April 2020 - Page 12 of 25

Friday, April 17th, 2020

Trumpists Believe Bill Gates Is Using Coronavirus to Implant Brain Chips

Will Sommer, - Daily Beast

Stephan: In my view, you should take nothing that comes out of the White House at face value. Trump is a psychopath and compulsive liar -- according to the Washington Post as of the 20th January 2020 he had told America 16,241 falsehoods. And that was before the Coivd-19 pandemic really got underway, so the number today, 17 April, is considerably higher. People who work in his administration also routinely lie, so they don't contradict something their "dear leader" has said. Then there is the fantasy media of the far-right. The result is a level of nonsense never before seen in the United States that is believed by tens of millions of Trumpers. Today I got two emails from Trumpers (yes, some Trumpers actually read SR) each with a different fantasy they told me was true, and that I was too biased against Trump to publish these truths. They were wrong. I am going to publish them, just not quite in the way they wanted. One man told me that Bill Gates is using the Covid-19 pandemic to have people implanted with micro-chips so that we will all be under constant surveillance. So let's start with this conspiracy tale and deal with some actual facts.

Billionaire Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have committed $100 million of their own money to fight the coronavirus pandemic. In return, a fevered segment of the pro-Trump internet is convinced the couple wants to kill off a good portion of humanity, then install mark-of-the-beast style tracking chips in whoever survives.

On Wednesday, pro-Trump personalities and regular Trump White House guests “Diamond and Silk” became the latest to push conspiracy theories about Gates, tweeting that the Microsoft founder was operating on a secretive “agenda” to “rule the world with vaccines” and vowing not to take any coronavirus vaccine that Gates was involved with.

“You’re not going to make black people the guinea pigs for this here right here,” Lynnette “Diamond” Hardaway said in a video.

“We’re not going to be your experiment or your project,” Rochelle “Silk” Richardson added.

Friday, April 17th, 2020

Trump, Aides Float ‘Chinese Lab’ Theory on Origins of Coronavirus

, - Snopes

Stephan: And here is a second conspiracy, this one sent to me by a woman. I have seen it on several far-right sites, and it seems to be in vogue in the far-right make-believe world where many, including a president who has to deflect his blame on others, seem to live.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and some of his officials are flirting with an outlier theory that the new coronavirus was set loose on the world by a Chinese lab that let it escape. Without the weight of evidence, they’re trying to blame China for sickness and death from COVID-19 in the United States.

“More and more, we’re hearing the story,” Trump says. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo adds: “The mere fact that we don’t know the answers — that China hasn’t shared the answers — I think is very, very telling.”

A scientific consensus is still evolving. But experts overwhelmingly say analysis of the new coronavirus’ genome rules out the possibility that it was engineered by humans, as some conspiracy theories have suggested.

Nor is it likely that the virus emerged from a negligent laboratory in China, they say. “I would put it on a list of 1,000 different scenarios,” said Nathan Grubaugh of Yale University, who studies the epidemiology of microbial disease.

Friday, April 17th, 2020

CORRECTION: Was March 2020 the First March Since 2002 Without a U.S. School Shooting?

, - Snopes

Stephan: Yesterday I published an article reporting that there had been no school shootings in March. This article was not correct, and this is a correction brought to my attention by SR regular reader, Paul Smith. SR is committed to accuracy and, no matter how hard I try to make sure everything I publish is factually accurate, inaccuracies do occasionally slip through. If you ever see a factual error and you have documentation from a source such as Snopes, please let me know, and I will publish a correction.

What’s True

According to one government database, the U.S. has had at least one shooting on K-12 school properties every March from 2003 through 2009, and every March since (but not including) 2010.

What’s False

However, the way that various U.S. government agencies and organizations define a “school shooting” varies greatly, making any numerical claims problematic. Also, by the standards of one key government database, the U.S. had eight — not zero — school shootings in March 2020.

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Jacinda Ardern and ministers take pay cut in solidarity with those hit by Covid-19

Eleanor Ainge Roy , - The Guardian (U.K.)

Stephan: It is my opinion that in the second decade of the 21st century the most interesting nation on the planet is New Zealand, and the most interesting politician is Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's Prime Minister. Since she began her campaign I have done several articles on Ardern and New Zealand. (Search the SR archives) I do this because New Zealand, to the highest degree of any country follows the 8 Laws, and has as its highest social priority wellbeing at every level. Compare what is described in this story with what we Americans are experiencing in our Covid-19 disaster. Can there be a bigger contrast?

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

New Zealand’s prime minister has said she and other ministers will take a 20% pay cut lasting six months to show solidarity with those affected by the coronavirus outbreak, as the death toll continues to rise.

Jacinda Ardern said it was important the government’s most highly paid politicians show “leadership and solidarity” with workers on the frontline and those who had lost their livelihoods. Ardern, government ministers and public service chief executives will take the cut for six months, effective immediately.

The pay cut will reduce Ardern’s salary by $47,104. Cabinet ministers would take a cut of NZ$26,900 each, while deputy prime minister Winston Peters’ salary would be cut by $33,473.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the director-general of health who has led the elimination response to the crisis, confirmed he would “definitely” take a pay cut too, as would opposition leader Simon Bridges.

Ardern said: “If there was ever a time to close the gap between groups of people across New Zealand in different positions, it is […]

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Trump Threatens to Adjourn “Both Chambers of Congress” So He Can Make Recess Appointments Without Senate Consent

ANDREW FEINBERG, - Newsweek

Stephan: I listened today to Trump at his daily campaign rally, which for some reason the media feels compelled to broadcast, even though all he does is lie and compliment himself; he is mentally and emotionally very sick. He was blathering on when I suddenly heard him say that he had the power to adjourn Congress, whether they liked it on not, and appoint people to all the empty judicial seats, and a wide range of Executive Branch senior positions with no advice or consent from the Senate. It was such a preposterous and unprecedented assertion, that I turned off the television in my office, and just sat and thought about what I had just heard. No other president in history has ever made such a statement; I never in my life expected I would hear a president say that. Donald Trump is actively trying to become a dictator, he is telling the world that is what he has in mind and wants, and the American media and his fellow Trumplicans just sit there and listen to this treason and go on as if nothing unusual had been said. I find that extraordinary, and wonder why we are not hearing cries of outrage from Congressional members of both parties? Why didn't this lead the news? Where are the editorials in opposition to even making this statement from every newspaper and television network in the country?

President Donald Trump Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to use a never-before-used power that allows the president to adjourn Congress if the House and Senate won’t voluntarily adjourn, so he can appoint judges and other executive branch officials without the Senate’s approval.

While delivering opening remarks at Wednesday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force daily briefing, Trump claimed that 129 unconfirmed nominees were stuck in limbo because of “partisan obstruction” by Democrats despite the fact that Republicans—in particular Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican committee chairs—control the pace at which nominees are confirmed.

One such nominee—Michael Pack—is Trump’s pick to lead the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs the widely-respected Voice of America news service. Both Republican and Democratic senators have expressed concern that Pack is too partisan a figure for the position, and have so far declined to take any action on his nomination.

Pack, Trump said, has been “stuck in committee for two years, preventing us from managing the Voice of America,” despite the fact that the agency is legally […]

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