, they’ll be an important source of fresh produce.
Normally the renaissance in gardening of all sorts would be nothing but good news. However, the surge of interest from both novice and experienced gardeners is stretching seed companies to the limit. Many companies have stopped answering the phones and are putting up online pleas for understanding as they try to handle backorders with limited capacity and inventory.
Here are some other places to get seeds.
If you find yourself unable to order seeds online, here are some alternate sources to consider:
- If you’ve planted non-hybrid seeds in previous years and have saved your seeds for planting this year, congratulations (and be generous with your gardening friends). This is the ultimate way to obtain seeds – by saving your own. Ultimately this is the position in which everyone should be. (Learn more about saving seeds here.)
- Ask your gardening friends for any surplus seeds they can spare. They may also be able to offer helpful planting advice.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
A light at the end of the Covid tunnel?
A light at the end of the Covid tunnel?
In farming and food systems, as in every other avenue of public life, context is everything, as I said during a discussion on Al Jazeera’s ‘Inside Story’, this past Thursday.
On the programme, which asked how coronavirus is threatening food security, I pointed out that all the stories making international headlines in relation to the impact of the pandemic on food – milk being poured down the drain, plane loads of eastern European vegetable pickers licensed to travel to the UK to harvest salad crops, the hoarding, the scarcities –are reflective of the food system that exists, namely intensive, industrialised, globalised, damaging to the environment and public health and, above all, insecure and lacking resilience.
So, although the current food system seems so apparently successful, even to the extent that we have ‘coped magnificently’ with maintaining supplies of key staple foods to the consuming public during the COVID-19 emergency, we need to realise that this is actually a dangerous delusion.
In truth, this model of a highly intensive centralised production, packing and distribution system, for most of the foods that are sold in supermarkets, will continue to have devastating negative consequences on the planet and its people.
It is a system that has been progressively developed over the last few decades, driven mainly by its simplicity and accompanying economies of scale. However, this isn’t the full picture, since the process results in the loss of thousands of jobs, a huge negative impact on local economies, damage to climate change, biodiversity, public health and, as we can now see, food insecurity in the event of any sudden external shocks.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Exxon Crushed By Pandemic, Reports First Quarterly Loss In 32 Years
Exxon Crushed By Pandemic, Reports First Quarterly Loss In 32 Years
Exxon Mobil Corp. has reported its first quarterly loss in 32 years amid oversupply conditions, a crashed economy, and a pandemic that continues to destroy petroleum demand.
The company reported a $610 million loss for the quarter ending March 31. That is equivalent to about a 14c loss per share in 1Q versus earnings per share estimates of around 55c Y/Y.
First-quarter results are a reminder that the worst has yet to come. Lockdowns began around mid-month, so the quarter only captured about 15 days or so of demand destruction.
Here are some of the highlights from the 1Q earnings report:
- 1Q production 4,046 mboe/d, +1.6% y/y, estimate 3,943 (Bloomberg Consensus)
- 1Q capital expenditure $7.14 billion, +3.7% y/y
- 1Q production 9,396 mmcfe/d, -5.3% y/y, estimate 8,633
- 1Q chemical prime product sales 6,237 kt, -7.9% y/y
- 1Q downstream petroleum product sales 5,287 kbd, -2.4% y/y
- 1Q cash flow from operations and asset sales $6.36 billion, -25% y/y
- 1Q refinery throughput 4,060 mb/d, +4.5% y/y
Exxon also announced it is “reducing 2020 capital spending by 30 percent and cash operating expenses by 15 percent. Capex is now expected to be approximately $23 billion for the year, down from the previously announced guidance of $33 billion.”
“COVID-19 has significantly impacted near-term demand, resulting in oversupplied markets and unprecedented pressure on commodity prices and margins,” said Darren W. Woods, chairman and chief executive officer.
“While we manage through these challenging times, we are not losing sight of the long-term fundamentals that drive our business. Economic activity will return, and populations and standards of living will increase, which will in turn drive demand for our products and a recovery of the industry.”
Coronavirus: Something’s Not Right Here…
Coronavirus: Something’s Not Right Here…
It’s hard not to start asking the question: Are we being played?
Following yesterday’s pimping of Gilead Science’s antiviral drug remdesivir on scant and suspect results, it’s hard not to start asking the question: Are we being played?
We’ve argued in several past videos that there is ample enough evidence that hydroxychloroquine shows enough promise in reducing/treating covid-19 that further research is merited. Instead, the drug is being demonized in the media.
That doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. But, hey, maybe there’s a good reason that a cheap widely-available treatment that has been administered hundreds of millions of times over the past 70 years, making it one of the most medically-delivered drugs in history, is suddenly being labelled “unsafe”?
But much more maddening is that remdesivir has suddenly been promoted to “standard of care” status despite its spotty and unproven track record.
Could that have anything to do with the fact that 9 of the 50 doctors on the NIH panel setting its covid-19 treatment guidelines work for Gilead Sciences?
The conflicts of interest and profit motives rampant among our policymakers are extremely concerning. Something is not right here…
Don’t forget to get your free download of Peak Prosperity’s book Prosper!. .
The Twilight-zone Economy Resulting From Covid-19
The Twilight-zone Economy Resulting From Covid-19
Currently, our economy is caught somewhere in the Twilight-Zone, a place that exists for moments but where wrong decisions often lead to madness. While this is happening a great deal of the population sits at home trying to ignore the reality developing outside their walls. The truth is we will not know where we are until we reach the other side. When that will be is uncertain but do not expect the economy to land on its feet. Hopefully, it will not be as bad as many hyped-up doom-porn forecasters predict, unfortunately, covid-19 has taken a heavy toll on society. This is not intended to be a fluff piece but to hit on some key realities we face going forward. As much as we would like to put this behind us this world altering event is still very much in our face.
Governments and mass media have done a very poor job of handling this crisis. Promises of having enough test available remains a lie in the state where I live and most others. If people can’t get tested and are sent home to rest until they turn blue it is safe to say we really don’t know the extent of this crisis. Call it what you what but most people will concede that we have witnessed cover-ups, misinformation, the bungling of aid, and corruption. To say we have been failed is an understatement. Yes, covid-19 is an ugly beast but if this had been handled properly this might have all gone down very differently.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Tyson Foods Offers Workers $1000 Bonus To Return To Corona-Factories
Tyson Foods Offers Workers $1000 Bonus To Return To Corona-Factories
Tyson Foods is set to double bonuses, increase wages, and better protect employees amid one of the worst health crises to strike the nation’s meatpacking plants.
Several Tyson plants have now been shuttered due to COVID-19 outbreaks. The company is now offering “$120 million in “thank you bonuses” for 116,000 US frontline workers and truckers, up from the $60 million announced in early April. The company is moving up the first $500 bonus payment to early May.” The company said another tranche of payments could arrive as soon as June, totaling $1,000.
The release also states that it will increase short-term disability coverage to 90% of average pay until June 30 for employees who are not able to work because of sickness.
Tyson said it was improving social distancing within in plants along with keeping better track of its employee’s health:
- Screen workers for additional symptoms, such as coughing and shortness of breath
- Have designated monitors at each facility to help enforce social distancing
- Require the use of company-provided surgical-style face coverings
“This pandemic is ever-evolving, and the decision to make these changes reflects our desire to continuously explore new ways of supporting our team members through this crisis,” said Mary Oleksiuk, executive vice president and chief human resources officer for Tyson Foods.
“The safety and well-being of our people is our top priority as we work together to fulfill our critical role of feeding people across the country.”
Tyson has already waived the waiting period to qualify for short-term disability so employees can get paid quicker while on sick leave.
The release notes that Tyson has formed an in-house “coronavirus task force” that has implemented numerous measures at facilities to protect workers. Some of those efforts include:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
YouTube Censors Viral Video of Doctors Criticizing ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order
YouTube Censors Viral Video of Doctors Criticizing ‘Stay-at-Home’ Order
Deleted after racking up over 5 million views.
YouTube has censored a viral video in which two doctors criticized the logic of whether California’s stay-at-home coronavirus order is necessary.
The video, which had racked up over 5 million views, featured Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi, co-owners of Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, Calif.
In the clip, Erickson asserts that there is only a “0.03 chance of dying from COVID in the state of California,” prompting him to ask, “Does that necessitate sheltering in place? Does that necessitate shutting down medical systems? Does that necessitate people being out of work?”
Erickson also asked why fatalities were being counted as COVID-19 deaths when other ailments were actually more to blame.
“When someone dies in this country right now, they’re not talking about the high blood pressure, the diabetes, the stroke. They’re saying ‘Did they die from COVID?’” Erickson said. “We’ve been to hundreds of autopsies. You don’t talk about one thing, you talk about comorbidities. ER doctors now [say] ‘It’s interesting when I’m writing about my death report, I’m being pressured to add COVID. Why is that?”
The video was deleted late last night for “violating YouTube’s terms of service.”
Daniel Horowitz✔@RMConservative
Is it just me or did @YouTube take down Dr. Erickson’s viral video with 5 million views? https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=xfLVxx_lBLU&feature=emb_title … YouTube at 🏠 @YouTube
Earlier this month, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN that the company would ban any video content that contradicted World Health Organization recommendations.
However, Wojcicki suggested that this would mainly be focused on banning information about fake cures, not questioning of government policy.
The video platform has also set about banning any content that claims 5G cell towers are linked to the coronavirus outbreak.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
AI Social Distancing Tool Keeps People “Safe”
AI Social Distancing Tool Keeps People “Safe”
Landing AI has created a new tool to help keep people “safe” by spying on them with a camera that measures whether or not they’re properly participating in social distancing. Because who needs privacy when there’s a deadly virus around, right?
Landing AI’s blog says:
To complement our customers’ efforts and to help ensure social distancing protocol in their workplace, Landing AI has developed an AI-enabled social distancing detection tool that can detect if people are keeping a safe distance from each other by analyzing real time video streams from the camera.
For example, at a factory that produces protective equipment, technicians could integrate this software into their security camera systems to monitor the working environment with easy calibration steps. As the demo shows below, the detector could highlight people whose distance is below the minimum acceptable distance in red, and draw a line between to emphasize this. The system will also be able to issue an alert to remind people to keep a safe distance if the protocol is violated.
As part of an ongoing effort to keep our customers and others safe, and understanding that the only way through this is with global collaboration, we wanted to share the technical methodology we used to develop this software. (source)
Watch the quick video below.
Watching life go on through the eyes of an artificial intelligence device has a certain sense of dystopia. The technology highlights “people whose distance is below the minimum acceptable distance in red, and draw a line between to emphasize this.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Papers Please!
Papers Please!
For those who may not know, Mrs. Cog and I live in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia, near the intersection of the three poorest counties in the Commonwealth. While that fact doesn’t directly affect us, either financially or physically, it does for many who live within our local community.
The area is basically poor farming country, with many locals still scratching out a living raising cows and calves on steep hilly terrain suitable mostly for livestock grazing and, occasionally, assorted cash crops such as cabbage, corn or even hay.
But for the most part, those who must pay the bills work for others outside the immediate area and for relatively low wages. Worse, they travel many miles to make their keep, often 30-50 miles one way on poorly maintained country back roads. This makes for very long days to match those rather short paychecks.
The point is, many who live here must travel long distances for meager wages. Take away their vehicle or impede their travel and many would quickly fall into abject poverty up here on the mountain. That said, it’s not much different from any other rural American community with an aging and declining population.
Last week the governor of Virginia escalated his two week earlier ‘stay-at-home’ declaration, moving it from voluntary to mandatory, with prejudice I might add. Meaning ‘official’ enforcement. As in at the point of a gun, if the ‘authority’ present at the scene of the infraction deems it necessary.
At the very least, there is the implied threat to use significant force if compliance is slow or missing entirely. That gun on his or her hip is not a non-functioning uniform decoration, but a lethal weapon wielded by the state to compel compliance and obedience.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Here’s Why the Economy Won’t Recover–and No, It’s Not Covid-19 or the Lockdown
Here’s Why the Economy Won’t Recover–and No, It’s Not Covid-19 or the Lockdown
When reality and truth become the sworn enemies of society’s political and economic elites, the society is well and truly doomed.
The risks of Covid-19 and the lockdown have been explored across a wide spectrum of opinion. To hit just a few of too many to count:
— Permanent loss of civil liberties under the guise of “pandemic controls.”
— Failure of control measures to limit the pandemic in any sort of economically manageable manner.
— Schemes for ID Cards identifying those with antibodies may fail as immunity might be fleeting, or low antibody counts may not confer immunity.
These visible risks arise directly from the pandemic and efforts to control it, but the reasons why the economy won’t recover were in force long before the pandemic:
1. Unsustainable dependence on expanding debt to fund consumption as earned income stagnated.
2. Unsustainably high costs imposed by cartels, monopolies, insider-skims/scams, institutionalized fraud, hyper-financialization, exploitation, etc. (Please see What’s Collapsing Can’t Be Saved: Our Fraudulent Economy)
3. The economy-wide creation of self-serving simulations of trust, credibility, transparency and accountability as substitutes for actual trust, credibility, transparency and accountability.
This ceaseless spew of simulacra to cloak self-serving corruption is hidden from view lest the truth–that authentic trust, credibility, transparency and accountability have been dismantled because they inhibit the profiteering and exploitation of insiders and elites– undermine the entire status quo.
And so “success” (as in maximizing profits) in America is now a game of creating believable facsimiles of what was once authentic. Like all mammals, humans retain a sixth sense–commonly referred to as the “sniff test”, i.e. something doesn’t feel right–and so the simulacra are only partially successful in making us believe institutions are trustworthy, credible, transparently operated and governed in a way that enforces accountability.
As a result, the more all our dominant institutions press their claims of legitimacy, the more they erode their legitimacy.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Blain’s Morning Porridge – April 23 2002 – Avoiding Pension Crash
Blain’s Morning Porridge – April 23 2002 – Avoiding Pension Crash
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act”
Trump is not a complete fool. He knows enough to move oil prices up. Threaten to start a war in the Middle East. Works every time..! Sure enough stocks followed higher.
But, even St George would struggle to slay the microscopic dragon at the core of this unfolding crisis. Just a few months ago none of us foresaw just how deep the downturn the COVID virus triggered could possibly go. In early Feb I suggested we faced an economic hit similar to the SARs epidemic – a $40 bln hit to the global economy, and a 16% slide in markets. I massively underestimated.
There are a number of brutal realities:
1) We still don’t know how much deeper the Virus will dig. The news is very mixed – the first wave is apparently passing in Europe and US, but there are still doubts on subsequent waves, and uncertainty about renewed infections around the globe. Lockdowns are being extended. The social distancing and lockdowns that have trounced the global economy in the short-term aren’t going to end overnight. They are set to continue with only limited easing – for months, maybe through the year. We just don’t know – which means the real economic damage continues to escalate.
2) Don’t look to Global Markets for guidance – they are detached from the economic reality because of renewed financial distortions from QEI (QE Infinity) govt supports and bailouts. There is still an element of denial in markets – but sentiment is beginning to shift as the evidence mounts. A host of indicators such as the rate of downgrades to upgrades being nearly 10/1, central banks buying Fallen Angel junk, and mandatory dividend cuts – all point to rising crisis. (There are still sound investment opportunities out there – but prices are seriously distorted.) The number of recommendations to buy gold is soaring – a sure sign of trouble.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
