WHO Now Says Only Wear a Mask If You are Sick or Working with Sick — Otherwise You Don’t Need One

In early March Dr. Fauci told “60 Minutes” there was no need to wear a face mask during the pandemic.

https://youtu.be/NUHsEmlIoE4

On April 5th Dr. Fauci said the major reason to wear a mask is not to affect others.

On May 12th Dr. Fauci said face masks were the best PPE for the general public.

https://youtu.be/Wh1BeCpioSw

Then two weeks ago Then Dr. Fauci was seen scratching his face and adjusting his mask on live TV.

Earlier this week Dr. Fauci said masks are symbolic.

Of course this is the same guy who said Tinder Hookups were okay during a pandemic.

And not the W.H.O. announced that you don’t need a mask if you are healthy.

They’re only for if you are sick.

Excuse us if we don’t believe a word coming from these fickle elites.

And they wonder why we continue to see scenes like this across the country.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/crazy-now-says-wear-mask-sick-working-sick-otherwise-dont-need-one/

DNI Ratcliffe Releases Flynn-Kislyak Transcripts to Senators Grassley and Johnson

DNI John Ratcliffe released the Flynn-Kislyak transcripts on Friday afternoon.

Ratcliffe sent the transcripts to Senators Grassley, Ron Johnson. The transcripts were copied to Democrat Senators Dianne Feinstein and Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff.

FOX News reported on the release today.

The transcripts have long been sought by lawmakers because they reveal the contents of the phone calls between Flynn and Kislyak during the presidential transition period. Flynn pleaded guilty for making false statements to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak, a plea he later sought to withdraw.

“As I stated throughout the confirmation process, transparency is vital to allowing the American people to have confidence in the Intelligence Community,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. “As the Director of National Intelligence, it is my obligation to review declassification requests with the overarching priority of protecting sources and methods, while also providing transparency whenever possible. Accordingly, today the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified transcripts concerning Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.”

The transcripts were declassified by Richard Grenell on his way out as acting director of national intelligence, leaving the decision on whether to make those documents public up to Ratcliffe, who was officially sworn in as director on Tuesday.

Ratcliffe, in his first major move as DNI, sent the declassified transcripts of phone conversations between Flynn and Kislyak to Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Friday. The Flynn-Kislyak phone calls took place in 2016 on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29.

“In response to bipartisan requests regarding the LTG Michael Flynn (Retired) transcripts, please find the enclosed declassified documents,” Ratcliffe wrote to Johnson and Grassley on Friday, copying Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Mark Warner, D-Va., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/breaking-dni-ratcliffe-releases-flynn-kislyak-transcripts-senators-grassley-johnson-flynn-not/

Around 2 BILLION people may lose their jobs in the next couple of months due to pandemic

More than half of the world’s workforce (nearly two billion people) risk losing their jobs or moving to part-time work in 2020 as a result of the economic fallout from coronavirus outbreak.

That’s according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), seen by RIA Novosti.

“It’s hard to overestimate the radical changes in the global workforce due to the crisis caused by the outbreak of COVID-19,” said the report, citing estimates by the International Labor Organization that global labor income losses will reach $3.4 trillion this year.

In the next two to three months, one out of six people in the world will lose their jobs, with the unemployment rate to exceed 17 percent, said the authors of the research.

The impact of the crisis on the labor market will vary greatly across industries, with those most directly affected by quarantine measures to be hit the hardest. According to BCG analysis, more than 80 percent of all the layoffs in the world are likely to occur in the non-food retail sector, manufacturing, hotel and restaurant business, tourism and construction.

“We expect that the world’s unemployment rate will start returning to balance by the end of 2020. However, [the] pandemic has already launched the process of long-term structural changes – from flexible and remote work schemes to accelerated automation – and these changes will affect up to 1.5 billion jobs over the next decade.”

BCG estimates that by 2030, automation will put 12 percent of existing jobs at risk, and about 30 percent of jobs will require completely new skills.

The study also indicated that more than 10 percent of the global workforce is highly likely to work remotely on a permanent basis, while for office workers, the figure could reach 30 percent.

https://www.rt.com/business/490080-global-job-losses-pandemic/

How Do You Like Democratic Socialism So Far?

Now that we’ve had a few months to mourn the loss of our basic liberties, even if our overlords make a symbolic head-fake toward giving them back, one must realize the ramifications of what has happened and what it means going forward.

The key point to understand is that the precedent has been set. If the state can take away your freedom to assemble or otherwise control your movements or operate your business now, because of coronavirus, then they can do it again in the future for something else. For anything else. From here on in, every time the powers that be are spooked by what they see coming at them, like a sudden, catastrophic loss of credibility and relevance, they know they can just wrap up an emergency in hysteria and shut the world down again, and again, and again.

In the eyes of Big Government progressives and socialists, what has happened over the past few months isn’t an unmitigated disaster with no historical parallel, it’s an opportunity. It’s a chance to condition the populace to accept the tenets of central government control and the equitable reordering of other people’s lives:

Last month, an eternity in COVID-19 time, I indulged in some wishful thinking. I predicted that the virus would lead to a resurgence of progressivism, in which the U.S. moves away from militarism and predatory capitalism and toward a greener, more socialist style of governance. The system I have in mind would be fully democratic, unlike China, and it wouldn’t abolish capitalism, which even China has embraced. It would simply give more to those who need it and take more from those who don’t. I’d like to take a closer look at this possibility, which a bunch of pundits have explored.

— John Horgan, blogging via Scientific American

Coronavirus today, Global Warming tomorrow. Then Climate Emergency after that. Every crisis will be presented as dwarfing the last one and anybody who disagrees or presents refuting data will be deplatformed as misinformation and dismissed as conspiracy nuts. But each one will move us toward the Holy Grail of progressivism, a government-knows-best technocracy that forces equality on everyone (else).

https://guerrilla-capitalism.com/articles/how-do-you-like-democratic-socialism-so-far/

Militants Shell Settlements in Northwestern Syria, Russian Military Says

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* terrorist group has attacked settlements in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, Rear Admiral Oleg Zhuravlev, the head of the Russian Defence Ministry's centre for Syrian reconciliation, said on Friday.

"We have registered one attack on the settlement of Maaret Moukhos, one on the village of Dahr al Kabir, one on the settlement of Mellajah in the Idlib province from the positions of Jabhat al-Nusra* terrorist organization", Zhuravlev said.

The military added that no attacks by Turkey-controlled armed groups had been recorded over the past day.

In addition, the Russian air forces conducted aerial reconnaissance flights in the past 24 hours.

On 5 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed on a ceasefire in Idlib, which started at midnight. The sides also agreed to create a security corridor six kilometres (3.7 miles) north and south of the M4 highway in Syria, which connects the provinces of Latakia and Aleppo.

Under the ceasefire agreement, Moscow and Ankara conduct joint patrols along the M4 highway, which is currently controlled by militants.

Militants remain in control of a small pocket of the Idlib province in northwest Syria.

*Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202005291079458969-militants-shell-settlements-in-northwestern-syria-russian-military-says/

Attorney General William P. Barr's Statement on the Death of Mr. George Floyd

Attorney General William P. Barr has issued the following statement:

“The video images of the incident that ended with the death of Mr. Floyd, while in custody of Minneapolis police officers, were harrowing to watch and deeply disturbing. The state prosecutor has been in the process of determining whether any criminal charges are appropriate under state law. On a separate and parallel track, the Department of Justice, including the FBI, are conducting an independent investigation to determine whether any federal civil rights laws were violated. Both state and federal officers are working diligently and collaboratively to ensure that any available evidence relevant to these decisions is obtained as quickly as possible. Under our system, charging decisions must be, and will be, based on the law and facts. This process is proceeding quickly. As is the typical practice, the state’s charging decisions will be made first. I am confident justice will be served.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-william-p-barrs-statement-death-mr-george-floyd

China Working to Assume Control of U.N. Agencies

Trump admin vows to combat Chinese manipulation of global body

China is working to assume control of multiple key United Nations agencies in order to subvert U.S. influence and advance its anti-democratic agenda, current and former senior Trump administration officials told the Washington Free Beacon.

China currently holds 4 of the top 15 leading positions within the organization, including a seat on the powerful Security Council. The country’s sway was on full display this year when it successfully pressured the World Health Organization (WHO) to hide information about the coronavirus pandemic.

The Communist Party is also using its influence at the U.N. to thwart investigations into its human rights record and other state-backed atrocities, including its coronavirus cover-up. China has blocked dissidents from petitioning the U.N. Human Rights Council and has even threatened retaliation against diplomats seeking an investigation of these abuses.

"China is constantly working behind the scenes to gain more influence globally," Nikki Haley, the administration’s former ambassador to the U.N., told the Free Beacon. "That's especially true at the U.N., whether it's distracting from their own human rights abuses, manipulating to gain control of U.N. agencies, or bullying smaller countries to vote their way. For them perception is everything, and it's why we can never stop being loud, calling them out, and bringing attention to their behavior."

China’s ambition extends far beyond the WHO, Trump administration officials say. The White House is placing a greater emphasis on combating China’s manipulation of the U.N., which could entail withholding further funding to the body and sanctions on top Community Party figures. These efforts are likely to receive bipartisan backing in Congress, as both Republicans and Democrats seek to hold China accountable in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the United States can pressure the U.N. by withholding its funding.

"We need a focused and intensive diplomatic campaign to replace Chinese and Russian-backed heads of international organization, with people who support the values of the free world," he said.

The United States discussed new efforts to counter China’s influence at the U.N. in its Strategic Approach to China, a comprehensive document published earlier this month that outlines the White House’s response to Chinese hegemony. If China is permitted to exploit the U.N. unchecked, America risks losing its place at the center of global affairs, the document warns.

China’s Belt and Road projects—a Communist Party-run global development program aimed at expanding the country’s influence—have emerged as particularly concerning to the Trump administration.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-working-to-assume-control-of-u-n-agencies/