January 14, 2023

Worldwide Lockdown, March–May 2020

Compiled by CJ Hopkins, Consent Factory

"As well as enforcing quarantine measures, the law also allows the authorities to force people to be vaccinated, even though there is currently no vaccination for the virus." thelocal.dk/20200313/denma…

“During the state of emergency, people will only be allowed out on to public streets for the following reasons: to buy food, basic or pharmaceutical items; to attend medical centres; to go to and from work ..." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"Police are patrolling the streets to ensure we only leave our homes for work and health-related reasons ... we must fill and carry certificates stating our reasons. If caught out without a certificate, we will be fined and face up to three months in jail. newsweek.com/italy-life-qua…

"Spain, the worst-affected European country after Italy, announced on Saturday that citizens would be confined to their homes for 15 days unless they had to buy food or medicine" ... or, you know, "go to work." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"We are going to take the powers to make sure that we can quarantine people if they are a risk to public health, yes, and that’s important." metro.co.uk/2020/03/15/pol…

"If you want to leave the house, you now have to print off a document to explain to police your timing, destination and motive." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"There are also plans for soldiers to protect quarantine zones with the police, if that ever came into force." news.sky.com/story/coronavi…

"Israel has authorized the country’s internal security agency to tap into a vast and previously undisclosed trove of cellphone data to retrace the movements of people who have contracted the coronavirus and identify others who should be quarantined ..." nytimes.com/2020/03/16/wor…

“We are at war – a public health war, certainly but we are at war, against an invisible and elusive enemy,” Macron said, outlawing all journeys outside the home ... anyone flouting the new regulations would be punished, he said. theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said 100,000 police officers would be deployed to enforce the lockdown ... Macron said that if necessary, the government would legislate by decree ..." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

“We will intervene where necessary to make sure that people respect the confinement decree.” theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"The Ministry of Defence is to double the size of the military’s civil contingency unit to create a 20,000-strong Covid support force ... the armed forces need to be prepared for the threat of a breakdown in civil order." theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/m…

"The new force — made up of 10,000 military personnel who are regularly deployed to civilian activities, plus an extra 10,000 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic — has been placed at 'high readiness'." ft.com/content/5e4640…

“We have the ability to do martial law ... if we feel the necessity.” news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-ca…

"Police and immigration officials would be able to place people in 'appropriate isolation facilities' under plans." bbc.com/news/uk-politi…

"Standby orders were issued more than three weeks ago to ready these plans, not just to protect Washington but also to prepare for the possibility of some form of martial law." newsweek.com/exclusive-insi…

"Twitter will remove tweets that run the risk of causing harm by spreading dangerous misinformation about Covid-19 ... it will be applying a new broader definition of harm to address content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"Some 100,000 police have fanned out across France to enforce the lockdown, with people allowed out of their homes only to buy groceries, go to work, exercise alone or seek medical help." metro.co.uk/2020/03/19/wom…

"He is in a specially cleaned area designated for those who should be self-isolating." Minister Quayle said, "we cannot allow our critical health services to become overwhelmed and must have the means to prosecute those who choose to act irresponsibly." bbc.com/news/world-eur…

"Dane County, Wisconsin residents now have a method to report violations of the governor's ban on gatherings of 10 or more people." wkow.com/2020/03/19/her…

"Germany’s 83 million citizens have been told they risk being confined to their homes from Monday unless they behave responsibly this weekend." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"These [social restrictions] would need to be in place for at least most of a year. Under such as policy, at least half of the year would be spent under the stricter social distancing measures." independent.co.uk/news/health/co…

Suppression, which requires “social distancing of the entire population,” can save more lives and prevent hospitals from becoming extremely overburdened. But it needs to be maintained “until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more).” vox.com/science-and-he…

"The government has now agreed that the military can be used to help enforce the lockdown." edition.cnn.com/2020/03/20/eur…

"As of Wednesday, the camps have been locked down from 7pm to 7am. In the daytime, only one person is allowed out per family, and the police control their movements." theguardian.com/global-develop…

"The National Guard is expecting a rapid increase in unit activations over the next few weeks, leaders said at the Pentagon Thursday, filling roles like coronavirus testing and potentially law enforcement." militarytimes.com/news/your-army…

"[T]he U.S. military is preparing forces to assume a larger role in the coronavirus response, including the controversial mission of quelling 'civil disturbances' ..." newsweek.com/inside-us-mili…

“These provisions will be enforced" ... “the violation of any provision of [the] order constitutes an imminent threat and creates an immediate menace to public health.” theguardian.com/us-news/2020/m…

'When MK Yoav Kish (Likud) sought to clarify whether she meant a total lockdown or curfew, Sadetsky replied ... “A lockdown and personal monitoring of people, and a total halt to personal freedoms.”' haaretz.com/israel-news/.p…

"A final option: 'Permanent changes in our behavior that allow us to keep transmission rates low' ... that could include strict policies of testing and quarantine for anyone who comes down with COVID-19 — or even long-term bans on large gatherings." nypost.com/2020/03/21/cor…

"The Justice Department has quietly asked Congress for the ability to ask chief judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergencies — part of a push for new powers that comes as the coronavirus spreads through the United States." politico.com/news/2020/03/2…

Germany has issued a "contact ban, limiting interactions of more than 2 people ... there will be fines of up to €25,000 for those not keeping a 2 meter distance between people. The measures will be enforced by police and stay in place until April 19." dw.com/en/coronavirus…

"The Justice Department is using the COVID-19 outbreak to press for sweeping new powers that include being able to detain Americans indefinitely without a trial." reason.com/2020/03/21/jus…

"Quebec City police have arrested a woman, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, for being out in the city's Limoilou neighbourhood despite being under a quarantine order."
cbc.ca/news/canada/mo…

"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he’s considering his most drastic move yet ... moving certain people at risk to isolation shelters.
miamiherald.com/news/coronavir…

Counter-terrorism troops have been redeployed across Italy to beef up police ... patrol cars are circulating in every major city with a voice warning citizens over a loudspeaker not to leave their residences ... “Go back into your homes,” the voice warns. thedailybeast.com/covid-19-is-co…

"Some police departments in California plan on using drones to enforce a coronavirus lockdown and to, in part, monitor the homeless population." foxnews.com/tech/southern-…

"A woman in Spain was arrested after she was caught visiting the home of a man she had met on a dating app, breaking mandatory home confinement rules put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic." newsweek.com/woman-arrested…

"Prime Minister Édouard Philippe gave a national address to give details of the new rules ... [French citizens] must have their 'justification' paper - signed, dated and with the time they have left home - to show if stopped by the police or gendarmes." theguardian.com/australia-news…

"The UK government has sent a mass text message to as many phones as possible, urging citizens to stay at home during the coronavirus lockdown: “CORONAVIRUS ALERT. New rules in force now: you must stay at home. Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” independent.co.uk/life-style/gad…

"This is not about retribution," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained. “This matter is going forward — we are in a live exercise here to get this right.” globalresearch.ca/secretary-stat…

"The Government is set to publish its coronavirus bill in Parliament this week. It gives officers from the police and immigration powers to detain people in appropriate isolation centres if they are a risk to public health." theargus.co.uk/news/18318214.…

"One area of concern is that the powers detailed under the bill, as published, remain in force for two years ... among the most draconian possible powers is for police, public health and immigration officers to detain people suspected of having Covid-19." theguardian.com/society/2020/m…

"People who intentionally spread the coronavirus could face criminal charges under federal terrorism laws, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official said Tuesday. ... 'Threats or attempts to use COVID-19 as a weapon against Americans will not be tolerated.'" politico.com/news/2020/03/2…

"A police force has defended using a drone camera to shame people into not driving into a national park during the lockdown, while another force said it was introducing roadblocks to stop drivers heading to tourist hotspots." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"Humberside Police has created an online reporting portal where people can send details of those not following social distancing rules." itv.com/news/calendar/…

"An Austin, Texas based technology company is launching 'artificially intelligent thermal cameras' that it claims will be able to detect fevers in people, and in turn send an alert that they may be carrying the coronavirus." vice.com/en_in/article/…

"As the jogger struggled with police, screaming for help, she was filmed by residents who had absolutely zero sympathy for her plight. 'What's not fair is that you go out running, you bloody idiot!', shouted the woman apparently filming the encounter." en.as.com/en/2020/03/21/…

"Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic ... involving world leaders, health experts and international organisations that would have executive powers to coordinate the response." theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

"South African police enforcing a coronavirus lockdown have fired rubber bullets towards hundreds of shoppers queueing outside a supermarket in Johannesburg ... the police used whips to get the shoppers to observe social distancing rules." theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

"President Trump said Saturday he may announce later in the day a federally mandated quarantine on the New York metro region, placing “enforceable” travel restrictions on people planning to leave the New York tri-state area because of the coronavirus." washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/…

"Rhode Island police began stopping cars with New York plates Friday. On Saturday, the National Guard will help them conduct house-to-house searches to find people who traveled from New York and demand 14 days of self-quarantine." bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

A Police force has had a surge in calls from people reporting neighbours for "going out for a second run" and "gathering in their back gardens." ... "We are getting (dozens of) calls from people who say 'I want you to come and arrest them'. bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

"Police with batons and guns have moved in to protect supermarkets on the Italian island of Sicily after reports of looting by locals who could no longer afford food." thelocal.it/20200329/we-ha…

"The National Guard will be deployed to enforce a mile-radius coronavirus “containment area” in overwhelmed New Rochelle ... the National Guard will enforce the mandated closure of 'large gathering areas' — including schools and houses of worship." nypost.com/2020/03/10/nat…

"From a technological perspective, the coronavirus pandemic is one massive testbed for surveillance capitalism ... governments are rolling out surveillance measures, all in the effort to ensure that policies of mass behaviour modification are successful." forbes.com/sites/simoncha…

"New Zealanders have become so keen to report their neighbours for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules that police on Monday said a website dedicated to addressing the issue crashed soon after going live." thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news…

"New York City residents who break social distancing rules will be subject to fines up to $500, Mayor de Blasio said Sunday ... he also announced that NYPD and MTA workers would do checks of subway cars and force riders off cars that are too crowded." politico.com/states/new-yor…

"Anyone who leaves their house without a reasonable excuse could spend up to 6 months in prison and face an $11,000 fine under a directive [that] gives police sweeping power to enforce restrictions designed to limit the spread of coronavirus in Australia." smh.com.au/national/nsw/s…

'A coronavirus app that alerts people if they have recently been in contact with someone testing positive for the virus "could play a critical role" in limiting lockdowns ... but the academics say no-one should be forced to enroll - at least initially.' bbc.com/news/technolog…

"As coronavirus lockdowns have been expanded globally, police across the world have been given licence to control behaviour in a way that would normally be extreme even for an authoritarian state." theguardian.com/global-develop…

"It is likely that we are not heading towards a general deconfinement in one go and for everyone," Prime Minister Philippe told parliament ... the interior minister noted 359,000 fines for violating the lockdown had been issued since lockdown began." france24.com/en/20200401-fr…

'Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned he would order the country's police and military to shoot dead anyone "who creates trouble" during a month-long lockdown of the island of Luzon enforced to halt the spread of the coronavirus.' aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/d…

'French interior minister Christophe Castaner warned that "roadblocks would be set up on major highways and axes and extra police, gendarmes or soldiers dispatched to train stations and airports to verify the documents of anyone stopped out and about."' theguardian.com/world/live/202…

"Around the world, police forces are testing how far to go in punishing ordinary behavior." nytimes.com/2020/04/02/wor…

"Western governments aiming to relax restrictions on movement are turning to unprecedented surveillance to track people infected with the new coronavirus and identify those with whom they have been in contact." wsj.com/articles/u-s-a…

"If a person becomes infected, the app will automatically send a push notification to anyone they have crossed paths with in the past two weeks, to warn them of the risk of infection." thelocal.de/20200402/priva…

"Google will use its mammoth collection of mobile location data to measure whether people across the globe are following government directives ..." politico.com/states/new-yor…

"Traffic along I-95 was slowed for miles at the Florida-Georgia border Sunday after a checkpoint was put in place to screen for travelers coming from COVID-19 hot spots on the East Coast ... the Florida Highway Patrol is facilitating the checkpoint 24/7." news4jax.com/news/local/202…

"There is potentially a much larger, and more fraught, role for the armed forces in this crisis: They might need to backstop and backfill police forces ... clearly, this step would be momentous." washingtonpost.com/opinions/start…

'Police arrested 3 people in Brooklyn after they “failed to maintain social distancing” ... an informant observed a group of people “hanging out” and the defendants “refused to leave the location and disperse” despite the informant asking them to do so.' theintercept.com/2020/04/03/nyp…

"Residents who have been in contact with coronavirus patients but refuse to isolate themselves are being made to wear ankle bracelets ... another man was put under house arrest after he went out shopping despite having tested positive for the coronavirus." edition.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/…

"A man who boasted that he spent two hours walking through his local hospital to see how bad things were for himself has been jailed for three months" for "causing a public nuisance and breaking emergency movement restrictions." metro.co.uk/2020/04/03/man…

"Having the right antibodies to the virus in one’s blood — a potential marker of immunity — may soon determine who gets to work and who does not, who is locked down and who is free." nytimes.com/2020/04/04/wor…

"Snitches are emerging as enthusiastic allies ... phoning police and municipal hotlines, complaining to elected officials and shaming perceived scofflaws on social media." time.com/5814488/busine…

"In European countries under coronavirus lockdowns, a multitude of aspiring watchmen seem to feel that their moment has finally come, with untold numbers keeping an eye on their neighbors’ every move and reporting them to the authorities if they slip up." politico.eu/article/corona…

“In this early phase of isolation, people’s awareness is quite high, but the longer it goes on, their frustration at not being able to do what they want will grow. The real test will be in two or three weeks’ time. How long can we keep a lockdown going?” theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"Tunisia has deployed a police robot to patrol the streets of the capital and enforce a lockdown ... 'PGuard' calls out to suspected violators of the lockdown: 'What are you doing? Show me your ID. You don't know there's a lockdown?'" news.yahoo.com/tunisia-roboco…

"The consequences for not following the 'Stay at Home' order for Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, and Jefferson counties [Colorado] is a Class 1 misdemeanor. It carries a penalty of up to a $5,000 fine and 18 months in jail." coloradocitizenpress.com/18-months-in-j…

"Germans risk being fined up to €500 for standing too close to each other." thelocal.de/20200403/coron…

"Individuals could be jailed for six months and/or fined $11,000, plus a $5,500-per-day fine if they keep breaking the rules." abc.net.au/news/2020-04-0…

"A man paddle boarding near the Malibu Pier was arrested Thursday after authorities said he disobeyed lifeguards and violated a statewide stay-at-home order ..." latimes.com/california/sto…

"... people are only allowed out of their homes for absolutely essential trips and everyone needs a signed, dated and timed form every time they step out." thelocal.fr/20200401/jail-…

"Could immunity passports create a kind of two-tier society, where those who have them can return to a more normal life while others remain locked down?" edition.cnn.com/2020/04/03/hea…

"Married life got off to an unexpected start for a pair of newlyweds in South Africa when police showed up to the party ... all 50 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted the ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested." bbc.com/news/world-afr…

"Local police in the U.S. are arresting people who fail to comply with social distancing and stay-at-home orders." forbes.com/sites/alexandr…

"There are seven legitimate reasons to leave home under France’s current lockdown restrictions. They can all be found on the government’s official permission form, which people must carry on them at all times when outside." thelocal.fr/20200406/coron…

"On April 2, 2020, the Danish Parliament passed a new law that makes it possible to shut down websites and impose fines or imprisonment on persons who publish information on Covid19 that does not follow the authorities' guidelines." newsvoice.se/2020/04/danmar…

"Authorities in Paris have banned exercise outside during the day ... the new rules are in force between 10:00 and 19:00 local time." bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world…

"Checkpoints will be set up around a number of locations, police say ... people [will] be stopped and asked about where they [are] headed." nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/articl…

"A 101-year-old German woman escaped her senior home in violation of a nationwide lockdown to visit her daughter on her birthday ... the officers allowed the woman to see her daughter – from behind the patrol car’s window – before bringing her back." foxnews.com/world/german-w…

"GardaĂ­ are to launch a nationwide policing operation to discourage people from leaving their homes and travelling to holiday locations over the Easter weekend ... patrols are also to be stepped up at key locations such as parks and natural beauty spots." rte.ie/news/2020/0407…

"... a recent report from Pew Research showed that 93% of the world’s population lives in countries and territories that are subject to movement restrictions." forbes.com/sites/jamesasq…

"One day, daily routines will be started up again, step by step. But there is no effective date on which everything will be the way it used to be. Even once the ‘contact ban’ has been lifted, there will be new rules," Berlin Mayor Michael MĂ¼ller said. berlinspectator.com/2020/03/31/cor…

"The next phase is not a return to normality. It is learning how to live with the pandemic - possibly for quite a long time ..." nytimes.com/2020/04/08/wor…

"What the new normal will look like is unclear, though it is likely to involve mandatory masks in public and smartphone apps tracking contact with people who are potentially infected. Going back to work and traveling might be contingent on test results." nytimes.com/2020/04/08/wor…

"... what has been so remarkable to those of us who have been in the science field for so long is how important behavioural change is and how amazing Americans are in adapting to and following through on these behavioural changes." theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"Police in Texas are searching for an 18-year-old girl who claimed to have tested positive for and to be 'willfully spreading' the coronavirus ... the teenager faces a charge of making a terroristic threat." nbcnews.com/news/us-news/t…

"America’s top coronavirus expert has warned Covid-19 is the new normal – and that the killer virus might never go away." metro.co.uk/2020/04/07/top…

"Security officers in several African countries have been beating, harassing and, in some cases, killing people as they enforce measures aimed at preventing the spread of Covid-19." bbc.com/news/world-afr…

"World Health Organization executive director Dr. Michael Ryan said surveillance is part of what’s required for life to return to normal in a world without a vaccine." venturebeat.com/2020/04/08/aft…

"White House senior adviser Jared Kushner’s task force has reached out to a range of health technology companies about creating a national coronavirus surveillance system ..." politico.com/news/2020/04/0…

"East Asian countries have demonstrated that a robust regime of surveillance is essential to fighting a pandemic. Western democracies must rise to meet the need for 'democratic surveillance' to protect their own populations." foreignaffairs.com/articles/2020-…

"It’s an extraordinary moment that might call for extraordinary surveillance methods." theintercept.com/2020/04/02/cor…

"Australia will deploy helicopters, set up police checkpoints and hand out hefty fines to deter people from breaking an Easter travel ban ... Police said they will block roads and use number plate recognition technology to catch those infringing the bans." theguardian.com/world/live/202…

"Forces will move to an 'enforcement phase' rather than issuing advice ... Pembrokeshire council said it would help police catch those visiting second homes in the area, including those who arrive late at night to try and evade officers." bbc.com/news/uk-wales-…

"A former Colorado State Patrol trooper was handcuffed in front of his 6-year old daughter on a near-empty softball field Sunday by Brighton police officers enforcing social distancing rules." abcnews.go.com/US/police-offi…

"Bobby Edwards, of Boynton, Florida, was arrested last week after police say he landed on the island without proof of accommodations ... officials warn that those wanting to come to Hawaii with no accommodations may not make it out of the airport." nypost.com/2020/04/08/haw…

"Officers say they responded to a synagogue in Monsey after receiving complaints. They found 30-50 men praying together. Eight were arrested for disorderly conduct. Police say they will arrest more people if the gatherings continue." newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/04/09/cor…

“'These drones will be around the City with an automated message from the Mayor telling you to STOP gathering, disperse and go home,' the police department said." vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/c…

"Dr. Fauci acknowledged the government is considering issuing Americans certificates of immunity from the coronavirus ... in parts of China, citizens are already required to display colored codes on their smartphones indicating their contagion risk." politico.com/news/2020/04/1…

"A video shows what appears to be four police officers, backed by about six more, forcibly pulling a man not wearing a face covering off of a SEPTA bus ... the video appears to exemplify SEPTA’s new police-enforced mandate that riders wear face coverings." whyy.org/articles/viral…

"Apple Inc. and Google unveiled a rare partnership to add technology to their smartphone platforms that will alert users if they have come into contact with a person with Covid-19 ... it has the potential to monitor a third of the world’s population." bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

"A Louisville resident—not diagnosed with COVID-19 but living with someone who had been—got a court-ordered GPS tracking monitor ... in New Orleans' Acadia Parish, anyone outside between 9pm-6am will have to present a permission slip from their employer." reason.com/2020/04/08/cov…

'Police will record the license plates of residents who attend church on Easter and report them to health departments for quarantine ... "Health departments are going to come to your door with an order for you to be quarantined for 14 days," -Gov. Beshear' nypost.com/2020/04/10/ken…

"The French police have come down hard, responding to perceived lapses in the confinement rules with beatings, harassment, humiliation and intimidation ... “It’s like a prison,” said Drissa Fofana, an out-of-work construction worker." nytimes.com/2020/04/10/wor…

"In a video circulating on French social media, a young man in the suburb of Les Ulis can be heard screaming in pain during a police 'check' for a missing release form. 'He was savagely beaten with truncheons, fists and kicks until he fell to the ground.'" nytimes.com/2020/04/10/wor…

"... the officer then demands he puts his hands on his head and handcuffs him ... [he] is then told he faces arrest for “breaking Covid guidelines” ... the officer threatens to spray him if he does not comply." manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-m…

"Police in Frankfurt were attacked by men with stones and iron bars while enforcing social distancing measures to stop the spread of coronavirus, authorities said on Saturday." dw.com/en/germany-pol…

"Police have arrested 28 people throughout Maryland for violating Gov. Hogan's executive orders related to coronavirus, as of yesterday afternoon." wjla.com/news/local/upd…

"In California, a federal judge denied a San Diego church's request to hold an Easter service, even with social distancing measures including possibly requiring members to wear hazmat suits." eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

"Technology firms are processing confidential UK patient information in a data-mining operation ... Palantir, founded by rightwing billionaire Peter Thiel, is working with Faculty, a UK artificial intelligence startup, to consolidate government databases." theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"Once a person has been confirmed to be infected, their close contacts could automatically be traced ... the infected person’s compliance with lockdown instructions could be tracked using digital tools that monitor individual travel and behavior patterns." foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/10/cor…

"The counter-terrorism analogy is useful because it shows the direction of travel of pandemic policy ... Your cell-phone signal could be used to enforce quarantine decisions. Leave your apartment and the authorities will know." foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/10/cor…

"Residents in Riverside County, CA, are now required to wear face coverings and could face a fine of $1,000 per violation per day if the mandate is ignored. 'This is a valid order and enforceable by fine, imprisonment or both,' said Sheriff Chad Bianco." newsweek.com/california-cou…

'A family claimed a 500-mile round Lake District trip was acceptable if they wore masks and gloves, police said. The family were criticised as "absolute idiots" and called "clowns" after the force posted about it on Twitter.' bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

"A 70-year-old township man was arrested twice on Saturday after police alleged he tried to enter two different Wawa convenience stores without a mask and became belligerent ... he was charged with second-degree terroristic threats during an emergency." eu.app.com/story/news/202…

'A woman in Victoria says she was left feeling “heartbroken” and like a criminal after uniformed police officers carrying weapons interrupted her father’s funeral over the Easter long weekend to enforce social distancing rules.' theguardian.com/australia-news…

'The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented global surge in digital surveillance, researchers and privacy advocates around the world have said, with billions of people facing enhanced monitoring that may prove difficult to roll back.' theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

'Protesters rallied to reopen North Carolina ... at least one was arrested. “You are in violation of the executive order,” said police. “You are posing a risk to public health. If you do not disperse, you will be taken and processed at Wake County jail.”' newsobserver.com/news/politics-…

The Raleigh, North Carolina Police Department issued this Tweet, announcing that no one is allowed to protest, as it "violates the Governor's Executive Order."

"Officers have become public health police, breaking up crowds at stores ... the department has mobilized the Citywide All-Out Task Force, which is usually assembled to flood high-crime areas and other assignments." nytimes.com/2020/04/14/nyr…

"A South Australian couple was hit with a hefty fine from cops for nonessential travel amid the pandemic after the pair posted vacation snaps from 2019 on Facebook ... the couple was warned that if they 'posted any more photos,' they would “be arrested." nypost.com/2020/04/14/cou…

"Attorney Beate Bahner challenged Germany's coronavirus regulations in the Constitutional Court and failed. Now she has been taken to a psychiatric facility." heidelberg24.de/heidelberg/cor…

"Ms Bahner submitted a 36-page urgent motion to the Constitutional Court regarding the unlawfulness of all 16 German federal states' Coronavirus measures ... [her] interview for "incitement to commit criminal acts" is scheduled for Wednesday 15 April. ukcolumn.org/article/corona…

"Police in Berlin broke up a large birthday gathering in the early hours of Monday ... a 16-year-old girl was celebrating with 31 other people ... all 32 party attendees [are] being investigated for criminal offenses." dw.com/en/berlin-poli…

"Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and it is about protecting the public." cbc.ca/news/politics/…

'The UK's health secretary, Matt Hancock, has suggested "something like an immunity certificate or a wristband" in the future.' news.sky.com/story/coronavi…

"Attempting to issue some kind of immunity certificate to millions of Americans would be unprecedented." thehill.com/changing-ameri…

"The COVID-19 Credentials Initiative (CCI) is working on a digital certificate, [that] lets individuals prove (and request proof from others) they’ve recovered from the novel coronavirus or have received a vaccination, once one is available." coindesk.com/covid-19-immun…

"[T]he drones use computer vision systems to monitor temperatures and heart and respiratory rates of people from above and single out people sneezing or coughing ... Draganfly also sees a possible security use around borders or critical infrastructure." businessinsider.com/draganfly-pand…

"Mobile phone tracking software could be compulsory if not enough Australians voluntarily download the application to help in coronavirus case tracing." 9news.com.au/national/coron…

'The three-page document, entitled "what constitutes a reasonable excuse to leave the place where you live", is designed to help police enforce the emergency restrictions that came into effect three weeks ago and are set to be extended.' bbc.com/news/uk-englan…

"[T]here is a danger that these new, often highly invasive, measures will become the norm around the world ..." businessinsider.com/countries-trac…

"Developers in several European countries are working on similar apps to inform people quickly when they have been in contact with someone who is infected with the virus, as part of a pan-European privacy preserving proximity tracing (Pepp-PT) initiative." theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

'Norway unveiled its Smittestop app, which will notify users if they have been less than 2 metres from an infected person for more than 15 minutes. “To get back to a more normal life ... we all have to make an effort and use this app,” PM Solberg said.' theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"Officials say they routinely saw people visit the skatepark, even children accompanied by their parents, according to the San Clemente Times ... city officials followed in the footsteps of other cities and filled the skatepark with 37 tons of sand." losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/04/17/cor…

"In one [Michigan] county, anyone deemed a 'carrier and health threat' can be detained by police and taken to an Involuntary Isolation Facility." lifesitenews.com/news/michigan-…

'Imagine an America divided into two classes ... "It will be a frightening schism,” a World Health Organization special envoy on Covid-19 predicted. “Those with antibodies will be able to travel and work, and the rest will be discriminated against.”' nytimes.com/2020/04/18/hea…

"Riots have broken out in Paris amid anger over police 'heavy-handed' treatment of ethnic minorities during the coronavirus lockdown." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

"... law enforcers have killed 18 people in Nigeria since lockdowns began on 30 March. Coronavirus has killed 12 people, according to health ministry data." bbc.com/news/world-afr…

'Police must prepare for a “more volatile and agitated society” after the end of the UK’s coronavirus lockdown, a senior officer has warned.' independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

'Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on Monday told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that protests of stay-at-home orders that violate state social distancing rules organized through his social media platform qualify as "harmful misinformation" and will be taken down.' thehill.com/homenews/media…

"Saxony is threatening to get court orders to commit those refusing to respect the coronavirus lockdown to psychiatric facilities." n-tv.de/mediathek/vide…

"Riot police in Peru have blockaded a major highway and fired teargas into crowds of people attempting to flee the capital city and return on foot to their rural hometowns as the country’s strict coronavirus lockdown entered its sixth week." theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"NYC police arrested three men outside a closed Brooklyn synagogue ... officers were dispatched to the synagogue in response to calls of New Yorkers not social distancing, NYPD’s top uniform cop Terence Monahan said." foxnews.com/us/nyc-police-…

"A policeman has been suspended after he was filmed 'threatening to make something up' so he could arrest a man for breaching coronavirus lockdown laws." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

"A man was brought into custody Sunday after police were called to Main Street in Port Jefferson for a report of a large group of people not practicing social distancing ... [the man] 'refused a request to social distance or put a mask on,' police said." patch.com/new-york/portj…

"Facebook is blocking anti-quarantine protesters from using the site to organize in-person gatherings ... [it] has removed protest messages in California, New Jersey and Nebraska from its site, a company spokesperson said Monday." politico.com/news/2020/04/2…

UPDATE: "Louisville residents who have been in contact with coronavirus patients but refuse to isolate themselves are being made to wear ankle bracelets ... Jefferson County courts has set up an on-call judge for these types of cases." edition.cnn.com/2020/04/03/us/…

"A Connecticut police department is using a drone equipped with virus-detecting technology to help battle the coronavirus ... the department also plans to use drone technology to enforce social distancing at beaches, train stations, parks and other areas." nypost.com/2020/04/22/con…

"A company in the U.S. has adapted a drone so that it can be used by police to measure people’s temperature from nearly 200ft away, as well as monitor their heart and breathing rates." metro.co.uk/2020/04/22/pol…

"The police are deploying technology to help stop spread of coronavirus among the homeless population ... while hovering above, the drone [plays] a recording that says, 'members of the public are reminded to keep a safe distance of six feet from others.'" nbcdfw.com/news/coronavir…

"New York City residents submitted 14,000 complaints to the city’s police about people violating social-distancing rules enacted to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus." wsj.com/articles/new-y…

"Over the weekend, a large gathering of Amish was broken up by police, with one person getting arrested, another issued a summons ... Police were called to the property after someone called them to report a violation of the state’s stay-at-home orders." dailywire.com/news/police-br…

"Landing AI has created a new workplace monitoring tool that issues an alert when anyone is less than the desired distance from a colleague ... these [surveillance] systems flag up warnings in real time when behaviors deviate from a certain standard." technologyreview.com/2020/04/17/100…

"In the video, the cops can be seen flying the drone to survey the beach from above before finding the unaware sunbather and the closing in on him while riding quad-bikes." thesun.co.uk/news/11447452/…

"The secretive 77th Brigade of the British Army is involved in countering coronavirus misinformation online ... the unit was set up in 2015 to specialise in "non-lethal" forms of psychological warfare ...” thenational.scot/news/18398012.…

"Homeless people have faced fines or arrest for failing to comply with coronavirus lockdown restrictions ... a woman living in a Delhi shelter said “we have heard that homeless people have been rounded up by the police from the streets and taken to camps.” reuters.com/article/us-hea…

"Federal guidelines for helping slow the spread of coronavirus call for people experiencing homelessness to either be sheltered in large 'congregate' shelters, like recreation centers or auditoriums, or in encampments like the one in Fort Collins." eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

"A French woman was reprimanded by police for displaying a banner with the words “Macronavirus, when is the end?” The incident follows several others in which residents who have displayed banners with “political overtones” have been visited by the police." rt.com/news/486824-wo…

“A dramatic increase in technological surveillance is a 'price worth paying' ... Covid-19 is not an ideology, and rebalancing the contract between citizens and the state to take advantage of the capabilities of new technologies is not capitulation.” theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"The Home Secretary will underscore her warning to stay indoors with the threat of beefing up the police's powers to enforce social distancing. A source close to Patel told the Daily Express: 'We are seeing a worrying increase in people moving around.'" dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

"It was mere months ago that data privacy was becoming more clearly defined in corridors of power ... now, that consensus is being replaced with a new reality: Less data privacy, not more, may be what’s best for public health." fortune.com/2020/04/20/pri…

"Officers have made 78 arrests and issued 1,637 fixed penalty notices in Scotland since 27 March. "If you are out and about, officers may ask you why ... please, explain your individual circumstances, listen to their instructions and obey the law." bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…

"Police have recorded 477 prosecutions, 3844 warnings and 131 youth referrals, Coster said - as well as fielding more than 55,000 reports of breaches from members of the public." newshub.co.nz/home/new-zeala…

"As of this afternoon, officers had handed handed out 214 fines to people who were out and about without good reason ... the force is receiving up to 150 calls a day from people who believe they have seen someone ignoring the regulations." leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-new…

"More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the state in connection with the violation of lockdown ... nearly 80,000 personnel of Rajasthan Police and 20,000 home guards have been deployed across the state to ensure compliance of the lockdown." deccanherald.com/national/north…

"A woman says she was 'named and shamed' by neighbours after she fell asleep and missed the weekly clap for carers tribute to NHS staff and key workers." news.sky.com/story/coronavi…

"German police wearing riot gear and face masks clashed with dozens of protesters demonstrating in central Berlin against the coronavirus lockdown on public life." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

"[P]ublic unrest has been breaking out across the world by frustrated people demanding an end to the coronavirus stay-at-home measures. This includes Russia, Germany, Brazil, the USA and India. In France there were reports of gangs fighting police ..." thesun.co.uk/news/11454210/…

"Thousands of protesters descended on the Wisconsin State Capitol on Friday as they called for coronavirus restrictions implemented by Gov. Tony Evers to be lifted."
thehill.com/homenews/state…

"The California Highway Patrol said Wednesday that it is temporarily banning rallies at the state Capitol and other state facilities because of the pandemic." kusi.com/california-hig…

"San Diego County police say three people protesting beach closures were arrested in Encinitas, California, on Saturday for violating health orders ... the arrests occurred after [they] ventured off the sidewalk and into the beach's sand." eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

"Significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet, and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with a society’s norms and values." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

'German police on Saturday busted two underground hair salons operating in violation of the country’s lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic. "People were having their hair done,” police said.' foxnews.com/world/german-u…

"It took five hours for Australians to download the COVIDSafe app at a rate the Government expected would take five days ... COVIDSafe uses Bluetooth to record anonymised IDs from users who are within 1.5 metres of each other for about 15 minutes." abc.net.au/news/2020-04-2…

"Governments around the world are weighing different privacy-enhancing designs, with some saying a [contact tracing] app would be voluntary to begin with, but not ruling out making it compulsory." coindesk.com/coronavirus-co…

"The Administration has classified all its discussions about COVID-19, and it later denounced Politico for reporting that the White House was in talks with tech firms to create a national coronavirus surveillance system." newyorker.com/tech/annals-of…

"Palantir, a secretive data-analytics firm ... has a contract from the Administration to build a database to track the spread of the virus. Palantir is known for its work with the NSA and ICE, where its software is used to track undocumented immigrants." newyorker.com/tech/annals-of…

"Authorities have been quick to insist the masks do not have to be medically approved ... decision-makers have stressed the psychological importance of wearing a face covering, saying it sends out a signal to people who might come too near." theguardian.com/world/2020/apr…

"The app will help, just by ensuring authorities know they can contact people quickly when there is an infection, so they can trace us and warn us that we need a test.” skynews.com.au/details/_61522…

"There will be a huge risk that data would live on well beyond the pandemic, giving governments and corporations easy access to information about people’s movements and healthcare needs that eclipses what they now have." latimes.com/politics/story…

'The application will only be used during the pandemic, the companies said. But it's unclear when the health emergency will be over. Social distancing could be necessary "into 2022 .... resurgence in contagion could be possible as late as 2024."' businessinsider.com/coronavirus-co…

"We may need to reevaluate how we think about 'contact' and 'tracing' and ask: can we strip them of their moral and punitive overlays? We have to break the social and cultural associations of the past to use these tactics most effectively in the future." technologyreview.com/2020/04/12/999…

"While governments and tech companies are working on voluntary [tracking] tools ... companies could make [such] tools mandatory ... employees [would] wear badges, key rings or wristbands embedded with inexpensive Bluetooth beacons." ft.com/content/caeb25…

"In the UK, nearly two-thirds of people polled are in favour of using mobile data to track coronavirus sufferers and those they come into contact with—a reflection, perhaps, of the public’s desperation to see lockdown rules lifted." forbes.com/sites/alasdair…

"Senior Greek officials explained that popular destinations will open for business once strict lockdown measures are relaxed. However, international visitors will have to provide immunity certificates or health passports to be allowed into the country." thesun.co.uk/travel/1148910…

"Authorities in India have debuted a unique device meant to detain those who are not cooperating with a coronavirus lockdown while maintaining social distancing. The device appears to resemble a claw-like grabber that many use to pick up trash." foxnews.com/world/india-co…

"When someone tests positive, authorities can siphon up the patient’s location data and contacts, making it easy to 'quarantine the right people' ..." cnbc.com/2020/04/28/cyb…

"[T]he pandemic has brought surveillance cameras closer to people's private lives: from public spaces in the city right to the front doors of their homes — and in some rare cases, surveillance cameras inside their apartments." edition.cnn.com/2020/04/27/asi…

"Questions about the precise role of the UK’s domestic spy agency in key decisions about the NHSX’s choice of a centralized app architecture means privacy concerns are unlikely to go away — with Gould dodging the committee’s questions about GCHQ’s role." techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/uks…

"My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups ..." - NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio nytimes.com/2020/04/28/nyr…

"Authorities in a Spanish coastal resort have apologised after spraying a beach with bleach in an attempt to protect children from coronavirus ... the bleach 'killed everything on the ground, nothing is seen, not even insects.'" bbc.com/news/world-eur…

"Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore during a sweltering weekend despite his social distancing order ..." eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/n…

"CTP UK warns that the impact of COVID-19 and social isolation could make society’s most vulnerable more susceptible to radicalization ... people concerned that someone they know may be at risk from being radicalized by extremists are urged to seek help." hstoday.us/subject-matter…

"'Protecting the public against infection takes precedence over everything, including the [May Day] demonstration' ... Participation in unauthorized demonstrations is currently a crime." bz-berlin.de/berlin/friedri…

"Instead of de-escalation and tolerance, the rules 'have to be interpreted more strictly this year,' [the Interior Senator] announced. Demonstrations should not 'become the Ischgl of Berlin'. 5000 police officers are reported to be on duty." bz-berlin.de/berlin/friedri…

"While the usual left-wing protesters have vowed to observe social distancing, others are plotting a 'hygiene demo' which typically attracts conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers who scorn the lockdown measures." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

"The [German] government plans to introduce a corona immunity card ... the Infection Protection Act allows the state to force people who are contagious or "suspect" to quarantine, or forbid them "to enter certain places ..." sueddeutsche.de/politik/corona…

"Just hours after announcing it would be relaxing lockdown measures aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus, Malaysia arrested hundreds of migrant workers and refugees in a crackdown on Covid-19 ‘red zones’." scmp.com/week-asia/poli…

'“The time for educating people into compliance is over,” [the Chicago Mayor] said. “Don’t be stupid. If you host a party, promote a party, or go to a party, we are not playing games. We mean business, and we will shut this down one way or another.”' nbcchicago.com/news/coronavir…

"Police have had to bust up hundreds of parties in the last few days ... since the country moved from level 4 to level 3 last week, police say they've had 1200 reports of mass gatherings." newshub.co.nz/home/new-zeala…

“The excuse of the pandemic has meant the threshold for justifying arrests under terrorism laws has dropped further ... it has also become almost impossible to get a court hearing to determine whether an action is illegal or unconstitutional." theguardian.com/world/2020/may…

'A New Jersey high school teacher was caught on video shouting at teenagers playing football in a park that they should “die a long, painful death” from the coronavirus.' mercurynews.com/2020/04/27/wat…

"The NYPD’s enforcement of social distancing over the weekend included a tense fracas in the East Village ... Officer Garcia wrestles [the bystander] to the sidewalk, repeatedly slapping his head and punching him, as another cop moves in, the video shows." nypost.com/2020/05/03/tas…

"Facial biometrics could be used to help provide a digital certificate – sometimes known as an immunity passport – proving which workers have had Covid-19 ... proposals, which have reached pilot stages in other countries, could be executed within months." theguardian.com/politics/2020/…

'The U.S. government is getting its vaccine supplies ready in anticipation of a working cure. Two separate orders signed off on May 1, 2020, total $100 million and specify needles and syringes “for a COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Campaign.”' forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…

"A Dallas salon owner was sentenced to seven days behind bars Tuesday for disobeying coronavirus shutdown orders." nbcnews.com/news/us-news/d…

'A SWAT team used an armored vehicle to raid a Texas bar that opened for business in defiance of the coronavirus lockdown, eighty-sixing the owner — and six heavily armed “vigilantes” who were defending her, according to reports.' nypost.com/2020/05/06/swa…

"American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines said Thursday they will soon require passengers to cover their faces during flights, following the lead of JetBlue Airways." apnews.com/445ac414e3be79…

"The [United States’] economic distress came into greater focus on Friday, offering a snapshot unseen since the Great Depression." nytimes.com/interactive/20…

"A four-legged robot will be patrolling Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to remind people of safe distancing measures starting from Friday ... GovTech has enhanced Spot with various functions such as remote control, 3D-mapping and semi-autonomous operations ..." straitstimes.com/singapore/robo…

“There has been a distinct warming up to human-less, contactless technology,” Anuja Sonalker, CEO of Steer Tech, said. “Humans are biohazards, machines are not.” theintercept.com/2020/05/08/and…

"Dramatic footage has surfaced of a woman being pulled away from her screaming son by a number of police officers while protesting during the coronavirus pandemic ... [and] dragged into a police van as her screaming son is torn from her arms." news.com.au/national/nsw-a…

"The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has published a step-by-step guide for law enforcement agencies to identify 'fake news' and videos intended to spread panic through hatred and communal violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic." thehindu.com/news/national/…

"Tensions are increasingly flaring in black and Hispanic neighborhoods over officers’ enforcement of social-distancing rules, leading officials to charge that the NYPD is engaging in a racist double standard as it shift[s] to a public health role ..." nytimes.com/2020/05/07/nyr…

"In German cities, thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday against the coronavirus restrictions ... several wore the armbands with the yellow Star of David used to identify Jews in the Nazi era ... the police ordered 'compliance' over loudspeakers." focus.de/politik/deutsc…

"'Liberation is a decision for the police based upon the circumstances of the individual incident,' a [police] spokesperson said. "The police can detain any person to protect the public from risk of harm." bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…

"California’s counties are building an army of 20,000 'contact tracers' ... the goal is to track and trace every person in the state who may have been exposed, then quickly isolate and test them." mercurynews.com/2020/05/06/cor…

"The steps under consideration ... face masks, surgical gloves, immunity passports, on-the-spot blood tests and sanitation disinfection tunnels ... all-biometric check-in systems ... passengers will need to show some type of immunity document/passport." forbes.com/sites/ceciliar…

"Two screaming toddlers watched on as their father was dramatically dragged to the ground by police at a tense anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne on Sunday ... three other officers then pulled the pram with the distressed children away from the father." dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

"Nashville Police have charged a man who was under quarantine with escape for leaving the homeless shelter at the Nashville Fairgrounds ... according to the arrest affidavit, [he] was quarantined on Thursday after testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday." cbs6albany.com/news/police-ma…

"Passengers on Ryanair will have to ask permission to use the toilet under new rules laid out by the airline ... [they] will undergo temperature tests at the airport, must wear face masks, and wash their hands and use hand sanitiser in terminals." theguardian.com/business/2020/…

"Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will 'with all certainty' be extended for the next three months ... when beaches reopen this week, face coverings will be required when not in the water, and sunbathing won’t be allowed." latimes.com/california/sto…

"A German ministerial adviser has been sacked for circulating a report that described coronavirus as a 'false alarm' and accused the government of causing 'a large number of avoidable deaths' through its lockdown." thetimes.co.uk/article/german…

"Police have now charged a homeless man for violating the lockdown, according to Court News ... the man was accused of leaving the place where he was living, which was ‘no fixed abode’." spiked-online.com/2020/05/12/now…

"The US Senate has voted to give law enforcement agencies access to web browsing data without a warrant, dramatically expanding the government’s surveillance powers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic." vice.com/en_us/article/…

"A video of police grabbing a woman and pushing her to the ground as her child looks on has turned up the heat on law enforcement ... the incident began when the woman was stopped from boarding a train because she was wearing her face mask incorrectly." independent.co.uk/news/world/ame…

"Robots and drones equipped with infrared cameras could patrol holiday destinations and enforce social distancing rules under new EU plans ... alongside infection tracing mobile apps. dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ar…

"Piers Corbyn used a megaphone to tell the crowd that the pandemic was a 'pack of lies to brainwash you and keep you in order' ... he [was] arrested under the Health Protection Regulations, which make gathering in a group of more than two people illegal." independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…

'A tourist was arrested after he posted beach pictures on Instagram when he was supposed to be in quarantine ... "authorities became aware of his posts from citizens who saw posts of him on the beach with a surfboard, sunbathing, and walking around."' edition.cnn.com/2020/05/16/us/…

"Miami Beach Police have arrested a woman after, they said, she violated an emergency order that does not allow people on the beach ... video showed [her] sitting in the sand while holding a sign that read, 'We are free,' Sunday afternoon." foxnews.com/us/miami-beach…

"Video footage shows police officers beating eight handcuffed Romani men and one 13-year-old boy for allegedly having a barbecue outside one of their houses. Several policemen and gendarmes, in and out of uniform, take part in the collective punishment." aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio…

It was nightfall along the Hudson and people were still out on a warm Saturday night, mindful that a Stay at Home order for New York City and the metro area has been extended ... more than 2,000 social distancing patrols and supervisors were out in force." abc7ny.com/health/nyc-par…

"Hundreds of protestors gathered in Warsaw’s Old Town in the early afternoon ... police blocked the planned march, saying in a statement published on Twitter that public gatherings are still banned under the government restrictions." reuters.com/article/us-hea…

"The federal government has ramped up security and police-related spending in response to the coronavirus pandemic, including issuing contracts for riot gear ... [it] also extended special contracts for coronavirus-related security services." theintercept.com/2020/05/17/vet…

"... the [smart] helmet could do any of the following: measure the temperature of a specific individual [or] people in larger crowds; scan a person's QR code for personal data; spot people in the dark; or recognize people using facial recognition." businessinsider.com/coronavirus-it…

"A 'lockdown rollover' of 50 days on and 30 days off should be introduced until 2022, say British scientists ... month-long intervals of relaxed social distancing would be followed by much more austere measures lasting almost twice as long." msn.com/en-gb/news/cor…

"Close to 39 million Americans have lost their jobs in just nine weeks. The rate of weekly losses has slowed sharply from its peak of 6.6m at the start of April but remains at levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression." theguardian.com/business/2020/…

"Matt Hancock stopped short of confirming jab would be mandatory when asked at today’s Downing Street press conference, but he didn’t rule it out either." metro.co.uk/2020/05/21/mat…

“The details they provide the authorities will allow them to be traced ... if their planned accommodation does not satisfy the authorities, arrivals will be put up in facilities arranged by the government, the Home Office says." theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/m…

"The power to impose fines on people who disobey exists under emergency legislation ... another detail to be decided on is whether spot checks will be carried out on people at home to make sure they are not secretly going out or working as normal." standard.co.uk/news/uk/matt-h…

"'Disaster' ... Malibu Beaches Overwhelmed By Visitors Not Wearing Masks ... the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has instituted horse patrols on the sand." deadline.com/2020/05/malibu…

"AiRISTA’s platform allows employers to continuously upload a record of close encounters to a corporate cloud, providing an up-to-date list of presumed social distancing violators that would double as a detailed record of workplace social interactions." theintercept.com/2020/05/25/cor…

"Millions of Indians have no choice but to download the country’s tracking technology if they want to keep their jobs or avoid reprisals." technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/100…

November 5, 2022

Responses to Emily Oster’s plea for ‘covid amnesty’

emily oster's no good, really bad, terrible idea
"when we were in the dark about covid" is not a useful excuse for bad behavior
el gato malo

... just to be clear, emily is not advocating forgiving “those who deliberately spread misinformation” (though she does seem a bit confused about just who that might be) but her “we were all in the dark and people said lots of things and some wound up right and some wrong and we all just need to get over it and move on as recrimination is not useful” take rings hollow and false here.

what does this serve?

why should we forgive those who through stupidity, cupidity, and fear spent 3 years denying 100 years of evidence based science to attack our lives and livelihoods?

oh, no worries! i'm sure you had your reasons?

you were "just following orders"?

you were just doing what the authorities said?

because i seem to remember a whole pile of excuses that sounded an awful lot like that being rejected back in the late 40’s.

and i must agree with that take and take issue with emily. ...

it is precisely BECAUSE following vicious, evil orders is so easy in times of fear and that humans break and bow to authority with such ease that there must be sharp penalties, reputational and otherwise, for so doing.

otherwise, you're just greasing the rails for next time.

it’s the low energy path of submission, and freeing it from consequence serves only to render it a path more followed. ...

even if we accept this “we were in the dark” line of reasoning it still makes no sense.

1. we were not in the dark. we had 100 years of evidence based pandemic and epidemiological guidance and guideline upon which to rely. some tried to follow these bodies of canon and were shouted down by those seeking to do exactly what that guidance admonished against. that is lack of knowledge abrogating actual knowledge and panic driven superstition superseding evidence. equating those two viewpoints as “equivalent” is pure nonsense.

2. even if truly no one knew anything, then this is a reason for humility, not stridence. the base case is always “respect others and their rights. do not panic. don’t do anything crazy or drastic without a very sound reason.” that’s not what happened. a bunch of terrified anti-science loons got loose with global government and pushed literally unprecedented in human history programs of societal and economic upheaval that flat out broke the world while, predictably, having zero effect on the pandemic. guys, you took you lead from china. china. the precautionary principle does not state “every time you get scared, do the most radical thing you can think of it if feels like safety.” that is precisely what it warns against. such excursions into superstitious supplication of pseudoscience are not evidence based epidemiology. they are not even sanity. and again, calling that an equivalent viewpoint to “we need strong, data-driven evidence to take such outlandish actions” (presuming they are permissible at all, itself deeply questionable) is pure nonsense.

3. the presumption of prerogative to force upon others the unfounded desires of “those in the dark” fails inherently on every metric germane to sustaining a free society. “we didn’t know, so we took your rights away just in case” is not much of justification. this lays claim to “emergency powers” of dictatorial nature and is exceedingly dangerous as a societal foundation. it’s also incompatible with the basic idea of a republic in which the rights of the individual stand paramount to the whims of the state or the mob. this ought be especially so in emergencies with low information for what could be more likely to work vast harm than great power to coerce usurped and wielded by “those in the dark”? again, this is not a viewpoint that can be granted equivalence to a system that respects rights. doing so is, yet again, pure nonsense. ...

of all the people who should have had the confidence to follow data over diktat, should not a trained professor of data handling rise to the fore?

but this failed. and if we would avoid such failure in the future, perhaps a bit of culpability ought be spread around.

as an economist, surely ms oster must understand incentives. if there is no cost to having acted poorly, rashly, and without consideration or information despite the ill effects it had on others, are we not just subsidizing more such antisocial activity in the future? ...

but this gets more complex: being wrong is one thing. OK, you made a mistake. and this, i can forgive so long as it was YOUR mistake. but when you take that mistake and make it mine by forcing upon me actions and restrictions to which i do not consent and to threaten the lives and livlihoods of me and mine because you’re running around half-cocked and have no respect for the rights of others, well, that’s something altogether different, isn’t it? ...

getting a disease wrong is one thing, but presuming the coercive dispensation to take whatever your “conclusion” is (especially if you are “in the dark”) and force it upon the rest of us because it makes you feel less frightened (or perhaps allows you to savor the dark frisson of being beastly to others while telling yourself you’re a good person for doing it) is not something you get amnesty for.

there is a sleight of hand in the thinking here like somehow having misunderstood a pandemic excuses the mass scale abrogation of rights and reason.

it doesn’t.

such ideas are anathema to the persistence of a free society.

and this is not where team oster came down. ...

even had they been right on covid and NPI’s or anything, they still had no right to do this. they had no right to take over media, social and otherwise and censor it. that is “the dark.” they had no right to lock you down, mask you up, and force an ill-tested and ill-effective jab on people as predicate for basic freedoms.

and all the people who favored that, who brayed and cheer led for it, they are guilty too. and i just cannot see “just dropping the matter” because they’d like it to go away now. ...

if you got rolled by this, got jabs you did not want, and suffered as many did, well, so long as you did not advocate forcing this on others, you already have my forgiveness. you were a victim here.

but as soon as you cross the line into advocating coercive policy or willful data suppression, that’s a whole separate issue.

being wrong is no crime nor even is being bullied into acquiescence.

but forcing others to join you is.

knowingly suppressing data and spreading lies is. ...

if you wielded the whip hand of of the covidian crusader i’m sorry, but i don’t care if you were “in the dark” as that is no excuse. it stands rather as indictment.

having done so out of ignorance (or worse the sort of dark desire to act the dictator or demagogue by assuming a faux moral mantle to vilify and attack others) makes you a hazard and precisely the sort of actor that ought be penalized, not accommodated.

society must develop an immune system to you.

forgiving such would be past enabling and into ennobling anti-social action and technocratic science perversion. ...

(((( o ))))

"Amnesty" Is Not the Solution to Disastrous Policy Decisions
And "gloating" is not the motivation for calling them out
AJ Kay

... I write today in response to Emily Oster’s most recent Atlantic article entitled, “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty: We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.”

The piece starts with a lively anecdote by Emily in which her family is hiking outdoors in cloth masks, and her son screams at another small child for getting too close to him.

“These precautions were totally misguided,” she said, “But the thing is: We didn’t know.”

Two things right off the bat: They weren’t ‘precautions’ because the Precautionary Principle requires us to weigh the costs of implementing any ‘precaution’ with the same critical eye as not. We didn’t do that.

And, of course, we absolutely did know.

That’s just the first paragraph in Emily’s pseudo-conciliatory piece, which is littered with precisely the same kind of gaslighting, self-interested double-speak that landed us here. ...

Emily says, “Given the amount of uncertainty, almost every position was taken on every topic.”

We were never facing a grabbag of completely disorienting situations and unknowable outcomes. Our positions were clear and fully aligned with this list of things we knew by or before March 2020:

  • COVID has a clear risk-stratification skewing dramatically toward the elderly
  • COVID is not nearly as deadly as once feared
  • Panic, stigmatization, mandates, and politicization are anathema to public health
  • We have immune systems, and natural immunity exists
  • Missing school hurts kids, especially disadvantaged ones
  • Isolation of anyone is cruel and harmful
  • Loneliness kills
  • The media profits off fear-mongering
  • Health is not just about disease avoidance
  • Masks don’t work + faces are important
  • Forcing people to die alone is inhumane
  • Lockdowns are human rights violations
  • Informed consent is essential
  • Bodily autonomy is paramount
  • Incentives incentivize
  • Shutting down manufacturing causes supply chain disruptions
  • Supply chain disruptions threaten economic stability
  • Science doesn’t advance by “following”
  • Panicked people don’t make rational decisions

Acknowledging the truths above would’ve been enough to keep probably 90% of the harm from occurring. But not only were they ignored, they were suppressed, despite rational people screaming them from the rooftops. ...

“In the face of so much uncertainty, getting something right had a hefty element of luck. And similarly, getting something wrong wasn’t a moral failing.”

Luck was not a factor. Just a dash of common sense was sufficient for most, and the lion’s share of the wrongs perpetrated were absolutely moral failings, not least of all because one could not promote the prevailing narrative without obfuscating the truth.

A team led by Dr. Tom Inglesby, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and including D.A. Henderson, the man credited with eradicating smallpox, wrote the following in 2006:

«Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted. Strong political and public health leadership to provide reassurance and to ensure that needed medical care services are provided are critical elements. If either is seen to be less than optimal, a manageable epidemic could move toward catastrophe.»

For whatever reason, to whatever end, the powers that be implemented policies that ran counter to everything we knew about public, mental, social, developmental, and immunological health, as well as virology, epidemiology, and pandemic management.

And we knew it. ...

Emily’s diagnosis of the problem is: “The people who got it right, for whatever reason, may want to gloat … Treating pandemic choices as a scorecard on which some people wracked up more points than others is preventing us from moving forward.”

Are you kidding, Emily? The backlash to this article was not a result of some trivial scorekeeping fixation. These policies hurt people. They killed people.

And it’s misleading to even talk about “choices” because, in most cases, we didn’t have any (at least not legally). Masks were mandated. Testing was mandated. Vaccines were mandated. Travel was restricted. These “choices” were imposed upon people.

And the worst part is that we absolutely knew better.

And we’re not going to allow people to claim they didn’t.

Not because of “points” but because we don’t want it to happen again. ...

You can’t blame “fog of war” when you walk around with a fog machine mounted to your back. Likewise, “We were in the dark!” loses plausibility when you block everyone’s access to the light switch.

The reason I refuse to accept calls for “amnesty” is not because I am vengeful.

It’s because granting “amnesty” leaves the people who have already been crushed by the weight of these decisions vulnerable still. ...

If they really want society to recover from the last two going on three nightmarish years, Emily et al are going to have to dig a little deeper. Pleas for forgiveness ring hollow when there’s no acknowledgment of error. “But we didn’t know!” is just more of the same self-interested trope we’ve been spoon-fed for years.

Because we did know.

And we have receipts.

And we’re going to keep showing them for as long as it takes to begin the actual recovery.

Because while Emily may want forgiveness, what we want is for this to never, ever happen again.

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Osterism
When you want to move on from the damage you helped cause but haven't told the truth about it
E.Woodhouse

Dr. Emily Oster, the Brown University economist who spent a good part of the pandemic response denying that her own data indicted the uselessness of masking kids in schools, published an article in The Atlantic today, calling for “a pandemic amnesty.” Short version: Let’s chalk up the devastation caused by fear-driven policies to benign ignorance and good intentions. ...

Oster’s implicit claim that next-to-nothing was known about SARS-CoV-2 – and therefore all the pointless, unethical, & illegal things people were forced to do are understandable – isn’t the pathway to healing, because it’s dishonest. Inexplicably, she denies that, from the get-go, we knew (for example)

  • covid’s risks were highly skewed toward sick elderly people,
  • plexiglass & masks don’t stop viruses,
  • school closures are harmful, and
  • exposure quarantines & contact tracing are useless.

She also defends things like closing beaches as “hard calls that people had no choice but to make with imperfect knowledge.” This twisted thinking - this Osterism, I’ll call it - both a) denies the truth about what was known, and b) excuses doing the worst, most non-sensical and predictably harmful things in the name of not knowing.

If an out-of-touch professor were the only person pushing such ideas, we could ignore it. Unfortunately, other vocal credentialed experts - not to mention public officials, school & church leaders, and friends/family members who embraced all manner of superstitious and harmful mitigations - have a similar mindset.

Osterism in any form will never, ever lead to healing, nor will it prevent this nightmare from happening again. ...

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Emily Oster proposes “a pandemic amnesty,” suggests that “we need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID”
eugyppius

I don’t know much about the American pandemic pundits, but I gather that Brown University economist and “parenting guru” Emily Oster is far from the worst of them. Her Twitter timeline suggests she spent the early months of the pandemic terrified about the virus until school closures took their toll on her kids, at which point she repositioned herself as a kind of lockdown moderate, opposing the worst of the hystericist excesses while validating their central premises whenever possible to save face with friends and colleagues.

«April 2020, with nothing else to do, my family took an enormous number of hikes. We all wore cloth masks that I had made myself. We had a family hand signal, which the person in the front would use if someone was approaching on the trail and we needed to put on our masks. Once, when another child got too close to my then-4-year-old son on a bridge, he yelled at her “SOCIAL DISTANCING!”

«These precautions were totally misguided. In April 2020, no one got the coronavirus from passing someone else hiking. Outdoor transmission was vanishingly rare. Our cloth masks made out of old bandanas wouldn’t have done anything, anyway. But the thing is: We didn’t know.»

The thing is, Emily Oster, that we did know. We’ve studied respiratory virus transmission for years. All the virologists and epidemiologists who aren’t total morons knew your 2020 mask routine was crazy and they just didn’t care. They wanted you to do it anyway, because they thought that if they got you to act paranoid and antisocial enough, your insane behaviour might have some limited effect on case curves. Joke’s on you, and it’s sad you still haven’t realised.

«[T]here is an emerging (if not universal) consensus that schools in the U.S. were closed for too long: The health risks of in-school spread were relatively low, whereas the costs to students’ well-being and educational progress were high. The latest figures on learning loss are alarming. But in spring and summer 2020, we had only glimmers of information. Reasonable people—people who cared about children and teachers—advocated on both sides of the reopening debate.»

No, reasonable people could see already in March 2020 that SARS-2 posed no measurable threat to children. There was never any honest debate to be had about this.

«We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty. … [W]e need to learn from our mistakes and then let them go. We need to forgive the attacks, too. Because I thought schools should reopen and argued that kids as a group were not at high risk, I was called a “teacher killer” and a “gĂ©nocidaire.” It wasn’t pleasant, but feelings were high. And I certainly don’t need to dissect and rehash that time for the rest of my days.

«Moving on is crucial now, because the pandemic created many problems that we still need to solve.»

I’m sorry somebody called you genocidal, Emily Oster. That must’ve been tough for you. You know what’s also tough? Getting your head kicked in by riot police because you had the temerity to protest against indefinite population-wide house arrest.

Or being fired from your university job and banned in perpetuity from the premises because you uploaded a video to social media complaining about the onerous and expensive testing requirements imposed upon unvaccinated staff. Or being confined to your house and threatened with fines because of personal medical decisions that had no chance of impacting the broader course of the pandemic in the first place. But somebody called this woman genocidal in French and she’s ready to move on, so it’s all good.

Emily Oster may have said a few reasonable things in the depths of her pandemic moderation, but she can take her proposal for pandemic amnesty and shove it all the way up her ass. I’m never going to forget what these villains did to me and my friends. It is just hard to put into words how infuriating it is, to read this breezy triviliasation of the absolute hell we’ve been through, penned by some comfortable and clueless Ivy League mommyconomist who is ready to mouth support for basically any pandemic policy that doesn’t directly affect her or her family and then plead that the horrible behaviour and policies supported by her entire social milieu are just down to ignorance about the virus. We knew everything we needed to know about SARS-2 already in February 2020. The pandemicists and their supporters crossed many bright red lines in their eradicationist zeal and ruined untold millions of lives. That doesn’t all just go away now.

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“Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty”—Not
Let’s not declare a pandemic amnesty. Let’s declare a real pandemic inquiry.
Michael P Senger

... The article is about as pathetically transparent as it is self-serving. Gee, I wonder what Oster did and said during Covid for which she might want amnesty ...

First, no, you don’t get to advocate policies that do extraordinary harm to others, against their wishes, then say “We didn’t know any better at the time!” Ignorance doesn’t work as an excuse when the policies involved abrogating your fellow citizens’ rights under an indefinite state of emergency, while censoring and canceling those who weren’t as ignorant. The inevitable result would be a society in which ignorance and obedience to the opinion of the mob would be the only safe position.

Second, “amnesty,” being an act of forgiveness for past offenses, first requires an apology or act of repentance on the part of those who committed the offense. Not only has no such act of repentance been forthcoming, but in most cases, establishment voices like Oster’s have yet to stop advocating these same policies, much less admit they were wrong. With no accompanying act of contrition, these calls for “amnesty” in light of rapidly-shifting public opinion have a real ring of fascist leaders calling for “amnesty” after losing the War.

Third, there’s some question as to whether Oster herself really did know better at the time. Like many other mainstream Covid voices, Oster had long been closely attuned to Covid data showing that these mandates did not work, yet she often seemed reluctant to share that data insofar as it contradicted the mainstream orthodoxy that mandates were necessary. In that sense, the policy prescriptions of Oster and those like her may have had less to do with ignorance than with cowardice, tribalism, and “following orders,” which can’t be considered acting “in good faith.”

And that leads to the ultimate problem, from a legal perspective, with Oster’s call for “amnesty” for the advocacy of totalitarian policies during Covid: The implicit assumption that all those who advocated lockdowns, mandates, censorship, and an indefinite state of emergency, all the way up the chain of command, did so in good faith. If those who advocated these policies are simply presumed to have done so out of well-meaning ignorance, then any inquiry into the many outstanding questions as to the origin of these policies—and the underlying motivations of highest-level officials who promulgated them—is foreclosed.

The implicit assumption is that, owing to their socioeconomic status, the superficial cutesiness of public health, and the panic surrounding the pandemic, all those who advocated these mandates must have done so in good faith. But this argument presupposes that the “pandemic” was a natural phenomenon, like a tsunami, which would have inevitably led to panic. On the contrary, studies have long shown that it was the mandates themselves that caused the public to panic, making them believe their chances of dying of Covid—which never had an overall infection fatality rate much higher than 0.2%—were hundreds of times greater than they really were. Further, there’s a growing mountain of evidence that the handful of key officials who led the initial push for unprecedented lockdowns and mandates did not, in fact, do so in good faith.

Our institutions are in serious need of restoration after the incalculable damage that’s been done to them during the response to Covid. But we forget, at our peril, that those institutions weren’t built with flowery words and good intentions. They were built with blood, sweat, and tears, by those who fought for them with their lives. Let’s not declare a pandemic amnesty. Let’s declare a real pandemic inquiry.

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With whom does Emily Oster want an amnesty? Moms, so they will return to the democratic fold
Just another cynical attempt to ask women to forget the harms of the last few years.
Emily Burns

... The political establishment—left and right—want desperately to move on, to pretend the last 30 months didn’t happen. With very few exceptions (Ron DeSantis, Kirsti Noem, Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, Ron Johnson, and a few others, later), they betrayed their core values. Many Republicans and so-called Libertarians quickly capitulated the primacy and importance of individual liberties. Whereas supposedly equality-loving democrats embraced policies that in no uncertain terms screwed women, children and the poor. The 2020 democrat campaign slogan might as well have been “protect the rich, infect the poor.” Or “only the rich need to learn.” They’d all very much like that you forget about that. They’d like to go back to the fights they know how to fight, the golden oldies that turn the bases out, and turn us against each other. ...

First, let’s be clear to whom Emily Oster is speaking. She’s speaking to the furious well-educated suburban women who are swinging towards Republicans in this cycle, even in the bluest of states. Because it was the bluest of states that were hit hardest by these policies. It was in blue states that the schools were closed longest, that the economic devastation was worst, that crime spiked the most, where masks were required longest. The damage done by these policies is at its beginning, not its end. Dr. Oster, would like women to believe that it was all just a mistake, a mis-understanding, and remember that it is the Republicans who are looking to limit the freedoms that really count. That while Democrats had no problem sacrificing the well-being of our living children for three years in support political power, it is Republicans that pose the real threat.

The problem for Emily is that while the hardcore democrat base of women voters never questioned any of these policies, others did—and they incurred significant personal costs for doing so.

An embarrassing portion of well-educated women acted as the regime’s stormtroopers. They sicced social media mobs on any who dared to voice a question, much less dissent. The pain of having family, friends and neighbors turn on them for voicing an opinion or asking a legitimate question caused many women to seek out others with similar questions.

In so doing, we found a smart, snarky, data-driven community pushing back hard on the totalizing power of a government trying to re-define reality. In some cases women were the generals, in others we were the infantry, going forward and taking constant fire from above, so that some recently discredited truth might once again retake its rightful place in the sun of acceptable opinion.

Emily Oster would like us to forget that. But we can’t—and I hope we won’t—because we were there bringing the government’s own data to shine a light on the lies it so ceaselessly manufactured. These weren’t lies of omission, they were lies of commission. They were lies that were wrought by smelting the credibility of science and medicine in the fires of politics to create weapons wielded by the powerful against us. They literally called us terrorists for our opposition.

Now, after having been called terrorists by our governments for arguing for the well-being of our own children, Dr. Oster wants us to forget that. In asking us to forget, she beseeches those who strayed from the flock to return, to believe that it is not their shepherd who takes them to slaughter that would do them harm, but the wolf lurking unseen in the shadows of the wood. So now we must talk about abortion.

What Democrats, and their credibility-launderers like Oster want women to do, is to put two things on the scales. On one side is the fear of a loss of access to abortion services. They hope that their female base will forget that rather than living in 1972, with limited access to contraception, we live in 2022, where contraception that is more than 99% effective is inexpensive and widely available, even if paying out of pocket; that this contraception includes abortion pills, which can be accessed anywhere in the country by mail up to 10 weeks of gestation. They want you to forget about the interstate commerce clause which would make hindering this nearly impossible—even, or especially, with a conservative court. They want you to forget that a flight to an abortion-providing state is at most a $200 plane ride away. Or that should you fail to secure an abortion, the worst-case scenario results in a baby you choose to give up for adoption. They want you to forget that if they [anti-abortion politicians] win the senate, they would still have to overturn the filibuster and the important political stabilization that the 60-vote threshold provides.

They want you to forget that they failed to legally codify access to abortion for 50 years. And they want you to forget that there is no way on earth they are going to give up the only issue they have to reliably stoke fear, drum up dollars, and drive women to the polls. Not a chance in hell.

On the other side is the harm that was done to your children, to you, to your community over nearly three years. On the other is the fear of a loss of access to abortion services. What they are hoping is that their female base will believe the lie that Dr. Oster is peddling, that it was all just an unfortunate mistake, and could never happen again. It’s in the past! Don’t worry about it.

But it wasn’t a mistake. It was a political calculation, and on the cost side of that equation was the education and welfare of our kids—and so much more. The people who made this calculation wagered that the fear that they could drum up around access to abortion could be used to distract women from the manifold harms these policies caused to children and/or that they could craft a narrative that would mask the truth. If you understand the cynicism of that decision, you have to expect the same cynicism on the other side of the equation. ...

The narrative that conservatives seek to limit access to abortion in order to keep women down is a just that—a story. In order to prop it up, fetuses had to be literally dehumanized, and the narrative bolstered with overtly anti-natal supporting philosophies, philosophies which, in their anti-natalism rob life of most of its meaning for most people. For women, this anti-natalism is expressly anti-mother, hence, anti-feminine, transforming motherhood—one of the few truly transcendent human experiences—into a dupe’s prison.

That said, I remain pro-choice, fundamentally because after the past two+ years, all I want is the government smaller and weakened in every possible capacity. I don’t want the government legislating or coercing morality (we’ve had quite enough of that over the past few years) any more than I want it coercing medical decisions. Further, I believe that the vicissitudes of life can make such government interventions result in dangerous corner cases.

But despite being pro-choice, I have become a single issue voter. My vote this cycle is a vote for vengeance against the party that kept my kids masked for two years; that robbed me of my best friends, and strained every relationship I have; that caused us to move to an entirely different part of the country; that perverted a discipline that I love, and which I use to navigate my life (science); and that then lied about doing it, and called me a terrorist for being upset about it. After this cycle, my vote will always be for the party that represents the most decentralized power structure, and the greatest respect for individual rights and responsibility. For me, the new f-word is “federal”.

While I can only speak for myself, my experience has been that in the aftermath of our leaders’ decision to break and reset the world, there are new coalitions forming. I don’t think I’m alone in my efforts to try to better understand the positions of others who became my “comrades in arms”—and I have felt that reciprocated, with the possibility of compromise arising out of mutual respect and in the face of a greater perceived mutual threat. At the moment, I think this is only happening on the “right”. But if the democrats get the drubbing that looks likely in the mid-terms, this will also happen on the left; it’s why this drubbing needs to happen. Such a shake-up can only be to the good. Indeed, our leaders may yet have gotten a “Great Reset”—just not the one they were hoping for. ...

Moms in general, and stay-at-home moms in particular, played a very significant part in the grassroots pushback of COVID policy malfeasance. I believe this was due to three key things. First, COVID policies created many more SAHMs, as the exigencies of virtual school made work impossible. Second, these SAHMs experienced the harmful impacts of COVID policies directly for years in their own lives, and in those of their children. Third, I think that SAHMs ended up being a very important and vocal minority because they could be. You can’t fire or cancel an SAHM, and there is significant power in not being anonymous.

As women, we have felt far more acutely than at any time in the past what it really means for government to interfere in our lives—controlling whether our children go to school, whether we can socialize, or go to a gym, or a restaurant, how many people can be invited to our home, whether we can spend holidays with family, whether we can run our businesses. These are all violations, violations of our personal liberty that harmed us, our children, and our communities, and which were done solely in service to political power. We have internalized this, and many will not be quick to forgive.

Emily is asking us to forgive a mistake. There was no mistake. There was a political calculation that harmed us, but even more, that harmed our children. The harm was considered acceptable because those who undertook it, took the votes of women for granted. They assumed they could lie and manipulate us into believing these harms were necessary, or barring that, unintentional. If we, as women, want our votes to be courted in the future by either party, we must vote to punish the past three years treachery. ...

(((( o ))))

Emily Oster’s Plea Bargain
Shuck-and-jive from America’s broken thinking class, the people who pretend to know better than everybody else.
James Howard Kunstler

By now, everybody and his uncle has seen Emily Oster’s plea for “pandemic amnesty” in The Atlantic magazine, a house organ of the people in America who know better than you do about … really … everything. Emily’s wazoo is so stuffed with gold-plated credentials (BA, PhD, Harvard; economics prof at Brown U) it’s a wonder that she could sit down long enough to peck out her lame argument that “we need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID.”

Emily wasn’t “in the dark.” She had access to the same information as the Americans who recognized that everything the public health authorities, the medical establishment, and many elected officials shoveled out about Covid and its putative remedies and preventatives was untrue, with a patina of bad faith and malice — especially when it was used to persecute their political adversaries.

These dissenters turned out to be “right for the wrong reasons,” she declared, the main reason being that they were not aligned in good-think with the Woke-Jacobinism of her fellow “progressives” at Brown U, and academics all across the land, who were righteously busy destroying the intellectual life of the nation, making it impossible for the thinking class to think.

Let’s face it: every society actually needs a thinking class, a cohort able to frame important issues-of-the-moment that require argument in the public arena to align our collective thoughts and deeds with reality. America used to have a pretty good thinking class, with a pretty good free press and many other platforms for opinion — all animated by respect for the first amendment to the Constitution.

The thinking class destroyed that by vigorously promoting a new censorship regime in every American institution, shutting down free speech and, more crucially, the necessary debate for aligning our politics with reality. Hence, America’s thinking class became the torchbearers of unreality, in step with the Party of Chaos which held the levers of power. This included the powers of life and death in the matter of Covid-19.

These were the people who militated against effective early treatment protocols (to cynically preserve the drug companies’ emergency use authorization (EUA) and thus their liability shields); the people who enforced the deadly remdesivir-and-ventilator combo in hospital treatment; the people who rolled out the harmful and ineffective “vaccines”; who fired and vilified doctors who disagreed with all that; and who engineered a long list of abusive policies that destroyed businesses, livelihoods, households, reputations, and futures.

How did it happen that the thinking class destroyed thinking and betrayed itself? Because the status competition for moral righteousness in the sick milieu of the campus became more important to them than the truth. In places like Brown U, what you saw was an escalating contest for status brownie-points, which is what virtue-signaling is all about. And the highest virtue was going along with whatever experts and people-in-authority said — the pathetic virtue of submission. Anything that got in the way of going along — such as differences of opinion — had to be crushed, stamped out, and with a vicious edge to teach the dissenters a lesson: dissent will not be tolerated!

Some thinking class. The case of Emily Oster should be particularly and painfully disturbing, since she affects to specialize, as an economist, on “pregnancy and parenting” (her own website declares), while the Covid regime of public health officialdom she supported instigated a horrendous pediatric health crisis that is ongoing — it was only days ago that the CDC added the harmful mRNA “vaccines” to its childhood immunization schedule for the purpose of conferring permanent legal immunity for the drug companies after the EUA ends, a dastardly act. Where’s Ms. Oster’s plea to the CDC to cease and desist trying to vaccinate kids with mRNA products?

The CDC is still running TV commercials (during World Series ballgames!) touting its “booster” shots when only weeks ago a top Pfizer executive, Janine Small (“Regional President for Vaccines of International Developed Markets”), revealed in testimony to the European Union Parliament that her company never tested its “vaccine” for preventing transmission of SARS CoV-2. The CDC under Director Rochelle Walensky is still extra-super-busy concealing or fudging its statistical data to obfuscate the emerging picture that MRNA “vaccines” are responsible for the shocking rise of “all-causes deaths” in the most heavily-vaxxed nations. In short, the authorities are to this minute still running their whole malign operation.

Notably, Ms. Oster’s plea for amnesty and forgiveness, showcased in The Atlantic, omits any discussion of accountability for what amounts to serious crimes against the public. A whole lot of people deserve to be indicted for killing and injuring millions of people. At the heart of her plea is the excuse that “we didn’t know” official Covid policy was so misguided. That’s just not true, of course, and is simply evidence of the thinking class’s recently-acquired allergy to truth. The part she left out of her petition for pandemic amnesty is: We were only following orders.

October 24, 2022

Militarized advertising and public relations and the imperative of war

From The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order 1905–1922, Edmond Taylor (Doubleday, 1963):

«Two world wars and a decade of cold war between the West and the Communist-bloc nations have made us all familiar with the miscellaneous manipulations and unpleasantnesses that for purposes of administrative or journalistic convenience are lumped under such headings as “psychological warfare” or “political warfare.” … The words are relatively new, and so of course are some of the techniquest, but the basic tactical patterns go back to the dawn of human history. …

«During the first world conflict, however, these black arts of war (and of diplomacy) were practiced so systematically and on such an unprecedented scale that they virtually constituted a new dimension of warfare. For the first time in history, elaborate specialized machinery was set up to furnish unorthodox support to the conventional operations of armies, foreign offices, and police departments. That peculiar modern phenomenon, the psychological (or political) warrior – the militarized version of the advertising man or public relations expert and the bureaucratic cousin of the professional revolutionary – was born.

«At the beginning of the war the emphasis, at least in the propaganda field, was defensive rather than offensive, and focused on the home front (in itself a new concept). … As Professor Harold A. Lasswell remarks in his classic work, Propaganda Technique in the World War, “propaganda is a concession to the willfullness of the age.” In the twentieth century – or at least in its first decade – men could no longer simply be ordered to give up their right to private happiness at a ruler’s whim; they had to be persuaded. The spread of literacy and the development of rapid mass means of communication facilitated the task of persuasion. Naturally – though at first glance paradoxically – the worst propaganda excesses were committed in the Western democracies, where the common man was, in Lasswell’s terminology, the most “willful.”

—————

«One type of Western morale-building propaganda which proved to be particularly self-defeating and even traumatic in the long view was the abusive appeal to the latent idealism of the masses through slogans such as The War to End War (originally inspired by H. G. Wells) and Make the World Safe for Democracy (derived from President Wilson’s message to Congress of April 2, 1917). No doubt the politicians who thus exploited the hopes of their peoples with these high-sounding but demagogic pledges of a better world were the first victims of their own propaganda; the unending wonder, when we look back upon it, is how intelligent and cultivated men – including a trained historian – could ever have deluded themselves into believing that prolonging the sordid massacre in Europe would make it possible to build a better world. The apathy and skepticism of the Western masses a generation later, when confronted with Hitler’s naked threat to the survival of their most elementary freedom, can be traced in good measure to the overdoses of war medicine that the new witch doctors had brewed for their fathers between 1914 and 1918.

«Even more deadly in its ultimate effects than the propaganda of misdirected idealism was the propaganda of hate. Again the democracies  were the worst offenders. In France a kind of forgery mill, supported by secret government funds, ground out fake photographs of German atrocities to back up the no-less-cold-bloodedly fabricated news reports of Belgian babies with their hands wantonly hacked off, of women with their breasts cut off by German bayonets or sabers, of factories for making soap out of human corpses. The British were a trifle more subtle, but hardly more scrupulous in exposing the outrages of the savage “Hun” …. Twenty years later the scars left on the public mind by this wartime atrocity propaganda – which of course was speedily exposed after the fighting ended – were still so inflamed, that American newspaper correspondents in Europe had the greatest difficulty in persuading their editors to print authenticated reports of authentic Nazi atrocities.

«As the war advanced, the propaganda activity of the chief belligerent powers became increasingly intensive and organized. … In all the belligerent countries the propaganda bureaus worked more or less closely with the General Staff, with the military censors, with the secret police and intelligence services and with an extensive volunteer (sometimes covertly subsidized) network of journalists, writers and politicians. The end result was a series of what amounted to immense – and immensely powerful – lobbies with a vested interest in fighting the war to the bitter end; the remorseless pressure of these bellicose lobbies on both the German and the Entente governments seems to have been a substantive factor in blocking the movement for a compromise peace that was launched so promisingly by the [new] Emperor Karl in March 1917.

«The political warfare activities of the several belligerents, aimed at demoralizing or splitting up their enemies, were an even greater impediment to peace negotiations. … As the deadlock continued, each side became increasingly irresponsible and unscrupulous in attempting to foment revolution behind the enemy’s front. Every racial or religious minority, every disaffected social category became the target of subersive incitements and appeals. Every group hatred, fear, or greed was played upon; every irredentist ambition was encouraged. Generally, it was only the most extreme minority leaders who would accept to work for, or with, the enemies of their nominal fatherland. Sometimes, however, the heavy-handed repressiveness of the wartime dictatorships – or hatred of the war itself – drove previously responsible and moderate minority leadership into collaborating with the enemy; in such cases it inevitably turned extremist, and in the process sometimes succeeded in committing its new allies to more radical objectives than they had originally contemplated.

«The career of Thomas G. Masaryk, the son of a Bohemian coachman who became the founder and first President of the Czechoslovak Republic, was a case in point. …»

—————

“To the Bitter End”

«… For the Bolsheviks, the awakening was terrible. As a starter the Central Powers demanded that Russia cede Poland and the Baltic territories. Recognition of Finnish independence was soon added to the conditions. Then came the crusher: Russia must also recognize the independence of the Ukraine, which had been proclaimed by the anti-Bolshevik and pro-German local government in Kiev on January 1 [1918]. Some of the Austrian and even German delegates felt that the precarious Soviet regime was being strained to the breaking point, but this did not worry General Ludendorff, the occult dictator of Germany and the real author of the Brest-Litovsk diktat. “Paranoia had him in its grip,” declares John W. Wheeler-Bennett in his masterly Brest-Litovsk: The Forgotten Peace, and the diagnosis seems plausible. Ludendorff’s ultimate aim was the total dismemberment of Russia and though this objective implied the final liquidation of the Romanov dynasty it had seemingly been approved by the Kaiser. In fact, according to Wheeler-Bennett, a dangerous rivalry had developed among the minor German royal or princely houses over the distribution of the expected Eastern spoils …»

September 7, 2022

Glenn Greenwald on the censorship regime

The regime of censorship being imposed on the internet – by a consortium of DC Dems, billionaire-funded "disinformation experts," the US Security State, and liberal employees of media corporations – is dangerously intensifying in ways I believe are not adequately understood.

A series of "crises" have been cynically and aggressively exploited to inexorably restrict the range of permitted views, and expand pretexts for online silencing and deplatforming. Trump's election, Russiagate, 1/6, COVID and war in Ukraine all fostered new methods of repression.

During the failed attempt in January to force Spotify to remove Joe Rogan, the country's most popular podcaster – remember that? – I wrote that the current religion of Western liberals in politics and media is censorship: their prime weapon of activism.

But that Rogan failure only strengthened their repressive campaigns. Dems routinely abuse their majoritarian power in DC to explicitly coerce Big Tech silencing of their opponents and dissent. This is *Govt censorship* disguised as corporate autonomy.

There's now an entire new industry, aligned with Dems, to pressure Big Tech to censor. Think tanks and self-proclaimed "disinformation experts" funded by Omidyar, Soros and the US/UK Security State use benign-sounding names to glorify ideological censorship as neutral expertise.

The worst, most vile arm of this regime are the censorship-mad liberal employees of big media corporations (@oneunderscore__, @BrandyZadrozny, @TaylorLorenz, NYT tech unit). Masquerading as "journalists," they align with the scummiest Dem groups (@mmfa) to silence and deplatform.

It is astonishing to watch Dems and their allies in media corporations posture as opponents of "fascism" - while their main goal is to *unite state and corporate power* to censor their critics and degrade the internet into an increasingly repressive weapon of information control.

A major myth that must be quickly dismantled: political censorship is not the by-product of autonomous choices of Big Tech companies. This is happening because DC Dems and the US Security State are threatening reprisals if they refuse. They're explicit: “The issue is not that the companies before us todayare taking too many posts down. The issue is that they’re leaving too many dangerous posts up.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1567292638524571648

But the worst is watching people whose job title in corporate HR Departments is "journalist" take the lead in agitating for censorship. They exploit the platforms of corporate giants to pioneer increasingly dangerous means of banning dissenters. *These* are the authoritarians. https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1567292900312064000

This is the frog-in-boiling-water problem: the increase in censorship is gradual but continuous, preventing recognition of how severe it's become. The EU now legally *mandates censorship of Russian news. They've made it *illegal* for companies to air it.

So many new tactics of censorship repression have emerged in the West: Trudeau freezing bank accounts of trucker-protesters; Paypal partnering with ADL to ban dissidents from the financial system; Big Tech platforms openly colluding in unison to de-person people from the internet.

All of this stems from the classic mentality of all would-be tyrants: our enemies are so dangerous, their views so threatening, that everything we do – lying, repression, censorship – is noble. That's what made the Sam Harris confession so vital: that's how liberal elites think.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1567293629462372352

This is why I regard the Hunter Biden scandal as uniquely alarming. The media didn't just "bury" the archive. CIA concocted a lie about it (it's "Russian disinformation"); media outlets spread that lie; Big Tech censured it – because lying and repression to them is justified!

The authoritarian mentality that led CIA, corporate media and Big Tech to lie about the Biden archive before the election is the same driving this new censorship craze. It's the hallmark of all tyranny: "our enemies are so evil and dangerous, anything is justified to stop them."

How come **not one media outlet** that spread this CIA lie – the Hunter Biden archive was "Russian disinformation" – retracted or apologized? This is why: they believe they are so benevolent, their cause so just, that lying and censorship are benevolent.

The one encouraging aspect: as so often happens with despotic factions, they are triggering and fueling the backlash to their excesses. Sites devoted to free speech – led by Rumble, along with Substack, Callin, and others – are exploding in growth.

But as these free speech platforms grow and become a threat, the efforts to crush them also grow – exactly as @AOC, other Dems and their corporate media allies successfully demanded Google, Apple and Amazon destroy Parler when it became the single most-popular app in the country.

It is hard to overstate how much pressure is now brought to bear by liberal censors on these free speech platforms, especially Rumble. Their vendors are threatened. Their hosting companies targeted. They have accounts cancelled and firms refusing to deal with them. It's a regime.

In even the most despotic nations, the banal, conformist citizen thinks they're free. As Rosa Luxemburg said: "he who does not move, does not feel his chains." Of course the Chris Hayes's and Don Lemon's think this is all absurd: Good Liberals threaten nobody and thus flourish.

The measure of societal freedom is not how servants of power are treated: they're always left alone or rewarded. The key metric is how dissidents are treated. Now, they are imprisoned (Assange), exiled (Snowden) and, above all, silenced by corporate/state power (dissidents).

For more than a month, I've removed myself from the news cycle and The Discourse because my only priority right now is my family, my kids and my husband's health. But distance brings clarity.

This censorship mania consuming Western liberals is deeply dangerous – and growing.

As I've often said, the media outlets screaming most loudly about "disinformation" are the ones that spread it most frequently, casually and destructively (NBC/CNN/WPost, etc).

It's equally true of those now claiming to fight "fascism": real repression comes *from them.*

I'm going to remain detached until the health crisis in our family is resolved. But internet freedom and free speech are not ancillary causes. They are central. This was the core cause of the Snowden reporting.

Without a free internet and free speech, dissent is an illusion.

Above all, stay focused on who your real enemies are.

They're not your neighbors who have been deceived into supporting the wrong party or wrong ideology. They are victims of the repression, which is all about maintaining a closed system of propaganda that can't be challenged.

The worst of all - the most repugnant and despicable - are those calling themselves "journalists" while doing the opposite of what that term implies: they serve rather than challenge power, they deceive rather than inform, they demand censorship rather than free and open inquiry.

Heap scorn on the corporate outlets and their deceitful, pro-censorship employees abusing the "journalist" label. Read them with full skepticism, or just ignore them.

Support outlets and platforms that want to protect free inquiry and the right of dissent, not rob you of it.

Twitter, 6 September 2022