NY State Sen (Democrat), I Think Nursing Home COVID Deaths Undercounted by ‘a Couple of Thousand’ ‘at a Minimum’

Ian Hanchett22 Aug 2020

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During an interview broadcast on Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” New York State Sen. James Skoufis (D) said that he thinks New York’s numbers underrepresent the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and he believes that “at a minimum, we’re talking probably a couple of thousand additional deaths.”

Skoufis said, “My gut sense is, at a minimum, we’re talking probably a couple of thousand additional deaths.”

He also stated, “We need to understand what worked, what didn’t work, and we need to best prepare for next time, and the only way to do that is to get full information.”

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/08/22/ny-state-sen-i-think-nursing-home-covid-deaths-undercounted-by-a-couple-of-thousand-at-a-minimum/

Hackers Leak Alleged Internal Documents Of China’s Social Media Surveillance

A hacking group claims to have breached three Chinese tech companies responsible for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) social media surveillance Saturday, with the group attempting to blast leaked documents across social media.

The hacking group, CCP Unmasked, says it infiltrated the Knowlesys, Yunrun Big Data Service, and OneSight data firms, VICE reported. The group attempted to send the information out via its Twitter account, but the platform suspended their account under its policy against hacked documents.

“We think the public deserves to know about the CCP’s attempts to undermine democracy and freedom of expression,” the hackers said in an email to VICE.

“We don’t want to become the story and we want to protect ourselves. But we can tell you that we hacked the companies,” the hackers added. “And that we did it because we think the CCP’s desire to put out fake news and interfere with democracy needs to be challenged.”

The leaked documents allegedly show a presentation by Knowlesys regarding one of its products called the “Intelligence Center,” which allows governments to track what “the opposition party” talks about and does on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and elsewhere.

Such surveillance is reportedly critical for China’s ongoing social credit system, in which citizens are assigned a rank based on how closely their lives adhere to ideals put forward by the CCP. Citizens’ social media activity is a major part of a person’s assigned credit.

The Chinese government announced the new social credit initiative in fall 2017, penalizing people for criminal behavior as well as what they buy, do, and say. The country implemented President Xi Jinping’s policy of “once untrustworthy, always restricted” approach to social engineering.

“It will forge a public opinion environment where keeping trust is glorious,” the country’s policy announcement stated. “It will strengthen sincerity in government affairs, commercial sincerity, social sincerity and the construction of judicial credibility.”

The system assigns users values between 350 and 950 points, based on five factors: credit history, ability to fulfill a contract, personal characteristics, behavior and preference, and social relationships — most of which can be tracked via social media.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/22/hackers-china-surveillance-leak-social-media/

Hungry New Yorkers form quarter-mile line for free food in Queens

By Melanie Gray and Georgett Roberts

The line stretched a quarter-mile before the sun was barely up Saturday, snaking around corners like bread lines in the 1930s. But the hungry in Queens are today’s New Yorkers, left jobless by the coronavirus.

Until the pandemic struck the city, La Jornada food pantry used to hand out groceries to roughly 1,000 families a week. Now, the number tops 10,000. And volunteers serve lunch every day to 1,000 — many of them kids with growling stomachs. Across the five boroughs, the hungry is in the hundreds of thousands, the Food Bank of New York estimates.

“It reminds me of the picture from the Great Depression where a man in a suit and tie is giving another man in a suit and tie an apple. That’s all he had,” La Jornada’s Pedro Rodriguez told The Post. “We give all we have, but that’s not enough.”

Seniors, moms and kids, singles — many immigrants from China and Mexico — wait for hours. They turn out in droves wherever, and whenever, the food pantry’s truck shows up.

“We feel like we are underwater, drowning in a tsunami of people,” Rodriguez, a volunteer who acts as the food pantry’s executive director, told The Post. “This isn’t like a little rain coming down. The numbers are unbelievable.”

In less than an hour Saturday, Rodriguez and his army of other volunteers — nearly 400 spread across Queens — checked off almost 250 names from the appointment list.

Hungry New Yorkers form quarter-mile line for free food in Queens

By Melanie Gray and Georgett Roberts

The line stretched a quarter-mile before the sun was barely up Saturday, snaking around corners like bread lines in the 1930s. But the hungry in Queens are today’s New Yorkers, left jobless by the coronavirus.

Until the pandemic struck the city, La Jornada food pantry used to hand out groceries to roughly 1,000 families a week. Now, the number tops 10,000. And volunteers serve lunch every day to 1,000 — many of them kids with growling stomachs. Across the five boroughs, the hungry is in the hundreds of thousands, the Food Bank of New York estimates.

“It reminds me of the picture from the Great Depression where a man in a suit and tie is giving another man in a suit and tie an apple. That’s all he had,” La Jornada’s Pedro Rodriguez told The Post. “We give all we have, but that’s not enough.”

Seniors, moms and kids, singles — many immigrants from China and Mexico — wait for hours. They turn out in droves wherever, and whenever, the food pantry’s truck shows up.

“We feel like we are underwater, drowning in a tsunami of people,” Rodriguez, a volunteer who acts as the food pantry’s executive director, told The Post. “This isn’t like a little rain coming down. The numbers are unbelievable.”

In less than an hour Saturday, Rodriguez and his army of other volunteers — nearly 400 spread across Queens — checked off almost 250 names from the appointment list.

https://nypost.com/2020/08/22/hungry-new-yorkers-line-up-around-the-block-for-free-food/