When the Director of National Intelligence steps in to squelch a rumor of Kremlin interference in the form of the Biden computer, you know things are heating up.
A social-media war is bubbling over with bans for posting the New York Post or other Hunter Biden stories.
And lockdowns are now under fire, across the globe – including from the W.H.O.
Even WHO Officials Now Admit Lockdowns Are Extreme Policies With Disastrous Results
Ryan McMaken, Humans are Free, Oct. 18, 202
(https://humansarefree.com/2020/10/who-officials-admit-lockdowns-are-extreme-policies-with-disastrous-results.html)
Last week, Dr. David Nabarro from the World Health Organization admitted that lockdowns have been devastating for much of the world, noting that “Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.”
Nabarro went on to list various examples of the economic damage done by lockdowns:
Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world. Look what’s happening to poverty levels. It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.
Nabarro also reminded his audience that lockdowns won’t make covid-19 disappear, employing the lockdown rationale used in the early days of the covid-19 panic.
In other words, lockdowns don’t make diseases go away:
The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.
These comments were followed this week by additional comments from Dr. Hans Kluge of the WHO, who stated lockdowns should only be a “very, very last resort” because of the effects on more vulnerable populations.
According to Kluge (as summarized by CNBC):
“Any national lockdowns must consider direct risks and ‘collateral damage’ associated with the pandemic, such as the mental health impact, gender-based domestic violence and the impact on students.”
Kluge and Nabarro certainly aren’t the first officials from governmental health organizations who have drawn attention to the deadly and economic disastrous effects of lockdowns.
Gerd Müller, who oversees global poverty issues for the German government, last month told Handelsblatt, a German newspaper, that “Far more people will die from the consequences of the lockdown than from the virus.”
He went on to predict the coming death toll:
“On the African continent alone, we expect an additional 400,000 deaths from malaria and HIV this year, as well as half a million more who will die from tuberculosis.”
As is so often the case, the poorer parts of the world fare worse than the wealthier parts.
Thus, the economic devastation reaped by business closures and forced lockdowns will endanger even more lives in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, than will be the case in the wealthy West.
But, as we’ve noted here at mises.org, the West is hardly immune to the negative effects.
Even before the current recession, we knew that impoverishment and unemployment leads to greater mortality from a variety of causes, including heart disease and strokes.
With imposed isolation on top of economic carnage come deaths from suicides, drug overdoses, and untreated medical conditions.
These latest admissions from WHO personnel represent a grudging admission that the health officials acted without evidence or a consideration of the costs when they demanded lockdowns with little regard for the effects.
This should not be interpreted as an about-face, however. We shouldn’t expect any officials to actually surrender their prerogatives to coercively shut down economies and force people into their homes using police and military personnel.
Bureaucrats, of course, relish this sort of power.
But it has now become so obvious that the side effects of shutdowns are so dangerous and so destructive that to not at least admit this would make officials look like they are completely disengaged from reality.
But the recent change in tune does nonetheless represent a shift in rhetoric.
From “15 Days” to Lockdown “Indefinitely”
Back in March and April, governments within the United States and across the globe seized vast new emergency powers for themselves and imposed nationwide “lockdowns” and stay-at-home orders.
The refrain was “15 days to slow the spread.” But, of course, the lockdowns did not stop there.
Slowly, the idea that lockdowns could prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed changed into the false notion that lockdowns can somehow make diseases disappear.
The press was using headlines saying lockdowns “beat back” the disease, and reporters were claiming social distancing would “stop this virus.”
Other government “experts” and pundits were claiming that lockdowns could never be lifted until a vaccine became available.
Anthony Fauci, for example, claimed that no easing in lockdowns could be allowed until there were “essentially no new cases, no deaths for a period of time.”
Given the widespread problem of false positives, what this really meant is that lockdowns can never be scaled back.
There is little doubt that governments that listened to people like Fauci would have preferred to impose lockdowns indefinitely.
We’ve seen the ideal — from the politicians’ perspective — at work in Australia, where citizens suffer under harsh lockdown rules, police arrest citizens for expressing opposition to lockdowns, and harass old women for sitting on park benches.Police have also described smashing car windows and dragging the drivers onto the street for not being able to produce special documentation allowing them to leave their homes.
Fortunately, few governments have been able to pull this off. In many countries, this inability to force everyone into their homes has resulted from simple economic need.
In poorer economies, much of the population lives hand to mouth and without substantial welfare programs.
It’s simply not plausible to expect a subsistence-level shopkeeper in Mexico to sit at home and literally starve in order to comply with a stay-at-home order.
In Argentina, for example, the shutdowns have accomplished nothing other than mass impoverishment as deaths mount.
Peru is dealing with a similar fate even though the nation’s government was lauded for its early and severe lockdown measures. Peru now has among the worst total deaths per capita.
If nothing else, the experience illustrates the dangers of allowing medical doctors and epidemiologists to control public policy.
These “experts,” who apparently have little to no knowledge of how economies work or how laws are enforced, became obsessed with the idea of addressing a single disease while ignoring virtually all other considerations.
These scientists demanded that entire societies embrace radical, bizarre, and experimental tactics that were unproven and had long been dismissed by previous researchers as too costly.
Unfortunately, many politicians listened, and the cost in human lives and poverty will continue to grow.
Glenn Beck on the developing Hunter Biden scandal
Devon Archer and another business associate have flipped on Hunter Biden and released thousands of additional emails. Details are given of corrupt China deals directly involving Biden Sr. coming out. Hosts argue that this is a historic moment in that proof is here that there is a direct evidence showing this is a coordinated plan to corrupt foreign policy with Joe Biden at the center of it. DNI denies that Biden computer is part of a Russian disinfo campaign.
Hit the graphic to go to video
DNI denies Adam Schiff’s claim that the Biden computer is a Russian disinfo scenario.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe says that Hunter Biden’s laptop is NOT part of a Russian disinformation campaign but says it IS in the hands of the FBI
Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor For Dailymail.com, Oct. 19, 2020
(https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8855521/DNI-John-Ratcliffe-says-Hunter-Bidens-laptop-NOT-Russian-disinformation-campaign.html)
- House Intel chair Adam Schiff said the ‘smear’ on Biden ‘comes from the Kremlin’
- DNI John Ratcliffe said the laptop is not part of a Russian disinformation campaign
- He said the Intel Community ‘has not been involved in Hunter Biden’s laptop’
- However he also said it is the possession of the FBI
- Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani provided the laptop to the New York Post and says it came from computer repair shop owner
- Ratcliffe and Schiff faced off during House impeachment of Trump last year
Donald Trump‘s Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Monday that Hunter Biden’s laptop ‘is not part of some Russia disinformation campaign’ as he blasted Rep. Adam Schiff for saying dirt on Trump’s rival came from the Kremlin.
He confirmed that the FBI have the laptop but did not comment on whether they are investigating its contents.
Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who assumed his post in May, accused Schiff of having ‘politicized’ intelligence – and responded to Schiff’s claim about the mysterious laptop that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani says he obtained from a computer repair shop owner.
Its contents, which Giuliani provided to the New York Post, include emails purporting to show business ties between Joe Biden and his son, who in documents looks to be seeking to cash in on his father’s former position as vice president in Ukraine and in China.
‘It’s funny that some of the people that complain the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing the intelligence,’ Ratcliffe told Fox Business on Monday.
‘And unfortunately, it is Adam Schiff who said the intelligence community, who as you pointed out on Friday said, that the intelligence community believes the Hunter Biden laptop and emails on it are part of a Russian disinformation campaign,’ he added.
Schiff, a Democrat, chairs the House Intelligence Committee.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Monday that Hunter Biden’s laptop ‘is not part of some Russia disinformation campaign’
The New York Post published a photograph, said to be found on an abandoned laptop, showing Hunter with a crack pipe in his mouth, left. A series of compromising pictures of Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter, 50, (above) have been released just weeks ahead of the US election on November 3
Asked if the laptop was part of Russian disinformation, Ratcliffe replied: ‘Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It’s simply not true.’
Ratcliffe added: ‘The intelligence community has not been involved in Hunter Biden’s laptop.’
However he also said that the FBI, which is part of the intelligence community, was in possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
‘The FBI has had possession of this,’ Ratcliffe said. ‘Without commenting on any investigation that they may or may not have, their investigation is not centered around Russian disinformation and the intelligence community is not playing any role with respect to that.’
Giuliani provided the Post with a subpoena for the laptop dated December 19 2019, an indication it has been in the bureau’s possession for months.
Ratcliffe, who was a vocal defender of Trump during impeachment where Schiff played a key role, called out people using the Intel community to ‘leverage some political narrative.’
Schiff told CNN that ‘We know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.’
‘That’s been clear for well over a year now that they’ve been pushing this false narrative and the vice president and his son. … pushing this Kremlin narrative is pretty breathtaking. … and the president is only too happy to have Kremlin help to amplify it.’
The attacks come amid continued questions about the Hunter Biden emails that have roiled the campaign in its final weeks.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, helped by Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, said it is investigating the emails and has been in touch with a ‘whistleblower.’
The committee only last month produced a lengthy report that accuses Hunter Biden with ‘corruption.’
Trump’s Twitter account was banned for a few minutes in 2017 by a ‘rogue’ worker.
Silence Trump: WaPo Op-Ed by Ex-Twitter, Google Exec Calls for Banning President Trump from Social Media Until After Election Winner Declared
Kristinn Taylor, Gateway Pundit, October 19, 2020
(https://tinyurl.com/y62tk8lz)
The Washington Post published an op-ed Monday by a former political advertising executive for Twitter and Google that calls for President Trump to be banned by social media companies from posting until after a winner is declared in the November presidential election.
Peter D. Greenberger wants to silence Trump because he doesn’t like what the President says: “In just the past week, President Trump has retweeted a QAnon conspiracy theory alleging that Joe Biden and Barack Obama had SEAL Team 6 killed, called on supporters to form an army of poll watchers, asserted repeatedly that mailing in your ballot will result in a rigged election and tweeted four times in 11 minutes falsely tying unrest in Portland, Ore., to Biden.”
Greenberger is blunt in his demand: “With millions of votes already cast and Election Day less than three weeks away, it is time for Twitter and Facebook to take away the digital bullhorn and mute the president. Trump should be silenced on both platforms until the winner of the election is determined.”
Greenberger blames Trump and his supporters for ‘damage’ on social media:
“I launched and led the first political advertising team at Google in 2007 before joining Twitter to do the same in 2011. My team at Twitter met with political leaders and issue advocacy organizations to introduce them to the power of this platform. Twitter, for the first time, enabled politicians to cultivate an authentic persona, maintain a direct dialogue with supporters without the filter of news media and drive the news narrative of the day. Few political leaders embraced the medium as successfully as Trump. But now, Twitter, Google and Facebook each have implemented escalating policies seeking to contain the damage largely caused by Trump and his supporters. It’s clear they haven’t yet solved the problem.”
After saying Trump should be silenced for spreading conspiracy theories, Greenberger flips out and spreads his own conspiracy theory that Trump will call out an army of armed “tiki torch” bearers to set the country aflame in a disputed election. [Greenberger continues:]
What will he tweet as we get closer to Election Day? Or as the returns start coming in? Is there any doubt he will question results, claim victory unilaterally or inflame his supporters to take to the streets? The stakes are too high to wait to find out.
Twitter and Facebook have indicated that they will take down any tweets that question the outcome of the election or encourage violence, regardless of who posts them. But Trump is already doing this when he questions mail-in ballots and calls for an “army” of poll watchers. The president’s erratic and dangerous behavior calls not for a label on his tweets nor the hiding of his Facebook posts, but for him to be silenced until a clear winner is announced.
Private corporations are not required to uphold the First Amendment. But even if they were, speech is not protected if you yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Trump is telling people holding tiki torches to “stand by” to set the country aflame. Why wait for him to call on armed supporters to take to the streets?
…Trump has already told his most dangerous supporters to “stand by.” Twitter and Facebook shouldn’t allow him to use their platforms to give violent actors the green light.
Twitter and Facebook are already censoring and locking accounts of conservatives as the election approaches, including White House officials Kayleigh McEnany and Scott Atlas, a Trump campaign account and accounts of Jack Posobiec and Charlie Kirk. Twitter has locked out the New York Post over the paper’s articles on Hunter Biden for the past week.
Warnings have been placed on several posts by President Trump or on occasion taken down. An alleged rogue worker took down Trump’s Twitter account for a few minutes in 2017.