Patrick's Notebook

written by Justine Coleman

Chinese state media late Monday warned against what it called the U.S.’s “theft” of the social media app TikTok, cautioning that Beijing may retaliate.

The English-language China Daily newspaper published an editorial which highlighted China’s toughest protection of TikTok yet and cautioned that Beijing may block the sale of TikTok to American company Microsoft.

“China will by no means accept the ‘theft’ of a Chinese technology company, and it has plenty of ways to respond if the administration carries out its planned smash and grab,” it reads.

The state-run newspaper said it “might be preferable” for TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the U.S. business, but the editorial called the U.S. effort to buy the app a “smash and grab.”

“With competitiveness now dependent on the ability to collect and use data, it offers an either-or choice of submission or mortal combat in the tech realm,” the China Daily said. » Read the rest of this entry «

Written by Ron Paul

Tens of thousands of Germans marched through Berlin on Saturday, proclaiming a “Day of Freedom” and demanding an end to government-mandated face masks and “social distancing.” The UK and Netherlands also saw large protests against their governments’ tyrannical actions in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

According to media accounts, the Berlin protesters held signs reading “We are being forced to wear a muzzle,” “Natural defense instead of vaccination,” and “We are making noise because you are stealing our freedom!”

Good for them!

The New York Times Tweeted that the masses of Berlin demonstrators were all “Nazis” and “conspiracy theorists.” Does the “paper of record” really want us to believe there were perhaps a million Nazis active in the streets of Berlin? Wouldn’t that be alarming?

The fact is, Europeans are realizing that their government-mandated lockdowns did little or nothing to protect them from the virus, while causing economic catastrophe and untold human suffering.

They likely looked around and noticed that Sweden, which never locked down its economy, rejected face masks, and kept its restaurants and other places of business open, did not fare any worse than the countries that have been turned into open air prisons for much of the year. In fact, Sweden had a lower death rate from the virus than strict lockdown states like the UK and France. No wonder people are starting to get angry. » Read the rest of this entry «

By BBC News

Many US states are looking to make voting by post easier in the presidential election this November due to public health concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

But the expansion of postal voting is contentious, and President Donald Trump has said postal ballots – know as “mail-in” ballots in the US – would lead to “the most corrupt election” in US history.

The president has even suggested delaying the election, which he doesn’t have the power to do, to stop postal ballots leading to “inaccurate and fraudulent” results.

We’ve looked at the evidence and found very few cases of postal voting fraud.

Where can you vote by post?

In the 2016 US presidential election, nearly one quarter of votes were cast by post, and that number is expected to rise this time round. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Tom Luongo

Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy
– The Outlaw Josey Wales

The Davos Crowd is desperate. That much has been clear to me for months.

From the moment they tied COVID-19 to the breaking of the oil markets back in March they have worked like no other time in history to convince us the world we knew was gone.

The latest iteration of this big lie is the all-out assault on the U.S. dollar. Now for months a few analysts like me have been steadfast in reminding everyone that no matter how much money the U.S. prints in the short run, it is only doing so because of the extreme levels of latent and active dollar demand in the world.

So, there is narrative and there is reality. And reality is that today there is huge demand for the U.S. dollar regardless of what the headlines tell you.

That said, that doesn’t mean that demand doesn’t ebb and flow. And now that we’re on the other side of the first wave of this crisis period, marginal dollar hoarding has slacked off. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Eoin Higgins

“The magnitude of suffering this is about to cause is so immense.”Carlos Ponce joins other demonstrators participating in a protest asking Senators to support the continuation of unemployment benefits on July 16, 2020 in Miami Springs, Florida

As Senate Republicans headed home for the weekend without extending unemployment insurance benefits or approving other economic relief programs that could help millions of Americans weather the ongoing financial catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic, progressives and congressional Democrats warned that disaster is on the horizon.

“This whole house of cards is going to collapse,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) warned during a press conference Friday afternoon.

‘This whole house of cards is going to collapse’ — @RepDanKildee explains why Republicans should want to extend unemployment benefits on an economic basis even if they can’t ‘conjure empathy’ for American families pic.twitter.com/7fD9bkCEdQ

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 24, 2020

» Read the rest of this entry «

by Jessica Corbett

“This is my first protest,” said a 45-year-old woman who joined the “Wall of Moms” at a Saturday demonstration in SeattleProtesters march in support of Portland demonstrators on July 25, 2020 in Oakland, California

People took to the streets in communities across the United States on Saturday in solidarity with ongoing protests against police brutality in Portland, Oregon that have been met with a forceful and widely criticized response from federal agents deployed by President Donald Trump, who has said he will send teams to other major U.S. cities.

Early Saturday evening, speakers at the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California delivered remarks about systemic racism, police misconduct, and racial injustice before the crowd marched past murals of Black Americans killed by law enforcement to the city’s police headquarters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Addressing the conditions in Portland, Amelia Clute, one of the speakers, said that “to have that type of free speech responded to with literal force by the federal government is something that’s really being downplayed by a lot of news sources… We can’t lose track of how serious and grave of a situation that could turn into: The beginnings of true fascism.” » Read the rest of this entry «

by Marina Pitofsky

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) resigned from the board of directors of the Christian organization Bread for the World amid blowback after he accosted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) this week at the Capitol and called her “disgusting” and a “fucking bitch.”

The bipartisan organization, which targets hunger and poverty around the world, said in a Saturday statement that it sought Yoho’s resignation, calling his actions “not reflective of the ethical standards expected of members of our Board of Directors.”

“Bread for the World met with Rep. Yoho on Friday and he has resigned from the board of Bread. During that conversation, we reaffirmed our joint commitment to expanding opportunity for men, women, and children around the world and thanked Rep. Yoho for his commitment to foreign aid effectiveness and transparency,” the organization said.

“Despite these areas of agreement, Bread sought his resignation as an action that reaffirms our commitment to coming alongside women and people of color, nationally and globally, as they continue to lead us to a more racially inclusive and equitable world,” the statement continued. » Read the rest of this entry «