Wideleft

How Covid-19 myths are merging with the QAnon conspiracy theory Online and in real-life demonstrations, two viral conspiracy theories are increasingly coming together. At first glance the only thing they appear to have in common is their vast distance from reality. On one hand, QAnon: a convoluted conspiracy theory that contends that President Trump is waging a secret war against Satan-worshipping elite paedophiles. On the other, a swirling mass of pseudoscience claiming that coronavirus does not exist, or is not fatal, or any number of other baseless claims. These two ideas are now increasingly coming together, in a grand conspiracy mash-up. Linked up It was apparent on the streets of London last weekend, where speakers addressing thousands of followers at an anti-mask, anti-lockdown demonstration touched on both themes. Posters promoting QAnon and a range of other conspiracy theories were on display. On Sunday, President Trump retweeted a message claiming the true number of Covid-19 deaths in the United States was a small fraction of the official numbers. The tweet was later deleted by Twitter under its policy on misinformation. The account that posted it - "Mel Q" - is still live, and is a copious spreader of QAnon ideas. QAnon's main strand of thought is that President Trump is leading a fight against child trafficking that will end in a day of reckoning with prominent politicians and journalists being arrested and executed. Mel Q is just one of many QAnon influencers who have also been plugging coronavirus disinformation. What is QAnon? https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-53997203

Women face incitement of hatred charges after Black man attacked in Brandon 2 women in custody, police searching for 3 other people CBC News · Posted: Sep 04, 2020 8:06 AM CT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago Two women face what police believe are the first charges of public incitement of hatred in Brandon, Man. Officers were called to a downtown skate park — the Kristopher Campbell Memorial Skate Plaza at Ninth Street and Princess Avenue — around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, where a group of five people was allegedly yelling racial slurs at a Black man. The man tried to leave to avoid a confrontation, but the group blocked him and then attacked him, police said. It started as a physical fight and ended with the man being stabbed five times, Staff Sgt. Brian Partridge said. The man is in hospital, believed to be in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery. Two women from the group are in police custody and expected to be charged with assault and public incitement of hatred, Partridge said. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/hatred-charges-black-man-skate-park-brandon-1.5712091?fbclid=IwAR31NZP5HZPW1c_2RVR78mIwS0cmFQurP6sR41Ys07mHZFPvT3V_fwifdjc

The Baltic Way was a peaceful political demonstration which took place on 23 August 1989 when approximately two million people joined their hands forming a 600 km long human chain through the Baltic countries, thus demonstrating their unity in their efforts towards freedom. http://www.thebalticway.eu/en/history/

If only Strokehontas would trend.

Thanks for this, but trust me - the doc is much better.

A highly entertaining documentary. On Crave and HBO Max.

Also: BREAKING: A federal judge has thrown out President Trump’s effort to block the Manhattan district attorney from subpoenaing his financial records. pic.twitter.com/vv6fxFtn3k — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 20, 2020

My favorite line from 2018: "I'm not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist," Gillum added. "I'm simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist." https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/413053-gillum-on-desantis-the-racists-consider-him-a-racist

Noeller stated his personal opinion: "This is why I have such a problem with religion and religious people". There's actually a difference in what he said and what you are suggesting. He did not proclaim it as a statement of fact whereas you say you can based on what he said.

Live updates: Nearly 100,000 U.S. children test positive for coronavirus in two-week span August 10, 2020 at 10:14 a.m. CDT More than 97,000 U.S. children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. That number represents more than a quarter of the number of children diagnosed nationwide since March. The jump in cases comes as children are entering close quarters for the first time in months as some schools reopen their doors to students. Many districts are operating remotely to start the school year, with some others using a hybrid plan that has students come in a few days a week to prevent crowding. After one Georgia high school reopened with in-person instruction, viral photos showed hallways packed with maskless students. Now North Paulding High School is temporarily reverting to virtual instruction while the school is cleaned, after six students and three teachers tested positive. One student who took photos was briefly suspended and says she is facing threats from classmates. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/10/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_coronavirrus-luf%3Aprime-time%2Fpromo

Another in the great (and award-winning) series from the Washington Post. The key to this series is that it uses data to identify regional impacts to illustrate the crisis while everyone else seems to be waiting for the entire world to combust at once. This giant climate hot spot is robbing the West of its water "ORCHARD CITY, Colo. — On New Year’s Day in 2018, Paul Kehmeier and his father drove up Grand Mesa until they got to the county line, 10,000 feet above sea level. Instead of the three to five feet of snow that should have been on the ground, there wasn’t enough of a dusting to even cover the grass. The men marveled at the sight, and Kehmeier snapped a photo of his dad, “standing on the bare pavement, next to bare ground.” Here, on Colorado’s Western Slope, no snow means no snowpack. And no snowpack means no water in an area that’s so dry it’s lucky to get 10 inches of rain a year. A few months after taking the photo, Kehmeier stared across the land his family had tilled for four generations and made a harsh calculation: He could make more money selling his ranch’s water than working his land." ........ "The world has already warmed by 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the industrial revolution, on average. But global warming doesn’t affect the planet uniformly, and 10 percent of it is already at 2C, The Post found. These hot spots offer a window into what will happen as more of the planet warms: In New Jersey and Rhode Island, a 2C world has weakened winter’s bite; in Siberia, 10,000-year-old mammoths are being exposed by melting permafrost; and from Japan to Angola to Uruguay and Tasmania, changing ocean currents and warming water have decimated fisheries and underwater kelp forests." https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/climate-environment/climate-change-colorado-utah-hot-spot/?tidr=a_breakingnews&hpid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar&itid=hp_no-name_hp-breaking-news%3Apage%2Fbreaking-news-bar

Trump's Interview With Axios's Jonathan Swan Was Frost/Nixon Mixed With Spinal Tap What in the unshirted f**k was this country thinking in handing executive power over to this gruesome bag of old sins? The subheading of this article is just the start for Charles Pierce, https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33509703/donald-trump-axios-jonathan-swan-interview-video/

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The province wouldn't even identify the trucking company in Brandon that had the outbreak. Journalists had to dig that up.

There are 3 testing sites in the Southern Health Region and a total of 19 in the province. https://manitoba.ca/covid19/updates/testing.html#list

Mobilizing Federal forces to protect statues. Meanwhile, they're still separating families at the border. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/18/family-separation-policy-continues-two-years-after-trump-administration-claims-it-ended

Repeating the same talking points doesn't make them any stronger. It just makes you repetitive. Believe me, I do not feel good about having to have these conversations. I do feel them necessary when people who purport to have insight have none at all. For some people, a picture tells a thousand words and for some - let's see - ("ridiculous and dumb") it tells 3 words. They then defend their comment with a tome containing nothing more than verbal diahrea and weak opinion stated strongly. Thanks for the offer regarding "Socializing With Other Humans" instruction. I suspect it's an 01 course with a half credit taught by someone who doesn't even fully grasp the idea of humanity. I'll pass.

"Looking way to (sic) much into it" is just another way of saying "Don't actually think about it". Explains a lot.

It was pretty high (just below the big dipper, if I recall correctly) - maybe 40 degrees up? Apparently, it has started to fade already. The super clear and dark sky certainly helped.

Saw it quite clearly at Lundar Beach last Thursday night (11-ish) with the naked eye. Binoculars make it much clearer, though.

She would not be out of place at the Washington Post. She's an amazing writer.

Great article (as usual) from Melissa Martin today. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/coronavirus/hutterites-deserve-respect-not-stigma-571854451.html

If you think people around the world are laughing at the States because of people in Portland, you clearly have not been paying attention.

55% is not a vast majority in my opinion. Last I checked it was 5% more than half. You said the vast majority of new cases across the Prairies were related to Hutterite colonies when clearly this is not the case. Rather than admitting your hyperbole was a little too strong (incorrect), you've abandoned the rest of the prairies and refocused on Manitoba to suit your argument. And no, it does not take a "full day or two" to get infected. If that were true (and it is not) we could open everything up right now. If you don't like getting fact-checked, perhaps use your words more carefully.