Russian & US scientists vow to fight Covid-19 PANDEMIC together amidst political animosity

Despite Moscow and Washington having been at odds over scores of international and bilateral affairs, Russian and US scientists managed to find a common language in jointly fighting a shared threat – the coronavirus pandemic.

The scientists have teamed up to cooperate in “all the areas related to the coronavirus, its nature, treatment and prevention measures,” the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) said.

The RAS and US National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering inked an agreement on Thursday around working together on a wide range of Covid-related areas, such as epidemiology, virology, infection pathophysiology as well as mathematic and computer simulations of the spread of the novel coronavirus.

As the Covid pandemic restricts face-to-face meetings, the scientists from both sides of the Atlantic signed the agreement via a Zoom videolink.

Russia and the US are among the countries with the highest rate of Covid-19 cases reported. But while Russia seems to be succeeding in containing the epidemic with over 13,350 fatalities nationwide, the US is still witnessing an upward trend, with the death toll passing 150,000 on Wednesday.

In the US, the government’s vaccine strategy Operation Warp Speed aims to provide a vaccine to the population by January 2021.

Russia plans to approve its vaccine by August 10 and launch vaccination of the population by early 2021. Still, Alexander Sergeyev, president of the RAS, said earlier it will be necessary to monitor the vaccine-induced antibodies for at least six months to declare victory.

https://www.rt.com/news/496686-us-russia-scientists-coronavirus-plan/

Big Tech Whistleblowers Urge Lawmakers to Tackle Silicon Valley Bias: ‘Please Do Something Already’

Whistleblowers formerly employed at Google and Facebook have written an open letter to Congress urging lawmakers to take action on Big Tech bias before it’s too late.

The whistleblowers — Ryan Hartwig, former content moderator at Cognizant (a Facebook contractor), former Google employee Zach Vorhies, and former Facebook content moderator Zach McElroy — write that time is running out to tame the tech giants.

“I strongly urge members of Congress to take action whether it be through antitrust or other legislation to limit Facebook’s power to stifle political expression,” writes Hartwig.

“Just yesterday, Rep. Paul Gosar along with many others introduced legislation calling for crucial Section 230 reform,” wrote McElroy. “This is precisely the right move to make, and is all that is needed to get these big tech monsters in line. I can only be so blunt: please do something already. We’re almost out of time.”

Vorhies, meanwhile, highlighted some of the material he uncovered at Google, including the “Machine Learning fairness” program, an effort to create what Vorhies calls a “Chinese-style” system of internet censorship, that was “conveniently fast-tracked into Google’s products immediately after Donald Trump won the election.”

Read the full letter at this link.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has warned that many politicians in D.C. have been bought off by tech lobbyists.

““Here’s the message to the president: Congress will not do anything on big tech because Congress is bought off by big tech,” said Rep. Gaetz on Fox News yesterday.

In a recent interview with Breitbart News, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) said he would no longer accept donations from Big Tech companies following a congressional hearing with the heads of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon, in which the CEOs sought to excuse incidents of political censorship highlighted by Rep. Steube.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/07/30/big-tech-whistleblowers-urge-lawmakers-to-tackle-silicon-valley-bias-please-do-something-already/

Seattle Mayor Again Blames Trump After Rioters Blew Open a Police Station Using a Van Full of Explosives

Days after antifa rioters terrorized Seattle, driving a van full of weapons and explosives with the mob in order to set fires and attempt to blow up police departments, Mayor Jenny Durkan focused her attention squarely on President Donald Trump, accusing him of running a “dress rehearsal for martial law.” She claimed that Trump’s efforts to bolster local law enforcement to combat a rising tide of crime and violence have “decreased public safety.” In a press conference addressing the antifa riots, Durkan claimed “the president wants” the violence.

The riots on Saturday followed a protest in support of the antifa rioters in Portland, who have attempted to burn down the federal courthouse and Justice Center in nearly two straight months of violent riots. Seattle rioters used a van packed with fireworks, smoke bombs, stun guns, bear and pepper spray, gas masks, and more. At one point, rioters set off an explosive that blew an 8-inch hole through a wall of the Police Department’s East Precinct, the Seattle Times reported. Rioters injured 59 police officers.

Durkan focused her ire on Trump.

“I hate to say it, but it looks like this president is doing a dress rehearsal for martial law, sending in federal forces to take over police duties in city after city for political purposes,” the mayor told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Monday. “It is frightening and it’s making things worse. It has not improved public safety, it has decreased public safety.”

Last week, President Trump announced he would send federal officers to help fight a crime wave in American cities in an effort dubbed “Operation Legend.” The name honors four-year-old LeGend Taliferro, who was shot and killed while he slept on June 29 in Kansas City. Trump originally mentioned Chicago and Albuquerque, N.M., but on Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced that federal officers would also bolster local police in Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

Most likely U.S. voters support Operation Legend (55 percent), according to a recent Rasmussen poll. However, Democrats have framed the issue as an “invasion,” an “occupation,” or — in the words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a dispatching of “stormtroopers.”

Yet it seems Seattle could really use the help when it comes to combatting dangerous antifa rioters. In a press conference on Wednesday, Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best fleshed out just how dangerous Saturday’s riot truly was.

During the riot on Saturday, police spotted a van following a group of rioters and stopping just outside the East Precinct. At about the same time, explosions started going off outside the precinct. A witness later told police he or she had seen baseball bats and explosives inside the van earlier in the day.

Police impounded the van. After obtaining a search warrant, they discovered “firework pyrotechnics, smoke bombs, stun guns, bear and pepper spray, makeshift spike strips and gas masks,” the Seattle Times reported.

Best expressed the obvious, saying the van provided “evidence that not everyone who comes to these protests [is] peaceful. Peaceful protesters do not show up in a van full of … explosives.”

Durkan later insisted that most of the crowd protested peacefully, but even she admitted that the antifa rioters seemed “well-organized with this kind of destructive power.”

Police also found remnants of a Molotov cocktail that exploded near a juvenile detention facility that is still under construction.

“(The bear spray) is causing burns and itching and stinging to (officers’) face and exposed skin,” Sgt. James Lee, who works with the city’s arson/bomb squad, said at the press conference. “This lasts much longer than the … type of pepper spray that police use and is much stronger. It is not safe for use on humans.”

Best reported that 59 police officers suffered injuries during the protests.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/07/30/seattle-mayor-again-blames-trump-after-rioters-blew-open-a-police-station-using-a-van-full-of-explosives-n733400

Devin Nunes Discusses Flynn Case and Durham Criminal Investigation…

HPSCI ranking member Devin Nunes appears on Fox Business with Jackie deAngelis to discuss the latest developments in the Michael Flynn case and the John Durham investigation.

Additionally (Hat Tip Techno-fog) who helps connect some dots left during recent comments by DOJ Spokesperson Kerri Kupek about “delays in proceedings” and what might be the most likely cause. Good stuff, that makes buckets of sense.

I cannot (yet) go into details without seriously undermining my own efforts. However, this previous GJ delay completely aligns with my own boots-on-the-ground information; and the previous statements by AG Bill Barr and DOJ Spox Kerri Kupec.

Keep smilin’…

And more importantly, keep living your best life…

I’m back on the road tomorrow… and things are good.

When we originally mapped this out, the mid-August timeline always appeared to be the inflection point. That’s why I made it my own target date to organize massive ‘Phase-2’ sunlight in the event Barr/Durham failed to deliver. Everything is proceeding swimmingly.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/07/30/devin-nunes-discusses-flynn-case-and-durham-criminal-investigation/

HITCHENS: UK Gov’t Decision to Force Us to Wear Face Nappies Will Kill British High Street

As the UK public struggles with the latest State diktat requiring “face coverings” in retails stores, business are facing the prospect of another blow to street trade. Just as many local businesses were preparing for a comeback and hoping to capitalise on a positive second half of summer, the government has swooped in to crush their hopes with more draconian measures meant to “fight the virus” – even though COVID-19 has all but disappeared from hospitals nationwide.

Has government overplayed its hand again on managing this so-called ‘pandemic’?

Why is central government actively trying to crater the economy when the preponderance of evidence clearly shows that this coronavirus is not nearly as threatening as it was marketed as back in February and March?

The Government’s dedicated efforts to destroy our economy and an entire way of life have moved up a step.

High streets had just begun to stir feebly back into life after months of enforced shutdown. Then the futile decree went out from Downing Street that customers must wear muzzles.

And what will happen? Why, more people will choose not to bother to go near shops at all. They will buy from the internet giants instead.

The Government has convinced itself that this idiotic measure will somehow increase confidence. Really? After deliberately terrifying us with horror stories about a huge and deadly plague poised to slay millions and to turn our hospitals into charnel houses?

This did not happen because it was never going to happen, as more and more studies (the latest from Toronto University) are showing. The Government panicked over the wrong advice.

This superstitious, anti-scientific rubbish was challenged repeatedly by distinguished experts of all kinds, ignored by Government and BBC alike. But it has worked only too well. Travellers on public transport, where the muzzle edict has been in force for weeks, could have told them.

Forcing passengers to don facial nappies has not led to more travelling by train or bus. I speak here from direct personal experience. Passenger numbers remain pitifully low.

People are still scared to travel. Or – and this is a major factor in our approaching national doom – they have worked out that by pretending to be afraid, they can continue to stay away from work while still getting paid.

In fact, Prime Minister Alexander Johnson (can we drop the matey ‘Boris’ for ever? He is not our mate) has in a few short weeks done more damage to Britain’s railways than the notorious axeman Dr Richard Beeching of despised memory did back in the 1960s.

Now Mr Johnson is destroying high streets too. This means the wreckage of lives and the impoverishment of life at the same time. As new figures clearly showed yesterday, his actions have already greatly boosted mail-order shopping at the expense of real shops.

https://21stcenturywire.com/2020/07/29/hitchens-uk-govt-decision-to-force-us-to-wear-face-nappies-will-kill-british-high-street/

Post COVID World: The "New Abnormal"

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