Category: GUN CONTROL

Homeland Security warns terrorists may exploit COVID-19 pandemic

By Alexander Mallin and Josh Margolin – 3/25/2020

A Department of Homeland Security memo sent to law enforcement officials around the country warns that violent extremists could seek to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by carrying out attacks against the U.S.

“Violent extremists probably are seeking to exploit public fears associated with the spread of COVID-19 to incite violence, intimidate targets and promote their ideologies, and we assess these efforts will intensify in the coming months,” according to the intelligence bulletin, compiled by the agency’s Counterterrorism Mission Center and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office.

At this time, DHS said it has “no information indicating any active plotting is underway,” but that it has observed certain extremist groups, both foreign and domestic, looking to spread misinformation about the coronavirus.

The memo, which was circulated on Monday, comes after assurances from FBI Director Chris Wray in a video message that agents would be even more vigilant in monitoring threats to the U.S. as the virus spreads.

“With all the worry and uncertainty out there, we want the public to know that there are still things they can count on: We’re here, and we’re going to stay here, to protect them, no matter what,” Wray said. “Because our criminal and national security adversaries sure aren’t going to take a day off — whether that’s for the coronavirus or, for that matter, anything else.”

Among the activities by extremist organizations cited in the DHS bulletin is a clipping from a weekly ISIS newsletter, which called for supporters to carry out attacks against overburdened health care systems in various Western countries.

Another portion of the bulletin singles out activity by white supremacists online who the DHS says have “advocated for violence against a range of targets, including critical infrastructure and faith-based and minority communities — including Asian Americans in response to the COVID outbreak.”

ABC News reported on Monday on an alert from the FBI’s New York field office that showed intelligence gathered on racist extremist groups, including neo-Nazis, that were encouraging followers who contract COVID-19 to spread the disease to Jewish people and police officers.

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Countries are starting to hoard food, threatening global trade

Screen Shot 2020-03-25 at 9.58.06 AM

By Isis Almeida and Agnieszka de Sousa

Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest shippers of wheat flour, banned exports of that product along with others, including carrots, sugar and potatoes. Serbia has stopped the flow of its sunflower oil and other goods. Russia is leaving the door open to shipment bans and said it’s assessing the situation weekly.
To be perfectly clear, there have been just a handful of moves and no sure signs that much more is on the horizon. Still, what’s been happening has raised a question: Is this the start of a wave of food nationalism that will further disrupt supply chains and trade flows?

“We’re starting to see this happening already — and all we can see is that the lockdown is going to get worse,” said Tim Benton, research director in emerging risks at think tank Chatham House in London.

Though food supplies are ample, logistical hurdles are making it harder to get products where they need to be as the coronavirus unleashes unprecedented measures, panic buying and the threat of labor crunches.

Consumers across the globe are still loading their pantries — and the economic fallout from the virus is just starting. The specter of more trade restrictions is stirring memories of how protectionism can often end up causing more harm than good. That adage rings especially true now as the moves would be driven by anxiety and not made in response to crop failures or other supply problems.

Related video: Food supply is not where it’s needed

As it is, many governments have employed extreme measures, setting curfews and limits on crowds or even on people venturing out for anything but to acquire essentials. That could spill over to food policy, said Ann Berg, an independent consultant and veteran agricultural trader who started her career at Louis Dreyfus Co. in 1974.

“You could see wartime rationing, price controls and domestic stockpiling,” she said.

Some nations are adding to their strategic reserves. China, the biggest rice grower and consumer, pledged to buy more than ever before from its domestic harvest, even though the government already holds massive stockpiles of rice and wheat, enough for one year of consumption.

Key wheat importers including Algeria and Turkey have also issued new tenders, and Morocco said a suspension on wheat-import duties would last through mid-June.

a close up of a map: Food Dependence© Bloomberg Food Dependence

As governments take nationalistic approaches, they risk disrupting an international system that has become increasingly interconnected in recent decades.

Kazakhstan had already stopped exports of other food staples, like buckwheat and onions, before the move this week to cut off wheat-flour shipments. That latest action was a much bigger step, with the potential to affect companies around the world that rely on the supplies to make bread.

For some commodities, a handful of countries, or even fewer, make up the bulk of exportable supplies. Disruptions to those shipments would have major global ramifications. Take, for example, Russia, which has emerged as the world’s top wheat exporter and a key supplier to North Africa.

“If governments are not working collectively and cooperatively to ensure there is a global supply, if they’re just putting their nations first, you can end up in a situation where things get worse,” said Benton of Chatham House.

He warned that frenzied shopping coupled with protectionist policies could eventually lead to higher food prices — a cycle that could end up perpetuating itself.

“If you’re panic buying on the market for next year’s harvest, then prices will go up, and as prices go up, policy makers will panic more,” he said.

And higher grocery bills can have major ramifications. Bread costs have a long history of kick-starting unrest and political instability. During the food price spikes of 2011 and 2008, there were food riots in more than 30 nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

“Without the food supply, societies just totally break,” Benton said.

Ample supplies have kept prices relatively low since the 2011 spike© Bloomberg Ample supplies have kept prices relatively low since the 2011 spike

Unlike previous periods of rampant food inflation, global inventories of staple crops like corn, wheat, soybeans and rice are plentiful, said Dan Kowalski, vice president of research at CoBank, a $145 billion lender to the agriculture industry, adding he doesn’t expect “dramatic” gains for prices now.

While the spikes of the last decade were initially caused by climate problems for crops, policies exacerbated the consequences. In 2010, Russia experienced a record heat wave that damaged the wheat crop. The government responded by banning exports to make sure domestic consumers had enough.

The United Nations’ measure of global food prices reached a record high by February 2011.

“Given the problem that we are facing now, it’s not the moment to put these types of policies into place,” said Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. “On the contrary, it’s the moment to cooperate and coordinate.”

Read More on Food Issues in Virus Era:

There’s Plenty of Food in the World, Just Not Where It’s Needed

Americans Drop Kale and Quinoa to Lock Down With Chips and Oreos

Cargill Says China Offers Hope for Meat Markets Hit by Virus 

Of course, the few bans in place may not last, and signs of a return to normal could prevent countries from taking drastic measures. Once consumers start to see more products on shelves, they may stop hoarding, in turn allowing governments to back off. X5 Retail, Russia’s biggest grocer, said demand for staple foods is starting to stabilize. In the U.S., major stores like Walmart Inc. have cut store hours to allow workers to restock.

In the meantime, some food prices have already started going up because of the spike in buying.

Wheat futures in Chicago, the global benchmark, have climbed more than 6% in March as consumers buy up flour. U.S. wholesale beef has shot up to the highest since 2015, and egg prices are higher.

At the same time, the U.S. dollar is surging against a host of emerging-market currencies. That reduces purchasing power for countries that ship in commodities, which are usually priced in greenbacks.

n the end, whenever there’s a disruption for whatever reason, Berg said, “it’s the least-developed countries with weak currencies that get hurt the most.”

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“I Don’t Care! I Don’t Care! I Don’t Care!” Pelosi Snaps at CNN’s Dana Bash For Asking About Trump’s Plans to Put America Back to Work (VIDEO)

By Cristina Laila – March 24, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi snapped at CNN’s Dana Bash Tuesday afternoon when the host brought up Trump’s recent remarks suggesting bringing Americans out of quarantine and back to work.

“I don’t have time to follow people’s twits…tweets, Twitters, whatever, tweets — so don’t expect me to comment on that,” Pelosi said.

“Well, even beyond Twitter, the President of the United States is signaling that he could open it up,” Bash said.

“What is your opinion on that?” Bash said pressing Pelosi.

“I don’t care! I don’t care! I don’t care!” Pelosi said as CNN’s Dana Bash brought up Trump’s plans to open America back up for business soon.

“It is not scientific based — he’s notion mongering,” Pelosi slurred.

Of course Pelosi doesn’t care about Americans going back to work. She wants America shut down while she holds the country hostage and tries to shove her Socialist wish list through Congress.

President Trump on Tuesday appeared on Fox News for a town hall to discuss his administration’s ongoing efforts to combat the Coronavirus.

Trump said he would likely open the country back up by Easter (April 12).

“I would love to have [the country] open by Easter,” Trump said. “It’s such an important day for other reasons.”

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Closing All Gun Retailers, Says They Are ‘Not An Essential Function’

by Cassandra Fairbanks March 24, 2020

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has announced that they will be closing all gun retailers as they are “not an essential function.”

Sheriff Villanueva also added 1,300 more deputies to patrol the county and released 1,700 “nonviolent” inmates from county jails since Governor Gavin Newson issued a stay-at-home order in the state.

Speaking to Fox 11, Villanueva claimed to support the Second Amendment, but spewed anti-gun talking points while announcing the gun store shut down.

“We will be closing them, they are not an essential function,” Villanueva said. “I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners and you have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”

The station reports that he also freed 10% of the inmate population from county jails — nonviolent offenders with misdemeanor sentences that were up within 30 days.

“We’re gonna keep violent felony suspects who are a threat to the community in the jail no matter what,” Villanueva said. “Anybody who has an idea that somehow we’re not going to be hard on crooks out there on the streets, they’re tragically mistaken, there’s twice as many deputies on the street now so the odds of you getting caught are a lot higher.”

Though he has doubled the police patrol, he claims that the National Guard is not active in the county, despite photos posted to social media that show large amounts of military vehicles.

“If we start losing major portions of our sworn personnel, that impacts our ability to man jails or our patrol obligations, and were running out of people to do that, if were in that position typically our counterparts in LAPD they’ll be in the same boat, then we can use the National Guard to start assigning them to security operations,” Villanueva said.

On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied an emergency request that would have blocked the governor’s order to close all gun retailers in the state in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The court ruled on Sunday evening that the gun shops could be closed down, letting the order go into effect on Monday.

The gun shop shut down was part of an order by Democrat Governor Tom Wolf that closed all businesses that are not considered to be “life sustaining.” Gun rights groups argued before the Supreme Court that this should include weapons retailers, but they were denied.

The order shut down the stores on Monday without any timeline for when they can reopen.

 

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WATCH: COUPLE CASUALLY LOOTS CORONAVIRUS SUPPLIES FROM SAN FRANCISCO WALGREENS

Watch: Couple Casually Loots Coronavirus Supplies from San Francisco Walgreens

‘I hope you overdose,’ man filming tells looters

By Adan Salazar – March 24, 2020

A man and a woman casually looted items from a local Walgreens pharmacy in San Francisco, as customers and workers helplessly looked on.

The couple was filmed looting last week at a Walgreens on Drumm Street, near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

“I hope the drugs are good,” one worker tells the pair, as they continue to fill reusable shopping bags with various items.

“Pieces of shit,” another man filming says, adding, “I hope you overdose.”

A similar incident was documented at another San Francisco-area Walgreens store earlier this month.

Thieves have taken to openly pilfering merchandise since the state’s passage of Proposition 47, which reduces theft of up to $950 in merchandise to a mere misdemeanor crime, but criminals appear more emboldened in the wake of coronavirus panic-buys.

Similarly, police in Philadelphia have announced they will no longer prosecute thefts or other nonviolent crimes ostensibly to keep coronavirus from spreading in jails.

“Instead, they’ll briefly detain the suspect to confirm identity and fill out arrest warrant paperwork, then release the suspect,” reports Reason.com. “The arrest warrant will be served at a later time when the coronavirus risk has faded.”

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TUCKER: DEMS PUTTING “WOKENESS ABOVE ALL” BY BLOCKING CORONAVIRUS RELIEF

Tucker: Dems Putting "Wokeness Above All" By Blocking Coronavirus Relief

Democratic legislation “uses the words diverse or diversity more than 60 times”

Steve Watson  – MARCH 24, 2020

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson slammed Democrats for holding up the coronavirus relief legislation, urging that they are “indulging their creepy ideological obsessions” by inserting stuff that has absolutely “nothing to do with fighting the pandemic.”

Carlson highlighted several parts of the 1,400 page House Democratic bill, which is stuffed with pork, and noted that most of it is about being ‘woke’ rather than fighting the killer virus.

“The bill would require every corporation that receives coronavirus aid to have officers and a budget dedicated to diversity and inclusion initiatives for a minimum of five years after they get the money,” Carlson noted.

“Because that is going to keep America healthy and prosperous, just like it has,” Carlson sarcastically emphasised.

“Companies would also have to produce elaborate racial reports for the government listing the skin color and the sex of their officers and boards of directors. They have to prove they give enough money to firms owned by women and nonwhites, and of course how much they spend on diversity initiatives,” he continued, pointing to the relevant sections of the bill.

Carlson noted that the bill “uses the words diverse or diversity more than 60 times.”

“What does that have to do with the pandemic that might kill you?” he asserted, adding “Not one thing. Just more ugly race politics, the kind they specialize in.”

“This is insanity, it’s dangerous insanity,” he proclaimed, adding “Who cares what color your scientists are?”

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Elitists Ready State-of-the-Art Doomsday Bunkers as Coronavirus Pandemic Worsens

By Shane Trejo 3/24/2020

While ordinary Americans deal with the coronavirus pandemic and the many anxieties that accompany the unprecedented crisis, the super rich are retreating to state-of-the-art bunkers featuring bowling alleys, swimming pools, and other amenities.

The providers of these doomsday bunkers are reporting a drastic increase in business, with coronavirus hysteria causing at least one economic sector to boom.

“As unpopular as coronavirus is, it’s getting the publicity of a Backstreet Boys hit in the ‘90s,” said Gary Lynch, general manager of Texas-based Rising S Bunkers. “People have an infatuation with it.”

Trending: Dr. Fauci Wants America to Become a Police State Like China in Order to Stop Coronavirus

Business is good for Lynch and other bunker manufacturers, as the ultra rich scramble to use their remaining wealth to seclude themselves. There is no limit to the luxuries that can be provided in a modern bunker, with many of these bunker models resembling mansions.

“Movie theaters are common,” Lynch said. “We built one in California that has a shooting range, swimming pool and bowling alley.”

Lynch offers 24 different options for individuals wishing to purchase a bunker. The smallest model costs $39,500 and includes a custom air filtration system, bunk beds, a functioning toilet, and a kitchen counter. A more decadent set-up is the Fortress, which costs $1.009 million, including 15 private bedrooms, 42 bunk beds, a panic room, and a room to house guns.

The most garish model of all is the Aristocrat, which features a sauna, hot tub, swimming pool, gym, greenhouse, billiards room and garage. It costs an incredible $8.35 million to construct and is off limits to all but the super rich. Coronavirus is causing a run on these types of shelters, Lynch explains, as high-class Americans realize the necessity of extreme preparedness.

“In 2008, I talked to a guy for four-five months who was thinking about purchasing a shelter. I think he probably used the coronavirus to convince his wife, because he finally just bought one,” Lynch said. “That’s how most buyers are; they’re not in it for one single reason.”

The providers of these bunkers feel they are supplying a much-needed service in the market to alleviate the authentic fears of families in an increasingly topsy-turvy world.

“We don’t create fear. We resolve it. The true elite all have backdoor plans. They’re jumping on planes and flying to islands,” said Robert Vicino, who is CEO of the shelter-building company Vivos. “We give people the peace of mind that they have their own backdoor solution for when it’s time to take shelter.”

Vicino noted that his clientele has moved from middle class to upper class in recent months, as the wealthy no longer feel insulated from the rest of society from their gated neighborhoods. He reports that interest in his bunkers are up 1,000 percent year-over-year, and sales are up 400 percent, as doomsday fever sweeps throughout America.

“As long as time permits, we will continue to build bunkers. This world won’t be safer tomorrow,” he added.

For the Americans without the wealth to retreat from society, they will have to deal with a tumultuous and dangerous reality for their loved ones as the coronavirus pandemic continues without any sign of slowing.

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Here are the six countries that will be most affected by coronavirus-induced economic chaos

CAP

By Peter Andrews

Time to buckle up: economists believe the looming Covid-19 crash will throw millions out of work and bankrupt thousands of businesses across the globe in a downturn that might even surpass the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Economics is the study of choices, and never more so than now. It’s now clear that, with the coronavirus pandemic causing widespread chaos that economists believe will cause a prolonged economic depression, the choices that each person makes have the power to affect their country’s and the world’s economy over the coming weeks and months.  With the caveat that much depends on those individual choices and the actions of governments, here is our current assessment of which places are likely to be worst-hit economically, as well as a few that might come out rosier than most.

THE GOOD (ISH)

Singapore

Singapore might be the perfect recipe for coronavirus containment. A rich city-state with a world class universal healthcare system, a pandemic response plan in place ever since they were badly hit by the SARS virus in 2003, and healthy lashings of state-enforced social control mean they quickly knew exactly how and where 100 of their first 112 confirmed cases became infected. Astonishingly, their non-oil exports grew in February, owing mostly to an increase in shipments of pharmaceuticals and various manufactured goods to America, Japan and the EU. Their regional trade with China and the rest of Southeast Asia will suffer, though, and their economy is a trade-based one. Therefore, they are likely to enter a recession this year, along with the rest of the world. But the early signs suggest they may be better off than a lot of places, though.

Chinese scientists desperately researching coronavirus discover that it shares human cell binding site with HIV, Ebola

CAP

China

Sometimes, it pays to be a totalitarian state. And to go first. China’s stifling of the contagion that started the trail of devastation has been miraculous, albeit achieved through the sort of state enforcement other countries would find difficult to enact. For the most populous country on Earth to go into a state of universal lockdown, with meetings or gatherings of any kind forbidden and essentially no individual movement outside of one’s own home permitted, requires a strong level of police enforcement, and the end of all but the most rudimentary personal freedoms. But it sure is working. China has been seeing the number of new cases decline, with none being home-grown — all their new infections — it reported 39 today — are from people returning home from abroad.

In the early days of the pandemic, economists were predicting a sharp decline in China’s economy followed by a sharp bounce back, a so-called V-shaped curve. But as the crisis has worsened experts are now forecasting a longer, deeper downturn, one that will take longer to escape from. But, having been the first to suffer, they will be the first to emerge from it. After the Communist Party has held the entire population of the country in its grip for the duration of this lockdown, without any major public unrest, they will come out the other side poorer, but arguably with even more political control than before. Which Beijing will use to help make a swift economic recovery, using its technological and manufacturing muscle.

THE BAD

America

Donald Trump has spent much of his presidency tweeting and boasting about how strong the US economy has been… and he’s been right. The economy has been steadily growing ever since the last global crisis in 2009, and in 2019 the period became the longest global expansion on record. But that expansion will become yet another victim of coronavirus before the summer is out. And there appears not to really be a reference for how bad things could get. Bill Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has begged President Trump on CNBC to beg to shut down the American economy for 30 days and put the country in a nationwide lockdown. “America will end as we know it unless we take this option”, he said. When hedge fund managers are praying for the economy to be SHUT DOWN in order to protect it, you know things are bad.

Comparisons to the Great Depression of the 1930s are common, with the majority consensus leaning towards the Covid-19 Depression of the 2020s being worse. JP Morgan is predicting a 14% slash in the US economy this quarter (alongside an eye-watering 22% in the Eurozone) while another forecast yesterday warned US unemployment could rise to 30% and overall GDP could decline by a staggering 50% in the second quarter. Depending on how quickly the Federal Reserve can pump money out to businesses at the same time as stemming the contagion as much as they can, then this could be anything between a gigantic global recession for at least six months, to the worst economic crisis in history, with depths as yet unplumbed. America, as the centre of the Western world’s economy, is going to feel the pain most.

Italy

No prizes for predicting that Italy will have suffered more than most when the dust settles on this crisis. A middle-sized country with a small economy, they find themselves overtaking patient zero China in numbers of active cases and dead. Italy has everything working against it. An elderly population more susceptible to the disease. An economy heavily reliant on tourism which will be decimated. And huge debts.

They were already a heavily indebted country that had suffered possibly more than any other European country through their membership of the Eurozone. And they were hardly a united cohesive society either, with the poorer south harboring ancient resentments against the richer north, which has experienced the centre of the outbreak. Footage of Italians singing from their balconies has been inspiring, and perhaps this crisis will bring them closer together as a country, as only tragedy can. But any other silver linings are hard to see for The Boot of Europe.

South Korea

The Korean Republic is exerting a similarly strong defensive action to Singapore against the virus. They also have huge Big Data capabilities for mass testing and contact tracing, utilising citizens’ mobile phone and credit card data to decide who to test in the first place. They are no strangers to outbreaks either, as the 2015 MERS outbreak taught them lessons about how to minimize the impact on the health services. As for their economy, though, it was not in great shape leading up to this, and the damage to trade links within Asia will hurt them badly. The epicenter of their coronavirus outbreak is in the manufacturing region, and a Hyundai factory has already closed its doors there. But if it spreads to Seoul they will be in even bigger trouble, as that could shut down the business and finance sectors.

Australia

Australia is another country highly dependent on trade with China, and is predicted to be the hardest hit economy in the world outside of China itself and Hong Kong. China is also Australia’s biggest source of tourism revenue, and that twin-pronged attack on their economy is sure to do major lasting damage. This could not have come at a worse time for them either, straight off the back of a summer of rampant bushfires that did huge economic and reputational damage. Already, the Australian dollar is trading at very low values. Worrying times for Aussie people and politicians alike.

THE UGLY

Africa

OK, Africa is obviously not a country, but there’s no point in trying to predict which of the already-fragile economies in that vast and troubled continent will be worst affected by coronavirus, when it does spread widely there. Africa has more than enough problems without yet another killer virus, but it has been largely ignored in discussions about global impacts of Covid-19 thus far. Frighteningly, most African countries are acutely vulnerable: many have fewer than 10 hospital beds per 10,000 people; they have many crowded, impoverished townships where there’s a lack of water to wash hands and little space to self-isolate; and few have any contingency plans or resources to cope with such an outbreak. According to NKC African Economics, Angola, Gabon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tunisia, Zambia and Kenya are the African countries most at risk of debt distress in the likely event of a global recession. Slowdowns in the rest of the world pose a grave threat to African countries’ already precarious trade links to Europe and Asia.

Lockdown paradox

Damage to a country’s economy is a direct product of steps taken to hinder the spread of the virus itself. If absolutely no measures were taken by a country, and companies remained open and everything was business as usual, their economy would be unaffected. With the exception, that is, of the untenable pressure that would soon be brought on the health services in that scenario. With a high peak in Covid-19 cases, the health services would quickly be overwhelmed, and people would start dying on the streets or at home without the slightest hope of even the most basic medical intervention. Clearly, this is not an acceptable state of affairs, which is why such drastic, possibly recession-triggering measures are being taken, all in an effort to save as many lives as possible.

Governments are doing what they can, which is essentially throwing huge, unprecedented sums of money to try to avert a prolonged crash and to keep their economies running. Most commentators cite wartime measures as the only comparable action. And the world is at war, against an enemy that, if left to run amok, will cripple the economy, ruin livelihoods and perhaps kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people. How well we combat it will determine all of our futures.

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