Daily Archives: November 23, 2020

BIDEN ADVISOR ELDERLY NEED TO DIE (VIDEO)

BIDEN ADVISOR ELDERLY NEED TO DIE (VIDEO)

Biden advisor: Elderly should be first to die, last to live

One of the heads of the task force is the infamous Dr. Death, Ezekiel Emanuel, who was one of the brains behind Obamacare. He is most notorious for opining that people have no useful life beyond the age of 75..

BIDEN ADVISOR ELDERLY NEED TO DIE AFTER 75

Conservatives believe in the sanctity of every human life from the moment of conception until natural death. Joe Biden does not, and that’s bad news for Grandma. In fact, it’s even bad news for Joe Biden, who at 78 is already three years past Ezekiel Emanuel’s drop-dead date.

Because of the value we place on human life, it’s been my position from day one in this coronavirus panic-demic that we make the elderly our highest priority. Our focus, I suggest, should be on the elderly, since they are the most vulnerable among us. Each assisted living facility should be stocked with enough HCQ and azithromycin to provide a course of treatment for every resident at the first sign of symptoms.

For everyone else, the nationwide approach I suggest is that we let everybody live their normal lives as they see fit without any restrictions. If someone gets sick, he should stay home and immediately start a regimen of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which is amazingly effective if taken as soon as symptoms appear.

Joe Biden’s Coronavirus task force is a nightmare for people who love their aging parents. One of the heads of the task force is the infamous Dr. Death, Ezekiel Emanuel, who was one of the brains behind Obamacare. He is most notorious for opining that people have no useful life beyond the age of 75, a view he reiterated in the September issue of Science magazine.

He uses the Standard Expected Years of Life Lost to identify people who don’t have enough productive years left to be worthy of care. Under his metric, people who live beyond their life expectancy are considered valueless. Consequently, Dr. Death believes that people 75 and over have aged out and therefore should be put on the lowest and last rung of eligibility for a COVID vaccine.

INTERVIEWS SHOW HOW HE THINKS

In a 2019 interview, he said:

These people who live a vigorous life to 70, 80, 90 years of age — when I look at what those people ‘do,’ almost all of it is what I classify as play,” Emanuel said. “It’s not meaningful work. They’re riding motorcycles; they’re hiking. Which can all have value — don’t get me wrong. But if it’s the main thing in your life? Ummm, that’s not probably a meaningful life. 


There’s a staggering level of hubris, that Emanuel thinks he knows not only what makes his life meaningful but yours too. And if your life does not have enough meaning to suit him, he is prepared to deny you medicine which could extend your life. The vaccine priority model Emanuel proposes would exclude those over age 75 from receiving a COVID vaccine until no shortages exist anywhere in the world.

Dr. Death has yet to be asked if his standard should apply to Joe Biden, who is 78 and therefore already past his sell-by date.

Thus in prioritizing vaccine distribution, under BidenCare your grandmother starts at the end of the line and only gets the vaccine if everyone in the world gets it first. Those who ought to be first will instead be last.

Lockdown-addicted politicians are prohibiting families from inviting Grandma over for Thanksgiving, even though this might be her last one. The governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, instructs families in the Evergreen State to “review your guest list,” and baldly declares that disinviting Grandma is actually an expression of love. “Remember, it’s an act of caring to decide not to invite people who have a higher risk of getting very sick from COVID-19.”

SOME EASILY SHOW HOW WRONG HE IS

Where all this leads can be seen in 104-year-old Mary Fowler, a resident at a care home in Scotland. You may listen here to the heart-wrenching testimony of what lockdowns are doing to this woman who desperately wants to see her family but is being prevented from doing so by some heartless medical bureaucrat. If she were to reach for some hydroxychloroquine, Ezekiel would slap her hand and say, “Not your turn, sister. You’re past your use-by date. Time to just go ahead and die.”

Mary says tearfully:

I want my family, though.

This is my right. Please help. It’s cutting me to bits.

I must see my kids. Time’s getting on for me. I must see my children and make things like they used to be. Please help me, help me. Please, please help.

ONE COUNTRY TO BAN FACEBOOK

ONE COUNTRY TO BAN FACEBOOK

Solomon Islands set to ban Facebook in the name of ‘national unity’
It remains unclear how the ban will be enforced or when it will come into effect

ONE COUNTRY TO BAN FACEBOOK

The Solomon Islands Government has defended its decision to place a temporary ban on Facebook, a move it says is aimed at tackling cyberbullying and online defamation.

Key points:

  • The Pacific nation’s Government said Facebook was “undermining” national unity
  • It is not yet known how exactly authorities will go about blocking the site
  • The decision has been widely criticised by the public and the political opposition

The ban, which has not yet come into effect, received an angry response online after it was announced last week.

Communications officials are expected to meet with internet and telecommunications providers in Solomon Islands to discuss how they will block the world’s largest social media network.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare told the nation’s Parliament the ban was necessary in order to preserve national unity.

“Cyberbullying on Facebook is widespread, people have been defamed by users who use fake names, and people’s reputations that have been built up over the years [are destroyed] in a matter of minutes,” he said.

A COUNTRIES DUTY FOR NATIONAL UNITY

“We have [a] duty to cultivate national unity and the happy coexistence of our people … [Facebook] is undermining efforts to unite this country.”

Mr Sogavare said the planned ban mainly targeted young people, but said it was aimed at protecting them from “vile abusive language” and not an attempt at silencing them.

The Government has recently faced criticism over leaked documents on Facebook that showed how COVID-19 funds had been spent.(Reuters; Eduardo Munoz)

The exact technical details of how the ban would work — whether it would involve the use of a firewall, for example — are still being ironed out.

It has drawn a heated response from the Government’s opponents, with Opposition leader Matthew Wale labelling the ban “pathetic” and unjust.

A LARGE YOUNGER POPULATION

“Seventy per cent of our population is under the age of 30 … and that is the group that is highly visible on social media, especially Facebook,” he told the ABC.

“This is really pathetic. The reasons given for the ban are not weighty enough.”

Facebook a lifeline for Solomon Islanders living abroad

Facebook’s Messenger function is a free alternative to ordinary calls, which can be expensive.(Reuters: Thomas Hodel)

The temporary ban will stay in place until laws can be passed that would govern user behaviour on Facebook.

OTHER COUNTRIES ARE ALSO CONSIDERING

It is not the first time a Pacific government has threatened to block the social media site — leaders in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa have all considered the same approach.

Nurse Margaret Tadokata, who has lived in Australia for decades, told the ABC that Facebook helped her stay close to her family back home, especially during this year’s unprecedented restrictions on international travel.

“My mum was very sick, and she went downhill very quickly, within like 10 days, and then we lost her,” she said.

“My last goodbyes with my mum were on a video call on Facebook, on Messenger … Without it, I wouldn’t have seen her or heard her for the last time.”

MANY ISLANDERS OVERSEAS CONCERNED

Like many Solomon Islanders living overseas, the Government’s decision has her perplexed and worried.

At $2 a minute, she says phoning home from Australia is out of the question.

“Even though I’ve been in Australia for more than 20 years, my connection and my culture and family are very important to me, and Facebook has made that easy for me,” Ms Tadokata said.

A few weeks ago, the Solomon Islands Government faced criticism over documents leaked on Facebook that showed how COVID-19 funds for economic recovery had been spent.

SOME ADVOCATES THINK THEY ARE HIDING SOMETHING

Ruth Liloqula, the head of the anti-corruption group Transparency Solomon Islands, said she believed such leaks were the real reason behind the ban, which she said was “an indication that our Government is becoming very authoritarian”.

Communications Minister Peter Shanel Agovaka rejected this claim, and told the ABC freedom of expression would not be undermined as newspapers and other media would still be available.

Facebook said it was reaching out to local officials to discuss the move, which it said would “impact thousands of people in the Solomon Islands who use our services to connect and engage in important discussions across the Pacific”.

FACEBOOK TRYING TO SQUASH CRITICS

FACEBOOK TRYING TO SQUASH CRITICS

Facebook Is Going After Its Critics in the Name of Privacy

The company wants to shut down an academic study of political ad targeting, just as it prepares to reinstate targeted political ads.

FACEBOOK TRYING TO SQUASH CRITICS

Facebook has brought its might down upon a small but scrappy academic team who’ve done brilliant work in exposing the company’s failures to contain scams, rip-offs, and political disinformation. If the team doesn’t fully dismantle its public-interest research project and delete its data by November 30, Facebook says, it “may be subject to additional enforcement action.” Why? Because the $775 billion company wants to protect our privacy.

For political dirty tricksters, Facebook’s self-serve ad platform is a juicy target: If you want to spread disinformation, the platform will help you narrow down the people who’ll see it. A canny political actor can use Facebook ads to show lies and vile incitements to people who might act on them, and, just as important, not show those ads to the rest of the world, which would reveal the way politicos talk when they think there’s nobody here but us chickens.

Facebook’s been fined over this, its execs raked over the coals in Congress and the British Parliament, and it says it has learned its lesson, putting in place measures that will prevent it.

Enter Ad Observer and the Ad Observatory, a project of NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. Ad Observer is a browser plug-in that Facebook users voluntarily install. The plug-in scrapes (makes a copy of) every ad that a user sees and sends it to Ad Observatory, a public database of Facebook ads that scholars and accountability journalists mine to analyze what’s really happening on the platform. Time and again, they’ve discovered gross failures in Facebook’s ability to enforce its own policies and live up to its promises.

FACEBOOK THREATENED TO SUE

Facebook has threatened legal action against the Ad Observatory team, claiming that the Ad Observer plug-in violates its terms of service. They want it removed by the Monday after Thanksgiving, or else. In other words, Facebook wants independent, third-party scrutiny of its ad policy enforcement to end at the very moment that its enforcement failures are allowing false claims about the outcome of the 2020 election to spread, challenging the legitimacy of American democracy itself. This deadline also roughly coincides with Facebook’s reinstatement of political advertising. In other words, the company is opening the door to far more paid political disinformation at the very same moment that it is shutting out independent watchdogs who monitor this stuff.

The company swears this action is not driven by a desire to silence its critics. Rather, it says it is acting on its well-known commitment to preserving its users’ privacy.

No, really.

FACEBOOK TERMS OF SERVICE

Both of these arguments are (to use a technical term) rank bullshit. Facebook’s claims that it can enforce its terms of service as though they were laws that had been passed by Congress are based on an anti-competitive suit it brought against a (now defunct) startup called Power Ventures more than a decade ago. In that suit, the company argued that allowing Facebook users to read their messages without logging into Facebook was a crime.

The Power Ventures decision was bonkers, but that’s because the law it invoked is even worse. The 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was rushed into law after Ronald Reagan saw Matthew Broderick in the movie WarGames and panicked (no, really). It’s so broadly worded that if you squint right and read every third word, the Power Ventures decision makes a kind of topsy-turvy sense.

But Facebook’s legal theories have a serious problem. Over the past decade, the courts have substantially narrowed the precedent from Power Ventures, thanks to a pair of suits: Sandvig v. Barr and HiQ v. LinkedIn. These modern precedents make Facebook’s legal arguments a hard stretch.

Even more of a stretch: Facebook’s claims that it is only acting to protect its users’ privacy. Set aside for a moment the absurdity of the 21st century’s worst privacy invaders positioning themselves as privacy champions. Stipulate that Facebook has found privacy religion and is really here to defend its users’ privacy.

FACEBOOK USER PRIVACY NO PROTECTED

Facebook does not protect its users’ privacy by vetoing their explicit choice to share whatever ads they see with Ad Observatory. Privacy, after all, is not the situation in which no one knows anything about you. (That’s secrecy.) Privacy is when you decide who gets to know stuff about you, and what stuff they get to know. As Facebook elegantly puts it in its own policy documents: “What you share and who you share it with should be your decision.”

But Facebook says that it’s not concerned with the privacy of users who chose to install the Ad Observer plug-in. It says it is acting to protect the privacy of other users whose data is captured along with those ads, such as information about who else has seen a given ad. If Ad Observer captured that information, it would certainly be worrisome!

But it doesn’t. Ad Observer doesn’t scrape that data. Ad Observer can’t scrape that data. When you see an ad on Facebook, the service doesn’t tell you which of your friends also saw that ad. That would be terrible, even by Facebook’s standards (Facebook might show you your friends’ “engagements” with the ad, but Ad Observer doesn’t scrape those.)

The fact that some journalists believed Facebook’s straight-up disinformation on this score tells you everything you need to know, really: It’s completely believable that Facebook would be so terrible at privacy that it would tell you which of your friends saw a given ad.

FACEBOOK SAYS COMMITTED TO PRIVACY

Facebook says it is acting on its well-known commitment to preserving its users’ privacy. No, really.

Facebook has unloaded both barrels—legal threats and a disinformation blitz—at the NYU team. That’s even worse than it seems at first. The Ad Observer method is really the best hope we have for doing privacy-preserving digital research on social networks. By putting users in control of what they share, it’s a vast improvement over the traditional method of crawling whole social networks and sucking in whatever you can get.

Facebook’s alternative is for researchers to confine their research to those ads and other data that the company chooses to share with them directly, while promising that this data will be comprehensive and reliable. It’s not. We know it’s not, because Ad Observer has found its many errors and omissions.

Facebook promised it would clean up its act. It didn’t. And when the Ad Observatory caught the company breaking its promises, it sought to shut them down. This may be par for the course with Facebook, but it’s not something we as a society can afford to tolerate any longer.

DAWG SAYS: ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY

TRUMP LEGAL TEAM IMPLODING

TRUMP LEGAL TEAM IMPLODING


Trump legal team disavows association with lawyer Sidney Powell

TRUMP LEGAL TEAM IMPLODING AFTER STRANGE PRESSER

The Trump campaign is disavowing its association with attorney Sidney Powell after the far-fetched Trump campaign Thursday press conference when she claimed without evidence that the deceased Hugo Chávez, among others, was responsible for rigging the election. The campaign claimed that she “is not a member of the Trump legal team,” even though the president and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had previously identified her as being on the team.

In the days since the press conference, Powell has made additional unfounded claims to conservative networks, and her claims have even been questioned by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, after she refused to produce her evidence on the show.

“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity,” said a statement from Giuliani and Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis.

PREVIOUS COMMENTS SAID POWELL WAS A TEAM MEMBER

During Thursday’s press conference, Giuliani identified Powell as a member of the team defending Mr. Trump, and the president himself identified Powell as someone working for him in a November 14 tweet.

“I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!” Mr. Trump tweeted at the time.

Powell issued this statement to CBS News:

“I understand today’s press release,” she said. “I will continue to represent #WeThePeople who had their votes for Trump and other Republicans stolen by massive fraud through Dominion and Smartmatic, and we will be filing suit soon. The chips will fall where they may, and we will defend the foundations of this great Republic. #KrakenOnSteroids”

On Thursday, Ellis called the team giving the press conference, which included Powell, the “elite, strike force team.” Powell, Giuliani and Ellis have claimed they’re holding back their biggest evidence for court, where they continue to lose lawsuit cases.

Powell was the attorney for General Michal Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser who was fired for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his Russian contacts, and convicted of lying to the FBI about the same thing.

DAWG SAYS: IT KEEPS GETTING UGLIER AND UGLIER.

DETECT HIDDEN CAMERAS WITH THIS

DETECT HIDDEN CAMERAS WITH THIS

How to Find Hidden Surveillance Cameras Using Your Phone

Concerned about surveillance? Smartphone apps can detect spy gear and we show you how to scan for hidden cameras using your phone.

Have reason to be suspicious of a partner or employer? Feel that someone is watching you, perhaps with a hidden camera?

You could discover the truth if only you had some way of detecting the presence of a hidden camera. Fortunately, apps are available to help you find hidden surveillance cameras using just your smartphone.

Ready to find those secret cameras?

You Are Being Watched Constantly

Someone is watching you. This is pretty much irrefutable in the post-Snowden era. But digital surveillance of emails and telephone records is a little less hair-raising than someone actually observing your movements via a hidden surveillance camera.

It’s unlikely that you have never been filmed out in public. You’ll have been caught on CCTV or in the distance on a TV news report.

Over the years it has become less surprising as we’ve become more accepting of closed-circuit cameras, security cameras, etc.

But what about closer to home? Are you comfortable with surveillance cameras in the office, development room, bathrooms, and dressing rooms? Or are these places where you wouldn’t normally expect to find a camera watching your every move?

Without being made aware of such surveillance in advance, you could find yourself being recorded, your movements and actions tracked, judged, and no doubt misinterpreted.

This intrusion might be performed using professionally manufactured security cameras, or custom built ones. You might even use a Raspberry Pi to build your own security camera. It might even be an old smartphone or tablet, re-purposed for hidden observation.

Of the many projects that you can build with the Raspberry Pi, one of the most interesting and permanently useful is the motion capture security system.

Smartphones Can Detect Hidden Cameras

While it might seem like something straight out of a James Bond movie, it is possible to use your smartphone to detect hidden cameras, as well as other 007 devices. In general, two common methods are used to achieve this.

The first is by using the smartphone hardware to detect electromagnetic fields. With the installation of a single app, you can move your phone around the area you suspect a camera to be hidden, and if a strong field is detected, you can be sure there is a camera secreted within the wall or object.

Another way that smartphones can be used is by detecting light reflecting from a lens. While this method isn’t quite as reliable, it is still worth having such an app, if only to find small objects dropped on a carpet!

Using Android or iOS to Find a Hidden Camera

You’ll find apps for both major smartphone platforms available in the respective app stores. For iPhone, the $4.99 Hidden Camera Detector is the best option,

Download: Hidden Camera Detector for iOS ($4.99)

Meanwhile Android users should consider Hidden Camera Detector. You can also check out Glint Finder for visible lens detection.

Remember that other options are available. If you have access to an infrared camera, for instance, this should detect a hidden camera, while low-cost devices using wireless networking may well appear in the list of nearby Wi-Fi devices in your home.

If you’re particularly concerned, you might also consider a $130 piece of RF detection hardware, capable of reading the signals broadcast by traditional wireless cameras, as demonstrated here:

Download: Hidden Camera Detector for Android (Free)

Download: Glint Finder for Android (Free)

Download: Hidden Camera Detector and Spy Cam Finder for Android (Free)

Finding Hidden Surveillance Cameras With a Phone

Whichever app you choose, you’ll be able to detect cameras and speakers, perhaps even hidden computers.

They generally work in the same way: proximity to a camera or other surveillance device is displayed, giving you an idea as to where it is.

For example, we used the Hidden Camera Detector. Ready to use when you load the app, it displays a red glow when the smartphone is in the proximity of a camera.

The scanner will also glow near other types of hardware, so watch the number displayed in the middle of the screen. This will exceed 100 when a camera is detected.

For added camera detection magic, Hidden Camera Detector also features an IR mode (limited to portrait orientation) with which you can find cameras that have so far eluded you.

This is done by pointing the smartphone at an area where a camera might be hidden and looking for a bright white disc. The disc indicates the presence of a hidden camera.

Effective Detection of Cameras

Note that when using these apps, you should first be sure that you know what technology is in the room. TVs, computers, smart assistants (such as the Amazon Echo) and other hardware can interfere.

However, it will also help if you hold the phone correctly. You might initially think that holding the device flat (like a remote control) will give better results. Where the sensors are placed within your phone will affect this. A bit of practice will help you get the best angle.

If you’re still having trouble, remove the phone from the case. Some case materials can block signals from other devices, as well as disrupt the phone’s own radiation field. Removing the phone from the case briefly should give you faster, more accurate results.

What to Do When You Find a Hidden Camera

It’s all very well knowing that a hidden surveillance camera is watching you, supposedly without your knowledge. But what should you do about it? Well, you could always take it to a higher authority, but in the meantime, you might wish to act to protect against spying.

Note, however, that the problem with this is as soon as you do this, you may well alert the observer to your realization.

However, if you’re determined to be seen, you should employ things like masking tape or adhesive putty to cover the lens, or conduct affairs beyond the camera’s viewing angle. For cameras possibly hidden high up, in light bulbs or smoke detectors, staying out of sight can be difficult.

Meanwhile, don’t forget that these tips are for everyone, and could be used against you. For example, you might be interested in purchasing your own security cameras and even use hidden cameras to check on your babysitter.

While it’s important to watch out to for direct intrusions on your privacy, also keep side-channel attacks on your radar.

DUMASS PEOPLE CREATED RATIONING AGAIN

DUMASS PEOPLE CREATED RATIONING AGAIN

Grocery store rationing is back, but relax: The supply chain is doing fine

DUMASS PEOPLE CREATED RATIONING AGAIN

Hard times have returned to the nation’s toilet paper aisles.

With coronavirus cases and lockdowns once again on the rise, shoppers are reverting to the panic-buying patterns of the early days of the pandemic. In response, grocery companies such as Target, Ralphs parent Kroger and Vons parent Albertsons Cos. have reinstated purchase limits on toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies.

But this time, the grocery companies say, they’re putting limits in place specifically to avoid the empty shelves many consumers faced in the spring — and industry experts say the grocers and suppliers are prepared for the winter wave.

“We put the limits on out of caution,” said Kevin Curry, president of Albertsons’ Southern California division, who noted that the current uptick in demand is nowhere near what he saw in March and April. “The supply chain’s in a better position to handle this rush.”

Over the summer, the industry put a number of measures in place to adjust to a new normal of high-volume grocery shopping and waves of lockdown-related shopping sprees.

THERE’S MORE SUPPLY ON HAND

Among them, stores and suppliers have started keeping more inventory on hand, when possible, to prepare for unpredictable spikes in demand.

The industry has “gone from a just-in-time mentality to a just-in-case mentality,” said Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies manufacturing supply chains. Companies have spent the last few decades trying to reduce inventory, in pursuit of a world in which raw materials arrive at factories in the morning, leave as finished goods at night and are sold out on store shelves the next day, with no surplus lying around at the end of the process.

The just-in-time model relies on using past data to forecast demand and flexible logistics networks to adapt to predicted shifts. It falls apart, however, when the unpredictable strikes on a global scale.

Nick Green, chief executive of Thrive Market, which sells mostly organic food and health products, said he has laid in extra supplies to prepare for this new wave of shopping.

“In an ideal world, and nine months ago, we were holding tens of millions of dollars less inventory than we are today,” Green said.

PANIC IS SETTING IN AGAIN

But the world changed in March. “We went through six months of toilet paper in about six days back in the first surge,” Green said. This time around, he has seen demand more than double just in the past week.

To prepare, Thrive went vertical in its warehouse for the first time. Historically, Green said, “our product is on the ground” for easy access. Now, “we not only need to use the 700,000 square feet of ground space but have stacked up multiple stories of pallets.”

Retailers have also gotten creative, cutting deals with lesser-known manufacturers that typically produce toilet paper and cleaning products for restaurants and office buildings to make more store-brand products, which can fill the shelves when name brands sell out.

“There’s a tremendous shift by the smart, strategic retailers in source of supply, drawing from excess inventory that was choking the food service and institutional manufacturers,” said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of the retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group. With most restaurants, hotels, offices and large venues closed due to the pandemic, that pivot has allowed the paper-goods market to meet elevated consumer demand.

The same holds true for cleaning products, according to Curry at Albertsons. Popular name-brand items, such as Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, have remained in short supply all year, so the grocer has started sourcing more of its own.

SUPPLY CHANNELS STRAINED BUT DOABLE

But the logistical difficulties of getting all that product from regional distribution centers to stores can pose a challenge. The disruptions to the global supply chain that began when the coronavirus first triggered lockdowns in China are still working their way through the system today, altering the typical delivery and shipment calendar for all sorts of consumer goods. The Port of Long Beach notched record-high volumes in October and into November, when in a typical year, the holiday shipping rush would have wound down earlier in the fall.

“Whether it’s imports going to distribution centers or food logistics, they spill over into each other,” said Shih, as businesses compete for space on ships, trucks and trains.

The downturn in the restaurant and institutional food service industry, however, has again proved a godsend for the grocery business.

When consumer demand for fresh produce spiked at the beginning of the pandemic, “refrigerated warehouses and refrigerated trucks were all kind of bulging in capacity,” said Michael Castagnetto, president of the produce division of logistics company C.H. Robinson. His company was able to tap into small regional warehouses typically used to store restaurant supplies, a strategy that helped grocers ride out the first wave.

The same customers that needed that extra cold storage in the spring got back in touch just last week, Castagnetto said, saying they need help again, “probably through New Year’s.”

DAWG SAYS: I GUESS PEOPLE DO NOT CLEAN THEIR BUTTS OR WASH HANDS UNTIL THEY HEAR THE GLOOM AND DOOM OF OTHER IDIOTS TRYING TO SCARE THEM.

PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO HOARD AGAIN BEING THE DUMASS’S THEY ARE.

JIMI HENDRIX MYSTERY AFTER 50 YEARS

JIMI HENDRIX MYSTERY AFTER 50 YEARS

Why Jimi Hendrix’s death at 27 is still shrouded in mystery, book reveals: ‘It was an avoidable accident’

JIMI HENDRIX MYSTERY AFTER 50 YEARS

Philip Norman believes there are misconceptions that still exist about the final moments of Jimi Hendrix’s life.

The British author recently released a new book on the rock ‘n’ roll icon titled “Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix,” which details the artist’s life and untimely death. It features interviews with the late guitarist’s brother Leon Hendrix, as well as longtime girlfriend Kathy Etchingham and Linda Keith, the two women, Norman said, who played vital roles in his rise to stardom.

Hendrix passed away in 1970 at age 27 following a drug overdose in London. Police at the time said the star took nine sleeping pills and died of suffocation from choking on his vomit, Rolling Stone reported. According to the outlet, English singer-songwriter Eric Burdon said Hendrix left behind a “suicide note” that was actually a poem several pages in length.

“The mythology is so powerful,” Norman told Fox News. “When it comes to rock stars, we expect them to be these self-destructive figures who indulge so much that they join the 27 Club. It’s always assumed that Jimi’s death was because of overindulgence, over-excess in drugs and alcohol. It really wasn’t. It’s so much more than that. In fact, he was very vulnerable.”

JIMI HENDRIX MYSTERY AFTER 50 YEARS OF HIS DEATH

American singer and guitarist Jimi Hendrix with girlfriend Kathy Etchingham in his Mayfair flat, London, 7th January 1969.

EXAUSTED AND SOME OTHER OBSTACLES

“He was so exhausted after working so hard in the previous four years, achieving incredible fame in Britain, then the rest of Europe and finally back in America where he originally couldn’t succeed due to segregation,” Norman continued. “At the end of his life, he was ready to go in a different musical direction. He also signed this terrible recording contract causing financial issues.”

Hendrix has long been associated with the “27 Club,” an accounting first of popular musicians — such as The Doors’ Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and The Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones — who have died at age 27, as a result of drug and alcohol abuse. Since its origination in the 70s,  it has expanded to include young actors and artists. The list of causes has also been broadened to include suicide, accidents or acts of violence.

“He was 27 and a rock star, so it was just assumed that he drunk and drugged himself to death, like the other members of the 27 Club have done,” he shared.

According to Norman, the circumstances surrounding Hendrix’s death are much more complex.

SOME PEOPLE WERE NOT THINKING OF JIMIS BEST INTEREST

“He had returned from a tour where he was showing signs of absolute extreme exhaustion,” Norman explained. “He had a lot of people around who should have been looking after him, but they weren’t. He fell into the clutches of a young German woman named Monika Dannemann. They met while he was on tour some months previously.”


Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix was gearing up to go in a different musical direction shortly before his death at age 27. (Photo by Cyrus Andrews/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Dannemann, an ice skater, previously claimed she and Hendrix had fallen in love and were secretly engaged. However, Norman alleged their union was nothing more than “just a couple of one-night stands.”

Norman said Hendrix would normally stay at his favorite hotel, The Cumberland, where he was doted after by the staff. But Dannemann, who was in London to see Hendrix, was at the Samarkand Hotel in a “scruffy area” of town. It was there where Hendrix ended up spending his final hours.

TROUBLE SLEEPING THEN SOME PILLS

“He was having trouble sleeping,” Norman claimed. “So he asked for something that could help him sleep. She gave him a very powerful sleeping tablet called Vesperax. Each tablet was really a double dose that had to be broken in half.”

Dannemann would later claim that when she woke up in the morning, Hendrix was sleeping peacefully in bed. However, she later found a ten-tablet pack of Vesperax that seemingly had nine pills removed. If Hendrix had taken the amount, it would have been 18 times the normal dose. She immediately wanted to call his doctor in town, so she contacted a mutual pal, Alvinia Bridges, in hopes she had the doctor’s number. It is believed Bridges was staying with Burdon.

Monika Dannemann would later claim she was engaged to Jimi Hendrix. Police said she was found dead in a fume-filled car near her home in 1996 at age 50. (Photo by John van Hasselt/Sygma via Getty Images)

Burdon would later claim in his 1986 memoir that he told Dannemann to call an ambulance immediately, the U.K.’s DailyMail reported. However, Dannemann allegedly protested, claiming there were drugs around the property and she “couldn’t have people around.” He then urged her to flush them down the toilet.

Bridges recalled that Dannemann was “hysterical” because Hendrix was “regurgitating all over the place,” the outlet added.

PEOPLE PANICKED AND DID NOT RESPOND PROPERLY

“I screamed and said, ‘Turn him over, turn him over,'” she said, as quoted by the outlet. “But obviously she was panicking and she didn’t turn him over.”

Eventually, an ambulance was called, “but by the time he did reach the nearest hospital, it was too late,” said Norman.

The circumstances surrounding Jimi Hendrix’s death are still shrouded in mystery decades later. (Photo by PA Images via Getty Images)

The location of the Samarkand Hotel back then, may have contributed to Hendrix’s passing. “At the time, Notting Hill was a damaged heel area,” Norman explained. “There was a lot of racial unrest and awful living conditions. The police and ambulance crew didn’t even recognize him or knew who he was. They just thought he was another junkie from Notting Hill.”

NO ALCOHOL INVOLVED

Norman said Hendrix’s brother told him the singer appeared as if he was “soaked in wine.” However, there was very little alcohol in his system.

“That was something his brother Leon told me, that he looked as if he drowned in wine,” said Norman. “But the autopsy showed there was almost no wine in his system. So it looked like this sort of hurried cleanup operation.”

Leon Hendrix told British author Philip Norman that his brother Jimi Hendrix appeared as if he ‘drowned in wine.’ (Photo by Michael Bezjian/WireImage/Getty)

Over the years, numerous conspiracy theories have emerged surrounding Hendrix’s death, attempting to explain what really happened. Some claimed he owed debts to the mafia. Others insisted he was targeted by secret service agents. Norman said none of those claims are true.

UNCLEAR WHY AMBULANCE WAS DELAYED

Dannemann’s story also changed over the years. Norman said it’s unknown why it took so long for the ambulance to finally reach Hendrix.

Australian doctor John Bannister, who worked at St. Mary Abbot’s Hospital when Hendrix was rushed into emergency, told the Sydney Morning Herald in September of this year that they worked on him for “about half an hour.”

“His esophagus was full of wine,” he told the outlet. “There was wine everywhere. He’d obviously been dead for at least half an hour.”

Dr. Bob Brown, who was involved in Hendrix’s treatment, also revealed there was nothing that could have been done for the music legend.

Author Philip Norman believes Jimi Hendrix’s death could have easily been prevented. (Getty)

“He was dead and had been for some time,” said Brown, as quoted by the outlet.

HENDRIX DIED OF ASPHYXIATION DUE TO HIS OWN VOMIT

According to a post-mortem, Hendrix died of asphyxiation on his vomit while intoxicated on barbiturates, the U.K.’s Telegraph reported. However, coroner Gavin Thurston noted he found “insufficient evidence of the circumstances” to conclude how the death came about.

As for Dannemann, she passed away in 1996 at age 50 from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Norman admitted we may never know what really happened when the guitar icon died. However, he said that the real tragedy here is that it could have been prevented.

“It was an avoidable accident,” he said. “A totally avoidable accident.”

DAWG SAYS: AGREAT TALENT SO SAD WE WILL NEVER REALLY KNOW.