Wuhan, China: Forced Quarantine Camps for People Suspected of Having Coronavirus, and Their Associates
February 7th, 2020Via: Daily Mail:
China’s central government has ordered Wuhan to round up all suspected coronavirus patients as well as their close contacts in mass quarantine camps.
The country’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan called on a ‘people’s war’ against the fast-spreading epidemic, which has killed at least 638 people and infected more than 31,520 globally.
She demanded Communist officials of all levels take active lead in this ‘wartime condition’, or face being ‘nailed onto the pillar of historical shame forever’.
The city has around 14 million residents, but it remains unknown how many people would be quarantined or where they would be kept.
Wuhan officials are now carrying out door-to-door health checks to identify potential carriers who would need to be isolated.
Federal Agencies Use Cellphone Location Data for Immigration Enforcement
February 7th, 2020Via: Wall Street Journal:
The Trump administration has bought access to a commercial database that maps the movements of millions of cellphones in America and is using it for immigration and border enforcement, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The location data is drawn from ordinary cellphone apps, including those for games, weather and e-commerce, for which the user has granted permission to log the phone’s location.
The Department of Homeland Security has used the information to detect undocumented immigrants and others who may be entering the U.S. unlawfully, according to these people and documents.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of DHS, has used the data to help identify immigrants who were later arrested, these people said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another agency under DHS, uses the information to look for cellphone activity in unusual places, such as remote stretches of desert that straddle the Mexican border, the people said.
FBI Document Reveals Local and State Police Are Collecting Intelligence to Expand Terrorism Watch List
February 7th, 2020Via: Yahoo News:
Despite a federal judge’s ruling last September that the U.S. government’s terror watch list violates constitutional rights, an FBI report obtained by Yahoo News shows local and state law enforcement agencies are being used to gather intelligence on individuals to collect information about those already in the database.
Law enforcement “encounters of watchlisted individuals almost certainly yield increased opportunities for intelligence collection,” says the FBI document, dated more than a month after the federal court ruling. The FBI says such encounters could include traffic stops or domestic disputes, which gives law enforcement “the opportunity to acquire additional biographic identifiers, fraudulent identification documents, financial information and associates of watchlisted individuals,” which might assist in thwarting terrorist acts.
The Terrorism Screening Database, widely known as the watch list, was created in 2003 and consists of names of people suspected of being involved with terrorism. Over the years, the list has grown to include the names of 1.1 million people, raising concerns that many of those on the list have no involvement in terrorism but have little or no legal resources with which to challenge the designation.
People can be put on the watch list for “reasonable suspicion,” a loosely defined category that allows anyone related to a suspected terrorist or considered somehow to be an “associate” to end up on the list, even if the government has no evidence of the individual’s involvement in terrorist activity, according to a copy of the guidelines published in 2014 by the Intercept.
The New Way Forward Act
February 7th, 2020Via: Fox:
The bill would entirely remake our immigration system, with the explicit purpose of ensuring that criminals are able to move here, and settle here permanently, with impunity.
You may think we’re exaggerating for effect. We’re not – not even a little.
The New Way Forward act is the most radical single piece of legislation we’ve seen proposed in this country. It makes the Green New Deal look like the status quo.
A document produced by Democrats to promote the bill says: “Convictions … should not lead to deportation.”
Keep in mind, we’re not talking about convictions for double parking. The bill targets felony convictions – serious crimes that send you to prison for years. A press release from Rep., Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., is explicit about this.
Garcia brags that the bill will break the “prison to deportation pipeline.” How does the bill do that? Under current U.S. law, legal U.S. immigrants can be deported if they commit an “aggravated felony” or a “crime of moral turpitude” – that is, a vile, depraved act, like molesting a child. Under the New Way Forward Act, “crimes of moral turpitude” are eliminated entirely as a justification for deportation. And the category of “aggravated felony” gets circumscribed too.
The Army Wants Technology that Can See Through Walls—and Identify People on the Other Side
February 6th, 2020Via: Nextgov:
People can’t see through walls but the Army wants to pioneer next-level technology that will help soldiers do exactly that—with the added bonus of instantaneously offering advanced, penetrating insights that go far beyond what meets the eye.
According to a recent request for information, the Army is accepting white papers to identify commercially available technologies that could help spur its development of a “sense through the wall system.” In the Army’s ideal world, that system would distinguish for soldiers exactly what—and precisely who—is on the other side of the solid structures before them.
“The intent of this market survey is to identify potential man-portable systems that give the Soldier the ability to detect, identify, and monitor persons, animals, and materials behind multi-leveled obstruction(s) from a long standoff range,” officials wrote in the special notice. “The sensor system will also be able to map the structure and detect hidden rooms, passages, alcoves, caches, etc. including those underground.”
The Myth Of Incompetence: DNC Scandals Are A Feature, Not A Bug
February 6th, 2020Via: Medium – Caitlin Johnstone:
The Iowa caucus scandal has continued to get more egregious by the hour, with new revelations routinely pouring in about extremely suspicious manipulations taking place which all just so happen to disadvantage the campaign of Bernie Sanders in the first Democratic electoral contest of 2020.
…
I keep seeing the word “incompetence” thrown around. “Gosh these Democratic Party leaders are so incompetent!”, they say. “How can anyone be so bad at their job?”
Well, they are not bad at their job. They are very, very good at their job. It’s just that their job isn’t what most people assume it is.
Their job is not to win elections and garner public support, their job is to ensure the perpetuation of the status quo which rewards them so handsomely for their malignant behavior. Toward this end they are not incompetent at all. They know exactly what they’re doing, and they’re doing it well.
They are extremely competent. Depraved, certainly. Sociopathic, possibly. But not incompetent.
Tencent May Have Accidentally Leaked Real Data on Wuhan Virus Deaths
February 6th, 2020It continues to be very difficult to ascertain what’s actually happening in China.
I’ve been trying to find confirmation of this story: Epoch Times: Funeral Home Worker in Wuhan: We Are Working 24/7 to Cremate Bodies.
Of all of the videos I’ve seen, this one is the most worrying. It appears to have been taken inside a hospital and shows several full body bags in close proximity to patients. I haven’t seen that before.
Live shot at a hospital in Wuhan on Feb.4
2.4?????????#WuhanCoronavirus #WuhanOutbreak #Wuhanpneumonia #Wuhan #Coronavirus#?? #???? #???? #???? #???? #?????? #HelpAndSaveOurselves #EveryoneHelpsEveryone #???? #???? pic.twitter.com/cdAORCfaJt— ?? Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferatntd) February 4, 2020
Also, there is no isolation in the mass quarantine facilities.
#?? ??????????? ???????????????????????????……
???????????????#???? #???? #???? #???? #???? #???? #???? #???? https://t.co/ThjpO82c9r— ?? Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferatntd) February 6, 2020
Via: Taiwan News:
As many experts question the veracity of China’s statistics for the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Tencent over the weekend seems to have inadvertently released what is potentially the actual number of infections and deaths, which were astronomically higher than official figures, but are eerily in line with predictions from a respected scientific journal.
As early as Jan. 26, netizens were reporting that Tencent, on its webpage titled “Epidemic Situation Tracker” was briefly showing data on the novel coronavirus (2019nCoV) in China that was much higher than official estimates, before suddenly switching to lower numbers. Taiwanese netizen Hiroki Lo that day reported that Tencent and NetEase were both posting “unmodified statistics,” before switching to official numbers in short order.
On late Saturday evening (Feb. 1), the Tencent webpage showed confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus in China as standing at 154,023, 10 times the official figure at the time. It listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.
The number of cured cases was only 269, well below the official number that day of 300. Most ominously, the death toll listed was 24,589, vastly higher than the 300 officially listed that day.
Inside a U.S. Evacuation Flight from #Wuhan
February 6th, 2020Via: Janis Mackey Frayer:
Inside a US evacuation flight from #Wuhan: hazmat suits, Ghostbusters masks, megaphones, forms & a heads up for Americans it’ll ‘get really weird’ when they land. Final US airlifts tonight as #coronavirus cases rise to 28k+ in #China; 563 have died. @NBCNews (video Jacob Wilson) pic.twitter.com/CJZ5i6ALQg
— Janis Mackey Frayer (@janisfrayer) February 6, 2020
7-Eleven Tests Cashierless Store At North Texas Headquarters
February 6th, 2020Via: CBS:
A new 700-square foot 7-Eleven store has opened in Texas, but this one doesn’t have a human cashier.
The pilot store, at 7-Eleven headquarters in Irving, uses a mixture of algorithms and predictive technology to separate individual customers and their purchases from others in the store.
The concept location offers some of the most popular products sold at traditional 7-Eleven stores, including drinks, snacks, groceries, and non-food items.
Related: Japanese Robot Could Call Last Orders on Human Bartenders
Texas: Homeless Camp the Size of Three Football Fields Catches Fire
February 6th, 2020Via: Fox:
A fire broke out at a large homeless camp below the eastbound frontage road of Anderson Lane, between IH-35 and Cameron Road Monday morning.
“We come down here for medical calls a lot. We always feared there being a fire — well there was a fire. Upon arrival there were no residents of the camp that we had to deal with and rescue.” explained Battalion Chief Matthew Cox, of the Austin Fire Department.
Cox, said firefighters were worried about spaces, small fires — and possibly, people they could not reach in the catacomb like camp.
“It is definitely a very unsafe situation for our firefighters as they’re gonna have to dig through this stuff for hours.” he said.
The camp spans roughly three football fields. Cox described, “couches, tv’s, propane tanks, padlocked areas, mattresses, trash and literally hundreds of needles.”
It is an entire system of underground homes. Many, containing stove tops, refrigerators, bunk beds — all built into the overpass.
