Saint Jacinda Postpones General Election
Remember the outrage on the liberal left last month after Trump raised the possibility of postponing the November election? This was treated as the last word in undemocratic, populist demagoguery. How dare he?!? Well, Jacinda Arden has done precisely that – postponed the New Zealand General Election from September 19th to October 17th. The BBC has more.
Ms Ardern said on Monday that the new date would allow parties “to plan around the range of circumstances we will be campaigning under”.
Earlier this week, the country’s largest city went back into lockdown.
“This decision gives all parties time over the next nine weeks to campaign and the Electoral Commission enough time to ensure an election can go ahead,” Ms Ardern said, adding that she had “absolutely no intention” of allowing any further delays to the vote.
The opposition National Party has argued the election should be delayed as restrictions on campaigning mean Ms Ardern had an unfair advantage.
Restrictions were imposed on Auckland on Wednesday after a number of new infections were identified in the city.
Nine new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Monday, bringing the number of active cases linked to the Auckland cluster to 58.
The outbreak was initially traced back to members of one family, although Ms Ardern later said that subsequent contact-tracing had found an earlier case involving a shop worker who became sick on July 31st.
A health official who knew the family told the New Zealand Herald that the family were “shell-shocked” and “a little embarrassed that it had happened to them”.
The announcement that new cases had been discovered shocked the country, which had recorded no locally transmitted cases for more than three months.
In normal times, this would be greeted with outrage. The Toothy Tyrant is imprisoning New Zealand citizens in secure facilities if they test positive for the virus, along with every member of their household – and in addition to this grotesque violation of civil liberties, she has now postponed the General Election and is planning to remain in office after her three-year term has expired.
But as was pointed out in the recent “Postcard From New Zealand“, she’ll almost certainly win in October in a landslide.
France to Make Face Masks Compulsory at Work
Bad news from across the Channel. According to today’s Telegraph, France is considering whether to make face-masks compulsory in shared workplaces such as open-plan offices, factories and conference rooms.
Elisabeth Borne, the employment minister, is to discuss the proposal with employers and union leaders on Tuesday.
She said scientists unanimously recommended wearing masks “when several people are in a confined space.” They will only be compulsory in individual offices when more than one person is present.
The government is also considering strengthening other workplace precautions such as plastic dividers for open-plan offices. “Taking into account what we have observed in workplace clusters, additional precautions are sometimes worth taking,” Ms Borne said.
She said employers who place seasonal workers such as hotel staff or fruit pickers in shared accommodation may be asked to do more to ensure that social distancing is maintained and masks are worn.
Face-masks are already compulsory in indoor public spaces, but doctors and the government’s scientific advisors have lobbied for the rule to be extended to private companies. Many French cities have made them mandatory in crowded areas.
So what public health “emergency” is this draconian policy based on? You guessed it: a rise in cases with no corresponding rise in hospitalisations or deaths. France reported 3,310 new cases on Saturday, but only 29 new hospital admissions and just nine ICU patients. You read that right: nine. As the Telegraph reports, many of the new cases are younger people under 45 who tend not to have symptoms.
A Lockdown Sceptics Saint?
A reader has sent me the above quote from St Anthony the Great. Sounds like he’s the Lockdown Sceptics saint we’ve been looking for.
Covid No More Deadly Than Seasonal Flu in Ireland
Yesterday, I wrote about a Twitter thread by financial analyst Graham Neary showing that Neil Ferguson’s estimate of Covid’s IFR was based on an analysis of just six flights out of Wuhan from January 30th to February 1st.
Gordon Hughes, a Professor of Economics at Edinburgh University, has been in touch to point out that Neary produced another thread on August 11th in which he analysed the excess death data for Ireland and concludes that the excess deaths in April 2020, assumed to be partly caused by COVID-19, were no greater than they were in January 2017 and January 2018 (assumed to be partly caused by seasonal flu) and excess deaths in May 2020 were no higher than in a typical April or May. You can see the Twitter thread here and read the unrolled version here.
Here is Professor Hughes’s summary.
In effect he argues, using methods that are pretty robust, that the effect of COVID-19 in Ireland has been no worse than – and probably less bad than – an average flu season. After adjustments for the timing of death registrations, population, etc the cumulative sum of deaths in Ireland from Jan to May 2020 was less than in 3 out of the preceding 5 years. The winter of 2019-20 was a relatively mild flu season so that what COVID-19 has done is to offset the lower number of deaths from flu. On a monthly basis April 2020 was almost the exactly the same as January in two bad flu seasons (2016-17 and 2017-18).
Clearly the situation in the UK has been worse, almost certainly because of a more dense population and larger cities – and possibly because of more people in care homes. If you strip out the care home element I would expect that the figures for most of the UK outside London has been similar to that for Ireland.
To go back to the IFR, nobody really knows what the IFR is for flu because estimates of the number of flu cases is about as unreliable as for the number of COVID-19 cases. It is possible that the IFR for COVID-19 is somewhat higher than than for flu because fewer people in Ireland contracted it but no-one can be confident of that while there is so much uncertainty about the true incidence of either flu or COVID-19 in the population. Even so it is certainly not an order of magnitude higher.
The true lesson of this whole sorry episode is the enormous cost of failing to monitor the incidence of pandemic or other diseases properly in the population. The ONS sample should be far bigger – perhaps 100,000 per week – and should be systematically carried out on a long term basis to monitor other respiratory diseases at short notice, since most widespread pandemics will be respiratory diseases now that we have reasonable control of water-borne diseases.
Professor Hughes made a further point, which I thought was very good.
There is a more general and separate point that I have been thinking about. At the outset COVID-19 was treated as an area for specialists (epidemiologists) but it has become clear that there is a whole group of competent data analysts who have provided new information and better analysis that goes way beyond the stuff produced by insiders. Not only Neary but Nic Lewis and many others from outside epidemiology. In part this is due to the heavy weight of academic convention, so that insiders want to satisfy their peers, whereas outsiders are more likely to be looking for illumination and answers. In part it reflects the fact that epidemiology doesn’t use methods or data that go significantly beyond what economists, statisticians, etc., are used to. There is, for example, nothing in the pandemic models of Ferguson et al that is really different from economic models that I and others have used in the past, while their statistical skills appear to be limited (to put it politely).
The corollary is that a setup by which governments only consult insiders has proved woefully inefficient because it is trapped by the prior assumptions and restricted data and analyses within a small group. This might be forgiven when the crisis first arose but it is inexcusable to persist in that behaviour once the implications and costs of the pandemic became clear. It is easy to recognise the bureaucratic reasons for resisting some kind of open source approach. However, since it has become clear to everyone that the Westminster political/administrative/media elite has failed badly – though there are wide differences on why or how – I would hope that the lesson is learned that things must be handled differently in future. This is nothing to do with conventional politics, since the devolved administrations have performed no better.
He’s not wrong. Many independent researchers, particularly financial analysts, have produced better risk assessments of COVID-19 than the Government’s scientific advisors. Indeed, if SAGE was replaced with a group of independent researchers the Government would probably have been better advised.
Don’t Go to Dubai
A reader who wrote to me before about the difficulty of obtaining a birth certificate and passport for her newborn has written again, this time about the ludicrous expense of complying with Dubai’s Covid travel guidance.
My brother and his fiancée live in Dubai. My parents regularly visit them and we have had plans for months (pre-Covid) to go and visit them in October half term this year. We had naively assumed that by October things should be getting back to normal travel wise. However, I spoke with my mum and brother yesterday and they had been doing some research into travelling there – my parents are due to go out in mid September.
So… as it currently stands you have to have a COVID-19 test 96 hours before you fly. This must come with a certificate and so an NHS test is not accepted – you need to pay £200 for a private one. For us as a family of five (assuming children need the test also) that’s £1,000 on top of the cost of the holiday. Then, 96 hours before you leave Dubai you need another test to enable you to be allowed to fly home. These tests are £300 per person plus £300 for a doctors fee to give you the test – so £3,000 for us in total. You also need to wait in a room until you have your test results – so on a six-day holiday we would potentially be spending a day sitting in a doctor’s waiting room.
Then, if you test positive you are moved to government accommodation and I guess not allowed to fly home although that’s not clear from what I’ve read. If you are negative and can fly home you then must self-isolate/quarantine for 14 days once back in England – not sure why if you have the proof to say you don’t have Covid from the test, but then nothing makes any logical sense anymore does it?
So at an additional cost of £4K it is safe to say we will now cancel our visit to see my brother. I am not bothered about another cancelled holiday – that is now then norm in these times. It is just so worrying and frustrating how incompetent the people are in these positions of authority making the rules (up as they go along).
Postcard From Dartmouth
A reader has sent an account of her recent holiday in Dartmouth. Sounds pretty good.
We were a little nervous for what was our first major stay away since March 20th. This was partly because we had stayed before, fallen in love with the place and did not want to be disappointed. We stayed at the Dart Marina Hotel, right next to the Higher Ferry, a source of endless entertainment for us, as we can see it from our terrace. The hotel is wonderful. The staff there always give top-notch service, and the attention to detail is marvellous. It was a relief to see that most of their excellent staff have weathered the lockdown.
The town was busy, this being the hottest weekend of the year. We walked up to town with the intention of partaking in some retail therapy, and we realised that we had left our exemption lanyards in the boot of the car. We both thought, “stuff it, let’s blag it”, which we did. We visited a lingerie store (no mask, no problem), a men’s outfitters (no mask, no problem), a newsagent (challenged, but no problem when the magic word “exempt” was said) and a liquor store (same as the newsagent). At the latter, the lady customer right behind us, perhaps having heard us, claimed exemption as well.
On Saturday, we dined at Mitch Tonks’ Seahorse Al Mare. Mitch has had to move his operation from his fixed premises, not because of the virus, but because he was flooded out, courtesy of a burst water-main. Very creatively, he got permission for a covered venue right on the waterfront, and it was wonderful. No muzzles, no hassle, just good food and happy people.
We spent an amusing weekend observing the behaviour of other visitors. I imagine that many of them would have gone to Magaluf or Benidorm in more normal times, but the virus has driven them here. We saw numerous people wearing masks on the street (not required) but reassuringly, as the weekend wore on, we saw fewer instances of this.
Round-Up
- ‘Cultural Maskism: Social Class and Morality in the COVID-19 Regime‘ – Niall McCrae with another hard-hitting piece in the Gateway Pundit. Cultural Maskism is good
- ‘Britons quarantining after holidays to France are allowed one supermarket trip on way home‘ – That’s generous of the authorities. Returning holidaymakers could also be faced with a £1,000 for walking the dog
- ‘Two police forces are slammed after refusing job applications from candidates who believe people cannot change biological sex‘ – Being in touch with reality is now a disqualification for joining the police force
- ‘Oldham is on the verge of lockdown – but its bars and pubs tell a different story‘ – A Sky News team was embedded with Greater Manchester Police as they tried to enforce social distancing rules in Oldham
- ‘COVID-19 Hospital Activity‘ – Data release from NHS England showing that on April 2nd only 50,871 hospital beds in England were occupied out of a total of 141,000, not including the Nightingales. Crisis? What crisis?
- ‘The tragedy of grades based on predictions‘ – Excellent piece by education blogger Andrew Old about the A level results story
- ‘The five biggest coronavirus myths BUSTED! Exposing the fear mongering, propaganda and outright lies that are plaguing the world‘ – I don’t usually link to pieces in RT because it’s a propaganda arm of the Russian state. But this piece by Peter Andrews, an Irish science journalist, is good
- ‘Spectator Out Loud‘ – Listen to Douglas Murray and me reading our latest Spectator pieces
- ‘GREECE FRIGHTENING Fears for Greece holidays as coronavirus spike sparks concerns country could be added to UK quarantine list‘ – Greece could be added to the quarantine list according to the Sun
- ‘History will judge the hysteria‘ – Sceptical Israeli Professor Udi Qimron has given an interview to Arutz Sheva and he doesn’t pull his punches: “The ongoing destruction due to the inability to admit this mistake, despite the epidemic’s small mortality numbers, is outrageous. History will judge the hysteria.”
- ‘Doctors Pen Open Letter To Fauci Regarding The Use Of Hydroxychloroquine for Treating COVID-19‘ – Three doctors have written an open letter to Anthony Fauci asking him why he isn’t recommending the use of hydroxychloroquine
- ‘Why is Boris Johnson taking us back to the Seventies?‘ – Good piece in the Express by John Longworth
- ‘Public response to the reopening of schools to “all children” in September‘ – Laughably biased survey aimed at parents, clearly intended to produce a negative response to re-opening schools. It’s been compiled by the World Socialist Website. Why are lefties opposed to schools re-opening? Don’t they care about disadvantaged kids being left behind?
- ‘Early spread of COVID-19 appears far greater than initially reported‘ – Report about a new paper in the Lancet by epidemiological researchers from The University of Texas at Austin estimating that COVID-19 was far more widespread in Wuhan, China, and Seattle, Washington, weeks ahead of lockdown measures in each city
- ‘Britain’s appetite for the new normal will leave us all with a stomach ache‘ – Good piece by Kate Andrews in the Telegraph
- ‘The broadcast media has disgraced itself‘ – Hard to disagree with anything in this piece by Scottish blogger Effie Deans
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few months ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you.
Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
A reader has put forward a good suggestion.
I was wondering if your map of businesses who have opened could be expanded to businesses who display “No mask? We won’t ask” sign? That would allow us mask-refusers to know where we are safe to visit without risking a drama with a Covid loon, and also reward those plucky businesses with our custom. It’s been interesting to see how the Covid terror only seems to last as long as financial necessity allows (note previously hysterical pub landlords get much less worried when they are allowed to re-open) so I’d be interested to see if a line of mask free customers outside one shop tempted its neighbours to risk the plague.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention (including this piece on Fox News). We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I’ve created a permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (now showing it will arrive between Oct 1st to Oct 10th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from ebay here and an “exempt” card or just £2.79 from Etsy here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here (now over 29,000). The Government responded to this petition today. Usual balls. You can read the response here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
A reader reports on a trip to Alton Towers to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Obtaining a “Mask Exempt” card so face covering didn’t have to be worn on the rides was surprisingly easy.
We arrived at the Towers carpark just about 9.45am. The first thing I noticed was the semi-socially distanced snake of theme park guests walking the mile from the carpark to the park entrance. Previous visitors will know that a series of monorail trains convey guests between these to locations in better times. I assumed that the need to deep-clean and fumigate each 6-person compartment on the monorail after a live human had used it, meant it impractical to run the service. No worry; the wife wants to loose weight so an extra 3,000 steps wouldn’t do any harm. We parked up and joined the throng. What was most disappointing at this point was the number of people already fully muzzled; around 40 to 50% I’d say.
Entry to the park involved having an IR thermometer pointed at your forehead to take your temperature. Saturday morning was blessedly quite cool and my family all passed that test. Given UK obesity levels, I wonder how many guests were rejected for elevated temperatures because they’d just been made to walk a mile for the first time in how long? Particularly earlier in the week when the ambient temperatures were much higher.
Once in, I made my way swiftly to guest services. I joined the shortest queue of the day and soon found myself served. I had the page from .gov.uk that explains the reasons for possible muzzle exemption loaded on my phonee and had it centred on ‘severe distress’. I presented my phone…
“Hi, can I have a face mask exemption card please? I have severe distress.”
“Yeah, sure.”
The happy staff member grabbed one from the pile, wrote my name in the space on the back and and handed it to me. Simplest transaction of the day.
The first few rides we went on I was asked to muzzle up but each time, I just flashed my card and it worked a treat. No further questions, hassles, comments, etc. By the second half of the day, I wasn’t even being asked.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although I have help from several people, including one indefatigable techie who doesn’t want to be named). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
Encouraging graphic in yesterday’s Sunday Times. Still a long way to go, but the British public is becoming less sheep-like.
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Andrew is old news. It will be far more interesting if the really big names come out. If they do, then no one will remember Andrew.
Kill Gates, Hanks, Clinton, Oclowna maybe? and all the rest of the Libtard jet set…..I wonder if xi Biden the pedo made a few jaunts?
Ssshhh we have to hope Epstein has left evidence to incriminate the above and the legal fraternity will still be alive when they pursue it.
The feds have had the names for years now, the flight logs, the camera footage from Epstein island where the dodgy stuff took place. Yet nobody has ever been charged, why, or more pertinently; what is being requested of them in exchange for keeping them out of jail?
The one mistake Virgina Roberts made in her life is that she hooked up with a man who ‘rescued’ her from Epsteins clutches during a stop in Australia on her way back from learning about Thai massage in Thailand (on behalf of his Jeffriness). Because of this, she missed out on the settlement money awarded to Epstein’s
other teenage prostitutesother absolutely innocent young girls who’d never have sex with a man in exchange for money. And that’s how this whole sorry saga got started (according to a newspaper article published at about the time when it was still rather new and the guy still alive).From the article: Epstein was accused of sexually assaulting countless teenage girls, some as young as 14, at his homes in New York and Florida and on his private Caribbean island.
In other words, most of Epsteins so-called victims would have been considered well of age in almost all parts of the world outside of New York and Florida (possibly the USA in general, don’t know) and all of them would have been considered of age in some parts of the world (at least, insofar I remember this, in Germany, France, Spain and Japan).
This unsavoury non-story really needs to die.
Unrestricted (that is regardless of age difference and of “authority” difference between parties) age of consent is quite low in some countries but 18 is closer to average: Ages of consent by country – Wikipedia
It’s basically impossible to process this table automatically but at least for Europe, the average age of consent provide abuse of authority, ie, teacher-pupil relationship isn’t involved, is 15.14 years and for 97.6% of the countries, it’s 16 or less (14: 13 times, 15: 11 times, 16: 17 times, 17: one). Wikipedia also isn’t even a remotely accurate source of information in politically contented cases and this is a politically contented case. For instance, in Germany, a sexual relationship of someone over 21 with someone who’s 14 or 15 may be prosecuted if the legal guardian of the younger person wants this but it’s only illegal if the younger person is deemed to be mentally incapable of deciding this for itself, to be determined some by approved expert and considered a rare case. German Wikipedia also states that prosecutions because of this are extremely rare and that it’s estimated that only 0.5% – 1% of such relationships are reported to the authorities.
Regardless of any legistation, people who are physically sexually mature will have sex and one could argue that a billionaire is certainly as worthwhile as a sex partner as some black guy hanging out around the local McDonalds and offering Marihuana to underage girls in exchange for money or other favors. These people aren’t exactly difficult to find, not the least because they don’t bother trying to hide at all. ‘Polite society’ (I could call that Barbara Ellen Society, in case someone knows the Observer columnist of this name ) just prefers to pretend that they don’t exist.
I’m not keen on the state micro-managing people’s private lives, because you end up getting tied up in knots. However arbitrary it may be, we’ve lived for a while now with the distinction between children who need the law to protect them from poor decisions and adults who are deemed responsible for their actions. As a former teenage boy and former parent of teenage girls, my gut tells me there is a difference between activity between “peers” (kids having fun with eachother) and teenagers and older adults – but every relationship has a unique dynamic. I don’t think the kids involved would have benefitted in the long term from what they got up to, but I speculate (and of course lots of relationships both for kids and adults are damaging).
I once (rather inadvertently) witnessed the following¸ absolutely charming flirtation among ‘kids’ seeking to ‘have fun’, namely, a guy shouting out loudly “My dick has the size of a giraffe!” in front of some duly impressed looking female teenagers. But, as I already wrote, Barbara Ellen society just doesn’t want to see this.
Oh I am under no illusions on this subject. I was a teenage boy once (though I never used that line).
The semi-lady I mentioned twice would consider this kind of behaviour as absolutely beyond the pale from any man towards any woman. And I don’t see a reason to differentiate between younger males (for some definition of younger) and older males in this respect. It is beyond the pale. Especially as I know a thing or two about these circles (of juvenile still-petty criminals and their outer corona), and a or two pretty ugly things, actually.
I think it’s a difficult business. As a parent, you want your kids to be safe from serious harm, and happy. As they grow up, you cut them more slack so they can make their own mistakes and learn from them, all the while trying to find a balance and not wanting those mistakes to be so bad that they end up seriously damaged in some way. There’s no manual. Regarding the relevance of age and the “authority” differential, on average an older party will be more skilled at unscrupulous manipulation, and a more powerful party will bring things into play that in the general view of society should ideally not be part of an emotional or sexual relationship.
I think it’s a difficult business. As a parent, you want your kids to be safe from serious harm, and happy.
Early contact to the seriously low-life elements of the local drug scene and favours-in-exchange-for-favours economy of this kind will certainly greatly contribute to that. Granted, thankfully so to say, most kids are robust enough to fight their way out of this on their own despite their parents neglect and/or willful blindness in this respect, but I’ve encountered enough examples of contrary in earlier times.
This story does NOT need to “die.” This story may well notify the world who some of our depopulating, technocratic so-called overlords really are and who knows where this information might lead.
There are clearly reasons why some nominally high-powered people don’t want these names to be made public. It may turn out to be a limited hangout but even these have their uses. I won’t be holding my breath but something good might come from these revelations.
Totally agree, HP. If this story died then one major opportunity to unearth some of the seedier aspects of the so called elite would disappear. If anything, we need to name and expose all these people and then they can explain themselves. That said, I don’t think the ones who really pull the global puppet strings will be named but just their middle ranks who are of course utterly disposable.
Cheers Aethelred. Good points.
This story does NOT need to “die.” This story may well notify the world who some of our depopulating, technocratic so-called overlords really are
Rich men willing pay for sex? Now, that’s of course something absolutely godawful and hasn’t ever existed on this planet before our times! Especially, rich men who don’t support the US democrats would certainly never do that! (twenty fingers crossed, because everyone knows that’s wrong, but nobdoy really wants to admit it — politically too inconvenient).
This is yellow press page filler stuff, nothing more.
“Look, I know it’s illegal here, but it wouldn’t have been illegal there, so why don’t we just pretend I did it there?”
That’s something for the prosecutors of the involved US states to sort out. And I’m certainly not going to fly into proxy moral outrage just because something that’s not illegal here happens to be illegal somewhere.
Blimey, 14 year old girls are fair game then! I seriously hope you don’t have daughters.
In Germany, 14 and 15 year old girls are generally considered mature enough to make their own decisions in this respect. In other jurisdictions, different age limits apply.
And meanwhile in northern England, children and teenagers are gang raped without payment and nobody is allowed to be bothered because… Islam/Pakistan.
Thought of that as well. That’s much more worthy of attention than the meanwhile seriously stale Epstein story.
Ah yes! The ‘suicide’.
https://off-guardian.org/2023/12/26/freedom-one-liberated-apple-at-a-time/
Re-posting from Christmas Day because this is such a heart-warming story.
“A minor but significant spark of direct action occurred in New York on 15 December. A group of people entered a Whole Foods store (owned by Amazon), took groceries without paying and exited wearing Jeff Bezos masks.”
I wonder if Bezos is on the list.
Andrew’s involvement with Epstein is already ‘priced in’ in the public consciousness, so will make no difference to how he is evaluated.
Attention will instead be on the new names, or the ‘thought so/told you so’ names.
So Andy can go back to counting his spare bedrooms and worry not.
For me the nasty bit of all of this is the grooming that took place where young innocent and vulnerable girls, without close protective parents, were coerced with wealth and privileged items and experiences to do what they were told unless these items were removed. These young girls were sought out and preyed on by Ghislaine and Epstein. Just what kind of selfish demented person would do this for sexuel self pleasures? Or maybe it was, as has been reported, a secret service/police operation to get dirt on powerful people? After the covid operation that makes a little bit more sense. Once the names are released, then the game is up and the leverage is lost.