Having reviewed the information provided by COG-UK, as well as the UK govt report here is my updated assessment regarding the new strain in the UK. 1/n

1. There is a substantial number of mutations relative to the previously prevalent strain, which is impressive, however viruses present such odd patterns. The number of mutations in the spike protein is worrisome primarily for the vaccine effectiveness.

2. It is generally rare that a new strain dominates at times of high prevalence but if on top of this there is rapid growth due to increased people circulation and contacts, something we saw in London, then even rare strains can dominate by chance without any selective advantage.

3. The strain has been around at least since September and has already been found in other countries in Europe and in Australia. However, so far we have not seen a similar expansion in other countries, which would have been expected if the transmissibility was indeed 70% higher.

4. There have been reassurances that the vaccine will not be affected but given the number of mutations, I would be a bit more reserved about this statement, but of course we all hope it is true.

Until the conservative elite have paid for their costly mistakes such as Iraq, lack of proper health care, jobs and wages, the reasons for the rise of Trump will continue to be misunderstood! https://t.co/WbdB2L7fhO via @nypost

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was reportedly a Trump supporter sick of the failures of the US’s ruling establishment of past presidents who barely addressed the many problems that affected the daily lives of ordinary American citizens whether they were black or white.

It’s ironic that this officer is now being hailed a hero by the very elite who failed him and countless other fellow Americans. It is also ironic that the common grievances shared by poor black & white US citizens that should have been directed at those in charge became polarised

Instead of being united in solidarity against the corruption on Capital Hill they became the tools of fascists like Donald Trump and white middle class ruling elites whose interests in maintaining wealth, power and the status quo at the political centre have spanned generations.

The lesson here is to beware of false narratives being written by the likes of Trumps, Bush’s, Clintons and the Bidens of this American dream that its citizens have and will prosper much better under their leadership. That is perhaps why it is just that, a very American dream!

Stunned. Just stunned.

“If I walked into my place of work tomorrow and I saw this, I’d be stunned myself,” one National Guard soldier tells me after I expressed my shock in some impolite terms

Rep. Andy Kim, who worked in Afghanistan, stood with me for a few minutes and took in the scene.

“How did it get so bad here? How did we get to this point as a country?” he asked

“One for the history books. We haven’t seen this in over 160 years, since the Civil War,” a National Guard soldier says to his buddy

There are at least a thousand, probably more, National Guard troops all over the Capitol Visitor Center, Emancipation Hall, and surrounding hallways. They’re sleeping in reception areas, the cafeteria, the entrance to the building. Everywhere.

The UK misreporting data. A thread for Scots:

I remember working on a particular project. I'm a Business Analyst.

We were to produce reporting data to the executive on various statistics relating to the Banks contact centre.

1/14

UK Gov COVID Stats 👇
https://t.co/1pXGapctNH

How does this relate to the COVID stats you ask. Stick with it.

The bank call abandon rate was around 40%. So 40% of customer calls did not get answered on the customers first attempt to make contact.

So the bank employed agency staff to handle inbound calls.

2/14

The result was that call abandonment dropped to around 5%.

Fabulous said everyone until I pointed out the obvious.

The agency staff, with little experience of that bank and its products, were simply taking customer details and putting them in a call back queue.

3/14

A call bank queue that the banks' full-time staff would have to outbound call.

This meant that 35% of customers who called still did not have their enquiry dealt with and 5% who still didn't have their call answered at all.

So 'technically' STILL a 40% abandon rate.

4/14

Now the UK Gov have a COVID 19 vaccination strategy that claims to have vaccinated 3.2 million people of the 65 million people in the UK.

In fact, a two-step process means that these people will not be 'fully vaccinated' until they have a second injection.

5/14

It’s true that Labour cannot form the next government without winning back most of the “Red Wall” seats it lost.

But the leadership has come to some odd decisions over its Brexit strategy as a result.

Let’s look at the polling. From @OpiniumResearch last week, we can see that of 3 options:

a trade deal with close alignment to the EU
a trade deal with a clear break from the EU
No Deal

Only the close alignment option is acceptable to more people than unacceptable. 2/12

If we just look at the people who find each option unacceptable, out of All Voters, Labour voters *and* 2019 Labour Leave voters, all groups find a deal with a clear break more unacceptable than a deal with close alignment. 3/12

So it hardly feels like electoral suicide for Labour to explicitly argue for a deal with close alignment. This is particularly true since Labour’s current poll lead with @YouGov comes mainly from the one third of 2019 Lib Dem voters who now say they would back Labour. 4/12

75% of 2019 Lib Dem Remainers think a “clear break” deal is unacceptable, so there is considerable risk in alienating these voters by Labour backing a Tory deal with the EU which will inevitably mean a very hard Brexit.

@Wizard_Predicts @RedBSierra Are you really sure about that??

Think about it logically.

Do you remember last weekend or the weekend before when Sidney Powell, L. Lin (Louis Lincoln) Wood, and Patrick Byrne, ALL TOGETHER, visited the White House for 4+ hours?

Why??

(Cont'd ⬇️)

1.Sound public policy requires broad consultation of citizens. It must be scientific and for this reason it ought to be evidence-based.The latest lockdown measures lack scientific rigour,rationality &consistency.We suggest consultation with business, labour &Church #MaskUpZim

2. The application of rules must be fair and non-selective because the virus does not select on the basis of status, class or political affiliation. Rules are effective not only when they apply to others, but when applied to those who make them. #MaskUpZim

3.The latest rules do not deal with the supporting measures to citizens and communities during lockdown.If people must stay at home,support is key.Commanding the closure of the economy without the necessary support,economic reliefs,medical &social measures is suicidal. #MaskUpZim

4. They forget that 80% of our economy is informal which means a lockdown without complementary support system will lose traction. Faced with starvation, people will be forced to breach lockdown rules, posing more risk to themselves and others. #MaskUpZim

5. For this reason, there ought to be an economic and social safety net to support people during lockdown. Simply announcing rules to keep people at home without more is a command style rulership which shows total disregard to people’s interests. #MaskUpZim

New CIA Fren update: jumping out of windows edition

https://t.co/j8wD7rb9C5

I went to DC with @thejoecardamone today to document the militarization of DC.

We spent almost 4 hours walking, and covered over 6 miles, skirting the barricaded perimeter.

#DCLockdown

Everything was covered with multiple layers of security, from metal fences, to flip up barricade.

#DCLockdown #BenjaPhoto

Even some of the very expensive local residences were boarded up, with custom fitted plywood boards that matched their arches.

#DCLockdown #BenjaPhoto

I enjoy shooting with Joe.

Even though sometimes our shots overlap, we definitely sharpen each other’s craft.

And no matter what, it’s impossible for us to get the EXACT same shot, since we see things in different ways.

#DCLockdown #BenjaPhoto

It was fascinating to see how city politics is later into how the barricades went up, which still made sure bike lanes were preserved, even though the streets were devoid of any automobiles save for military and law enforcement.

#DCLockdown #BenjaPhoto

ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTEST IN PARIS

Anyone who now has any opinion which questions the groupthink that is being heavily promoted by the government and mainstream media in relation to how we should behave during this pandemic, is now being branded a conspiracy theorist and even labelled in the most derogatory terms!

It goes beyond anti-maskers and is including links to anything that contradicts the prevailing general consensus that just falls into line with whatever we are being told. It’s as if any such views are being quietly airbrushed by the main social media platforms as well.

Recently I tried accessing a news item that featured prominently during the summer last where the WHO’s U.K. ambassador on visiting the U.K. heavily criticised governments for using repeated lockdowns as a first response to a pandemic. I simply couldn’t find anything about it!

Nor could I find the name of that ambassador who said it even though I checked the names of all WHO representatives/spokespersons. Strange one!

Local radio presenters have been constantly bringing on selected so called experts at busting the myths around this pandemic and labelling as Covididiots everyone who has a separate opinion as in denial that there is a serious virus around or a conspiracy theorist.

THREAD: Here’s the story of @homegrownterrorists on Instagram.

If anyone has a direct email to someone at @Instagram who can help get our account back, please DM.

1/x

This begins on Monday, 48 hours before the #CapitolAttack. I was reading about the #StopTheSteal rally and realized it was on the same day as certification. I told a colleague I was concerned there would be a takeover the Capitol Building to block the vote.

2/x

What would come was not a surprise.

On Wednesday, that colleague sent me a Slack message: “Not to freak you out, but…”

3x

knew what was coming and checked Twitter and turned on CNN. I was still horrified. And I wanted to see everyone of the domestic terrorists identified.

4x

Fast-forward a couple hours and I began pulling images together and created the @homegrownterrorists account on Instagram and posting with the U.S. Capitol geotag, a few hashtags, and captions saying “DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS TERRORIST?”

5/x

Now that the rug has been rolled up on Air Force One (literally) for the last time as Trump is in it…let’s talk about immigration. Biden-Harris administration plans to release proposed immigration legislation called the US Citizenship Act.

The transition team has released a fact sheet. Some key points described: 1) Replace “alien” with “noncitizen” in federal immigration laws.

2) It will include a legalization option for unauthorized migrants who were in the United States on January 1, 2021.

People deported on or after January 20, 2017 can apply for waiver of presence requirement if they had been in US for at least 3 years (based on family reunification or “other humanitarian” reason).

—> This legalization option is enormously significant. The vast majority will easily meet this residence requirement. Over 60% have been here for over 10 years, according to a 2018 report by @MigrationPolicy

On the face of it, this looks good, govt extending the Seasonal Agricultural Workers' visa scheme from 10,000 to 30,000 to address lack of labour for farming industry after the end of Free Movement.
Here's grinchy Zoe to explain why it's bad. Sorry...

Until now, most seasonal agricultural work was taken on by migrants benefitting from the right to Freedom of Movement in the EU. This meant they could come, pick on this farm, move to that farm with the changing harvest, switch into other work, basically just live.

With the end of Free Mov the Home Office insists less & less convincingly that all lower-paid work our industries need can be covered by the domestic work force.

The "pick for Britain" drive to get British workers into these jobs was a car wreck, filling just 15% of vacancies.

So, yes. There is an urgent need for an alternative source of probably migrant labour to pick, sort and package food on British farms from January.

Two years ago they introduced a pilot visa scheme for this, originally to bring over 2,500 workers for 6 months at a time.

One year ago they extended and expanded the "pilot" scheme to 10,000 workers. There was of course no evaluation of the pilot's success before this expansion, no consultation with expert groups, no evaluation of the risks of the scheme (which I'll explain, are many).

the united states has convinced do many people that MLK day is a day of service. MLK wasn't interested in "service," he was interested in the redistribution of wealth to render poverty obsolete. Less service, more redistribution

He was called “the most dangerous man in America” by the FBI, not because he was interested in community service, but because he was promoting anti-militarism and anti-capitalism

He was organizing a poor people's campaign to use direct action against the US government for maintaining economic inequality, not to "help out poor people," but to end the idea of poor people

On militarism and

on his frustration with white moderates and the church who didn't like his nonviolent direct action to fight for

Hello comrades and friends and friends of comrades!

You might have seen posts or hashtags about Canadian Shield relating to a pandemic response plan

It's not like our federal, provincial, and municipal governments have been doing a great job so I decided to investigate

THREAD

So Canadian Shield is a report sponsored by Global Canada which appears to be a corporate/business minded think tank

You can read the report

A few influencing figures on this site have been promoting this so my first question was who wrote that report?

What expertise does that group collectively have?

Among the authors we have:

Chamber of commerce guy
Bell Canada corporate services guy
Economics prof
CEO FN health NGO
Yukon Minister of economic development
Businessman/consultant
PolSci associate professor
Scotiabank economist
Hobbyist biostatistician
QueensU NGO businessman

Epidemiology grad student

Infection model math expert
MD and public health expert
Emergency physician
Public health professor
Physician infectious disease specialist
Assistant prof public health

Re: Declas: multiple moving parts as the known Bad Actors will have no part in their own exposure and/or arrests. I will tell you, multiple people hold MULTIPLE KEYS relating to very serious crimes against humanity. All are working towards same goal of exposure. #DarkToLight

It had to be this way.

Take what Mr. Lin Wood said just now and compare/contrast it against Sidney Powell's statements regarding the Anthony Weiner laptop.

Compare/contrast Flynn's original tweet re: same laptop.

In addition, add in the missing 33k emails from HRC's illegal AF server that people thought we didn't have. Imagine for a moment that we do have them.

Yoga? Wedding?

Or, Huma go-between from SoS to CF?

Add to that at least 3 Hunter Biden hard drives: 1 laptop, at least 2 other hard drives where 1 contains Xi's "financial transactions" to US persons (blackmail files/payoffs).

Separate is actual blackmail videos of MANY & similar description as Lin Wood's tweet next...