Monday, August 10, 2020

Lockdowns Never Again: Sweden Was Right, and We Were Wrong

In life, we encounter things which may work in theory, but not in practice. Communism is famously one of those things. Time travel is another. With any luck, Americans will soon come to realize that strict social distancing, economic lockdowns, and mask-wearing all belong in that category of supposedly sound ideas that simply don’t work in reality.

For evidence, let’s look to Sweden. As Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, an ER doctor at a hospital in Stockholm, writes on his blog, “COVID is over in Sweden. People have gone back to their normal lives and barely anyone is getting infected anymore.”

Unlike so many other countries, “Sweden never went into complete lockdown,” Dr. Kendrick writes. Non-essential businesses remained open, people continued frequenting restaurants, the kids stayed in school, and “very few people have bothered with face masks.”

Basically, Sweden did the exact opposite of what most Americans tragically still believe are the necessary requirements to reach the outcome that Sweden has achieved.

He argues what should now be obvious to any rational, thinking person, which is that “the size of the response in most of the world (not including Sweden) has been totally disproportionate to the threat.”

Naysayers may point to Sweden’s mortality rate to discount its success. But the virus has taken nearly 6,000 people in a country of 10 million, and one which tallies about 100,000 annual deaths each year. Given that 70 percent of those who died with COVID were over the age of 80 and very unhealthy, he argues, “quite a few of those 6,000 would have died this year anyway,” making COVID a “mere blip in terms of its effect on mortality.” And, while Sweden will likely continue to see deaths from COVID, it will likely never see anything close to those numbers again. The large number of deaths can be clearly attributed to a “complete lack of any immunity” to this novel coronavirus.

A few months ago, Dr. Kendrick says that “practically everyone who was tested had COVID,” even if the presenting symptom was a “nose bleed” or “stomach pain.” Today, he reports that he hasn’t seen a COVID patient in over a month, and even when he tests patients with fever or cough, the “tests invariably come back as negative.”

To be clear, Sweden’s economy is wide open. No one is social distancing or wearing a ridiculous mask. Life is back to normal, and the infection rate is still falling. It’s pretty safe to say the population in Sweden has now built some level of immunity to the virus, and all signs indeed point to the pandemic being...

The Only Time This Woman Ever Promoted Religion Was When She Sent Hundreds To Get Abused By John Of God:

John Of God Was Once Hyped By Oprah. Now He's Accused Of Abusing Hundreds Of Women.

Oprah Pictured Kissing Harvey Weinstein

REVEALED: TikTok Founder’s 2018 Pledge To Promote ‘Socialist Core Values’ And Devotion To Chinese Communist Party

THE FOUNDER AND CEO OF TIKTOK’S PARENT COMPANY BYTEDANCE, ZHANG YIMING, RECENTLY PLEDGED TO USE HIS COMPANY TO PROMOTE “SOCIALIST CORE VALUES” AND FOSTER ADHERENCE TO THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY’S “IDEOLOGY, POLITICAL THINKING, AND DEEDS.”

Zhang showed his fealty in a nearly 1,000-word essay after China’s State Administration of Radio and Television banned his first app for “improper” content,

Posted to the Tencent-owned platform WeChat, the apology began with Zhang admitting his app offended his “socialist core values.”

“In the past, we have placed too much emphasis on the role of technology, and failed to realize that socialist core values are the prerequisite to technology,” he stated.

He noted the “deep-seated problems for the company” included “a weak understanding of the “four consciousness”, a lack of socialist core values, and a biased guidance of public opinion.”

“Four consciousness” is a term favored by President Xi Jinping, which, as explained by a high-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) apparatchik is to foster adherence to party “ideology, political thinking, and deeds”:

“The fundamental principle of strengthening consciousness is to follow the ideology, political thinking and deeds of the CCP Central Committee, with Xi as general secretary.”

While apologizing for “failing to live up to the guidance and expectations of the authorities,” the TikTok CEO, who has repeatedly insisted the app has no links to the CCP, admitted that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has received “a lot of guidance and help” from “the authorities.”

“I blame myself for failing to live up to the guidance and expectations of the authorities. In the past few years, the authorities have given us a lot of guidance and help, but I failed to understand properly and to correct properly in the past that resulted in the repercussions today.”

This ByteDance-CCP relationship goes some way to explaining the Trump administration’s skepticism of TikTok, its data-mining, and its...

VIDEO: Brawl Breaks Out as Patriots Rise to Confront ANTIFA for Threatening a Disabled Veteran in Colorado Suburbs

These ANTIFA terrorists were repelled by Colorado patriots.

A video is quickly going viral of ANTIFA domestic terrorists being repelled by a group of patriots after allegedly threatening a disabled military veteran.

The group of patriots can be seen in the video marching as ANTIFA terrorists back up, realizing that they aren’t in a liberal-dominated city like Portland or Seattle this time. The masked terrorists are jeered at by the patriots and clearly intimidated through their body language.

“So we are currently marching the ANTIFA commie b*stards out of the neighborhood because nobody wants ANTIFA in the neighborhood. Nobody wants them here so we are marching them out,” the man taking the video said.

“Bye bye, commie scum! Bye bye, go home!” a man announced as the ANTIFA hordes were driven from the neighborhood.

At a certain point, a skirmish occurred and there was a brief brawl between the ANTIFA terrorists and the patriots driving them out of the neighborhood. It is unclear from the video how the brawl was started.

“You guys came to the wrong city, boys and girls,” a patriot announced as the brawl was taking place.

One of the communists in the skirmish had a knife, according to bystanders, but it does not appear that anyone was stabbed during the brief brawl. The police showed up after the fight had concluded. Cops can be seen arresting certain violent communists while the rest of the leftist mob fled.

Part 2:

Big League Politics has reported on how ANTIFA is devastating towns willing to tolerate their orgy of destruction, with Portland being perhaps the most embarrassing example of this national phenomenon:

Portland ANTIFA continued its reign of terror over the Oregon city on Saturday night, setting a fire within a Portland Police Bureau union building that the far-left militant group had already targeted and successfully burned on two previous occasions.

A combined force of the Portland Police and Oregon State Police ejected the far-left thugs from the area shortly after the arson attack on the union building, finally showing some force after it appeared the ANTIFA mob had free reign to...

Your Violent Overthrow Attempt Will Be Televised...

4 Points in Understanding China’s Goal for Meddling in US Elections

FBI Director Christopher Wray reportedly provided a detailed classified briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee last week on election meddling by China.

Also, on Friday, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, issued a public statement with details of how China, Russia and Iran were targeting the U.S. elections.

The Chinese communist regime’s interference includes hacking local voter registration databases and trying to influence members of Congress, Axios reported.

Wray’s briefing also came as the Chinese state-owned TikTok, an increasingly popular social media app believed to be a potential tool in election interference, not only faces a U.S. ban but may be sold to Microsoft or another American company.

Experts say China would not be able to change votes cast by Americans. But this could be cyberwarfare that the United States might not be prepared for, and could create chaos and lack of trust in the integrity of the election results.

Here are four potential ways China could interfere in American elections.

1. How Would China’s Meddling Compare to Russia’s?

Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. election led to lengthy congressional probes and a special counsel investigation. Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee and bought social media ads.

“Cyber is certainly the strongest lever to turn, manipulation on social media, it all falls under the umbrella of information warfare,” Greg Barbaccia, a former Army intelligence sergeant with expertise in counterintelligence, insider threats, and corporate espionage, told The Daily Signal.

But the hacking threat could be increased, Barbaccia said.

“With the Equifax hack, China accessed information on 145 million people,” he said.

The social media companies vulnerable in the 2016 election campaign will be more prepared, he said.

“Facebook has a huge interest in countering interference this time around,” Barbaccia said. “They know their own reputation is on the line.”

It’s somewhat difficult to compare Russia and China in election meddling, said Karla Mastracchio, a former intelligence analyst who continues to do consulting work for the Defense Department in the areas of communication and influence.

“Russia and China have different capabilities,” Mastracchio, also an adjunct professor in the department of journalism at the University of Iowa, told The Daily Signal. “It’s like two high school bullies. One is big and strong. The other is really smart. Both could make your life miserable.”

She said Russia and China both are good at developing “deep fakes,” or videos that look real, which are more compelling than the false news stories that Russia pushed on Facebook in 2016.

“A deep fake is not just good technology but technology tied to the culture to become believable,” Mastracchio said. “Deep fakes look for things that validate people’s beliefs.”

She noted that China has enough business ties with the United States and other regions of the world that it can obtain an understanding of the culture—political and otherwise—for effective PR messaging.

“We should stop thinking about countries as border-bound and think about their digital footprint,” Mastracchio said. “China has a huge digital footprint in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America as well as the United States.”

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow with The Heritage Foundation, said China is clearly more of a threat than Russia. He cited the hack of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in which China accessed information on all federal employees.

“Folks who were so worried about Russian interference should realize China is a bigger threat,” von Spakovsky said. “The OPM hack was the biggest data breach in the federal government’s history. If they wanted to cause trouble, they could.”

2. What’s China’s Endgame?

CHICAGO — Three family members have been indicted on a labor trafficking conspiracy charge for allegedly forcing two undocumented West African teenagers to work in the Chicago suburbs.

Nawomi Awoga, 71, of Hazel Crest, and her two daughters, Marina Oke, also known as Marina Fandohan, 34, of Country Club Hills, and Assiba Lea Fandohan, 31, of Hazel Crest, are charged with conspiracy to conceal, harbor, and shield from detection two children from the West African country of Benin, according to an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The indictment also charges the defendants with forcing labor through threats of serious harm to a victim or another person.

They were arrested Monday.

According to the charges, Awoga coached the victims, then age 14 and 12, in Benin to lie to U.S. immigration authorities about their family relationships in order to obtain tourist visas, and then accompanied them into the United States. Once in the U.S., the defendants harbored the victims in residences in the Chicago suburbs of Country Club Hills and Hazel Crest while the victims were forced to provide labor and services for...