Anti-Lockdown protests

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Dozens of demonstrators took to the Michigan state Capitol in Lansing on Thursday for a rain-soaked protest — the third such event in the past month — demanding their "freedom" from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's stay-at-home mandates.

Whitmer has started to relax her orders in recent weeks and launched the reopening process in her state earlier this month. Michigan was one of the hardest hit states by COVID-19 and has seen case counts begin to subside recently.

Thursday's protest was smaller than previous iterations that drew widespread national attention.

The Republican-led state House and Senate were not in session Thursday and the Capitol was closed to the public.

There was increased police presence for the rally, however, and Michigan State Police said they stopped a fight during the event. Police said there were no injuries or arrests made as a result of the altercation, though one man was in possession of an ax that was turned over to law enforcement.

everal militia members were present at the rally, where a massive banner reading "FREEDOM" was spread at the entrance to the Capitol. Some demonstrators waved "Don't Tread on Me" flags and wore President Donald Trump's campaign gear. While there were some protesters wearing masks, most did not distance themselves from others.

The rally was organized by the conservative group Michigan United for Liberty — which has sued Whitmer and organized or participated in past demonstrations. As Michigan nonprofit publication Bridge reported, several of the group's organizers are tied to the anti-vaccine and "medical freedom" movement.

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll published this week found that 72 percent of Michigan adults approve of Whitmer's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as opposed to just 25 percent who disapprove

Anti-lockdown protesters in Guinea on Wednesday forced open a handful of mosques that had been shut for weeks, according to witnesses, demonstrators and a local official.

It came a day after seven people were killed in clashes with police during protests against roadblocks set up during the pandemic and frequent power cuts in the impoverished West African country.

The mosques had been closed since late March as part of measures to control the spread of the deadly disease in a nation that is around 80 percent Muslim.

Dozens of worshippers in the eastern town of Kamsar entered a mosque and thoroughly cleaned it before praying there, a witness said.

Politician Karamoko Bangoura described the scene as local media reported that around four or five mosques had been reopened under similar circumstances near the capital Conakry.

“We saw a crazed crowd go to the mosques and reopen their doors,” he said, adding that “it wasn’t violent at all, they just broke the padlocks”.

The head of one reopened mosque said he “thanked God” for the events, because “we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to pray with the end of Ramadan approaching”, referring to the holy month of fasting.

Guinea is one of the countries in the region worst-hit by the virus crisis and its poor sanitation system has raised fears of a severe epidemic.

According to the official figures, the country has recorded 2,213 cases resulting in 11 deaths.

President Donald Trump on Saturday cheered on protesters who harassed News 12 reporter Kevin Vesey when he covered a right-wing group Setauket Patriots’ rally in Commack last week demanding the reopening of Long Island's economy.

As the news clips of protesters berating Vesey while he walked through the Setauket Patriots' demonstration along Jericho Turnpike Thursday went viral, support for him came in from many corners, while Trump’s supporters followed his lead in disparaging the news media.

Trump, who is spending this weekend at Camp David, on Friday night tweeted a video clip of the protesters hounding the reporter and repeated their chant in capital letters: “Fake news is not essential.”

On Saturday, the president posted a clip on Twitter of protesters calling Vesey “enemy of the people” and “fake news” and using vulgar epithets and commented: “People can’t get enough of this. Great people!”

The Setauket Patriots on Saturday posted that presidential tweet on its Facebook page and said: “Thank you President Trump.”

Two days ago on the same Facebook page, the Setauket Patriots apologized to Vesey and blamed outsiders unaffiliated with its group for harassing him.

The White House press office did not respond to questions about whether Trump knew that Setauket Patriots had disavowed the treatment of Vesey shown in the clips.

Vesey declined to comment. Lisa Anselmo, spokeswoman for Altice, which owns News 12, said in an email, "The events that transpired during Kevin’s reporting were unfortunate but he calmly and objectively captured the raw emotion occurring during this pandemic."

Vesey, who last month revealed he had been infected with COVID-19, said in his report he was particularly concerned that some protesters without face coverings tried to violate social distancing rules by walking toward him to get close to him.

Police made no arrests and handed out 50 masks at the rally of fewer than 200 people along Jericho Turnpike, a Suffolk County Police Department spokeswoman said Saturday.

In a clip posted on Twitter, Vesey said he covered the rally alone, without a camera operator, and that confrontations began after he encountered two women with megaphones, who confronted and followed him, one of them without a mask.

He said he had interviewed that woman at a Setauket Patriots' rally two weeks earlier and later learned she didn’t like his reporting about the lack of masks and social distancing. “A lot of people think the coverage was unfair last time around,” Vesey said in a story posted by News 12.

But he expressed concern about his treatment in tweets after covering the rally.

“The level of anger directed at the media from these protestors was alarming,” he posted in a tweet Thursday.

“I'll probably never forget what happened today. I was insulted. I was berated. I was practically chased by people who refused to wear masks in the middle of a pandemic,” he tweeted. “All the while, I was there to tell THEIR story.”

Jeremy Corbyn’s brother is among several people to be arrested at a coronavirus protest in London.

Conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers gathered at Speakers’ Corner on Saturday for one of dozens of “mass gatherings” organised across Britain to oppose lockdown restrictions.

Piers Corbyn, the former Labour leader’s brother, used a megaphone to tell the crowd that the pandemic was a “pack of lies to brainwash you and keep you in order”, shouting: “Vaccination is not necessary.”

The astrophysicist was taken away after refusing to leave when asked by a police officer or to give his details.

He is believed to have been arrested under the Health Protection Regulations, which make gathering in a group of more than two people illegal.

Protesters followed Mr Corbyn as police took him to a nearby van, chanting “shame on you” at officers and booing.

Like many of the protesters, Mr Corbyn claimed coronavirus was linked to 5G technology, adding: “5G enhances anyone who’s got illness from Covid, so they work together.”

The baseless conspiracy theory has caused a wave of vandalism against 5G masts and attacks on engineers.

The Metropolitan Police said 19 people were arrested and 10 given fines for breaking the Health Protection Regulations.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: “It was disappointing that a relatively small group in Hyde Park came together to protest the regulations in clear breach of the guidance putting themselves and others at risk of infection.

“Officers once again took a measured approach and tried to engage the group to disperse. They clearly had no intention of doing so.”

There was a heavy police presence at the demonstration, which saw some people group together with signs and chants of “no 5G” and “no forced vaccinations”.

Other supporters sat in groups on the surrounding grass, after flyers were distributed online calling for people to “bring a picnic, some music and [have] some fun and say yes to life”.

A “mass gathering” held on Saturday in Southampton saw around a dozen protesters gathered on the city’s common, holding placards saying “stop the lies”, “say no to tyranny” and “fight 4 freedom”.

Numerous protesters in Hyde Park were shouting chants against 5G, which is the most commonly seen coronavirus conspiracy theory in the UK, according to research by Ofcom.

The vast majority of the crowd opposed vaccinations, with one sign calling them a “bioweapon”.

Others were calling for “freedom” against the so-called “tyranny” of the lockdown.

One woman held a sign reading: “I will not be masked, tracked, chipped or vaccinated. This will not be my new normal. I do not consent.”

Microsoft founder Bill Gates was a target of chants calling for him to be jailed, amid the spread of conspiracy theories variously claiming he created coronavirus to profit from a vaccine, or that he is part of a wider “new world order” plot to reduce the global population.

Thousands of Germans across the country took to the streets on Saturday to protest against restrictions imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic, police and organisers said.

Germany’s death toll from the virus has been lower than most of its European neighbours and some lockdown measures have already been relaxed.

However, protests against the measures Chancellor Angela Merkel insists are needed to slow down the coronavirus outbreak have become more vocal and demonstrators have filled the streets for the second weekend in a row.

Derided on social media as “covidiots” who risk causing a second wave of infections that could lead to a tightening of restrictions, protesters staged demonstrations at several locations across the capital Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.

In Stuttgart, where some protesters last weekend had been flouting social distancing rules and not wearing face masks, police expected another rally of up to 5,000 people.

In Munich, organisers asked authorities to give the green light for a rally of up to 10,000 people on the Thersienwiese, a large square in the city centre on which Munich normally stages its world famous Oktoberfest beer festival.

But city officials pointed to the need to respect social distancing rules and allowed a demonstration of up to 1,000 people.

The hard core of protesters is being led by several new groups.

One group is Resistance 2020, led by a lawyer from eastern Leipzig and a doctor from south-western Germany who question official corona statistics and view the main political parties as constructs of an elitist rule.

Another group called COMPACT describes itself as the “sharp sword against imperial propaganda”. It declares on its website that it is helping the “information offensive” for the growing protest movement.

“Why aren’t you telling us the truth, Mrs Merkel? How we are losing our freedom, jobs and health?” says COMPACT.

German media have suggested Russia could be behind a misinformation campaign that is spurring on protesters.

Most Germans approve Merkel’s crisis management, with polls showing support for her conservative CDU/CSU alliance surging to 40%. A survey released on Thursday showed that 56% of the population back the current lockdown measures.

The one in Hyde Park was organised by Britain First, but under a different name.

I wonder how many attending realised that

Cellphone location data suggests that demonstrators at anti-lockdown protests – some of which have been connected with Covid-19 cases – are often traveling hundreds of miles to events, returning to all parts of their states, and even crossing into neighboring ones.

The data, provided to the Guardian by the progressive campaign group the Committee to Protect Medicare, raises the prospect that the protests will play a role in spreading the coronavirus epidemic to areas which have, so far, experienced relatively few infections.

The anonymized location data was captured from opt-in cellphone apps, and data scientists at the firm VoteMap used it to determine the movements of devices present at protests in late April and early May in five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Colorado and Florida.

They then created visualizations that tracked the movements of those devices up to 48 hours after the conclusion of protests. The visualizations only show movements within states, due to the queries analysts made in creating them. But the data scientist Jeremy Fair, executive-vice president of VoteMap, says that many of the devices that are seen to reach state borders are seen to continue across them in the underlying raw data.

One visualization shows that in Lansing, Michigan, after a 30 April protest in which armed protesters stormed the capitol building and state police were forced to physically block access to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, devices which had been present at the protest site can be seen returning to all parts of the state, from Detroit to remote towns in the state’s north.

One device visible in the data traveled to and from Afton, which is over 180 miles from the capital. Others reached, and some crossed, the Indiana border.

In the 48 hours following a 19 April “Operation Gridlock” protest in Denver, devices reached the borders of neighboring states including Wyoming, Nebraska, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Utah.

In Florida on 18 April, devices returned to all parts of the peninsula and up to the Georgia border. In Wisconsin on 24 April, devices returned to smaller towns like Green Bay and Wausau, and the borders of Minnesota and Illinois.

Following the initial wave of anti-lockdown protests in April, epidemiologists warned that they could lead to a new surge in cases.

In North Carolina in late April, one of the leaders of the state’s anti-lockdown protests tested positive for Covid-19 but said she would attend future rallies.
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Dr Rob Davidson, executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare, said that although “it’s hard to draw a straight line between devices, individuals at these protests, and cases”, the data suggests that the protests may be epidemiologically significant events.

“The behavior we’re seeing at protests carries a high risk of infection. We can see protesters are going from a highly concentrated event and then dispersing widely,” he added.

Davidson, who has run for Congress as a Democrat, said that neither he nor his advocacy group were currently affiliated with the Democratic party. The group is made up of more than 300 “doctors who are concerned that the healthcare for their patients has become unaffordable”.

In a series of widely shared videos and threads on Twitter, Davidson has criticized Trump, and attempted to dispel what he calls the “distrust in public health” which “Donald Trump has fomented in his movement”.

Outside Germany’s Parliament building, a vegan celebrity cook grabbed the mic and shouted that he was “ready to die” to stop self-serving elites from using the pandemic to topple the world order. Some distance away, a group of women discussed how Bill Gates was plotting to force immunization on the population. Youngsters sporting cardboard cutouts of the German constitution chanted: “End the corona dictatorship!” Few wore masks, and those that did came with slogans like “Merkel’s muzzle.”

Even as Germany is celebrated as Europe’s foremost example of pandemic management, an eclectic protest movement that began last month with a few dozen people marching against coronavirus restrictions has ballooned into more than 10,000 demonstrators in cities across the country.

The one driving force behind the mobilization is the country’s far right, particularly the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, which had been marginalized by the pandemic. Now, the AfD’s leaders see the protests as a first step toward moving back into the national conversation, using them to position their message for the months ahead, when Germany must confront job losses and a battered economy.

“The crisis is coming, it isn’t here yet,” said Nicolaus Fest, head of Berlin’s AfD chapter, who was protesting near the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday. “Some time soon, a lot of people will be unemployed.”

Alongside anti-vaxxers, anticapitalists and ordinary citizens concerned about job losses and safety at reopened nurseries and schools, the marches have attracted neo-Nazis, hooligans and, consistently, members of the AfD, a party best known for its noisy nationalism and anti-immigrant views.

They rarely organize the protests. But the AfD and more extreme far-right groups are trying to capitalize on the discontent as they begin positioning themselves for what may be a much uglier political scene some months from now if the economy deteriorates further, as most economists expect.

“When the depression hits and people really start feeling it, they will start asking: Who do we share the little that is left with? Who belongs and who does not?” said Götz Kubitschek, a far-right publisher and the most prominent ideologue of Germany’s so-called New Right.

Then, Mr. Kubitschek predicted in a recent interview, “it will become a question of identity.”

Germany’s domestic intelligence office, which recently classified both Mr. Kubitschek’s Institute for State Politics and a group of AfD politicians close to him as extremist, is worried.

“We see a trend that extremists, especially far-right extremists, are weaponizing the demonstrations,” Thomas Haldenwang, president of the agency, told the German newspaper Welt on Sunday. “There is a risk that far-right extremists, with their image of who the enemy is and their ambitions to undermine the state, will take the lead of a movement that for now is attended mostly by citizens who are loyal to the constitution.”

“We are concerned that extremists are using the current situation in exactly the same way as the so-called refugee crisis,” Mr. Haldenwang said.

Some have already compared the coronavirus protests to the protests against the refugee crisis in 2015, when Pegida — Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West — drew hundreds and then thousands of marchers every week before turning into a potent incubator of far-right extremism.

“We are the people,” the slogan associated with Pegida marches, is now popular at the coronavirus protests, too.

Then as now, Chancellor Angela Merkel was celebrated as an exemplary leader who navigated her country through extraordinary circumstances.

But in early 2016, the mood began to shift. A year later, the AfD became the first far-right party to enter the federal Parliament since World War II. It is now the biggest opposition party, with seats in every state legislature in the country.

Some lawmakers from Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats speak privately of a sense of déjà vu — and worry that by the time the next election is scheduled, in the fall of 2021, the AfD might once again eat into conservative votes.

The pandemic arrived in Germany at a moment when the influence of the far right, and its ability to crack open the political system from the local level up, was strong. Mainstream parties, Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats included, worried about losing votes.

As recently as February, the fallout from an inconclusive election in the eastern state of Thuringia, where a particularly extreme chapter of the AfD became the second-strongest party, ultimately brought down the chancellor’s anointed successor in Berlin.

When the virus began spreading, the situation changed. Almost overnight, Germans rallied behind their chancellor and the monthlong shutdown that slowed the spread of the virus and allowed the country to get through its first wave of infections with a relatively low death toll.

But now that very success has become one thing driving the protests.

“They told us this virus was so dangerous that we had to give up all our democratic freedoms,” said Sabine Martin, a mother of two who marched in Berlin on Saturday for the third weekend in a row. “But we are no fools: Our hospitals are half empty.”

“I’m not afraid of this virus,” she added. “I’m afraid of the recession.”

Some call it the prevention paradox: Because Germany has been relatively successful in containing the disease, it is becoming harder to persuade people that the pandemic still presents a real danger, and easier for conspiracy theorists and populists to spin narratives of deceit.

“This so-called pandemic is nothing but the flu,” scoffed Robert Farle, a state lawmaker of the AfD. He has been joining protests in his eastern hometown, Magdeburg.

In Berlin, the AfD dominated one of about 20 protests, each limited to 50 people, near the Brandenburg Gate. “Germany,” “Constitution” and “Freedom,” their signs read.

But in conversation, the topic quickly returned to the AfD’s hallmark issue of immigration. Several of the protesters felt vindicated by a crisis that forced Germany to swiftly close its borders.

“They shut the borders, they stopped refugees from coming in,” Mr. Kubitschek, the far-right publisher, said. “It proves that it can all be done.”

For now, despite the noise they make, the protesters remain a small minority. A recent survey found that two in three Germans are satisfied with the government’s response to the crisis. Six out of 10 say they are not worried if certain freedoms have to be curtailed for longer. Ms. Merkel’s party remains the most popular in the country, with nearly four in 10 voters saying they would support it, the highest level since 2017.

But the European Commission expects the German economy to shrink by 6.5 percent this year, the worst performance since World War II. The AfD’s popularity, which early on in the crisis slumped below 10 percent, has begun to edge up.

Many worry that a prolonged economic slump might open up new voter potential for the party, which has found most of its support in the former Communist East. The biggest protests in recent weeks, however, have been in Stuttgart, the wealthy western heartland of Germany’s car industry.

In the seven years since the AfD was founded, Germany has consistently enjoyed economic growth and low unemployment, said Matthias Quent, an expert on far-right extremism and the director of an institute that studies democracy and civil society. “We just don’t know what the AfD looks like in a recession,” Mr. Quent said. “It worries me,” he added. “Historically, big recessions tend to feed populist narratives.”

And it is not just the AfD that has seen the fallout from the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity.

As a student of Australian history you know that xenophobia in Australia has nothing to do with merit.

What you refer to as xenophobia (without evidence) could equally be seen as being insular.

It is natural for people to form groups, having shared cultures,values, beliefs, etc.. When a new person tries to join this group, the group will normally resist until it can be shown that the new person shares the majority of (Or at least is not against) these beliefs\values\etc., at which point they become a member of the group.

When a large numer of people with seemingly incompatible\greatly differing values\cultures\beliefs\etc. try to join the group, however, the group will generally make an effort to ostracise these people unless\until a way for the new group to show how they are compatble\share at least some values\beliefs\customs.

To claim that this is solely\mainly due to race is to show an ignorance of underlying human nature, or to wilfully ignore the fact that race (if considered) is only a minor factor in an much larger cause, purely serves to drive groups apart, whereas ignoring race (or other differences) and focusing on areas where groups share common values, beliefs, etc. would work to bring separate groups together into a larger combined group.

I would also note that a gradual introduction of people into a group, rather than a massive influx will also lead to less friction\problems, yet people still seem surprised when a large group of people struggle to join an existing community. And when people prefer to assist the new group to remain apart from exiting groups, emphasising differences rather than similarities, you end with conflict, yet these same people place all the blame on the "original" group, rather than considering it was their actions causing the conflict.

Your thesis assumes that all incoming groups entering Australia were treated the same and that race was not important. This is patently a false assumption. When German or Irish or Italian migrants entered Australia there was certainly in-group hostility toward them as outsiders (out-group). No argument there. However within one generation they became "white Australians".

Now lets look at Asians (my wife is Asian). In the 19th century Asians made an attempt to assimilate into mainstream Australian society but obstacles were put up that prevented their acceptance. Most of this was fed by xenophobic extreme propoganda ( a lot of from labor unions) which led to some famous racist conflicts like the Eureka Stockade (which is now part of Australian folklore).

The Chinese elites tried their best to be accepted and influenced their kinsmen to accept Australian ways. Australian people supported leaders who wanted to throw these hard working folk out of the country. The white Australia policy was enacted to stop Chinese people from entering. No such laws were evert passed for any white Europeans.

I realise you are not saying this never happened but your assertion race was not important ignores the facts.
http://asaa.asn.au/loyalty-australian-chinese-now/

It would be interesting to know whether there were any Chinese Christians who came over at the time, and whether they had any better luck integrating/becoming accepted through shared religion, as opposed to those with a different religion, considerning the importance of religion at the time and the likely low number of other similarlities between the cultures of the 2 groups.

A related question would be: In cases such as this, where a new group move into an area and fail to\are unable\unwilling to integrate into the existing groups structure, how do you determine who is the cause of this lack of integration? Is it the original group for not being "welcoming enough", or the new group for "not respecting the existing cuture" and seeking to change it?

Hundreds of protesters turned out Wednesday to protest Michigan's stay-at-home order — and get free haircuts.

Toting signs that read "End tyranny," "Live free or die" and accusing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of "killing small businesses," demonstrators rallied outside the state Capitol in Lansing as part of "Operation Haircut."

Several barbers were in attendance, giving free trims to demonstrators. Some of the barbers and protesters were not wearing face coverings. Many of the demonstrators also stood within 6 feet of one another as they waited for their cuts.

At least three of the barbers were given citations for disorderly conduct, the state police said on Twitter.

"All individuals engaging in haircuts are being educated on the law," the police tweeted. "Those who do not comply will be cited for disorderly conduct. All citations will be forwarded to the AG’s Office for review."

The police estimated there were 350 people in attendance.

Whitmer recently extended her stay-at-home order until May 28. She said Tuesday that it was unlikely barbershops and hair salons would be given the greenlight to open anytime in the near future. Michigan has had over 52,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 5,000 deaths from the virus.

"I would love to go to get my hair done, too," Whitmer told WWMT-TV of Kalamazoo. "But the fact of the matter is, the nature of that personal service is such that it is intimate, it is close, you can’t social distance and get your hair cut.”

The event was organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, which said it was inspired by a barbershop owner whose license was suspended for refusing to close his shop. The barber, Karl Manke, attended the protest and was cutting hair.

A majority of New Yorkers agree that taking a cautious approach to reopening the economy is the right move as the coronavirus pandemic wanes, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Siena College.

Roughly 65% of voters believe moving the risks associated with moving too quickly to loosen strict stay-at-home orders and reopen shuttered businesses are too great and could lead to a potentially deadly second wave, the survey found.

Support for Gov. Cuomo’s slow-and-steady reopening plan, which includes four separate phases, was strong across the state. About three-quarters of city residents and 60% of upstate voters back the policy, according to the poll.

New York City is the sole remaining economic region yet to enter the first phase of the state’s reopening plan, which allows manufacturing and construction to start up. Mayor de Blasio has said he thinks the five boroughs will be ready by the middle of June to meet the required state metrics to get things rolling.

The survey also found 75% of New Yorkers fear the state will experience a second spike of COVID-19 cases in the fall.

A day after the governor declared that masks are “cool,” New Yorkers said that they are mostly wearing face covering when out in public. About 79% said they “always” donning masks and 15% are wearing them “most of the time.”