Month: September 2020

Authored by David Limbaugh via PJMedia.com,

It’s getting scary out there, people. Everywhere you turn, Trump haters are venting their wrath against Trump supporters, as if supporting President Trump is an unforgivable sin.

They’re projecting and gaslighting – blaming Trump and his supporters for everything they’re doing.

It’s madness, but at long last, they might have awakened the sleeping giant they’re trying to hunt down and destroy.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid tweeted, “Genuine question: what will be the relationship between the majority of Americans, and Trumpists after this long, national nightmare ends — and it will eventually end — do people anticipate simply letting bygones (be) bygones with people who joined the Trump personality cult?”

What bygones? Who’s doing what to whom? What are we Trump supporters doing to you Trump haters, Joy? We are trying to mind our own business and stay safe. Are you and yours?

MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch likened a Trump rally to a Hitler rally from the early ’30s: “Well, basically you had a destruction of the belief in the free press. You had a blurring between the executive branch and the Justice Department. You have creating an other, whether it’s Muslims, whether it’s Mexicans, whether it’s congressmen who weren’t born in this country. And then you have the destruction of free elections. And we’re here.”

This is screaming insanity.

• Trump supporters aren’t censoring people on social media.

• They aren’t threatening their opponents’ civil liberties.

• They aren’t violating the separation of powers, which leftists routinely do, including through their activist courts and lawless executive orders (under former President Barack Obama).

• They’re not demonizing other races, as you maliciously accuse. Quit belching that vicious slander.

• And they are not the ones threatening the integrity of the electoral process.

The left, on the other hand, has promised:

• to stack the Supreme Court;

• add territories to the union to increase its electoral prospects;

• circumvent the Electoral College;

• obliterate the integrity of the voting process through rampant unverifiable mail-in ballots and the elimination of voter ID rules;

• and lower the voting age to 16.

Republicans aren’t the ones threatening to lawlessly invoke impeachment to block Trump’s lawful Supreme Court nominee.

Increasingly deranged, intolerant, hateful, and unhinged actor-turned-artist Jim Carrey said, “Too many Americans support Trump because he appeals to their basest and most primitive urges.”

This is a direct indictment of millions of Trump supporters — many of whom have been your fans. Tell me, Jim: What base and primitive urges do you mean? Our commitment to the Constitution, law and order, equal protection under the law for everyone, liberty, prosperity, and a strong national defense? Protecting the borders to ensure orderly and legal immigration? Are these commitments racist and sexist to you, Jim? If you really believe that, you are obviously blinded into irrationality by your hatred and need of therapy and prayer. Please get the tree trunk out of your own eye. In the meantime, sketch a picture of your own dark heart.

And how about the now-famous Leo Guinan, who publicly bragged that he told his parents neither he nor his children would visit them because they had placed Trump signs in their yard. After receiving blowback for this self-indulgent and heartless act, he publicly apologized.

We have obnoxious leftist “protestors” in St. Petersburg, Florida, taking over peaceful diners’ tables from restaurant to restaurant, ratcheting up the despicable practice they began a few years ago to harass Trump supporters.

And, once again, we have violent leftists rioting in the streets of Louisville, where two policemen were shot trying to keep the peace.

How can things be more surreal? I’ll say it again: The left is projecting its own darkness onto Trump and his supporters. Countless leftists accuse Trump of inciting violence and hate while displaying their own intolerance and hatred and committing violence. Trump is trying to stop the violence, while Democratic governors and mayors are fanning the flames.

Fair-minded Democrats, please don’t fool yourself into rationalizing that these things are happening equally on both sides of the aisle. It simply is not true. And don’t fall into the insidious trap of Trump Derangement Syndrome, which now possesses large swaths of Americans because of the left’s concerted effort to smear Trump and his supporters as racists for political gain.

How many Trump supporters are burning down cities, murdering cops, threatening mayhem if Joe Biden is elected, bullying Biden supporters out of restaurants, accosting people with Biden caps or yard signs, threatening to withhold their children from their Biden-supporting parents, and stirring up racial disharmony throughout the nation? When have Republican lawmakers ever tried to destroy the character of a Democratic president’s Supreme Court nominee?

Yes, Republicans say they’re ready to defend themselves, but I know of none who are threatening to commit violence and mayhem if Trump loses.

I don’t know how people can be so warped as to condemn Trump for allegedly inspiring violence simply because they don’t like him, when they themselves are actually committing violence or enabling those who are. I don’t know how they can rage against Trump as a dictator when he is doing nothing but exercising his lawful authority in office and appointing justices who will uphold the Constitution and rule of law, and when they are openly promising to thwart the Constitution in countless ways if they regain power. Notwithstanding the planted trick question, Trump will not resist the peaceable transition of power, but he might legally contest a stolen election. Meanwhile, prominent Democrats are promising not to accept a Trump victory — just like they never accepted his 2016 victory.

No, Joy Reid, we Trump supporters are not part of a cult, no matter how much Trump haters have convinced themselves otherwise. But we do see him as the last best hope to restore America’s greatness — and that includes liberty, peace, and security for all, not just for those who agree with us, unlike many on your side believe. We are relying on him to lawfully prevent the left’s destruction of the nation, its violence and lawlessness, and its abolition of liberty.

God save the republic.

Days after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned about emerging outbreaks in Queens and Brooklyn, advising the city that they demanded “urgent attention”, the city’s principal’s unions have joined together in calling for a vote of no confidence in the bumbling mayor, and for Hizzoner to cede control of the city’s schools to the state (aka, to de Blasio’s archrival, Gov. Cuomo).

Leaders of the city’s principals unions unanimously passed the vote of no confidence in the mayor. School administrators are calling for the mayor to give up control until the pandemic has been brought to heel via a vaccine, something that’s not expected until next year.

The votes comes just days before NYC schools are set to return to classrooms on a part-time basis.

Groups of restaurant owners are suing the city for threatening their livelihoods with its enduring ban on indoor dining, which is expected to continue possibly through the winter. It’s been reported that 90% of NYC restaurants didn’t pay rent last month.

Anger against de Blasio has been mounting since the mayor allegedly ignored the advice of a group of teachers and administrators who issued recommendations to city hall about how the crisis should be handled.

Among the major issues: the need to hire more teachers to compensate for a shortage for the upcoming school year. When Mayor de Blasio claimed during a press briefing earlier this month that the staffing shortage had only just become clear, many union leaders took it as a slap in the face.

A rebellion against the mayor’s office is also motivated in part by the fact that the administrator’s have political leverage in Albany. After all, the city’s schools have operated under what is called “mayoral control” since 2002, when Mayor Bloomberg convinced state lawmakers to abolish the 32 elected community boards that ran the city’s schools, resulting in a series of patronage-mill fiefdoms. There was also a central Board of Education with two members who were picked by the mayor and five by borough presidents. Unions, or at least their leaders, have some incentive for trying to revert back to the old system, under which they had more power since the mayor didn’t have as much leverage. Most other cities have school boards that control decisions made by the chancellor. NYC doesn’t.

“There are no easy answers…but the failure here has been a failure to anticipate the obvious,” one former NYC principal told WSJ.

Former Deutsche Bank AG traders Cedric Chanu and James Vorley were convicted for manipulating gold and silver prices on Friday after three days of deliberation by a Federal jury in Chicago.

The two were accused of making fake trade orders between 2008 and 2013 to influence the prices of precious metals. Their trial was a week long and was the first of its kind since 2010, according to Bloomberg. 

The convictions come as the result of a crackdown on “spoofing”, placing orders with no intention of executing them, in order to move the price of the underlying product. Spoofing works by fooling the market into thinking there are more bids or offers than are legitimately there. It has been illegal since 2010’s Dodd-Frank act.

Chanu and Vorley were said to have “weaponized” this tactic to mislead other traders, according to prosecutor Brian Young. The traders knew what they were doing, the prosecution argued, with Vorley even writing in a message to Chanu at one point: “This spoofing is annoying me. It’s illegal for a start.”

A co-worker at Deutsche Bank acted as witness during the trial and told the jury that Chanu and Vorley taught him how to manipulate prices by spoofing. The defendants didn’t call any witnesses but instead raised the issue of how difficult it was to try and prove criminal intent for “spoofing” in competitive global markets. 

“If you fake a pass and run the ball, that’s competition, not fraud,” Vorley’s lawyer said. 

Chanu was convicted on seven counts of fraud and Vorley was convicted of three counts. They were found not guilty on charges of conspiracy. The government has said they are going to seek about four or five years of jail for each person. Vorley said he will appeal and that he was trading “well within the law”.

Vorley’s lawyer said: “It was a compromise verdict by a jury that three times declared it was deadlocked, deliberating in the face of a Covid scare. The record is clear there was no fraud. The compromise conviction will not stand.”

Chanu’s attorney said he was “gratified that the jury unanimously acquitted Cedric on the conspiracy and other charges, and we intend to continue the fight as to the remaining charges.”

Via AlMasdarNews.com,

Iran has defied the U.S. threats and sanctions by increasing their oil shipments in the month of September, Reuters reported on Friday, citing details from TankerTrackers.

Details from TankerTrackers and two other unnamed firms revealed that the exports are rising, “although the figures fall into a wide range of between 400,000 bpd and 1.5 million bpd, reflecting the difficulty in tracking the shipments.”

“Exports are way up right now. We are seeing close to 1.5 million bpd in both crude and condensate so far this month,” Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, told Reuters.

The TankerTrackers data showed Iran’s oil exports for the month of September are double the numbers from August.

Exports have shrunk from over 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) since the United States withdrew from a nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions in 2018. Still, Iran has been working to get around the measures and keep exports flowing.

Data from TankerTrackers and two other firms, who asked not to be named, indicated exports are rising in September, although the figures fall into a wide range of between 400,000 bpd and 1.5 million bpd, reflecting the difficulty in tracking the shipments. — Reuters

“Data from TankerTrackers, which tracks shipments and oil storage, showed almost half of Iranian exports were picked up by foreign vessels via ship-to-ship transfers, making it difficult to determine final destinations,” Reuters added.

TankerTrackers noted further, “These are levels we haven’t seen in a year and a half.”

The rise in oil exports comes at a time of time of increased turmoil between the United States and Iran, as both nations have repeatedly exchanged diplomatic attacks in the international arena.

President Trump has again pointed attention to Joe Biden’s apparent slowness from ageing, or even the possibility of dementia, ahead of Tuesday night’s debate, calling on Biden to agree to take a ‘test’.

In a Sunday morning tweet Trump specifically demanded “a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night” which the president said he would undergo as well. In the past the demands have been focused on mental fitness tests, however.

Trump suggested that given prior instances of the seeming inability of Biden to speak well and coherently in fielding random media questions (especially when there’s no teleprompter), those instances where he speaks articulately must be due to drugs.

I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2020

The president questioned: 

His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???

Meanwhile The New York Times on Sunday acknowledged that recent Trump campaign claims of Biden lacking proper mental acuity to lead the nation will be to some degree affirmed or ultimately disproven Tuesday night:

President Trump has framed the first general election debate as a test for his opponent, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Yet he has simultaneously set the bar so low for so long that many of his supporters — having watched unflattering, often manipulated clips of Mr. Biden in Trump campaign advertisements or on Fox News — are now expecting the president to mop the floor with an incoherent opponent in something resembling a W.W.E. match.

Democrats — and even some Republicans — believe that is not likely to happen.

The Trump campaign has been seizing on Biden’s series of gaffes and momentary melt-downs in simple presentations of his points, which sometimes appear due to confusion or not really knowing what he’s saying (or reading off a screen):

Joe Biden: “It’s estimated that 200 million people will die, probably by the time I finish this talk.”

That’s nearly 2/3 of the U.S. population. pic.twitter.com/lp23K11K3o

— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) September 20, 2020

Broadly, it’s unfortunate that this is where we now are in American politics — essentially having to weigh whether a candidate is mentally present enough to participate in a debate and take the highest office in the land, with the other throwing out accusations of drug use. 

* * *

And there’s always this option…

Drugs should be administered to both candidates in equal doses, live and before opening statements, by someone with expertise – like the road manager of a metal band. https://t.co/vFwLf4jbpc

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) September 27, 2020

Authored by L.Brent Bozell III via The American Mind,

A fact-check solution to a constitutional crisis…

The war between conservatives and Silicon Valley is on. The scions of social media are no longer hiding their disdain for an entire movement. They know the outcome of this high-stakes presidential election could jeopardize their rule over the American people and unmake the oligarchy they’ve built with the rest of the ruling class. If we are to save the republic, we must realize this too—and act.

Tens of millions of individual users who dare question leftist orthodoxy are being targeted and silenced by Big Tech. There are no limits on who they censor, including the President of the United States.

That’s why the Media Research Center is fighting back with the Free Speech Alliance, which includes over 70 groups and The Claremont Institute. We also just released our database effort to document the bias at CensorTrack.org.

One key weapon being deployed to punish conservatives is the so-called “fact check.” It’s being used to censor thousands of conservatives communicating with millions of followers. It’s happened tens of thousands of times, and it’s getting worse. Facebook is one of the worst offenders.

Facebook, with 2.7 billion users, is dramatically skewed to the left in its fact-checking operation. It now has an international “Oversight Committee” dominated by George Soros-funded entities that make a mockery of unbiased review. Citizens wanting to rally in support of reopening the country have been banned because some public gatherings in some states are forbidden. Antifa, however, thrives largely unchecked and unchallenged as it riots in the streets and harasses members of Congress in their homes.

Conservatives have made good-faith attempts to resolve these many conflicts, but to no avail.

Covid-19 has sent social media sites into censorship overdrive. If you disagree with the social media prescription for the virus, you are silenced. Ask the president, or his son, or countless doctors.

Social media censorship is the most direct threat to free speech worldwide coming from the most powerful companies in the history of man. As a consequence, some conservatives are actively supporting the effort to strip from these social media giants the Section 230 protections that they certainly have abused.

Just like newspapers such as The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, these social media giants need to be held legally accountable for content on their own sites. But 230 protects companies from lawsuits when publishing the content of others. This has given Big Tech firms like Facebook the power to block conservatives from the public conversation while encouraging hate-filled, dishonest speech toward conservatives—all with virtual impunity.

Taking Action

U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R., MI), Lindsey Graham (R., SC), and Marsha Blackburn (R., TN) have proposed legislation that “would clarify the original intent of the law and increase accountability for content moderation practices.”

Others, including 51 state attorneys general, are exploring antitrust remedies to break the monopolies and allow competition that might embrace free speech.

These are very encouraging steps in the right direction.

But there might be an easier solution to resolve at least part of the problem: let’s fix fact-checking.

Silicon Valley, its allies in the “old” media, and the academy are the ones clamoring for fact-checking, not the public.

There’s no market demand for any corporate fact-checking. None.

This is not to suggest that social media sites shouldn’t be monitored, and restrictions placed on them. But those restrictions should be imposed only where absolutely necessary and legally required in cases of criminal activity, terrorism, and pornography.

That should be the full extent of Big Tech’s direct involvement in the fact-checking process.

Let the public make the call: allow them to opt in to fact-checking.

We offer a simple framework.

1. Create a Social Media Charter: A task force would produce a simple document outlining what can and will be banned by the social media community. Every company will be asked to sign the charter.

2. Demand Equal Fact-Checkers: Each social media company would recruit a set number of official fact-checkers—say, ten. These fact-checkers would run the political gamut and share in valuing true diversity of thought. For every leftist enterprise there would be a conservative alternative. Any existing “fact-checking” operations would need to disclose their true bias. Pure objectivity does not exist.

3. Insist on Transparency: Each fact-checking organization would be required to fill out a Transparency Statement, to include the organization’s official mission statement and describe all other organizational activities, political affiliations, sources of major funding and the qualifications of all staff participating in their operation.

4. Pay Fact-Checkers: As cable companies do with C-SPAN, so too would the social media giants fund these fact-checking organizations as a public service. Fact-checkers would be paid their salaries a year in advance, just as ombudsmen are, to mitigate against any possible interference.

5. Publicize Options: Social media companies would prominently list the names of all fact-checkers and encourage their audiences to read them.

6. Track Actions: Social media companies would agree to maintain a public log of all disciplinary action taken by the companies against users, be they personal or corporate.

7. Impose Biannual Oversight: A blue-ribbon “Oversight Board” would be convened biannually to review these fact-checkers. If the Oversight Board determined a fact-checker’s record to be unacceptable, it could terminate the contract while recruiting a similar replacement.

8. Limit Fact-checks: Fact-checks wouldn’t be used to shut down, suspend, or in any other way discipline users or organizations. They would be attached to stories for the users who opted in. They would provide additional information, not censor by dictate.

This will naturally require tweaking, but the outline ought to provide satisfaction for all parties. Social media sites will become self-policing communities; freedom of speech will be guaranteed, warts and all; conservatives will have the assurance they are no longer being targeted for censorship; and the reasons for legal or legislative action against these social media giants will be minimized, if not negated altogether.

In other words, one piece of the debate just might be resolved by the private sector, for the private sector. And maybe liberals will get back to defending free speech, as they once did.

Some times, people just can’t catch a break.

Such was the case of Argentinian lawmaker Juan Emilio Ameri, who has resigned after getting caught on a live camera pulling down his girlfriend’s top to kiss her newly enhanced breasts.

Ameri sat through parts of a virtual session of congress seemingly unaware that his camera was turned on, but well aware that he was turned on, with a woman sitting on his lap. At one point, he pulled down part of the woman’s shirt and exposed her breast, before kissing it, according to the Post.

Ameri thought he was off camera because his internet had gone down several times and admitted his girlfriend recently had her breasts enhanced.

He said:

 “I saw that my partner came out of the bathroom and I asked how she was, due to the operation. At that moment she sat with me and I kissed her on the breast without realizing that the connection had returned.”

And that was your first mistake, Juan.

He continued:

 “It was a moment of intimacy with my partner that leaked. It was serious, really, I take charge and I am very ashamed. I am very distressed by what is happening.”

“I apologize to the citizens, to my family, to my partner, for all this situation. I want to apologize to my mother, my sisters, my daughters, with whom I have not yet spoken,” he continued.

The session was then interrupted by House president Sergio Massa, who called it a “serious offense” and suspended Ameri for 180 days. Ameri resigned shortly thereafter, stating: “It was serious, really. I take responsibility. I’m very ashamed.”

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

A tape has surfaced of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden bizarrely claiming that he “started” at a historically black college in speaking to supporters in South Carolina during the primary. Biden has never made any mention of going to Delaware State University and it is not clear why the many reporters in attendance at the event did not ask when he attended a HBCU. Indeed, he would be the first president to claim such a distinction. He might also have been inartfully referencing his start as a politician. Alternatively, this would seem like an academic version of cultural appropriation. It would seem a valid point of clarification for the media.

This story obviously created an immediate buzz among professors who tend to track academic credentials and associations of presidents and other leaders. It would certainly be a significant story if a president attended a HBCU but I am not sure what Biden meant by his statement.

Most obvious interpretation was that Biden was claiming to have been a student at Delaware State when he spoke at October 2019 town hall event held at the historic Wilson High School in Florence. The school was founded in 1866 by the Freedmen’s Bureau for Black children.  He stated “I got started out of an HBCU, Delaware State — now, I don’t want to hear anything negative about Delaware State,” Biden told the crowd, as shown on video. “They’re my folks.”

The university has stated that he was never a student there. It said that it has only records of a couple of visits as a commencement speaker.

The statement is so weird that I have tried to find an alternative meaning.  One possibility was that he got a job teaching there. However, he never claims such a position.  I am not sure when that could have happened. He became a bar member in 1969 and was elected the very next year to the New Castle County Council in 1970. Two years later he was elected to the United States Senate.

Another possibility is that he is claiming that he started his political career at the school, but again the campaign has said nothing and his own book does not mention the connection.  Did he launch his campaign for the New Castle County Council at the university? I believe the university is about 45 minutes away in Dover from New Castle.  He might be referencing his start for the Senate.  The campaign however has gone days without explaining if there was a speech launching his campaign from the university (though that would raise some issues on the use of a state school).  Absent such an explanation, the clear impression is that he attended a HCBU as a student.

Biden has been previously criticized for false claims ranging from graduating in the top half of his class to having three degrees from college to being the first in his family to attend college to coming from a family of coal miners  to being arrested in trying to meet with Nelson Mandela.

Obviously, President Donald Trump has also been regularly and correctly flagged for false statements, including denials of his prior statements. I have joined in that criticism. Yet, that is no reason to also demand accuracy or explanations from his opponent.  If President Trump made such a statement, it would have had every network and newspaper demanding clarification or proof.

The story also magnifies the concerns over the lack of serious journalism surrounding Biden, who has been routinely given softball questions and faced little scrutiny from the press corp. Interviews with Biden have been cringeworthy as reporters from major media seem to actively assist the campaign in staging favorable pressers. I could not find any reporting of this extraordinary statement when it was made in the primary. There is still little reporting. If this video is false, it is a major story. If it is true, it is an even greater story. Yet, once again, there has been virtually no coverage of the claim. I seriously do not know what to make of the story but there seems very little interest in whether Biden is the product of a HCBU or falsely claimed such a status.  Biden can simply clarify the point. As an academic, I am honestly interested in what role a HCBU played in his career and I do not believe that this is a major scandal. Yet, if it was a reference to launching his career from the Delaware State campus, it is incredibly interesting. Indeed, with the discussion of HCBU funding throughout the campaign (including in his speech), it would seem something that the campaign would have been emphasizing.

Summary:

• COVID-19 deaths near 1 million
• Global cases hit 32.8 million
• France, Italy oppose new lockdowns
• Deaths climb in Iran
• Moscow cases hit 4 month high
• Dr. Fauci says therapeutics could be “bridge” to COVID-19 vaccine

* * *

US cases continued to accelerate over the weekend, with cases climbing 0.7% on Saturday, in line with the recent increase in the 7-day average. The pace of deaths slowed, however, with the US seeing only 740 new deaths yesterday, snapping a 4-day streak of 900+ deaths.

However, global numbers are more important right now.  Countries around the world reported just 277,937 new cases on Saturday, down from a peak a few days ago.

This brought the total to 32.8 million. Another 5,279 deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 994,000, within striking distance of the 1 million-death milestone.

As local authorities placed more than 1 million people in and around Madrid on lockdown this week, at least one local official felt this wasn’t a strong enough response, and demanded that local officials review their efforts.

As thousands continue to rally in London over the weekend, the sheer unpopularity of lockdowns was reflected in an announcement across the English Channel, where French Health Minister Olivier Veran rejected the possibility of another lockdown.

“We don’t want to bring the economic, social, cultural, sports and family life of the French people to a complete standstill,” he said on LCI television. “That’s why we take decisions that are adapted to the seriousness of the moment, region by region.”

Elsewhere, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also spoke out against the possibility of another lockdown, saying the country is “in a completely different situation” compared with the beginning of the year.

said there won’t be a new national lockdown as the country is “in a completely different situation” compared with the beginning of the year. Saying that the government has strengthened the health system, he added that there may be more stringent measures in specific clusters or areas “but in a limited, circumscribed way.”

In the US, Silicon Valley VC Bill Gurley tweeted a chart noting the hospitalization rates for students infected with COVID-19 on America’s college campuses.

This deserves discussion. pic.twitter.com/HAdLY7oANr

— Bill Gurley (@bgurley) September 27, 2020

The notion that colleges should keep students on campus for as long as possible to prevent a massive pre-holiday outbreak as students return home isn’t exactly controversial, yet colleges seem dead set against this (possibly for financial reasons).

Here’s other news on COVID-19 from overnight:

Iran’s death count from the virus reached 25,589 on Sunday, with 195 more fatalities overnight, up from 172 during the prior day. New cases increased by 3,362  – compared with 3,204 the day prior – bringing the total to 446,448, according to the latest Health Ministry figures. Over 374,000 patients have recovered from the virus in Iran while 4,059 people are in critical condition (Source: Bloomberg).

Czech Health Minister Roman Prymula said the country will limit gatherings of people in public next week, with the government discussing whether a 10- or 20-person limit is most appropriate. The nation of 10.7 million recorded 2,946 cases on Friday, the second highest since the beginning of the pandemic in March. Prymula said his country is currently among the four European nations being hit hardest by Covid-19’s spread (Source: Bloomberg).

As the number of cases in Moscow reached its highest level in almost four months, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin admitted on his blog on Sunday that heating, which is centrally controlled, would be switched on earlier than usual so that people isolating at home or in country houses would be more comfortable. He also cautioned that those over 65 or with high-risk illnesses should remain at home as much as possible during the coming weeks. He also advised companies to switch as many employees as possible back to working from home. There were 99  deaths counted yesterday, bringing Russia’s total to 20,324 (Source: Bloomberg).

And finally, Dr. Fauci says in a recent interview that antibody-based medications potentially even the convalescent plasma approach could act as a “bridge” to help society endure until a vaccine can be found.

“We are focusing very heavily now on treatment of early infection and, or prevention of infection,” Dr. Fauci told the Journal of the American Medical Association in an interview Friday. “And that’s the bridge to the vaccine.”